[To THZ EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. " ] SIR,—After reading the letters
of your correspondents upon " Witchcraft in Somersetshire," I questioned one of. my ser- vants, a most respectable woman, who has lived with me for ten years, upon the subject, and I am convinced that such superstitions are far more general than is believed to be the ease. She tells me that she has known of many instances where people believe themselves to have been " bewitched." One was a kitchen-maid in my service, who said a man in her village (near Hereford) had " overlooked " her ; and the same girl declared that an old woman who came begging to our kitchen-door had "bewitched " her baking of bread and spoiled it, because she had refused to give her anything. A previous cook, I find, would not sleep in a room alone, because she felt some one had " bewitched " her, and was very ner- vous about it. My informant was not at all surprised when I told her of the charms practised in the Somerset villages, and said she had often heard of such things. If these facts can be discovered in one small household, it seems as if the superstition were more widespread than people think, and it is worth investigating.—I am, Sir, &c., F. M.
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