ght, as a traveller was passing on
horseback, the Dubbie jumped up behind him, and grasped him so close
round the body that he had no power to help himself, but expected to
be squeezed to death: luckily his heels were loose, with which he
plied the sides of his steed, and was carried, with the wonderful
instinct of a traveller's horse, straight to the village inn. Had the
inn been at any greater distance, there is no doubt but he would have
been strangled to death; as it was, the good people were a long time
in bringing him to his senses, and it was remarked that the first sign
he showed of returning consciousness was to call for a bottom of
brandy.

These mischievous Dubbies bear much resemblance in their natures and
habits to those sprites which Heywood, in his Heirarchie, calls pugs
or hobgoblins:

"------Their dwellings be
In corners of old houses least frequented
Or beneath stacks of wood, and these convented,
Make fearfull noise in butteries and in dairies;
Robin Goodfellow some, some call them fairies.
In solitarie rooms these uprores keep,
And beate at doores, to wake men from their slape,
Seeming to force lockes, be they nere so strong,
And keeping Christmasse gambols all night long.
Pots, glasses, trenchers, dishes, pannes and kettles.
They will make dance about the shelves and settles.
As if about the kitchen tost and cast,
Yet in the morning nothing found misplac't.
Others such houses to their use have fitted,
In which base murthers have been once committed.
Some have their fearful habitations taken
In desolate houses, ruin'd and forsaken."

In the account of our unfortunate hawking expedition, I mentioned an
instance of one of these sprites, supposed to haunt the ruined grange
that stands in a lonely meadow, and has a remarkable echo. The parson
informs me, also, that the belief was once very prevalent, that a
household Dubbie kept about the old farm-house of the Tibbets. It has
long been traditional, he says, that one of these good-natured goblins
is attached to the Tibbets family, and came with, them when they moved
into this part of the country; for it is one of the peculiarities of
these household sprites, that they attach themselves to the fortunes
of certain families, and follow them in all their removals.

There is a large old-fashioned fire-place in the farm-house, which
affords fine quarters for a chimney-corner sprite that likes to lie
warm; especially a