The next case (in chronological order) that I have met with is very similar to that of Mompesson, and, like that, shows the trivialities to which this species of Devil could descend, apparently, with no object.
‘THE DÆMON OF BURTON.[9]
‘There is a Farm in Burton, a Village in the Parish of Weobley, in this County,[10] which Mr. William Bridges, a Linnen-Draper in London, has in Mortgage from one Thomas Tompkins, a decay’d Yeoman man. This Farm was, about Michaelmas, 1669. taken by Lease by Mrs. Elizabeth Bridges, to commence from February then next; Soon after this Tenant was entered on the Farm, and lodg’d in the House, some Familiar began to act apish Pranks, by knocking boldly at the door in the dusk of the Evening, and the like, early in the Morning, but no body to be seen.
‘After this, the Stools and Forms, though left in their proper places, were, every night set round the fire, which the Tenant perceiving, she set them next night under the Table, and next morning they were found set orderly about the fire as before, and a continual noise of Cats heard all night, but never seen.
‘Afterwards, the Tenant having in a Room a heap of Malt, and another of Vetches, the two parcels were found next morning exactly mingled together, and put into a new heap.
‘Another time she had baked a Batch of Bread, and laid the Loaves over night on a Table; next morning the Loaves were all gone, and, after search made, they were found in another Room, hid in Tubs, and covered with linnen Cloathes, and all this while the Tenant had the keys of the doors in her pocket, and found the doors in the morning fast lock’d as she left them over night: so, also, her Cheeses and meat were often carried out of one Room into another, whilst the doors were fast lock’d, and sometimes convey’d into the Orchard.
‘Then the Tenant having set Cabbidg-Plants in her Garden, in the night the Plants were pull’d up, and laid in several formes, as Crosses, Flower-de-Luces, and the like. She caus’d them to be set again, and the Ground finely raked about, to the end they might see if any footsteps might be discovered in the morning, when the Plants were found pull’d up as before, and no track or footstep to be found or perceived; the Plants were set a third time, and then they continued unmoved.
‘She had in her Cheese-chamber many Cheeses upon Shelves, and a Bag of Hops in the same Room. One night, the Cheeses were all laid on the floor in several formes, and the Hops all strewed about the Room, and the Chamber door found fast lock’d in the morning.
‘Another night in the Buttery there were several dishes of cold Meat left upon a hanging Shelf; in the morning, the Table Cloath was found orderly laid on the Floor, and the Dishes set on it, and most of the Meat eaten, onely a manners bit left in every Dish; yet there were silver Spoons, which lay by the Dishes, and none of them diminished.
‘At another time she had left half a rosted Pig, which was design’d for breakfast next day, when the Pig was call’d for, there was not one bit of either Skin or Flesh left, but the Bones of the Pig, lay orderly in the Dish, and not one of them unjoynted or misplac’d.