This page has been validated.
64
MOTHER SHIPTON INVESTIGATED.

until within a few years of that date, a large painting of her and the fulfilment of one of her prophecies hung up in the large room of the old Crown and Woolpack Inn, on the Great North Road, Conington Lane, near Stilton.

A sensational engraving of Mother Shipton in a chariot drawn by a reindeer or a stag appeared in The Wonderful Magazine, (London: Alex. Hogg, 16, Paternoster Row) 1793, Vol. II, page 225. It is prefixed to a tale woven out of the Mother Shipton history fabricated by Head. The author transfers the scene of much of her life to Melrose. Other attempts have been made to transplant Mother Shipton. The inhabitants of Winslow-cum-Shipton, in Buckinghamshire, have claimed her, and in the traditional lore of East Norfolk she is made to prophecy that

"The town of Yarmouth shall become a nettle-bush. That the bridges shall be pulled up; and small vessels sail to Irstead and Barton Loads." Also, "Blessed are they that live near Potter Heigham, and double-blessed them that live in it."[1]


  1. Norfolk Archæology, Vol. II. Norwich: Charles Muskett, Old Haymarket, 1849.