France; the Admiral was then at sea. She told them, that, the night before, she had a perfect dream of her husband, whom she saw walking on the deck, and giving directions, and that a cannon bullet struck his arm into his side. This dream did much discompose her, and within forty-eight hours she received news of the fight at sea, and that her husband was killed in the very manner aforesaid.
Sir Berkley Lucy sold the fabric of the chapel of Netley Abbey, to one Taylor, a carpenter of Southampton, who took off the roof, and pulled down great part of the walls. During the time that this Taylor was in treaty for the chapel, he was much disturbed in his sleep with frightful dreams, and as some say, apparitions; and one, night he dreamt that a large stone, out of one of the windows of the chapel, fell upon him and killed him. The undertaker, though staggered with these intimations, finished his agreement, and soon after fell to work on pulling down the chapel; but he was not far advanced in it, when, endeavouring with a pickax to get out some stones at the bottom of the west wall, in which there was a large window, the whole body of the window fell down suddenly upon him, and crushed him to pieces. Willis’s Mitred Abbeys, vol. 2, p. 205, 6.
Jan. 1774. One Daniel Healy, of Donaghmore, in Ireland, having three different times dreamed that money lay concealed under a large stone in a field near where he lived, procured some workmen to assist him in removing it, and when they had dug as far as the foundation, it fell suddenly and killed Healy on the spot.
March 25, 1779. This morning A. B. dreamt that he saw his friend 0. D. throw himself from a bridge into a river, and that he could not be found. The same evening, reading Dr. Geddes’s account of Ignatius Loyola, p. 105, 5th tract, v. 3, he met with the following particular of him; as he was going into Bononia, he tumbled off a bridge into a moat full of mud; this circumstance was quite new. Every tittle of the above is strictly true, as the writer will answer it to God.– To what can be attributed so singular an impression upon the imagination when sleeping ?
**Comical History of three Dreamers.
Three companions, of whom two were Tradesmen and Townsmen, and the third a Villager, on the score of devotion, went on pilgrimage to a noted sanctuary; and as they went on their way, their provision began to fail them, insomuch that they had nothing to eat,, but a little flour, barely sufficient to make of it a very small loaf of bread. The tricking townsmen seeing this, said between them-selves, we have but little bread, and this companion of ours is a great eater — on which account it is necessary we should think how we may eat this little bread without him. When they had made it and set it to bake, the tradesmen seeing in what manner to cheat the countryman, said: let us all sleep, and let him that shall have the most marvellous dream betwixt all three of us, eat the bread. This bargain being agreed upon, and settled between them, they laid down to sleep. The countryman, discovering the trick of his companions, drew out the bread half baked, eat it by himself, and turned again to sleep. In a while, one of the tradesmen, as frightened by a marvellous dream, began to get up, and was asked by his companion, why he was so frightened ? he answered, I am frightened and dreadfully surprized by a marvellous dream: it seemed to me that two Angels, opening the gates of Heaven, carried me before the throne of God with great joy: his companion said: this is a marvellous dream, but I have seen another more marvellous, for I saw two Angels, who carried me over the earth to Hell. The countryman hearing this, made as if he slept; but the townsmen, desirous to finish their trick, awoke him; and the countryman, artfully as one surprised, answered: Who are these that call me ? They told him, we are thy companions. He asked them: How did you return ? They answered: We never went hence; why d’ye talk of our return ? The countryman replied: It appeared to me that two Angels, opening the gates of Heaven, carried one of you before our Lord God, and dragged the other over the earth to Hell, and I thought you never would return hither, as I have never heard that any had returned from Paradise, nor from Hell, and so I arose and eat the bread by myself.- From an old edition of Lasarillo de Tormes.
APPARITIONS.
CYNTHIA, Propertius’s mistress, did appear to him after her death, with the beryl-ring on her finger. See Propertius, eleg. 7. lib.
“Sunt aliquid manes, letum non omnia finit, Luridaque evictos effugit umbra rogos. Cynthia namque meo visa est incumbere fulcro, Murmur ad extremae nuper humata viae: Quum mihi ab exequiis somnus penderet amaris. Et quererer lecti frigida regna mei.
Eosdem habuit secum, quibus est elata, capillos, Eosdem oculos. Lateri vestis adusta fuit. Et solitum digito beryllon adederat ignis, Summaque Lethoeus triverat ora liquor: Spirantisque animos, & vocem misit, at illi Pollicibus fragiles increpuere manus.”
Thus translated by Mr. DART.
Manes exist, when we in death expire, And the pale shades escape the funeral fire; For Cynthia’s form beside my curtain’s stood, Lately interr’d near Aniens’ murm’ring flood. Thoughts of her funeral would, not let me close These eyes, nor seek the realms of still repose; Around her shoulders wav’d her flowing hair, As living Cynthia’s tresses soft and fair: Beauteous her eyes as those once fir’d my breast, Her snowy bosom bare, and sing’d her breast. Her beryl-ring retain’d the fiery rays, Spread the pale flame, and shot the funeral blaze; As late stretch’d out the bloodless spectre stood, And her dead lips were wet with Lethe’s flood. She breath’d her soul, sent forth her voice aloud, And chaf’d her hands as in some angry mood.
St. Augustin affirms that he did once see a satyr or daemon.
The antiquities of Oxford tell us, that St. Edmund, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, did sometimes converse with an angel or nymph, at a spring without St. Clement’s parish near Oxford; as Numa Pompilius did with the nymph Egeria. This well was stopped up since Oxford was a garrison.
Charles the Simple, King of France, as he was hunting in a forest, and lost his company, was frighted to simplicity by an apparition.
Philip Melancthon writes that the apparition of a venerable person came to him in his study, and bade him to warn his friend Grynseus to depart from him as soon as he could, or else the inquisitors would seize on him; which monitory dream saved Grynaeus’s life.
Mr. Fynes Moryson, in his travels, saith, that when he was at Prague, the apparition of his father came to him; and at that very time his father died.
In the life of JOHN DONNE, Dean of St. Paul’s, London, writ by Isaak Walton.
At this time of Mr. Donne’s, and his wife’s living in Sir Robert Drury’s house in Drury-Lane, the Lord Haye was by King James sent upon a glorious embassy, to the then French King Henry the IV. and Sir Robert put on a sudden resolution to accompany him to the French Court, and to be present at his audience there. And Sir Robert put on as sudden a resolution, to subject Mr. Donne to be his companion in that journey; and this desire was suddenly made known to his wife, who was then with child, and otherwise under so dangerous a habit of body, as to her health, that she protested an unwillingness to allow him any absence from her; saying her divining soul boded her some ill in his absence, and therefore desired him not to leave her. This made Mr. Donne lay aside all thoughts of his journey, and really to resolve against it. But Sir Robert became restless in his persuasions for it, and Mr. Donne was so generous as to think he had sold his liberty, when he had received so many charitable kindnesses from him, and told his wife so; who, therefore, with an unwilling willingness, did give a faint consent to the journey, which was proposed to be but for two months: within a few days after this resolve, the Ambassador, Sir Robert, and Mr. Donne, left London, and were the twelfth day got safe to Paris. Two days after their arrival there, Mr. Donne was left alone in the room, where Sir Robert and he, with some others, had dined: to this place Sir Robert returned within half an hour, and as he left, so he found Mr. Donne alone, but in such an extacy, and so altered as to his looks, as amazed Sir Robert to behold him, insomuch as he earnestly desired Mr. Donne to declare what had befallen him in the short time of his absence? to which Mr. Donne was not able to make a present answer, but after a long and perplexed pause, said, “I have seen a dreadful vision since I saw you: I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me through this room, with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a dead child in her arms; this I have seen since I saw you.” To which Sir Robert replied, “Sure Sir, you have slept since I saw you, and this is the result of some melancholy dream, which I desire you to forget, for you are now awake.” To which Mr. Donne’s reply was, “I cannot be surer that I now live, than that I have not slept since I saw you, and am sure that at her second appearing, she stopt and lookt me in the face and vanished.” – Rest and sleep had not altered Mr. Donne’s opinion the next day, for he then affirmed this vision with a more deliberate, and so confirmed a confidence, that he inclined Sir Robert to a faint belief, that the vision was true. It is truly said, that desire and doubt have no rest, and it proved so with Sir Robert, for he immediately sent a servant to Drury-House, with a charge to hasten back and bring him word whether Mrs. Donne were alive ? and if alive, in what condition she was as to her health. The twelfth day the messenger returned with this account-that he found and left Mrs. Donne very sad, sick in her bed, and that, after a long and dangerous labour, she had been delivered of a dead child: and upon examination, the abortion proved to be the same day, and about the very hour, that Mr. Donne affirmed he saw her pass by him in his chamber.
Henry IV. King of France, not long before he was stabbed by Ravillac, as he was hunting in the forest (I think of Fontaine-Bleau), met in a thicket, the Gros Venure, who said to him, “Demandez vous?” or “Entendez vous?” He could not tell whether of the two.
There is a tradition (which I have heard from persons of honour), that as the Protector Seymour and his Dutchess were walking in the gallery at Sheen (in Surrey), both of them did see a hand with a bloody sword come out of the wall. He was afterwards beheaded.
Sir John Burroughes being sent envoy to the Emperor by King Charles I. did take his eldest son Caisho Burroughes along with him, and taking his journey through Italy, left his son at Florence, to learn the language; where he having an intrigue with a beautiful courtisan (mistress of the Grand Duke), their familiarity became so public, that it came to the Duke’s ear, who took a resolution to have him murdered; but Caisho having had timely notice of the Duke’s design, by some of the English there, immediately left the city without acquainting his mistress with it, and came to England; whereupon the Duke being disappointed of his revenge, fell upon his mistress in most reproachful language; she on the other side, resenting the sudden departure of her gallant, of whom she was most passionately enamoured, killed herself. At the same moment that she expired, she did appear to Caisho, at his lodgings in London; Colonel Remes* was then in bed with him, who saw her as well as he; giving him an account of her resentments of his ingratitude to her, in leaving her so suddenly, and exposing her to the fury of the Duke, not omitting her own tragical exit, adding withal, that he should be slain in a duel, which accordingly happened; and thus she appeared to him frequently, even when his younger brother (who afterwards was Sir John) was in bed with him. As often as she did appear, he would cry out with great shrieking, and trembling of his body, as anguish of mind, saying, 0 God ! here she comes, she comes, and at this rate she appeared till he was killed; she appeared to him the morning before he was killed. Some of my acquaintance have told me, that he was one of the most beautiful men in England, and very valiant, but proud and blood-thirsty.
* This Colonel Remes was a Parliament man, and did belong to the wardrobe, tempore Caroli II.
This story was so common, that King Charles I. Sent for Caisho Burroughes’s father, whom he examined as to the truth of the matter; who did (together with Colonel Remes) aver the matter of fact to be true, so that the King thought it worth his while to send to Florence, to enquire at what time this unhappy lady killed herself; it was found to be the same minute that she first appeared to Caisho, being in bed with Colonel Remes. This relation I had from my worthy friend Mr. Monson, who had it from Sir John’s own mouth, brother of Caisho; he had also the same account from his own father, who was intimately acquainted with old Sir John Burroughes, and both his sons, and says, as often as Caisho related this, he wept bitterly.
