38 WlTCHCtlAFT IN DORSET 



Elizabeth's time, to the local manor courts; though it will be 

 observed that such jurisdiction was apparently confined to taking 

 security for good behaviour, on pain of banishment from the manor 

 this alternative, however, being no slight penalty. 



It has always been a marvel to me on reading the accounts of 

 some of these old trials how many of these poor accused persons 

 could ever have been bi ought, as was not infrequently the case, to 

 plead guilty that is, to admit having committed an offence of 

 which, we all know, it was impossible they ever really could have 

 been guilty. Human nature, however, I suppose, is the same all 

 the world over (even with witches), and women were found ready 

 to face the consequences of such an admission, in an age when our 

 penal code was a disgrace to our civilization, in return apparently 

 for the notoriety that a confession of being a " familiar " of, or on 

 terms of intimacy with, his Satanic Majesty would bring, and the 

 additional fear, if not respect, inspired amongst the neighbours by 

 such a confirmation of their powers, and the consequently enhanced 

 value of their "charms" or "spells." 



I propose now, from the notes I have made and the material I 

 have collected in past years, to contribute a paper upon this I 

 think to many interesting subject ; from which it will be seen 

 that even at the close of the nineteenth century in the county of 

 Dorset the belief in witchcraft still ekes out a flickering existence, 

 in spite of school boards those great enemies to folk-lore whose 

 chilling influence bids fair, I am afraid, to cause our children not 

 only to lose faith in everything their fore-elders have ever taught 

 them, but eventually to believe in nothing at all ! 



In the term " witchcraft " I include " charms," which may be 

 considered either as the means furnished by witches to bring about 

 the object desired by their believers, or as the weapons by which 

 the baneful influence of the witches themselves against those who 

 fancy they are the subjects of it is sought to be avoided. Or, again, 

 charms may be used generally as a protection against evil, as an 

 insurer of good luck, as a preventive of or cure for disease or 

 illness, in which case they might come under the head of " folk- 



