Part 24
The drummer, however, it appears, was apprehended in consequence of these strange and mysterious occurrences. He was first, it seems, committed to Gloucester jail for stealing, where a Wiltshire man going to see him, the drummer enquired the news in Wiltshire: the reply was, none: No, returned he, do you not hear of the drumming at a gentleman’s house at Tedworth? That I do, said the other, enough: “I, quoth the drummer, I have plagued him (or something to that purpose) and he never shall be quiet until he has made me satisfaction for taking away my drum. Upon information made to this effect, the drummer was tried for a wizzard at Sarum, and all the main circumstances here related being sworn to at the assizes, by the minister of the parish, and several others of the most intelligent and substantial inhabitants, who had been eye and earwitnesses of them, from time to time, for many years past; the drummer was sentenced to transportation, and accordingly sent away; and as the story runs, ’tis said, that by raising storms, and terrifying the seamen, he contrived, some how or other, to get back again. And what is still as remarkable, is, that during his restraint and absence, Mr. Monpesson’s house remained undisturbed; but as soon as the demon of his quiet returned, he fell to his old tricks again as bad as ever.”
The drummer had been a soldier under Cromwell, and used to talk much of “gallant books” which he had of an old fellow, who was counted a wizzard.
On the authority of Mr. Glanvil, who had it from Mr. Monpesson, we have the following story.
“The gentleman, Mr. Hill, who was with me, being in company with one Compton of Somersetshire, who practised physic, and pretends to strange matters, related to him this story of Mr. Monpesson’s disturbance. The physician told him, he was sure it was nothing but a rendezvous of witches, and that for an hundred pounds he would undertake to rid the house of all disturbance. In pursuit of this discourse, he talkt of many high things, and having drawn my friend into another room, apart from the rest of the company, said, he would make him sensible that he could do something more than ordinary, and asked him who he desired to see; Mr. Hill had no great confidence in his talk, but yet being earnestly pressed to name some one, he said he desired to see no one so much as his wife, who was then many miles distant from them at her home. Upon this, Compton took up a looking-glass that was in the room, and setting it down again, bid my friend look into it, which he did, and then, as he most solemnly and seriously professeth, he saw the exact image of his wife, in that habit which she then wore, and working at her needle in such a part of the room, there also represented, in which and about which time she really was, as he found upon enquiring upon his return home. The gentleman himself averred this to me, and he is a sober, intelligent, and credible person. Compton had no knowledge of him before, and was an utter stranger to the person of his wife. The same man is again alluded to, in the story of the witchcrafts of Elizabeth Styles, whom he discovered to be a witch, by foretelling her coming into a house, and going out again without speaking. He was by all accounted a very odd person.”
THE DEMON OF JEDBURGH.
In 1752, when Captain Archibald Douglass, who was then on a recruiting party in the South of Scotland, his native country, lay in the town of Jedburgh, his serjeant complained to him that the house in which he was quartered was haunted by a spirit, which had several times appeared to him by candle light in a very frightful form. The captain, who was a man of sense and far from being superstitious, treated the serjeant as a person who had lost his reason, threatened to cane him as a coward, and told him that goblins and spirits were beneath the notice of a soldier. The captain the night following had a strange dream, in which he saw the landlady of the inn, where the serjeant lay, in company with a great number of other females, ascending in the air, some riding on brooms, some on asses, and others on cats, &c. The landlady invited him to accompany them in their aërial excursion, to which consenting, he got upon a goat behind one of the women, and was carried with great velocity to a large heath near London, which he well knew on their arrival.
When all the females had alighted, his ears were suddenly alarmed with a thousand yells the most hideous that could be conceived, to the sound of which they all danced in a circle. The captain was placed in the centre; beholding all the wild vagaries with wonder and horror. When the music had ceased and the dancing closed, suddenly he found himself by a phalanx of infernal furies, whose forks were all aimed at his breast. The horror of this scene suddenly awaked the captain, who was glad to find himself safe and in a sound skin at his mother’s house, where he lay that night.
