his edition of the Somers Tracts, which appeared in 1810. He mentions
Potts's _Discoverie_, in the amusing but very inaccurate and imperfect
historical sketch referred to,[37] as a curious and rare book, which
he had then for the first time obtained a sight of. What could have
been his meaning in referring his readers, for an account of Mother
Demdike and a description of Malking Tower, to "Mr. Roby's Antiquities
of Lancaster," that apocryphal historian having given no such account
or description, and having published no such work, it is rather
difficult to conjecture.

[Footnote 36: In a scarce little book, "The Triumph of Sovereign
Grace, or a Brand plucked out of the Fire, by David Crosly, Minister,
Manchester," 1743, 12mo., which I owe to the kindness of the very able
historian of Cheshire, George Ormerod, Esq., Dr. Whitaker, to whom the
volume formerly belonged, has been at the pains of chronicling the
superstitions connected with a family, ranking amongst the more
opulent yeomen of Cliviger, of the name of Briercliffe, on the
execution of one of whom for murder the tract was published. The
Briercliffe's, from the curious anecdotes which the Doctor gives with
great unction, appear to have been one of those gloomy and fated
races, dogged by some unassuageable Nemesis, in which crime and horror
are transmitted from generation to generation with as much certainty
as the family features and name.]

[Footnote 37: We yet want a full, elaborate, and satisfactory history
of witchcraft. Hutchinson's is the only account we have which enters
at all at length into the detail of the various cases; but his
materials were generally collected from common sources, and he
confines himself principally to English cases. The European history of
witchcraft embraces so wide a field, and requires for its just