A Mischievous Ghost.
(From a Correspondent).
The whole of the neighbourhood of Black Lion Lane, Bayswater, is ringing with the extraordinary occurrences that have recently happened in the house of a Mr Williams, in the Moscow Road, and which bear a strong resemblance to the celebrated Stockwell ghost affair in 1772.
The house is inhabited by Mr and Mrs Williams, a grown-up son and daughter, and a little girl between ten and eleven years of age. On the first day, the family, who are remarkable for their piety, were startled all at once, by a mysterious movement among the things in the sitting-room and kitchen, and other parts of the house. At one time, without any visible agency, one of the jugs came off the hook over the dresser, and was broken, then followed another, adn next day another.
A china tea-pot, with the tea just made in it, and placed on the mantelpiece, whixked off on to the floor, and was smashed. A pewter one which had been substituted immediately after, did the same, and when put on the table, was seen to hop about as if bewitched, adn was actually held down while the tea was made for Mr Williams’s breakfast before leaving for his place of business.
When for a time all had been quiet, came off from its place on the wall, a picture in a heavy gilt frame, and fell to the floor without being broken. All was now amazement and terror, for the old people are very superstitious, and, ascribing it to a supernatural agency, the other pictures were removed and stowed away on the floor.
But the spirit of locomotion was not to be arrested. Jugs and plates continued at intervals to quit their posts, and skip off their hooks and shelves into the middle of the room as though they were inspired by the magic flute; and at supper, when the little girl’s mug was filled with beer, the mug slided off the table on the floor. Three times it was replenished and replaced, and three times it moved off again.
It would be tedious to relate the fantastic tricks which have been played by household articles of every kind. An Egyptian vase jumped off the table suddenly when no soul was near, and was smashed to pieces. The tea-kettle popped off the fire into the grate as Mr Williams had filled the tea pot, which fell offf the chimneypiece. Candlesticks, after a dance on the table, flew off, and ornaments from the shelves, and bonnets and cap-boxes flung about in the oddest manner imaginable. A looking-glass hopped off a dressing-table, followed by combs and brushes and several bottles, and a great pin-cushion has been remarkably conspicuous for its incessant jigs from one part to another.
The little girl, who is a Spaniard, and under the care of Mr and Mrs Williams, is supposed by their friends to be the cause of it all, however extraordinary it may seem in one of her age; but up to the present time it continues a mystery, and the modus operandi is invisible.
Morning Post, 15th March 1847.
[the above article reprinted, as part of ‘The World of Mystery – a series of papers on uncanny subjects’.]
Comet readers have now sufficient evidence before them to enable them to realise the nature and character of the Ghost Eccentric, and to see that the reports which we receive of him reach us from the most various sources, and from the most reliable authorities, while at the same time they are not confined to one country, or to one period of history.
That these facts were seen and believed by numerous witnesses admits to no sort of doubt. How then are we to explain them? Were they the effects of some clever juggling trick in each case, or were the witnesses of them, without exception, the victims of an exaggerated form of hypochondria? One explanation appears to be as ridiculous as the other.
Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke never allow their tricks to undergo the close scrutiny and investigation for days, weeks, and months to which these were sujected under the strictest conditions. Conjuring and sleight of hand become impossible under such circumstances, nor can any optical illusion or deception of the kind be performed by English conjurers, at least with similar surroundings and opportunities of detection.
I omit the accomplishments of Indian conjurers, whose powers fall under another category altogether, and who will be treated of in these pages at a later period. But though it is uncertain how far their powers would carry them, it may well be doubted if the phenomena witnessed by the correspondent of the Morning Post in the house in Moscow Road, Bayswater, could be imitated with any efect, even by the most gifted Fakir in India or Thibet.
The theory that all the witnesses of the phenomena in every case were hypochondriacs, or at least temporarily fell under the influence of illusion when they reached the haunted premises, is a more ridiculous superstition still, and would not require consideration were it not frequently contended for under similar circumstances by that curiously credulous creature, the Scientific Man of the Period.
We will see, however, what that intelligent French Doctor, Brierre de Boismont, says on this question of wholesale hallucinations, with regard to the possibilities of such a thing and its probable general scope. After quoting a passage in which Sir Walter Scott refers to the false impressions and fantasies of which whole armies and multitudes of people have been victims at moments of panic or of great excitement, he says: “It will be asked, perhaps, how it comes about that large assemblages of people have been the dupes of the same illusion. Independently of the reasons which we have given, and among which ignorance, fear, superstition and disease play no unimportant role, we must not forget the contageous influence of example.
“One boy is enough to frighten a multitude of men. A single individual fancying he sees something supernatural readily communicates his conviction to others no more enlightened than himself. The anecdote has often been cited of the man who exclaimed while looking at a statue, ‘It has just nodded its head.’ All those who were present promptly declared that they had seen it move.”
That disease has a most powerful effect in creating illusions. I shall hope to show later on in treating of “Hallucinations,” and in doing so I shall be able fully to establish the fact that the hallucinations which are the results of mental and physical disease have a far wider range than is generally believed, and might account for very many of the occurrences that have hitherto been accredited to ghost-lore or fable.
But disease is incapable of influencing the intelligence of a large and motley selection of people so as to make them all the victims of a similar illusion. The history of medicine affords no single instance which would justify us in arriving at such a conclusion. Nor can panic be held to account for facts that certainly must have produced astonishment but hardly the degree of panic which would result in mental alienation.
The plea of ignorance is equally inapposite. The dullest clown is as well able as the wisest professor to judge whether he has seen a pewter pot hop over a table and jugs and plates skip off their hooks. The more stupid and dull the witnesses, the less likely would they be to be deceived by their imagination, a faculty which is most highly developed in the highest types of the human race.
If science has any plausible explanation to offer for such occurrences as I have narated in this and the preceding portions of the “World of Mystery,” I shall be most happy to put them before the public. If it has nothing better to say than it has said already, it will best consult its own self-respect by discreetly holding its peace.
Halifax Comet, 17th March 1894.