hares, in
order to vex the squires, justices, and country parsons, who were fond
of hunting, as the old dames could elude the speed of the swiftest
dogs. An old writer states "that never hunters nor their dogs may be
bewitched, they cleave an oaken branch, and both they and their dogs
pass over it." Mary Dore, a witch of Beaulieu, Hampshire, used to turn
herself into a hare in order to escape detection when caught in the act
of wood-stealing, to which she was somewhat addicted.

Old women were rather harshly used in the days when people believed in
the power of witches. If any farmer's cattle died, it was immediately
concluded that the animals were bewitched; and some wretched old woman
was singled out, and summarily tried and burnt. If anyone fell ill,
some "witch" had evidently a waxen image of the sufferer, and stuck
needles into it; and such was the power of the witch that, wherever the
person was, he felt the stab of the cruel needle. Hence the witch had
to be found and burnt. If the corn crops failed, was not witchcraft the
cause? for had not old Mother Maggs been heard to threaten Farmer
Giles, and had not her black cat been seen running over his fields?
Even good Bishop Jewel did not disbelieve in the power of the evil eye.
In preaching before Queen Elizabeth he said: "It may please Your Grace
to understand that witches and sorcerers are marvellously increased
within Your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine away even unto
the death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is
benumbed, their senses are bereft. I pray God they never practise
further than on the subject." To so great an extent did faith in the
witches' fatal power prevail. Our forefathers used to believe in the
existence of other, and more pleasant little companions than the old
toothless witches--the bright little fairies who, on account of the
neglect which they have received from the present generation of
Englishmen, have, so it is reported, left our shores in disgust, never
to return. The previous inhabitants of our villages did not so treat
them; and did not the fairies always bring them luck? They nailed the
horseshoe to the stable door to keep out the witches, lest the old
beldams should ride their steeds by night to the witches' revels; but
no one wished to exclude the fairies. Did not the dairymaids find the
butter ready churned, and the cows milked by these kind assistants? Was
there not an old lady in Yorkshire who k