Dr. Borlase, in his Antiquities of Cornwall, notices the existence of Druidical Rock Basins, which appear to have been scooped out of the granite rocks and boulders which lie on the tops of the hills in the county. Several such cavities in stones are found on Brimham Rocks, near Knaresborough, and they have also been found at Plumpton and Rigton, in Yorkshire,[75] and on Stanton Moor, in Derbyshire. The writer first drew attention to the fact of similar Druidical remains existing in Lancashire in a paper read before the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, in December, 1864. They are found in considerable numbers around Boulsworth, Gorple, Todmorden, and on the hills which separate Lancashire from Yorkshire between these places. Commencing the enumeration of the groups of boulders, &c., containing rock basins, with the slopes of Boulsworth, about seven miles from Burnley, we have first the Standing Stones, mostly single blocks of millstone grit, at short distances from each other on the north-western side of the hill. One is locally termed the Buttock Stone, and near it is a block which has a circular cavity scooped out on its flat upper surface. Not far from these are the Joiner Stones, the Abbot Stone, the Weather Stones, and the Law Lad Stones [? from llad, British, sacrifices]. Next come the Great and Little Saucer Stones, so named from the cavities scooped out upon them. The Little Chair Stones, the Fox Stones, and the Broad Head Stones lie at no great distance, each group containing numerous like cavities. Several of these groups are locally named from resemblance to animals or other objects, as the Grey Stones and the Steeple Stones on Barn Hill, and one spur of Boulsworth is called Wycoller Ark, as resembling a farmer's chest or ark. On Warcock Hill several groups of natural rocks and boulders are locally named Dave or Dew Stones. On the surface of one immense Dave Stone boulder is a perfect hemispherical cavity, ten inches in diameter. The surface of another contains an oblong basin of larger dimensions, with a long grooved channel leading from its curved contour towards the edge of the stone. On a third there are four circular cavities of varying dimensions, the largest in the centre, and three others surrounding it, but none of these is more than a few inches in diameter. At the Bride Stones, near Todmorden, thirteen cavities were counted on one block, and eleven on another. All the basins here and elsewhere are formed on the flat surfaces of the blocks; their upper surfaces being always parallel to the lamination of the stone. Along Widdop Moor we find the Grey Stones, the Fold Hole Stones, the Clattering Stones, and the Rigging Stones; the last named from occupying the rig or ridge of the hills in this locality. Amongst the Bride Stones is an immense mass of rock which might almost be classed among the rocking stones. It is about twenty-five feet in height, at least twelve feet across its broadest part, and rests on a base only about two feet in diameter. The Todmorden group contains the Hawk Stones, on Stansfield Moor, not far from Stiperden Cross, on the line of the Long Causeway (a Roman road); the Bride Stones, near Windy Harbour; the Chisley Stones, near Keelham; and Hoar Law, not far from Ashenhurst Royd and Todmorden. The rock basins on these boulders are very numerous, and of all sizes, from a few inches in diameter and depth to upwards of two feet. The elliptical axes of some of these basins did not appear to the writer to have been caused by the action of wind or water, or to follow any regular law. Lastly, taking for a centre, Gorple,[76] about five miles south-east of Burnley is another extensive group of naked rocks and boulders. Close to the solitary farm-house there are the Gorple Stones; and at a short distance the Hanging Stones form conspicuous objects in the sombre landscape. On Thistleden Dean are the Upper, Middle, and Lower Whinberry Stones, so named from the "whinberry" shrubs, with which this moor abounds. The Higher and Lower Boggart Stones come next, and these are followed by the Wicken Clough, and other minor groups of stones. Above Gorple Bottom is another set of grey stones; and these are followed by the Upper, Middle, and Lower Hanging Stones, on Shuttleworth Moor.[77] The rock basins here are very numerous, and mostly well defined. There are forty-three cavities in these Gorple, Gorple Gate, and Hanging Stones, ranging from four to forty inches in length, from four to twenty-five in breadth, and from two to thirteen inches in depth.

