Extraordinary Phenomena.
A considerable amount of gossip has been created in Barrow during the past week by the occurrence of some remarkable phenomena, which would assuredly two or three generations ago have been attributed to demonology, witchcraft, or other supernatural agency.
The manifestations took place at the residence of Mr John Troughton, coal merchant, Greengate-street, and commenced about ten o’clock on Tuesday morning. The attention of Mrs Troughton and others in the house were first aroused by the bursting of several porter bottles in the cellar, but as this is no unusual occurrence in sultry weather, little was thought of the matter. The reports continued at intervals until about 19 bottles were demolished, and their contents discharged upon the stone floor of the place, after which the contagion spread itself to a number of claret bottles, all of which shared the same fate.
Whilst contemplating the ruin caused amongst the glasses, the dismay of the inmates was further increased by the forcible ejection of the tap from a cask of beer which stood upon a stone shelf in one corner; and as there were two other barrels of ale in the same place, in order to prevent a similar mischance befalling them, the vent pegs were withdrawn, upon which the liquor streamed up in fountains, and the floor of the cellar was speedily deluged with wine and beer! Matters did not end here, the unaccountable portion of the story being yet to relate.
On a shelf stood two of the common large brown delf mugs, filled with bread, which, without any apparent cause, were thrown from their position, and their scattered fragments, together with the bread, added to the other wreck upon the flagged floor. A pot of lard from the top shelf followed suit, and was speedily imitated by a dish of eggs and another of milk, after which the whole of the crockery was swept, article after article, as by some invisible hand, from the shelves, and these soon were followed by a number of tin canisters containing rice, sago, and other domestic requirements.
Singularly enough, in their descent the various articles did not merely drop from the shelves as if any vibration of the building had shaken them to the edge and they had necessarily fallen, but all were projected with considerable impulse towards the centre of the cellar, some even of the heavier articles being propelled several feet.
After a time, when everything perishable had been destroyed below, the unaccountable agency extended to an apartment at the top of the cellar steps, where a quantity of crockery and some empty bottles were also precipitated from their places to the floor.
Hearing of these strange occurrences on Wednesday morning, we paid a visit to the scene, between ten and eleven o’clock. The front apartment is much the same as the small parlour in most cottage houses, but the window bottom, which was filled with plants and a few saucers, is made broader than usual by the addition of a shelf. In one corner a descent of three or four steps leads to the cellar, to which we proceeded to view the havoc. Whilst there – and this being about the same hour at which the wreckage suddenly commenced on the previous day – we were suddenly startled by a smash at the head of the steps mentioned, where some dishes and a tin utensil had suddenly been pitched from the window ledge spoken of, some distance upon the boarded floor below. This naturally caused all the people in the house to rush into the apartment, and before the fresh consternation had subsided, a more than usually loud crash in the rear of the premises, which drew forth screams and tears of terror from the females, showed that the work of destruction had reached the kitchen, which had hitherto escaped visitation.
On proceeding to the place we found that a portion of a crockery range, similar to those to be found in most houses, had shared the fate of the articles in the cellar, a pile of fragments lying, as usual, in the middle of the apartment. To preserve the rest of the perishable goods, the inmates began speedily to pack them into a hamper, for the purpose of conveying them to an out-house in the rear of the dwelling. Whilst removing the first load a bottle was projected from the top of the mass with such a violence as to strike and break a pane of glass in the kitchen window; and, arrived in the out-house even, safety was not secured, for immediately the bearers of the articles had returned to the kitchen, a number of the things removed exploded with a loud report, and flew into fragments.
For a short time there was a lull, and at our desire some pottery was placed upon the shelves in the cellar, with the hope of enabling us to see more accurately the phenomena. Whilst intently watching for the propulsion of these vessels, a louder report than ever drew all again to the kitchen, and there, occupying the centre of the floor, which had only a short time ago been cleared of the debris, stood a heap of lard, some three or four pounds in weight, surrounded by fragments of broken pottery. Our attention had been called to this lard only a few minutes previously, it being the same that had been precipitated from its place in the cellar the day before. When we first saw it, it occupied the bottom of a broken mug, and stood in an apparently secure corner on a broad shelf, from whence it had been a second time propelled a couple of yards.
Further smashes continued at wider intervals through the day. The damage occasioned is estimated at between £10 and £12. Incredible as the matter may seem, we simply narrate facts, and leave the explanation of the phenomenon to the scientific. It would seem as if in the first place violent fermentation in the liquors had taken place, and that a subtle vapour or spirit had extended itself to surrounding articles; yet this hypothesis gives no explanation why empty glazed pieces of pottery should have been affected. Perhaps some of our readers will favour us with their views on the subject. – Barrow Herald.
Soulby’s Ulverston Advertiser and General Intelligencer, 4th June 1868.