Anno 1647, the Lord Mohun’s son and heir (a gallant gentleman, valiant, and a great master of fencing and horsemanship), had a quarrel with Prince Griffin; there was a challenge, and they were to fight on horse-back in Chelsea-fields in the morning: Mr. Mohun went accordingly to meet him; but about Ebury-Farm, he was met by some who quarrelled with him and pistoled him; it was believed, by the order of Prince Griffin; for he was sure, that Mr. Mohun, being so much the better horse-man, &c. would have killed him, had they fought.
In James-street, in Covent-Garden, did then lodge a gentlewoman, a handsome woman, but common, who was Mr. Mohun’s sweet heart. Mr. Mohun was murdered about ten o’clock in the morning; and at that very time, his mistress being in bed, saw Mr. Mahon come to her bed-side, draw the curtain, look upon her and go away; she called after him, but no answer: she knocked for her maid, asked her for Mr. Mohun; she said she did not see him, and had the key of her chamber-door in her pocket. This account my friend aforesaid, had from the gentle-woman’s own mouth, and her maid’s.
A parallel story to this, is, that Mr. Brown, (brother- in-law to the Lord Coningsby) discovered his being murdered to several. His phantom appeared to his sister and her maid in Fleet-street, about the time he was killed in Herefordshire, which was about a year since. 1693.
Sir Walter Long of Draycot, (grandfather of Sir James Long) had two wives; the first a daughter of Sir Thomas Packington in Worcestershire; by whom he had a son: his second wife was a daughter of Sir John Thynne of Long-Leat; by whom he had several sons and daughters. The second wife did use much artifice to render the son by the first wife, (who had not much Promethean fire) odious to his father; she would get her acquaintance to make him drunk, and then expose him in that condition to his father; in fine, she never left off her attempts, till she got Sir Walter to disinherit him. She laid the scene for doing this at Bath, at the assizes, where was her brother Sir Egrimond Thynne, an eminent serjeant at law, who drew the writing; and his clerk was to sit up all night to engross it; as he was writing, he perceived a shadow on the parchment, from the candle; he looked up, and there appeared a hand, which immediately vanished; he was startled at it, but thought it might be only his fancy, being sleepy; so he writ on; by and by a fine white hand interposed between the writing and the candle (he could discern it was a woman’s hand) but vanished as before; I have forgot, it appeared a third time. But with that the clerk threw down his pen, and would engross no more, but goes and tells his master of it, and absolutely refused to do it. But it was done by somebody, and Sir Walter Long was prevailed with to seal and sign it. He lived not long after; and his body did not go quiet to the grave, it being arrested at the church porch by the trustees of the first lady. The heir’s relations took his part, and commenced a suit against Sir Walter (the second son) and compelled him to accept of a moiety of the estate; so the eldest son kept South- Wraxhall, and Sir Walter, the second son, Draycot-Cernes, &c. This was about the middle of the reign of King James I.
I must not forget an apparition in my country, which appeared several times to Doctor Turbervile’s sister, at Salisbury; which is much talked of. One married a second wife, and contrary to the agreement and settlement at the first wife’s marriage, did wrong the children by the first venter. The settlement was hid behind a wainscot in the chamber where the Doctor’s sister did lie: and the apparition of the first wife did discover it to her. By which means right was done to the first wife’s children. The apparition told her that she wandered in the air, and was now going to God. Dr. Turbervile (oculist) did affirm this to be true. See Mr. Glanvill’s “Sadducismus Triumphatus”.
To one Mr. Towes, who had been schoolfellow with Sir George Villers, the father of the first Duke of Buckingham, (and was his friend and neighbour) as he lay in his bed awake, (and it was day-light) came into his chamber, the phantom of his dear friend Sir George Villers: said Mr. Towes to him, why, you are dead, what make you here ? said the Knight, I am dead, but cannot rest in peace for the wickedness and abomination of my son George, at Court. I do appear to you, to tell him of it, and to advise and dehort him from his evil ways. Said Mr. Towes, the Duke will not believe me, but will say that I am mad, or doat. Said Sir George, go to him from me, and tell him by such a token (a mole) that he had in some secret place, which none but himself knew of. Accordingly Mr. Towes went to the Duke, who laughed at his message. At his return home the phantom appeared again, and told him that the Duke would be stabbed (he drew out a dagger) a quarter of a year after: and you shall outlive him half a year; and the warning that you shall have of your death, will be, that your nose will fall a bleeding. All which accordingly fell out so. This account I have had (in the main) from two or three; but Sir William Dugdale affirms what I have here taken from him to be true, and that the apparition told him of several things to come, which proved true, e. g. of a prisoner in the Tower, that shall be honourably delivered. This Mr. Towes had so often the ghost of his old friend appear to him, that it was not at all terrible to him. He was surveyor of the works at Windsor, (by the favour of the Duke) being then sitting in the hall, he cried out, the Duke of Buckingham is stabbed: he was stabbed that very moment.
This relation Sir William Dugdale had from Mr. Pine, (neighbour to Mr. Towes without Bishops-gate) they were both great lovers of music, and sworn brothers. Mr. W. Lilly, astrologer, did print this story false, which made Sir Edmund Wyndham (who married Mr. Pine’s daughter) give to Sir George Hollis this true account contrary to Mr. Lilly.
Mr. Thomas Ellyot, Groom of the bedchamber, married Sir Edmund Wyndham’s daughter, and had the roll (of near a quire of paper) of the conferences of the apparition and Mr. Towes. Mr. Ellyot was wont to say, that Mr. Towes was (not a bigot, or did trouble himself much about a religion, but was) a man of great morals.
Sir William Dugdale did farther inform me that Major General Middleton (since Lord) went into the Highlands of Scotland, to endeavour to make a party for King Charles I. An old gentleman (that was second-sighted) came and told him, that his endeavour was good, but he would be unsuccessful: and moreover, “that they would put the King to death: And that several other attempts would be made, but all in vain: but that his son would come in, but not reign; but at last would be restored.” This Lord Middleton had a great friendship with the Laird Bocconi, and they had made an agreement, that the first of them that died should appear to the other in extremity. The Lord Middleton was taken prisoner at Worcester fight, and was prisoner in the Tower of London, under three locks. Lying in his bed pensive, Bocconi appeared to him; my Lord Middleton asked him if he were dead or alive ? he said, dead, and that he was a ghost; and told him, that within three days he should escape, and he did so, in his wife’s cloaths. When he had done his message, he gave a frisk, and said,
Givenni Givanni ’tis very strange, In the world to see so sudden a change.
And then gathered up and vanished. This account Sir William Dugdale had from the Bishop of Edinburgh. And this, and the former account he hath writ in a book of miscellanies, which I have seen, and is now reposited with other books of his in the Musaeum at Oxford.
Anno 1670, not far from Cirencester, was an apparition: being demanded, whether a good spirit, or a bad ? returned no answer, but disappeared with a curious perfume and most melodious twang. Mr. W. Lilly believes it was a fairy. So Propertius.
Omnia finierat; tenues secessit in auras: Mansit odor; posses scire fuisse Deam.
Here, her speech ending, fled the beauteous fair, Melting th’ embodied form to thinner air, Whom the remaining scent a goddess did declare.
The learned Henry Jacob, fellow of Merton college in Oxford, died at Dr. Jacob’s, M. D. house in Canterbury. About a week after his death, the doctor being in bed and awake, and the moon shining bright, saw his cousin Henry standing by his bed, in his shirt, with a white cap on his head and his beard-mustachoes turning up, as when he was alive. The doctor pinched himself, and was sure he was awaked: he turned to the other side from him; and, after some time, took courage to turn the other way again towards him, and Henry Jacob stood there still; he should have spoken to him, but he did not; for which he has been ever since sorry. About half an hour after, he vanished. Not long after this, the cook-maid, going to the wood-pile to fetch wood to dress supper, saw him standing in his shirt upon the wood-pile.* This account I had in a letter from Doctor Jacob, 1673, relating to his life, for Mr. Anthony Wood; which is now in his hands.
* See the whole story in Ath. & Fasti Oxon. Part 2, p. 91.
When Henry Jacob died, he would fain have spoken to the Doctor, but could not, his tongue faltered, ** ‘Tis imagined he would have told Doctor Jacob, with what person he had deposited his manuscripts of his own writing; they were all the riches he had, ’tis suspected that one had them and printed them under his own name. — See there in the said Athenae, vol. or part 2. p. 90.
** This very story Dr. Jacob told me himself, being then at Lord Teynham’s, in Kent, where he was then physician to my eldest son; whom he recovered from a fever, (A. Wood’s note.)
T, M. Esq., an old acquaintance of mine, hath assured me that about a quarter of a year after his first wife’s death, as he lay in bed awake with his grand-child, his wife opened the closet-door, and came into the chamber by the bedside, and looked upon him and stooped down and kissed him; her lips were warm, he fancied they would have been cold. He was about to have embraced her, but was afraid it might have done him hurt. When she went from him, he asked her when he should see her again ? she turned about and smiled, but said nothing. The closet door striked as it used to do, both at her coming in and going out. He had every night a great coal fire in his chamber, which gave a light as clear almost as a candle. He was hypochondriacal; he married two wives since, the latter end of his life was uneasy.
Anno 165-.– At—in the Moorlands in Staffordshire, lived a poor old man, who had been a long time lame. One Sunday, in the afternoon, he being alone, one knocked at his door: he bade him open it, and come in. The Stranger desired a cup of beer; the lame man desired him to take a dish and draw some, for he was not able to do it himself. The Stranger asked the poor old man how long he had been ill? the poor man told him. Said the Stranger, “I can cure you. Take two or three balm leaves steeped in your beer for a fortnight or three weeks, and you will be restored to your health; but constantly and zealously serve God.” The poor man did so, and became perfectly well. This Stranger was in a purple-shag gown, such as was not seen or known in those parts. And no body in the street after even song did see any one in such a coloured habit. Doctor Gilbert Sheldon, since Archbishop of Canterbury, was then in the Moorlands, and justified the truth of this to Elias Ashmole, Esq., from whom I had this account, and he hath inserted it in some of his memoirs, which are in the Musseum at Oxford.
**MR. J. LYDAL of Trinity College, Soc. Oxon. March 11, 1649, 50, attests the ensuing relation, in a letter to Mr. Aubrey, thus,
MR. AUBREY,
CONCERNING that which happened at Woodstock, I was told by Mr. William Hawes, (who now lives with Sir William Fleetwood in the park) that the committee which sat in the manor-house for selling the king’s lands, were frighted by strange apparitions; and that the four surveyors which were sent to measure the park, and lodged themselves with some other companions in the manor, were pelted out of their chambers by stones thrown in at the windows; but from what hands the stones came they could not see; that their candles were continually put out, as fast as they lighted them; and that one with his sword drawn to defend a candle, was with his own scabbard in the mean time well cudgelled; so that for the blow, or for fear, he fell sick; and the others were forced to remove, some of them to Sir William Fleetwood’s house, and the rest to some other places. But concerning the cutting of the oak, in particular, I have nothing. Your Friend,
To be commanded to my power,
JOHN LYDALL.
