THE SUFFOLK WITCHES. 



EUPHONY, or prettiness of sound, regarded, there is not much 

 amiss with ( Amy Duny.' 



If taken for the name of the heroine of a love-tale, it 

 might have served ; if of some gentle consolation-ministrant or 

 tender nurse some young lady of uncertain age, powerful in 

 religious exhortation, addicted to tea-muffin-toast conviviali- 

 ties, Dorcas charities, tracts, stray puppy-dog reclamation, 

 curate-coddling, female-physicking, and all the other things 

 single ladies take up with, still there is so little amiss with 

 the name of Amy Duny, that any estimable woman might 

 have borne it, even had she been a saint. 



Not to be prolix, I hereby give leave and license to ima- 

 gine any model paragon of female excellence, of whatsoever 

 variety, to call that female paragon Amy Duny, and then 

 consider if the name be not pretty, at least not much amiss. 

 The patronymic Cullender has a homely, plebeian sound, sug- 

 gestive of cabbage set draining. There's nothing suggestive 

 of wickedness or of diabolism in it. The Christian name 

 Rose needs no apology; how redolent of youth, of beauty, 

 and goodness ! 



Yet there was an Amy Duny, and there was a Rose Cul- 

 lender, and in the year 1662, at Bury St. Edmunds, they 

 were hanged. An intelligent British jury returned the ver- 

 dict ' guilty of witchcraft' against them. The indictment had 

 thirteen counts ; the presiding judge was Sir Matthew Hale, 

 lord chief -baron of the Exchequer ; a man against whom no 

 imputation of cruelty has ever lain, who was conspicuous for 

 the purity of his life at a period (temp. Charles II.) when 



