bury in 1679, on the same anniversary. It is well known, by the favour of the mob, they hoped then to have made the duke of Monmouth king, who was planted at sir Thomas Fowls's at Temple bar, to wait the event; while the rest of the great men of his party were over the way at Henry VIII's tavern. King Charles had been persuaded to come to sir Francis Child's to see the procession; but before it began, he had private notice given him to retire, for fear of what mischief the mob might be wrought up to. He did so; which ruined the design they had to seize on his person and proclaim the duke king. This was the scheme our modern politicians went upon. One of them was heard to say, "They must have more diversions than one, i. e. burning, for the good people of London; since the mob loved to create as well as to destroy."

By this time, I do not doubt, sir, but you are thoroughly convinced of the innocence of this intended procession, which they publicly avow, and tell the ministry they are welcome to make what they can of it, knowing themselves safe by having only intended not acted the mischief; if it had once come to that, they would have been so far above the fear of punishment for their own crimes as to become executioners of the innocent.

Truly I think the malice of that party is immortal, since not to be satiated with twenty-three years' plunder, the blood of so many wretches, nor the immense debt with which they have burdened us. Through the unexampled goodness of the queen and the lenity of the other parts of the legislature, they are suffered to sit down unmolested, to bask and revel in that wealth they have so unjustly acquired: yet they pursue their principles with unwearied industry, club their wit, money, politics, toward restoring their party to that power from whence they are fallen; which, since they find so difficult, they take care by all methods to disturb and vilify those who are in possession of it. Peace

is such a bitter pill they know not how to swallow; to poison the people against it they try every nail, and have at last hit of one they think will go, and that they drive to the head. They cry, "No peace!" till the trade of our nation be entirely given up to our neighbours. Thus they would carry on the public good of Europe at the expense of our private destruction. They cry, "Our trade will be ruined if the Spanish West Indies remain to a son of France;" though the death of his father may cause Philip to forget his birth and country, which he left After the decease of his grandfather he will be only the brother of a haughty rough-natured king, who in all probability may give him many occasions to become every day more and more a Spaniard.

so young.

They do not allow the dauphin's or the emperor's death have made an alteration in affairs, and confide all things to the supine temper of the Austrian princes; from whence they conclude there can be no danger in trusting half Europe to the easy unactive hands of such an emperor. But may not another Charles V. arise? another Philip II. who, though not possessed of the Austrian territories, gave more trouble and terror to England than ever she felt from France; inasmuch as had not the seas and winds fought our battles, their invincible Armada had certainly brought upon us slavery and a popish queen! Neither is it a new thing for princes to improve as well as degenerate. Power generally brings a change of temper. Philip de Comines tells us, "That the great duke of Burgundy in his youth hated the thoughts of war and the fatigue of the field. After he had fought and gained one battle he loved

nothing else; and could never be easy in peace, but led all his life in war, and at length died in it; for want of other enemies fighting against the poor barren Swissers, who were possessed of nothing worth contending for."

But it is not reason, or even facts, that can subdue this stubborn party. They bear down all by noise and misrepresentation. They are but will not seem convinced, and make it their business to prevent others from being so. If they can but rail and raise a clamour they hope to be believed, though the miserable effects of their mal-administration are ten thousand to one against them; a festering obvious sore, which when it can be healed we know not, though the most famous artists apply their constant skill to endeavour at a cure. Their aversion to any government but their own is unalterable; like some rivers that are said to pass through without mingling with the sea, though disappearing for a time, they rise the same and never change their nature.

I am, sir, &c.

The preceding tract will be best illustrated by the following account of the subject of it, transcribed from a folio half-sheet published in 1711 :

"An account of the mock procession of burning the pope and the chevalier de St. George, intended to be performed on the 17th instant, being the anniversary of queen Elizabeth of pious and glorious memory.

"The owners of the pope, the chevalier de St. George, fourteen cardinals, and as many devils, which were taken out of a house in Drury-lane at midnight between the 16th and 17th instant, and exposed to view at the Cockpit for nothing (on the latter of those days), think fit to acquaint the world that their intention in making them was, with those and other images (in case their goods had not been forcibly taken away), to have formed the following procession:

"Twenty watchmen to clear the way, with linkboys lighting them on each side.

