Charlotte Burne quotes a letter from the Right Rev. W. Walsham How, Bishop of Bedford, formerly Rector of Whittington, written in 1872. Soon after he came in 1851, an old woman called Kitty Williams who lived close to the rectory fell ill. His own wife was also ill. A farmer's wife in Babin's Wood hoped aloud that they were being kind to Kitty, because she had the evil eye and might have made Mrs Walsham How ill.
She then told him a story. When Kitty was young she lived with a family nearby, but was dismissed for misconduct. After she left everything on the farm went wrong, with cows dying and horses going lame. They consulted a wise woman, who told them to take a pair of long-tailed black horses and drive them about the country until they stopped by themselves, then give the first woman they saw whatever she asked.
The horses stopped outside Kitty Williams's cottage by Whittington Rectory. The family greeted their old servant and asked what she wanted, and she asked for a shawl. They drove to Oswestry and bought one, and from that day all things prospered, "told me with the most serious conviction of its truth", the Bishop wrote.
Burne notes how often horses in folklore sense witches. The story is a first-hand report of what a neighbour believed, not evidence of anything, and Kitty herself is only known through it.
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