323 On Wiltshire Traditions, Charms and Superstitions. 



treat the suffering patient, then the charm of the wise man, or the 

 advice of the cunning woman of the district was sought for with 

 eagerness; their ridiculous directions were followed to the letter, 

 and implicitly believed ; and should the patient chance to recover, 

 that charm or that prescription was ever after treasured up as of 

 specific virtue, and its efficacy in like cases loudly declared by its 

 well-assured though very credulous admirers. Nor was it likely 

 that the prescriber, once proved to have given good advice, should 

 henceforth fail to be considered infallible; his nostrums received 

 with avidity, himself honoured, and his pockets filled, almost despite 

 himself; for he would be consulted on every conceivable subject, 

 and his words treasured up as undoubted wisdom, and that though 

 he were, (as not unfrequently seems to have been the case) the veriest 

 ignoramus in the whole country side. 



Nor let any one suppose that the office of the cunning man or 

 woman has died out ill Wiltshire. There is generally one such to 

 be found in most neighbourhoods ; or if not, the credulous applicant 

 for advice will appreciate the prescription given him at a higher 

 value, if he has to walk ten or twenty miles in order to obtain it: and 

 then he comes home and follows up the charm (for it is generally 

 nothing else) to the letter ; and twists three pieces of cotton round 

 his garden gate at the full moon, for curing the fits under which his 

 child was labouring; or places a roasted apple, with many fetish 

 rites, on the top of the cupboard, for driving away the evil spirits 

 which haunted his premises ; or performs some of the innumerable 

 other remedies of a similar character, of which these modern 

 wizards have a goodly store at command : and should the charm by 

 any accident not succeed, of course the failure was to be attributed, 

 not at all to its fallibility, but to some accidental omission or error 

 in working it out on the part of the patient and his friends. Such 

 superstitious practices as these, are, I am afraid, far more common 

 amongst our Wiltshire labourers, at this day, than many people 

 would suppose ; but they are very deplorable, and they betoken a 

 very low perception of Christian truth, and they should be combated 

 on every possible opportunity. Above all, the poor ignorant dupes 

 should be protected as far as possible from the wiles of the imposter : 