One Lambert, a gun-smith at Hereford, was at Caermarthen, to mend and put in order the ammunition of that county, before the expedition to Scotland, which was in 1639. He was then a young man, and walking on the sand by the sea side, a man came to him (he did verily believe it was a man) and asked him if he knew Hereford ? yes, quoth he, I am a Hereford man. Do you know it well, quoth the other; perfectly well, quoth Lambert. “That city shall be begirt” (he told me he did not know what the word begirt meant then) “by a foreign nation, that will come and pitch their camp in the Hay wood, and they shall batter such gate,” which they did, (I have forgot the name of it) “and shall go away and not take it.”
The Scots came in 1645, and encamped before Hereford in the Hay-wood, and stormed the — gate, and raised the siege. Lambert did well remember this discourse, but did not heed it till they came to the Hay-wood. Many of the city had heard of this story, but when the — gate was stormed, Lambert went to all the guards of the town, and encouraged them with more than ordinary confidence: and contrary to all human expectation, when the besieged had no hope of relief, the Scots raised the siege, September 2, 1645, and went back into Scotland, “re infecta”. I knew this Lambert, and took this account from his own mouth; he is a modest poor man, of a very innocent life, lives poor, and cares not to be rich.”
— A minister, who lived by Sir John Warre in Somersetshire, about 1665, walking over the Park to give Sir John a visit, was rencountered by a venerable old man, who said to him, “prepare yourself, for such a day” (which was about three days after) “you shall die.” The minister told Sir John Wane and my Lady this story, who heeded it not. On the morning forewarned, Sir John called upon the Parson early to ride a hunting, and to laugh at his prediction: his maid went up to call him, and found him stark dead. This from my Lady Katherine Henley, who had it from my Lady Warre. But Dr. Burnet, in the life of the Earl of Rochester, makes it a dream.
This put me in mind of a story in the Legend, &c. of King Edward the Confessor, being forewarned of his death by a Pilgrim, to whom St.John the Evangelist revealed it,. for which the King gave the Pilgrim a rich ring off his finger: and the event answered. The story is well painted on glass, in a window of the south isle of Westminster-Abbey, (the next window from that over the door that opens into the west walk of the cloyster) it is the best window in the church. Underneath the two figures, viz. of the King and the Pilgrim, are these following verses, viz.
“Rex cui nil aliud praesto fuit, accipe, dixit. Annulum, & ex digito detrahit ille suo. — Evangelistoe — villa Johannis.
— gratia petit.”
The verses under the Pilgrim are not legible. This story is in Caxton’s Chronicle.
Dr. — Twiss, minister of the new church at Westminster, told me, that his father, (Dr. Twiss, prolocutor of the assembly of divines, and author of “Vindicitae Graticae”) when he was a school-boy at Winchester, saw the phantom of a school-fellow of his, deceased, (a rakehell) who said to him “I am damned.” This was the occasion of Dr. Twiss’a (the father’s) conversion, who had been before that time, as he told his son, a very wicked boy; he was hypochondriacal. There is a story like this, of the conversion of St. Bruno, by an apparition: upon which he became mighty devout, and founded the order of the Carthusians.
John Evelyn, Esq., R.S.S., showed us at the Royal-Society, a note under Mr. Smith’s hand, the curate of Deptford, that in November,1679, as he was in bed sick of an ague, came to him the vision of a master of arts, with a white wand in his hand, and told him that if he did lie on his back three hours, viz. from ten to one, that he should be rid of his ague. He lay a good while on his back, but at last being weary he turned, and immediately the ague attacked him; afterwards he strictly followed the directions, and was perfectly cured. He was awake, and it was in the day-time.
This puts me in mind of a dream of old Farmer Good, a neighbour of mine at Broad-Chalk, who being ill, dreamt that he met with an old friend of his, (long since deceased) by Knighton Ashes (in that parish) who told him, that if he rose out of his bed, that he would die. He awaked, and rose to make water, and was immediately seized with a shivering fit, and died of an ague, aged 84.
The Lady Viscountess Maidstone told me she saw (as it were) a fly of fire, fly round about her in the dark, half an hour before her lord died: he was killed at sea, and the like before her mother-in-law the Countess of Winchelsea died, (she was then with child).
A Dutch prisoner at Wood-bridge, in Suffolk, in the reign of K. Charles II. could discern Spirits; but others that stood by could not. The bell tolled for a man newly deceased. The prisoner saw his phantom, and did describe him to the Parson of the parish,* who was with him; exactly agreeing with the man for whom the bell tolled. Says the prisoner, now he is coming near to you, and now he is between you and the wall; the Parson was resolved to try it, and went to take the wall of him, and was thrown down; he could see nothing. This story is credibly told by several persons of belief.
* Dr. Hooke, the Parson of the parish, has often told this story.
There is a very remarkable story of an apparition, which Martin Luther did see. Mentioned in his “Commensalia” or Table-Talk, which see.
Those that are delirious in high fevers, see (waking, men, and things that are not there). I knew one Mr. M. L. that took opium, and he did see (being awake) men and things that were not present, (or perhaps) not in being. Those whose spleens are ill affected have the like phantasies. The power of imagination is wonderful.
“De seipso duplicate.”
Cardanus, Synes. Somniorum, lib. ii. cap. 12. “In somniis mortis est signum, quia duo fiunt, cum anima separatur a corpore. Est & signum morbi in ipsis agrotantibus, nec tum aliud quicquam significat.”
**Of One’s being divided into a Two-fold person.
In dreams it is a sign of death, because out of one are then made two, when the soul is separated from the body. And it is a sign of the disease in sick men, nor signifies it any thing else at that time.
As concerning apparitions of a man’s own self, there are sundry instances, some whereof, I shall here set down.
The Countess of Thanet (Earl John’s Lady) saw as she was in bed with her Lord in London, her daughter my Lady Hatton, who was then in Northamptonshire, at Horton Kirby; the candle was burning in her chamber. Since, viz. anno 1675, this Lady Hatton was blown up with gunpowder set on fire by lightning, in the castle at Guernsey, where her Lord was Governor.*
* See Mr. Baxter’s Treatise of Spirits
The beautiful Lady Diana Rich, daughter to the Earl of Holland, as she was walking in her father’s garden at Kensington, to take the fresh air before dinner, about eleven o’clock, being then very well, met with her own apparition, habit, and every thing, as in a looking- glass. About a month after, she died of the small-pox. And it is said that her sister, the Lady Isabella Thynne, saw the like of herself also, before she died. This account I had from a person of honour.
Mrs. E. W. daughter of Sir W. W. affirms that Mrs. J. (her father’s sister) saw herself, i. e. her phantom, half a year before she died, for a quarter of an hour together. She said further, that her aunt was sickly fourteen years before she died, and that she walked living, i. e. her apparition, and that she was seen by several at the same time. The like is reported of others.
Mr. Trahern, B.D. (chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgman, Lord Keeper) a learned and sober person, was son of a shoe-maker in Hereford: one night as he lay in bed, the moon shining very bright, he saw the phantom of one of the apprentices, sitting in a chair in his red waistcoat, and head-band about his head, and strap upon his knee; which apprentice was really in bed and asleep with another fellow- apprentice, in the same chamber, and saw him. The fellow was living, 1671. Another time, as he was in bed, he saw a basket come sailing in the air, along by the valence of his bed; I think he said there was fruit in the basket: it was a phantom. From himself.
When Sir Kichard Nepier, M.D. of London, was upon the road coming from Bedfordshire, the chamberlain of the inn, shewed him his chamber, the doctor saw a dead man lying upon the bed; he looked more wistly and saw it was himself: he was then well enough in health. He went forward on his journey to Mr. Steward’s in Berkshire, and there died. This account I have in a letter from Elias Ashmole, Esq. They were intimate friends.
“In the Desarts of Africk, you shall meet oftentimes with fairies appearing in the shape of men and women, but they vanish quite away like phantastical delusions.”*
* Pliny’s Natural Hist. lib. 7, chap. 2.
I Captain Henry Bell, do hereby declare both to the present age and to posterity, that being employed beyond the seas, in state affairs, divers years together, both by King James, and also by the late King Charles in Germany. I did hear and understand in all places great bewailing and lamentation made, by reason of destroying and burning of above fourscore thousand of Martin Luther’s books, entituled, His last Divine Discourses.**
** This narrative is in the Preface of the translation of Mr. Luther’s Table-Talk.
Upon which divine work or discourses, the reformation, begun before in Germany, was wonderfully promoted and spread in other countries.
But afterwards it so fell out, that the Pope then living, viz, Gregory XIII. understanding what great hurt and prejudice he and his religion had already received by reason of the said Luther’s discourses, and also fearing that the same might bring further contempt and mischief upon himself and his church, he therefore to prevent the same, did fiercely stir up and instigate the Emperor then in being, viz. Rodolphus III. to make an edict through the whole empire, that all the foresaid printed books should be burned, and also that it should be death for any person to have or keep a copy thereof, but to burn the same, which edict was speedily put in execution accordingly; insomuch that not one of all the said printed books, nor any one copy of the same, could be found out, or heard of in any place.
Yet it pleased God, that in anno 1626, a German gentleman, named Casparas Van Sparr, with whom, in my stay in Germany, about King James’s business, I became familiarly known and acquainted, having occasion to build upon an old foundation of a house, wherein his grandfather dwelt at that time, when the said edict was published in Germany, for the burning the said books, and digging deep under the said old foundation, one of the said original printed books was there happily found, lying in a deep obscure hole, being wrapped in a strong linen cloth, which was waxed all over with bees wax within and without, whereby the said book was preserved fair without any blemish.
And at the same time Ferdinandus II. being Emperor of Germany, who was a severe enemy and persecutor of the Protestant religion, the foresaid gentleman, and grandchild to him, that had hidden the said book in that obscure hole, fearing that if the said Emperor should get knowledge that one of the said books were yet forthcoming, and in his custody, whereby not only himself might be brought into trouble, but also the book be in danger to be destroyed, as all the rest were long before; and also calling to mind, that I had the High-Dutch tongue very perfect, did send the said original book over hither into England unto me: related to me the passages of the preserving and finding the said book; and earnestly moved me in his letter, to translate the said book into English.
Whereupon, I took the said book before me, and many times began to translate the same, but always I was hindered therein, being called upon about other business, insomuch that by no possible means I could remain by that work. Then about six weeks after I had received the said book, it fell out, that being in bed with my wife, one night between twelve and one o’clock, she being asleep, but myself yet awake, there appeared unto me an antient man, standing at my bedside, arrayed in white, having a long and broad white beard, hanging down to his girdle steed, who taking me by the right ear, spake these words following unto me; “Sirrah, will not you take time to translate that book which is sent unto you out of Germany? I will provide for you both place and time to do it:” and then he vanished out of my sight.
Whereupon being much affrighted, I fell into an extream sweat, insomuch that my wife awaking, and finding me all over wet, she asked me what I ailed; I told her what I had seen and heard; but I never did heed or regard visions nor dreams. And so the same fell soon out of my mind.