"Twenty-four bagpipes marching four and four, and playing the memorable tune of Lillibullero. "Ten watchmen marching two and two, to prevent disorder.

"Four drums in mourning, with the pope's arms in their caps.

"A figure representing cardinal Gualteri, lately made by the pretender protector of the English nation, looking down on the ground in a sorrowful posture; his train supported by two missionaries from Rome, supposed to be now in England.

"Two pages, throwing beads, bulls, pardons, and indulgences.

"Two jack-puddings sprinkling holy water. "Twelve hautboys playing the tune of the Greenwood-tree.

"Two lackeys on each side of them bearing streamers, with these words, Nolumus Leges Angliæ mutare, being the device on the colours of the right reverend the bishop of London's troops when he marched into Oxford in the year 1688.

"Six beadles with protestant flails in their hands. "These followed by four persons bearing streamers, each with the pictures of the seven bishops who were sent to the Tower.

"Twelve monks, representing the fellows who were put into Magdalen-college in Oxford on the expulsion of the protestants.

"Twelve streamer-bearers with different devices, representing sandals, ropes, beads, bald pates, and big-bellied nuns.

friend as the vice-chamberlain himself; whereupon poor don Guzman and his two agents were, at Mr. Vice-chamberlain's request, examined before a principal secretary of state, and their examinations taken in writing. But here I must with shame confess that our hero's behaviour was much below his character; he shuffled and dodged, denied and affirmed, contradicted himself every moment, owned the fact, yet insisted on his honour and innocency. In short his whole demeanour was such that the rawest stock-jobber in Exchange-alley would blush to see it. It is true he hath since in some manner recovered his reputation; he talks boldly wherever he comes as if he were the party injured, and as if he expected satisfaction; and what is still more heroical, goes on in his old trade of disposing places, though not of such great consideration.

How the affair will end I cannot tell; the vicechamberlain, between generosity and contempt, not being hitherto very forward in carrying it to a formal prosecution; and the rest of the court contenting themselves, some with laughing and some in lifting up their eyes with admiration.

However I think the matter well deserves to be recorded, both for the honour of the manager and to let you and the world know that great abilities and dexterity are not confined to Exchange-alley. I am, sir, yours, &c.

THE STORY

OF THE ST. ALBAN'S GHOST; OR, THE APPARITION OF MOTHER HAGGY. Collected from the best manuscripts.

Sola, Novum Dictuq., Nefas, Harpyia Celano Prodigium canit, et tristes denuntiat Iras.-VIRGIL.

THE FOURTH EDITION: FROM A COLLECTION OF TRACTS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

The following jeu d'esprit is thus alluded to by the reputed author, who affects to disavow it, in his Journal to Stella, Feb. 22: "I went to lord Masham's to-night, and lady Masham made me read her a pretty twopenny pamphlet just published, called 'The St. Alban's Ghost. I thought I had writ it myself; so did they; but I did not."

I CAN scarcely say whether we ought to attribute the multitude of ghosts and apparitions which were so common in the days of our forefathers to the ignorance of the people or the impositions of the priest. The Romish clergy found it undoubtedly for their interest to deceive them, and the superstition of the people laid themselves open to receive whatsoever they thought proper to inculcate. Hence it is that their traditions are little else than the miracles and achievements of unbodied heroes, a sort of spiritual romance, so artfully carried on and delivered in so probable a manner as may easily pass for truth on those of an uncultivated capacity or a credulous disposition. Our sectarists indeed still retain the credulity as well as some of the tenets of that church; and apparitions and such-like are still the bugbears made use of by some of the most celebrated of their holders forth to terrify the old women of their congregation (who are their surest customers), and enlarge their quarterly subscriptions. I know one of these ambidexters who never fails of ten or twenty pounds more than ordinary by nicking something wonderful in due time; he often clothes his whole family by the apparition of a person lately executed at Tyburn, or a whale seen at Greenwich or thereabouts; and I am credibly informed that his wife has made a visit with a brand new sable tippet on, since the death of the Tower lions.

VOL. I.

