"About the month of November in the year 1682, in the parish ofSpraiton, in the county of Devon, one Francis Fey (servant to Mr.Philip Furze) being in a field near the dwelling-house of his saidmaster, there appeared unto him the _resemblance_ of an _agedgentleman_ like his master's father, with a pole or staff in his hand,resembling that he was wont to carry when living to kill the moleswithal. The _spectrum_ approached near the young man, whom you mayimagin not a little surprized at the _appearance_ of one that he knewto be dead, but the _spectrum bid him not be afraid of him, but tellhis master_ (who was his son) that several _legacies which by histestament he had bequeathed were unpaid, naming ten shillings to oneand ten shillings to another, both which persons he named_ to theyoung man, who replyed that the party he last named was dead, and soit could not be paid to him. The ghost answered _he knew that, but itmust be paid to the next relation_, whom he also named. The spectrumlikewise ordered him to carry twenty shillings to a gentlewoman,sister to the deceased, living near Totness in the said county, andpromised, if these things were performed, to trouble him no further;but at the same time the _spectrum_, speaking of his _second wife_(who was also dead) _called her wicked woman_, though the gentlemanwho writ the letter knew her and esteemed her a very good woman. And(having thus related him his mind) the spectrum left the young man,who according to the _direction_ of the _spirit_ took care to see thesmall legacies satisfied, and carried the twenty shillings that wasappointed to be paid the gentlewoman near Totness, but she utterlyrefused to receive it, being sent her (as she said) from the devil.The same night the young man lodging at her house, the aforesaidspectrum appeared to him again; whereupon the young man challenged his_promise not to trouble him any more_, saying he had performed allaccording to his appointment, but that the gentlewoman, his sister,would not receive the money."_To which the spectrum replied that was true indeed_; but withal_directed_ the young man to ride to Totness and buy for her _a ring ofthat value, which the spirit said she would accept of_, which beingprovided accordingly, she received. Since the performance of whichthe ghost or apparition of the old gentleman hath seemed to be atrest, having never given the young man any further trouble."But the next day after having delivered the ring, the young man wasriding home to his master's house, accompanyed by a servant of thegentlewoman's near Totness, and near about the time of their entrance(or a little before they came) into the parish of Spraiton aforesaid,there appeared to be upon the horse behind the young man, theresemblance of the _second wife_ of the old gentleman spoken ofbefore."This daemon often threw the young man off his horse, and cast himwith such violence to the ground as was great astonishment, not onlyto the gentlewoman's servant (with him), but to divers others who werespectators of the frightful action, the ground resounding with greatnoise by reason of the incredible force with which he was cast uponit. At his coming into his master's yard, the horse which he rid,though very poor and out of case, leaped at one spring twenty-fivefoot, to the amazement of all that saw it. Soon after the she-spectreshewed herself to divers in the house, viz., the aforesaid young man,_Mistress Thomasin Gidly, Ann Langdon_, born in that parish, and alittle child, which, by reason of the troublesomeness of the spirit,they were fain to remove from that house. She appeared sometimes inher own shape, sometimes in forms very horrid; now and then like amonstrous dog belching out fire; at another time it flew out at thewindow, in the shape of a horse, carrying with it only one pane ofglass and a small piece of iron."One time the young man's head was thrust into a very strait placebetwixt a bed's head and a wall, and forced by the strength of diversmen to be removed thence, and that not without being much hurt andbruised, so that much blood appeared about it: upon this it wasadvised he should be bleeded, to prevent any ill accident that mightcome of the bruise; after bleeding, the ligature or binder of his armwas removed from thence and conveyed about his middle, where it wasstrained with such violence that the girding had almost stopp'd hisbreath and kill'd him, and being cut asunder it made _a strange anddismal noise_, so that the standers by were affrighted at it. Atdivers other times he hath been in danger to be strangled with cravatsand handkerchiefs that he hath worn about his neck, which have beendrawn so close that with the sudden violence he hath near beenchoaked, and hardly escaped death."The spectre hath shewed great offence at the perriwigs which theyoung man used to wear, for they are often torn from his head after avery strange manner; one that he esteemed above the rest he put in asmall box, and that box he placed in another, which he set against thewall of his chamber, placing a joint-stool with other weight a top ofit, but in short time the boxes were broken in sunder and the perriwigrended into many small parts and tatters. Another time, lying in hismaster's chamber with his perriwig on his head, to secure it fromdanger, within a little time it was torn from him and reduced intovery small fragments. At another time one of his shoe-strings wasobserved (without the assistance of any hand) to come of its ownaccord out of its shoe and fling itself