Spiritualism at Arundel.
Extraordinary proceedings are alleged to be happening in King-street, Arundel. In a cottage there resides a man named Clarke, a bricklayer in the service of the Duke of Norfolk, his wife and children. One of the latter is a girl 12 years old, and it is in connection with her that the reported singular manifestations are taking place. The mother states that the two children, one being the girl in question, were in bed with her (the father being at work in the country), when they heard a scratching noise by the side of the bed. It was faint at first, but gradually became louder and faster. She spoke to the girl, thinking it was she who was scratching, but the girl denied it. She took her hands, but the noise continued.
Having assured herself that the girl was not making it, they went into another bedroom. The noise followed them there. Next day still more singular things happened. Articles began to fly about the rooms where the girl was present. She was watched, and the mother states that the following incidents happened under such circumstances that they could not be an imposition. The girl was sent upstairs, and the grandmother, who had been called in, followed. The girl went first, and was still in sight of the old lady following behind, when a crash was heard; the clock had come down from the back of a chest of drawers standing the other side of the room, and altogether out of reach of the girl – the longest arm in creation could not reach half way across the room – and lay in front of the drawers. Slabs fell from the mantelpiece – also quite out of reach – and other manifestations occurred. The girl went into the kitchen, while the father watched through a hole in the door. She was observed, it is said, to walk slowly, with her arms clasped, along one wall. Suddenly a heavy tray of potatoes was thrown to the floor, and a heavy brick and a saucepan, altogether beyond the girl’s reach, bounded down.
We are told that the father describes that before the things fell he saw what seemed like a faint hand stretch over from the girl, yet it did not appear possible that it could be the girl’s hand.
One singular part of the affair is that nothing is broken. Even a watch-stand, with a glass shade, was picked up safe and sound. The girl described it as if they bounded in gentle leaps.
The same thing appears to have happened in the grandmother’s house. A water jug is declared to have jumped from the basin and bounded with a crash on the floor, the girl being in full view and out of the way of the jug. Curiously enough, that remained unbroken. A broom fell down, with which the girl could have had no physical contact.
Sent to get a loaf of bread at a baker’s near, scarcely had she entered the shop before, she states, a chair the other end turned over. These incidents, or most of them, are declared to have happened while the girl was in sight of her relatives. They are respectable people of the working class, and appear to be in a great worry about the matter. They don’t believe the girl is hoaxing them, simply because they say they can believe their own eyesight. Although nothing happens when the girl is with another person, still they declare they have had the girl in view when these extraordinary proceedings have taken place, and that there has been no personal contact. The girl feels nothing.
Some short time since she had an illness, but had got better, and gone to school again. Dr Hubbert was called in to see her, and applied certain tests, and arrived at the conclusion that the girl was labouring under an hallucination.
Hampshire Telegraph, 2nd February 1884.
A Mysterious Affair at Arundel.
News of a peculiar nature, but of a kind that has recently experienced discomfiting exposure, comes from Arundel. It appears that in King-street there resides a labourer, in the service of the Duke of Norfolk, named Clarke, together with his wife and children. He has a daughter about 12 years of age. While the child was in bed recently a scratching noise was heard in the room, but its cause could not be ascertained. The next day articles began to fly about the rooms where the girl was present. Eventually, the girl was sent upstairs, and was followed by her grandmother. While the child was still in sight, a crash was heard; the clock had come down from the back of a chest of drawers standing the other side of the room, and altogether out of reach of the girl, and lay in front of the drawers. Slabs fell from the mantle-piece – also quite out of reach – and other extraordinary manifestations occurred. The girl went into the kitchen, while the father watched through a hole in the door. She was observed to walk slowly, with her arms clasped, along one wall. Suddenly a heavy tray of potatoes was thrown to the floor, a heavy brick and a saucepan bounded down. Strange to say, none of the brittle articles were broken. Similar extraordinary proceedings are said to have happened at her grandmother’s house when the child was taken thither. Some short time since she had an illness, but it got better, and attended school again. Dr. Hubbert, it appears, has been called in to see her, who applied certain tests, and arrived at the conclusion that the girl was labouring under a hallucination.
Eastbourne Chronicle, 9th February 1884.
Case III. Arundel.
This case was of the same general character. The disturbances which took place in a cottage at Arundel, Sussex, in Feb. 1884, consisted of scratchings all about the bed in which a little girl of thirteen was lying; loud unaccountable noises in the house; the throwing down of a clock, chimney-piece ornaments, a tray of potatoes, an iron pot, etc., in the presence of this girl.
The chief witnesses were the girl’s father and two grandmothers, and according to their statements, the things moved were at such a distance from the girl that the movements could not have been effected by normal means. In this case, again, the girl claimed to have seen a ghostly figure in a white dress.
The occurrences appear to have caused some sensation in the neighbourhood. So far no actual trickery has been detected.
from Ch. 5 of Frank Podimore (1897).