The Mowing-Devil of Hertfordshire — England's Earliest Crop Circle Account (1678)

A 1678 English woodcut pamphlet titled 'The Mowing-Devil: or, Strange NEWS out of Hartford-shire' describes what may be the earliest published account of a crop circle-like phenomenon. According to the pamphlet, a Hertfordshire farmer quarreled with a laborer over the cost of mowing a field of oats. The farmer swore he would rather the Devil himself mowed it than pay the laborer's asking price. That night, the field appeared to be on fire, glowing with a strange light. By morning, the oats had been cut in a perfect circle with such precision that 'no Mortal Man was able to do the like.' The pamphlet's anonymous author attributed the phenomenon to diabolical intervention, and the accompanying woodcut depicts a devil-like figure scything a circular pattern in the field. While skeptics note that the pamphlet is a piece of sensational popular literature rather than a factual report, crop circle researchers have seized upon it as evidence that the phenomenon has a history stretching back centuries before the modern era. The original pamphlet is held in the British Library.