_Hearne's Confirmation.--Baxter's Heavy Shove.--Old Ballad._--In
_Narratives of Sorcery and Magic_, by Thomas Wright, Esq. (1851), vol.
ii. p. 163., mention is made of a work by the associate of the notorious
Hopkins, the "Witch-finder General," one John Hearne, entitled, _A
Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft_ (1648). I should esteem it a
great favour if any of the numerous readers of your valuable journal can
inform me where a copy of Hearne's work is to be found, as it appears to
be wanting in the British Museum, and several other of the public
libraries. I already happen to possess a copy of Matthew Hopkins's
_Discovery of Witches_, 4to. (1647), an extraordinary little work, which
Sir Walter Scott acknowledges he was acquainted with but by name.
There is a tract, too, by the celebrated author of the _Saints' Rest_,
which I never yet could put eyes on, though I have for some years
"collected" rather largely; I allude to Baxter's _Heavy Shove_,
mentioned at page 99. of Lackington's "Life," and in one or two other
works; but among a very large collection of old editions of Baxter's
works possessed by me, it is not to be discovered. If any of your
correspondents can enlighten me upon the subject I shall be much
gratified.
Though I have collected rather extensively among the ballad lore of this
country, I am sorry to say I never could find out from what particular
ballad the annexed stanza is derived. It is to be found, as an epigraph,
in _Poetical Memoirs_, by the late James Bird, 8vo. (1823):
"Brunette and fayre, my heart did share,
As last a wyfe I tooke:
Then all the wayes of my younge dayes,
I noted in a booke!"
_Old English Ballad._