PHILIP HEDGELAND.
Bridestowe, Okehampton.
Devonshire Superstition respecting Still-born Children.
—One of the Commissioners of Devonport complaining last week that a charge of one shilling and sixpence should have been made upon the parish authorities for the grave and interment of a still-born child, said, "When I was a young man it was thought lucky to have a still-born child put into any open grave, as it was considered to be a sure passport to heaven for the next person buried there." Query, Is this prejudice still common?
R. R.
GOLDSMITH'S PAMPHLET ON THE COCK LANE GHOST.
Mr. Prior (Life of Goldsmith, vol. i. p. 387.) gives the copy of a receipt dated March 5, 1762, for three guineas paid by Newbery to Goldsmith for a pamphlet respecting the Cock Lane ghost, and suggests that a pamphlet advertised in the Public Advertiser of February 22, 1762, under the title of—
"The Mystery Revealed, containing a Series of Transactions and Authentic Memorials respecting the Supposed Cock Lane Ghost. Printed for W. Bristow in St. Paul's Church Yard;"
but which Mr. Prior had not been able to meet with, might possibly be the pamphlet purchased by Newbery, as he had occasional connexion with Bristow, his neighbour.
I have a copy of the pamphlet in question which indeed, as far as I can find, is the only one published at the time which can at all answer to the description of the one sold by Newbery. On a careful examination I am disposed to attribute it to Goldsmith. It contains thirty-four pages, and gives a full narrative of this extraordinary imposture. The beginning and conclusion, though evidently written in haste, are not without marks of Goldsmith's serious and playful manner. The amount paid seems to agree with Newbery's general scale of remuneration to Goldsmith, the length of the pamphlet being considered; and the types employed appear to be similar to those used in some of Newbery's publications at the same period. On the whole I consider that in a new edition of Goldsmith's works this pamphlet, which is additionally interesting, as a record of a famous imposture, ought to find a place.