The Boggart of Godley Green.
It would, perhaps, be difficult to find in all England a tract of
country of which so many wild stories of ghosts and boggarts are told
as the old common land of Godley Green, and the picturesque cloughs
and dingles which surround it. Some interesting old farmsteads still
stand on and near the "Green," and there were in former times others
still more quaint, which have disappeared before the march of time.
Concerning most of these homesteads, ghost tales are told; indeed, one
old native of Godley recently declared that "there were more boggarts
at Godley Green than anywhere else in the kingdom." And perhaps this
statement is true.
Most of the stories are old tales, which have been handed down from
former generations, no living being laying claim to any personal
experience of the boggarts referred to. But in one or two cases the
boggarts are said to be still haunting the scenes of their former
exploits; and people still living claim to have actually seen the
ghosts, as well as heard about them. The present story belongs to the
latter class.
There is a certain house in that part of the township of Godley known
as the Green, which is said to be haunted by a boggart in the shape of
an old lady, who formerly belonged to the house. The legend is not
very precise as to the cause of her unrest, but it is said that she
did certain things in her lifetime the memories of which will not
allow her to rest quietly in her grave. Accordingly, her ghost wanders
about the house and grounds, occasionally startling people by its
appearance, and its peculiar actions.
One old lady--still alive--gives some graphic details of the boggart.
She at one time resided in the house but now she has removed to a
distance.
"Many a time," says she, "I have seen 'Old Nanny'--the
boggart--wandering about after dark. She is generally outside the
house, but occasionally peeps in at the windows. I can remember the
old woman during her lifetime, and the boggart is just like her. She
wears an old-fashioned cap, and a skirt kilted or tucked up in the
old-fashioned style. She wears an apron, which she shakes, and makes a
peculiar hissing noise. There is a gate leading from the garden into a
meadow and I have seen the boggart standing there, waving her apron,
and saying, 'Ish, ish, ish.'"
"On one occasion a relative of the old dame, was present, and saw the
boggart. 'It's owd Nanny,' said he, '))reet enough. Why the d---- can't
she rest quiet in her grave. What does she want frightening people
like that.'"
Another night a serving man was ordered to go into the back garden,
and gather a quantity of rhubarb. He was gone a short time, and then
he rushed back to the house with blanched face, and terror in his
countenance.
"What is the matter?" asked his mistress; "where is the rhubarb?"
"It's where it mun stop, missus, for me," he replied. "I've had enough
of rhubarb getting in that garden."
And then he related how he had proceeded to the rhubarb bed, had
gathered one stick, and was about to pluck another, when he suddenly
became aware of the white figure of an old woman standing before him
in the midst of the rhubarb, looking at him intently.
"She waved her apron at me," said he, "and then I heard her say, 'Ish,
ish, ish.'"
While he looked the boggart vanished, and then the man took to his
heels.
Another lady, who resided at the house in the last years of the
nineteenth century, has also some queer tales to tell of the
appearance of the boggart. Says she:
"I would not live in that house again if its owner would give it to
me, and the land it stands on. The place is uncanny, and the boggart
is always there. I saw it more than once. I remember going into the
orchard one evening with my sister. We went to pick some apples, and
having got as many as we wanted, were returning to the house. At the
gate, which leads into the meadow, we saw the boggart--in the form of
an old lady, with a withered face. She stood there waving her apron,
and saying 'Ish, ish, ish.'"
"We dropped the apples, and fled."
Other persons still alive assert that they have seen this boggart, and
it is firmly believed by many that the ghost of the old woman will
continue to haunt the house until her sins are expiated, or until some
minister or holy man "lays the boggart," by using the forms laid down
by law in the olden time, for exorcising evil spirits.