amiliar to all the readers of Sir Walter
Scott; the Countess of Lothian, the Countess of Angus, the Countess of
Athol, Lady Kerr, the Countess of Huntley, Euphemia Macalzean (the
daughter of Lord Cliftonhall), and Lady Fowlis. Among the celebrated of
the other sex who were accused of wizzardism was Sir Lewis Ballantyne,
the Lord Justice Clerk for Scotland, who, if we may believe Scot of
Scotstarvet, "dealt by curiosity with a warlock called Richard
Grahame," and prayed him to raise the devil. The warlock consented, and
raised him in propria persona, in the yard of his house in the
Canongate, "at sight of whom the Lord Justice Clerk was so terrified
that he took sickness and thereof died." By such idle reports as these
did the envious ruin the reputation of those they hated, though it
would appear in this case that Sir Lewis had been fool enough to make
the attempt of which he was accused, and that the success of the
experiment was the only apocryphal part of the story.

The enemies of John Knox invented a similar tale, which found ready
credence among the Roman Catholics; glad to attach any stigma to that
grand scourge of the vices of their church. It was reported that he and
his secretary went into the churchyard of St. Andrew's with the intent
to raise "some sanctes;" but that, by a mistake in their conjurations,
they raised the great fiend himself, instead of the saints they wished
to consult. The popular rumour added that Knox's secretary was so
frightened at the great horns, goggle eyes, and long tail of Satan,
that he went mad, and shortly afterwards died. Knox himself was built
of sterner stuff, and was not to be frightened.

The first name that occurs in the records of the High Court of
Justiciary of persons tried or executed for witchcraft is that of Janet
Bowman, in 1572, nine years after the passing of the act of Mary. No
particulars of her crimes are given, and against her name there only
stand the words, "convict and brynt." It is not, however, to be
inferred that, in this interval, no trials or executions took place;
for it appears on the authority of documents of unquestioned
authenticity in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh, [Foreign Quarterly
Review, vol. vi. page 41.] that the Privy Council made a practice of
granting commissions to resident gentlemen and ministers, in every part
of Scotland, to examine, try, and execute witches within their own
parishes. No records of those who suffered from the se