ich we give, and the Rerrick case in Scotland (1696),
related by Telfer, who prints, on his margins, the names of the
attesting witnesses of each event, lairds, clergymen, and farmers. At
Rerrick, as in Russia, the _little hand_ was seen by Telfer himself,
and the fire-raising was endless. At Amherst too, as in a pair of
recent Russian cases and others, there was plenty of fire-raising. By
a lucky chance an English case occurred at Wem, in Shropshire, in
November, 1883. It began at a farm called the Woods, some ten miles
from Shrewsbury. First a saucepan full of eggs "jumped" off the fire
in the kitchen, and the tea-things, leaping from the table, were
broken. Cinders "were thrown out of the fire," and set some clothes
in a blaze. A globe leaped off a lamp. A farmer, Mr. Lea, saw all
the windows of the upper story "as it were on fire," but it was no
such matter. The nurse-maid ran out in a fright, to a neighbour's,
and her dress spontaneously combusted as she ran. The people
attributed these and similar events, to something in the coal, or in
the air, or to electricity. When the nurse-girl, Emma Davies, sat on
the lap of the school mistress, Miss Maddox, her boots kept flying
off, like the boot laces in The Daemon of Spraiton.

All this was printed in the London papers, and, on 15th November, The
Daily Telegraph and Daily News published Emma's confession that she
wrought by sleight of hand and foot. On 17th November, Mr. Hughes
went from Cambridge to investigate. For some reason investigation
never begins till the fun is over. On the 9th the girl, now in a very
nervous state (no wonder!) had been put under the care of a Dr.
Mackey. This gentleman and Miss Turner said that things had occurred
since Emma came, for which they could not account. On 13th November,
however, Miss Turner, looking out of a window, spotted Emma throwing a
brick, and pretending that the flight of the brick was automatic.
Next day Emma confessed to her tricks, but steadfastly denied that she
had cheated at Woods Farm, and Weston Lullingfield, where she had also
been. Her evidence to this effect was so far confirmed by Mrs.
Hampson of Woods Farm, and her servant, Priscilla Evans, when examined
by Mr. Hughes. Both were "quite certain" that they saw crockery rise
by itself into air off the kitchen table, when Emma was at a
neighbouring farm, Mr. Lea's. Priscilla also saw crockery come out of
a cupboard, in detachments, and fly betwe