Letters on demonology and witchcraft. Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq / by Sir Walter Scott, Bart.
- Walter Scott
- Date:
- 1831
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Letters on demonology and witchcraft. Addressed to J. G. Lockhart, Esq / by Sir Walter Scott, Bart. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![by informing us, that the great northern mines of iron, lying adjacent to the place of eternal punish- ment, have a savour oihous to these “ fascinating creatures.” They have, says the reverend author, what one would not expect, many hght toyish books, (novels and plays, doubtless,) others on llosycrucian subjects, and of an abstruse mystical character; but they have no Bibles, or works of devotion. The essayist fails not to mention the elf- arrow-heads, which have something of the subtilty of thunderbolts, and can mortally wound the vital parts, without breaking the skin. These wounds, he says, he has himself observed in beasts, and felt the fatal lacerations which he could not see. It was by no means to ])e supposed that the elves, so jealous and irritable a race as to l)e incensed against those who spoke of them under their pro- per names, shoidd be less than mortally offended at the temerity of the reverend author, who had pried so deeply into their mysteries, for the puipose of giving them to the pubhc. Although, therefore, the learned divine’s monument, with his name duly inscribed, is to be seen at the east end of the chm’chyard at Aberfoyle, yet those acquainted with his real history do not beheve that he enjoys the natural repose of the tomb. His successor, the Rev. Dr Grahame, has infonned us of the general l)elief, that as Mr Kirke was walking one evening in his night-gown upon a Dun-shi, or fairy mount, in the vicinity of the manse or parsonage, behold ! he sunk down in what seemed to be a fit ot apo- plexy, which the unenlightened took for death, while the more understaiuhng knew it to be a sw'oon produced by the supernatural inffiience of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22029667_0188.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
