eston, might be her death warrant in those days, when it
was penal for a woman to be old, helpless, ugly, and poor. She was not
so fortunate as the females tried at York, nine years afterwards, for
bewitching the children of Edward Fairfax, of Fuyston, in the forest
of Knaresborough, to whom we owe the only English translation of Tasso
worthy of the name. These females, six in number, were indicted at two
successive assizes, and every effort was made by the

"Prevailing poet! whose undoubting mind
Believed the magic wonders which he sung,"

to procure their conviction. Never was a more unequal contest. On the
one side was a relentless antagonist, armed with wealth, influence,
learning, and accomplishments, and whose family connections gave him
an unlimited power in the county; and on the other, six helpless
persons, whose sex, age, and poverty were almost sufficient for their
condemnation, without any evidence at all. Yet, owing to the
magnanimous firmness of the judge, whose name, deserving of immortal
honour, I regret has not been preserved, these efforts were
frustrated, and the women accused delivered from the gulph which
yawned before them. The disappointment he experienced in this
instance, in being defrauded, as he thought, of a conviction for
which he had strained every nerve and sinew, and in not being allowed
to render the forest of Knaresborough as famous as that of Pendle,
cast a gloom of despondency over the remaining days of this admirable
poet, who has left a narration of the whole transaction, of most
singular interest and curiosity, yet unpublished. The MSS. now in my
possession, and which came from Mr. Bright's collection, consists of
seventy-eight closely-written folio pages. It is entitled "A Discourse
of Witchcraft, as it was enacted in the family of Mr. Edward Fairfax,
of Fuystone, coun. Ebor, 1621." From page 78 to 144 are a series of
ninety-three most extraordinary and spirited sketches, made with the
pen, of the witches, devils, monsters, and apparitions referred to in
the narrative.

Y 2 _a_. "_Master Heyber._"] This was Thomas Hayber, or Heber, of
Marton, in Craven, Esquire, who was buried at Marton, 7th February,
1633. He was the ancestor of Bishop Reginald Heber and the late
Richard Heber, Esq.

Y 3 _a_. "_The said Iennet Preston comming to touch the dead corpes,
they bled fresh bloud presently._"] On the popular superstition of
touching the corpse of a murdered person, as an or