Then about a fortnight after I had seen the vision, on a Sunday I went to Whitehall to hear the sermon, after which ended, I returned to my lodging which was then in King-street, Westminster, and sitting down to dinner with my wife, two messengers were sent from the council- board with a warrant to carry me to the keeper of the gate-house at Westminster, there to be safely kept, until farther order from the Lords of the Council; which was done without shewing any cause* at all, wherefore I was committed; upon which said warrant I was kept there ten whole years close prisoner; where I spent five years thereof about translating of the said book: Insomuch as I found the words very true which the old man in the aforesaid vision said unto me, ” I will shortly provide you both place and time to translate it.”
Then after I had finished the translation, Dr. Laud, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, sent to me in the prison, by Dr. Bray his chaplain, ten pounds, and desired to peruse the book; he afterwards sent me by Dr. Bray forty pounds. There was a committee of the House of Commons for the printing of this translation, which was in 1652.
*Whatsoever was pretended, yet the true cause of the Captain’s commitment was, because he was urgent with the Lord Treasurer for his arrears, which amounted to a great sum, he was not willing to pay, and to be freed from his clamours, clapt him up into prison.
A full and true relation of the examination and confession of William Barwick and Edward Mangall, of two horrid murders; one committed by William Barwick, upon his wife being with child, near Cawood in Yorkshire, upon the 14th of April last: as likewise a full account how it came to be discovered by an apparition of the person murdered.
The second was committed by Edward Mangall, upon Elizabeth Johnson, alias Ringrose, and her bastard child, on the 4th of September last, who said he was tempted thereto by the Devil.
Also their trials and convictions before the Honourable Sir JOHN POWEL, Knight, one their Majesties Justices, at the assizes holden at York, on the 16th of September, 1690.
As murder is one of the greatest crimes that man can be guilty of, so it is no less strangely and providentially discovered, when privately committed. The foul criminal believes himself secure, because there was no witness of the fact. Not considering that the all-seeing eye of Heaven beholds his concealed iniquity, and by some means or other bringing it to light, never permits it to go unpunished. And indeed so certainly does the revenge of God pursue the abominated murderer, that, when witnesses are wanting of the fact, the very ghosts of the murdered parties cannot rest quiet in their graves, till they have made the detection themselves. Of this we are now to give the reader two remarkable examples that lately happened in Yorkshire; and no less signal for the truth of both tragedies, as being confirmed by the trial of the offenders, at the last assizes held for that county.
The first of these murders was committed by William Barwick, upon the body of Mary Barwick, his wife, at the same time big with child. What were the motives, that induced the man to do this horrid fact, does not appear by the examination of the evidence, or the confession of the party: only it appeared upon the trial, that he had got her with child before he married her: and ’tis very probable, that, being then constrained to marry her, he grew weary of her, which was the reason he was so willing to be rid of her, though he ventured body and soul to accomplish his design.
The murder was committed on Palm-Monday, being the fourteenth of April, about two of the clock in the afternoon, at which time the said Barwick having drilled his wife along ’till he came to a certain close, within sight of Cawood-Castle, where he found the conveniency of a pond, he threw her by force into the water, and when she was drowned, and drawn forth again by himself upon the bank of the pond, had the cruelty to behold the motion of the infant, yet warm in her womb. This done, he concealed the body, as it may readily be supposed, among the bushes, that usually encompass a pond, and the next night, when it grew duskish, fetching a hay-spade from a rick that stood in a close, he made a hole by the side of the pond, and there slightly buried the woman in her cloaths.
Having thus despatched two at once, and thinking him-self secure, (because unseen) he went the same day to his brother-in-law, one Thomas Lofthouse of Rufforth, within three miles of York, who had married his drowned wife’s sister, and told him he had carried his wife to one Richard Harrison’s house in Selby, who was his uncle, and would take care of her. But Heaven would not be so deluded, but raised up the ghost of the murdered woman to make the discovery. And therefore it was upon the Easter Tuesday following, about two of the clock in the after-noon, the forementioned Lofthouse having occasion to water a quickset hedge, not far from his house; as he was going for the second pail full, an apparition went before him in the shape of a woman, and soon after sat down upon a rising green grass-plat, right over against the pond: he walked by her as he went to the pond; and as he returned with the pail from the pond, looking sideways to see whether she continued in the same place, he found she did; and that she seemed to dandle something in her lap, that looked like a white bag (as he thought) which he did not observe before. So soon as he had emptied his pail, he went into his yard, and stood still to try whether he could see her again, but she was vanished.
In this information he says, that the woman seemed to be habited in a brown coloured petticoat, waistcoat, and a white hood; such a one as his wife’s sister usually wore, and that her countenance looked extreamly pale and wan, with her teeth in sight, but no gums appearing, and that her physiognomy was like to that of his wife’s sister, who was wife to William Barwick.
But notwithstanding the ghastliness of the apparition, it seems it made so little impression in Lofthouse’s mind, that he thought no more of it, neither did he speak to any body concerning it, ’till the same night as he was at his family duty of prayer, that that apparition returned again to his thoughts, and discomposed his devotion; so that after he had made an end of his prayers, he told the whole story of what he had seen to his wife, who laying circumstances together, immediately inferred, that her sister was either drowned, or otherwise murdered, and desired her husband to look after her the next day, which was Wednesday in Easter week, Upon this, Lofthouse recollecting what Barwick had told him of his carrying his wife to his uncle at Selby, repaired to Harrison beforementioned, but found all that Barwick had said to be false; for that Harrison had neither heard of Barwick, nor his wife, neither did he know anything of them. Which notable circumstance, together with that other of the apparition, encreased his suspicions to that degree, that now concluding his wife’s sister was murdered, he went to the Lord Mayor of York; and having obtained his warrant, got Barwick apprehended, who was no sooner brought before the Lord Mayor, but his own conscience then accusing him, he acknowledged the whole matter, as it has been already related, as it appears by his examination and confession herewith printed: to which are also annexed the informations of Lofthouse, in like manner taken before the Lord Mayor of York, for a further testimony and confirmation of what is here set down.
On Wednesday the sixteenth of September, 1690, the criminal, William Barwick, was brought to his trial, before the Honourable Sir John Powel, Knight, one of the judges of the northern circuit, at the assizes holden at York, where the prisoner pleaded not guilty to his indictment: but upon the evidence of Thomas Lofthouse, and his wife, and a third person, that the woman was found buried in her cloaths in the Close by the pond side, agreeable to the prisoner’s confession, and that she had several bruises on her head, occasioned by the blows the murderer had given her, to keep her under water: and upon reading the prisoner’s confession before the Lord Mayor of York, attested by the clerk, who wrote the confession, and who swore the prisoner’s owning and signing it for truth, he was found guilty, and sentenced to death, and afterwards ordered to be hanged in chains.
All the defence which the prisoner made, was only this, that he was threatened into the confession that he had made, and was in such a consternation, that he did not know what he said or did. But then it was sworn by two witnesses, that there was no such thing as any threatening made use of; but that he made a free and voluntary confession, only with this addition at first; that he told the Lord Mayor, he had sold his wife for five shillings; but not being able to name either the person or the place where she might be produced, that was looked upon as too frivolous to outweigh circumstances, that were proofs to apparent.
**The information of Thomas Lofthouse, of Ruforth, taken upon oath the twenty-fourth day of April, 1690,
WHO sayeth and deposeth, that one William Barwick, who lately married this informant’s wife’s sister,came to this informant’s house, about the fourteenth instant, and told this informant, he had carried his wife to one Richard Harrison’s house in Selby, who was uncle to him, and would take care of her; and this informant hearing nothing of the said Barwick’s wife, his said sister-in-law, imagined he had done her some mischief, did yesterday go to the said Harrison’s house in Selby, where he said he had carried her to; and the said Harrison told this informant, he knew nothing of the said Barwick, or his wife, and this informant doth verily believe the said Barwick to have murdered her.
THOMAS LOFTHOUSE.
“Jurat die & Anno
super dicto coram me,”
S. DAWSON, Mayor.
**The examination of the said William Harwich, taken the day and year abovesaid,
WHO sayeth and confesseth, that he, this examinant, on Monday was seventh night, about two of the clock in the afternoon, this examinant was walking in a Close, betwixt Cawood and Wistow; and he farther sayeth, that he threw his said wife into the pond, where she was drowned, and the day following, towards the evening, got a hay-spade at a hay-stake in the said Close, and made a grave beside the said pond, and buried her.
WILLIAM BARWICK.
“Exam. capt. die & Anno
super dict, coram me,”
S. DAWSON, Mayor.
**The examination of William Barwick, taken the twenty- fifth day of April, 1690,
WHO sayeth and confesseth, that he carried his wife over a certain wain-bridge, called Bishopdike-bridge, betwixt Cawood and Sherborne, and within a lane about one hundred yards from the said bridge, and on the left hand of the said bridge, he and his wife went over a stile, on the left hand of a certain gate, entering into a certain close, on the left hand of the said lane; and in a pond in the said close, (adjoining to a quick-wood-hedge) did drown his wife, and upon the bank of the said pond, did bury her: and further, that he was within sight of Cawood Castle, on the left hand; and that there was but one hedge betwixt the said close, where he drowned his said wife, and the Bishop-slates belonging to the said castle.
WILLIAM BARWICK
“Exam. capt. die & Anno
super dict, coram me,”
S. DAWSON, Mayor.
**On Tuesday, September the seventeenth, 1690, at York assizes.
THOMAS LOFTHOUSE of Rufforth, within three miles of York city, sayeth, that on Easter Tuesday last, about half an hour after twelve of the clock, in the day time, he was watering quickwood, and as he was going for the second pail, there appeared walking before him, an apparition in the shape of a woman, soon after she sat down over against the pond, on a green hill, he walked by her as he went to the pond, and as he came with the pail of water from the pond, looking side-ways to see if she sat in the same place, which he saw she did; and had on her lap something like a white bag, a dandling of it (as he thought) which he did not observe before: after he had emptied his pail of water, he stood in his yard, to see if he could see her again; but could not: he says her apparel was brown cloaths, waist-coat and petticoat, a white hood, such as his wife’s sister usually wore, and her face looked extream pale, her teeth in sight, no gums appearing, her visage being like his wife’s sister and wife to William Barwick.
Signed,
THOMAS LOFTHOUSE.
THE second was a murder committed by one Edward Mangall, upon the body of Elizabeth Johnson alias Ringrose, the fourth of September last past, at a place called King’s Causey, near Adling-street, in the county of York. He had got her with child, at least as she pretended; and was brought to bed of a boy, which she called William, and laid him to Mangall’s charge, and required him to marry her: which he refused at first to do; but afterwards pretending to make her his wife, bid her go before him down King’s Causey, towards the church, and he would follow her, as he did; but knocked out her brains in a close by the way, and at the same time, as was shrewdly suspected, killed the child.
This Mangall being examined by Mr. William Mauleverer, the coroner, confessed that he had murdered the woman; but denied that he meddled with the boy. And being asked why he murdered the woman, he made answer that the Devil put him upon it; appearing to him in a flash of lightning, and directing him where to find the club, wherewith he committed the murder. So ready is the Devil with his temptations, when he finds a temper easy to work upon.
He was convicted and found guilty upon the evidence of Anne Hinde, and his own confession to the coroner, as may be seen by the information annexed; and was thereupon sentenced to death, and ordered to be hanged in chains, as Barwick was before him, he making no defence for himself for so foul and horrid a murder, but that he was tempted thereto by the Devil.