The next morning the serjeant, like the knight of the sorrowful countenance, waited on the captain for fresh orders, again declaring that he had seen the apparition which had threatened his life. The captain heard him with less impatience and inattention than he had the preceding day, saying, I myself have had a restless night and a terrible dream, but these things, I tell you again, are beneath the notice of a soldier. However, continued the captain, I am resolved to sift this matter till I discover the ground of your complaint. I have a notion that you, like myself, have been making too free with the bottle. The serjeant replied, most solemnly declaring that he was most perfectly in his senses when he saw a frightful spectre standing at the side of his bed, and which changing its appearance, retired in the shape of a great black cat, jumping from the window over the church steeple. Now to let your honour into a secret, continued the soldier, I was informed this morning, that the landlady is neither more nor less than a witch, and her goodman is second-sighted, and can tell, awake him from his sleep when you please, the precise hour of the night, and the exact minute.
To cut short our story, the captain at night accompanied the serjeant, well provided with fire arms, and a sword, to the chamber alluded to. Having placed the arms upon the table, he lay down by the soldier’s side in a bed without curtains, but enclosed with a frame of wainscoting with sliding doors. At midnight, they heard three knocks on one of the pannels, when the captain arose, ran to the door, which he found fast locked, and having a candle, searched every corner of the room without making any discovery. He lay down a second time, and about an hour after again heard the knocking three distinct times as before. Attempting to get up, the whole wainscoting tumbled down upon the bed, the violent noise of which alarmed the serjeant, who cried out, the witch! the witch is within! It was a considerable time before they could extricate themselves from the boarding, but so sooner was the captain disentangled than he saw a prodigious large sable cat flying to the window, at which he fired a pistol, and shot off one of its ears.
Next morning the captain called the landlord, and enquired how long his house had been haunted. The landlord replied, you must ask my wife, when she returns home, for she is seldom in bed after midnight. Just as the husband was so saying, the wife came into the kitchen, and falling into a swoon upon seeing the captain, fell down prostrate on the floor, discomposed her head-dress, and discovered a terrible wound on the left side of her head and the want of an ear. The captain swore that he would take her before the provost, in order that she might be committed for trial, but the husband interfering, and the captain well knowing that he could not continue in the country till the next circuit, contented himself with telling the story among the circle of his friends, none of whom had the least reason to doubt his veracity, as he was a gentleman of strict honour, undaunted courage, and tried integrity.—It may be inferred from this that witches have a capacity of changing their outward form, and appearing in the shape of a cat, or the like, at the will; but this might only be in the imagination of the captain and the serjeant, for it would be hard to account for the loss of this witch’s real ear, had she changed her body to that of the animal upon which the captain supposed he had fired.
How to reconcile these and various similar stories to the standard of common credence, is a task no less difficult than problematical; and to ascertain the real cause of the scarcity, now-a-days, of such mysterious and unaccountable occurrences, is at least a proof that the devil has been losing latterly, from some cause or other, much of his ascendancy over the human mind. To attempt to explain, or do away with the supposition, that spirits, apparitions, demons, or other preternatural agents, “hobgoblins damned,” or undamned, would be to attack the fundamental parts of the christian religion, which we are told and taught to believe constitutes a part of the law of the land. The wisest philosophers, heroes, and vagrants, have all, from the remotest antiquity downwards, testified to their appearance; and divines themselves have been equally orthodox, and active in promulgating the force of their testimony in support of the doctrine of preternatural agency; which neither the supposition of a morbid imagination, “contained in tabular views[65] of the various comparative degrees of faintness, vividness, or intensity, supposed to exist between sensations and ideas, when conjointly excited or depressed,” can account for on rational principles, when the mind is curious to be divested of all these presumed causes. That there are states and conditions of the mind, when, from intensity of excitement, the imagination may be played upon no one will deny; but that such causes should always have existed, is equally as preposterous and absurd—still between these and imposture, perhaps truth may lie; and then it is a point of scepticism that does little honour to the social compact, to cast even a shade of doubt on the moral character of a man, whose veracity was never before impeached on any other subject.
