and about twenty other persons, including two negroes, when, upon a
consultation with Parsons, they resolved to sit up the whole night, and
await the ghost's arrival. It was then explained by Parsons, that
although the ghost would never render itself visible to anybody but his
daughter, it had no objection to answer the questions that might be put
to it by any person present, and that it expressed an affirmation by one
knock, a negative by two, and its displeasure by a kind of scratching.
The child was then put into bed along with her sister, and the clergymen
examined the bed and bed-clothes to satisfy themselves that no trick was
played, by knocking upon any substance concealed among the clothes, as,
on the previous night, the bed was observed to shake violently.
After some hours, during which they all waited with exemplary patience,
the mysterious knocking was heard in the wall, and the child declared
that she saw the ghost of poor Fanny. The following questions were then
gravely put by the clergyman, through the medium of one Mary Frazer, the
servant of Parsons, and to whom it was said the deceased lady had been
much attached. The answers were in the usual fashion, by a knock or
knocks:--
"Do you make this disturbance on account of the ill usage you received
from Mr. Kent?"--"Yes."
"Were you brought to an untimely end by poison?"--"Yes."
"How was the poison administered, in beer or in purl?"--"In purl."
"How long was that before your death?"--"About three hours."
"Can your former servant, Carrots, give any information about the
poison?"--"Yes."
"Are you Kent's wife's sister?"--"Yes."
"Were you married to Kent after your sister's death?"--"No."
"Was anybody else, besides Kent, concerned in your murder?"--"No."
"Can you, if you like, appear visibly to any one?"--"Yes."
"Will you do so?"--"Yes."
"Can you go out of this house?"--"Yes."
"Is it your intention to follow this child about everywhere?"--"Yes."
"Are you pleased in being asked these questions?"--"Yes."
"Does it ease your troubled soul?"--"Yes."
[Here there was heard a mysterious noise, which some wiseacre present
compared to the fluttering of wings.]
"How long before your death did you tell your servant, Carrots, that you
were poisoned?--An hour?"--"Yes."
[Carrots, who was present, was appealed to; but she stated positively
that such was not the fact, as the deceased was quite speechless an hour
before her death. This shook the faith of some of the spectators, but
the examination was allowed to continue.]
"How long did Carrots live with you?"--"Three or four days."
[Carrots was again appealed to, and said that this was true.]
"If Mr. Kent is arrested for this murder, will he confess?"--"Yes."
"Would your soul be at rest if he were hanged for it?"--"Yes."
"Will he be hanged for it?"--"Yes."
"How long a time first?"--"Three years."
"How many clergymen are there in this room?"--"Three."
"How many negroes?"--"Two."
"Is this watch (held up by one of the clergymen) white?"--"No."
"Is it yellow?"--"No."
"Is it blue?"--"No."
"Is it black?"--"Yes."
[The watch was in a black shagreen case.]
"At what time this morning will you take your departure?"
The answer to this question was four knocks, very distinctly heard by
every person present; and accordingly, at four o'clock precisely, the
ghost took its departure to the Wheatsheaf public-house, close by, where
it frightened mine host and his lady almost out of their wits by
knocking in the ceiling right above their bed.
The rumour of these occurrences very soon spread over London, and every
day Cock-lane was rendered impassable by the crowds of people who
assembled around the house of the parish clerk, in expectation of either
seeing the ghost or of hearing the mysterious knocks. It was at last
found necessary, so clamorous were they for admission within the haunted
precincts, to admit those only who would pay a certain fee; an
arrangement which was very convenient to the needy and money-loving Mr.
Parsons. Indeed, things had taken a turn greatly to his satisfaction;
he not only had his revenge, but he made a profit out of it. The ghost,
in consequence, played its antics every night, to the great amusement of
many hundreds of people, and the great perplexity of a still greater
number.
Unhappily, however, for the parish clerk, the ghost was induced to make
some promises which were the means of utterly destroying its reputation.
