Yes, Madam, fays the woman, here is Mary come to fpeak to your ladyhip.

Mary come! fays fhe, in a furprize; what can be the matter! why, fure, has the feen fomething too? Mercy on me, what's the matter! what does fhe fay? She does not fay much, Madam, fays the woman, but he wants mightily to Speak with your ladyfhip, and is in a great hurry.

What fays the lady, is the frighted? I believe he is, fays the woman, but fhe will tell nothing but to your

felf.

Oh, I fhall die! fays the lady; call her up.

Pray, Madam, fays the woman, don't call her up till your ladyfhip has recovered yourself a little from your other diforders; fhe'll tell you fome wild tale or other of her own imagination, that will discomfit you, and do you mischief.

O, fays the lady, let her have whatever fhe will to fay, I do infift upon hearing it; if it fhould be from the devil, it cannot be worse than it is; call her up, I must speak with her.

Accordingly Mary came up, and the woman was ordered to withdraw.

As foon as the door was fhut, the lady again burst into tears; for fhe had been crying vehemently. O Mary, fays fhe, I have had a dreadful vifit this afternoon; your mafter has been here.

My master! why, madam, that's impoffible.

Nay, it was your mafter, I am fure; or the devil in his likenefs.

In a word, it is certain it was her husband in apparition, or the apparition of her husband, and he talked very warmly and clofely to her, and told her his eftate would not fupport her expenfive way of living, and that fhe would bring herself to mifery and poverty; and a great deal more to the fame purpofe as he had faid to Mary.

Mary immediately afked her ladyfhip what manner he appeared in; and by the defcription that her miftrefs gave, it was exactly the fame figure that had

appeared to her, and defired to fee the lodgings; fo Mary gave her ladyship a particular relation of what had happened to her alfo, and of the meffage the was charged to deliver.

What followed upon this alarm, and how the lady was reduced, and obliged to fell her fine furniture and equipage, and came to very low circumftances, though it be a part of the story, is not fo much to my purpofe in the relation. But what is remarkable to the cafe in hand is, that they allege, that just at the juncture, Sir John Owen, the lady's hufband, died in the West-Indies. I fuppofe, by his death, her fupplies were immediately stopped, and that was the occafion of her being reduced fo fuddenly.

This relation is taken from a manufcript, late in the poffeffion of Sir Owen Ap Owen, of Brecknockshire: the circumstance happened in the beginning of Queen Anne's reign.

INSTANCE OF WITCHCRAFT.

DUFFE, the feventy-eighth king of Scotland, laboured with a new and unheard of difeafe; no caufe was apparent, all remedies infignificant; his body languifhing in a continual fweat, and his ftrength apparently decaying, infomuch that he was fufpected to be bewitched, which increafed by a rumour, that certain witches of Forrett, in Murray, practifed his deftruction, arifing from a word which a girl let fall, that the king fhould die fhortly; who being examined by Donald, captain of the caftle, and tortures fhewed her, confefled the truth, and how her mother was in the affembly; and when certain foldiers were fent in fearch, they furprised them roafting a waxen image of the king before a foft fire, to the end that as the wax meltedby degrees, fo fhould the king diffolve, and his life waste away with the confumption of the other. But the image being broke, and the witches hang

cd

cury either to afcend or fall 2-10ths of an inch in the barometer above or below the mean height. From a fair comparifon of its friction with that of common clocks, it is thought it may have an uninterrupted motion for ages. Its principles are of the fimpleft nature. In the parish of St. George, Canonftreet, Ratcliff-Highway, there is an inftitution founded by Mr. Raine, whereby young women who have been four years in the fchool, four in the hofpital, and five in fervice, are entitled to draw lots for a wedding por. tion of 100l. The days of drawing are May-day, and the day after Chrittmas day; when fix of thefe young women, who have previoufly laid in their claims, draw tickets, which confist of five blanks and one prize; but thofe who are unfortunate at one time, are not precluded an half-yearly chance as long as they live. But if the fortunate maid cannot find a man who will marry her on that day fix months, from which fhe draws the fortunate lot, fhe forfeits her right to the 100l. which is otherwife then paid. When ever this ceremony takes place, the concourfe of people is immenfe; and the intereft which fuch an inftitution has on the feelings of the young female fpectators, is wonderful.

3. A melancholy affray happened between two Riding Officers and three fmugglers at Pluckley. The fmugglers were loaded with contraband goods, two of whom furrendered, but the third would not; fhortly after the two first returned armed with clubs, and endeavoured to rescue their companion, who in the intermediate time had received a violent blow on the head with a hanger, and whilft in the act of jumping over a gate, one of the officers hot him through the neck, which proved inftant death.

8. A most hocking and wanton murder was committed on the body of Sufannah Dell, in Lewkner's-lane, Drury-lane, of which the following are all the particulars that have tranfpired:

The deceafed was the wife of Dell, who, until a few weeks back, has for fome time been at fea; during his abfence fhe formed a connection with Robert Anderfon, and lived with him until her death. The husband of the deceased went to Anderson's lodgings, in Lewkner's-lane, in order to fpeak to his wife; Anderson was then with her in the room, and a companion of his, Matthew Goodall, was with them. Anderfon and the hufband of the deceafed were quarrelling with each other, when Anderson and Goodall drew knives, and the former fwore he would do for Dell; the deceafed threw herself on him, and begged he would not strike at him, when Anderfon conceiving the preferred her hufband to him, in a fit of jealousy stabbed her in the breast, and she expired in lefs than half an hour. Anderfon and Goodall then ran out of the houfe together, with their knives drawn, menacing destruction to all that oppofed them, and near the bottom of Drury-lane affaulted a foldier, for which they were apprehended and commit. ted by Mr. Justice Walker, for that affault. They were foon afterwards charged with the murder, and are now detained for it.

11. A fire broke out at the corner of Stevens-street, Tottenham-court-road, it gained great strength at the bottom of the houfe before it was difcovered by the family, who had all retired to bed in the upper apartments and when the alarm was given, the ftairs were entirely confumed, and the windows left the only means of escape. The man of the houfe, by leaping from the window of the first floor, escaped; but his wife endeavouring to affift her children in an adjoining room, was, with a fine boy, nearly burnt to death. Two children, the one eleven, the other two years old, were confumed in the prefence of their parents. The woman and child were taken to the Middlesex Hofpital, but with little hopes of recovery.