THE GHOST OF JULIUS CÆSAR.
Marcus Brutus, one of the murderers of Julius Cæsar, being one night in his tent, saw a monstrous figure come in about the third hour of the night. Brutus immediately cried out, what art thou, a man or a god? and why art thou come hither? The spectre answered, I am thy evil genius; thou shalt see me at Philippi. Brutus calmly answered, I will meet thee there. However, he did not go, but relating the affair to Cassius, who being of the sect of Epicurus, and believing nothing of these matters, told him it was a mere fancy; that there was no such thing as genii or other spirits, which could appear to men; that even if they should appear, they could not assume a human shape or voice, and had no power over men. Though Brutus was somewhat encouraged by those reasons, he could not entirely get the better of his uneasiness: but this very Cassius, in the midst of the battle of Philippi, saw Julius Cæsar, whom he had assassinated, riding up to him full speed, which terrified him so much, that he fell upon his own sword.
_The ghosts of the slain at the battle of Marathon._
Pausanias writes, that four hundred years after the battle of Marathon, there were still heard in the place where it was fought, the neighing of horses, and the shouts of soldiers, animating one another to the fight. Plutarch also speaks of spectres seen, and dreadful howlings heard in the public baths, where several citizens of Chœronea, his native town, had been murdered. He says, that the inhabitants had been obliged to shut up these baths, but that, notwithstanding the precaution, great noises were still heard, and dreadful spectres frequently seen by the neighbours. Plutarch, who is an author of acknowledged gravity and good sense, frequently makes mention of spectres and apparitions; particularly he says, that in the famous battle above alluded to, several soldiers saw the apparition of Theseus fighting for the Greeks and against the Persians.
_Familiar spirit or ancient Brownie._
It is recorded in Socrates, that after the defeat of the Athenian army under the prætor Laches, as he was flying in company with the Athenian general, and came to a place where several roads met, he refused to go the same road that the others took, and the reason being asked him, he answered that his genus, or familiar spirit, who frequently attended him, dissuaded him from it; and the event justified the precaution, for all those who went a different way, were killed, or made prisoners by the enemy’s cavalry.
GIPSIES—EGYPTIANS.
In most parts of the continent the gipsies are called _Cingari_, or _Zingari_; the Spaniards call them _Gitanos_, the French _Bohemiens_ or _Bohemiennes_.
It is not certain when the Gipsies, as they are now termed, first appeared in Europe; but mention is made of them in Hungary and Germany, so early as the year 1417. Within 10 years afterwards we hear of them in France, Switzerland and Italy. The date of their arrival in England is more uncertain; it is most probable that it was not until near a century afterward. In the year 1530, they are spoken of in the following manner, in the penal statutes.
“Forasmuch as before this time, divers and many outlandish people calling themselves Egyptians, using no craft nor feat of merchandize, have come into this realm, and gone from shire to shire, and place to place, in great company, and used great subtil and crafty means to deceive the people; bearing them in mind that they, by palmistry, could tell men’s and women’s fortunes; and so many times, by craft and subtilty, have deceived the people of their money; and also have committed many heinous felonies and robberies, to the great hurt and deceit of the people they have come among,” &c.
This is the preamble to an act, by which the Gipsies were ordered to quit the realm under heavy penalties. Two subsequent acts, passed in 1555 and 1565, made it death for them to remain in the kingdom; and it is still on record, that thirteen were executed under these acts, in the county of Suffolk, a few years before the restoration. It was not till about the year 1783, that they were repealed.
