Case file · Crop circle
The Mowing-Devil pamphlet
An English woodcut pamphlet tells how the Devil mowed a Hertfordshire farmer's oats in a single night, in perfect circles.
1678 CE · 51.80, -0.20 · status: legend
The account
'The Mowing-Devil: or, Strange News out of Hartford-shire' (1678) says a farmer who refused a mower's price swore the Devil could do it instead; next morning the field was cut 'so neatly' no man could match it. Crop-circle enthusiasts cite it as the earliest record.
The sceptical view
The text describes the oats as cut, not flattened, and is a moral tale about swearing; its link to modern crop circles is loose.