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Witch Stories
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“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”— Exodus xxii. 18.
In offering the following collection of witch stories to the public, I do not profess to have exhausted the subject, or to have made so complete a summary as I might have done, had I been admitted into certain private libraries, which contain, I believe, many concealed riches. But I had no means of introduction to them, and was obliged to be content with such authorities as I found in the British Museum, and the other public libraries to which I had access. I do not think that I have left much untold; but there must be, scattered about England, old MSS. and unique copies of records concerning which I can find only meagre allusions, or the mere names of the victims, without a distinctive fact to mark their special history. Should this book come to a second edition, any help from the possessors of these hitherto unpublished documents would be a gain to the public, and a privilege which I trust may be afforded me.
Neither have I attempted to enter into the philosophy of the subject. It is far too wide and deep to be discussed in a few hasty words; and to sift such evidence as is left us—to determine what was fraud, what self-deception, what actual disease, and what the exaggeration of the narrator—would have swelled my book into a far more important and bulky work than I intended or wished. As a general rule, I think we may apply all the four conditions to every case reported; in what proportion, each reader must judge for himself. Those who believe in direct and personal intercourse between the spirit-world and man, will probably accept every account with the unquestioning belief of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; those who have faith in the calm and uniform operations of nature, will hold chiefly to the doctrine of fraud; those who have seen much of disease and that strange condition called “mesmerism,” or “sensitiveness,” will allow the presence of absolute nervous derangement, mixed up with a vast amount of conscious deception, which the insane credulity and marvelous ignorance of the time rendered easy to practice; and those who have been accustomed to sift evidence and examine witnesses, will be utterly dissatisfied with the loose statements and wild distortion of every instance on record.
Contents
WITCHES OF SCOTLAND
THE STORY OF LADY GLAMMIS
BESSIE DUNLOP AND THOM REID
ALISON PEARSON AND THE FAIRY FOLK
THE CRIMES OF LADY FOWLIS
BESSIE ROY
THE DEVIL'S SECRETARY
THE GRACE WIFE OF KEITH AND HER CUMMERS
THE TWO ALISONS
THE TROUBLES OF ABERDEEN
WHITE WITCHES
THE MISDEEDS OF ISOBEL GRIERSON
BARTIE PATERSON'S CHARM
BEIGIS TOD AND HER COMPEERS
THE PITIFUL FATE OF MARGARET BARCLAY
MARGARET WALLACE AND HER DEAR BURD
THOM REID AGAIN
BESSIE SMITH
THOMAS GRIEVE'S ENCHANTMENTS 1623
KATHERINE GRANT AND HER STOUP
THE MISDEEDS OF MARION RICHART
LADY LEE'S PENNY AND THE WITCHES OF 1629
ELSPETH CURSETTER AND HER FRIENDS
SANDIE AND THE DEVIL
THE MIDWIFE'S DOUBLE SIN
KATHERINE GRIEVE AND JOHN SINCLAIR
BESSIE BATHGATE'S NIPS
BESSIE SKEBISTER
THE TRIAL OF SPIRITS
SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE
SINCLAIR'S STORIES
MANIE HALIBURTON
THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND
THE WITCH OF BERKELEY
EARLY HISTORIC TRIALS
THE AFFLICTIONS OF ALEX AND ERNYNDGE
ADE DAVIES MOURNING
THE POSSESSION
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”— Exodus xxii. 18.
In offering the following collection of witch stories to the public, I do not profess to have exhausted the subject, or to have made so complete a summary as I might have done, had I been admitted into certain private libraries, which contain, I believe, many concealed riches. But I had no means of introduction to them, and was obliged to be content with such authorities as I found in the British Museum, and the other public libraries to which I had access. I do not think that I have left much untold; but there must be, scattered about England, old MSS. and unique copies of records concerning which I can find only meagre allusions, or the mere names of the victims, without a distinctive fact to mark their special history. Should this book come to a second edition, any help from the possessors of these hitherto unpublished documents would be a gain to the public, and a privilege which I trust may be afforded me.
