Saturday, 31.--A young man of good sense and an unblamable character gave me a strange account of what (he said) had happened to himself and three other persons in the same house. As they all feared God, I thought the matter deserved a further examination. So in the afternoon I talked largely with them all. The sum of their account was this: "Nearly two years ago, Martin S-- and William J-- saw, in dream, two or three times repeated to each of them, a person who told them there was a large treasure hid in such a spot, three miles from Norwich, consisting of money and plate, buried in a chest, between six and eight feet deep. They did not much regard this, till each of them, when they were broad awake, saw an elderly man and woman standing by their bedside, who told them the same thing, and bade them go and dig it up, between eight and twelve at night. Soon after, they went; but, being afraid, took a third man with them. They began digging at eight, and after they had dug six feet, saw the top of a coffer, or chest. But presently it sank down into the earth; and there appeared over the place a large globe of bright fire, which, after some time, rose higher and higher, till it was quite out of sight. Not long after, the man and woman appeared again, and said, 'You spoiled all, by bringing that man with you.' From this time, both they and Sarah and Mary J--, who live in the same house with them, have heard, several times in a week delightful music, for a quarter of an hour at a time. They often hear it before those persons appear; often when they do not appear." They asked me whether they were good or bad spirits; but I could not resolve them.
Tuesday, November 17.--One was relating a remarkable story, which I thought worthy to be remembered. Two years ago, a gentleman of large fortune in Kent dreamed that he was walking through the churchyard and saw a new monument with the following inscription:
Here lieth the Body
OF
SAMUEL SAVAGE, ESQ.,
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE ON SEPTEMBER -- 1772, AGED --.
He told his friends in the morning and was much affected; but the impression soon wore off. But on that day he did depart, and a stone was erected with that very inscription.
A gentlewoman present added an account equally surprising which she received from the person's own mouth:
"Mrs. B--, when about fourteen years of age, being at a boarding school a mile or two from her father's, dreamed she was on the top of the church steeple, when a man came up and threw her down to the roof of the church. Yet she seemed not much hurt, till he came to her again and threw her to the bottom. She thought she looked hard at him, and said, 'Now you have hurt me sadly, but I shall hurt you worse'; and waked. A week after, she was to go to her father's. She set out early in the morning. At the entrance of a little wood, she stopped and doubted whether she should not go round, instead of through it. But, knowing no reason, she went straight through till she came to the other side. Just as she was going over the style, a man pulled her back by the hair. She immediately knew it was the same man whom she had seen in her dream. She fell on her knees, and begged him, 'For God's sake, do not hurt me any more.' He put his hands round her neck and squeezed her so that she instantly lost her senses. He then stripped her, carried her a little way, and threw her into a ditch.
"Meantime, her father's servant coming back to the school, and hearing she was gone without him, walked back. Coming to the style, he heard several groans and, looking about, saw many drops of blood. He traced them to the ditch, whence the groans came. He lifted her up, not knowing her at all, as her face was covered with blood, carried her to a neighboring house; running to the village, he quickly brought a surgeon. She was just alive; but her throat was much hurt, so that she could not speak at all.
"Just then a young man of the village was missing. Search being made, he was apprehended in an alehouse two miles off. He had all her clothes with him in a bag, which, he said, he found. It was three months before she was able to go abroad. He was arraigned at the Assizes. She knew him perfectly and swore to the man. He was condemned, and soon after executed."
Wednesday, December 2.--I preached at the new preaching-house, in the parish of Bromley. In speaking severally to the members of the society, I was surprised at the openness and artlessness of the people. Such I should never have expected to find within ten miles of London.