Janet Horne was the last person to be executed legally for witchcraft in the British Isles.
She attempted to flee but was captured. Her daughter escaped —Wikipedia
She forgets the strangest things. Surely her mind
elsewhere. Bedevilment, how she leaves her washing
undone, burns the pot, black smoke pouring
what kind of spell from her unkempt window.
How she wanders, mutters
emptiness to herself and to whom other
the strangest things, her daughter, too, strangely
hoofed. And where is she? Confusing our ways.
We are looking—milk gone bad, cows gone ill,
lost, a good wife plagued with pins and needles
she never sees. Bad dreams. Menace. Misfits.
We are after them both—old woman and girl.
*Note: Janet Horne was burned alive.
Case date started June, 1727, in Sutherland, in the parish of Dornoch, Scotland.
There were “no recorded trials.” — source: Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin, Joyce Miler and Louise Yeoman, “The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft https://witches.shca.ed.ac.uk/ (archived January 2023, accessed beginning March, 2023)