This account I had from Mr. Ashmole. Afterwards this Beryl came into
some-body's hand in London, who did tell strange things by it;
insomuch that at last he was questioned for it, and it was taken away
by authority, (it was about 1645).
This Beryl is a perfect sphere, the diameter of it I guess to be
something more than an inch: it is set in a ring, or circle of silver
resembling the meridian of a globe: the stem of it is about ten
inches high, all gilt. At the four quarters of it are the names of
four angels, viz. Uriel, Raphael, Michael, Gabriel. On the top is a
cross patee.
Sam. Boisardus hath writ a book "de Divinatione per Crystallum".
A clothier's widow of Pembridge in Herefordshire, desired Dr.
Sherborne (one of the canons of the church of Hereford, and Rector of
Pembridge) to look over her husband's writings after his decease:
among other things he found a call for a crystal. The clothier had his
cloths oftentimes stolen from his racks; and at last obtained this
trick to discover the thieves. So when he lost his cloths, he went out
about midnight with his crystal and call, and a little boy, or little
maid with him (for they say it must be a pure virgin) to look in the
crystal, to see the likeness of the person that committed the theft.
The doctor did burn the call, 1671.