A ghost!
Between the villages of Kirkby Malzeard and Galphay, and about equi-distant from each, is a lonely cottage, which, till within a week or two, has been the quiet retreat of an aged man and his wife, who there dwelt with an unmarried son and a little girl, a relation. Some of the inmates of this cottage have lately been subjected to strange treatment from a quarter they cannot find out, and visited, as the old people fully believed, by an unearthly being ycleped a ghost. The proceedings of the thing have been most extraordinary. A few of its freaks may not be uninteresting to mention.
Innumerable articles have been removed out of the house, and those remaining within doors have changed places most unaccountably. A fire-shovel, without the aid of hands or feet, left its post near the fire, and was found in the yard! whatever the old woman touched disappeared in an instant. The milk set up in the bowl, was unceremoniously poured out and wasted; clothes hanging upon the hedge mysteriously found their way to the tops of adjoining trees, without the intervention of human hands or a puff from the winds of heaven!! Water was unsparingly thrown over the clothes of the old people and upon their bed; the face of the clock was forced from its place, and one of the weights taken from the interior, and some things belonging to the household were even seen to move from one place to another, unpropelled by any visible agency!!!
A family council was forthwith called, which terminated in the son being despatched to the wiseman for advice; that sage oracle was said by the delegate to have recommended, in the first place, the removal of the old woman from the house, a suggestion which was readily complied with, and the old lady was accordingly conveyed to the house of a son, eight or nine miles distant. Her partner, who was equally an object of the mysterious visitor’s displeasure, remained in the cottage in great jeopardy; persecuted by day, he durst not remain there at nights, and accordingly fled for repose to Kirkby. Thither the thing pursued and resumed the cold water application with such effect as to compel him soon to follow his wife to the retreat she had sought with the distant son. There he obtained rest from the persecution of the water-witch; and why, think ye, readers? Because Tam O’Shanter like, having crossed a running brook, the further progress of his pursuer was effectually baffled.
Not satisfied, however, at being thus driven into exile, the old man returned again home, but alas! there matters had become still worse, and he was obliged to resort to Kirkby to sleep. Whilst the old man was there, enjoying a little temporary repose one night, a pocket-book, deposited in one of the pockets of his unmentionables, and containing a £5 note, and some sovereigns was extracted, and in the morning nowhere to be found. On going the same day, however, to look after his almost deserted home, there he found in one place this identical £5 note, elsewhere the sovereigns, and the pocket-book safely lodged by itself in a drawer.
The clergyman was sent for, who kindly repaired to the scene of terror, not, however, to lay the ghost, but, if possible, to allay the superstitious fears and alarm of the poor old people. on his arrival he is said to have found everything in the house in the greatest confusion, and on every side pretty evident marks of the ghost having recently been engaged at its favourite pastime of irrigation, and the fire nearly extinguished by its opposing element. How far the reverend gentleman was instrumental in convincing the inmates that the ghost was not of another world, did not appear at the time of our correspondent’s despatch being forwarded. The mysterious stranger is not altogether likely long to escape detection, and at a short time hence, we may be enabled to account for the whole mystery, and even for the selfish motives which actuated the hitherto invisible goblin to the performance of his eccentric habits.
Yorkshire Gazette, 4th January 1840.