ntleman of the neighbourhood. Being fond of sport, he
proposed to have a course, and a hare being started, he incited the
hounds to run. Neither of them would stir. Angry at the beasts, he
seized hold of a switch, with which he was about to punish them, when
one of them suddenly started up in the form of a woman, and the other,
of a little boy. He at once recognised the woman to be the witch Mother
Dickenson. She offered him some money to induce him to sell his soul to
the devil; but he refused. Upon this she took a bridle out of her
pocket, and, shaking it over the head of the other little boy, he was
instantly turned into a horse. Mother Dickenson then seized him in her
arms, sprang upon the horse; and, placing him before her, rode with the
swiftness of the wind over forests, fields, bogs, and rivers, until
they came to a large barn. The witch alighted at the door; and taking
him by the hand, led him inside. There he saw seven old women, pulling
at seven halters which hung from the roof. As they pulled, large pieces
of meat, lumps of butter, loaves of bread, basins of milk, hot
puddings, black puddings, and other rural dainties, fell from the
halters on to the floor. While engaged in this charm they made such
ugly faces, and looked so fiendish, that he was quite frightened. After
they had pulled, in this manner enough for an ample feast, they set-to,
and showed, whatever might be said of the way in which their supper was
procured, that their epicurism was a little more refined than that of
the Scottish witches, who, according to Gellie Duncan's confession,
feasted upon dead men's flesh in the old kirk of Berwick. The boy
added, that as soon as supper was ready, many other witches came to
partake of it, several of whom he named. In consequence of this story,
many persons were arrested, and the boy Robinson was led about from
church to church, in order that he might point out to the officers, by
whom he was accompanied, the hags he had seen in the barn. Altogether
about twenty persons were thrown into prison; eight of them were
condemned to die, including Mother Dickenson, upon this evidence alone,
and executed accordingly. Among the wretches who concocted this notable
story, not one was ever brought to justice for his perjury; and
Robinson, the father, gained considerable sums by threatening persons
who were rich enough to buy off exposure.

Among the ill weeds which flourished amid the long dissensions of the
civil