**Informations taken upon oath, September the 10th, 1690.
**The information of Anne Hinde, wife of James Hinde, of Adling-street, in the County of York, husband-man, upon her oath saith;
THAT on Monday, the first of September, one Elizabeth Johnson, alias Ringrose, came to her house in the evening, with a child she called William; and the said Elizabeth the next day told this deponent, that the said Elizabeth was going to Gawthrope, in the county of Lincoln, to seek for one Edward Mangall, who had got her with that child, to see if he would marry her: upon which this deponent went with the said Elizabeth, to persuade him to marry her; but he denied having any dealings with her. But this deponent doth further depose, that on the fourth of September, the said Edward came to this deponent’s house, and asked for the said Elizabeth; if she were there she might serve a warrant on him, if she had one, for he was going to Rawclyff, to consult his friends about it; and after some private discourse had betwixt the said Edward and the said Elizabeth, the said Elizabeth told this deponent, that he said, the said Elizabeth might go down King’s-Causey; and he would follow her, and marry her: and this deponent did see the said Elizabeth go down King’s-Causey; and a little after this deponent saw the said Edward also go down the King’s-Causey; and after that, this deponent did not see the said Elizabeth, nor the said child till she saw them lie dead.
ANNE HINDE.
Capt. 10. die Septembris 1690.
By me
W. MAULEVERER.
Un. Coron, Commit, praedict.
THE examination of Edward Mangall, upon the murder of Elizabeth Johnson alias Ringrose, taken before me William Mauleverer, Gent, one of the Coroners of our Sovereign Lord and Lady King William and Queen Mary, &c.
THE said Edward Mangall did confess, that he did murder the said Elizabeth Johnson alias Ringrose, upon the fourth day of September instant, in a close nigh to King’s Causey, he being asked the reason, said the Devil put him upon it, appearing to him in a flash of lightning; but denied that he medled with William Johnson alias Ringrose, the child.
Taken the 10th of Sept. 1690,
By me
W. MAULEVERER, Coroner.
VOICES.
“Saepe etiam & in praeliis Fauni auditi, & in rebus turbidis veridicae voces ex occulto missae esse dicuntur. Cujus generis duo sunt ex multis exempla, sed maxima. Nam non multo ante Urbem captam exaudita vox est a Luco Vestae, qui a Palatii radice in novem viam devexus est, ut muri & portae reficerentur: futurum esse, nisi provisum esset, ut Roma caperetur. Quod neglectum cum caveri poterat, post acceptam illam maximam cladem explicatum est. Ara enim Aio loquenti, quam septam videmus, & adversus eum locum consecrata est.”
i. e. Often even in battles have the Gods of the woods been heard to speak, and in troublesome times, when the affairs of governments have gone wrong, and been in disorder and turmoil, voices have been known to steal upon the ears of persons, that came as it were from a corner, but they knew not whence, and told them important truths. Of which kind there are out of a great many, two examples, and those indeed very rare and extraordinary. For not long before the city was taken, a voice was heard from the grove of Vesta, which went from the foot, and basis of the palace, sloping and bending into a new road, that the city walls and gates should be repaired: and that unless care was taken of it, the consequence would be, that Rome would be taken. This being omitted, when provision might have been made, was explained after that most signal and dreadful overthrow. For the altar, which we see enclosed, and that fronts that place, was a consecrated altar.
“— Negue solum deorum voces Pythagorei observaverunt, sed etiam hominum, quae vacant omina — .”
i. e. Neither did the Pythagorean Philosophers observe the voices of Gods only, but also those of men, which they called Omens.
“Nero — & lo’n dit qu’on entendoit un son de trumpette dans les collines d’alentour, des gemissemens sur le tombeau de sa mere.”
Nero, they say, heard the sound of a trumpet among the hills and the rocks round about him, and groans over the tomb of his mother.
In the life of King Henry IV. of France, written by the Arch-Bishop of Paris, it is recorded, that Charles IX. (who caused the massacre) was wont to hear screaches, like those of the persons massacred.
St. Augustin heard a voice, saying, TOLLE, LEGE, take, read. He took up his bible, and dipt on Rom. 13. 13. “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness,” &c. And reformed his manners upon it.
One Mr. Smith, a practitioner of physic at Tamworth in Warwickshire, an understanding sober person, reading in Hollinshead’s Chronicle, found a relation of a great fight between Vortigern and Hengest, about those parts, at a place called Colemore: a little time after, as he lay awake in his bed, he heard a voice, that said unto him, “You shall shortly see some of the bones of those men and horses slain, that you read of:” he was surprized at the voice, and asked in the name of God, who it was that spoke to him. The voice made answer, that he should not trouble himself about that; but what he told him should come to pass. Shortly after, as he went to see Colonel Archer (whose servants were digging for marle) he saw a great many bones of men and horses; and also pot-sherds; and upon the view it appeared to be according to the description in Hollinshead’ s Chronicle; and it was the place where the fight was; but it is now called Blackmore.
This was about the year 1685, and I had the account from my worthy friend and old acquaintance Thomas Marriet of Warwickshire, Esq., who is very well acquainted with Mr. Smith aforesaid.
Extracts out of the book entitled “Relation de la Nouvelle France”, 1662, and 1663, 12.
” Les Sauvages avoient eu de presentiments aussi bien que les Francois, et de cet horrible Tremble-terre. Voicy la deposition d’une sauvage age 20. fort innocente, simple, & sincere. La nuict du 4 ou 5 de Febr. 1663 estant entirement eveillee, & en plein jugement, assise comme sur mon seant, j’ay entender une voix distincte & intelligible, qui m’a dit, Il doit arrive aujourdhuy de choses extrangees, la Terre doit tremble. Je me trouveray pour lors saisie d’une grand frayeur, parce que je ne voyois personne d’ou peut provinir cette voix: Remplie de crainte, ja taschay a m’endormir auec assez de peine: Et le jour estant venu, je dis a mon mary cequi m’estoit arrive. Sur le 9, ou le 10 heure de mesme jour, allant au bois pour buscher, a peine j’estois entree en la Forest que la mesme voix se fit — entendre, me disent mesme chose, & de la mesme facon que la nuicte precedente: La peur fuit bien plus grande, moy estant tout seule.”
i. e. The wild inhabitants, as well as the French, had presages of that dreadful earthquake. See here the depositions of a wild Indian, about twenty-six years of age, who was very innocent, simple, and sincere. On the night of the 4th or 5th of February, in the year 1663, being perfectly awake, and in sound judgment, and setting up as it were in my bed, I heard a distinct and intelligible voice, that said to me, There will happen to day many strange things. The earth will quake and tremble. I found myself seized with an extraordinary fear, because I saw no person from whom the voice could proceed. I, full of terror, with great difficulty, endeavoured to compose myself to sleep. And as soon as it was day I told my husband what had happened to me. About nine or ten of the clock the same day, going to a forest a wood- gathering, I was scarce got into the brow of the forest, but I heard the same voice again, which told me the same thing, and in the same manner as it had done the night before. My fear was much greater this time, because I was all alone. She got her burden of wood, and met her sister who comforted her, to whom she told this story, and when she came to her father’s caben, she told the same story there; but they heard it without any reflections.
” — La chose en demeure la, jusquez a 5. ou 6 heures du soir du mesme jour, ou un tremblement de Terre survenant, Ils reconnurent par experience, que cequ’ils m’avoient intendu dire avant Midy, n’estoit que trop vray.”
i. e.—The matter rested there, till about five or six of the clock in the evening of the same day, when an earthquake coming suddenly upon us; experience made them recollect and acknowledge that, what they had heard me say before noon, was but too true.
“Envoyee au R. P. Andre Castillon Provincial de la Province de France par les Missioners de Peres de la Compagnie de Jesu. Imprime a Paris, 1664.”
i. e. Sent to the reverend father Andrew Castillon, provincial of the province of France, by the missioners of the fathers of the Society of Jesus. Printed at Paris, 1664.
“Livy makes mention, that before the coming of the Gauls to Rome, Marcus Ceditius, a Plebeian, acquainted the Senate, that passing one night about twelve o’clock through the Via Nova, he heard a voice (bigger than a man’s) which advised him to let the Senate know, the Gauls were on their march to Rome. How those things could be, it is to be discoursed by persons well versed in the causes of natural and supernatural events: for my part I will not pretend to understand them, unless (according to the opinion of some Philosophers) we may believe that the air being full of intelligences and spirits, who foreseeing future events, and commiserating the condition of mankind, give them warning by these kind of intimations, that they may the more timely provide and defend themselves against their calamities. But whatever is the cause, experience assures us, that after such denunciations, some extraordinary thing or other does constantly happen.”
IMPULSES.
Cicero “de Natura Deorum”, lib. 2.
“PRAETEREA ipsorum Deorum saepe praesentiae, quales supra commemoravi, — declarant, ut ab his, & Civitatibus, & singulis Hominibus consuli. Quod quidem intelligitur etiam significationibus rerum futurarum, quae tum dormientibus, tum Vigilantibus portentantur. — Nemo vir magnus sine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fuit”.
i. e. Moreover the frequent presence of the Gods themselves, as I have above mentioned, plainly manifest, that they preside, with their good advice, as guardians, not only over cities, but particular men. This may be likewise certainly understood by the several significations of future events, which are predicted to men both sleeping and waking — there was never any one single great man, but what has, in some measure, partaken of this divine inspiration.
“Testor Deum me olim ante plures menses melancolia ex adverso casu conceptam, Domini patris mei praesentisse, ac pronunciasse mortem, cum tamen ipso valde incolumi, nulla ejus mihi ratio probabilis afferretur: & sic ipse postea momentum sui obitus, septem circiter horas antea pronunciavit”.
i. e. I call God to witness, that formerly some months before, having conceived it in a fit of melancholy, from an unlucky event, that I foreknew, and foretold my father’s death, when he being quite in health, no probable account of it offered itself to me: and in like manner he himself afterwards pronounced the moment of his departure near seven hours before. “Imperialis Musaeum Physicum”. 104.
Oliver Cromwell had certainly this afflatus. One that I knew, that was at the battle of Dunbar, told me that Oliver was carried on with a divine impulse; he did laugh so excessively as if he had been drunk; his eyes sparkled with spirits. He obtained a great victory; but the action was said to be contrary to human prudence. The same fit of laughter seized Oliver Cromwell, just before the battle of Naseby; as a kinsman of mine, and a great favourite of his, Colonel J. P. then present, testified. Cardinal Mazarine said, that he was a lucky fool.
In one of the great fields at Warminster in Wiltshire, in the harvest, at the very time of the fight at Bosworth field, between King Eichard III. and Henry VII. there was one of the parish took two sheaves, crying (with some intervals) now for Richard, now for Henry; at last lets fall the sheaf that did represent Richard; and cried, now for King Henry, Richard is slain. This action did agree with the very time, day and hour. When I was a schoolboy I have heard this confidently delivered by tradition by some old men of our country.