Dr. Borlase confidently asserts that the ancient Druids used these rock basins for baptismal and sacrificial purposes—a conjecture which the authors of the Beauties of Derbyshire admit to be probable; and so does Higgins in his elaborate work on the Celtic Druids. The supposition is supported by the fact of their occurring in such numbers mostly on the tops of hills, in so many counties, and in such different materials as the granite and the millstone-grit formations.[78] Whether they have been formed by natural or artificial means is still a matter of dispute. On the whole the writer's opinion is, that the rock basins of Scilly, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and East Lancashire are partly natural, and partly artificial; the former being comparatively few, and easily distinguished by their varying depths and forms.[79] Whether wholly or partially natural or artificial, he thinks it safe to conclude that they have been appropriated by the Druids to their religious worship, as furnishing the means by which they could offer their sacrifices and perform their ablutions. They would also suffice for baptism, and preserve the rain or the dew from being polluted by touching the earth. The Tolmen on the neighbouring hills[80] may be taken as an additional reason for associating Druidical worship with such remains. These contain small basins on the summits, which differ in no respect from those here enumerated. They have, therefore, most probably been used for similar purposes. Those above described form a curious chapter in the oldest folk-lore of Lancashire.

ELVES AND FAIRIES.

"Like elves and fairies in a ring."—Macbeth.

England has ever been full of the favourite haunts of those pleasantest of all the supernatural sprites of childhood and superstition—elves and fairies. Volumes might be filled with the stories of their feats and pranks in all parts of England; and our greatest poet has for ever embalmed this superstition in the richest hues of poetic imagery and fancy—especially in his Midsummer Night's Dream. The Fairies, or "Hill Folk," yet live amongst the rural people of Lancashire. Antique tobacco-pipes, "formerly belonging to the fairies," are still occasionally found in the corners of newly-ploughed fields. They themselves still gambol on the grassy meads at dewy eve, and their revels are yet believed to be witnessed at times by some privileged inhabitants of our "calm sequestered vales." It is generally stated that, in order to see one of these diminutive beings, the use of ointments, four-leaved clover, or other specific preparations, is necessary; but a near relative of the writer, not more imbued with superstition than the majority, firmly believed that he once saw a real dwarf or fairy, without the use of any incantation. He had been amusing himself one summer evening on the top of Mellor Moor, near Blackburn, close to the remains of the Roman encampment, when his attention was arrested by the appearance of a dwarf-like man, attired in full hunting costume, with top-boots and spurs, a green jacket, red hairy cap, and a thick hunting whip in his hand. He ran briskly along the moor for a considerable distance, when, leaping over a low stone wall, he darted down a steep declivity, and was lost to sight. The popular opinion of the neighbourhood is, that an underground city exists at this place; that an earthquake swallowed up the encampment, and that on certain days in the year the hill folk may be heard ringing their bells, and indulging in various festivities. Considerable quantities of stone, which still remain around the ditches of this rectangular place, may have suggested the ideas of a city and an earthquake. On other occasions the fairies are supposed to exhibit themselves in military array on the mountain sides; their evolutions conforming in every respect to the movements of modern troops. Such appearances are believed to portend the approach of civil commotions, and are said to have been more than usually common about the time of the rebellion in 1745-6. This would suggest an explanation of a more rational character. [Doubtless the mirage, Fata Morgana, or Spectral appearances of the Hartz mountains.]

One Lancashire Fairy tale runs thus:—

Two men went poaching, and having placed nets, or rather sacks, over what they supposed to be rabbit holes, but which were in reality fairies' houses, the fairies rushed into the sacks, and the poachers (believing them to be rabbits), content with their prey, marched homewards again. One fairy missing another in the sack, called out (the story was told in the broad Lancashire dialect)—"Dick" (dignified name for a fairy), "where art thou?" To which fairy Dick replied,—

The story has a good moral ending; for the men were so frightened that they never poached again.[81]

