"On Tuesday last some thousands of the Minters went out of the Land of Bondage, alias The Mint, to be cleared at the Quarter Sessions at Guildford, according to the late Act of Parliament. The road was covered with them, insomuch that they looked like one of the Jewish tribes going out of Egypt: the cavalcade consisting of caravans, carts, and waggons, besides numbers on horses, asses, and on foot. The drawer of the two fighting-cocks was seen to lead an ass loaded with geneva, to support the spirits of the ladies upon the journey. 'Tis said, that several heathen Bailiffs lay in ambuscade in ditches upon the road, to surprise some of them, if possible, on their march, if they should straggle from the main body; but they proceeded with so much order and discipline, that they did not lose a man upon this expedition."
E. G. B.
Queries.
THE SPECTRE HORSEMEN OF SOUTHERFELL.
On this mountain, which I believe is in the barony of Greystoke, Cumberland, a remarkable phenomenon is said to have been witnessed more than a century ago, circumstances of which appear to have been these:—In 1743 one Daniel Stricket, then servant to John Wren, of Wilton Hill, a shepherd, was sitting one evening after supper (the month is not mentioned) at the door with his master, when they saw a man with a dog pursuing some horses on Southerfell-side, a place so steep that a horse can scarcely travel on it at all; and they seemed to run at an amazing pace, and to disappear at the low end of the fell. Master and man resolved to go next morning to the steep side of the mountain, on which they expected to find that the horses had lost their shoes from the rate at which they galloped, and the man his life. They went, but to their surprise they found no vestige of horses having passed that way. They said nothing about their vision for some time, fearing the ridicule of their neighbours, and this they did not fail to receive when they at length ventured to relate their story. On the 23rd June (the eve of St. John's Day) in the following year (1744), Stricket, who was then servant to a Mr. Lancaster of Blakehills, the next house to Wilton Hill, was walking a little above the house in the evening, about half-past seven, when on looking towards Southerfell he saw a troop of men on horseback, riding on the mountain side in pretty close ranks, and at the speed of a brisk walk. He looked earnestly at this appearance for some time before he ventured to acquaint any one with what he saw, remembering the ridicule he had brought on himself by relating his former vision. At length satisfied of its reality, he went into the house and told his master he had something curious to show him. The master said he supposed Stricket wanted him to look at a bonfire (it being the custom for the shepherds on the eve of St. John to vie with each other for the largest bonfire); however, they went out together, and before Stricket spoke of or pointed to the phenomenon, Mr. Lancaster himself observed it, and when they found they both saw alike, they summoned the rest of the family, who all came, and all saw the visionary horsemen. There were many troops, and they seemed to come from the lower part of the fell, becoming first visible at a place called Knott; they then moved in regular order in a curvilinear path along the side of the fell, until they came opposite to Blakehills, when they went over the mountain and disappeared. The last, or last but one, in every troop, galloped to the front, and then took the swift walking pace of the rest. The spectators saw all alike these changes in relative position, and at the same time, as they found on questioning each other when any change took place. The phenomenon was also seen by every person at every cottage within a mile; and from the time that Stricket first observed it, the appearance lasted two hours and a half, viz. from half-past seven until night prevented any further view. Blakehills lay only half a mile from the place of this extraordinary appearance. Such are the circumstances as related in Clarke's Survey of the Lakes (fol. 1789), and he professes to give this account in the words of Mr. Lancaster, by whom it was related to him, and on whose testimony he fully relied; and he subjoins a declaration of its truth signed by the eye-witnesses, William Lancaster and Daniel Stricket (who then lived under Skiddaw, and followed the business of an auctioneer), dated 21st July, 1785. Mr. Clarke remarks that the country abounds in fables of apparitions, but that they are never said to have been seen by more than one or two persons at a time, and then only for moment; and remembering that Speed mentions some similar appearance to have preceded a civil war, he hazards the supposition that the vision might prefigure the tumults of the rebellion of the following year.
My Query is, Whether any subsequent appearance of the same kind is recorded to have been observed on this haunted mountain, and whether any attempt to account for it on principles of optical science, as applied to a supposed state of the atmosphere, has ever been published?
One is reminded of the apparition said to have been witnessed above Vallambrosa early in the fourteenth century. Rogers, after mentioning in the canto on "Florence and Pisa," in his Italy, that Petrarch, when an infant of seven months old (A.D. 1305), narrowly escaped drowning in a flood of the Arno, on the way from Florence to Ancisa, whither his mother was retiring with him, says:
"A most extraordinary deluge, accompanied by signs and prodigies, happened a few years afterwards. 'On that night,' says Giovanni Villani (xi. 2.), 'a hermit, being at prayer in his hermitage above Vallambrosa, heard a furious trampling as of many horses; and crossing himself and hurrying to the wicket, saw a multitude of infernal horsemen, all black and terrible, riding by at full speed. When, in the name of God, he demanded their purpose, one replied, We are going, if it be His pleasure, to drown the city of Florence for its wickedness. This account,' he adds, 'was given me by the Abbot of Vallambrosa, who had questioned the holy man himself.'"