Monsieur de Scudery in his Poem, entituled “Rome Vaincue”, fancies an angel to be sent to Alaric, to impel him to overrun the Roman empire with his swarms of northern people. The like may be fancied upon all changes of government; when providence destines the ends, it orders the means.
By way of parallel to this, the Pope by the like instinct, being at Rome in the consistory, did speak of the engagement in the famous battle of Lepanto, and that the Christians were victors. The fight at sea being two hundred miles or more distant from them.
King Charles I. after he was condemned, did tell Colonel Tomlinson, that he believed, that the English monarchy was now at an end: about half an hour after, he told the Colonel, “that now he had assurance by a strong impulse “on his spirit, that his son should reign after him.”
This information I had from Fabian Philips, Esq. of the Inner- temple, who had good authority for the truth of it: I have forgot who it was.
The Lord Roscomon, being a boy of ten years of age at Caen in Normandy, one day was (as it were) madly extravagant in playing, leaping, getting over the table-boards, &c.
He was wont to be sober enough: they said, God grant this bodes no ill luck to him; in the heat of this extravagant fit, he cries out, my father is dead. A fortnight after news came from Ireland, that his father was dead. This account I had from Mr. Knolles, who was his governor, and then with him; since Secretary to the Earl of Stafford, and I have heard his Lordship’s relations confirm the same.
A very good friend of mine and old acquaintance, hath had frequent impulses; when he was a commoner at Trinity College, Oxford, he had several. When he rode towards the West one time in the stage coach, he told the company, ” We shall certainly be robbed,” and they were so. When a brother of his, a merchant, died, he left him with other effects, a share of a ship, which was returning from Spain, and of which news was brought to the Exchange at London of her good condition; he had such an impulse upon his spirit, that he must needs sell his share, though to loss; and he did sell it. The ship came safe to Cornwall, (or Devon) and somewhere afterwards fell upon the rocks and sunk: not a man perished; but all the goods were lost except some parrots, which were brought for Queen Katherine.
The good genius of Socrates is much remembered, which gave him warning. The Ethnick Genij are painted like our Angels; strong impulses are to be referred to them.
The learned Dr. John Pell, hath told me, that he did verily believe, that some of his solutions of difficult problems were not done “Sine Domino auxilio”.
Mr. J. N. a very understanding gentleman, and not superstitious, protested to me, that when he hath been over-persuaded by friends to act contrary to a strong impulse, that he never succeeded.
KNOCKINGS.
R. BAXTER’S Certainty of the World of Spirits. “A gentleman, formerly seemingly pious, of late years hath fallen into the sin of drunkenness; and when he has been drunk, and slept himself sober, something knocks at his beds-head, as if one knocked on a wainscot; when they remove the bed, it follows him, besides loud noises on other parts where he is, that all the house heareth”.
” It poseth me to think what kind of spirit this is, that hath such a care of this man’s soul, (which makes me hope he will recover). Do good spirits dwell so near us ? or, are they sent on such messages ? or, is it his guardian Angel ? or, is it the soul of some dead friend, that suffereth and yet retaining love to him, as Dives did to his brethren, would have him saved ? God keepeth yet such things from us in the dark.”
Major John Morgan of Wells, did aver, that as he lay in bed with Mr. Barlow (son of the Dean of Wells) they heard three distinct knocks on the bed; Mr. Barlow shortly after fell sick and died.
Three or four days before my father died, as I was in my bed about nine o’clock in the morning perfectly awake, I did hear three distinct knocks on the beds-head, as if it had been with a ruler or ferula.
Mr. Hierome Banks, as he lay on his death bed, in Bell-yard, said, three days before he died, that Mr. Jennings of the Inner-temple, (his great acquaintance, dead a year or two before) gave three knocks, looked in, and said, come away. He was as far from believing such things as any man.
Mr. George Ent of the Middle-temple, told me, some days before he died, that he had such a “Deceptio Visus”, he called it.
” In Germany when one is to die out of one’s family, or some friends, there will sometimes likewise happen some token that signifieth the death of one, e. g. some (or one) in the house heareth the noise, as if a meal-sack fell down from on high upon the boards of the chamber; they presently go up thither, where they thought it was done, and find nothing; but all things in order”.
” Also at Berlin, when one shall die out of the electoral house of Brandenburgh, a woman drest in white linen appears always to several, without speaking, or doing any harm, for several weeks before”. This from Jasper Belshazer Cranmer, a Saxon gentleman.
BLOWS INVISIBLE.
MR. BROGRAVE, of Hamel, near Puckridge in Hertfordshire, when he was a young man, riding in a lane in that county, had a blow given him on his cheek: (or head) he looked back and saw that nobody was near behind him; anon he had such another blow, I have forgot if a third. He turned back, and fell to the study of the law; and was afterwards a Judge. This account I had from Sir John Penruddocke of Compton- Chamberlain, (our neighbour) whose Lady was Judge Brograve’s niece.
Newark (Sir G. L.’s) has knockings before death. And there is a house near Covent Garden that has warnings. The Papists are full of these observations.
The like stories are reported of others.
PROPHESIES.
CICERO de Divinatione, Lib. 1. “–gentem quidem nullam video, neque tam humanam atque doctam: neque tam immanem tam; barbaram, quae non significari futura, & a quibusdam intelligi, praedicique posse censeat”.
i. e. I know of no country, either so polished and learned, or so rude, barbarous and uncivilized, but what always allowed that some particular persons are gifted with an insight into futurity, and are endued with a talent of prediction.
To pass by the prophesies of holy writ, the prophesies of Nostradamus do foretel very strangely; but not easily understood till they are fulfilled. The book is now common.
Peter Martyr, in his Decades, tells us, that there was a prophet among the Salvages in America, that did foretel the coming in of strangers in ships, which they had not known.
The prophesies of St. Malachi, are exceeding strange. He describes the Popes by their coats of arms, or their names, or manners: if his prophesies be true, there will be but fifteen Popes more. It is printed in a book in Octavo, entituled “Bucelini Historiae Nucleus, 1654, in calce Libri” thus, “Prophetia Malachiae Monachi Bangorensis, & A. Episcopi Ardinensis, Hiberniae Primatis”. 1665, in two leaves.
Mr. Lancelot Morehouse, in the time of the civil wars, rescued a sheet of parchment in quarto, most delicately writ, from a taylor’s sheers. It was a part of a book, and was a prophecy concerning England in Latin Hexameters; I saw it, 1649. It pointed at our late troubles: he gave it to Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, and is lost among other good papers.
In a book* of Mr. William Lilly’s, are hieroglyphick prophecies, viz. of the great plague of London, expressed by graves and dead corpses; and a scheme with ascending (the sign of London) and no planets in the twelve houses. Also there is a picture of London all on fire, also moles creeping, &c. Perhaps Mr. Lilly might be contented to have people believe that this was from himself. But Mr. Thomas Flatman (poet) did affirm, that he had seen those hieroglyphicks in an old parchment manuscript, writ in the time of the monks.
* Monarchy: or, No Monarchy, 4to.
In the nave of the cathedral church at Wells, above the capitals of two pillars, are the head of the King, and the head of a Bishop: it was foretold, that when a King should be like that King, and a Bishop like that Bishop, that Abbots should be put down, and Nuns should marry: above the arch, is an abbot or monk, with his head hanging downwards; and a nun with children about her. The inside of the arch is painted blue, and adorned with stars, to signify the power and influence of the stars. This prophecy was writ in parchment, and hung in a table on one of those pillars, before the civil wars. Dr. Duck (who was chancellor of Wells) said, that he had seen a copy of it among the records of the tower at London. It was prophesied 300 years before the reformation. Bishop Knight was Bishop here at the reformation, and the picture (they say) did resemble him.
In the Spanish history, it is mentioned, that a vault being opened in Spain, they found there Moors’ heads, and some writings that did express, when people resembling those heads should come into Spain, they would conquer that country; and it was so. See this story more at large in James Howell’s Letters.
There is a prophecy of William Tyndal, poor vicar of Welling, in the county of Hertford, made in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. I have seen it: it is in English verse, two pages and an half in folio. It foretold our late wars. I know one that read it forty years since.
A Prophecy.
Sexte verere Deos; vitae tibi terminus instat, Cum tuus in media ardebit Carbunculus igne.
0 thou sixth King to God due honours pay, Remember Prince soon after thou’lt expire, When thou behold’st thy carbuncle display, Blaze against blaze amidst the red’ning fire.
These verses were made by George Buchanan; but (perhaps) the prediction was made by some second-sighted person. King James, of Scotland, the sixth, was taken with an ague, at Trinity-College in Cambridge; he removed to Theobald’s; (where he died)sitting by the fire, the carbuncle fell out of his ring into the fire, according to the prediction. This distich is printed in the life of King James.
Before the civil wars, there was much talk of the Lady Anne Davys’s prophesies; for which she was kept prisoner in the tower of London. She was sister to the Earl of Castle-heaven, and wife to Sir John Davys, Lord Chief Justice in Ireland; I have heard his kinsman (Counsellor Davys of Shaftesbury) say, that she being in London, (I think in the tower) did tell the very time of her husband’s death in Ireland.
MIRANDA.
OUR English chronicles do record, that in the reign of King Henry III. A child was born in Kent, that at two years old cured all diseases. Several persons have been cured of the King’s-evil by the touching, or handling of a seventh son. It must be a seventh son, and no daughter between, and in pure wedlock.
Samuel Scot, seventh son of Mr. William Scot of Hedington in Wiltshire, did when a child wonderful cures by touching only, viz. as to the King’s-evil, wens, &c. but as he grew to be a man, the virtue did decrease, and had he lived longer, perhaps might have been spent. A servant boy of his father’s was also a seventh son, but he could do no cures at all. I am very well satisfied of the truth of this relation, for I knew him very well, and his mother was my kinswoman.
‘Tis certain, the touch of a dead hand, hath wrought wonderful effects, e. g. – One(a painter) of Stowel in Somersetshire, near Bridgewater, had a wen in the inside of his cheek, as big as a pullet’s egg, which by the advice of one was cured by once or twice touching or rubbing with a dead woman’s hand, (e contra, to cure a woman, a dead man’s hand) he was directed first to say the Lord’s prayer, and to beg a blessing. He was perfectly cured in a few weeks. I was at the man’s house who attested it to me, as also to the reverend Mr. Andrew Paschal, who went with me.
Mr. Davys Mell, (the famous violinist and clock-maker) had a child crook-backed, that was cured after the manner aforesaid, which Dr. Ridgley, M.D. of the college of physicians, averred in my hearing.
The curing of the King’s-evil by the touch of the King, does much puzzle our philosophers: for whether our Kings were of the house of York, or Lancaster, it did the cure (i. e.) for the most part. ‘Tis true indeed at the touching there are prayers read, but perhaps, neither the King attends them nor his chaplains.
In Somersetshire, ’tis confidently reported, that some were cured of the King’s-evil, by the touch of the Duke of Monmouth: the Lord Chancellor Bacon saith, “That imagination is next kin to miracle- working faith.”
When King Charles I. was prisoner at Carisbrook Castle, there was a woman touched by him, who had the King’s-evil in her eye, and had not seen in a fortnight before, her eye-lids being glued together: as they were at prayers, (after the touching) the woman’s eyes opened. Mr Seymer Bowman, with many others, were eye-witnesses of this.
