SBitrhcraft in 



By J. S. UDAL, P.R. Hist. Soc. 



JTJHERE is no part of England, I suppose, more prone to 

 belief in the supernatural or perhaps, I might say 

 generally, more superstitious than the West ; and, 

 of the western counties, none more so than Dorset. 

 That this is attributable to the fact that the West 

 of England is largely agricultural, and even pastoral, 

 in its character, entailing in consequence a com- 

 paratively sparse population, may not be unlikely, for there is no 

 doubt that in the more strictly agricultural and rural districts of 

 England people were allowed at all events until recent times to 

 grow up to a great degree in a state of ignorance, and were deprived 

 of the advantages which the neighbourhood of towns usually confers 

 by means of education and the fuller exchange of ideas and opinions 

 advantages hitherto practically monopolized by their fellows of 

 the artisan class. Of all forms of superstitious belief none was 

 more firmly impressed upon the minds of the country people 

 than the belief in witchcraft i.e., in the existence of a malefic 

 influence possessed by certain individuals (generally old women, 

 though male witches, or wizards, were not uncommon) over the 

 person and property of those with whom the^i might be brought in 

 contact, 