It promised, in answer to the questions of the Reverend Mr. Aldritch of
Clerkenwell, that it would not only follow the little Miss Parsons
wherever she went, but would also attend him, or any other gentleman,
into the vault under St. John's church, where the body of the murdered
woman was deposited, and would there give notice of its presence by a
distinct knock upon the coffin. As a preliminary, the girl was conveyed
to the house of Mr. Aldritch near the church, where a large party of
ladies and gentlemen, eminent for their acquirements, their rank, or
their wealth, had assembled. About ten o'clock on the night of the 1st
of February, the girl, having been brought from Cock-lane in a coach,
was put to bed by several ladies in the house of Mr. Aldritch, a strict
examination having been previously made that nothing was hidden in the
bedclothes. While the gentlemen, in an adjoining chamber, were
deliberating whether they should proceed in a body to the vault, they
were summoned into the bedroom by the ladies, who affirmed, in great
alarm, that the ghost was come, and that they heard the knocks and
scratches. The gentlemen entered accordingly, with a determination to
suffer no deception. The little girl, on being asked whether she saw the
ghost, replied, "No; but she felt it on her back like a mouse." She was
then required to put her hands out of bed, and they being held by some
of the ladies, the spirit was summoned in the usual manner to answer, if
it were in the room. The question was several times put with great
solemnity; but the customary knock was not heard in reply in the walls,
neither was there any scratching. The ghost was then asked to render
itself visible, but it did not choose to grant the request. It was next
solicited to give some token of its presence by a sound of any sort, or
by touching the hand or cheek of any lady or gentleman in the room; but
even with this request the ghost would not comply.
There was now a considerable pause, and one of the clergymen went
down-stairs to interrogate the father of the girl, who was waiting the
result of the experiment. He positively denied that there was any
deception, and even went so far as to say that he himself, upon one
occasion, had seen and conversed with the awful ghost. This having been
communicated to the company, it was unanimously resolved to give the
ghost another trial; and the clergyman called out in a loud voice to the
supposed spirit that the gentleman to whom it had promised to appear in
the vault was about to repair to that place, where he claimed the
fulfilment of its promise. At one hour after midnight they all proceeded
to the church, and the gentleman in question, with another, entered the
vault alone, and took up their position alongside of the coffin of poor
Fanny. The ghost was then summoned to appear, but it appeared not; it
was summoned to knock, but it knocked not; it was summoned to scratch,
but it scratched not; and the two retired from the vault, with the firm
belief that the whole business was a deception practised by Parsons and
his daughter. There were others, however, who did not wish to jump so
hastily to a conclusion, and who suggested that they were, perhaps,
trifling with this awful and supernatural being, which, being offended
with them for their presumption, would not condescend to answer them.
Again, after a serious consultation, it was agreed on all hands that, if
the ghost answered anybody at all, it would answer Mr. Kent, the
supposed murderer; and he was accordingly requested to go down into the
vault. He went with several others, and summoned the ghost to answer
whether he had indeed poisoned her. There being no answer, the question
was put by Mr. Aldritch, who conjured it, if it were indeed a spirit, to
end their doubts--make a sign of its presence, and point out the guilty
person. There being still no answer for the space of half an hour,
during which time all these boobies waited with the most praiseworthy
perseverance, they returned to the house of Mr. Aldritch, and ordered
the girl to get up and dress herself. She was strictly examined, but
persisted in her statement that she used no deception, and that the
ghost had really appeared to her.