The Rev. William Thornber[82] characterizes the elves and fairies as kind, good-natured creatures, at times seeking the assistance of mortals, and in return, liberally rewarding them. They have a favourite spot between Hardhorn and Staining, at a cold spring of water called "Fairies' Well" to this day. Most amusing stories of fairies are told around that district. A poor woman, when filling her pitcher at the well just named, in order to bathe the weak eyes of her infant child, was mildly accosted by a handsome man, who presented her with a box of ointment, and told her it would be a specific remedy. She was grateful for the gift, but love for her child made her somewhat mistrustful; so she first applied the ointment to one of her own eyes. Shortly afterwards, she saw her benefactor at Preston, stealing corn from the mouths of the sacks open for sale, and, much to his amazement, accosted him. On his inquiry how she could recognise him, since he was invisible to all else around, she told him how she had used his ointment, and pointed to the powerful eye; when he immediately struck it out. A milkmaid, observing a jug and a sixpence placed at her side by some invisible being, filled the jug with milk, and took the money; this was repeated for weeks, till, overjoyed with her good fortune, she could not refrain from imparting it to her lover; but the jug and sixpence never appeared again. A ploughman when engaged in his daily labour, heard a plaintive cry, "I have broken my speet."[83] Hastily turning round, the ploughman beheld a lady, holding in her hand a broken spittle, a hammer, and nails, and beckoning him to repair it. He did so, and instantly received a handsome reward; and then the lady vanished, apparently sinking into the earth.

FOLK-LORE.

Under this general head we bring together a few scattered notices not naturally falling under any precise classification, but all showing the nature and character of common and popular notions, beliefs, and superstitions. Where, however, the subject will admit of it, many examples of this Folk-lore will be found in later pages, under the general head of "Superstitions."

FOLK-LORE OF ECCLES AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.

A very curious book exhibits some of the usages of our ancestors in this part of the county, early in the reign of James I., entitled The Way to the True Church ... directed to all that seek for Resolution; and especially to all his loving Countrymen of Lancashire, by John White, Minister of God's Word at Eccles. [White was vicar of Eccles only a few months—from May, 1609.] The fifth edition or "impression" is a folio, printed at London, 1624, but the Preface is dated Oct. 29th, 1608. White complains of "the prodigious ignorance" which he found among his parishioners when he entered upon his ministrations, and he proceeds thus to tell his own tale:—"I will only mention what I saw and learned, dwelling among them, concerning the saying of their prayers; for what man is he whose heart trembles not to simple people so far seduced [or so ill-taught] that they know not how to pronounce or say their daily prayers; or so to pray that all that hear them shall be filled with laughter? And while, superstitiously, they refuse to pray in their own language with understanding, they speak that which their leaders [Roman Catholic priests] may blush to hear. These examples I have observed from the common people:

"'The Creed.

"'Creezum zuum patrum onitentem Creatorum ejus anicum, Dominum nostrum qui sum sops, virgini MariÆ, crixus fixus, Ponchi Pilati audubitiers, morti by Sonday, father a fernes, scelerest unjudicarum, finis a mortibus. Creezum spirituum sanctum, eccli Catholi, remissurum peccaturum, communiorum obliviorum, bitam et turnam again.'

"'The Little Creed.

"This that followeth they call—

"'The White Paternoster.

"'Another Prayer.

"Many also use to wear vervain against blasts; and, when they gather it for this purpose, first they cross the herb with their hand, and then they bless it thus:—

"And so they pluck it up and wear it. Their prayers and traditions of this sort are infinite, and the ceremonies they use in their actions are nothing inferior to the Gentiles in number and strangeness. Which any man may easily observe that converseth with them."[84]

TREE BARNACLES; OR, GEESE HATCHED FROM SEA-SHELLS.

The learned and venerable John Gerarde, author or translator of A History of Plants, or Herball; first published in folio in 1597, has the following marvellous story respecting barnacle-shells growing on trees, and giving birth to young geese; not as a thing which some wonder-monger had related to him, but as what he had seen with his own eyes, and the truth of which he could, therefore, and does, most solemnly avouch.

