wine circulated in the dining-room at Ardley-Bury, when Sir Henry Chauncy, with the Rev. Mr Strutt on one side, and the Rev. Mr Gardiner on the other, supported by the Rev. Mr Bragge and his son Mr Francis, expounded the law upon witchcraft with all the combined dignity of a Welsh judge, the Recorder of Hertford, and a serjeant-at-law, if some young Templar, fresh from Button's, happy in having received a nod from Addison, or heard a growl from Swift, ventured to hint a doubt, how Sir Henry would put him down, and how the rector and the vicar would groan over the infidelity and sadduceeism of the age!

On the 4th of March 1712, a "fine cold frosty morning" (so Swift tells us), the trial came on. The grand jury found a true bill at once. How could a Hertfordshire grand jury do less on a commitment by Sir Henry Chauncy?

The judge was Powell. Few men look out upon us from the obscurity of the past more amiably than Powell. Swift met him a short time before, and has left a genial picture of him. "In the evening," he says, "I went to the Lord Treasurer's, and amongst other company found a couple of judges with him. One of them, Judge Powell, an old fellow with grey hairs, was the merriest old gentleman I ever saw, spoke pleasant things, and chuckled till he cried again."* Powell presided at the trial of Haagden Swedson for the abduction of Mrs Pleasant Rawlins, and at that of Beau Fielding for bigamy, committed in his marriage with the Duchess of Cleveland. Defoe tells us that "it is reported likewise that another woman being tried before Judge Powell, who, amongst other things that constituted her a witch, had laid to her charge that she could fly,"-"Ay!" said the judge; "and is this true? Do you say you can fly?" "Yes, I can," said she. "So you may, if you will, then," replied the judge; "I have no law against it." And on the trial of Jane Wenham, the court being full of fine ladies, the old judge very gallantly told the jury, "They

must not look out for witches amongst the old women, but amongst the young." Lord Camden said he was the only honest man of the four judges who sat on the trial of the Seven Bishops. His honesty cost him his seat, but on the Revolution he was restored to the bench. Happy was it for Jane Wenham that he

was so !

"About nine in the morning, March the 4th, the trial came on before Mr Justice Powell. After the usual formalities, and the prisoner having pleaded not guilty, and put herself on her trial, the jury were sworn, and the witnesses called over, being sixteen in all.

"The first evidence that was sworn was Anne Thorne, who, going to relate what had happened to her, fell into a fit,

being taken speechless, with violent convulsions, and was very strong. My Lord said that he never heard that, in any witch's trial before, the person afflicted fell into a fit in court; but for the satisfaction of the jury, he permitted the prisoner to be brought near her, and to speak to her, upon which the girl flew at her with great fury, as usual.

"Then Mrs Gardiner was sworn, who gave a very full and exact acing the house on Sunday, the 17th of count of what had passed, to her leav February, when the pins were brought to her servant Anne Thorne. Her evidence was long, and very particular, being the same in substance with the above-written narrative. In the meantime Anne Thorne had another fit, and it being proposed that she might be prayed for in court, my Lord at present was unwilling, saying she will come to herself by-and-by.

"The next evidence was the Rev. Mr Gardiner, rector of Walkerne, who related the quarrel between John Chapman and the prisoner, which was referred to him, told the story of Anne Thorne running the first time to fetch sticks, and the prisoner's coming in when they were burning; proceeded to all the particulars, and concluded with the above-mentioned account of her confession to him and Mr Strutt, he having been an eyewitness to all the strange passages.

"The next was the Rev. Mr Robert

Strutt, Vicar of Ardley, who attested

the prisoner's confession at large, and deposed that he was present, and saw Anne Thorne in several of her grievous fits, out of which she was recovered by prayer: he said also that he tried the

19 State Trials, 990.

prisoner often to see whether she could say the Lord's Prayer, and that she could not do it, naming the sentences she could not say. When he was talking of the recovery of Anne Thorne out of her fits by prayer, my Lord asked him what prayers were used? He answered, 'Several out of the Office for the Visitation of the Sick, and other parts of the Common Prayer. My Lord was pleased to say, That he had heard there were forms of exorcism in the Romish liturgy, but knew not that we had any such in our Church. However, he was glad to find there was such virtue in our prayers.