So many persons had, by their openly expressed belief of the reality of
the visitation, identified themselves with it, that Parsons and his
family were far from being the only persons interested in the
continuance of the delusion. The result of the experiment convinced most
people; but these were not to be convinced by any evidence, however
positive, and they therefore spread about the rumour, that the ghost had
not appeared in the vault, because Mr. Kent had taken care beforehand to
have the coffin removed. That gentleman, whose position was a very
painful one, immediately procured competent witnesses, in whose presence
the vault was entered, and the coffin of poor Fanny opened. Their
deposition was then published; and Mr. Kent indicted Parsons and his
wife, his daughter, Mary Frazer the servant, the Rev. Mr. Moor, and a
tradesman, two of the most prominent patrons of the deception, for a
conspiracy. The trial came on in the Court of King's Bench, on the 10th
of July, before Lord Chief-Justice Mansfield, when, after an
investigation which lasted twelve hours, the whole of the conspirators
were found guilty. The Rev. Mr. Moor and his friend were severely
reprimanded in open court, and recommended to make some pecuniary
compensation to the prosecutor for the aspersions they had been
instrumental in throwing upon his character. Parsons was sentenced to
stand three times in the pillory, and to be imprisoned for two years:
his wife to one year's, and his servant to six months' imprisonment in
the Bridewell. A printer, who had been employed by them to publish an
account of the proceedings for their profit, was also fined fifty
pounds, and discharged.
The precise manner in which the deception was carried on has never been
explained. The knocking in the wall appears to have been the work of
Parsons' wife, while the scratching part of the business was left to the
little girl. That any contrivance so clumsy could have deceived anybody,
cannot fail to excite our wonder. But thus it always is. If two or three
persons can only be found to take the lead in any absurdity, however
great, there is sure to be plenty of imitators. Like sheep in a field,
if one clears the stile, the rest will follow.
About ten years afterwards, London was again alarmed by the story of a
haunted house. Stockwell, near Vauxhall, the scene of the antics of this
new ghost, became almost as celebrated in the annals of superstition as
Cock Lane. Mrs. Golding, an elderly lady, who resided alone with her
servant, Anne Robinson, was sorely surprised on the evening of
Twelfth-day, 1772, to observe a most extraordinary commotion among her
crockery. Cups and saucers rattled down the chimney--pots and pans were
whirled down stairs, or through the windows; and hams, cheeses, and
loaves of bread disported themselves upon the floor as if the devil were
in them. This, at least, was the conclusion that Mrs. Golding came to;
and being greatly alarmed, she invited some of her neighbours to stay
with her, and protect her from the evil one. Their presence, however,
did not put a stop to the insurrection of china, and every room in the
house was in a short time strewed with the fragments. The chairs and
tables joined, at last, in the tumult, and things looked altogether so
serious and inexplicable, that the neighbours, dreading that the house
itself would next be seized with a fit of motion, and tumble about their
ears, left poor Mrs. Golding to bear the brunt of it by herself. The
ghost in this case was solemnly remonstrated with, and urged to take its
departure; but the demolition continuing as great as before, Mrs.
Golding finally made up her mind to quit the house altogether. She took
refuge with Anne Robinson in the house of a neighbour; but his glass and
crockery being immediately subjected to the same persecution, he was
reluctantly compelled to give her notice to quit. The old lady, thus
forced back to her own house, endured the disturbance for some days
longer, when suspecting that Anne Robinson was the cause of all the
mischief, she dismissed her from her service. The extraordinary
appearances immediately ceased, and were never afterwards renewed; a
fact which is of itself sufficient to point out the real disturber. A
long time afterwards, Anne Robinson confessed the whole matter to the
Rev. Mr. Brayfield. This gentleman confided the story to Mr. Hone, who
has published an explanation of the mystery. Anne, it appears, was
anxious to have a clear house, to carry on an intrigue with her lover,
and resorted to this trick to effect her purpose. She placed the china
on the shelves in such a manner that it fell on the slightest motion,
and attached horse-hairs to other articles, so that she could jerk them
down from an adjoining room without being perceived by any one. She was
exceedingly dexterous at this sort of work, and would have proved a
formidable rival to many a juggler by profession.
In later days, the alarming vagaries of "Swing," and "Spring-heeled
Jack," have occasioned scarcely less alarm. Their claims to supernatural
powers have not been supported by such plausible evidence as those of
any of the ghosts which we have yet named, but their proceedings have
been no less troublesome and mischievous to the well-disposed of the subjects
of this realm.
