The Three Pleasant Ghosts

I
To his Honoured Kinsman, Sir William Soame

I can but name thee, and methinkes I call

All that have been, or are Canonicall

For love and bountie, to come neare, and see

Their many vertues volumn’d up in thee;

In thee Brave Man! Whose incorrupted fame

Casts forth a light like to a Virgin flame;

And as it shines, it throwes a scent about,

As when a Rain-bow in perfumes goes out.

So vanish hence, but leave a name, as sweet

As Benjamin and Storax, when they meet.

ROBERT HERRICK.

II
An Apparition

Anno 1670, not far from Cyrencester, was an Apparition. Being demanded whether a good Spirit or a Bad? returned no answer, but disappeared with a curious Perfume, and a most melodious twang. Mr. W. Lillie believes it was a Fairy.

JOHN AUBREY, Miscellanies.

III
The Laird Bocconi

The Lord Middleton had a great Friendship with the Laird Bocconi, and they had made an agreement, that the first of them that died, should appear to the other in Extremity. The Lord Middleton was taken prisoner at Worcester Fight, and was Prisoner in the Tower under three Locks. Lying in his bed, pensive, Bocconi appeared to him; my Lord Middleton asked him if he were dead or alive? He said Dead, and told him that he was a Ghost: and told him that within three Days he should escape, and he did so in his Wife’s Clothes. When he had done his Message, he gave a Frisk, and said

“Givenni, Givanni ’tis very strange

In the world to see so sudden a change,”

and then gathered up and vanished.

JOHN AUBREY, Miscellanies.