But as these things will pass upon none but the ignorant and superstitious, so there are others that will believe nothing of this nature even upon the clearest evidence. There are it must be owned but very few of these accounts to be depended on; some however are so palpable, and testified by so good authority, by those of such undoubted credit and so discerning a curiosity, that there is no room to doubt of their veracity, and which none but a sceptic can disbelieve. Such is the following story of Mother Haggy of St. Alban's in the reign of king James I.: the mighty pranks she played in her lifetime, and her apparition afterwards, made such a noise both at home and abroad and were so terrible to the neighbourhood, that the country people to this day cannot hear the mention of her name without the most disinal apprehensions. The injuries they received from the sorceries and incantations of the mother, and the injustice and oppression of the son and daughter, have made so deep an impression upon their minds and begot such an hereditary aversion to their memory, that they never speak of them without the bitterest curses and imprecations. I have made it my business, being at St. Alban's lately, to inquire more particularly into this matter, and the helps I have received from the most noted men of erudition in this city have been considerable, and to whom I make my public acknowledg ment. The charges I have been at in getting manuscripts and labour in collating them, the reconciling the disputes about the most material circumstances and adjusting the various readings, as they have taken me a considerable time, so I hope they may be done to the satisfaction of my reader. I wish I could have time to distinguish by an asterism the circumstances delivered by tradition only from those of the manuscripts, which I was advised to do by my worthy friend the rev. Mr. Whiston, who had he not been employed otherwise might have been a very proper person to have undertaken such a performance.

The best manuscripts are now in the hands of the ingenious Dr. Garth, where they are left for the curious to peruse, and where any clergyman may be welcome; for however he may have been abused by those who deny him to be the author of the Dispensary, and taxed by others with principles and practices unbecoming a man of his sense and probity, yet I will be bold to say in his defence that I believe he is as good a christian as he is a poet, and if he publishes anything on the late D-d My I don't question but it will be interspersed with as many precepts of revealed religion as the subject is capable of. Those refined pieces that the doctor has been pleased to own since the writing of the Dispensary have been looked upon by the lewd debauched critics of the town to be dull and insipid, for no other reason but because they are grave and sober; but this I leave for others to determine, and can say for his sincerity that I am assured he believes the following relation as much as any of us all.

Mother Haggy was married to a plain homespun yeoman of St. Alban's, and lived in good repute for some years; the place of her birth is disputed by some of the most celebrated moderns, though they have a tradition in the country that she was never born at all, and which is most probable. At the birth of her daughter Haggite something happened very remarkable, and which gave occasion to the neighbourhood to mistrust she had a correspondence with Old Nick, as was confirmed afterwards beyond the possibility of disproof. The neighbours were got together at a merry-making, as they term it in the country, when the old woman's high-crowned

2

hat, that had been thrown upon the bed's tester during the heat of the engagement, leaped with & wonderful agility into the cradle, and being catched at by the nurse was metamorphosed into a coronet, which, according to her description, was not much unlike that of a German prince; but it soon broke into a thousand pieces. "Such," cries old Mother Haggy, "will be the fortune of my daughter, and such her fall." The company took but little notice of what she said, being surprised at the circumstance of the hat. But this is fact, says the reverend and honourable Lumley Lloyd, and my grandmother, who was a person of condition, told me, says he, she knew the man who knew the woman who was, said she, in the room at that instant. The very same night I saw a comet, neither have I any occasion to tell a lie as to this particular, says my author, brandishing its tail in a very surprising manner in the air; but upon the breaking of a cloud I could discern, continues he, a clergyman at the head of a body of his own cloth, and followed by an innumerable train of laity, who coming towards the comet it disappeared.

This was the first time mother Haggy became suspected, and it was the opinion of the wisest of the parish that they should petition the king to send her to be tried for a witch by the presbytery of Scotland. How this passed off I cannot tell, but certain it is that some of the great ones of the town were in with her, and it is said she was serviceable to them in their amours; she had a wash that would make the skin of a blackamoor as white as alabaster, and another that would restore the loss of a maidenhead without hinderance of business or the knowledge of any one about them. She tried this experiment so often upon her daughter Haggite that more than twenty were satisfied they had her virginity before marriage.