"There are found in the north parts of Scotland, and the isles adjacent called Orcades, certain trees, whereon do grow certain shell-fishes, of a white colour, tending to russet; wherein are contained little living creatures; which shells in time of maturity do open, and out of them grow those little living things; which, falling into the water, do become fowls, whom we call barnacles, in the North of England brant geese, and in Lancashire tree geese; but the others that do fall upon the land perish and do come to nothing. Thus much by the writings of others, and also from the mouths of people of those parts, which may very well accord with truth. But what our eyes have seen and hands have touched, we shall declare. There is a small island in Lancashire called The Pile of Foulders [or Peel of Fouldrey] wherein are found the broken pieces of old and bruised ships, some whereof have been cast thither by shipwreck, and also the trunks or bodies, with the branches, of old rotten trees, cast up there likewise; whereon is found a certain spume or froth, that in time breedeth unto certain shells, in shape like those of the mussel, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour; wherein is contained a thing in form like a lace of silk, finely woven as it were together, as of a whitish colour, one end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the shell, even as the fish of oysters and mussels are. The other end is made fast unto the belly of a rude masse or lump, which in time cometh to the shape and form of a bird; when it is perfectly formed the shell gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the foresaid lace or string; next come the legs of the bird hanging out; and as it groweth greater it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it is all come forth and hangeth only by the bill. In short space after it cometh to full maturity and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers and groweth to a fowl, bigger than a mallard and lesser than a goose; and black legs and bill, or beak, and feathers black and white, spotted in such a manner as is our magpie (called in some places a pie-annet), which [not the magpie, but the barnacle-hatched fowl] the people of Lancashire call by no other name than a tree goose; which place aforesaid, and all those parts adjoining, do so much abound therewith, that one of the best is bought for 3d.; For the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please them to repair to me, and I shall satisfy them by the testimony of good witnesses(!).... They spawn as it were in March and April; the geese are formed in May and June, and come to fulness of feathers in the month after." "There is another sort hereof, the history of which is true, and of mine own knowledge; for travelling upon the shores of our English coast between Dover and Romney, I found the trunk of an old rotten tree, which (with some help that I procured by fishermen's wives, that were there attending their husbands' return from the sea) we drew out of the water upon dry land. On this rotten tree I found growing many thousands of long crimson bladders, in shape like unto puddings newly filled, before they be sodden, which were very clear and shining; at the nether end whereof did grow a shell-fish, fashioned somewhat like a small mussel, but much whiter, resembling a shell-fish that groweth upon the rocks about Guernsey and Jersey, called a limpet. Many of these shells I brought with me to London, which, after I had opened, I found in them living things, without form or shape; in others, which were nearer come to ripeness, I found living things that were very naked, in shape like a bird; in others, the birds covered with soft down, the shell half open, and the bird ready to fall out, which no doubt were the fowls called barnacles.... That which I have seen with my eyes and handled with my hands, I dare confidently avouch and boldly put down for verity.... We conclude and end our present volume with this wonder of God. For which God's name be ever honoured and praised." This author figures the Britannica ConchÆ Anatifera, or the breed of barnacles; the woodcut representing a tree growing by the sea, with leaves like mussel shells, opening, and living creatures emerging; while others, swimming about in the sea beneath, are perfect goslings! Well may the old herbalist call this "one of the marvels of this land; we may say of the world." Dr. Charles Leigh, in his Natural History of Lancashire, gravely labours to refute the notion that barnacles grow into geese, as had been asserted by Speed and others.

Sir J. Emerson Tennent, writing in Notes and Queries (vol. viii. p. 223), referring to Porta's Natural Magic for the vulgar error that not only in Scotland, but in the river Thames, "there is a kind of shell-fish which get out of their shells and grow to be ducks, or such-like birds," observes that this tradition is very ancient, Porta, the author, having died in 1515. In Hudibras is an allusion to those—

The story (says Sir James) has its origin in the peculiar formation of the little mollusc which inhabits the multivalve shell, the Pentalasmi Anatifera, which by a fleshy peduncle attaches itself by one end to the bottoms of ships or floating timber, whilst from the other there protrudes a bunch of curling and fringe-like cirrhi, by the agitation of which it attracts and collects its food. These cirrhi so much resemble feathers, as to have suggested the leading idea of a bird's tail; and hence the construction of the remainder of the fable, which is given with grave minuteness in The Herball, or General Historie of Plants, gathered by John Gerarde, Master in Chirurgie (London, 1597). After quoting the account, Sir James adds, that Gerarde, who is doubtless Butler's authority, says elsewhere, "that in the north parts of Scotland, and the islands called Orcades, there are certain trees whereon these tree geese and barnacles abound." The conversion of the fish into a bird, however fabulous, would be scarcely more astounding than the metamorphosis which it actually undergoes, the young of the little animal having no feature to identify it with its final development. In its early stage (see Carpenter's Physiology, i. 52) it has a form not unlike that of the crab, "possessing eyes and powers of free motion: but afterwards becoming fixed to one spot for the remainder of its life, it loses its eyes, and forms a shell, which, though composed of various pieces, has nothing in common with the jointed shell of the crab." Mr. T. J. Buckton (Notes and Queries, vol. viii. p. 224) says that Drayton (1613), in his Polyolbion, p. iii., in connexion with the river Dee, speaks of—

