WITCHCRAFT IN DORSET. 47 



"Toad Fair." For an account of a similar individual who lived at 

 Lydlinch and had a great reputation, see the Life of the Rev. 

 William Barnes (p. 155), by his daughter, Mrs. Baxter, recently 

 published. 



Mr. Roberts, in the History of Lyme Regis, speaks of one who 

 lived at West Leigh, on the Tiverton and Wellington Canal, to 

 whom persons who either had lost property, had been charged with 

 theft, or had had very ill-luck, would go from Lyme Regis a 

 distance of 30 miles for the purpose of consulting this famous 

 " white witch !" In 1828, he says, this man, who traded in 

 common chairs, manufactured in that neighbourhood, misdirected 

 a letter to a tradesman at Lyme, which contained some rediculous 

 advice about continuing some charm. Mr. Roberts goes on to say 

 that " unlucky days, omens are talked of, if not much depended 

 " on ; fortune-telling * and consulting the white witch are indulged 

 in at the expense of both money and time ; a pernicious and wicked 

 practice whose effects are attended with very injurious consequences. 

 Certain houses are spoken of as being ' troublesome ' or haunted. 

 Noises the crowing of the cock by night, and the death-watch, 

 are fancied to have been heard before the death of any person." 



As was only to be supposed, our own Dorset Poet although he 

 seems never to have made a special study of the subject of folk-lore 

 was brimful of it as so many passages in his delightful idylls 

 testify treats of witchcraft in a quaint little poem of his called 

 "A Witch" (p. 173 of the complete edition of his poems), where- 

 in he describes in his happiest vein all the fears, powers, and effects 



* I do not consider the art of fortune-telling as coming within the 

 purview of a paper on witchcraft, though doubtless many so-called 

 witches derived a considerable portion of their unholy gains from such 

 a source. Such a practice obtains now amongst ignorant servant girls 

 and others, and even their more educated sisters, have ofttimes no aversion 

 to their palms being "crossed Avith silver" by some wandering gipsy. 

 However, the firm application of the wholesome laws relating to " rogues 

 and vagabonds" have had a salutary effect, and practically the Romany 

 forms the only professional class of fortune-tellers now existing. Within 

 the last year or two, however, I remember reading the account in a local 

 paper of a case which came before the Weymouth bench of magistrates, 



