On top whereof ay dwelt the ghastly owle,
Shrieking his baleful note, which ever drave
Far from that haunt all other cheerful fowl,
And all about it wandering ghosts did wail and howle"--

is now, alas! no more. It stood in a field a little elevated, on a
brow above the building at present called Malking-Tower. The site of
the house or cottage is still distinctly traceable, and fragments of
the plaster are yet to be found imbedded in the boundary wall of the
field. The old road to Gisburne ran almost close to it. It commanded a
most extensive prospect in front, in the direction of Alkincoates,
Colne, and the Yorkshire moors; while in another direction the vast
range of Pendle, nearly intercepted, gloomed in sullen majesty. At the
period when Mother Demdike was in being, Malking-Tower would be at
some distance from any other habitation; its occupier, as the vulgar
would opine--

"So choosing solitarie to abide
Far from all neighbours, that her devilish deedes
And hellish arts from people she might hide,
And hurt far off unknown whomever she envide."]

It is rather strange that Dr. Whitaker, to whom local superstitions
were always matters of the strongest interest, and welcome as manna to
the sojourners in the wilderness,[36] should have been ignorant, not
merely of Master Potts's discovery, but even of the fact of this trial
of the witches in 1612. It is equally singular that Sir Walter Scott
should have forgotten, when writing his letters on Demonology and
Witchcraft, that he had republished this tract, somewhat inaccurately,
but with rather a long introduction and notes, in the third volume of