"Th' anatomised fish, and fowls from planchers sprung,"

to which a note is appended in Southey's edition (p. 609), that such fowls were "barnacles, a bird breeding upon old ships." In the Entertaining Library, "Habits of Birds," (pp. 363-379), the whole story of this extraordinary ignorance of natural history is amply developed. The barnacle-shells which I once saw in a sea-port attached to a vessel just arrived from the Mediterranean had the brilliant appearance at a distance of flowers in bloom. (See Penny CyclopÆdia, article "Cirripeda," vii. 206, reversing the woodcut). The foot of the Lepas Anatifera (Linn.), appeared to me like the stalk of a plant growing from the ship's side. The shell had the semblance of a calyx, and the flower consisted of the fingers (tentacula) of the shell-fish, "of which twelve project in an elegant curve, and are used by it for making prey of small fish." The very ancient error was to mistake the foot of the shell-fish for the neck of a goose, the shell for its head, and the tentacula for a tuft of feathers. As to the body, non est inventus. The Barnacle Goose is a well-known bird; and these shell-fish bearing, as seen out of the water, resemblance to the goose's neck, were ignorantly, and without investigation, confounded with geese themselves. In France, the barnacle goose may be eaten on fast-days, by virtue of this old belief in its fishy origin. From a passage in the Memoirs of Lady Fanshaw, it appears that Sir Kenelm Digby, at the table of the Governor of Calais, declared that barnacles, a bird in Jersey, was first a shell-fish to appearance, and from that, sticking upon old wood, became in time a goose! An advertisement of June, 1807, sets forth that the "Wonderful curiosity called the Goose Tree, Barnacle Tree, or Tree bearing geese, taken up at sea on the 12th January, 1807, by Captain Bytheway, and was more than twenty men could raise out of the water—may be seen at the Exhibition Rooms, Spring Gardens, from ten o'clock in the morning till ten at night, every day. The Barnacles which form the present exhibition possess a neck upwards of two feet in length, resembling the windpipe of a chicken; each shell contains five pieces, and notwithstanding the many thousands which hang to eight inches of the tree, part of the fowl may be seen from each shell. Sir Robert Moxay, in the Wonders of Nature and Art, speaking of this singularly curious production, says, that in every shell he opened he found a perfect sea-fowl[!], with a bill like that of a goose, feet like those of water-fowl, and the feathers all plainly formed." (Ibid., p. 300.)

WARTS FROM WASHING IN EGG-WATER.

It is commonly held that washing the hands in water in which eggs have been boiled will produce a plentiful crop of warts. Not long ago two young and intelligent ladies stated that they had inadvertently washed their hands and arms in egg-water, and in each case this had been followed by large numbers of warts. This sequence they affirmed to be a consequence, and the warts were shown as an ocular demonstration of the unpleasant results of such lavation.

FORTUNE-TELLING.—WISE MEN AND CUNNING WOMEN, ETC.

