woman he was disturbed with in the field called the HigherBroom-Quartils. He told me, with all naked freedom and a flood of tears, that his friends were unkind and unjust to him, neither to believe nor pity him; and that if any man (making a bow to me) would but go with him to the place, he might be convinced that the thing was real, etc.

By this time he found me apt to compassionate his condition, and to be attentive to his relation of it; and therefore he went on in this manner.

"This woman which appears to me," said he, “lived a neighbour here to my father, and died about eight years since; her name Dorothy Dingley, of such a stature, such age, and such complexion. She never speaks to me, but passeth by hastily, and always leaves the foot path to me, and she commonly meets me twice or three times in the breadth of the field.

"It was about two months before I took any notice of it; and though the shape of the face was in my memory, yet I could not recall the name of the person; but without more thoughtfulness, I did suppose it was some woman who lived thereabout, and had frequent occasion that way. Nor did I imagine anything to the contrary, before she began to meet me constantly morning and evening, and always in the same field, and sometimes twice or thrice in the breadth of it.

"The first time I took notice of her was about a year since; and when I began to suspect and believe it to be a ghost, I had courage enough not to be afraid; but kept it to myself a good while, and only wondered very much at it. I did often speak to it, but never had a word in answer. Then I changed my way, and went to school the under horse road, and then she always met me in the narrow lane, between the quarry park and the nursery, which was worse.

"At length I began to be terrified at it, and prayed continually that God would either free me from it, or let me know the meaning of it. Night and day, sleeping and waking, the shape was ever running in my mind; and I often did repeat these places in scripture" (with that he took a small Bible out of his pocket). Job vii, 14: "Thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions ;" and Deut. xxviii, 67: "In the morning thou shalt say, would God it were evening; and at evening thou shalt say, would God it were morning, for the fear of thine heart, wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see." I was very much pleased with the lad's ingenuity, in the application of these pertinent scriptures to his condition, and

desired him to proceed. "Thus", said he "by degrees I grew very pensive, insomuch that it was taken notice of by all our family; whereupon, being urged to it, I told my brother William of it; and he privately acquainted my father and mother, and they kept it to themselves for some time.

"The success of this discovery was only this; they did sometimes laugh at me, sometimes chide me, but still commanded me to keep my school, and put such fopperies out of my head. I did accordingly go to school often, but always met the woman in the way.'

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This, and much more to the same purpose (yea, as much as held a dialogue of near two hours) was our conference in the orchard; which ended with my proffer to him, that (without making any privy to our intents) I would next morning walk with him to the place about six o'clock. He was even transported with joy at the mention of it, and replied, "But will you sure, sir? Will you really, sir? Thank God, now I hope I shall be believed." From this conclusion we retired into the house.

The gentleman, his wife, and Mr. Williams were impatient to know the event, insomuch that they came out of the parlour into the hall to meet us; and seeing the lad look cheerfully, the first compliment from the old man was, "Come, Mr. Ruddle, you have talked with Sam, I hope now he will have more wit; an idle boy, an idle boy!" At these words the lad ran upstairs to his chamber, without replying, and I soon stopped the curiosity of the three expectants, by telling them I had promised silence, and was resolved to be as good as my word, but when things were riper they might know all; at present I desired them to rest in my faithful promise, that I would do my utmost in their service, and for the good of their son. With this they were silenced, I cannot say satisfied.

The next morning, before five o'clock, the lad was in my chamber, and very brisk; I arose and went with him. The field he led me to I guessed to be twenty acres, in an open country, and about three furlongs from any house. We went into the field, and had not gone above a third part, before the spectrum, in the shape of a woman, with all the circumstances he had described her to me in the orchard the day before, (as much as the suddenness of its appearance and evanition would permit me to discover) met us and passed by. I was a little surprised at it; and though I had taken up a firm resolution to speak to it, yet I had not the power, nor indeed durst I look back, yet I took care not to show my fear to my pupil 1 guide, and therefore telling him that I was satisfied in the

truth of his complaint, we walked to the end of the field, and returned, nor did the ghost meet us at that time above once. I perceived in the young man a kind of boldness mixed with astonishment; the first caused by my presence, and the proof he had given of his own relation, and the other by the sight of his prosecutor.

In short, we went home; I, somewhat puzzled, he much animated. At our return, the gentlewoman (whose inquisitiveness had missed us) watched to speak with me; I gave her a convenience, and told her that my opinion was that her son's complaint was not to be slighted, nor altogether discredited, yet that my judgment in his case was not settled. I gave her caution, moreover, that the thing might not take wind, lest the whole country should ring with what we yet had no assurance of.

In this juncture of time I had business which would admit no delay; wherefore I went to Launceston that evening, but promised to see them again next week. Yet I was prevented by an occasion which pleaded a sufficient excuse, for my wife was that week brought home very ill. However, my mind was upon the adventure; I studied the case, and about three weeks after went again, resolving, by the help of God, to see

the utmost.

