Many, perhaps most, books on Scottish witchcraft and folk magic tend to rely not so much on original research as on what has been produced by other writers. This has often led to a concentration on the same familiar cases and examples.

Having spent several years researching East Lothian witchcraft and allied matters from original sources, I have tried to cut through the claptrap and set out what are likely to have been the actual events, rituals and beliefs. I have summarised the cases in modern English, in chronological order, grouped together into subject areas for comparison and discussion, such as ‘malefice’, ‘lost property’, ‘healing’, and so on. While I express my own opinions and interpretations from time to time, I try most of all to let the cases speak for themselves.

In This House Angels Four attempts to reach some sort of conclusion about the practices and beliefs of ordinary folk in East Lothian as regards witchcraft, traditional ‘magic’, and healing. Droves of unfortunate women were executed for supposedly having sex with the Devil and cavorting with fellow devotees at witch meetings, but what was really going on?