There is scarcely a town of any magnitude in Lancashire, or in one or two adjacent counties, which does not possess its local "fortune-teller" or pretender to a knowledge of astrology, and to a power of predicting the future events of life, under the talismanic name of "fortune," to a large and credulous number of applicants. The fortune-teller of the nineteenth century professes to be able to "cast nativities" and to "rule the planets." If, as is not unfrequently the case, he be a medical botanist, he gathers his herbs when the proper planet is "in the ascendant." Some of these impostors also profess to "charge the crystal" (i.e., to look into a globular or egg-shaped glass), and thereby to solve the gravest questions respecting the future fortunes of those who consult them. Nor is this by any means an unprofitable pursuit. The writer is aware of several instances in which "casting nativities," &c., has proved a golden harvest to the professor. One individual gave up a well-paid occupation in order that he might devote himself wholly to the still more lucrative practice of astrology and fortune-telling. He not only predicted future events by means of the stars, but he gave heads of families advice as to the recovery of stolen property and the detection of the thief; while impatient maidens he counselled how to bring shy or dilatory lovers to the point. Another practitioner added to these practices the construction of sun-dials, in which he was very ingenious, and thereby amassed considerable property after a long and successful career. Instances are very common that credulity is not confined to the ignorant or uneducated classes. An intelligent and well-meaning lady once very seriously cautioned the writer against diving into the secrets of astrology, as, she said, that pursuit had "turned the head" of one of her acquaintance. She not only had a firm faith in the truth of all astrological predictions, but (from apprehension engendered by this faith) she would not on any account suffer any of these practitioners to predict her fortune, nor would she on any account consult them. It seems that on one occasion she did commit herself so far as to go to "a wise man," whom we will call Mr. I., in company with Miss J., whose marriage with Mr. K. was then somewhat doubtful; and she afterwards solemnly affirmed that the astrologer told her all her fortune. She described him as first carefully drawing the requisite diagram, showing the state of the heavens at the hour of Miss J.'s birth; and after "charging his glass" he declared that the marriage would take place within a few months; "but," he added, "he was also very sorry to inform her that she would die young." Both these events did really happen within a limited period; and of course the lady's belief in the truth of astrological prediction was very powerfully strengthened and confirmed. Some time after these events, this identical Mr. I. was brought before the magistrates in petty sessions, charged with obtaining money under false pretences; with practising astrology, palmistry, &c., and he only narrowly escaped imprisonment through some technical error in the charge or summons. It was said that the charge was a vindictive one—hence there was great rejoicing amongst his friends when it was dismissed; but the inspector of police who had charge of the case did not hesitate to declare that there were many persons then present who had paid Mr. I. money for his predictions.

Another specimen of the fortune-teller we may notice from a rural district. In the hamlet of Roe Green, in the township of Worsley, in a humble cottage, a few years ago lived a man who held the position of overseer or head of one class of workmen in the employ of the Bridgewater Trust. In the language of the locality, "Owd Rollison [Rawlinson] was a gaffer." But to this regular avocation he added the profession of fortune-telling, and in the evenings many were the applicants for a little knowledge of future events from the villages and hamlets for miles around. His stock-in-trade consisted of various books on astrology, &c., and of two magic glasses or crystals, one a small globular mass of common white glass, with a short stem by which to hold it; the other was about the size and shape of a large hen's egg, but without any stem or handle. His whole apparatus was for some months in the possession of the writer, and a list of his books may serve to show the sort of literature held in esteem amongst this class of planet rulers. 1. The Three Books of Occult Philosophy of Henry Cornelius Agrippa, translated by J. Freake (London, 1651, pp. 583).[85] 2. Lilly's Christian Astrology, in three books (London, 1659, pp. 832). 3. John Gadbury's Thesaurus AstrologiÆ (Westminster, 1674, pp. 272). 4. The Star, by Ebn Shemaya (London, 1839, pp. 203). Zadkiel's Grammar of Astrology (London, 1849, pp. 178): in this volume were also bound up "Tables for Calculating Nativities," by Zadkiel (London, 1850, pp. 64). 6. A Plea for Urania (London, 1854, pp. 387).

One or two MS. books, apparently blank copy-books, which had been used to draw diagrams, or, as the phrase goes, to "construct horoscopes," or "erect schemes," or "cast nativities," showed that "Owd Rollison" had dabbled a little in a sort of Astrology; but the rudeness of these attempts betrayed him to be but a mere tyro in the "celestial science." He had also a reputation for selling "charms" against the various ills that flesh is heir to; amongst others, one to stop hÆmorrhage. One countryman told the writer that he remembered, when a boy, that his uncle having a very severe hÆmorrhage, so that he was believed to be bleeding to death, this boy was told to run off as hard as he could to Owd Rollison to get something to stop the bleeding. He soon received a small piece of parchment containing sundry unintelligible characters upon it, which was to be sewed up in a small bag and worn continually, so that the bag should rest on the skin just over the heart. This was done, the bleeding stopped, and the man recovered. Another person, who had been a sort of confidant of the wise man, told the writer that at one period Rawlinson went at regular intervals, and on stated days, to Manchester, where at a quiet public-house he met other "wise men," and they assembled in an upper chamber, with locked door, and sometimes remained for hours in deliberation. Of the subject of such deliberations the informant said he knew nothing, for he was never admitted; he had the honour of remaining outside the door as watchman, guard, or sentinel, to prevent any prying listeners from approaching. He conjectured that what they were about was "magic and such like;" but more he knew not. "Owd Rollison" kept his situation under the Bridgewater Trust until his death, at a ripe old age; and though he left several sons and a daughter, the mantle of his astrological or fortune-telling wisdom does not seem to have fallen on any of them.

