Report of the Committee appoynted to inquyre after the murder committed at Pittenweem. "At Edinburgh, sedurunt the Earle of Rothes, the Lord Yester, the Lord Enstruther, and her Majesties advocat. The baillies compearing, and having given in a subsequent information of the matter of fact, with the double of the precognition taken by them anent the murder of Janet Cornfoot, they find that the said Janet was brought from the parish of Lewchars, by two men, to the town of Pittenweem, upon the thirtieth of January last, about six o'clock at night; that the men brought her first to the minister, after she had stayed a little in a private house in the town; and that the minister being for the time at Baillie Cook's house, she was brought before Baillie Cook's door, but not immediately secured as she ought to have been: That when the officer, Peter Inues, after a little time, was found, and sent to secure her, the rabble was up, and that they deforced the officer, and made him flee that the officer went to the other two baillies and gott their verbal orders, but they concerned themselves no further: That when Baillie Cook heard of the rabble, he came out himself and dispersed them, and rescued the poor woman, but found her almost halfe dead, lying within the sea-mark— that she being in that condition, Baillie Cook did not order her to prison, but ordained the officer and four men to take her to a private house: that they carried her to Nicolas Lawson's, other houses being unwilling to receive her: that before Nicolas Lawson's door she was again assaulted, cast down, and murdered. And that it appears the principal actors were Robert Dalziell, a skipper's son, Walter Watson, in Bruntesland, and one Groundwater, an Orkney-man; all three fled." While these active magistrates displayed so much laudable anxiety to expel the great enemy of mankind, and his associates from their jurisdiction, it was not to be expected that they should look with horror on the instruments by which their object was, in some degree, accomplished. The end was probably thought holy enough to sanctify the means, however irregular. It does not appear that a single individual was ever brought to trial for the "three hour sport " of the rabble who murdered Janet Cornfoot. Before the baillies made their appearance in presence of the committee of the Privy Council, they had contrived, indeed, to imprison some of the murderers, but according to the writer of the letter to a nobleman already quoted "they were not long from the town, when the minister set them at liberty," as it is alleged, by virtue of an order from these magistrates themselves. The only men accused by Mortoun was one Thomas Brown, who died in prison, "after a great deal of hunger and hardship;" and his remains, as well as those of Janet Cornfoot, were denied Christian burial. Thus much is said of the Pittenweem witches, not because the evidence agains them if Mortoun's pretended fits could deserve such a name, or the murder of two of them, are circumstances in themselves remarkable. Hundreds were brought to the stake in Scotland during the seventeenth century, on no better grounds. But what is worthy of particular notice * * See the ridiculous confessions of certain Scotch witches, taken out of an authentic copy of their trial at the assizes, held at Paisley, Feb. 15, 1678, 'touching the bewitching of Sir George Maxwell.-Also the confession of Agnes Sympson to King James-a confession which in all probability induced that Monarch to change his opinion relative to the existence of witches; which, it was reported, he was inclined to think were mere conceits; as he was then but young (not above in their case, is the visible conflict between statutelaw supported by the obstinate credulity of the lower classes, on the one hand,-and the dawn of a purer day which was then rising upon our rulers, and had already begun to dispel the illusions of the most detestable fanaticism, on the other. Yet melancholy it is to reflect how long the night had lasted, and how deep had been its darkness; nor is it less lamentable to perceive how ineffectually the influence of true religion and of science is opposed in our days, to the inveterate credulity of a large proportion of our countrymen.* five or six and twenty years of age) when this examination took place before him; and part of the third chapter of his Demonologie appears to be a transcript of this confession. The vulgar, even in this most enlightened period, are not entirely exempt from the belief in the powers of sorcery and magic, and other fantastical and imaginary agonies, such as exorcisms, charms, and amulets. It is pleasing, however, to contrast the present times, in which there is almost an extinction of these delusions. It is only at the present time, 192 years since great numbers of persons were condemned to death, in the ordinary course of law, and executed for witchcraft in England. And the like disgraceful proceedings have occurred in Scotland of a more recent date. The like trials and convictions, and executions, took place in New England, in the end of the 17th century.-See Evleyn's Memoirs. Vol. xi. p. 35.-See also Demonologia, by J. S. Forsyth, 1827. PEVERIL'S CASTLE OF THE PEAK. (See also page 167). The following outline of Peveril's Castle of the Peak, which might have made a conspicuous figure in the novel of that name, may still relieve the disappointment of many of our antiquarian readers.* On the summit of a steep and rocky eminence, at the base of which is that vast subterranean recess, the Peak Cavern, stand the remains of the ancient castle of the PEAK; from which the adjacent village of Castleton derives its name. The elevated situation of the fortress, and the almost perpendicular chasms that partially insulate the rock which it occupies, must have rendered it nearly impregnable, prior to the use of artillery in sieges. On the east and south sides its site is bounded by a narrow ravine called the cave; and on the west it is skirted by the precipice which frowns over the cavern. The most accessible part is towards the north. Yet even here the path has been carried in a winding, or rather in a zig-zag direction, in order to obviate the steepness of the ascent. The Castle-yard, or Ballium, included nearly the whole summit of the eminence. The enclosing wall, though for the most part in ruins, measures twenty feet in height in a few places on the outside. On the north side were two small towers, now destroyed. The entrance was at the See a series of views of the most interesting remains of ancient Castles of England and Wales. north-east angle, where part of an arched way still remains. Near the opposite angle in the keep, the walls of which, on the south and west sides, are the most entire, and at the north-west corner they are above fifty feet high; the north and east sides are much shattered. On the outside the keep forms a square of thirty eight feet, but its interior dimensions are unequal; the extent from north to south being rather more than twenty-one feet, but from east to west only nineteen. The walls consist of broken masses of limestone, embedded in mortar of such tenacity, that it imparts to the whole the solidity of an entire rock. Some of the herring-bone masonry may be observed on the inner side. The interior is now a complete vacuity; but it anciently consisted of two chambers, one on the ground floor and one above, over which the roof was raised with a gable-end to the north and south, but not equal in height to the outer walls. The lower chamber was about fourteen feet high, and the upper one about sixteen: the only entrance to the former appears to have been through a door-way on the southside of the latter, down a flight of steps now wholly destroyed, but said to have existed within memory. At the south-east angle are the ruins of a narrow winding stair-case communicating with the roof. In the east wall of the upper apartment is a kind of recess or niche, of a rectangular figure, having a singular canopy. That eminent antiquary Mr. King, who has minutely described this curious edifice in the Sequel to his observations on ancient castles," |