Original? account in Hampshire Telegraph 5th of May 1800 (broken link)
The following most extraordinary circumstance is said to have happened at Portsmouth, on Sunday and Monday sennight; for the truth of it we are not able to vouch, but it is a topic which engages the attention of person of every description: – On sunday morning [etc, concluding at ‘horrid dismay’].
Hampshire Chronicle, 12th May 1800
The Invisible Bell-ringer.
Folly and ingenuity have contrived to get the good people of Portsmouth in a quandrary. The tricks of the Cock-lane ghost and the witches of Stockwell, have been practised in the house of Mr Rood, a respectable wine-merchant, near the market-place, in Portsmouth. The following account appears in a morning paper:
“A most extraordinary circumstance happened in this town on Sunday and Monday last. It is a topic which engages the attention of the gay and the serious, the sceptick and the believer, the speculative philosopher, and the superstitious fanatick, in a word, persons of every description are impressed with the singularity of the event, as surpassing in its causes and effects, every power of reason to investigate, or experience to reconcile with the general tenure of Nature’s vicissitudes.
“On Sunday morning, between nine and ten o’clock, Mr Rood, an opulent wine-merchant, in the High-street, was alarmed with the sudden ringing of the bell, hung for the particular purpose of calling up the servant. No cause whatever could be perceived of the bell ringing. In a little time after the other bells in the house joined in the concert, and continued at intervals of a quarter of an hour during the whole day. Persons were placed at the handles of each bell to watch the cause, but they still continued their clamour without any perceptible agency. At night one of the maid servants was so alarmed that she fell into a fit, in which she continued several hours. Late at night, Mr Rood and his family went to bed, and passed the night without any further disturbance.
“About nine o’clock on Mondy morning the bells recommenced their ringing, but with much greater violence and clamour than on the preceding day. Mr Rood, being now in the greatest consternation, called in several neighbours as witnesses of what was occurring. They had no sooner arrived than every endeavour was tried to see whether the bells were rung by any trick of confederacy, and also to prevent their ringing. For this purpose the wires were taken from the bells, and their clappers were muffled.
“Among the most active visitors was Mr Luscombe, keeper of the town prison. Mr Luscombe muffled the principle beel, and took away its handle and wire, but he had no sooner left the room with Mr Rood and the rest of the neighbours than the bell commenced ringing more violently than ever. So great was its motion that it materially injured the ceiling by beating against it, and it afterwards broke from its fastening and fell to the ground. What is still more remarkable is that the part which was driven several inches into the wall for suspending the bell was found drawn out at least half a foot, which, to have been effected by human means, would have required more strength than any inhabitant of the place is said to possess, without the aid of a mechanical power of most considerable energy.
“At this time one of the servants was strongly suspected of being the cause of this supernatural event, in consequence of it appearing that in two places where she had lived before, occurrences equally unaccountable and still more alarming had happened, so as to occasion her being sent home from both places to her parents.
“The two places to which we allude, are Mr Binstead’s, shoe-maker, in Lombard-street, and Mr Peake, builder, in the Dock-yard. At the former place, the most tremendous noises were heard whenever she was alone. Sometimes they represented the crashing of falling ruins, and at others the agitations of buildings being wrenched by the most powerful engines from their foundations. She frequently appeared as if combating with spectres or demons, and fell into the arms of her mistress in the greatest state of terrific agitation and horrid dismay.
“Having stated the above circumstances, we avoid any comment. We, however, think it but justice to state that the girl, although now discharged from her third place, is remarkable for being most pre-possessing in her manners and person, and attentive to her duties as a servant.”
In addition to the above account we have only to add, the bells have been repaired and the fastenings restored, without the master’s having given himself any more trouble to find out the mischievous trick, invented by some person intending to be more pleasant than wise. Were proof wanted, or opinion in question respecting the harmlessness of the girl, she has been taken back to her former situation, which should be sufficient to selence the busy tongue of mischief and unwarrantable merriment. The writer of this advances so much from personal investigation, sufficiently authorised to say, that it is a waste of time to make any more mention of it.
Staffordshire Advertiser, 17th May 1800.
Old Stories Re-told. Drawn from the files of the “Hampshire Telegraph.”
A Servant Girl Fantasia.
The following incidents, which set all Portsmouth ringing at the time, are narrated in the Hampshire Telegraph of May 5th, 1800:-
On Sunday morning, between nine and ten o’clock, Mr Rood, an opulent wine merchant in High-street, Portsmouth, was alarmed with the sudden ringing of the bell hung for the particular purpose of calling up his servant. [etc, much the same as above].
The poet of the period could not resist the subject, and accordingly we discover the following effusion printed in the next week’s paper:-
The Portsmouth Wonder.
May 5, 1800.
The bells in the house occupied by Mr. Rood (now Hill and Perkins) continued to ring most violently all day without any apparent cause which could be discovered, to the great alarm of the family and neighbourhood. So violent, indeed, was the motion of some of them, that they were actually forced from their fastenings in the wall. Strange and unaccountable noises were also heard at this, and also at a house, No. 15, in Lombard-street, and at Mr. Peake’s in the Dock-yard. The noises at the former were at one time a continued rapping, like a number of hammers at work; and at another, like the falling of some immense building, whilst at the latter continued groans appeared to issue from a large hollow tree near the house.
These occurrences took place only when a servant girl, who had lived in all these places, was present at particular parts of the premises. This girl, a short time since, was living at ——, and report says that there is one particular room in the house she occupied, into which she had never been able to muster sufficient resolution to enter.
p220 of
Chronicles of Portsmouth, Henry and Julian Slight (1828)