Death of a Warlock.
On the 5th instant, were deposited in their last abode in the Church-yard of Kirkmichael, Strathdown, the mortal remains of Gregor Macgregor, alias Willox, whose name, if not his person, has been long and extensively known in the Northern Counties as "Willox the Warlock." Gregor was the last of a line of ancestors, long the objects of awe and veneration, as the possessors of the only means ever known of prying into futurity, and of controlling and circumventing the works of both natural and supernatural agents!
This singular faculty consisted in the use of two articles - the history of which cannot fail to be interesting to the "curious reader." One of these was a piece of yellow metal resembling the bit of a horse's bridle, which in the days of yore was sported by a mischievous water Kelpie, who haunted the banks of Loch Ness and Loch Spynie, decked out in the similitude and trappings of a fine riding horse, for the purpose of entrapping weary travellers and horse jockies. The spirit was jockied in his turn by a renowned Macgregor, who, with his claymore, cut the bit out of the kelpie's jaw, and afterwards succeeded by some good management in extracting from the kelpie an account of its virtues, under promise of returning to him his bit, a promise which the wily captor did not find it convenient to fulfil.
The other instrument consists of a piece of pellucid matter, resembling the nob or bottom of a crystal bottle, which, according to Willox, once glittered in the firmament as a brilliant star, but which, having in the course of time, fallen into the sea, became the prize of a fair mermaid who happened to take a fancy to a brave Macgregor, who extorted from his aquatic sweetheart the precious gem.
The bit was pierced by several holes, on looking through which the hereditary proprietor, by a faculty peculiar to himself, was enabled to view the various species of supernatural agents, whose acts and machinations were clearly exposed to his observation; and on dipping the mermaid's stone into a vessel filled with water, he was enabled to see reflected on the vessel the image of some hag engaged in her infernal work, while the water, deriving virtue from the stone, was a perfect cure and protection to the objects of her malevolence!
Strange as it may appear to the enlightened reader, these credentials transmitted from father to son, obtained for many ages implicit faith amongst the peasantry of Scotland from Perth to John O'Groats, and the stone and bridle were daily consulted by unfortunate pilgrims - so that the stone might be truly called the philosopher's stone, as it converted water into gold, by a process, perhaps more circuitous, but equally certain, as the object of the chemist's fruitless research.
Of late years, however, owing to the rapidly progressing intelligence of the Highlanders, Willox began to experience the truth of the proverb - "that a prophet has no honour in his own country." Still he clung to his "black art," and the arch speciousness with which he puffed forth the history and virtues of his oracles, and the facetious fund of traditional lore which was blended with his descriptions, brought him many visitors. In his dealings, the magician sometimes "raised spirits which he could not lay." Having, it is said, once waited on a gallant Nobleman bound for a campaign, to give him a charm against the Frenchmen's bullets, the offer was accepted, but the nobleman insisted that the efficiency of the spell should be instantly put to the test by an experiment on the Warlock's own person, a 'fiery ordeal' which he could not reasonably decline, but from which it is said, he fled with any thing but honour.
Viewing poor Willox apart from his profession of a necromancer, to which, however, he adhered to his dying day, despite the praiseworthy exertions of his pastors and friends, there was nothing very reprehensible in his character or conduct.
Inverness Courier, 16th October 1833.