Record Number: 21264

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Janet Fraser . . . had gone out to the fields with a young female companion, and sat down to read the Bible . . . [Going to get a drink of water, she left] her Bible open at the place where she had been reading . . . the 34th chapter of Isaiah, beginning "My sword shall be bathed in heaven" . . . . On returning she found a patch of something like blood covering the very text. In great surprise, she carried the book home, where a young man tasted the substance with his tongue, and found it of a saltless or insipid flavour. On the two succeeding Sundays, while the same girl was reading her Bible in the open air, similar blotches of matter, like blood,fell upon the leaves. She did not perceive it in the act of falling till it was about an inch from the book.'

Century:

1600-1699

Date:

1 May 1687

Country:

Scotland

Time

daytime

Place:

city: Closeburn
county: Dumfriesshire
other location: outdoors -- in a field near the banks of the River Nith

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Janet Fraser

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Clerk / tradesman / artisan / smallholder

Occupation:

daughter of a weaver

Religion:

Protestant -- probably Church of Scotland

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

A 'yourng female companion' was with her

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Title:

Bible - Book of Isaiah

Genre:

Bible

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

probably the Authorized King James version

Provenance

unknown
probably owned, by the family if not by her

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Source Information:

Record ID:

21264

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Chambers

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution, 2 vols

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh and London

Date of Publication:

1859

Vol:

2

Page:

487-488

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution, 2 vols, (Edinburgh and London, 1859), 2, p. 487-488, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=21264, accessed: 29 December 2024

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Additional Comments:

I've said that it was a 'serial event' on the basis that she went outdoors to read the Bible on three successive Sundays. Chambers does not give his source for the story.