AERIAL SPECTRES IN CUMBERLAND. 131 



light. The aerial figure is often not larger than 

 life, its size and its apparent distance depending, 

 as we shall afterwards see, upon particular causes. 

 I have often seen a similar shadow when bathing 

 in a bright summer's day in an extensive pool of 

 deep water. When the fine mud deposited at the 

 bottom of the pool is disturbed by the feet of the 

 bather, so as to be disseminated through the mass 

 of water in the direction of his shadow, his 

 shadow is no longer a shapeless mass formed 

 upon the bottom, but is a regular figure formed 

 upon the floating particles of mud, and having 

 the head surrounded with a halo, not only lumi- 

 nous, but consisting of distinct radiations. 



One of the most interesting accounts 1 ' of aerial 

 spectres with which we are acquainted has been 

 given by Mr. James Clarke, in his Survey of the 

 Lakes of Cumberland, and the accuracy of this 

 account was confirmed by the attestations of two 

 of the persons by whom the phenomena were 

 first seen. On a summer's evening, in the year 

 1743, when Daniel Stricket, servant to John 

 Wren, of Wilton Hall, was sitting at the door 

 along with his master, they saw the figure of a 

 man with a dog pursuing some horses along 

 Souterfell-side, a place so extremely steep, that a 

 horse could scarcely travel upon it at all. The 

 figures appeared to run at an amazing pace, till 

 they got out of sight at the lower end of the Fell. 

 On the following morning, Stricket and his master 

 ascended the steep side of the mountain, in the 

 full expectation of finding the man dead, and of 

 picking up some of the shoes of the horses, which 

 they thought must have been cast while galloping 

 at such a furious rate. Their expectations, how- 

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