Much might be stated respecting the practice of the art of fortune-telling by wandering gipsies, especially in that branch of it termed palmistry—predicting the future from an examination of the "lines" of the palm of the left hand, each of which, in the jargon of palmists, has its own peculiar character and name, as the line of life, of fortune, &c.; but as these wanderers are not indigenous to Lancashire, but may be found in every county in England, it may suffice thus to name them. Of the old women who tell fortunes by cards chiefly, to silly women who are always wanting to know whether their future husband is to be denoted by the King of Hearts (a true-loving swain) or by the Monarch of Diamonds (as indicative of great wealth), it is enough to say that they may be found by scores or hundreds in every town in Lancashire.

MAGIC AND MAGICIANS.

Our forefathers had a strong faith in the power of magic, and even divided the knowledge of it into two opposite kinds—viz., "white magic," which was acquired from the communications of the archangels and angels, or at least from some of the good spirits who were allowed to aid human beings by their supernatural power in deeds of beneficence; and black magic, or "the black art," also termed "necromancy," which was derived from dealings with the devil, or at least from commerce with his imps, or the evil spirits of wicked dead men. At one period the terms magician and conjuror had the same meaning—one who conjured, by magical power, spirits and demons to appear and do his bidding. Conjuror has since become a name for a professor of legerdemain or sleight-of-hand.

EDWARD KELLY, THE SEER.

Edward Kelly, whose dealings in the Black Art, it is said, would fill a volume, was born at Worcester, and had been an apothecary. We have elsewhere noticed his doings as an alchemist. He was for a considerable time the companion and associate of "Dr." John Dee, performing for him the office of "Seer," by looking into the doctor's crystal or stone, a faculty not possessed by Dee, who in consequence was obliged to have recourse to Kelly for the revelations he has published respecting the world of spirits. These curious transactions may be found in Casaubon's work, entitled, A True and Faithful Relation of what Passed for many years between Dr. John Dee and some Spirits—opening out another dark page in the history of imposture and credulity. Dee says that he was brought into unison with Kelly by the mediation of the angel Uriel. Afterwards he found himself deceived by him, in his opinion that these spirits which ministered unto him were messengers of the Deity. They had had several quarrels before; but when Dee found Kelly degenerating into the worst species of the magic art, for the purposes of avarice and fraud, he broke off all connexion with him, and would never afterwards be seen in his company. Kelly, being discountenanced by the doctor, betook himself to the meanest practices of magic, in all which money and the works of the devil appear to have been his chief aim. Many wicked and abominable transactions are recorded of him.

In Lilly's Memoirs are the following passages relating to this Seer:—"Kelly outwent the Doctor, viz., about the Elixir and the Philosopher's Stone, which neither he nor his master attained by their own labour and industry. It was in this manner that Kelly obtained it, as I had it related from an ancient minister, who knew the certainty thereof from an old English merchant, resident in Germany, at what time both Kelly and Dee were there. Dee and Kelly, being on the confines of the Emperor's dominions, in a city where resided many English merchants, with whom they had much familiarity, there happened an old friar to come to Dr. Dee's lodgings, knocking at the door. Dee peeped down stairs: 'Kelly,' says he, 'tell the old man I am not at home.' Kelly did so. The friar said, 'I will take another time to wait upon him.' Some few days after, he came again. Dee ordered Kelly, if it were the same person, to deny him again. He did so; at which the friar was very angry. 'Tell thy master I came to speak with him, and to do him good; because he is a great scholar, and famous: but now tell him, he put forth a book, and dedicated it to the Emperor. It is called Monas Hieroglyphicas. He understands it not. I wrote it myself. I came to instruct him therein, and in some other more profound things. Do thou, Kelly, come along with me. I will make thee more famous than thy master Dee.' Kelly was very apprehensive of what the friar delivered, and thereupon suddenly retired from Dr. Dee, and wholly applied unto the friar, and of him either had the Elixir ready made, or the perfect method of its preparation and making. The poor friar lived a very short time after: whether he died a natural death, or was otherwise poisoned or made away by Kelly, the merchant who related this, did not certainly know." "It was vulgarly reported that he [Kelly] had a compact with the devil, which he out-lived, and was seized at midnight by infernal spirits, who carried him off in sight of his family, at the instant he was meditating a mischievous design against the minister of the parish, with whom he was greatly at enmity."[86]