Neither have I attempted to enter into the philosophy of the subject. It is far too wide and deep to be discussed in a few hasty words; and to sift such evidence as is left us—to determine what was fraud, what self-deception, what actual disease, and what the exaggeration of the narrator—would have swelled my book into a far more important and bulky work than I intended or wished. As a general rule, I think we may apply all the four conditions to every case reported; in what proportion, each reader must judge for himself. Those who believe in direct and personal intercourse between the spirit-world and man, will probably accept every account with the unquestioning belief of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; those who have faith in the calm and uniform operations of nature, will hold chiefly to the doctrine of fraud; those who have seen much of disease and that strange condition called “mesmerism,” or “sensitiveness,” will allow the presence of absolute nervous derangement, mixed up with a vast amount of conscious deception, which the insane credulity and marvelous ignorance of the time rendered easy to practice; and those who have been accustomed to sift evidence and examine witnesses, will be utterly dissatisfied with the loose statements and wild distortion of every instance on record.
Contents
WITCHES OF SCOTLAND
THE STORY OF LADY GLAMMIS
BESSIE DUNLOP AND THOM REID
ALISON PEARSON AND THE FAIRY FOLK
THE CRIMES OF LADY FOWLIS
BESSIE ROY
THE DEVIL'S SECRETARY
THE GRACE WIFE OF KEITH AND HER CUMMERS
THE TWO ALISONS
THE TROUBLES OF ABERDEEN
WHITE WITCHES
THE MISDEEDS OF ISOBEL GRIERSON
BARTIE PATERSON'S CHARM
BEIGIS TOD AND HER COMPEERS
THE PITIFUL FATE OF MARGARET BARCLAY
MARGARET WALLACE AND HER DEAR BURD
THOM REID AGAIN
BESSIE SMITH
THOMAS GRIEVE'S ENCHANTMENTS 1623
KATHERINE GRANT AND HER STOUP
THE MISDEEDS OF MARION RICHART
LADY LEE'S PENNY AND THE WITCHES OF 1629
ELSPETH CURSETTER AND HER FRIENDS
SANDIE AND THE DEVIL
THE MIDWIFE'S DOUBLE SIN
KATHERINE GRIEVE AND JOHN SINCLAIR
BESSIE BATHGATE'S NIPS
BESSIE SKEBISTER
THE TRIAL OF SPIRITS
SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE
SINCLAIR'S STORIES
MANIE HALIBURTON
THE WITCHES OF ENGLAND
THE WITCH OF BERKELEY
EARLY HISTORIC TRIALS
THE AFFLICTIONS OF ALEX AND ERNYNDGE
ADE DAVIES MOURNING
THE POSSESSION
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First published January 1, 1861
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About the author
Eliza Lynn Linton
141 books9 followersNote Eliza's books are sometimes published under Elizabeth Lynn Linton or as E. Lynn Linton.
Eliza Lynn Linton was a British novelist, essayist, and journalist.
The daughter of a clergyman and granddaughter of a bishop of Carlisle, she arrived in London in 1845 as the protegé of poet Walter Savage Landor. In the following year she produced her first novel, Azeth, the Egyptian; Amymone (1848), and Realities (1851), followed. None of these had any great success, and she became a journalist, joining the staff of the Morning Chronicle, and All the Year Round.
In 1858 she married W. J. Linton, an eminent wood-engraver, who was also a poet of some note, a writer upon his craft, and a Chartist agitator. In 1867 they separated in a friendly way, the husband going to America, and the wife returning to writing novels, in which she finally attained wide popularity. Her most successful works were The True History of Joshua Davidson (1872), Patricia Kemball (1874), and Christopher Kirkland.
