that the account was by Ruddle, and all those persons mentioned in it actually lived at the period.
In 1665 John Ruddle was schoolmaster in Launceston as well as vicar, and one of his pupils died. He preached a sermon at the funeral on June 20th, and after leaving church he was addressed by an old gentleman, who informed him that his own son was sadly troubled by having several times met a ghost, or, at all events, the boy pretended that he had. The gentleman, Mr. Bligh, of Botathen, invited Ruddle to his house to see the lad.
After conferences with the boy Ruddle gained his confidence, and, says he, "he told me with all naked freedom and a flood of tears that his friends were unjust and unkind to him, neither to believe nor pity him, and that if any man would go with him to the place he might be convinced that the thing was real." The rest of the story shall be told from a MS. now in the possession of a lady in Launceston, copied by William Ruddle, the son, from his father's original MS.:—
"By ys time he found me able to comisrate his condition and to be attentive to his relation of it, therefore he went on in ys manner. This woman wch appears to me (saith he) Lived a nighbour here to my father, and dyed about 8 years since. Her name Dorothy Dingle, of such a stature, such an age and complexion. She never speaks to me, but passeth by hastyly and always Leaves ye foot-path to me, and she comonly meets me twice or thrice in ye breadth of ye field. It was abt 2 months before I took any notice of it, and tho' ye shape of ye face was in my memory yet I could not recal ye name of ye person, but
