the
Merry Tales
of
TOM HODGE.
ONCE upon a time, when the opinion was common in England, that those whose age and experience enabled them to determine the consequences of certain actions were wizards and witches; there was a Queen in this realm, whose name was Elizabeth; and by reason that the famous town of Lancaster was strangely pestered with witches, the Queen sent some judges down to arraign and try them in order to bring them to justice.
Now the news of this court being to be kept in Lancaster, spread through all the country, so that a husbandman living near forty miles from that place, hearing of this news, and believing they were come to tell the folks whether they were witches or not, resolved to go to be satisfied in himself, for he was possessed with a fear that he was a witch, because he had a wart grew on his neck, which he imagined to be a dug.
