Lifmore, there came into the house a poor man who had a pain in his loins and flank, went almoft double, and had five ulcers in his leg; who begging his affiftance, he put his hands on the man's loins and flank, and immediately ftroked the pain out of him, fo that he could ftand upright. He then put his hands on the ulcerous leg, which inftantly changed colour from black to red; three of the five ulcers clofed up, and the reft within a few hours after; fo that he went out well, and two days afterwards fell to work.

He was the firft that publiely practifed and taught Animal Magnetifm. His first publication on this fubject is intitled "Facts examined:" this was foon followed by another pamphlet, entitled "A brief account of Mr. Valentine Greatrakes, and divers ftrange cures by him lately performed, &c." to which were annexed the teftimonies of feveral eminent and worthy perfons of the chief matters therein related; and the whole was drawn up in the form of a letter to the honourable Robert Boyle, Efq. who was a patron of our ftroker, as was alfo Dr. Henry More, and several other members of the Royal Society, before whom Mr. Greatrakes was examined. Dr. More afcribed the cures to an extraordinary refined and purified state of the blood in Greatrakes, whence he thought might iffue a fanative, as well as there did a malignant contagion in a contrary ftate; others fuppofed they were wrought by the force of imagination in his patients; and fome imagined them to be mere fictions. It is certain that the great Mr. Boyle believed him to be an extraordinary perfon, and attefted many of his cures. He had the character of being a gentleman of great piety and humanity; however, he was a kind of prodigy that furprized and puzzled not only the ignorant, but the learned. The time of his death is uncertain.

SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON.

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SIR Richard Whittington, the noted Lord Mayor, who is faid to have made his fortune by adventuring a cat with a captain of a fhip, was born at Shepley in Kent in 1344. His father, who was but a poor herdsman, not being capable of furnishing him with natu ral fubfiftence, urged him to leave the place of his nativity, and go to London to get into a fervice. Here he feems to have met with but indifferent fuccefs, for in a state approaching dependancy, he fat himself down upon a itone yet to be feen in the neighbourhood of Highgate, where he fancied he heard the bells of a church in London ring, "Return, Whittington thrice Lord Mayor of London ;" encouraged by this fancy, he ventured once more into the capital, and got a place as fcullion of the cook to Sir Thomas Pell. In this family vifited a captain who traded to the coaft of Barbary, and the fervants, according to the hofpitality of thofe times, being permitted to try their fortunes by fending out fomething on their own account, when it came to Whittington's turn to produce his venture, he produced a cat, which was all the property he then had. This animal proving very serviceable in clearing the vermin that then infefted the palace of the King of a part of Barbary, procured a valuable confideration for the owner, which was the foundation of his fortune.

He flourished in the reign of Richard II. Henry IV. and V. and ferved his laft Mayoralty in 1419. He was a very munificent citizen, as may be judged from his public charities and buildings. He built the gate of London called Newgate, which was before a miferable dungeon, and within our memories the figure of the founder was to be feen over the arch-way with a cat at his feet. He alfo built a great part of St. Bartholomew's Hofpital in Smithfield; founded alms-houses, re

built

built Guildhall chapel, and enlarged a great part of the east-end of the fame Hall, befides many other goode warkes."

WILLIAM SALMON.

WILLIAM Salmon was an eminent phyfician and botanift, and a very confiderable publisher of useful books in the medical line; the principal of which is his Seplafium," the compleat Phyfician, or the Druggift'sfhop opened; explicating all the particulars of which medicines this day are compofed and made," &c. a thick 8vo. of 1207 pages. His great work is a large Herbal in folio, which was an improvement upon that of Gerard,

and only excelled by the late Sir John Hill's excellent work, an excerpt of which, with Culpeper's Botany, we are now publishing in fixpenny Numbers weekly.