RAISING THE DEAD AT WALTON-LE-DALE.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth and the year 1560, three judicial astrologers met in Preston, for the purpose of raising a corpse by incantations. They were Dr. Dee, Warden of Manchester, Edward Kelly, his assistant, and "seer," and Paul Wareing, of Dove Cotes, near Clayton Brook. Casaubon, in his "True and faithful Account of what passed for many years between John Dee and some Spirits," (apparently quoting from Weever's Funeral Monuments) states that "The aforesaid Master Edward Kelly, a person well skilled in judicial astrology, with one Paul Wareing (who acted with him in these incantations and all these conjurations) and Dr. Dee, went to the churchyard of St. Leonard's, in Walton-le-Dale, near Preston, and entered the burial ground exactly at midnight, the moon shining brightly, for the purpose of raising the body of a person who had been interred there, and who had during his life hidden a quantity of money without disclosing the fact previous to his death. Having had the grave pointed out to them on the preceding day, they opened it, removed the coffin lid, and set to work by various exorcisms, until the body became animated, by the spirit entering it again. The body then rose out of the grave and stood upright before them. It not only satisfied their wicked desires, it is said, but delivered several strange predictions concerning persons in the neighbourhood, which were literally and exactly fulfilled. Sibley, in his Occult Sciences, relates a similar account of this transaction, and also gives an engraving representing the scene, which took place at the midnight hour in the church of Walton. Another account states that Dr. Dee was engaged with Kelly in this enterprise, August 12th, 1560, and that Paul Wareing, of Clayton Brook, was the other who gave assistance in endeavouring to obtain an intercourse with familiar spirits."—(Whittle's Preston.)

AN EARL OF DERBY CHARGED WITH KEEPING A CONJUROR.

The loyal and munificent Edward (third) Earl of Derby, notwithstanding his great services to Queen Elizabeth, and his long-proved loyalty, was maligned and accused of traitorous intentions. The Earl of Huntingdon wrote to Sir William Cecil, then the Queen's Secretary of State (afterwards Lord Burghley, her Treasurer), a letter, communicating suspicions of the Earl of Derby, which the writer asked should be burned as soon as read, but which has been preserved (and printed) amongst Lord Burghley's State Papers (I. 603.) Modernising the spelling, the letter runs thus:—

There seems to have been no substantial ground for suspecting the loyalty of the Earl of Derby, which remained unshaken through another ordeal, the conspiracy of the Duke of Norfolk to marry the Queen of Scots, and place her on the English throne. But the Bishop of Ross gave evidence, that in Mary's design, in 1571, to escape from Sheffield Castle to the Continent, she was aided by several Lancashire gentlemen; and adds, that she wrote a letter by a little priest of Rolleston's to Sir Thomas Stanley. Sir Thomas Gerrard and Rolleston devised a cypher for her; and they offered to convey her away, and willed the Bishop to ask the Duke of Norfolk's opinion therein. The prelate further stated that Hall told him that if the Queen [Mary] would get two men landed in Lancashire, Sir Thomas Stanley, and Sir Edward Stanley, along with Sir Thomas Gerrard, and Rolleston, would effect her escape to France or Flanders, &c. Upon this evidence Sir Thomas Stanley, Sir Thomas Gerrard, and Rolleston, were apprehended, and committed to the Tower as state prisoners.[87]

[75] Allen's History of Yorkshire, vol. iii. pp. 421-425.