Again, probably only the more dramatic tales were as a rule recorded.

Thirdly, many of the stories may have been either embellished--a fancied purpose being attributed to a purposeless ghost--or they may even have been invented to protect witnesses who gave information against murderers.

Who could disobey a ghost?
In any case the old ghost stories are much more dramatic than the new.
To them we turn, beginning with the appearances of Mr.and Mrs.Furze at Spraiton, in Devonshire, in 1682.

Our author is Mr.Richard Bovet, in his Pandaemonium, or the Devil's Cloister opened (1683).

The motive of the late Mr.Furze was to have some small debts paid; his wife's spectre was influenced by a jealousy of Mr.Furze's spectre's relations with another lady.
THE DAEMON OF SPRAITON IN DEVON {111} ANNO 1682 "About the month of November in the year 1682, in the parish of Spraiton, in the county of Devon, one Francis Fey (servant to Mr.
Philip Furze) being in a field near the dwelling-house of his said master, there appeared unto him the _resemblance_ of an _aged gentleman_ like his master's father, with a pole or staff in his hand, resembling that he was wont to carry when living to kill the moles withal.