The Gipsies were expelled France in 1560, and Spain in 1591: but it does not appear they have been extirpated in any country. Their collective numbers, in every quarter of the globe, have been calculated at 7 or 800,000[66]. They are most numerous in Asia, and in the northern parts of Europe. Various have been the opinion relative to their origin. That they came from Egypt, has been the most prevalent. This opinion (which has procured them here the name of Gipsies, and in Spain that of _Gittanos_) arose from some of the first who arrived in Europe, pretending that they came from that country; which they did, perhaps, to heighten their reputation for skill in palmistry and the occult sciences. It is now we believe pretty generally agreed, that they came originally from Hindostan; since their language so far coincides with the Hindostanic, that even now, after a lapse of nearly four centuries, during which they have been dispersed in various foreign countries, nearly one half of their words are precisely those of Hindostan[67]; and scarcely any variation is to be found in vocabularies procured from the Gipsies in Turkey, Hungary, Germany, and those in England[68]. Their manners, for the most part, coincide, as well as the language, in every quarter of the globe where they are found; being the same idle wandering set of beings, and seldom professing any mode of acquiring a livelihood, except that of fortune-telling[69]. Their religion is always that of the country in which they reside; and though they are no great frequenters either of mosques or churches, they generally conform to rites and ceremonies as they find them established.
Grellman says that, in Germany, they seldom think of any marriage ceremony; but their children are baptized and the mothers churched. In England their children are baptized, and their dead buried, according to the rites of the church; perhaps the marriage ceremony is not more regarded than in Germany; but it is certain they are sometimes married in churches. Upon the whole, as Grellman observes, we may certainly regard the Gipsies as a singular phenomenon in Europe. For the space of between three and four hundred years they have gone wandering about like pilgrims and strangers, yet neither time nor example has made in them any alteration: they remain ever and every where what their fathers were: Africa makes them no blacker, nor does Europe make them whiter.
Few of the descendants of the aboriginal Gipsies are to be found any where in Europe, and in England less than any where else. The severity of the police against this description of the degenerate vagabonds existing at the present day, have considerably thinned their phalanxes, and brought them to something like a due sense of the laws and expectations of civilized society. What remains of them, nevertheless, contrive one way or other to elude the vigilance of the laws by different masked callings, under which they ostensibly appear to carry on their usual traffic.
The modern Gipsies pretend that they derive their origin from the ancient Egyptians, who were famous for their knowledge in astronomy and other sciences; and, under the pretence of fortune-telling, find means to rob or defraud the ignorant and superstitious. To colour their impostures, they artificially discolour their faces, and speak a kind of gibberish or cant peculiar to themselves. They rove up and down the country in large companies, to the great terror of the farmers, from whose geese, turkeys, and fowls, they take considerable contributions.
When a fresh recruit is admitted into the fraternity, he is to take the following oath, administered by the principal marauder, after going through the annexed forms:—
First, a new name is given to him, by which he is ever after to be called; then standing up in the middle of the assembly, and directing his face to the _dimber damber_, or principal man of the gang, he repeats the following oath, which is dictated to him by some experienced member of the fraternity; namely, “I, Crank Cuffin, do swear to be a true brother, and that I will, in all things, obey the commands of the great tawny prince, and keep his counsel, and not divulge the secrets of my brethren.
“I will never leave nor forsake the company, but observe and keep all the times of appointment, either by day or by night, in every place whatever.
“I will not teach any one to cant, nor will I disclose any of our mysteries to them.