She soon got such a reputation all about the country that there was not a cow, a smock, or a silver spoon lost, but they came to her to inquire after it; all the young people flocked to have their fortunes told, which, they say, she never missed. She told Haggite's husband he should grow rich and be a great man, but by his covetousness and griping of the poor should come to an ill end: all which happened so exactly that there are several old folks in our town who can remember it as if it was but yesterday.

across.

a

She has been often seen to ride full gallop upon broomstick at noonday, and swim over a river in a kettledrum. Sometimes she would appear in the shape of a lioness, and at other times of a hen or a cat; but I have heard could not turn herself into a male creature, or walk over two straws There were never known so many great winds as about that time, or so much mischief done by them; the pigs grunted and the screech-owls hooted oftener than usual; a horse was found dead one morning with hay in his mouth, and a large overgrown jack was caught in a fish-pond thereabouts with a silver tobacco-box in his belly; several women were brought to bed of two children, some miscarried, and old folks died very frequently.

These things could not choose but breed a great combustion in the town, as they call it, and everybody certainly had rejoiced at her death had she not been succeeded by a son and daughter, who, though they were no conjurors, were altogether as terrible to the neighbourhood. She had two daughters, one of which was married to a man who went beyond sea; the other, her daughter Haggite, to Avaro [Marlborough], whom we shall have occasion to mention in the sequel of this story.

There lived at that time in the neighbourhood two brothers of a great family, persons of a vast estate and character and extremely kind to their ser vants and dependants. Haggite, by her mother's interest, was got into this family, and Avaro, who was afterwards her husband, was the huntsman's boy. He was a lad of a fine complexion, good features, and agreeable to the fair sex, but wanted the capacity of some of his fellow-servants; though he got a reputation afterwards for a man of courage, but upon no other grounds than by setting the country fellows to cudgelling or boxing, and being a spectator of a broken head and a bloody nose.

There are several authentic accounts of the be haviour of these two in their respective stations, and by what means they made an advancement of their fortunes. There are several relations, I say, now extant that tell us how one of these great brothers took Avaro's sister for his mistress, which was the foundation of his preferment, and how Haggite, by granting her favours to any one who would go to the expense of them, became extremely wealthy, and how both had gained the art of getting money out of everybody they had to do with, and by the most dishonourable methods. Never, perhaps, was any couple so matched in everything as these or so fit for one another; a couple so linked by the bonds of iniquity as well as marriage, that it is impossible to tell which had the greatest crimes to answer for.

It will be needless to relate the fortune of the brothers, who were their successive masters, and the favours they bestowed on them. It is sufficient that the estate came at last to a daughter of the younger brother, a lady who was the admiration of the age she lived in and the darling of the whole country, and who had been attended from her infancy by Haggite.

Then it was Avaro began his tyranny; he was intrusted with all the affairs of consequence, and there was nothing done without his knowledge. He married his daughters to some of the most considerable estates in the neighbourhood, and was related by marriage to one Baconface [Godolphin], a sort of bailiff to his lady. He and Baconface and Haggite got into possession as it were of their lady's estate, and carried it with so high a hand, were so haughty to the rich and oppressive to the poor, that they quickly began to make themselves odious; but for their better security they formed a sort of confederacy with one Dammyblood [Wharton]; Clumzy [Sunderland], their son-in-law; Splitcause [Somers], an attorney; and Mouse [Halifax], a noted ballad maker, and some others. As soon as they had done this they began so to domineer that there was no living for those who would not compliment or com ply with them in their villany. Haggite cried, Lord, madam, to her mistress, it must be so; Avaro swore, by G-d; and Baconface shook his head and looked dismally. They made every tenant pay a tax, and every servant considerably out of his wages, toward the mounding their lady's estate as they pretended, but most part of it went into their own pockets. Once upon a time the tenants grumbling at their proceedings, Clumzy, the son-in-law, brought in a parcel of beggars to settle upon the estate. Thus they lived for some years, till they grew richer than their mistress, and were perhaps the richest servants in the world: nay, what is the most remarkable and will scarcely find belief in future ages, they began at last to deny her title to the estate and affirm she held it only by their per