His Polygraphicë, or the arts of Drawing, Engraving, Etching, Limning, Painting, Alchemy, making the grand Elixir, Chiromancy, and many other fecrets, has fold better than all the rest of his works: the tenth edition, which is not the last, is dated 1701. His "Hotce Mathematice, or Soul of Aftrology," is defervedly esteemed a good book, and is now fo fcarce, that a copy has been lately fold for one guinea. He was alfo a great vender of noftrums, which was and is ftill a much better trade than fortune-telling. He died foon after the Revolution.

APPARITION OF THE DEVIL.

Remarkable particulars in the Cafe of Mar garet Wild, widow, of Guildford in Surrey, as the facts appeared to the Court and the Jury upon her Trial at the affizes before the Chief Baron, June 16, 1739.

IT appeared upon the depofition of feveral that the bore but a flight character, and had feveral times been obferved to be, or fufpected, with child, but nobody knew of any delivery. She lived in a lone-house upon a piece of waste land, and occupied by poffeffion. Several farmers having been robbed in the neighbourhood, fet up a very rigid fearch in queft of their property, and in their purfuit there of vifited the widow's habitation, as not being the leaft fufpicious place, where their property might be fenced. Upon fearching they found under her bed a bag with a great many little bones in it, and when they queftioned her about them, fhe without hefitating replied they were her's, and nobody

had a right to enquire why they were depofited, there. Sufpicions being very strong against her, fhe was fully committed to take her trial at the next affizes at Kingston; where, from her own confeffion, it was found that being fecretly delivered fhe had fmothered the infants, during the month, and afterwards (horrid to relate!) boiled the flesh off the bones, in confequence of a dream fhe had; from which the inferred, that as long as fhe could keep the bones, fhe fhould be fafe from difcovery; but yet fearing the worst, the had twice carried them out to bury them privately in a field, or throw them in fome bye place, but both times had been met by a strange gentleman in black, whom the at first took for a clergyman, and who cautioned her from expofing thofe bones, faying that if the ever attempted to hide them in earth, fea, or other water, fhe would furely be difcovered, but while the could keep them, fhe would be fafe.

Whether this creature faw an apparition, or the Devil, is left to the reader to guefs. That fhe might reckon her

felf fafe while fhe could keep them, was plaufible enough, and when the could not any longer, her death was not far off.

APPARITION.

MR. Nicholas Towfe, an Officer in the King's wardrobe in Windforcastle, of unimpeachable manners and unqueftioned veracity, had in his youth been much noticed by Sir George Villars, father to the celebrated and unfortunate Duke of Buckingham. As this gentleman lay in his bed, perfectly awake, and in good health, he perceived a perfon of a venerable afpect drew near to his bedfide; and with much earneftness of look was asked whether he had any recollection of him? This question was repeated before the poor gentleman could recover from his apprehenfion, and fummon courage enough to reply, that he fuppofed himself vifited by the apparition of Sir George Villars, which being affured of by his vifitant, he was defired to go and acquaint his fon from him, "that unless he did fomething to ingratiate himfelf with the people, he must expect to fall a victim, and that very foon." After this in junction he disappeared.---The next morning, Mr. Towfe recollected every particular, which, however, he paid no regard to, confidering the whole as a dream. The following night the vifit was repeated, by the apparition, with a countenance indicating diffatisfaction and refentment, accompanied with threats of haunting the house, until the warning he wished to convey to his fon were communicated to him; upon which the haunted man promifed compliance. The lively reprefentation of this vifion threw him into great perplexity, yet did he flight it as he had done the former, and confidering at what a distance he was from the duke, was difpofed to believe it deferved no notice. This occafioned a third vifit, and reproaches for his

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breach of promife. He had now got courage enough to remonstrate; and alledged how difficult it was to gain admiflion to the duke, much more to be credited by him ; that whoever went upon fuch an errand, would be regarded as a madman, and endanger his liberty. The perfon, after having redoubled his former threats, faid that the duke was known to be very easy of accefs; that two or three particulars, he would, (and did) impart to him, charging him at the fame time never to mention them to any other, would procure him credit, which having faid, he vanished. This apparition had the defired effect; for the old gentleman repaired immediately to London, where the court then was, and being known to Sir Ralph Freeman, who had married a lady nearly related to the duke, he acquainted him with enough to affure him there was fomething extraordinary in it, without revealing to him all the particulars.

