i82 THE WITCH IN KENT 



ency over many of her neighbours, I can discover 

 nothing. None the less a witch she is, if local testi- 

 mony may be believed. Not long ago a young man 

 whose child was given to screaming at night, unable to 

 explain it in any other way, became convinced it was 

 bewitched. Thenceforward he kept his razor by him 

 at night, as a weapon of attack, fully persuaded that, 

 could he only strike a light sufficiently quickly when 

 the screaming began, he should find our witch stand- 

 ing in his room. Prevention, however, is better than 

 cure, and those who are much troubled keep a prayer- 

 book under their pillow, a thing a witch cannot abide. 

 Witches, apparently, do read the Bible, but they read 

 it backwards — a fact which is sufficient of itself to 

 remove all doubt in the popular mind as to their 

 connection with the Evil One. In spite, however, of 

 this disreputable association, kinship with a witch 

 gives one a certain social status, and an old game- 

 keeper of our acquaintance undoubtedly derives much 

 of his credit as a local oracle from the circumstance 

 that his mother was a notorious witch. It is related 

 of this woman, that one day, furious at seeing a coach- 

 man who was driving his master, a magistrate, to 

 Quarter Sessions, whip round at her boys who were 

 running behind the carriage, she warned him that 