One or two anecdotes with regard to haunted houses, though rather beside
the immediate object of this work, may yet prove interesting, as
illustrative of the general subject of ghosts, and the degree of belief
to be put in such supernatural visitors.
One of the best stories which we recollect to have heard of a haunted
house, is that which is related of the Royal Palace at Woodstock, in the
year 1649, when the commissioners sent from London by the Long
Parliament to take possession of it, and efface all the emblems of
royalty about it, were fairly driven out by their fear of the devil, and
the annoyances they suffered from a roguish cavalier, who played the imp
to admiration. The commissioners, dreading at that time no devil,
arrived at Woodstock on the 13th of October 1649. They took up their
lodgings in the late King's apartments--turned the beautiful bed-rooms
and withdrawing-rooms into kitchens and sculleries--the council-hall
into a brewhouse, and made the dining-room a place to keep firewood in.
They pulled down all the insignia of royal state, and treated with the
utmost indignity everything that recalled to their memory the name or
the majesty of Charles Stuart. One Giles Sharp accompanied them in the
capacity of clerk, and seconded their efforts apparently with the
greatest zeal. He aided them to uproot a noble old tree, merely because
it was called the King's Oak, and tossed the fragments into the
dining-room to make cheerful fires for the commissioners. During the
first two days they heard some strange noises about the house, but they
paid no great attention to them. On the third, however, they began to
suspect they had got into bad company; for they heard, as they thought,
a supernatural dog under their bed, which gnawed their bedclothes. On
the next day the chairs and tables began to dance, apparently of their
own accord. On the fifth day, something came into the bedchamber and
walked up and down, and fetching the warming-pan out of the
withdrawing-room, made so much noise with it that they thought five
church-bells were ringing in their ears. On the sixth day, the plates
and dishes were thrown up and down the dining-room. On the seventh, they
penetrated into the bed-room in company with several logs of wood, and
usurped the soft pillows intended for the commissioners. On the eighth
and ninth nights, there was a cessation of hostilities; but on the tenth
the bricks in the chimneys became locomotive, and rattled and danced
about the floors, and round the heads of the commissioners all the night
long. On the eleventh, the demon ran away with their breeches; and on
the twelfth filled their beds so full of pewter-platters that they could
not get into them. On the thirteenth night, the glass became
unaccountably seized with a fit of cracking, and fell into shivers in
all parts of the house. On the fourteenth, there was a noise as if forty
pieces of artillery had been fired off, and a shower of pebble-stones,
which so alarmed the commissioners, that, "struck with great horror,
they cried out to one another for help."
They first of all tried the efficacy of prayers to drive away the evil
spirits; but these proving unavailing, they began seriously to reflect
whether it would not be much better to leave the place altogether to the
devil that inhabited it. They ultimately resolved, however, to try it a
little longer; and having craved forgiveness of all their sins, betook
themselves to bed. That night they slept in tolerable comfort, but it
was merely a trick of their tormentor to lull them into false security.
When, on the succeeding night, they heard no noises, they began to
flatter themselves that the devil was driven out, and prepared
accordingly to take up their quarters for the whole winter in the
palace. These symptoms on their part became the signal for renewed
uproar among the fiends. On the 1st of November, they heard something
walking with a slow and solemn pace up and down the withdrawing-room,
and immediately afterwards a shower of stones, bricks, mortar, and
broken glass pelted about their ears. On the 2nd the steps were again
heard in the withdrawing-room, sounding to their fancy very much like
the treading of an enormous bear, which continued for about a quarter of
an hour. This noise having ceased, a
[Illustration: _Witchery at Woodstock._
_P. 406._]
large warming-pan was thrown violently upon the table, followed by a
number of stones, and the jawbone of a horse. Some of the boldest walked
valiantly into the withdrawing-room, armed with swords and pistols, but
could discover nothing. They were afraid that night to go to sleep, and
sat up, making fires in every room, and burning candles and lamps in
great abundance; thinking that, as the fiends loved darkness, they would
not disturb a company surrounded with so much light. They were deceived,
however: buckets of water came down the chimneys and extinguished the
fires, and the candles were blown out, they knew not how. Some of the
servants who had betaken themselves to bed were drenched with putrid
ditch-water as they lay; and arose in great fright, muttering incoherent
prayers, and exposing to the wondering eyes of the commissioners their
linen all dripping with green moisture, and their knuckles red with the
blows they had at the same time received from some invisible tormentors.