"Afterwards, Anne Thorne continuing in her fit, the Reverend Mr Chishull offer'd and was permitted to pray; he used that form in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick which begins, 'The Almighty Lord, who is a strong tower,' &c., and repeated the Lord's Prayer, upon which the colour came into the maid's cheeks, and the jury, and others that were near her, heard her distinctly repeat the petitions of the Lord's Prayer after the minister. It was extremely well taken by all true lovers of the Church, that Mr Chishull should offer his assistance at that time, when its prayers were ridiculed by too many that were present, though indeed his acting in this case was but agreeable to the rest of his shining character.

"Another witness was Mr Arthur Chauncy, who deposed that he was present at the second time of Anne Thorne's running for sticks; that then she went no further than the bottom of Whitehill, her strength failing her (as is above related); that he followed Anne Thorne at a distance when she went the third time, but behind an hedge, so that she did not see him; that he saw her go to the tree, pull off the sticks, wrap 'em in her apron, and come running home. That when she fell down, he and Thomas Ireland took her in their arms, and brought her home; that she was forced from them, and went over a five bar gate as nimbly as a greyhound; which words my Lord taking notice of, he again affirmed upon his oath, that she went over as swiftly as ever he had seen a greyhound leap over such a gate. That he had seen Anne Thorne in several of her fits, and that she always recovered upon prayers, or Jane Wenham's coming to her; and particularly related at large an account of the greatest fit of all, when she was given over for dead, but recovered upon the approach of the prisoner, altho' at that time prayers were sufficient. He related that he pricked the prisoner several times in the arm, but

could fetch no blood from her. That he saw pins in the hands of Anne Thorne, when there were none in her cloaths, nor anywhere within her reach; that he took several of these pins from her, which he was ready to produce. The judge told him that was needless; he supposed they were crooked pins. Then Mr Chauncy, proceeding to relate that, upon hearing a great noise of cats screaming about the house, he went out several times, and saw several of them together; that he heard them cry sometimes like children; that once he was not able to strike them, but afterwards he killed one of them. Being asked with what? he answered, With a setting-staff. He said also that he saw the feathers taken out of the maid's pillow: that there were several little cakes of feathers nicely joined together, and so strongly cemented, that the first night they were taken out of the pillow, he tryed to pull them asunder, but could not do it; and for a farther account of this referred himself to

"The next that was sworn, Mr Francis Bragge, who began to relate that he was present the first time of the maid's running for sticks, &c., but was interrupted by the judge, and asked whether he had any new matter which was not already sworn to? He answered, he had something new to offer. Being directed to proceed, he said that on Tuesday the 19th of February, he (having heard that strange cakes of feathers were taken out of Anne Thorne's pillow the night before) was desirous to see them. That he went into the room where those feathers were, and took two of the cakes, and compared them together. He said they were both of a circular figure, something larger than a crown piece. That he observed the small feathers were placed in a nice and curious order, at equal distances from each other, making so many radii of the circle, in the centre of which the quill-ends of the feathers met. That he counted the number of these feathers, and found them to be thirty-two in each cake. That afterwards he endeavoured to pull off two or three of them, and observed that they were fastened together by a sort of viscous matter, which would stretch seven or eight inches in a fine thread before it broke. That having taken off several of these feathers, he removed with his finger that viscous matter, and found under it, in the centre, some short hairs, black and grey, matted together, which he does believe to be cat's hairs. Upon examination of the other cake, he found it exactly resembling the former in all its parts. He said he

did not examine any more of them, but they seemed to be all alike, and that he saw ten or twelve of them. He said also that Jane Wenham confessed to him that she had practised witchcraft these sixteen years. I have been the longer in relating the evidence of this witness, because he gave in no written information before Sir Henry Chauncy. My Lord said that he wished he could see an enchanted feather, and seemed to wonder that none of these strange cakes were preserved, and asked the witness why he did not keep one or two of them? He answered, he would have done it, but was not permitted; they being of opinion that the maid might be eased if they were all burnt.

"Then was sworn Mr Thomas Adams, junior, of Walkerne, whose evidence was exactly the same with his information above transcribed.

"Then came Matthew Gilston, who told the story of his running for a pennyworth of straw, adding one circumstance, which was omitted in his above-mentioned information-viz., that when upon his asking for a pennyworth of straw at Munder's Hill, they refused to give him any, he saw the old woman in the riding-hood again, and that she directed him to the dung-heaps, from whence he brought home the straw in his shirt all the rest of his evidence was the same with his information.

:

"Another evidence was John Chapman of Walkerne, who said that he had for many years suspected the prisoner to be a witch; that the reason why he did

SO

was because he constantly found, whenever she has threatened him, that his horses, or other of his cattle, dy'd strangely, without any signs of a natural disease, and that he believed he had lost above two hundred pound by her in a very short time.

