A “ghost story” from Tiverton is to the effect that a family in the neighbourhood were alarmed by strange manifestations. Bells were unaccountably run in various parts of the house; the housemaid was summoned to the breakfast-room only to be told on her arrival that no one had rung the bell, and that nothing was wanted. These ghostly pranks were checked by the bells being removed.
Then the “manifestations” took another form. Dishes, tins, and other miscellaneous items took to falling off the shelves – generally, it was noted, in close proximity to the cook. Herein lay the key to the mystery. It was discovered that the housemaid wished to frighten the cook into leaving the place, so that the housemaid’s friend might step into it. But, like the engineer, she was “hoist with her own petard,” for on the discovery being made she was promptly sent about her business.
East and South Devon Advertiser, 22nd January 1887.
(this is very muddled. How did the housemaid summon herself to the breakfast-room, if the bell had to be rung in that room? And why would the falling-off-shelves happen next to the cook and not the housemaid, if it was the housemaid doing it?)