e miles to consult the prisoner. She went through some absurd
proceedings, and pretended she saw in a glass the parties who had
taken the goods. Prisoner had practised witchcraft for many years. She
professed to rule the stars, and said that if the nights were clear
and fine she would be able to recover the goods sooner. The jury
returned a verdict of guilty, and sentenced her to five years penal
servitude.

The proceedings of a professional fortune-teller formed the subject of
investigation by the mayor and other magistrates of Newbury in 1871. A
widow named Maria Moss had been pretending to tell the fortune of
divers persons, particularly young women, whom she had induced to go
to her house. The principal witnesses called were Alice Prior and
Maria Low, two young women, who proved that the prisoner had promised
to tell their fortunes. Her practice had been to produce a pack of
cards, which she placed upon the table, and told each girl to cut them
into three parts. In one case she said she saw "London," and told
Prior that she would get a good situation there, and be married to a
widower. She represented to Low that she would also have an excellent
situation in London, and be married to a gentleman with plenty of
money. She induced the girls to obtain goods from tradesmen in the
town and bring them to her house, and the girls also removed wearing
apparel from their own homes and deposited the same with the prisoner,
who promised to send the goods after the girls had arrived in the
metropolis. However, the mother of Low discovered that clothes had
been taken away from her house, and the intended journey of the girls
was of course prevented. The Bench dealt with the case under the
Vagrant Act, and sentenced the woman to fourteen days in Reading gaol.

In the beginning of 1879 a photographer named Henry, of Cooper's Road,
Old Kent Road, London, was charged at the Southwark police court with
obtaining money by false pretences. The prisoner issued an
advertisement, offering for eighteen stamps to send to unmarried
persons photographs of their future wives or husbands, and for
twenty-four stamps a bottle of magnetic scent, or Spanish love scent,
which were described, the first as "so fascinating in its effects as
to make true love run smooth," and the other as "delicious, and
captivating the senses," so that "no young lady or gentleman need pine
in single blessedness." Several witnesses stated that they had
answered these