There can be little doubt that most of those visionary appearances which have been frequently seen in the sky and in mountainous regions, are phantoms produced by the cause to which I am adverting, such as armies of footmen and horsemen, which some have asserted to have been seen in the air near the horizon. A well authenticated instance of this kind occurred in the Highlands of Scotland:--Mr. Wren of Wetton Hall, and D. Stricket his servant, in the year 1744, were sitting at the door of the house in a summer evening, when they were surprised to see opposite to them on the side of Sonterfell hill--a place so extremely steep, that scarce a horse could _walk_ slowly along it--the figure of a man with a dog pursuing several horses, all running at a most rapid pace. Onwards they passed till at last they disappeared at the lower end of the Fell. In expectation of finding the man dashed to pieces by so tremendous a fall, they went early next morning and made a search, but no trace of man or horse, or the prints of their feet on the turf could be found. Sometime afterwards, about seven in the evening, on the same spot, they beheld a troop of horsemen advancing in close ranks and at a brisk pace. The inmates of every cottage for a mile round beheld the wondrous scene, though they had formerly ridiculed the story told by Mr. Wren and his servant, and were struck with surprise and fear. The figures were seen for upwards of two hours, till the approach of darkness rendered them invisible. The various evolutions and changes through which the troops passed were distinctly visible, and were marked by all the observers. It is not improbable that these aërial troopers were produced by the same cause which made the castle of Dover to appear on the side of the hill next to Ramsgate, and it is supposed that they were the images of a body of rebels, on the other side of the hill, exercising themselves previous to the rebellion in 1745.[12]