to the popularization of margaret murray's witch-cult hypothesis, stated that 'the saxon word "wicca", a witch, as well as the term "carline" were of immemorial usage' in lowland scotland while in the highlands, where english words were less known, 'wise women' or "nicnevins" ("daughters of heaven") were used. spence argued that a native tradition had 'flourished' in scotland, and elsewhere in britain, and, while it maintained many differences, had been greatly influenced by french practices from the mid-fifteenth century and this saw the introduction of the word 'witch'. while still associating folk tradition with 'witchcraft' he suggested it was 'a widespread cult of pagan origin, having a well-digested system of medical and magical lore of its own, a distant ritual, and with affiliations throughout the whole of the lowlands and a certain part of the highlands'. nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the nineteenth century, scotland had been politically united with england, wales and also ireland as the united kingdom of great britain and ireland, controlled by a central government in london. such a political union also brought about an increase in cultural diffusion and unity between the various nations. it was in nineteenth-century scotland that an agricultural organization that acted as both a trade union and a magical fraternity known as the society of the horseman's word was founded. its members, whilst not being cunning folk, practiced folk magic, and soon an english alternative, the society of horsemen, had also been founded. the spread of such magical groups and their ideas could be seen in the diffusion of the toad bone rite, which was used by such horseman's groups and various cunning folk, and examples of which could be found scattered across britain, from nevern in pembrokeshire, wales, to east anglia in england. at the start of the nineteenth century, the popularity of cunning folk continued, and there was still a large and lucrative market for their services, for instance in 1816, there were eight different wise women working independently in the english coastal town of whitby. nonetheless, the nineteenth century also saw an increase in the numbers of those cunning folk being prosecuted under the witchcraft act of 1736, possibly because "members of the social elite came to perceive that a faith in magic seemed to be as prevalent among the populace as it had been a hundred years before, even while a growing political turbulence among commoners gave their rulers a new interest in the idea of education and civility as stabilizing forces." soon after this, in 1824, a new law commonly referred to as the vagrancy act 1824 was introduced, bringing about a further blow to the cunning profession by outlawing "persons pretending or professing to tell fortunes, or using any subtle craft, means and device, by palmistry or otherwise, to deceive and impose." the enacting of the law led to the increased prosecutions of cunning folk, something that would only begin to wane in the 1910s. a news report from 1870 detailed a number of cases brought before authorities in the nineteenth century where claims of powers were made, but it ridiculed the belief, and closed with an example where 'the charge was settled down to the more definite one of obtaining a shilling under false pretenses'. by the beginning of the twentieth century, the number of cunning folk across britain had dropped markedly from that of a century before, and by the 1940s they had essentially vanished from the country. despite this, other professional practitioners of popular magic, such as astrologers and fortune tellers, continued to remain popular. the historian owen davies believed that the primary reason for the decline in the cunning craft was the declining belief in the existence of malevolent witchcraft in the country (something brought about by modernization and increasing education and literacy rates), and therefore the collapse of any need for the anti-witchcraft measures that the cunning folk offered as their primary service. whilst many of their magical practices continued to be used, being performed by folk and ceremonial magicians or being absorbed into new religious movements that used magic such as wicca, davies concluded that the actual profession itself died out. historian ronald hutton however believed that it was more accurate to state that the cunning craft, rather than dying out, "changed character" by being absorbed into other magical currents. the decline of the cunning craft in britain was not however indicative of other european nations: in italy for example, cunning practitioners continued operating right into the early twenty-first century. legacy modern occultists some of the magical practices and charms of the cunning-folk were passed down and continued to be used after the decline of the profession, although because they were no longer typically used to fight malevolent witchcraft in a professional sense, historian owen davies did not believe that those who practiced them could be accurately seen as cunning-folk. as he noted: how many contemporary white-witches regularly practice both thief magic and unbewitching on a commercial basis? a self-styled wise-woman today who does not deal with bewitched clients is not a wise-woman as defined historically. witchcraft was the glue that held the concept of cunning-folk together... this is not to belittle the role of modern magical healers. they continue to provide relief and comfort to people, just as cunning-folk did. rather, it is an attempt to clarify where they really stand in relation to those formerly described as cunning-folk. people who refer to themselves as such ought to be fully aware of their relationship to their historical namesakes, and be aware of the conceptual and social differences that separate them. he noted that many of those currently referring to themselves as cunning-folk, wise women, white witches and the like during the 1990s and 2000s were explicitly neopagan in their faith, which influenced their magical workings. he also noted that many of them referred to themselves as "hedge witches", a term that was first developed by the writer rae beth in her book hedge witch: a guide to solitary witchcraft (1990). beth explicitly stated that the magical practices that she was purporting were the original practices of the cunning-folk, but she had incorrectly connected them to ancient paganism and the witch-cult. this was something davies criticised, stating that: here is still a considerable gulf between hedge witches and cunning-folk, not only in relation to the unbewitching trade, but also from a religious point of view. cunning-folk were essentially christian. whether conscientious churchgoers or not, they employed the bible and christian rites and rituals. hedge witches, on the other hand, are mostly pagans in some form or other. they worship nature and have an animistic conception of the physical environment. this, in turn, is mirrored in the content of the spells and charms they use. historian ronald hutton noted that the low magic of the cunning folk was one of the lesser influences upon the development of the neopagan religion of wicca and related witchcraft-based groups in the early twentieth century. for instance, one of the pioneering english neopagan witches, robert cochrane, who would describe himself under such titles as "pellar" and who led a coven known as the clan of tubal cain in the early 1960s, allegedly contained elements borrowed from the cunning craft in his tradition, known as cochrane's craft. indeed, shani oates, one of his later followers, claimed that his tradition "preserves many elements of 19th century cunning and folk magics". hutton however also noted that although many neopagan witches consider themselves to be the heirs of the cunning people, they "have much more in common with the stereotypical images of witches in nineteenth-century popular culture; the very beings who were regarded as the natural enemies of the charmers and cunning people." historiography whilst the historian keith thomas had touched on the subject of english popular magic in his religion and the decline of magic (1971), in a 1994 article on the subject of the cunning folk, the historian willem de blécourt stated that the study of the subject, "properly speaking, has yet to start." these ideas were echoed in 1999, when the historian ronald hutton, in his the triumph of the moon: a history of modern pagan witchcraft, remarked that the study of the cunning folk and european folk magic was "notoriously, an area that has been comparatively neglected by academic scholars." nonetheless, articles on the subject were published in the late 1990s, primarily by the historian owen davies, who in 2003 published cunning-folk: popular magic in english history (which was later republished under the altered title of popular magic: cunning-folk in english history in 2007). this was followed in 2005 with the publication of emma wilby's cunning folk and familiar spirits: shamanistic visionary traditions in early modern british witchcraft and magic, which took a somewhat different attitude to the cunning craft than hutton and davies, emphasising the spiritual as opposed to simply practical side to cunning folk's magic. there are also examples of academic studies into specific british cunning folk. in 1960, the folklorist eric maple published articles on two nineteenth-century cunning men in east anglia, james murrell and george pickingill. in 2004, jason semmens published a study of a nineteenth-century cornish cunning-woman as the witch of the west: or, the strange and wonderful history of thomasine blight.