Witcheraft in Wiltshire. 165 
parts of England we have always been so; but in Somerset, Dorset, 
and Devon, where the Celtic strain in the blood of the people is 
probably much stronger than it is in Wiltshire, the belief in 
witchcraft, in the evil eye, and in “ overlooking,” is, as the Bishop 
pointed out, very much alive still, as anyone may see for himself, 
as far as Somerset is concerned, in the pages of Elworthy’s “ Evil 
Eye.” As regards Dorset I am enabled on the authority of the 
Rev. W. H. Dalison, Vicar of Pydeltrenthide, near Dorchester, to 
give the following very recent instances of the prevalence of the 
belief. In that parish there lived less than ten years ago an old 
woman who was commonly reputed to be a witch, named Harriett 
Bollen. An old man now living being firmly convinced that she 
had “ overlooked ’’ her son and caused the illness of which he died, 
determined to pay her back in her own coin. He therefore got a 
bullock’s heart, tanned it, stuck it full of nails, and told her that she 
_ would be burnt as a witch. She laughed at him, but on the 3rd 
_ January, 1888, she was found burnt to death in her cottage, having, 
it is supposed, fallen into the fire in a fit. The old man, however, 
not unnaturally looks on the bullock’s heart, &c., as having com- 
_ passed the vengeance he desired, and he himself is the authority 
for the story. Another inhabitant of the village—Silas Bellinger— 
: is still (March 24th, 1897) under the firm conviction that his wife 
was overlooked. He did all in his power to induce the witch to 
F take off the spell, and at last she relented, and took it off, but said 
_ she was afraid it was too late—and so it proved, for the woman 
- died a day or two afterwards. There is also another old woman 
- much dreaded by the people as a witch, though my informant does 
_ not think that she has really practised the art. 
Ep. H. Gopparp. 
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