tic Records, Attestation of Famous Witnesses, and undoubted
Verity,' but as, _inter alia_, he includes in them an account of the
'Strange Pranks plaid by the Devil at Woodstock in England, anno 1649,'
it is evident that he simply accepted without any investigation the
common hearsay, for it is well known that the Woodstock Devil was none
other than the Commissioners' clerk, Giles Sharp,[2] who played these
tricks upon his masters.

Modern investigation proceeding on scientific lines and by means of
actual experience and experiment, seems to provide an explanation--mental
and moral--for manifestations which our ancestors regarded as physical
and material.

One need only mention in this connection the writings of William James,
the psychologist, the proceedings of the Psychical Research Society, the
wonderful results of psycho-therapeusis dealing with the unconscious
self, the subliminal 'consciousness,' or as Captain Hadfield prefers to
call it, 'heightened personality' in his paper on this subject 'The Mind
and the Brain' in _Immortality_, to realise not only the greatness of
the advance in psychical knowledge, but also the vast new field of
investigation thus opened out to the student.

OTTERBURN TOWER
NORTHUMBERLAND
_April 1919_

[Footnote 1: _Demonology and Witchcraft._ Letter x.]

[Footnote 2: Readers of _Woodstock_ will remember Sir Walter Scott's
account of 'Joseph Collins, commonly called Funny Joe--who, under the
feigned name of Giles Sharp, hired himself as a servant to the
Commissioners.'

'The account of this by the Commissioners themselves, or under their
authority, was repeatedly published....'

It is amusing to note that 'this narrative gave equal satisfaction to
the Cavaliers and Roundheads: the former conceiving that the licence
given to the demons was in consequence of this impious desecration of
the King's furniture and apartments, so that the citizens of Woodstock,
almost adored the supposed spirits, as avengers of the cause of royalty;
while the friends of the Parliament, on the other hand, imputed to the
malice of the Fiend the obstruction of the pious work, as they judged
that which they had in hand.']

CONTENTS

PAGE

IN THE BLACKFRIARS WYND 1

BY PEDEN'S CLEUCH 23

'ILL-STEEKIT' EPHRAIM 31

THE COCK-CROW