Witch Murder Terror at Soham (and Horseshoes) November 15, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
A story from the depths of East Anglia (1843), one of the more isolated parts of the English countryside in the 19 Century.
A rather amusing and novel occurrence was related to us the other day. A young man, the son of Mr. Elsden, a respectable tradesman of Soham, was walking from that place to Thetford, a village near Ely. Business calling him to Stuntney, he went by Ely and proceeded across the meadows, where he met with one of those biped luminaries of the fen [!!!!], who, with Domine Sampson ‘believe in witches, wizards, and warlocks.’.
Now things get interesting: you can always tell with hack journalism because they quote a line of poetry.
It appears that Mr. Elsden was wending his way, ‘when night her sable curtain drew,’ rather unexpectedly. Perceiving a light at a distance, he directed his steps thither, where, on arriving he found it proceeded from a stable, in which was a lad, of whom he enquired the way. The boy hesitated for some time apparently in great alarm, but after some persuasion said, ‘If you be a mon I’ll go wi’ you, but if y’ be a wizard I ’ont.’ On their way they had to pass the door of the farm-house, where the father of the aforesaid boy was industriously nailing a horse-shoe to the threshold. On seeing the young man his hair stood erect, ‘like quills upon the fretful porcupine,’ and fully believing him to be a wizard, struck at his head with the hammer; fortunately, however, he missed his aim, and the weapon fell heavily upon his [Elsden’s] shoulder. The old man then called out lustily for his gun, being, as he said, determined to kill the wizard.
So everything goes Straw Dogs…
The scene now became very tragic – the children clinging round their mother – the mother imploring her husband not to shoot the witch – and the boy using his efforts to drag the young man away, assuring him that his father would shoot him, as he had dreamed three nights following that he had seen his father nailing a horse-shoe on the door, and that the witch, on making her appearance, was shot; that they had lost, through the influence of witches, a cow, a calf, and the old mare, within a short time. Fortunately Mr. Elsden made his escape, and reached the village in safety. It is believed the farmer having lately lost some of his stock, including the old mare and the cow and calf, had sought the advice of a professing cunning man in the neighbourhood, who had told him his stock had been bewitched, and that if he nailed a horse-shoe to the threshold of the door the first person who afterwards passed would be the individual who bewitched them.
And now the moral of the tale, like those annoying coda at the end of He-Men cartoons.
We really could not have supposed that in these enlightened days so much of ignorance and superstition prevailed, but from the respectability of the young man we have every reason to believe that the narrative, in the main, is perfectly correct.
Anything else on the suspicion of nailing a shoe and seeing a witch. This was quite new: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
Source: Anon, ‘Soham, A Bewitching Story Essex Standard (10 Feb 1843), 3
AL writes in, 17 Nov 2016: My late neighbour here in Normandy (a very nice old lady) used to practice a form of traditional “witchcraft”, which she also taught to one of her sons. For instance, she would “cure” jaundice by burying an egg. She was doing this kind of magic for locals until 2010.