While they were still speaking, there was a noise like the loudest
thunder, or the firing of a whole park of artillery; upon which they all
fell down upon their knees and implored the protection of the Almighty.
One of the commissioners then arose, the others still kneeling, and
asked in a courageous voice, and in the name of God, who was there, and
what they had done that they should be troubled in that manner. No
answer was returned, and the noises ceased for a while. At length,
however, as the commissioners said, "the devil came again, and brought
with it seven devils worse than itself." Being again in darkness, they
lighted a candle and placed it in the doorway that it might throw a
light upon the two chambers at once; but it was suddenly blown out, and
one commissioner said that he had "seen the similitude of a horse's hoof
striking the candle and candlestick into the middle of the chamber, and
afterwards making three escapes on the snuff to put it out." Upon this,
the same person was so bold as to draw his sword; but he asserted
positively that he had hardly withdrawn it from the scabbard before an
invisible hand seized hold of it and tugged with him for it, and
prevailing, struck him so violent a blow with the pommel that he was
quite stunned. Then the noises began again; upon which, with one accord,
they all retired into the presence-chamber, where they passed the night,
praying and singing psalms.
They were by this time convinced that it was useless to struggle any
longer with the powers of evil, that seemed determined to make Woodstock
their own. These things happened on the Saturday night; and, being
repeated on the Sunday, they determined to leave the place immediately,
and return to London. By Tuesday morning early, all their preparations
were completed; and shaking the dust off their feet, and devoting
Woodstock and all its inhabitants to the infernal gods, they finally
took their departure.[15]
Many years elapsed before the true cause of these disturbances was
discovered. It was ascertained, at the Restoration, that the whole was
the work of Giles Sharp, the trusty clerk of the commissioners. This man
whose real name was Joseph Collins, was a concealed royalist, and had
passed his early life within the bowers of Woodstock; so that he knew
every hole and corner of the place, and the numerous trap-doors and
secret passages that abounded in the building. The commissioners, never
suspecting the true state of his opinions, but believing him to be
revolutionary to the back-bone, placed the utmost reliance upon him; a
confidence which he abused in the manner above detailed, to his own
great amusement, and that of the few cavaliers whom he let into the
secret.
Quite as extraordinary and as cleverly managed was the trick played off
at Tedworth, in 1661, at the house of Mr. Mompesson, and which is so
circumstantially narrated by the Rev. Joseph Glanvil, under the title of
"The Demon of Tedworth," and appended, among other proofs of witchcraft,
to his noted work, called "Sadducismus Triumphatus." About the middle of
April, in the year above mentioned, Mr. Mompesson, having returned to
his house at Tedworth, from a journey he had taken to London, was
informed by his wife that during his absence they had been troubled with
the most extraordinary noises. Three nights afterwards he heard the
noise himself; and it appeared to him to be that of "a great knocking at
his doors, and on the outside of his walls." He immediately arose,
dressed himself, took down a pair of pistols, and walked valiantly forth
to discover the disturber, under the impression that it must be a
robber; but, as he went, the noise seemed to travel before or behind
him; and, when he arrived at the door from which he thought it
proceeded, he saw nothing, but still heard "a strange hollow sound." He
puzzled his brains for a long time, and searched every corner of the
house; but, discovering nothing, he went to bed again. He was no sooner
snug under the clothes, than the noise began again more furiously than
ever, sounding very much like a "thumping and drumming on the top of his
house, and then by degrees going off into the air."