She was also a severe critic of the "New Woman." Her most famous essay on this subject, "The Girl of the Period," was published in Saturday Review in 1868 and was a vehement attack on feminism. In 1891, she wrote "Wild Women as Politicians" which explained her opinion that politics was naturally the sphere of men, as was fame of any sort. "Amongst our most renowned womené, she wrote, "are some who say with their whole heart, 'I would rather have been the wife of a great man, or the mother of a hero, than what I am, famous in my own person." Mrs Linton is a leading example of the fact that the fight against votes for Women was not only organized by men.
-Wikipedia
Eliza Lynn Linton was a British novelist, essayist, and journalist.
The daughter of a clergyman and granddaughter of a bishop of Carlisle, she arrived in London in 1845 as the protegé of poet Walter Savage Landor. In the following year she produced her first novel, Azeth, the Egyptian; Amymone (1848), and Realities (1851), followed. None of these had any great success, and she became a journalist, joining the staff of the Morning Chronicle, and All the Year Round.
In 1858 she married W. J. Linton, an eminent wood-engraver, who was also a poet of some note, a writer upon his craft, and a Chartist agitator. In 1867 they separated in a friendly way, the husband going to America, and the wife returning to writing novels, in which she finally attained wide popularity. Her most successful works were The True History of Joshua Davidson (1872), Patricia Kemball (1874), and Christopher Kirkland.
She was also a severe critic of the "New Woman." Her most famous essay on this subject, "The Girl of the Period," was published in Saturday Review in 1868 and was a vehement attack on feminism. In 1891, she wrote "Wild Women as Politicians" which explained her opinion that politics was naturally the sphere of men, as was fame of any sort. "Amongst our most renowned womené, she wrote, "are some who say with their whole heart, 'I would rather have been the wife of a great man, or the mother of a hero, than what I am, famous in my own person." Mrs Linton is a leading example of the fact that the fight against votes for Women was not only organized by men.
-Wikipedia
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March 12, 2022
Retópata 2022.
Punto 2: un libro de una autora nacida en el año 22 de otro siglo.
Se trata de un extenso ensayo sobre la historia de la brujería en Escocia, y enumera los casos concretos de mujeres con nombres y apellidos que fueron juzgadas y condenadas. La autora realiza un gran trabajo de documentación al investigar las causas reales (envidias, despecho, codicia) que llevaron a otras personas, incluso familiares y vecinos, a denunciar a estas mujeres con acusaciones ridículas y verlas arder sin el menor empacho. Especialmente perturbador me ha resultado leer que muchas personas que habían sido sanadas por mujeres que elaboraban remedios con productos naturales corrían a acusarlas de brujería tan pronto como se levantaban la cama, y en los juicios decían en voz alta: "Sí, declaro que estaba enfermo y ella me curó con unas hierbas". La autora reflexiona en cómo las desdichadas sufrían el mismo destino tanto si les acusaban de matar al ganado y envenenar el agua del río como si le salvaban la vida a alguien.
Punto 2: un libro de una autora nacida en el año 22 de otro siglo.
Se trata de un extenso ensayo sobre la historia de la brujería en Escocia, y enumera los casos concretos de mujeres con nombres y apellidos que fueron juzgadas y condenadas. La autora realiza un gran trabajo de documentación al investigar las causas reales (envidias, despecho, codicia) que llevaron a otras personas, incluso familiares y vecinos, a denunciar a estas mujeres con acusaciones ridículas y verlas arder sin el menor empacho. Especialmente perturbador me ha resultado leer que muchas personas que habían sido sanadas por mujeres que elaboraban remedios con productos naturales corrían a acusarlas de brujería tan pronto como se levantaban la cama, y en los juicios decían en voz alta: "Sí, declaro que estaba enfermo y ella me curó con unas hierbas". La autora reflexiona en cómo las desdichadas sufrían el mismo destino tanto si les acusaban de matar al ganado y envenenar el agua del río como si le salvaban la vida a alguien.
Displaying 1 of 1 review