“I will take my prince’s part against all that shall oppose him, or any of us, according to the utmost of my ability; nor will I suffer him, or any one belonging to us, to be abused by any strange _Abrams_, _Rufflers_, _Hookers_, _Paillards_, _Swaddlers_, _Irish Toyles_, _Swigmen_, _Whip Jacks_, _Jackmen_, _Bawdy Baskets_, _Dommerars_, _Clapper Dogeons_, _Patricoes_, or _Curtals_; but will defend him, or them, as much as I can, against all other outliers whatever. I will not conceal aught I win out of _Libkins_[70], or pun the _Ruffmans_[71], but will preserve it for the use of the company. Lastly, I will cleave to my _Doxy-wap_[72], stifly, and will bring her _Duds_[73], _Margery Prators_[74], _Goblers_[75], _Grunting Cheats_[76], or _Tibs of the Buttery_[77], or any thing else I can come at, as _winning_[78] for her wappings.”
The canters, it would appear, have a tradition, that from the three first articles of this oath, the first founders of a certain boastful, worshipful fraternity, (who pretend to derive their origin from the earliest times) borrowed both the hint and the form of their establishment; and that their pretended derivation of the first word _Adam_ is a forgery, it being only from the first _Adam Tyler_[70]. At the admission of a new brother, a general stock is raised for _booze_ or drink, to make themselves merry on the occasion. As for peckage or eatables, this they can procure without money, for while some are sent to break the ruffmans, or woods and bushes, for firing, others are detached to filch geese, chickens, hens, ducks, or mallards, and pigs. Their morts, or women, are their butchers, who presently make bloody work with what living things are brought to them; and having made holes in the ground under some remote hedge, in an obscure place, they make a fire, and boil or broil their food; and when it is done enough, fall to work tooth and nail; and having eaten more like beasts than human beings, they drink more like swine than men, entertaining each other during the time with songs in the canting dialect. As they live, so they lie together, promiscuously, and know not how to claim a property either in their goods or children; and this general interest ties them more firmly together, than if all their rags were twisted into ropes, to bind them indissolubly from a separation, which detestable union is farther consolidated by the preceding oath.
They stroll up and down all summer-time in droves, and dexterously pick pockets while they are telling fortunes; and the money, rings, silver thimbles, &c. which they get, are instantly conveyed from one hand to another, till the remotest person of the gang (who is not suspected, because they come not near the person robbed) gets possession of it; so that in the strictest search, it is impossible to recover it, while the wretches, with imprecations, oaths, and protestations, disclaim the thievery.
That by which they were said to get the most money, was, when young gentlewomen of good families and reputation, have happened to be with child before marriage, a round sum is often bestowed among Gipsies, for some mort to take the child; and, as in these cases it was never heard of more by the true mother and family, so the disgrace was kept concealed from the world; and, in the event of the child surviving, its parents are never known.
The following account of these wandering beings, is taken from Evelyn’s Journal, which throws some light on their degeneracy from the primitive tribes.
“In our statutes they are called Egyptians, which implies a counterfeit kind of rogues, who ‘being English or Welsh people,’ disguise themselves in uncouth habits, smearing their faces and bodies, and framing to themselves an unknown, canting language, wander up and down; and under pretence of telling fortunes, curing diseases, &c. abuse the common people, trick them of their money, and steal all that is not too hot or too heavy for them. See several statutes made against them, 28 Henry VIII. c. 10. 1 & 2. Philip and Mary, c. 4 & 5. Eliz. c. 20.
“The origin of this tribe of vagabonds called _Egyptians_, and popularly Gipsies, is somewhat obscure; at least the reason of the denomination is so. It is certain, the ancient Egyptians had the name of great cheats, and were famous for the subtilty of their impostures, whence the name might afterwards pass proverbially into other languages, as is pretty certain it did into the Greek and Latin, or else the ancient Egyptians, being much versed in astronomy, which in those days was little better than Astrology, the name was on that score assumed by these _diseurs de bonne avanture_, as the French call them, or tellers of good fortune. Be this as it may, there is scarce any country in Europe, even at the present day, but has its Egyptians, though not all of them under this denomination: the Latins called them _Egyptii_; the Italians, _Cingani_, and _Cingari_; the Germans, _Zigeuna_; the French, _Bohemiens_; others _Saracens_, and others _Tartars_, &c.