In the Golden Legend by W. de Worde. It is said the evill spirytes
that ben in the regyon of th'ayre doubte moche whan they here the
belles rongen. And this is the cause why the belles ben rongen whan it
thondreth, and whan grete tempeste aud outrages of wether happen to
the ende that the feudes and wycked spirytes shold be abasshed, and
flee and cease of the movynge of tempeste. Fol. xxiv.
TRANSPORTATION BY AN
INVISIBLE POWER.
**A Letter from the Reverend Mr. Andrew Paschal, B.D. Rector of
Chedzoy in Somersetshire, to John Aubrey, Esq. at Gresham College,
London.
SIR,
I LAST week received a letter from a learned friend, the minister of
Barnstable in Devon, which I think worthy your perusal. It was dated
May 3, 1683, and is as follows. (He was of my time in Queen's
College, Cambridge.)
There having been many prodigious things performed lately in a parish
adjoining to that which Bishop Sparrow presented me to, called
Cheriton-Bishop, by some discontented daemon, I can easily remember,
that I owe you an account thereof, in lieu of that which you desired
of me, and which I could not serve you in.
About November last, in the parish of Spreyton in the county of Devon,
there appeared in a field near the dwelling house of Philip Furze, to
his servant Francis Pry, being of the age of twenty-one, next
August, an aged gentleman with a pole in his hand, and like that he
was wont to carry about with him when living, to kill moles withal,
who told the young man he should not be afraid of him; but should tell
his master, i. e. his son, that several legacies that he had
bequeathed were unpaid, naming ten shillings to one, ten shillings to
another, &c. Pry replied, that the party he last named was dead. The
Spectrum replied, he knew that, but said it must be paid to (and
named) the next relation. These things being performed, he promised he
would trouble him no further. These small legacies were paid
accordingly. But the young man having carried twenty shillings ordered
by the Spectrum to his sister Mrs. Furze, of the parish of Staverton
near Totness, which money the gentlewoman refused to receive, being
sent her, as she said, from the Devil. The same night Fry lodging
there, the Spectrum appeared to him again, whereupon Fry challenged
his promise not to trouble him, and said he had done all he desired
him; but that Mrs. Furze would not receive the money. The Spectrum
replied, that is true indeed; but bid him ride to Totness and buy a
ring of that value, and that she would take. Which was provided for
her and received by her. Then Fry rode homewards attended by a servant
of Mrs. Furze. But being come into Spreyton parish, or rather a little
before, he seemed to carry an old gentlewoman behind him, that often
threw him off his horse, and hurried him with such violence, as
astonished all that saw him, or heard how horridly the ground was
beaten; and being come into his master's yard, Pry's horse (a mean
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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