At Stretton in Hertfordshire, in anno 1648, when King Charles I. Was prisoner, the tenant of the Manor-House there sold excellent cyder to gentlemen of the neighbourhood; where they met privately, and could discourse freely, and be merry, in those days so troublesome to the loyal party. Among others that met, there was old Mr. Hill. B. D. parson of the parish, Quondam Fellow of Brazen-Nose college in Oxford. This venerable good old man, one day (after his accustomed fashion) standing up, with his head uncovered to drink his majesty’s health, saying, “God bless our Gracious Sovereign,” as he was going to put the cup to his lips, a swallow flew in at the window, and pitched on the brim of the little earthen cup(not half a pint) and sipt, and so flew out again. This was in the presence of the aforesaid parson Hill, Major Gwillim, and two or three more, that I knew very well then, my neighbours, and whose joint testimony of it I have had more than once, in that very room. It was in the bay-window in the parlour there; Mr. Hill’s back was next to the window. I cannot doubt of the veracity of the witnesses. This is printed in some book that I have seen, I think in Dr. Fuller’s Worthies. The cup is preserved there still as a rarity.
In Dr. Bolton’s Sermons, is an account of the Lady Honywood, who despaired of her salvation. Dr. Bolton endeavoured to comfort her: said she, (holding a Venice-glass in her hand) I shall as certainly be damned, as this glass will be broken: and at that word, threw it hard on the ground; and the glass remained sound; which did give her great comfort. The glass is yet preserved among the Cimelia of the family. This lady lived to see descended from her (I think) ninety, which is mentioned by Dr. Bolton.
William Backhouse, of Swallowfield in Berkshire, Esq. had an ugly scab that grew on the middle of his forehead, which had been there for some years, and he could not be cured; it became so nauseous, that he would see none but his intimate friends: he was a learned gentleman, a chymist, and antiquary: his custom was, once every summer to travel to see Cathedrals, Abbeys, Castles, &c. In his journey, being come to Peterborough, he dreamt there, that he was in a church and saw a hearse, and that one did bid him wet his scab, with the drops of the marble. The next day he went to morning-service, and afterwards going about the church, he saw the very hearse (which was of black say, for Queen Katherine, wife to King Henry VIII.) and the marble grave-stone by. He found drops on the marble, and there were some cavities, wherein he dipt his finger, and wetted the scab: in seven days it was perfectly cured. This accurate and certain information, I had from my worthy friend Elias Ashmole, Esq. who called Mr. Backhouse father, and had this account from his own mouth. May-Dew is a great dissolvent.
Arise Evans had a fungous nose, and said, it was revealed to him, that the King’s hand would cure him, and at the first coming of King Charles II. into St. James’s Park, he kissed the King’s hand, and rubbed his nose with it; which disturbed the King, but cured him. Mr. Ashmole told it me.
In the year 1694, there was published,
“A true Relation of the wonderful
Cure of Mary Mallard, (lame almost ever since she was born) on Sunday the 26th of November 1693.”
With the affidavits and certificates of the girl, and several other credible and worthy persons, who knew her both before and since her being cured. To which is added, a letter from Dr. Welwood, to the Right Honourable the Lady Mayoress, upon that subject. London: printed for Richard Baldwin, near the Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane, 1694.
A narrative of the late extraordinary cure, wrought in an instant upon Mrs. Elizabeth Savage, (lame from her birth) without using of any natural means.
With the affidavits which were made before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor; and the certificates of several credible persons, who knew her both before and since her cure.
Enquired into with all its circumstances, by noted divines both of the church of England, and others: and by eminent physicians of the college: and many persons of quality, who have expressed their full satisfaction.
With an appendix, attempting to prove, that miracles are not ceased. London, printed for John Dunton at the Raven, and John Harris at the Harrow, in the Poultry. The London divines would have my annotations of these two maids expunged.*
*” This Eliza Savage is still lame. It seems my Lord Mayor of London and Ministers may be imposed on.” MS. Note in a copy of the first edition in the Library of the Royal Society.
MAGICK.
IN Barbary are wizards, who do smear their hands with some black ointment,and then do hold them up to the sun, and in a short time you shall see delineated in that black stuff, the likeness of what you desire to have an answer of. It was desired to know, whether a ship was in safety, or no? there appeared in the woman’s hand the perfect lineaments of a ship under sail. This Mr. W. Cl. a merchant of London, who was factor there several years, protested to me, that he did see. He is a person worthy of belief.
A parallel method to this is used in England, by putting the white of a new laid egg in a beer glass, and expose it to the sun in hot weather, as August, when the sun is in Leo, and they will perceive their husband’s profession.
There are wonderful stories of the Bannians in India, viz. of their predictions, cures, &c. of their charming crocodiles, and serpents: and that one of them walked over an arm of the sea, he was seen in the middle, and never heard of afterwards.
The last summer, on the day of St. John the Baptist, 1694, I accidentally was walking in the pasture behind Montague house, it was 12 o’clock. I saw there about two or three and twenty young women, most of them well habited, on their knees very busy, as if they had been weeding. I could not presently learn what the matter was; at last a young man told me, that they were looking for a coal under the root of a plantain, to put under their head that night, and they should dream who would be their husbands:It was to be sought for that day and hour.
The women have several magical secrets handed down to them by tradition, for this purpose, as, on St. Agnes’ night, 21st day of Jannary, take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, saying a Pater Noster, or (Our Father) sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him, or her, you shall marry. Ben Jonson in one of his Masques make some mention of this.
And on sweet Saint Agnes night
Please you with the promis’d sight, Some of husbands, some of lovers,
Which an empty dream discovers,
Another. *To know whom one shall marry.
You must lie in another county, and knit the left garter about the right legged stocking (let the other garter and stocking alone) and as you rehearse these following verses, at every comma, knit a knot.
This knot I knit,
To know the thing, I know not yet, That I may see,
The man (woman) that shall my husband (wife) be, How he goes, and what he wears,
And what he does, all days, and years.
Accordingly in your dream you will see him: if a musician, with a lute or other instrument; if a scholar, with a book or papers.
A gentlewoman that I knew, confessed in my hearing, that she used this method, and dreamt of her husband whom she had never seen: about two or three years after, as she was on Sunday at church, (at our Lady’s church in Sarum) up pops a young Oxonian in the pulpit: she cries out presently to her sister, this is the very face of the man that I saw in my dream. Sir William Soames’s Lady did the like.
Another way, is, to charm the moon thus: at the first appearance of the new moon* after new year’s day, go out in the evening, and stand over the spars of a gate or stile, looking on the moon and say, **
All hail to the moon, all hail to thee, I prithee good moon reveal to me,
This night, who my husband (wife) must be.
You must presently after go to bed.
* Some say any other new moon is as good. ** In Yorkshire they kneel on a ground-fast stone.
I knew two gentlewomen that did thus when they were young maids, and they had dreams of those that married them.
Alexander Tralianus, of curing diseases by spells, charms, &c. is cited by Casaubon, before John Dee’s Book of Spirits: it is now translated out of the Greek into English.
Moreri’s Great Historical, Geographical, and Poetical Dictionary. Abracadabra, a mysterious word, to which the superstitious in former times attributed a magical power to expel diseases, especially the tertian-ague, worn about their neck in this manner.
Some think, that Basilides, the inventor, intends the name of GOD by it. The method of the cure was prescribed in these verses.
“Inscribes Chartae quod dicitur Abracadabra Saepius, & subter repetes, sed detrahe summam Et magis atque magis desint elementa figuris Singula quae semper capies & caetera figes, Donec in angustum redigatur Litera Conum, His lina nexis collo redimire memento. Talia languentis conducent Vincula collo, Lethalesque abigent (miranda potentia) morbos”.
Abracadabra, strange mysterious word, In order writ, can wond’rous cures afford. This be the rule:-a strip of parchment take, Cut like a pyramid revers’d in make.
Abracadabra, first at length you name, Line under line, repeating still the same: Cut at its end, each line, one letter less, Must then its predecessor line express; ‘Till less’ning by degrees the charm descends With conic form, and in a letter ends. Round the sick neck the finish’d wonder tie, And pale disease must from the patient fly.
Mr. Schoot, a German, hath an excellent book of magick: it is prohibited in that country. I have here set down three spells, which are much approved.
**To cure an Ague.
Write this following spell in parchment, and wear it about your neck. It must be writ triangularly.
A B R A C A D A B R A
A B R A C A D A B R
A B R A C A D A B
A B R A C A D A
A B R A C A D
A B R A C A
A B R A C
A B R A
A B R
A B
A
With this spell, one of Wells, hath cured above a hundred of the ague.
**To cure the biting of a Mad-Dog, write these words in paper, viz.
“Rebus Rubus Epitepscum”, and give it to the party, or beast bit, to eat in bread, &c. A Gentleman of good quality, and a sober grave person, did affirm, that this receipt never fails.
**To cure the Tooth-Ach: out of Mr. Ashmole’s manuscript writ with his own hand.
“Mars, hur, abursa, aburse”.
Jesu Christ for Mary’s sake,
Take away this Tooth-Ach.
Write the words three times; and as you say the words, let the party burn one paper, then another, and then the last. He says, he saw it experimented, and the party “immediately cured.”
Mr. Ashmole told me, that a woman made use of a spell to cure an ague, by the advice of Dr. Nepier; a minister came to her, and severely repremanded her, for making use of a diabolical help, and told her, she was in danger of damnation for it, and commanded her to burn it. She did so, and her distemper returned severely; insomuch that she was importunate with the Doctor to use the same again; she used it, and had ease. But the parson hearing of it, came to her again, and thundered hell and damnation, and frighted her so, that she burnt it again. Whereupon she fell extremely ill, and would have had it a third time; but the Doctor refused, saying, that she had contemned and slighted the power and goodness of the blessed spirits (or Angels) and so she died. The cause of the Lady Honywood’s Desparation was, that she had used a spell to cure her.
“Jamblicus de Mysteriis de nominibus Divinis.”
“Porphyrius querit, cur Sacerdotes utantur nominibus quibusdam nihil significantibus ? Jamblicus respondet, omnia ejusmodi nomina significare aliquid apud deos: quamvis in quibusdam significata nobis sint ignota, esse tamen nota quaedam, quorum interpretationem divinitus accepimus, omnino vero modum ineis significandi ineffabilem esse. Neque secundum imaginationes humanas, sed secundum intellectum qui in nobis est, divinus, vel potius simpliciore praestantiorieque modo secundum intellectum diis unitum. Auferendum igitur omnes excogitationes & rationales discursus, atque assimulationes naturalis vocis ipsius congenitas, ad res positas innatum. Et quemadmodum character symbolicus divinae similitudinis in se intellectualis est, atque divinus, ita hunc ipsum in omnibus supponnere, accipereque debemus, &c.”
**Jamblicus, concerning the Mysteries relating to divine names.
Porphyrius asks the question why Priests make use of certain names which carry with them no known import or signification ? Jamblicus replies, that all and every of those sort of names have their respective significations among the Gods, and that though the things signified by some of them remain to us unknown, yet there are some which have come to our knowledge, the interpretation of which we have received from above. But that the manner of signifying by them, is altogether ineffable. Not according to human imaginations, but according to that divine intellect which reigns within us, or rather according to an intellect that has an union with the Gods, in a more simple and excellent manner. And whereas the symbolical character of the divine likeness is in it self intellectual and divine, so are we to take and suppose it to be, in all, &c.
