he knew whether or not women were witches
by their looks, but when the said person was
searching a personable and well-favoured
woman the Colonel replied and said, "Surely
this woman is none, and need not be tried."
But the Scot said, "Yea, she was, for the
town said she was, and therefore he would
try her." Presently afterwards he ran a pin
into her and set her aside as a child of Satan.
Colonel Hobson proved on the spot that the
man was deceived grossly, whereupon the
witch-finder cleared the woman and said she
was not a child of Satan. Nineteen women
were ordered to be burnt at Newcastle upon
the conviction of this man, who then went
into Northumberland, where he tried witches
at three pounds a-head. It is poor consolation
to be told that this ruffian himself died
on the gallows, when it has to be added that
he confessed himself to have caused the death
of two hundred and twenty women in
England and Scotland, and, taking them all round,
to have earned about a pound upon each
job.

Of the trial of witches by water, every one
has heard. A scene like the following used
in fact to be one of the incidents of ordinary
life in English villages, and was not
altogether rare when this letter was written, a
hundred and eighteen years since, to the
London Magazine:

                 "Oakley, three miles from Bedford.

"SIR,—The people here are so prejudiced in the
belief of witches that you would think yourself in
Lapland, was you to hear their ridiculous stories.
There is not a village in the neighbourhood but has
two or three. About a week ago I was present at the
ceremony of ducking a witch, a particular account of
which may not perhaps be disagreeable to you.

"An old woman of about 60 years of age had
long lain under an imputation of witchcraft, who being
anxious for her own sake and her children to clear
herself, consented to be ducked; and the parish officers
promised her a quince if she should sink. The place
appointed was by the river Ouse, by a mill. There
were, I believe, 500 spectators. About 11 o'clock in
the forenoon the woman came, and was tied up in a
wet sheet, all but her face and hands; her toes were
tied close together, as were also her thumbs, and her
hands tied to the small of her legs. They fastened a
rope about her middle, and then pulled off her cap to
search for pins (for their notion is, if they have but
one pin in them, they won't sink).

"When all preliminaries were settled, she was
thrown in. But, unhappily for the poor creature, she
floated, though her head was all the while under
water. Upon this there was a confused cry: A witch!
a witch! Drown her! Hang her! She was in the
water about a minute and a half, and was then taken
out, half-drowned. When she had recovered breath,
she was tried twice more, but with the same success;
for she floated each time, which was a plain demonstration
of guilt to the ignorant multitude! For, notwithstanding
the poor creature was laid down upon the
grass speechless and almost dead, they were so far from
showing any pity or compassion, that they strove who
should be the most forward in loading her with
reproaches—such is the dire effect of popular prejudices!
For my part, I stood against the torrent; and when I
had cut the strings which tied her; had her carried
back to the mill, and endeavoured to convince the
people of the uncertainty of the experiment, and
offered to lay five to one that any woman of her age,
so tied up in a loose sheet, would float; but all to no
purpose, for I was very near being mob'd. Some time
after the woman came out, and one of the company
happened to mention another experiment to try a
witch—which was to weigh her against the Church
Bible; for a witch, it seems could not outweigh it.
I immediately seconded the motion (as thinking it
might be of service to the poor woman), and made use
of an argument which (though as weak as K. James'*
for their not sinking) had some weight with the
people; for I told them that if she was a witch, she
certainly dealt with the devil, and as the Bible was
undoubtedly the word of God, it must weigh more
than all the works of the devil. This seemed reasonable
to several, and those that did not think so, could
not answer it. At last the question was carried, and
she was weighed against the Bible, which weighed
about 12 pounds. She outweighed it. This convinced
some and staggered others; but the parson, who
believed through thick and thin, went away fully assured
that she was a witch, and endeavoured to inculcate
that belief in all others. I am, &c. &c."

* K. James' argument why witches would not sink, was
this: they had renounced their baptism by water, and
therefore the water would not receive them.

A hundred years ago, three men were tried
at Hertford for the murder of Ruth Osburn,
who was suspected as a witch. The
overseers of the parish, wishing to save the
woman (who was seventy years of age), from
threatened danger, removed her and her
husband to the workhouse. A body of about
five thousand people, however, assembled at
Tring, and behaved with so much violence
that the authorities were at length obliged
to give up the victim. The poor woman
was so much ill-treated by the ignorant
mob in their experiments to prove whether
she was a witch, that she died shortly
after.

It is not fifty years, since Mr. Nicholson,
the incumbent of Great Paxton in Huntingdonshire,
preached against the belief in witchcraft
to his ignorant parishioners, and told
them some of his experience. A poor woman,
the mother of eight children, persecuted as a
witch, had gone to him weeping, protesting
innocence, and asking leave to prove
it by being weighed against the pulpit
Bible. Mr. Nicholson then expostulated
with his people in the church, but to no
purpose, for soon afterwards their
violence increased. At St. Noet's market,
a woman coming home in the waggon, was
about to put her parcel of grocery on the
top of some corn-sacks, and was advised
by Anne Izzard, a neighbour, not to do so;
she did it, nevertheless, and on the way
home, by some accident, the waggon was
upset. This set the whole village in an uproar,
and on the following Sunday night, its
inhabitants went in a mass to the unhappy
woman's cottage, dragged her naked from her
bed, dashed her head against the stones of