"Afterwards was sworn Susan Aylott, who deposed that Richard Harvey's wife, and also her child, were bewitched to death by the prisoner; her evidence being the same with her information.

"Elizabeth Field was also sworn. She said that about nine years ago she had a nurse-child, and that one day the prisoner came and stroaked the child, saying it was a curious child, or words to that purpose; that soon afterwards, in the evening of the same day, the child was taken strangely ill, one of her legs being so distorted, that the toes were turned back behind the heel; that in two days' time the leg was well, and the other distorted in the same manner as the first had been. That afterwards the child had strange fits and convulsions

VOL. LXXXV.-NO. DXXIII.

at times, and pined away till she died ;. that she always thought the child was bewitched by Jane Wenham, the prisoner at the bar. Being asked why she did not prosecute her immediately after? she answered, she was a poor woman, and the child had no friends able to bear the charges of such a prosecution. Being again asked whether she was grown rich since? she said she was still very poor, but this opportunity presenting itself, she laid hold of to give her evidence.

"William Booroughs being sworn, said that he had seen Anne Thorne in several of her fits; that he twice brought the prisoner to her, and that both times she recovered immediately, and flew at her to scratch her: he said also that the prisoner was one of very ill reputation, and that he, and several others of the neighbourhood, had suspected her to be a witch for many years.

"Thomas Ireland was the next sworn, who attested that he had been all along an eyewitness to the whole course of the maid's disorder; that he had seen her recover out of her fits at the approach of the prisoner; that he saw Jane Wenham within three minutes of the time when Anne Thorne had said that she threatened her it should be worse with her than it had been yet; that he, hearing a noise of cats crying and screaming about the house several times, went out and saw several of them, which made towards Jane Wenham's house; that he saw a cat with a face like Jane Wenham; that he, with Mr Chauncy, was not able to force Anne Thorne through the gate which was open, but she went over the other very swiftly. This, I think, was the sum of his evidence.

"James Burvile was also sworn, who said, that, hearing the scratchings and noises of cats, he went out and saw several of them; that one of them had a face like Jane Wenham; that he was present several times when Anne Thorne said she saw cats about her bed; and more he would have attested, but this was thought sufficient by the court.

"Uriah Wright and Thomas Harvey being sworn, attested the substance of their informations above inscribed, and added, that they asked the prisoner in what shape the devil used to appear to her?-and she said she fancied him to be a cat. This is a short account of the evidence given at the trial, which the reader must perceive that I have designedly abbreviated, lest he should be clog'd with the same things too often repeated..

2 Q

"Afterwards, the prisoner saying little for herself, but that she was a clear woman, the judge summed up the evidence to the jury in a short speech, and left it to them, whether it was sufficient to take away the prisoner's life upon the indictment. The jury desiring some time to consider it, the court adjourned till three in the afternoon (it being now past one), and then the jury returned, and brought in their verdict, that the prisoner was guilty upon the evidence. My Lord then asked them whether they found her guilty upon the indictment for conversing with the devil in the shape of a cat, the foreman answered, We find her guilty of that. Upon this verdict the prisoner received sentence of death, but was reprieved till further orders." *

We have thus given Mr Bragge's report of this most curious trial, word for word. Happily the story of Jane Wenham does not end here. The conclusion sounds more like a fiction than a tale of real life, nevertheless it is strictly true. Powell-all honour to the grey-haired merry old judgeexerted himself successfully to obtain her pardon from the Crown, and there were men in Hertfordshire more humane and more enlightened than Sir Henry Chauncy, the Rev. Mr Gardiner, Mr Francis Bragge, or the grand or petty jury who sat at the Hertfordshire spring assizes of 1712. Colonel Plumer, of Gilston, the ancestor of the late accomplished author of Tremaine, gave her an asylum in a small cottage near his own residence. Here she was visited by Dr Hutchinson, who found her living "soberly and inoffensively." "I will take leave to add," he says, "that as I have had the curiosity to see the good woman herself, I have very great assurance that she is a pious sober woman. She is so far from being unable to say the Lord's Prayer, that she would make me hear both the Lord's Prayer and

the Creed, and other very good prayers beside, and she spoke them with an undissembled devotion, though with such little errors of expression as those that cannot read are subject to. I verily believe that there is no one that reads this, but may think in their own minds that such a storm as she met with might have fallen upon them, if it had been their misfortune to have been poor, and to have met with such accidents as she did, in such a barbarous parish as she lived in." +

Such is the account

given by Dr Hutchinson, who was cumbent of the parish of St James one of the King's chaplains, and inin St Edmund's-Bury; we believe that he subsequently rose to the episcopal bench. He speaks, it will be observed, from his own personal knowledge and observation. It is stated in a note to Defoe's work, before quoted, that "she afterwards became possessed of a comfortable subsistence, that she did a great deal of good with it to the poor, and became as much the object of their esteem as she had been of their detestation."