** To cure an ague, Tertian or Quartan.
Gather Cinquefoil in a good aspect of {Jupiter} to the {Moon} and let the moon be in the Mid-Heaven, if you can, and take — of the powder of it in white wine: if it be not thus gathered according to the rules of astrology, it hath little or no virtue in it. With this receipt — one Bradley, a quaker at Kingston Wick upon Thames, (near the bridge end) hath cured above an hundred.
**To cure the Thrush.
There is a certain piece in the beef, called the mouse-piece, which given to the child, or party so affected to eat, doth certainly cure the thrush. From an experienced midwife.
**Another to cure a Thrush.
Take a living frog, and hold it in a cloth, that it does not go down into the child’s mouth; and put the head into the child’s mouth ’till it is dead; and then take another frog, and do the same.
**To cure the Tooth-Ach.
Take a new nail, and make the gum bleed with it, and then drive it into an oak. This did cure William Neal’s son, a very stout gentleman, when he was almost mad with the pain, and had a mind to have pistolled himself.
**For the Jaundice.
The jaundice is cured, by putting the urine after the first sleep, to the ashes of the ash-tree, bark of barberries.
**To cure a Bullock, that hath the Whisp, (that is)lame between the Clees.
Take the impression of the bullock’s foot in the earth, where he hath trod then dig it up, and stick therein five or seven thorns on the wrong side, and then hang it on a bush to dry: and as that dries, so the bullock heals. This never fails for wisps. From Mr. Pacy, a yRoman in Surry.
**To cure a beast that is sprung, (that is) poisoned.
It lights mostly upon Sheep.
Take the little red spider, called a tentbob, (not so big as a great pins-head) the first you light upon in the spring of the year, and rub it in the palm of your hand all to pieces: and having so done, piss on it, and rub it in, and let it dry; then come to the beast and make water in your hand, and throw it in his mouth. It cures in a matter of an hour’s time. This rubbing serves for a whole year, and it is no danger to the hand. The chiefest skill is to know whether the beast be poisoned or no. From Mr. Pacy.
**To staunch Bleeding.
Out an ash of one, two, or three years growth, at the very hour and minute of the sun’s entring into Taurus: a chip of this applied will stop it; if it is a shoot, it must be cut from the ground. Mr. Nicholas Mercator, astronomer, told me that he had tried it with effect. Mr. G. W. says the stick must not be bound or holden; but dipped or wetted in the blood. When King James II. was at Salisbury, 1688, his nose bled near two days; and after many essays in vain, was stopped by this sympathetick ash, which Mr. William Nash, a surgeon in Salisbury, applied.
**Against an evil Tongue.
Take Unguentum populeum and Vervain, and Hypericon, and put a red hot iron into it; you must anoint the back bone, or wear it on your breast. This is printed in Mr. W. Lilly’s Astrology. Mr. H. C. hath tried this receipt with good success.
Vervain and dill,
Hinders witches from their will.
A house (or chamber) somewhere in London, was haunted; the curtains would be rashed at night, and awake the gentleman that lay there, who was musical, and a familiar acquaintance of Henry Lawes. Henry Lawes to be satisfied did lie with him; and the curtains were rashed so then. The gentleman grew lean and pale with the frights; one Dr. — cured the house of this disturbance, and Mr. Lawes said,that the principal ingredient was Hypericon put under his pillow.
In Herefordshire, and other parts, they do put a cold iron bar upon their barrels, to preserve their beer from being soured by thunder. This is a common practice in Kent.
To hinder the night mare, they hang in a string, a flint with a hole in it (naturally) by the manger; but best of all they say, hung about their necks, and a flint will do it that hath not a hole in it. It is to prevent the nightmare, viz. the hag, from riding their horses, who will sometimes sweat all night. The flint thus hung does hinder it.
Mr. Sp. told me that his horse which was bewitched, would break bridles and strong halters, like a Samson. They filled a bottle of the horse’s urine, stopped it with a cork and bound it fast in, and then buried it underground: and the party suspected to be the witch, fell ill, that he could not make water, of which he died. When they took up. the bottle, the urine was almost gone; so, that they did believe, that if the fellow could have lived a little longer, he had recovered.
It is a thing very common to nail horse-shoes on the thresholds of doors: which is to hinder the power of witches that enter into the house. Most houses of the West end of London, have the horse-shoe on the threshold. It should be a horse-shoe that one finds. In the Bermudas, they use to put an iron into the fire when a witch comes in. Mars is enemy to Saturn. There are very memorable stories of witches in Gage’s Survey of the West-Indies of his own Knowledge: which see.
At Paris when it begins to thunder and lighten, they do presently ring out the great bell at the Abbey of St. Germain, which they do believe makes it cease. The like was wont to be done heretofore in Wiltshire; when it thundered and lightened, they did ring St. Aldhelm’s bell, at Malmsbury Abbey. The curious do say, that the ringing of bells exceedingly disturbs spirits.
In the Golden Legend by W. de Worde. It is said the evill spirytes that ben in the regyon of th’ayre doubte moche whan they here the belles rongen. And this is the cause why the belles ben rongen whan it thondreth, and whan grete tempeste aud outrages of wether happen to the ende that the feudes and wycked spirytes shold be abasshed, and flee and cease of the movynge of tempeste. Fol. xxiv.
TRANSPORTATION BY AN
INVISIBLE POWER.
**A Letter from the Reverend Mr. Andrew Paschal, B.D. Rector of Chedzoy in Somersetshire, to John Aubrey, Esq. at Gresham College, London.
SIR,
I LAST week received a letter from a learned friend, the minister of Barnstable in Devon, which I think worthy your perusal. It was dated May 3, 1683, and is as follows. (He was of my time in Queen’s College, Cambridge.)
There having been many prodigious things performed lately in a parish adjoining to that which Bishop Sparrow presented me to, called Cheriton-Bishop, by some discontented daemon, I can easily remember, that I owe you an account thereof, in lieu of that which you desired of me, and which I could not serve you in.
About November last, in the parish of Spreyton in the county of Devon, there appeared in a field near the dwelling house of Philip Furze, to his servant Francis Pry, being of the age of twenty-one, next August, an aged gentleman with a pole in his hand, and like that he was wont to carry about with him when living, to kill moles withal, who told the young man he should not be afraid of him; but should tell his master, i. e. his son, that several legacies that he had bequeathed were unpaid, naming ten shillings to one, ten shillings to another, &c. Pry replied, that the party he last named was dead. The Spectrum replied, he knew that, but said it must be paid to (and named) the next relation. These things being performed, he promised he would trouble him no further. These small legacies were paid accordingly. But the young man having carried twenty shillings ordered by the Spectrum to his sister Mrs. Furze, of the parish of Staverton near Totness, which money the gentlewoman refused to receive, being sent her, as she said, from the Devil. The same night Fry lodging there, the Spectrum appeared to him again, whereupon Fry challenged his promise not to trouble him, and said he had done all he desired him; but that Mrs. Furze would not receive the money. The Spectrum replied, that is true indeed; but bid him ride to Totness and buy a ring of that value, and that she would take. Which was provided for her and received by her. Then Fry rode homewards attended by a servant of Mrs. Furze. But being come into Spreyton parish, or rather a little before, he seemed to carry an old gentlewoman behind him, that often threw him off his horse, and hurried him with such violence, as astonished all that saw him, or heard how horridly the ground was beaten; and being come into his master’s yard, Pry’s horse (a mean beast) sprung at once twenty-five feet. The trouble from the man- spectre ceased from this time. But the old gentlewoman, Mrs. Furze, Mr. Furze’s second wife, whom the Spectre at his first appearance to Fry, called, that wicked woman my wife, (though I knew her, and took her for a very good woman) presently after appears to several in the house, viz. to Fry, Mrs. Thomasin Gidley, Anne Langdon, born in my parish, and to a little child which was forced to be removed from the house; sometimes in her own shape, sometimes in shapes more horrid, as of a dog belching fire, and of a horse, and seeming to ride out of the window, carrying only one pane of glass away, and a little piece of iron. After this Fry’s head was thrust into a narrow space, where a man’s fist could not enter, between a bed and a wall; and forced to be taken thence by the strength of men, all bruised and bloody; upon this it was thought fit to bleed him; and after that was done, the binder was removed from his arm, and conveyed about his middle and presently was drawn so very straight, it had almost killed him, and was cut asunder, making an ugly uncouth noise. Several other times with handkerchiefs, cravats and other things he was near strangled, they were drawn so close upon his throat. He lay one night in his periwig (in his master’s chamber, for the more safety) which was torn all to pieces. His best periwig he inclosed in a little box on the inside with a joined-stool, and other weight upon it; the box was snapped asunder, and the wig torn all to flitters. His master saw his buckles fall all to pieces on his feet. But first I should have told you the fate of his shoe strings, one of which a gentlewoman greater than all exception, assured me, that she saw it come out of his shoe, without any visible hand, and fling itself to the farther end of the room; the other was coming out too, but that a maid prevented and helped it out, which crisped and curled about her hand like a living eel. The cloaths worn by Anne Langdon and Fry, (if their own) were torn to pieces on their backs. The same gentlewoman, being the daughter of the minister of the parish, Mr. Roger Specott, showed me one of Fry’s gloves, which was torn in his pocket while she was by. I did view it near and narrowly, and do seriously confess that it was torn so very accurately in all the seams and in other places, and laid abroad so artificially, and it is so dexterously tattered, (and all done in the pocket in a minute’s time) as nothing human could have done it; no cutler could have made an engine to do it so. Other fantastical freeks have been very frequent, as the marching of a great barrel full of salt out of one room into another; an andiron laying itself over a pan of milk that was scalding on the fire, and two flitches of bacon descending from the chimney where they hung, and laid themselves over that andiron. The appearing of the Spectrum (when in her own shape) in the same cloaths, to seeming, which Mrs. Furze her daughter-in-law has on. The intangling of Fry’s face and legs, about his neck, and about the frame of the chairs, so as they have been with great difficulty disengaged.
But the most remarkable of all happened in that day that I passed by the door in my return hither, which was Easter-eve, when Fry returning from work (that little he can do) he was caught by the woman spectre by the skirts of his doublet, and carried into the air; he was quickly missed by his master and the workmen, and a great enquiry was made for Francis Fry, but no hearing of him; but about half-an-hour after Fry was heard whistling and singing in a kind of a quagmire. He was now affected as he was wont to be in his fits, so that none regarded what he said; but coming to himself an hour after, he solemnly protested, that the daemon carried him so high that he saw his master’s house underneath him no bigger than a hay-cock, that he was in perfect sense, and prayed God not to suffer the Devil to destroy him; that he was suddenly set down in that quagmire. The workmen found one shoe on one side of the house, and the other shoe on the other side; his periwig was espied next morning hanging on the top of a tall tree. It was soon observed, that Fry’s part of his body that had laid in the mud, was much benumed, and therefore the next Saturday, which