ACCIDENTS.
[“ACCIDENTS” was a term used in astrology, in the general sense of
remarkable events or occurrences. From a curious collection of Aubrey’s
memoranda I have selected a few of the most interesting and most
apposite to Wiltshire. Several of the anecdotes in this chapter will be
found in Aubrey’s Miscellanies, 12mo. 1696. J. B.]
IN the reigne of King James 1st, as boyes were at play in
Amesbury-street, it thundred and lightened. One of the boyes wore a
little dagger by his side, which was melted in the scabbard, and the
scabbard not hurt. This dagger Edward Earle of Hertford kept amongst
his rarities. I have forgott if the boy was killed. (From old Mr.
Bowman and Mr. Gauntlett)
The long street, Marleborough, was burned down to the ground in five
houres, and the greatnesse of the fire encreased the wind. This was in
165-. This account I had from Thomas Henshaw, Esq. who was an
eye-witness as he was on his journey to London.
[“Marlborough has often suffered by fire; particularly in the year
1690. Soon afterwards the town obtained an act of Parliament to
prohibit the covering of houses with thatch.” Beauties of Wiltshire,
vol. ii. p. 177. A pamphlet was published in 1653 (12mo.) with the
following title:—“Take heed in time; or, a briefe relation of many
harmes that have of late been done by fire in Marlborough and other
places. Written by L. P.”—J. B.]
In the gallery at Wilton hangs, under the picture of the first William
Earl of Pembroke, the picture of a little reddish picked-nose dog (none
of the prettiest) that his lordship loved. The dog starved himself
after his master’s death.
Dr. Ralph Bathurst, Dean of Wells, and one of the chaplains to King
Charles 1st, who is no superstitious man, protested to me that the
curing of the King’s evill by the touch of the King doth puzzle his
philosophie: for whether they were of the house of Yorke or Lancaster
it did. ’Tis true indeed there are prayers read at the touching, but
neither the King minds them nor the chaplains. Some confidently report
that James Duke of Monmouth did it.
Imposture.—Richard Heydock, M.D., quondam fellow of New College in
Oxford, was an ingenious and a learned person, but much against the
hierarchie of the Church of England. He had a device to gaine
proselytes, by preaching in his dreame; which was much noised abroad,
and talked of as a miracle. But King James 1st being at Salisbury went
to heare him. He observed that his harrangue was very methodicall, and
that he did but counterfeit a sleep. He surprised the doctor by drawing
his sword, and swearing, “God’s waunes, I will cut off his head”; at
which the doctor startled and pretended to awake; and so the cheat was
detected.
One M{istress} Katharine Waldron, a gentlewoman of good family, waited
on Sir Francis Seymor’s lady, of Marleborough. Shee pretended to be
bewitched by a certain woman, and had acquired such a strange habit
that she would endure exquisite torments, as to have pinnes thrust into
her flesh, nay under her nailes. These tricks of hers were about the
time when King James wrote his Demonologie. His Majesty being in these
parts, went to see her in one of her fitts. Shee lay on a bed, and the
King saw her endure the torments aforesayd. The room, as it is easily
to be believed, was full of company. His Majesty gave a sodain pluck to
her coates, and tos’t them over her head; which surprise made her
immediately start, and detected the cheate.
[Speaking of the trial of Aim Bodenham, who was executed at Salisbury
as a witch in 1653, Aubrey says:-] Mr. Anthony Ettrick, of the Middle
Temple, a very judicious gentleman, was a curious observer of the whole
triall, and was not satisfied. The crowd of spectators made such a
noise that the judge [Chief Baron Wild] could not heare the prisoner,
nor the prisoner the judge; but the words were handed from one to the
other by Mr. R. Chandler, and sometimes not truly reported. This
memorable triall was printed about 165-. 4to. [See full particulars in
Hatcher’s History of Salisbury, p. 418.—J. B.]
In the time of King Charles II. the drumming at the house of Mr.
Monpesson, of Tydworth, made a great talke over England, of which Mr.
Joseph Glanvill, Rector of Bath, hath largely writt; to which I refer
the reader. But as he was an ingenious person, so I suspect he was a
little too credulous; for Sir Ralph Bankes and Mr. Anthony Ettrick lay
there together one night out of curiosity, to be satisfied. They did
heare sometimes knockings; and if they said “Devill, knock so many
knocks”; so many knocks would be answered. But Mr. Ettrick sometimes
whispered the words, and there was then no returne: but he should have
spoke in Latin or French for the detection of this.
Another time Sir Christopher Wren lay there. He could see no strange
things, but sometimes he should heare a drumming, as one may drum with
one’s hand upon wainscot; but he observed that this drumming was only
when a certain maid-servant was in the next room: the partitions of the
rooms are by borden-brasse, as wee call it. But all these remarked that
the Devill kept no very unseasonable houres: it seldome knock’t after
12 at night, or before 6 in the morning.
[In Hoare’s Modern Wiltshire, (Hundred of Amesbury,) p. 92, is a
narrative, quoted from Glanvil, of the nocturnal disturbances in the
house of Mr. Mompesson at North Tidworth, Wilts, in the year 1661,
which excited considerable interest at the time, and led to the
publication of several pamphlets on the subject. The book by Mr.
Glanvil, referred to by Aubrey, is called “A blow at modern Sadducism;
or Philosophical considerations touching the being of Witches and
Witchcraft; with an account of the Demon of Tedworth.” Lond. 1666, 4to.
There are other editions in folio and 8vo. in 1667 and 1668. Addison
founded his comedy of “The Drummer, or the Haunted House,” on this
occurrence.—J. B.]
About 167—there was a cabal of witches detected at Malmsbury. They ere
examined by Sir James Long of Draycot-Cerne, and by him committed to
Salisbury Gaol. I think there were seven or eight old women hanged.
There were odd things sworne against them, as the strange manner of the
dyeing of H. Denny’s horse, and of flying in the aire on a staffe.
These examinations Sir James hath fairly written in a book which he
promised to give to the Royall Societie.
At Salisbury a phantome appeared to Dr. Turbervill’s sister severall
times, and it discovered to her a writing or deed of settlement that
was hid behind the wainscot
Phantomes.—Though I myselfe never saw any such things, yet I will not
conclude that there is no truth at all in these reports. I believe that
extraordinarily there have been such apparitions; but where one is true
a hundred are figments. There is a lecherie in lyeing and imposeing on
the credulous; and the imagination of fearfull people is to admiration:
e.g. Not long after the cave at Bathford was discovered (where the opus
tessellatum was found), one of Mr. Skreen’s ploughboyes lyeing asleep
near to the mouth of the cave, a gentleman in a boate on the river
Avon, which runnes hard by, played on his flajolet. The boy apprehended
the musique to be in the cave, and ran away in a lamentable fright, and
his fearfull phancy made him believe he saw spirits in the cave. This
Mr. Skreen told me, and that the neighbourhood are so confident of the
truth of this, that there is no undeceiving of them.