ng a sail
at sea, took a "basin of water," stirred it up, and thereby provoked a
storm that was like to have sunk the ship, had not the father made the
child cease. On the way home, the two passed a "very fine Field of
Corn." "Quoth the child again, 'Father, I can consume all this Corn in
the twinkling of an Eye.' The Father supposing it not in her Power to do
so, he bid to shew her infernal skill." The child did so, and presently
"all the Corn in the Field became Stubble." He questioned her and found
that she had learned witchcraft from her mother. The upshot of it was
that at Mr. Hicks's instance his wife and child were prosecuted and
hanged. The story has been called remarkable. Yet it is not altogether
unique. In 1645 at Bury St. Edmunds just after the Chelmsford trial
there were eighteen witches condemned, and one of them, it will be
remembered, was Parson Lowes of Brandeston in Suffolk, who confessed
that "he bewitched a ship near Harwidge; so that with the extreme
tempestuous Seas raised by blusterous windes the said ship was cast
away, wherein were many passengers, who were by this meanes swallowed up
by the merciless waves." It will be observed that the two stories are
not altogether similar. The Huntingdon narrative is a better tale, and
it would be hardly safe to assert that it drew its inspiration from the
earlier story. Yet, when it is remembered how unusual is the story in
English witch-lore, the supposition gains in probability. There is a
further resemblance in the accounts. The Hicks child had bewitched a
field of corn. One of the Bury witches, in the narrative which tells of
parson Lowes, "confessed that She usually bewitcht standing corne,
whereby there came great loss to the owners thereof." The resemblance is
hardly close enough to merit notice in itself. When taken, however, in
connection with the other resemblances it gives cumulative force to the
supposition that the writer of the Huntingdon pamphlet had gone to the
narratives of the Hopkins cases for his sources.

There are, however, other reasons for doubting the Huntingdon story. A
writer in _Notes and Queries_, 2d series, V, 503-504, long ago
questioned the narrative because of the mention of a "Judge Wilmot," and
showed that there was no such judge on the bench before 1755. An
examination of the original pamphlet makes it clear, however, that in
this form the objection is worth nothing. The tract speaks only of a
"_Justice_ Wilmot," who, fro