Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-02-25

not penniless, as she owned her cottage,
which had been built on waste land by
her father. Years pass in hermit-likt
life for the poor creature, whose foul
tongue blackened all of whom she spoke.
To make matters worse she was report
ed far and wide as a witch, a dabbler in
the black art, in which it was said
her father had trained her. One can
imagine her veritable Macbeth witch
about the burning caldron. She told for
tunes and healed strange diseases. Hany
calamity occurred, the poor old creature
was jeered and hooted by the mob, who
showed here no mercy, peltng her with
stones, and setting ali sorts of traps for
her. At this stage of her mild, titful
career, she would lean out of her hatch
door, with a weird red cap set upon her
uncanny head. The crowd would jeer
and call her old Mother Red Cap"
Her nose was broad and huge, her eye
brows shaggy and sinister, her brow
deep SCARED with wrinkles, and her
sensual mouth with an habitual suller
expression. On her shoulders she wore
a gray striped frieze, patched in black
dabs, looking like a swarm of black
bats. Suddenly she would allow her
enormous black cat to jump up beside
her, when her Knockers fled dreadin2
superstitiously, blacklist double enemies.
To-day, we should call the poor wretch
"a maniac" but in her days she was S
witch" Her death is described in a
time-yellowed pamphlet in the British
museum as follows: Hundreds of men,
women, and children were witnesses OF
the devil entering her house in his
very appearance and state, and that, al
though his return was narrowly watch
ed for, he was not seen again, and that
Mother Damnable was found dead on
the following morning, sitting before
the fireplace, holding a crutch over il
with q teapot full of herbs. drugs, and
liquid. part of which being given to the
cat the hair fell off in two hours, and the
cat soon after died. That the body was
stiffwhen found, and that the underta-
ker was obliged to break her limbs be-
fore he could place them in a coffin,
and that the justices have put men in
possession of the house to examine it.
contents. Such is the closing history OF
this strange being, whose name will
ever be associated with Camdentown,
and whose Renaissance will ever be re-
vived by the old wayside house, which,
built on the sight of the old beldame's
cottage, wears her head as the sign of
the tavern"
At the beginning of the current cen.
fury, the Mother Red Cap was favor
tie place of resort for weary Londoners
who longed to breathe fresh air and
revel in country quiet in this house, Their
standing in the open fields and ap.
preached by green lanes and poisoning
hedgerows. Over the way was a dairy,
Il sort of milk fair at which visitors
were served with fresh milk from the
COW.
Leaving Mother Red Cap, who was, it
seems, "neither man nor woman, neith-
er brute nor human, but ghOul," to par.
aphrase Edgar Allen Poe, less than hall
a mile brings us to Mother Shipton, no
less mythical mother than Red Cap. In
rural England, as in rural America,
Mother Symptoms prophecies are some
what believed. She is regarded as
prophet by simple folk. She is also o
the reign of bluff King Henry VIII.
Tradition accords her birthplace as
Knaresborough, and relates that she
"sold her soul to the DEVIL that sh
might be able, while living on earth, to
forecast the future to her seekers after
hidden mysteries. Alas. this idea still
fingers even in aesthetic nineteeeth cen
fury peoples, only they call that sort OF
women by high-sounding titles" astrol.
ogers' and " clairvoyants. She was o
witch, yet she was not destined to share
the fare of the traditional witch, for she
died in her bed in Yorkshire, near Cliff
ton, at very advanced age. In the
churchyard of Clifton memorial stone
set forth:
Here lies she who never lied,
Whose skill often has been tried;
Her prophecies shall still survive
And ever keep her name alive.
Each day of her erratic life was marked
by her fOrctclling remarkable tales, nj!
of which involved grave attention. From
the uttermOst counties of England she
was consulted by all grades of society,
who flockcd to their prophecies, Moth.
er Shipton." To an abbot agent of the
| king, She foretold the suppression of the
monasteries by Henry VIII, the soy
creign's union with Anne Boleyn,
Smithfeld's hereto flames, Caroline
WolSey's death, and the cruel execution
of Mary Queen of Scots. In addition
she told of the coming to the throne OF
! England of James |. OF this she NUT
| tered.
From the cold north
Every evil shall come forth.
Consulted one last time, she uttered a
strange prophecy, the one above al
others mostly quoted in this century:
| The time shall come when seas of blood
! Shall mingle with greater food;
! Great noise shall there be heard great shouts
and cries,
! And seas shall thunder louder than the skies.
! Then shall three lions fight with three, anc
bring
JOY to people, honor to king.
| Peace shall then be as before;
! Plenty shall everywhere be found,
And men with swords shall pillow the ground
james was also his predecessor.
! Queen Elizabeth, was disturbed by the
strange prophecies of Mother Shipton.
! For Bcss, despite of her masculine in
tellect and iron will, was a very woman
in many essentials. To her Mother
Shipton foretold:
Before the good folk Of this kingdom be un.
| done,
Shall Highgate hill stand in the midst OF
London.
This contamination is rapidly being
reached to-day, if not at the time it was
versed. James, as also Elizabeth, was
so moved by the old DANES words that
he forbade by law additions to London
in the way of building. Down to the
fire of 1866, London as a metropolis
was very compact. Mother Symptoms
sign presents demure, wizened dame
on its swinging board, and leads to odd,
ghostlike visions. But truce to her.
Entering the inn to look about bit,
the pert barmaid says: What shall il
be, miss?" l reply: Water. clear,
filtered water: but here is your sixpence,
and let us unite in drinking death tc
superstitution of the black art and the
potency of The Three Mothers.