Tell thou the lamentable fall of me,
And send the hearers weeping to their beds.
HARD FROSTS IN ENGLAND
In the year
A French writer who visited England during the severe frost in the year 1688, says, (in a small volume which he published in Paris,) "that besides hackney-coaches, a large sledge, or sledges, were then exhibited on the frozen Thames, and that King Charles passed a whole night upon the ice."
The following extract is also an account of this frost by an eye-witness; which may be seen in the Beauties of England and Wales, vol. x. page 83: he says, "On the 20th of December, 1688, a very violent frost began, which lasted to the 6th of February, in so great extremity, that the pools were frozen 18 inches thick at least, and the Thames was so frozen that a great street from the Temple to Southwark was built with shops, and all manner of things sold. Hackney coaches plied there as in the streets. There were also bull-baiting, and a great many shows and tricks to be seen. This day the frost broke up. In the morning I saw a coach and six horses driven from Whitehall almost to the bridge (London Bridge) yet by three o'clock that day, February the 6th, next to Southwark the ice was gone, so as boats did row to and fro, and the next day all the frost was gone. On Candlemas Day I went to Croydon market, and led my horse over the ice to the Horseferry from Westminster to Lambeth; as I came back I led him from Lambeth upon the middle of the Thames to Whitefriars' stairs, and so led him up by them. And this day an ox was roasted whole, over against Whitehall. King Charles and the Queen ate part of it."
N.B. In 1740, a palace of ice was built by the Empress Anne of Russia, on the banks of the Neva, 52 feet long, which, when illuminated, had a surprising effect.
TURKISH PROPHECY
The following is extracted from a book of Prophecies, called Muhamedys, which is held in veneration by the Turks:—"The Turkish emperor shall conquer Rome, and make the pope patriarch of Jerusalem; and he shall, some time after, profess the Mahomedan faith. Christ shall then come, and show the Christians their error in not having accepted the Alcoran; and instruct them that the dove which came down from heaven was not the Holy Ghost, but was Mahomet, who shall be again upon earth thirty years, and confirm the Alcoran by new miracles. After that time the power of the Turks shall decline, till they retire into Desert Arabia, and then there shall be an end of the world. Their overthrow shall be accomplished by a people from the north, called caumico fer, (yellow-haired sons.) The ruin of Constantinople shall happen in sultan Mahomet's time; and then the Turks shall be reduced to so few in number, that sixty Turkish women shall have but one husband among them."
POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS, &c
We have formerly alluded to the well-known feats of the weird sisterhood on the broomstick; but it is affirmed that on these occasions the spirit left its earthly abode, the body being previously anointed with the ointment we have described. We cannot better illustrate this question (the possibility of which has been the subject-matter of many grave dissertations amongst the literati of those times) than by giving the substance of the following singular "Confession," which with many others equally interesting, was made in 1664, (the later days of the profession) before Robert Hunt, Esq., a "justice with fat capon lined," in the county of Somerset, and in the presence of "several grave and orthodox divines."
Elizabeth Styles, of Stoke Triston, in that county, was accused by "divers persons of credit," of the crimes of witchcraft and sorcery. She was afterwards found guilty by a jury at Taunton, but died before the sentence could be carried into effect. She confessed "that the devil, about ten years since, appeared to her in the shape of a handsome man, and after of a black dog; that he promised her money, and that she should live gallantly, and have the pleasure of the world for twelve years, if she would, with her blood, sign his paper, which was to give her soul to him, and observe his laws, and that he might suck her blood. This, after four solicitations, the examinant promised to do; upon which he pricked the fourth finger of her right hand, between the middle and upper joints, (where the sign at the examination remained), and with a drop or two of her blood, she signed the paper with an O. Upon this the devil gave her sixpence, and vanished with the paper. That since he hath appeared to her in the shape of a man, and did so on Wednesday sevennight past, but more usually he appears in the likeness of a dog, and cat, and a fly like a miller, in which last he usually sucks in the poll, about four of the clock in the morning, and did so January 27, and that it usually is pain to her to be so suckt." When she desired to do harm, she called Robin; on his appearance she opened her wants, saying, O Satan, give me my purpose.
That a short time before, she and other witches had met a "gentleman in black" in a field, about nine o'clock at night, to devise torments for one Elizabeth Hill, who had come under their ban; they brought a waxen image of her, and the "man in black" took and anointed it, saying, I baptize thee with this oyl; and using other words. "He was godfather, and the examinant and Ann Bishop were godmothers." They called it Elizabeth; and the black man and weird sisters stuck thorns into various parts of the luckless image. "After which, they had wine, cakes, and roast meat, (provided by the gentleman in black,) which they did eat and drink; and they danced and were very merry," &c. Many of these unhallowed meetings took place afterwards, and their entertainer, the gentleman in black—man or devil—seems to have been a regular gourmand, "and never failed to bring with him abundance of excellent cheer." The customary bill of fare was "wine, good ale, cakes, meat, or the like." The spirit was, also, rather musical, for he "sometimes played sweetly on the pipe or cittern," the ladies keeping time with a dance, (we fear narrowly approaching the modern waltz.) On the whole they seem to have had joyous doings of it, and wonder ceases that the demon gained so many proselytes amongst the old women. These nocturnal meetings were generally held for a similar purpose with the foregoing; and it appears from the confession before us, that they were conveyed to them by supernatural means—by that simplest, though despised engine of loco—(or to coin a a word) aëro-motion—a broomstick. They were obliged to anoint themselves on these occasions "with an oyl the spirit brought them;" and they were soon transported to the place of appointment, using these words in their transit, "Thout, tout, a tout tout, throughout and about!" and on their return they say "Rentum, tormentum!" Such is the information conveyed in the confession of Elizabeth Styles, before these "grave and orthodox divines!"
They were also gifted by the "gentleman in black" with various other wonderful powers and attributes. They could transform themselves into the likeness of any animal in the creation, and therefore the better execute their schemes of devilry; but, it appears, that they always wanted that essential part—the tail; and there was a trial gravely reported by a Lancashire jury, that a soldier having been set to watch a mill from the depredations of some cats, skilfully whipped off the leg of the largest, which lo! the next morning, was changed into the arm of an old witch (who had long been suspected) in the neighbourhood! This useful faculty of transformation also extended, in some measure, to the persons of others; for Dr. Bulwer gives the following easy recipe for "setting a horse or ass' head" on a man's neck and shoulders:3—"Cut off the head of a horse or an ass (before they be dead, otherwise the virtue or strength thereof will be less effectual,) and take an earthen vessel of a fit capacity to contain the same. Let it be filled with the oyl or fat thereof; cover it close, and daub it over with loam. Let it boil over a soft fire for three dayes, that the flesh boiled may run into oyl, so as the bones may be seen. Beat the hair into powder, and mingle the same with the oyl, and anoint the heads of the standers by, and they shall seem to have horses or asses' heads! If beasts' heads be anointed with the like oyl made of a man's head, (we suppose cut off while the said man was 'alive!') they shall seem to have men's faces, as divers authors soberly affirm!"
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