Note 31 — INTRODUCTION.
Reading edition
It was my good fortune to visit this wizard-haunted spot within the last few weeks, in company with the able and zealous Archdeacon[A] within whose ecclesiastical cure it is comprized, and to whose singularly accurate knowledge of this district, and courteous communication of much valuable information regarding it, I hold myself greatly indebted. Following, with unequal steps, such a guide, accompanied, likewise, by an excellent Canon of the Church[B] with all the "armamentaria cœli" at command against the powers of darkness, and a lay auxiliary[C], whose friendly converse would make the roughest journey appear smooth, I need scarcely say, I passed through
"The forest wyde, Whose hideous horror and sad trembling sownd Full griesly seem'd,"
unscathed by the old lords of the soil, and needed not Mengus's Fuga, Fustis et Flagellum Dæmonum, as a triple coat of mail.