The National Register.
London, England, 1808-10-30 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

A ludicrous accident occurred to a Mrs. H. a dashing woman,
who had been at Brighton some little time, on Thursday last.
Mrs. H. had been taking an airing on horseback, with Mr. S.
and had purposely diverged from the Lewes road, to enjoy the
rural beauties of the Earl of Chichester's park, and the village
of Stanmer, which is sitlated about the centre of it. Airs. If.
had been in the park but a short time, when she imagined that
tier horse betrayed symptoms of being thirsty, and instantly
guided hint to a pond there, to drink. Whether from having
been for some days on the coat, an inhabitant of a watering
place, he wishedhi.be muttered among the most daring bather-
of the season, or from whatever cause we know not, the animal,
the moment he found himself fetlock deep in the water, end%
laid himself down, and took a willing and refreshing roll in the
pond The situation of Mrs. H. may be well imagined. Mr.
dismounted, darted to her asAstance, and in the end snrceedeil
in extricating her from her implca-ant dilemma, but no! before
she had once or tw ice disappeared in the water and mud. I p-
pily Mrs. H. received no material injury ; and the residence of
a peasant in Staumer furnished her with dry habiliments.

WITCHCRAFT, munorn, AND CREDULITY.

An artful and villainous plot, accompanied by the mast un-
precedented instances of credulity that es er engaged public at-
tention, was lately developed before the Magistrates at the
Rotation Office, Leeds. The parties were Mary Bateman, of
Camptield, near this town, and 11 intim) Perigo and his w ifr,
of Brarnley ; she, the witch, and they the dupes. It appeared
that in August, ISO 6, an application was made to this woman
by Perigo, to cure hi mile of a complaint which was not stated
on the examination, hut w hick we suppose to be what is
called amongst people of her rank, " nervous," and amongst
their betters, " the hip." Mary, with becoming oto4exla, de-
clined to undertake the cure herself ; but said, that she had a
Friend at Scarbro', a Miss Blvth, who could "read the stars,"
and collect from them the knowledge requisite to remove all
corporeal and mental maladies, and as a preliminary step re-
quired, that Perigo's wife should send her flannel petticoat to
Miss myth, in order that she might from that article of dress
collect a knowledge of her disorder : the petticoat was sent, and
a propitious answer returned, wherein it was required, that the
Medium, Mary Bateman, through which all communication be-
twixt the Atrologer and Patient was to be made, should have
four guinea notes presented to her, and she was in return to
give Perigo four other guinea notes inclosed in a small bag, into
which if either his own curiosity, or the still stronger curiosity
of his wife, should induce them to look, the charm would be
broken,and sudden death would he the consequence. Strange as
it may appear. the wife of Perigo never looked into the enchant-
ed bag to the day of her death. Soon after the four guineas had
been given to Mary Bateman, a letter arrived from Scarbro',
directing that another guinea should he paid into her hands.
Similar requests were repeated and complied with, tilt forty
guineas had been thus extorted from the-e infatuated people,
uncle' a promi4e, however, that they should by and by he allow-
ed to °pea the bag:, and these bags, they were told, would be
found to ((attain ail the mune). they had advanced.
About mouths had now expired, and ;he business of fraud
and dein-ion still went on. Miss Myth could not, while certain
planets ruled, sleep on her own bed ; and in order to promote
the comfort of the "wise woman," Periga was to buy her a new
bed, It ith all the necessary appeodages, and send it to Mary
Bateman, through whose hands it was to be transmitted to the
nymph at Scarhro'. The bed, &c. which cost eight pounds,
was bought, and notes to the amount of thirty pounds more,
paid at various times into the hands of the Impuster. Unbound-
ed in i,er extortions, she next damanded a set of china ; this was
also furnished to her ; bat she complained that the tea-cannister
was oat sufficiently handsome to set before the genteel company
kept by a lady of her distinction, and demanded a tea-caddy in
its stead; which den; and was also complied with.
Perigo and his wife, thus drained of all the money/.they had ik
the world, and all the :unis their former good credit had enabletP
them to raise, and the wife•s health still growing worse rather
than better, they became itopatient to look into the mysterious
hags, and extract from them the wealth they contained. Their
clamourous impatience probably became troublesome, when,
a: it should seem, to silence their importunity, Mrs. Bateman
received, as she said, a packet from Scarborough ; this packet
e.mtained a powerful charm, which was to be mixed up in a
pudding, to he prepared for the purpose, and of which Perigo
and his wife were to eat, but on no account to allow any person
to parta%e with thew. They did eat, and there is hut too much
rt:ason to suppose, that this Nile woman had said within herself

OCT. 30.

in the day you eat thereof you shall surely die. The husband
eat sparing, he did not like the taste, hut his illfated wife, less
scrupulous, eat freely, they both became sick almost immediately
and continued in the most deplorable situation for twenty-four
hours : the wife lost the use of her limbs, and after languishing
five days, died on the 24th of May, 1807, a victim of credulity':
Perigo recovered, partially, but from that time to the pre-e.nt
has never had the perfect use of his limbs. Part of the pudding
was, by way of experiment, given to a cat, and it died ; some
fowls also picked up other parts of it, and shared the same five.
Coterary to the direction of Mary Bateman. Perigo applied 10
a surgeon in this town for advice ; and was told by him that he
ha I taken poison, but fortunately not in a quantity sufficiently
large to occasion his death.
After the death of his wife, it is natural to suppose that the
husband would have possessed sufficient,fortitude to emancipate
himself from the fangs of this wicked woman ; this, however,
was net tie, case, she had thrown her toils over him, mid though
the wife might not have been, as she supposed, bewitched, it is
pretty evident the husband was ender some such influence. From
May 18, 7, till Wednesday last, the charm continued to operate,
and the spell could not he dissolved.
At one time he went to Manchester by the direction of this
Jevabel ; at another he sent her one of Iris wife's gowns, air;
site ermrived to coax or frighten him out of another gown, a
yeti ireat, and the family bible ! And last of all she demanded
from him half a freshet of wheat, with three seven shilling pieces
inclosed. His (1-editors, at length, became impatient, and the
hope, of getting any part of his property hack failing, he deter-
mined to brave all danger, and look into the ussterious hags--
hut what roust have been his surprise and vexation to find iht
the contents of these bags were not worth one penny ! ! Aid to
find himself a pauper, without property, and with a ruined con-
stitution.
The bubble now burst : and after havinglept the business an
entire secret from every soul living, his wife alone excepted, In:
upwards of two years, he laid his hopeless case before some of
his neighbours ; by their direction Mary Bateman was appre-
hended ; when brought before the Magistrates she in part con-
fessed her delinquency, and admitted that there was no sum h
person as Miss Myth in existence, but that the whole was a
mere phantom, conjured up to forward her N ile purposes. The
Magistrates have committed the offender to the House of Cor-
rection, whether to he tried for swindling practices, or to he re-
moved from there to the County Caol,,there to take her trial
for w ilful murder, NS c are not informed.
On searching the house of this woman, (who has a husband
and several children) the bed and some other articles, the pro-
perty of William Perigo, amounting in value to about 10 or till
were found, and will he restored to the owner.
It is worthy of observation, that Mary Bateman is the per-on
whose lien laid an egg, about two years ago, at the Bank, in this
town, bearing this marvellous inscription, " Christ is coming.