Witchcraft in Wiltshire. 



165 



parts of England we have always been so ; but in Somerset, Dorset, 

 and Devon, where the Celtic strain in the blood of the people is 

 probably much stronger than it is in Wiltshire, the belief in 

 witchcraft, in the evil eye, and in " overlooking," is, as the Bishop 

 pointed out, very much alive still, as anyone may see for himself, 

 as far as Somerset is concerned, in the pages of Elworthy's " Evil 

 Eye." As regards Dorset I am enabled on the authority of the 

 Kev. W. II. Dalison, Vicar of Pydeltrenthicle, near Dorchester, to 

 give the following very recent instances of the prevalence of the 

 belief. In that parish there lived less than ten years ago an old 

 woman who was commonly reputed to be a witch, named Harriett 

 Bollen. An old man now living being firmly convinced that she 

 had " overlooked " her son and caused the illness of which he died, 

 determined to pay her back in her own coin. He therefore got a 

 bullock's heart, tanned it, stuck it full of nails, and told her that she 

 would be burnt as a witch. She laughed at him, but on the 3rd 

 January, 1888, she was found burnt to death in her cottage, having, 

 it is supposed, fallen into the fire in a fit. The old man, however, 

 not unnaturally looks on the bullock's heart, &c, as having com- 

 passed the vengeance he desired, and he himself is the authority 

 for the story. Another inhabitant of the village — Silas Bellinger — 

 is still (March 24th, 1897) under the firm conviction that his wife 

 was overlooked. He did all in his power to induce the witch to 

 take off the spell, and at last she relented, and took it off, but said 

 she was afraid it was too late — and so it proved, for the woman 

 died a day or two afterwards. There is also another old woman 

 much dreaded by the people as a witch, though my informant does 

 not think that she has really practised the art. 



En. H. GrODDARD. 