Such was the end of the case of Jane Wenham. Would that we could say, as has frequently been asserted, that this was the last case of a prosecution under the statute. In July 1716, a substantial farmer, of the name of Hickes, accused his wife and child (the latter a girl of nine years of age) of witchcraft. They were tried at the assizes at Huntingdon, before Wilmot; they were visited by several divines;" they confessed their crime; and, on the prosecution of the husband and father, the wife and child were hanged at Huntingdon, on the 28th of July 1716! We close this ghastly page in the history of legal, clerical, and domestic cruelty with horror.

66

It is but a pond, in a quiet meadow, or sheltered amid the ferns of some noble park. A broad oak overshadows one side of it; and, in the shadow, patient cattle stand, kneedeep, whisking off the flies with monotonously impatient tail, and rejoicing in the coolness. Hundreds will pass it by; for the majority disregard the familiar objects of daily life, and see neither wonder nor beauty except in what is unusual or costly. All men can marvel at a meteor; it is only the sensitive and thoughtful who feel undying interest in the stars. Thus it is that many will pass by the Pond, with scarcely a glance, who would pause before an ornamental piece of water, to gaze at a couple of swans regally floating along. The artist, the poet, and the naturalist know better. All poetical minds love a pond: the eye of the landscape," Novalis calls it; and the thoughtful humourist, to whom we owe Friends in Council, severely rebukes the levity, or ignorance, of one who speaks slightingly on the subject. "I see you are unworthy to have a pond," he says, "and that you do not know the beauties of it. Thither come the more contempla tive insects, and sit upon the waters, or perch upon the top of the reeds. Quiet old fish, who have seen much of life, make their lazy, waving way through the dull waters. You can trace their movements by the light ripples on the top, even when_you cannot see the fish themselves. Then perhaps there is a majestic water-lily (there was one in my early suburban pond); and what can be more glorious to behold? And then, too, however small the pond, the sky is to be seen in it. And as the little ill-shaped bit of glass, in which some exquisite rustic beauty is wont at morning and at evening time to see her fair self reflected, gains (oh! how surely in the eyes of her lover!) a dignity and a felicity from reflecting daily the most beautiful thing in creation that we know anything of, a beautiful woman; so my little pond will never be despised by the ardent

lover of Nature, while, in its stillness, it mirrors completely (giving even more repose to the great scene) the choicest wonder of the physical world."

66

I am sure of the precious sympathy of this author in a discourse "On the Inexhaustibility of Ponds;" and if, by mischance, these pages catch the eye of any reader whose education has been neglected in this direction, he must permit me to rectify that deficiency, by unfolding to him what those who have taken their degree, and are familiar with the best models," are prepared to feel and say on the subject. If I succeed, he will be the richer in a new source of pleasure. If I fail, he will think me a mild enthusiast, perhaps a noodle; but this, however afflicting, can be borne, and will assuredly not lessen my love of a pond. No sarcasms can reach me there. Affection bears a charmed life. I have lolled for dreamy hours by the side of a pool, through the long summer noons of boyhood, watching the rapid whirling of the dragon-fly, and the anxious vigour of the frogs-startled from their repose on the branch of a tree emerging from the water-as they swam to the opposite bank; and I have stood for hours, net in hand, through the damp and chill of spring and autumn, eager in the search for insects, reptiles, worms, and polypes, which were to furnish days of study; nor can I decide on which occasion the pond was the source of the greatest pleasure. There are visions of many ponds which memory calls up; but there is one more frequent in its visitings than any other, bringing with it always a breath of happy days. Had I but the cunning hand which could paint that scene as I see it, and feel it, even the most supercilious of spectators would confess its charm. It is overhung with oaks and ash trees in negligent grace. On one side is a rich meadow, bright with buttercups, where the lovely cattle of Alderney are chewing the meditative cud; on the other side a winding path leads to a little wood,