The next morning, being the 27th day of July 1665, I went to the haunted field myself, and walked the breadth of it without any encounter. I returned and took the other walk, and then the spectrum appeared to me much about the same place I saw it before when the young gentleman was with me; in my thoughts this moved swifter than the time before, and about ten feet distant from me on my right hand; insomuch that I had not time to speak to it, as I had determined with myself beforehand.

The evening of this day, the parents, the son, and myself, being in the chamber where I lay, I proposed to them our going altogether to the place next morning, and on some asseveration that there was no danger in it, we all resolved upon it. The morning being come, lest we should alarm the family of servants, they went under the pretence of seeing a field of wheat, and I took my horse, and fetched a compass another way, and so met at the stile we had appointed.

Thence we all four walked leisurely into the quartils, and had passed above half the field before the ghost made its appearance. It then came over the stile just before us, and moved with that swiftness, that by the time we had gone six seven steps it passed by. I immediately turned my

or

head and ran after it, with the young man by my side; we saw it pass over the stile at which we entered, but no farther; I stept upon the hedge at one place, and he at another, but could discern nothing; whereas I dare aver, that the swiftest horse in England could not have conveyed himself out of sight in that short space of time. Two things I observed in this day's appearance :—

1. That a spaniel dog, who followed the company unregarded, did bark and run away, as the spectrum passed by; whence it is easy to conclude that it was not our fear or fancy which made the apparition.

2. That the motion of the spectre was not gradatim, or by steps, and moving of the feet; but a kind of gliding, as children upon the ice, or a boat down a swift river, which punctually answers the descriptions the ancients gave of the motion of their Lemurs.

But to proceed, this ocular evidence clearly convinced, but withall strangely affrighted, the old gentleman and his wife, who knew this Dorothy Dingley in her life-time, were at her burial, and now plainly saw her features in this present apparition. I encouraged them as well as I could; but after this they went no more. However, I was resolved to proceed, and use such lawful means as God hath discovered, and learned men have successfully practised, in these uncommon cases.

The next morning being Thursday, I went out very early by myself, and walked for about an hour's space in meditation and prayer in the fields next adjoining to the quartils. Soon after five, I stepped over the stile into the disturbed field, and had not gone above thirty or forty paces before the ghost appeared at the farther stile. I spake to it with a loud voice, in some such sentences as the way of these dealings directed me, whereupon it approached but slowly, and when I came near it moved not. I spake again, and it answered in a voice neither very audible nor intelligible. I was not in the least terrified, and therefore persisted, until it spake again and gave me satisfaction.

But the work could not be finished at this time; wherefore the same evening, an hour after sunset, it met me again near the same place, and after a few words on each side it quietly vanished, and neither doth appear since, nor ever will more, to any man's disturbance. The discourse in the morning lasted about a quarter of an hour.

These things are true, and I know them to be so with as much certainty as eyes and ears can give me; and until I can be persuaded that my senses do deceive me about their proper

object, and by that persuasion deprive myself of the strongest inducement to believe the christian religion, I must and will assert that these things in this paper are true.

Mr. Aubrey gives us the story, in his Miscellanea, of the apparition to Cashio Burroughs, Esq., in the time of King Charles I, which I shall here relate.

Sir John Burroughs being sent Envoy to the Emperor by King Charles I, took his eldest son Cashio Burroughs along with him; and pursuing his journey through Italy, left his son at Florence to learn the language; where, having an intrigue with a beautiful courtesan, mistress to the Grand Duke, their familiarity became so public, that it came to the Duke's ear, who took a resolution to have him murdered; but Cashio having had timely notice of the Duke's design, by some of the English there, immediately left the city, without acquainting his mistress of it, and came to England; whereupon the Duke, being disappointed of his revenge, fell upon his mistress in the most reproachful language; she, on the other hand, resenting the sudden departure of her gallant, of whom she was most passionately enamoured, killed herself. At the same moment that she expired, she appeared to Cashio at his lodgings in London. Colonel Remes was then in bed with him, who saw her as well as he, giving him an account of her resentments of his ingratitude to her, in leaving her so suddenly, and exposing her to the fury of the Duke, and not omitting her own tragical exit, adding, withal, that he should be slain in a duel, which accordingly happened. And thus she appeared to him frequently, even when his younger brother (who was afterwards Sir John) was in bed with him. As often as she appeared, he would cry out with great shrieking, and trembling of his body, as well as anguish of mind, saying, "O God! here she comes! she comes!" and in this manner she haunted him till he was killed. She appeared to him the morning before he was killed. Some of my acquaintance (says Aubrey) have told me that he was one of the handsomest men in England, and very valiant.

Mrs. Veal's Visit to Mrs. Bargrave, at Canterbury.

Mrs. Margaret Veal, and Mrs. Mary Bargrave (before her marriage called Lodowick) had contracted a great intimacy in their younger years, at which time the father of one was customer, and that of the other minister, of Dover.

This friendship, as it served the true ends, was of use to