Battle of Flodden Field.

T seems uncertain to whose genius the world is indebted for this pleasing production, which, by the majority of poetical commentators, has been ascribed to one Thomas Deloney, who (1596) was committed to the Compter, by the then Mayor of London, for ridiculing the Government in his compositions. The battle of Flodden, Northumberland, was fought on September the 9th, 1513, in the fifth year of the reign of Henry VIII. between Thomas Howard Earl of Surry, and James IV. King of Scotland, whose army, amounting to 15,000 men, was entirely defeated, and himself left dead upon the field. "In disgrace of the Scots," says Deloney, "and in remembrance of the famous achieved Victory, the Commons of England made this Song."

"The water runs swift and wond'rous deep,
From bottom unto the brim;

My brother Henry hath men good enough,
England is hard to win!"

'Away,' quoth he, with this silly fool!
In prison fast let her lie;

For she is come of the English blood,

And for these words she shall die."

That day made many a fatherless child,

And many a widow poor;

And many a Scottish gay Lady
Sat weeping in her bow'r.

With this bespoke Lord Thomas Howard
The Queen's Chamberlain that day,
'If that you put Queen Margaret to death,
Scotland shall rue it alway!"

Then, in a rage, King James he did say,
'Away with this foolish mome;

He shall be hang'd, and the other burn'd,
So soon as I come home.'

At Flodden-field the Scots came in,
Which made our Englishmen fain;
At Bramstone-green this battle was seen,
And there was King James slain !

Then presently the Scots did fly,
Their cannon they left behind,
Their ensigns gay were all worn away;
Our soldiers did beat them blind.

To tell you plain-twelve thousand were slain,
That to the fight did stand;

And many a prisoner, took that day,
The best in all Scotland.

IN A FIELD ADJOINING THE CHURCH YARD AT BEDLINGTON, NORTHUMBERLAND, STANDS THE FOLLOWING SINGULAR TOMB STONE, OF THE DATE A. D. 1801, ERECTED BY THE VICAR, THE REV. H. COATES, TO THE MEMORY OF A FAVOURITE HORSE CALLED WHEATLEY:

"Steady the path ordain'd by Nature's God,
And free from human vices, Wheatley trod;
Yet hop'd no future life-his all he liv'd.
The turf he graz'd his parting breath receiv'd,
And now protects his bones:-disturb them not,
But let one faithful horse respected rot."

NARRATIVE

OF THE

MURDER OF ANNE WALKER.

FROM SURTEES' HISTORY OF DURHAM.

HE following narrative of a murder committed by Mark Sharp, collier, at the instigation of John Walker of Chester-le-Street, yeoman, and afterwards discovered by supernatural means, is, in the opinion of Master John Webster, practitioner of physic, (who wrote a book expressly for "the displaying and detecting of supposed Witchcraft") one of "those appari

tions and strange accidents which cannot be solved by the supposed principles of matter and motion, but which do evidently require some other cause, above or different from the visible and ordinary course of nature, effects that do strangely exceed the power of natural causes, and may for ever convince all

atheistical minds*."

Secondly. The narrative is inserted in Dr. Henry More's letter, forming part of the Prolegomena to Mr. Joseph Glanvil's work, intituled, "Sadducismus triumphatus," and is copied verbatim from John Webster (from whom, however, on other matters and occasions, Dr. More differeth toto cœlo), with the additional grave testimony of Mr. William Lumley, of Great Lumley, an ancient gentleman who was present at the trial, and of Mr. Shepherdson, whom the Doctor terms his "discreet and faithful intelligencer." "This story of Anne Walker, adds the Doctor, "you will do well (Master Glanvil), to put amongst your additions, it being so excellently well attested, and so unexceptionably in every respect; and hasten as fast as you can that impression, to undeceive the half-witted world," who do so exult in the supposed slaying of the Damon of Tedworth (as if the Devil were really dead), that they do now, "with more gaity and security than ever, sing in a loud note that mad drunken catch, 'Heyho! the Devil is dead"."

About the year of our Lord 1632, (as near as I can remember, hav

* Webster's "Displaying of supposed Witchcraft," fol. 1677, p.

