Miscellanies Upon Various Subjects Part 14

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 princ.i.p.al 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 aba.s.shed, and flee and cease of the movynge of tempeste. Fol. xxiv.

TRANSPORTATIONBYAN INVISIBLEPOWER.

**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 gla.s.s away, and a little piece of iron. After this Fry's head was thrust into a narrow s.p.a.ce, 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 b.l.o.o.d.y; 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, a.s.sured 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 pa.s.sed 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-c.o.c.k, that he was in perfect sense, and prayed G.o.d 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 Sat.u.r.day, which was the eve of Low-Sunday, they carried him to Crediton to be let blood; which being done, and the company having left him for a little while, returning they found him in a fit, with his forehead all bruised and swoln to a great bigness, none able to guess how it came, till he recovered himself, and then he told them, that a bird flew in at the window with a great force, and with a stone in its mouth flew directly against his forehead. The people looked for it, and found on the ground just under where he sat, not a stone, but a weight of bra.s.s or copper, which the people were breaking, and parting it among themselves. He was so very ill, that he could ride but one mile or little more that night, since which time I have not heard of him, save that he was ill handled the next day, being Sunday. Indeed Sir, you may wonder that I have not visited that house, and the poor afflicted people; especially, since I was so near, and pa.s.sed by the very door: but besides that, they have called to their a.s.sistance none but nonconforming ministers. I was not qualified to be welcome there, having given Mr. Furze a great deal of trouble the last year about a conventicle in his house, where one of this parish was the preacher.

But I am very well a.s.sured of the truth of what I have written, and (as more appears) you shall hear from me again.

I had forgot to tell you that Fry's mother came to me, grievously bewailing the miserable condition of her son. She told me, that the day before he had five pins thrust into his side. She asked; and I gave her the best advice I could. Particularly, that her son should declare all that the spectre, especially the woman gave him in charge, for I suspect, there is "aliquid latens"; and that she should remove him thence by all means. But I fear that she will not do it. For I hear that Anne Langdon is come into my parish to her mother, and that she is grievously troubled there. I might have written as much of her, as of Fry, for she had been as ill treated, saving the aerial journey.

Her fits and obsessions seem to be greater, for she screeches in a most h.e.l.lish tone. Thomasin Gidley (though removed) is in trouble I hear.

Sir, this is all my friend wrote. This letter came inclosed in another from a clergyman, my friend, who lives in those parts. He tells me all the relations he receives from divers persons living in Spreyton and the neighbouring parishes, agree with this. He spake with a gentleman of good fashion, that was at Crediton when Fry was blooded, and saw the stone that bruised his forehead; but he did not call it copper or bra.s.s, but said it was a strange mineral. That gentleman promised to make a strict inquiry on the place into all particulars, and to give him the result: which my friend also promises me; with hopes that he shall procure for me a piece of that mineral substance, which hurt his forehead.

The occasion of my friend's sending me this narrative, was my entreating him sometime since, to inquire into a thing of this nature, that happened in Barnstable, where he lives. An account was given to me long since, it fills a sheet or two, which I have by me: and to gratify Mr. Glanvil who is collecting histories for his "Sadducismus Triumphatus". I desired to have it well attested, it being full of very memorable things; but it seems he could meet only a general consent as to the truth of the things; the reports varying in the circ.u.mstances.

Sir, Yours.

**A Copy of a Letter from a learned Friend of mine in SCOTLAND, dated March 25, 1695.

HONOURED SIR,

I RECEIVED yours dated May 24th, 1694, in which you desire me to send you some instances and examples of Transportation by an Invisible Power. The true cause of my delaying so long, to reply to that letter, was not want of kindness; but of fit materials for such a reply.

As soon as I read your letter of May 24, I called to mind, a story which I heard long ago, concerning one of the Lord Duffus, (in the shire of Murray) his predicessors of whom it is reported, that upon a time, when he was walking abroad in the fields near to his own house, he was suddenly carried away, and found the next day at Paris in the French King's cellar, with a silver cup in his hand; that being brought into the King's presence and questioned by him, who he was ?

and how he came thither ? he told his name, his country, and the place of his residence, and that on such a day of the month (which proved to be the day immediately preceding) being in the fields, he heard the noise of a whirl-wind, and of voices crying Horse and Hattock, (this is the word which the fairies are said to use when they remove from any place) whereupon he cried (Horse and Hattock) also, and was immediately caught up, and transported through the air, by the fairies to that place, where after he had drank heartily he fell asleep, and before he awoke, the rest of the company were gone, and had left him in posture wherein he was found. It is said, the King gave him the cup which was found in his hand, and dismissed him.

This story (if it could be sufficiently attested) would be a n.o.ble instance for your purpose, for which cause I was at some pains to enquire into the truth of it, and found the means to get the present Lord Duffus's opinion thereof; which shortly is, that there has been, and is such a tradition, but that he thinks it fabulous; this account of it, his Lordship had from his father, who told him that he had it from his father, the present Lord's grandfather; there is yet an old silver cup in his Lordship's possession still, which is called the Fairy Cup; but has nothing engraven upon it, except the arms of the family.