Sir Ralph having informed the duke of what the man defired, and of all that he knew of the matter, his Grace with his ufual condefcenfion, faid, that he was on the following day to hunt with the king; that he would land at Lambeth-bridge by five in the morning, where, if the man attended, he would give him a hearing. Accordingly, the man being conducted by Sir Ralph, met the duke, and walked afide in conference with him for near an hour; Sir Ralph and his fervants being at fuch a distance, that they could not hear a word, though the duke was obferved to speak fometimes with emotion. The man told Sir Ralph, in returning over the water, that when he mentioned his credentials, the fubstance of which, he said, he was to impart to no man, the duke fwore" he could come at that knowledge by none but the Devil, for thofe particulars were a fecret to all but himfelf and another, who he was fure would never divulge it." The duke returned from the chace at an early hour, and was clofeted with his mother

in

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in Whitehall for two or three hours; and when he left her, his countenance appeared full of trouble, with a mix ture of anger. She herself, when the news of the duke's murder (which happened foon after) was brought to her, seemed to receive it without furprize, and as a thing fhe had fore, feen.

EXTRAORDINARY VOICE,

WARNING TO QUIT A DANGEROUS

HOUSE.

fhut his eyes all the reft of the night, the ftrange words continually founding in his ears; and finding himself extremely uneafy, he determined to rife and pafs the time away by ftudying a cause which he had to report that morning; but fill the ftrangeness of the noife dwelt fo upon his mind that he could not at all fix his attention, he therefore went to a coffee-houfe very early, where meeting with fome friends, he fhewed them the flip of paper he had written from the unac countable articulation he had heard; when one prefent, M. De Saumaife;

tions."

A GENTLEMAN in France, by profeffion a lawyer, and as is ufual for lawyers there, a counsellor of the Parliament of Paris; being in bed and faft afleep, was awaked by a voice which repeated feveral times fomething which he could not understand; but he got up on this extraordinary occafion, and wrote down the words which he had heard, in French characters as follows: Apithi, onk ofphrainay ten feen apfychian. Having done fo, he endeayoured to fleep again, but could not

be Syriac, and to mean literally," Depart, haft thou no apprehenfion of thy death?" This tranflation was received with a loud laugh, and the warning treated as a jeft, and an invention; but the gentleman taking it in a more ferious light, left his houfe the fame day, and it fell flat to the ground the following night.

Jofephus relates, that a little before the deftruction of the temple of Jerufalem, there were heard in the night, voices crying out, "Let us leave this place, woe and destruction is here!”

PREDICTION FULFILLED.

See No V. Page 144. 8. THURSDAY evening an express arrived at the Secretary of State's Office, from Robert Lifton, Efq. our Envoy at the Swedifh Court, which brought the extraordinary intelligence, that his Majefty the King of Sweden had fallen a victim to the too fuccefsful attempt of a regicide,on the 26th ultimo. The circumstances of this unexpected event were as follow:

His Majefty that evening gave a grand Mafquerade, to which all perfons of diftinction at the Swedish Court, including feveral foreign diplomatic characters, were invited.

During this entertainment, and when the feftivity was at its height, a

Gentleman of confiderable rank, an Officer in the Army, watching a favourable opportunity, fired a large piftol at the King, loaded with flugs, the contents of which lodged in his Majefty's groin, and the bottom part of his belly.

His Majefty immediately fell, and the confufion which followed was, as may eafily be imagined, very great. The perpetrator of this horrid deed was fecured the next morning, but though questioned, would affign no reafon for his conduct.

The exprefs was sent off a few hours after the event, at which time the King was alive, but it had been pronounced impoffible for him to furvive to any length of time.

Inform.