to the other side of the room;the other was crawling after it, but a maid espying that, with herhand drew it out, and it strangely _clasp'd_ and _curl'd_ about herhand like a living _eel_ or _serpent_; this is testified by a lady ofconsiderable quality, too great for exception, who was an eye-witness.The same lady shewed Mr. C. one of the young man's gloves, which wastorn in his pocket while she was by, which is so dexterously tatter'dand so artificially torn that it is conceived a cutler could not havecontrived an instrument to have laid it abroad so accurately, and allthis was done in the pocket in the compass of one minute. It isfurther observable that if the aforesaid young man, or another personwho is a servant maid in the house, do wear their own clothes, theyare certainly torn in pieces on their backs, but if the clothes belongto any other, they are not injured after that manner."Many other strange and fantastical freaks have been done by the saiddaemon or spirit in the view of divers persons; a barrel of salt ofconsiderable quantity hath been observed to march from room to roomwithout any human assistance."An hand-iron hath seemed to lay itself cross over-thwart a pan ofmilk that hath been scalding over the fire, and two flitches of baconhave of their own accord descended from the chimney where they werehung, and placed themselves upon the hand-iron."When the spectre appears in resemblance of her own person, she seemsto be habited in the same cloaths and dress which the gentlewoman ofthe house (her daughter-in-law) hath on at the same time. Diverstimes the feet and legs of the young man aforesaid have been soentangled about his neck that he hath been loosed with greatdifficulty; sometimes they have been so twisted about the frames ofchairs and stools that they have hardly been set at liberty. But oneof the most considerable instances of the malice of the spirit againstthe young man happened on Easter Eve, when Mrs. C. the relator, waspassing by the door of the house, and it was thus:--"When the young man was returning from his labour, he was taken up bythe _skirt_ of his _doublet_ by this _female daemon_, and carried aheight into the air. He was soon missed by his Master and some otherservants that had been at labour with him, and after diligent enquiryno news could be heard of him, until at length (near half an hourafter) he was heard singing and whistling in a bog or quagmire, wherethey found him in a kind of trance or _extatick fit_, to which he hathsometimes been accustomed (but whether before the affliction he metwith from this spirit I am not certain). He was affected much aftersuch sort, as at the time of those _fits_, so that the people did notgive that _attention_ and _regard_ to what he said as at other times;but when he returned again to himself (which was about an hour after)he solemnly protested to them that the daemon had carried him so highthat his master's house seemed to him to be but _as a hay-cock_, and_that during all that time he was in perfect sense, and prayed toAlmighty God not to suffer the devil to destroy him_; and that he wassuddenly set down in that quagmire.The workmen found one shoe on one side of his master's house, and theother on the other side, and in the morning espied his perriwighanging on the top of a tree; by which it appears he had been carrieda considerable height, and that what he told them was not a fiction."After this it was observed that that part of the young man's bodywhich had been on the mud in the quagmire was somewhat benummbed andseemingly deader than the other, whereupon the following _Saturday_,which was the day before _Low Sunday_, he was carried to _Crediton,alias Kirton_, to be bleeded, which being done accordingly, and thecompany having left him for some little space, at their return theyfound him in one of his fits, with his _forehead_ much _bruised_, and_swoln_ to a _great bigness_, none being able to guess how ithappened, until his recovery from that _fit_, when upon enquiry hegave them this account of it: _that a bird had with great swiftnessand force flown in at the window with a stone in its beak, which ithad dashed against his forehead, which had occasioned the swellingwhich they saw_."The people much wondering at the strangeness of the accident,diligently sought the stone, and under the place where he sat theyfound not such a stone as they expected but a weight of brass orcopper, which it seems the daemon had made use of on that occasion togive the poor young man that hurt in his forehead."The persons present were at the trouble to break it to pieces, everyone taking a part and preserving it in memory of so strange anaccident. After this the spirit continued to molest the young man ina very severe and rugged manner, often handling him with greatextremity, and whether it hath yet left its violences to him, orwhether the young man be yet alive, I can have no certain account."I leave the reader to consider of the extraordinary strangeness of therelation.The reader, considering the exceeding strangeness of the relation,will observe that we have now reached "great swingeing falsehoods,"even if that opinion had not hitherto occurred to his mind. But if hethinks that such stories are no longer told, and even sworn to onBible oath, he greatly deceives himself. In the chapter on "HauntedHouses" he will find statements just as hard narrated of the years1870 and 1882. In these, however, the ghosts had no purpose butmischief. {118}We take another "ghost with a purpose".
