"

A narrative of not a little interest, concerning Sir John Holt, Lord
Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, 1709, should be given in
this connection. He was extremely wild in his youth, and being once
engaged with some of his rakish friends in a trip into the country, in
which they had spent all their money, it was agreed they should try
their fortune separately. Holt arrived at an inn at the end of a
straggling village, ordered his horse to be taken care of, bespoke a
supper and a bed. He then strolled into the kitchen, where he observed
a little girl of thirteen shaking with ague. Upon making inquiry
respecting her, the landlady told him that she was her only child, and
had been ill nearly a year, notwithstanding all the assistance she
could procure for her from physic. He gravely shook his head at the
doctors, bade her be under no further concern, for that her daughter
should never have another fit. He then wrote a few unintelligible
words in a court hand on a scrap of parchment, which had been the
direction fixed to a hamper, and rolling it up, directed that it
should be bound upon the girl's wrist and there allowed to remain
until she was well. The ague returned no more; and Holt, having
remained in the house a week, called for his bill. "God bless you,
sir," said the old woman, "you're nothing in my debt, I'm sure. I
wish, on the contrary, that I was able to pay you for the cure which
you have made of my daughter. Oh! if I had had the happiness to see
you ten months ago, it would have saved me forty pounds." With
pretended reluctance he accepted his accommodation as a recompense,
and rode away. Many years elapsed, Holt advanced in his profession of
the law, and went a circuit, as one of the judges of the Court of
King's Bench, into the same county, where, among other criminals
brought before him, was an old woman under a charge of witchcraft. To
support this accusation, several witnesses swore that the prisoner had
a spell with which she could either cure such cattle as were sick or
destroy those that were well, and that in the use of this spell she
had been lately detected, and that it was now ready to be produced in
court. Upon this statement the judge desired that it might be handed
up to him. It was a dirty ball, wrapped round with several rags, and
bound with packthread. These coverings he carefully removed, and
beneath them found a piece of parchment which he immediately
recognized as his own youthf