The gentleman, by whose means I came to know the Lord Duffus's sentiment of the foregoing story, being tutor to his Lordship's eldest son, told me another little pa.s.sage of the same nature, whereof he was an eye witness. He reports, that when he was a boy at school in the town of Torres, yet not so young, but that he had years and capacity, both to observe and remember that which fell out; he and his school-fellows were upon a time whipping their tops in the church-yard before the door of the church; though the day was calm, they heard a noise of a wind, and at some distance saw the small dust begin to arise and turn round, which motion continued, advancing till it came to the place where they were; whereupon they began to bless themselves: but one of their number (being it seems a little more bold and confident than his companions) said, Horse and Hattock with my top, and immediately they all saw the top lifted up from the ground; but could not see what way it was carried, by reason of a cloud of dust which was raised at the same time: they sought for the top all about the place where it was taken up, but in vain; and it was found afterwards in the church-yard, on the other side of the church.

Mr. Steward (so is the gentleman called) declared to me that he had a perfect remembrance of this matter.

The following account I received, November last, from Mr. Alexander Mowat, a person of great integrity and judgment, who being minister at the church at Lesley, in the shire of Aberdene, was turned out for refusing the oath of test, anno 1681. He informs, that he heard the late Earl of Caithness, who was married to a daughter of the late Marquis of Argyle, tell the following story, viz. That upon a time, when a vessel which his Lordship kept for bringing home wine and other provisions for his house, was at sea; a common fellow, who was reputed to have the second-sight, being occasionally at his house; the Earl enquired of him, where his men (meaning those in the ship) were at that present time ? the fellow replied, at such a place, by name, within four hours sailing of the harbour, which was not far from the place of his Lordship's residence: the Earl asked, what evidence he could give for that ? the other replied, that he had lately been at the place, and had brought away with him one of the seamen's caps, which he delivered to his Lordship. At the four hours end, the Earl went down himself to the harbour, where he found the ship newly arrived, and in it one of the seamen without his cap; who being questioned, how he came to lose his cap ? answered, that at such a place (the same the second-sighted man had named before) there arose a whirl-wind which endangered the ship, and carried away his cap: the Earl asked, if he would know his cap when he saw it ? he said he would; whereupon the Earl produced the cap, and the seaman owned it for that, which was taken from him.

This is all the information which I can give at present concerning Transportation by an Invisible Power. I am sorry that I am able to contribute so little to the publishing of so curious a piece as it seems your collection of Hermetick Philosophy will be. I have given instructions to an acquaintance of mine now living at Kirkwall, and took him engaged when he left this place, to inform him concerning the old stone monuments, the plants and cures in the Orcades, and to send me an account. But I have not heard from him as yet, though I caused a friend that was writing to him, to put him in mind of his promise; the occasions of correspondence betwixt this place and Orkney are very rare.

SIR, Your faithful affectionate friend And servant, J. G.

SIR,

'Tis very likely my Lord Keeper, [North] (if an account of a thing so considerable, hath not been presented to him by another hand) will take it kindly from you. I would transcribe it for Dr. Henry More, to whom, as I remember, I promised some time since an account of the Barnstable apparition; but my hands are full of work. May I beg of you to visit Dr. Whitchcot, minister of St. Laurence church, and to communicate a sight of this letter from Barnstable: probably he will be willing to make his servant transcribe it, and to convey it to Dr.

More. Pray present my humble service to him, as also my affectionate service to our friends Mr. Hook and Mr. Lodwick. I ever rest, SIR,

Your most faithful And affectionate servant,

Chedzoy. ANDREW PASCHAL.

THERE was in Scotland one --- (an obsessus) carried in the air several times in the view of several persons, his fellow-soldiers. Major Henton hath seen him carried away from the guard in Scotland, sometimes a mile or two. Sundry persons are living now, (1671) that can attest this story. I had it from Sir Robert Harley (the son) who married Major Henton's widow; as also from E. T. D. D.

A gentleman of my acquaintance, Mr. M. was in Portugal, anno 1655, when one was burnt by the inquisition for being brought thither from Goa, in East-India, in the air, in an incredible short time.

VISIONS IN A BERYL OR CRYSTAL.

BERYL is a kind of Crystal that hath a weal tincture of red; it is one of the twelve stones mentioned in the Revelation. I have heard,* that spectacles were first made of this stone, which is the reason that the Germans do call a spectacle-gla.s.s (or pair of spectacles) a Brill.

*Dr J. Pell

Dr. Poc.o.c.k of Oxford, in his Commentary on Hosea, hath a learned discourse of the Urim and Thummim; as also Dr. Spenser of Cambridge.

That the priest had his visions in the stone of the breast plate.

The Prophets had their seers, viz. young youths who were to behold those visions, of whom Mr. Abraham Cowley writes thus.

With hasty wings, time present they out-fly, And tread the doubtful maze of destiny; There walk and sport among the years to come, And with quick eye pierce every causes womb.

The magicians now use a crystal sphere, or mineral pearl, as No. 3, for this purpose, which is inspected by a boy, or sometimes by the querent himself.