Walney Ghost.
For several months past, the inhabitants of the southern part of this isalnd have been sadly and seriously alarmed by the apparition of a ghost in the shape of a little fat man in white, seen in a sitting posture by the way side. Whether he always keeps this posture, however, seems more than suspected, for one house in particular has been the object of his more active and annoying pranks.
The doors of it, on the lowest floor, though bolted and barred with care at night, are frequently found in the morning all wide open – unheard and unknown by any of the inmates.
One gentleman on the island has become so alarmed by the ghost and its pranks, that he dares not go home alone in the dark; and it is said that the wise man has been at one house reading, but without any avail towards laying the evil spirit.
Some think it the ghost of the sailor whom old Dolly knocked on the head with a stone in her stocking foot, one stormy night, when she found him half drowned; others say this is what drowned Willie’s calves a few weeks ago; others think it is more than suspicious that the wise man himself has some hand in the matter; while others again say it is only a Blue Devil, and that the moral of “Tam O’Shanter” may well apply –
“Now wha this tale o’ truth shall read, / Ilk man and mother’s son tak’ heed: / Whene’er to drink you are inclin’d, Or cuttey-sarks run in your mind, / Think ye may buy your joys owre dear – Remember Tam O’ Shanter’s mere.”
But whatever or whoever this “lile fat man i’ white” may be, time will probably unfold. – Cor.
Kendal Mercury, 13th March 1852.