The Cotswolds are a range of limestone hills located primarily in England's county of Gloucestershire. Artifacts found in the soil of the region indicate that people have been living there since the Roman occupation.

The area is currently characterized by colorful flowers, pastures, and roaming cattle, making it one of the prettiest sections of the kingdom.

Signs of its old prosperity from its past wool industry still show in its quaint limestone buildings. It also gives visitors an eerie feeling that sticks to the spine even on bright summer days.

With its bustle of activity through the centuries, country folk have had plenty of time and opportunity to develop a wide range of ghost and witch stories. GHOSTS AND WITCHES OF THE COTSWOLDS provides some of the tales that survive in the 20th century, but it reads more like a term paper than it entertains.

This 1986 book consists of 17 chapters that either focus on a single case or combine several anecdotes with a related trait. Author J. A. Brooks includes many illustrations and photos to accompany the text and give his readers a better flavor of the region.

There is also a liberal use of excerpts from his sources and footnotes to verify his points.

In Cheltenham, a strange woman, dressed in black, brings a chill to the atmosphere and wanders around a large Victorian house as she pleases, but either keeps just out of reach or disappears before anyone who sees her.

In Evesham, a borough of Worcestershire, a little girl starts voiding stones of various sizes after throwing rocks at a local spinster, who is soon executed for witchcraft.

Some of the many apparitions in the village of Prestbury include a Black Abbot who takes his holiday walks every Christmas, Easter, and All Soul's Day; a couple of horseback riders--one dressed in full armor and the other as a Royalist; and famous jockey Jack Archer, who is allegedly responsible for several strange mishaps at Newmarket Heath.

This book's definition of the Cotswolds is used rather loosely. Although an encyclopedia would describe the hills as a range that crosses from the southwest to the northeast of England, most Brits tend to think of it as Gloucestershire territory and would say the accounts of Warwickshire are out of place.

Even though there's no doubt of Winchcombe's qualifications, it is disappointing to note that its best-known haunting, Sudeley Castle, is excluded.

Brooks does a good job of locating and researching the stories he presents in this book, but his propensity to quote other sources brought down the readability. His own writing is fine, but the archaic language of some of his sources is sometimes tedious to follow and, in addition, he keeps the old spellings, which require some deciphering. If this was meant for reading by a general audience, paraphrasing these accounts would have been preferable.

Considering this reviewer has a direct ancestor who was falsely accused and truly executed for witchcraft, stories of that nature hold little appeal. On the other hand, people with a genealogical interest in the Cotswolds area might run across a story with a name or homestead that is connected to their family lines.

GHOSTS AND WITCHES OF THE COTSWOLDS has some interesting bits and a good variety of stories. Any lover of ghost folklore should find enough satisfactory tales to make wading through the archaic language worth it. It should additionally give any potential visitors another insight to this gorgeous "shire."