Extraordinary Occurrences.
The peaceable little hamlet of Masongill, near Ingleton, has within the last few days been visited with occurrences of a novel character. It appears that Mr. Robert Lambert, of that place, a respectable farmer, was from home on Sunday night last, and that his servant man, after having bound up the cows as usual, soon afterwards found one of them loose in the shippon. He again tied her up with the same rope, in a way in which he thought it impossible for her to get loose, but to his utter astonishment she was loose again immediately, and walking about in the yard, and the rope in which she was tied was thrown upon the scaffold above her head.
Upon relating the affair to Mrs. Lambert, she became exceedingly alarmed, and decided upon sending for her husband, who was gone to Milnthorp, near Kendal, who, upon his return, along with the rest of the inmates and neighbours, endeavoured to discover, but in vain, who was the delinquent. They never retired to rest during the whole of the night.
The following day they were again surprised by finding all the implements in the stable disarranged, and scattered about in the stalls; the pump had ceased to yield any water, the calf made a noise like a human being, but was unintelligible, that is, it did not speak, otherwise it would probably have named the delinquent; a sack of corn was emptied upon the granary floor, and the sack folded up; the clothes which were hung in the garden were removed, and some of them, to use the words of Mrs. L., were sadly torn; spoons, knives, plates, rolling pins, tables, chairs, chests of drawers, cheeses, and boxes, were endowed with the power of self-motion, and were removed in a manner which no one could account for;
half-a-dozen glass bottles were removed from the cupboard to the floor, and danced a quadrille together, to the tune of “Jack’s the lad;” and the rope which was taken from the cow’s neck found its way into the house, curled itself up like a serpent, and leapt from off the table to the floor; it was then laid upon the wall opposite the front door, and Mrs. Lambert’s daughter, a girl about eleven years of age, saw it leap into the house.
These things and the like were carried on for three successive days. The rumour soon spread all over this part of the country, and scores of people, amongst the rest our correspondent, went to inquire into the matter, when they were told by the farmer himself that these things had actually occurred, and that he could by no means account for it, “but,” says he, “a deal o’th neighbours thinks that its some super-natural wark that’s going on.” “Not it,” says a sly old gentleman that was standing by, “It’s nout o’th soort, it’s some bad dispoosed fouk.”
We are not a little surprised to find that in the nineteenth century people should be so obstinately credulous as to be persuaded that it is performed by supernatural agency. We hesitate not to state that in a short time the mystery will be unfolded, and that it will be found to be the performance of human agency alone that has worked all these wonders. — Ingleton Correspondent.
Lancaster Gazette, 22nd April 1848.