I dare say that a good many of your readers have read Dickens’s “Haunted House.” There is a Defoe-like truthfulness about soem of the tales which must have struck most readers, and the thought must have crossed many minds that some actual house, supposed to be haunted, must have been depicted by Mr Dickens. Apropos of this, your readers will remember that some tales were recently told about a “haunted house” at Cheshunt. There were mysterious sounds, ringing of bells, marvellous voices, omens, etc. and, in fact, all the usual and some unsual phenomena when a house is (supposed to be) haunted. I am told that these ghostly rumours formed the basis of Mr Dickens’s “Christmas number;” but a curious fact subsequently transpired.
I hear that after the tales were written, Mr Dickens and some friends made a pilgrimage to Cheshunt, and were sorely disappointed to find no such a house. Nobody to whom the party addressed themselves knew anything of any mysterious noises, etc.; and the literary pilgrims returned, having “taken nothing by their motion.” As a counter-fact, however, I am told by an elderly friend at my elbow that, if there is not now, there certainly was a “haunted house” at Cheshunt, and my friend has seen it many a time pointed out as being the scene of certain nocturnal visitations, which he was never fortunate enough himself to witness.
Thanet Advertiser (and many others), 24th December 1859.
Chas. Dickens and Wm. Howitt on Spiritualism.
A sort of fillip has been given to the interest excited by spiritualism in literary circles by a dispute which has arisen between Mr Charles Dickens and Mr Wm. Howitt, a gentleman who, to his high reputation as an author, adds that of being one of the most ardent upholders of spiritualism. The “machinery” (as it is called) of “The Haunted House” – the Christmas number of All the Year Round – was constructed from the story of a “haunted house” at Cheshunt, lately occupied by some relatives of Mr and Mrs Charles Kean.
The evidence of the haunting was straightforward enough; but, after hearing it, Mr Dickens and his staff sat down with the deliberate intention of burlesquing it. The result was, that all the phenomena which had succeeded in expelling an intelligent family from their domicile, was referred to the agency of rats, cats, creaking weathercocks, and the knavery of a roguish ostler. Indignant at this treatment of his testimony, Mr Howitt has retorted upon Mr Dickens, averring that he is a scoffer not only of spiritualism, but of Christianity, and that he is incapable of dealing with mysteries, which form, as it were, “the fringe” of the Infinite. There may be something in this, for really the scope of Mr Dickens’s argument seems to be that there is no power in Nature superior to that of rats, cats, creaking weathercocks, and roguish ostlers.
To those who can find no deeper causes for mysteries than these vulgar facts, the angels that appeared to Abraham must be but common travellers through the plains of Mamre, Jacob’s Dream only the result of supper too freely parken of at Luz, the glories of Sinai the mere invention of a skilful pyrotechnist, and the wonders worked at Endor – a lesson how the tricks of tricksters may turn into realities to their own dismay – nothing but a proof that the magic-lantern was understood in Canaan. – Leader.
Fife Herald, 9th February 1860.
Great House.
It is said that mysterious and perfectly unaccountable noises have recently been heard in this house, formerly the residence of Cardinal Wolsey. The place has long had the reputation of being haunted: and not without cause, if the stains of blood on a floor upstairs show where a murder was committed; or perhaps the spirit of the skeleton that was found bricked up in a dungeon below, does not rest quietly.
Be this as it may, some new comers who take charge of the house, are said to have been alarmed at night with some strange noises for which, after a search not the slightest clue could be discovered; and a former resident there is said to have confessed to hearing knockings, sounds, and other noises to which no clue could possibly be obtained.
Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser, 3rd April 1866.
Cheshunt.
In Mrs Crowe’s “Night side of nature” is a remarkable account of a haunted dwelling, stated to be “in the neighbourhood of the metropolis.” Mrs Crowe neither mentions the name of the locality, nor furnishes more than the initial of the “gentleman engaged in business in London,” whose family suffered from “the hauntings” at this residence; but in Howitt’s “History of the Supernatural” these omitted particulars are supplied. According to Mr Howitt, the old-fashioned house referred to by Mrs Crowe was at Cheshunt, and belonged to Sir Henry Meux [Theobalds Park]; and the account given by the authoress was taken down from the recital of Mr and Mrs Charles Kean, the well-known actors, who also furnished the same particulars to Mr Howitt. A comparison of the statements given by Mrs Crowe by Mr Howitt enables us to give the following details: –
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003035/18890720/066/0004
there are some poltergeisty things actually. This is a different house entirely tho