Goodnight My Servants All

A treasury of primary material about cases of witchcraft in East Lothian. This marvellous, vast compendium of transcribed documentation, with useful annotation and perceptive commentary, is a most welcome contribution to the study of Scottish witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries. Seasoned academic scholars of witchcraft will find much useful, challenging material - and read of witches and witchcraft cases that they have never come across before. Even with some familiarity with the cases that the author presents, it is fascinating to read different accounts given by different witnesses of the same case and the same alleged incidents. In addition to the annotated transcriptions there is a summary of James VI and I's short treatise on witchcraft, in the form of a dialogue, called: Daemonologie. And a long, closing chapter on the analysis and interpretation of witchcraft in East Lothian. I might not agree with every single claim that David Robertson makes - but I can heartily endorse the general tenor and commendable balance of his judgement. He says: 'We must avoid the all or nothing attitude, where either everything is true or everything is a farrago of ludicrous nonsense. We can accept what is probable, dismiss what is clearly impossible, but we should keep an open mind on the admittedly vast area in between'. That is an appropriate attitude with which to approach this remarkable and very fine book. -- from the Introduction by Hugh V. McLachlan