‘This discourse passed about Six a Clock in the Evening in the Summer time. Immediately on which, _Ian Smagge_ affirms, He received a hard Stroke or Stroking on the Arm, from the Wrist upwards to his Shoulder; and then felt the Chair, that he sat in, to shake in an extraordinary manner. He lookt under the Chair, and about him, to see what caus’d the Motion, but discern’d nothing. His Wife and the sick Person were in the Room, but both distant from him. * * * * * ‘In two or three Days the said Person died, and her Husband was sent for, and acquainted with her Mind; but he, probably to save Charges, buried her in Town. The Funeral being over, he return’d to his Habitation in _Canvy Island_, and in a few Years made his _Exit_ also, which the old Inhabitants compute to be upward of 20 Years since. Presently, upon his death, unaccountable Noises were frequently heard in the House, to the great trouble of those that succeeded him in it. Such as forcibly opening and Shutting the Doors at Noon-day, no one being near them, or the least Wind or Breeze of Air stirring to do it. Nay, whilst the people have had the Doors in their Hands, they have been violently snach’d from them, and shut to and fro, with exceeding quickness, for many times together.’ There were all sorts of noises and silly tricks, such as spirits seem to delight in--breaking windows, throwing stones, etc., and a ghost or two thrown in. The local minister did all he could to quiet matters, and ‘throughout this sore Visitation discharged his sacred Function in a ready and constant attendance, in advising Mrs. Smagge to a Fast, and Prayers in the Family’; and no doubt his remedies were effectual, for the disturbances ceased. Cases of this kind became scarce, possibly because the Devil got weary of such puerilities, and I shall only record one more case in which he, certainly, made a house very lively: ‘AN AUTHENTIC, CANDID, AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL NARRATIVE, OF THE ASTONISHING TRANSACTIONS AT _STOCKWELL_ IN THE COUNTY OF _SURRY_, ON MONDAY AND TUESDAY THE 6TH AND 7TH DAYS OF JANUARY 1772. ‘On _Monday_, _January_ the 6th 1772, about ten o’clock in the forenoon, as Mrs. _Golding_ was in her parlour, she heard the china and glasses in the back kitchen tumble down and break; her maid came to her and told her the stone plates were falling from the shelves: Mrs. _Golding_ went into the kitchen, and saw them broke. Presently after, a row of plates from the next shelf fell down likewise, while she was there, and nobody near them; this astonished her much, and while she was thinking about it, other things in different places began to tumble about, some of them breaking, attended with violent noises all over the house; a clock tumbled down, and the case broke; a lanthorn that hung on the staircase was thrown down and the glass broke to pieces; an earthen pan of salted beef broke to pieces, and the beef fell about.’