An Edinburgh “Cocklane Ghost.”
About a month ago, Miss Tytler, a lady residing at Canaan Lane, Morningside, became much alarmed and terrified by a series of annoyances which occurred at her house. Some two months previous she had taken into her service a domestic servant, who had the best recommendations, and nothing of an unusual nature occurred till the night of Monday, 3d May, when the lady was alarmed by the loud ringing of the door bells and the breaking of the glass of the windows. The police were apprised of the circumstance, and search was made, but nothing could be discovered.
The same mysterious noises were continued for several nights, when, on Miss Tytler’s application, Mr Linton sent a number of men in plain clothes to keep a watch night and day. This was continued for about three weeks, during which time panes of glass continued to be broken in the front and rear of the house, door bells were rung, and other annoyances, such as the upsetting of tables and chairs, took place, without the policemen being able to discover any clue to their cause.
Miss Tytler’s servant frequently showed marks of having been violently struck by stones coming through the windows, and on one occasion professed to have been rendered so ill that she kept her bed for two days, and was attended by the family physician, the blistering prescribed by whom she endured patiently.
On Saturday evening last, Detectives Gollan and Hay appeared on the scene, and were soon enabled to apprehend the servant girl as the cause of the whole disturbances. She had all along expressed great wonderment and terror at what was going on. On one occasion, announcing to Miss Tytler that she had seen a man at the door, she ran down to the kitchen, fetched a jugful of boiling water, and threw it over the window. This was followed by a scream, which convinced Miss Tytler that for once at least the disturber of the peace had met with his deserts, but which was afterwards discovered to have come from the cat.
It appears that when the police were watching at one end of the house, she broke windows at the other, and vice versa, and thus kept them on a wild goose chase. About thirty panes of glass were broken, and she presented stones as the missiles, alleging she picked them up inside.
On Thursday, this eccentric young woman, Violet Hall, a rational-looking person of about 25 years of age, was brought before Sheriff Hamilton at the Summary Court. She could give no reason for her behaviour, but admitted her guilt, and was sentenced to the extreme sentence of the Court – sixty days with hard labour. A cut on her finger, as if done by window glass, led, we believe, to her apprehension. – Scotsman.
Dundee Courier, 1st June 1875.
Spooks that worry judges. Notable law cases in which ghosts have figured. Mediums have fared badly in the courts. And ghosts often prove to be very mortal.
Very uncanny was the ghost story around which revolved the lawsuit of Webster v. Molesworth, tried at Edinburgh some time back. Captain Molesworth, it appeared, rented a house from the plaintiff at Trinity, some two miles out of the city proper. It was a semi-detached house, the occupant of the adjoining one being Mr Webster himself.
The gallant captain entered into possession at the March quarter, and early in April himself and his household began to be alarmed and annoyed by a series of most extraordinary happenings. Ghostly feet were heard scampering along the corridors at dead of night, and this was afterwards supplemented by violent knockings, scratchings, and mutterings. Beds, too, heaved under their occupants, chairs and tables were overturned, bells were rung, and whistles blown.
Unable to account for the disturbances, Captain Molesworth took it into his head that they were, in some way or other, the work of his landlord and next-door neighbour, Mr Webster, and roundly accused him of being at the bottom of the business. To this the latter not unreasonably retorted that he would not be such a silly as to attempt to damage the reputation of his own house.
Still, however, the ghostly noises continued, and the captain, in desperation, tore up the boards, stripped off the wainscotting, and even bored holes through the wall which divided his residence from Mr Webster’s to try to detect the supposed deliquent in the act.
Sheriff’s officers, also, as well as several masons, six policemen, two justices of the peace, and a number of the distracted tenant’s brother officers, all tried their hands at elucidating the mystery, but without avail. At one time it was thought the the noises proceeded without, and a cordon of volunteer ghost-seekers was secretly drawn round the place. At another Captain Molesworth’s invalid daughter was suspected, and they tied her hands together and put her in a sack, whereupon the noises redoubled in violence.
Eventually the unfortunate officer packed up and cleared out, and Mr Webster brought his action for damages for breach of contract, and for injury done to his property. He won his case, but the mystery of the knockings and other strange occurrences remains a mystery to this day. […]
Pearson’s Weekly, 14th May 1903.