little poem by Moore in which Reason awkwardly endeavours to imitate the graceful trifling of young Folly. "Then Reason grew jealous of Folly's gay cap, Had he that on, he her heart would entrap- Said Folly, 'old quiz;' Under the sun Is no such fun As Reason with my cap and bells on his head.” Old Reason's book And twisted the leaves in a cap of such tone Though not aloud She liked him still better in that than his own." 223 THE SUPERSTITIONS OF CLEWORTH HALL IN no county of England are so many decaying old mansions to be met with as in Lancashire, and amongst these, few are more remarkable, from the traditions clinging to it, than Kempnall Hall. Not that the mansion is recommended either by its grandeur or by its architectural pretensions; on the contrary, it is a plain building of brick, wood, and plaister, and the country around has no particular interest. The estate of Cleworth, anciently called Kempnough, was in the olden days possessed by a family who took their name from the land, a very common custom at the time; but the male issue of this house becoming extinct, the heiress conveyed it in marriage to Roger, youngest son of Geoffrey Worsley of Worsley. They, too, had no son, and thus Kempnall passed once more to another name, their daughter and heiress, Ellen, marrying Richard Parr, whose son took to wife Emma, daughter of William Tutgill, of Cleworth, in the parish of Leigh. From this alliance proceeded-fifth in descent-John Parr, Esq., of Kempnough and Cleworth, who by his wife, Margaret, left an only daughter and heiress, the male line being again broken off, an event which seems to have been of more frequent occurrence than in most families. This heiress, by name Anne, was twice married; first to Thurston Barton, and secondly, in 1578, to Nicholas Starkie, of Huntroyd, who thus acquired the estates of Kempnall and Cleworth. Such genealogical details are, it must be allowed, dry enough, but they are essential to the verification of our story; besides that, we cannot expect to get at the kernel of a nut without having first cracked its shell. From some unassigned motives of preference, Mr. Starkie took up his residence at Cleworth Hall, in 1594, and here it was that the events of our story happened, as recorded by the Rev. John Darrel, himself being one of the principal actors in it. At this period Mr. Starkie had two children, John and Anne, of the respective ages of ten and nine years, who, according to our autho rity, became possessed by evil spirits. As this was a malady for which the pharmacopæia contained no remedies, and was entirely beyond the practice of any regular physician, a noted coniuror was called in, by name John Hartley, who had recourse to various demonifugues, and at the same time drew a magical circle about the house. But the demons were unusually stubborn; for three years they manfully-or, perhaps, we should rather say, diabolically-maintained their ground, in despite of charms and fumigations, greatly to the benefit of the exorcisor, who all this while lived in Mr. Starkie's house in comfort and ease. Unfortunately for our conjuror he was one of those who never can leave well alone. As he found his presence seeming to grow more and more essential to the quiet of his benefactor's family, so did he constantly rise in his demands, till at length the patience of Mr. Starkie was quite exhausted, the rather as he began to suspect the conjuror of playing the same part that Tom Thumb does in the tragedy that bears his heroic name, "He made his giants first, and then he killed them." Or to descend to a less magnificent comparison, he was thought to make business for himself by introducing more devils into the house, just as the wily rat-catcher brings in a few rats to supply the place of those he has killed, that there may be no lack of business for him at some future day. Certainly, whether by the conjuror's agency or not, five other of the inmates of the house became possessed, when the servants and neighbours all sturdily persisted in attributing to him this increase of the demoniacal crop. To use the words of the old narrator,-"It was judged in the house that whosoever he kissed, in them he breathed the devil," and he further tells us, "all the seven demons sent forth strange and supernatural voices and loud shoutings." The result was the dismissal of our conjuror from his warm and comfortable office, the chief duties of which appeared to consist in eating, drinking, and enjoying himself. But it was soon discovered that the ejection of honest John, though it might benefit Mr. Starkie's larder, did by no means tend to lessen the great evil. The devils maintained their post, and were as troublesome as ever. In this strait the family consulted the celebrated astrologer, Dr. Dee, who gave it as his advice that they should call in the aid of certain godly preachers, and try what could be done by fasting and praying. But alas! No comfort ensued from this wondrous specific, The devils, it is true, were at first taken some |