A Hundred Years Ago
THE " SPECTATOR," Auousx 2511r, 1832.
WrrencaArr.—The following case was heard at Union Hall Police Office this week. A young woman charged an old one with putting a spell upon her. Mr. Chambers inquired what she meant by a ' spell upon her ? " Complainant " She is nothing more nor less than an old witch, and everybody in the neighbourhood knows it." The old woman declared that she knew nothing about " putting a spell " on her accuser, who was never quiet except when she was scolding and calling out of her name. The com- plainant said, that the old woman had, by her acquaintance with the Devil, put a spell upon a man that was now lying on the flat of his back, bedridden, and there he would lie until she took the spell off. " She rattles marbles in a tea-pot at my door in the middle of the night, and fetches up rats alive out of the cellar by the tails, and lets them loose upon me ; and she is a cat-killer into the bargain." The witch and her victim were dismissed. Oh, Antelluck, Antelluck, as Cobbett has baptized thee, what a lame and halting jade thou art, notwithstanding all the boasts of thy march !
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