A Haunted House.
In one of the principal thoroughfares of Bingham, Nottinghamshire, stands a dwelling with shop appurtenances, having a ghostly reputation, and though admirably adapted, in point of situation for a commercial vocation, the opportunity is disregarded from the fact of this supposed disqualification.
For a number of years, in fact during the whole business career of a former occupant, noises of a remarkable description and from unaccountable sources are said to have been heard, at frequent intervals. The late Mr Baxter, of fond remembrance, and a person of scientific knowledge, failed to develop these mysterious occurrences. Being, however, of a disposition unsusceptible of superstitious terror, he silently succumbed to the annoyance, which up to a few months ago, periodically infested the premises.
From descriptions received of the loud and peculiar knockings, and route of peregrination of the supposed sepulchral visitant, perhaps a narrative of the affair might adorn a page in a future edition of the works of Mrs Crowe. The oft repeated legend of the suicide of an old woman in a room of this house is pertinaciously insisted upon by a great number of people as a sufficient explanation of the noises, but the suggestion meets with little response in the minds of educated persons.
The house is now tenantless, and with its unpleasant associations, a frequent fire-side theme. It is notorious that persons characterised for the rigidity of their scepticism in agencies supernatural have retracted and become partakers of this extraordinary delusion. Some time ago a scheme was projected with a view of arriving at the cause of these rappings, &c., but was imperfectly carried out, and consequently no satisfactory results were obtained. – Nottingham Review.
Westmorland Gazette, 3rd January 1857.