293-4,

ing lost my notes, and the copy of the letters to Serjeant Hutton, but am sure that I do most perfectly remember the substance of the story,) near unto Chester, in the Street, there lived one Walker, a yeoman of good estate, and a widower, who had a young woman to his kinswoman, that kept his house, who was, by the neighbours, suspected to be with child, and was, towards the dark of the evening one night, sent away with one Mark Sharp, who was a collier, or one that digged coals under ground, and one that had been born in Blakeburn hundred in Lancashire; and so she was not heard of a long time, and no noise, or little, was made about it. In the winter-time after, one James Graham or Grime, (for so in that country they call them) being a miller, and living about two miles from the place where Walker lived, was one night alone very late in the mill, grinding corn; and about twelve or one o'clock at night, he came down the stairs from having been putting corn in the hopper; the mill doors being shut, there stood a woman upon the midst of the floor, with her hair about her head, hanging down, and all bloody, with five large wounds on her head. He being much affrighted and amaz'd, began to bless himself; and at last, ask'd her who she was, and what she wanted? To which she said, I am the spirit of such a woman, who lived with Walker, and being got with child by him, he promised to send me to a private place, where I should be well look'd to, till I was brought to bed, and well again; and then I should come again and keep his house. And accordingly, said the apparition, I was one night late sent away with one Mark Sharp, who, upon a moor, naming a place that the miller knew, slew me with a pick, such as men dig coals withal, and gave me these five wounds, and after threw my body into a coalpit hard by, and hid the pick under a bank; and his shoes and stockings being bloody, he endeavoured to wash 'em; but seeing the blood would not forth, he hid them there. And the apparition further told the miller, that he must be the man to reveal it, or else that she must still appear and haunt him. The miller returned home very sad and heavy, but spoke not one word of what he had seen, but eschewed as much as he could to stay in the mill within night without company, thinking thereby to escape the seeing again of that frightful apparition. But notwithstanding, one night when it began to be dark, the apparition met him again, and seemed very fierce and cruel, and threatened him, that if he did not reveal the murder, she would continually pursue and haunt him; yet for all this, he still concealed it until St. Thomas's Eve before Christmas; when being, soon after sunset, walking in his garden, she appeared again, and then so threatened him, and affrighted him, that he faithfully promised to reveal it next morning. In the morning, he went to a magistrate, and made

the whole matter known with all the circumstances; and diligent search being made, the body was found in a coal-pit, with five wounds in the head, and the pick and shoes and stockings yet bloody, in every circumstance as the apparition had related unto the miller; whereupon Walker and Mark Sharp were both apprehended, but would confess nothing. At the assizes following, I think it was at Durham, they were arraigned, found guilty, condemn'd and executed; but I could never hear they confess'd the fact. There were some that reported the apparition did appear to the Judge, or the foreman of the jury, who was alive in Chester in the Street about ten years ago, as I have been credibly inform'd, but of that I know no certainty. There are many persons yet alive, that can remember this strange murder and the discovery of it; for it was, and sometimes yet is, as much discoursed of in the north country, as any thing that almost hath ever been heard of, and the relation printed, tho' now not to be gotten. I relate this with the greater confidence (though I may fail in some of the circumstances) because I saw and read the letter that was sent to Sergeant Hutton, who then lived at Goldsbrugh in Yorkshire, from the Judge before whom Walker and Mark Sharp were tried, and by whom they were condemn'd, and had a copy of it until about the year 1658, when I had it and many other books and papers taken from me; and this I confess to be one of the most convincing stories, being of undoubted verity, that ever I read, heard, or knew of, and carrieth with it the most evident force, to make the most incredulous spirit to be satisfied, that there are really, sometimes, such things as apparitions; thus far he.

This story is so considerable, that I make mention of it in my Scholia, on my Immortality of the Soul, in my Volumen Philosophicum, tom. 2. which I acquainting a friend of mine with, a prudent intelligent person, Dr. J. D., he of his own accord offer'd me, it being a thing of such consequence, to send to a friend of his in the north, for greater assurance of the truth of the narrative; which motion I willingly embracing, he did accordingly. The answer to this letter, from his friend Mr. Sheperdson, is this:-I have done what I can to inform myself of the passage of Sharp and Walker; there are very few men that I could meet, that were then men, or at the trial, saving these two in the inclosed paper, both men at that time, and both at the trial; and for Mr. Lumley, he lived next door to Walker, and what he hath given under his hand can depose, if there were occasion. The other gentleman writ his attestation with his own hand; but I, being not there, got not his name to it. I could have sent you twenty hands, that could have said thus much, and more by hearsay, but I thought these most proper, that could speak from their own