CRYSTAL BALLS AND CRYSTAL GAZING 197
he
keeps in his closet at Brampton Bryan in Herefordshire amongst his
Cimelia, which I saw there. It came first from Norfolk; a minister had
it there, and a call was to be made with it. Afterwards a miller had it
and he did work great cures with it (if curable), and in the Beryl they
did see, either the receipt in writing·, or else the herb. To this
minister, the spirits or angels would appear openly, and because the
miller (who was his familiar friend) one day happened to see them, he
gave him the aforesaid Beryl and Call; by these angels the minister was
forewarned of his death. This account I had from Mr. Ashmole.
Afterwards this Beryl came into somebody's hand in London who did tell
strange things by it ; insomuch that at last he was questioned for it,
and it was taken away by authority (it was about 1645). This Beryl is a
perfect sphere, the diameter of it I guess to be something more than an
inch ; it is set in a ring, or circle, of silver, resembling the
meredian of a globe; the stem of it is about ten inches high, all gilt.
At the four quarters of it are the names of four angels, viz: Uriel,
Raphael, Michael, Gabriel. On the top is a cross patee.30
In
his " Sudducismus Triumphatus, " Joseph Glanvil writes that "one
Compton of Summersetshire, who practised Physiek, and pretends to
strange Matters," demonstrated his power to evoke the image of a
distant person on the surface of a mirror. Glanvil relates that
Compton offered to show to a Mr. Hill any one the latter wished to
see. Hill "had no great confidence in his talk," but replied that he
desired to see his wife who was many miles distant. "Upon this, Compton
took up a Looking-glass that was in the Room, and setting it down
again, bid my Friend look in it, which he did, and then, as he most
solemnly and seriously prof esseth, he saw the exact Image of his
Wife, in that Habit which she then wore and working at her Needle in
such a part of the Room (then represented also) in which and about
which time she really was, as he found upon enquiry when he came
"Aubrey, "Miscellanies," London, 1890, pp. 156, 157. (There is a figure on p. 156.)
