Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1860-09-06

without tail, were all objects of terror in an
age when it was believed that the life of the
king had been endangered on his return from
Denmark by a storm raised by these very means
when the king himself had presided in per-
son at the trials of the witches, " taking great
delight to be present at their examinations"
and had employed his royal pen to prove alike
their existence and their criminality. The tail
less rats were peculiarly objects of terror. Imps
g in shape somewhat like a rat, but without
tail Or ears" things about the bignesso of
mouscs" -" things like moes having four feet
piece, but without tayls,' meet us on every
page of the witch trials. A little later we
come to the times OF Mathew Hopkins, the
witch finder Then we see Sir Mathew Hale
presiding at the trials Of the Bury St. Edmunds
witches, and Sir Thomas Brown, author of the
ReHgiO Medici and of the Inquiry into Vulgar
Errors, giving the evidence on which those un
happy wretches were sent to the gallows. We
find Baxter and Wesley was essentially connect
ed with the truths of Christianity, and almost
in our own day, johnson doubling if not be-
lieving in the existence and power of witches
The statute which made wltchcraft felony
punishable with DEATH was not repealed until
the year 1886, nor had it become obsolete. A
trial of the most solemn description took place,
under its provisions on the spring circuit Of
l7l2, before the judge of assize at Heltford.
The several collections of State trials so rich in
the earlier cases, contain (as far as we have
been able to discovery no report of this very re-
markable trial, though it is frequently referred
to in various treatiSes. There exists, however,
a full, minute, and trustworthy account of the
whole proceedings, in a very scarce tract enti,
tied " A full and impartial Account of Sorcery
and Witchcraft practised by Jane Wenham, Of
Wakerne in Hertforlshlre, upon the bodies OF
Anne Thorn and Anne Street &C. the Proceel-
lngs against her, from her being first apprehen.
den till she was committed to goal by Sir Henry
Chauncey also her Tryal at the Assizes at
Herttord, before Mr.. Justice Powell, when sEc
was found guilty of Felony and Wtchcraft,
and received sentence Of death for the same,
| March 4 l711-12. 4th Edit" This tract was
written by Mr.. Francis Bragge, e,of the prin-
cipal actors in the transaction He was a
young man of family and education. He had
recently taken his degree at the University Of
Cambridge, and appears to have been at the
time in question, residing sometimes with his
maternal grandfather, Sir Henry Chauncey, and
sometimes with his father, the Rev Francis
Bragge, vicar of the neighboring town of
Hitchin. We shall draw largely upon his mar
ratve, with the view Of reScuing from oblivion
the only record Of this very remarkable trial,
and throwing some additional light upon one Of
the most interesting and at the same time most
obscure pages in the history of human nature.
The village OF Walkerne, the scene Of the
events we are about to narratc, lies II little more
than four miles eastward from the Stevenago
station Of the Great Northern Railway. Nest
ling in a narrow valley, and embowered among
gigantic elms the low tower of the church, and
the thatched roofs of the farnhouscs, are hard
ly seen uAtilthe traveller is close upon the en-
trance to the village. Few places probably have
changed so little in the last hundred and fifty
years. Yew trees, clipped into the most fantas-
tic FORMS attest the antiquity Of the gardens
they adorn; and the low-rooled warm mud
cottages, Swarming with chubby rosycheeked
children, are evidently unconscious Of the eX.
r III
zymotic diseases. At the extreme north end of
the village stands the Rectcry, Il fitting resi-
dence for some learned fellow of Kings College
Cambridge, in the hands of which venerable
Society the patronage of the living is vested
Successive ncumhents have impressed upon the
, Rectory the marks of their individual tastes ;
one added library Of such dimensions, and So
: we'll stored, that his parishoners were won't to
G call it " the Doctor ba-arn flu o books. An
| other smoothed the lawn which slopes down tt
: the clear stream, over which a ootbridge leadt
. to the church, and made it brilliant with crl
ceoaria and the scarlet verhena. Thus the
}, Rectory has experienced moro change than any
other part of the village, and retains but little
/, Of what it was at the time to which our story
= relates 1t occupies, however, the same site,
is and the alterations have been so gradual a
If scarcely to destroy the identity.
d Our narrative does not, as might bosupposcd
y relate to any obscure or remote locality, or to
1T dark or ignorant period of history. Walkern
i ia within an easy afternoons ride of London
of and the literary intellect of England has neyc
nc shonc more brightly than il the year l7l2.-
he Dryden had set, but Pope had risen. Addso
at was painting his genial portrait of Sir Roge