Download or read book The Witches of Selwood Forest written by Andrew Pickering and published by . This book was released on 2016-02-10 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient forest of Selwood straddles the borders of Somerset and Wiltshire and terminates in the south where these counties meet Dorset. Until now a comprehensive study of its exceptionally rich history of demonological beliefs and witchcraft persecution in the early modern period has not been attempted. This book explores the connections between important theological texts written in the region, notably Richard Bernard's 'Guide to the Grand-Jury men' (1627) and Joseph Glanvill's 'Saducismus Triumphatus' (1681), influential local families such as the Hunts and the Hills, and the extraordinary witchcraft episodes associated with Shepton Mallet, Brewham, Stoke Trister and elsewhere. In particular it focuses on a little known case in the village of Beckington in 1689 and shows how this was not a late, isolated episode but an integral part of the wider Selwood Forest witchcraft story. In so doing it places the region's witch-hunts at the very centre of the later seventeenth century debate in England regarding the reality of spirits and witches.