FATA MORGANA. 203 



gether; but before Stricket had pointed out the place 

 Mr. Lancaster's son had discovered the aerial figures. 

 The family was then summoned to the spot, and the 

 phenomena were seen alike by them all. The equestrian 

 figures seemed to come from the lowest parts of Souterfell 

 and became visible at a place called Knott. They then 

 advanced in regular troops along the side of the Fell, till 

 they came opposite to Blakehills, when they went over 

 the mountain, after describing a kind of curvilineal path. 

 The pace at which the figures moved was a regular swift 

 walk, and they continued to be seen for upwards of two 

 hours, the approach of darkness alone preventing them 

 from being visible. Many troops were seen in succes- 

 sion ; and frequently the last but one in a troop quitted 

 his position, galloped to the front, and took up the same 

 pace with the rest. The changes in the figures were seen 

 equally by all the spectators, and the view of them was 

 not confined to the farm of Blakehills only, but they were 

 seen by every person at every cottage within the distance 

 of a mile, the number of persons who saw them amounting 

 to about twenty-six. The attestation of these facts, signed 

 by Lancaster and Stricket, bears the date of the 21st 

 July, 1744. 



These extraordinary sights were received not only with 

 distrust but with absolute incredulity. They were not 

 even honoured with a place in the records of natural 

 phenomena, and the philosophers of the day were neither 

 in possession of analogous facts, nor were they acquainted 

 with those principles of atmospherical refraction upon 

 which they depend. The strange phenomena, indeed, of 

 the Fata Morgana, or the Castles of the Fairy Morgana, 

 had been long before observed, and had been described by 

 Kircher in the seventeenth century, but they presented 

 nothing so mysterious as the aerial troopers of Souterfell : 

 a nd the general characters of the two phenomena were so 



