The Cambridge “Ghost.”
Last Tuesday week, about six o’clock in the evening, the family of Mr Haggis were startled by three (three is the mystical number) violent and distinct raps at the back door; on “answering” the summons, the noise was found to proceed from that important individual Mr Nobody; this rapping having continued at intervals, for many hours on several succeeding nights, the inmates became puzzled, and the female branches, of course, alarmed.
Superstition is inherent to poor humanity, and rumours were soon afloat of mysterious visitations at Haggis’s isolated and celebrated farm. As snowballs gather in bulk the more they are rolled, so remarkable occurrences soon swell into the terribly marvellous; it became therefore necessary for some of the plucky friends of the family to lend their aid to unravel the matter. As the rappings generally commenced about six o’clock, they were in readiness; they placed themselves in such positions that if the knocks did proceed from some foolish persons, they must have been immediately pounced upon.
The rappings were repeated, in the twinkling of an eye the door was thrown open, but no one was seen; not only once, but many times, on succeeding nights, was this system practised, and with the same effect.
No persons, however, in their common senses, unless they be the veriest victims to superstition and ignorance, will conceive for one moment that these rappings proceed from any other than natural causes; either from some echo or other reason, which the savans of Cambridge have not yet been able to discover.
That these rappings do take place it would be idle to controvert; we have it on the testimony of respectable persons who have heard them, who have been the watchers to discover the cause, who have been unsuccessful, but who would scorn to lend themselves to an idle tale to pander to superstition, to provoke alarm, or thoughtlessly amuse themselves at the expense of others.
We give the truth as it is, as we have stated it, from persons who have heard the mysterious raps; we need only name, among others, two of the family – Mr Milward, of the Crown, Jesus-lane, and Mr Haggis, of the Stamp-office, have too high a notion of what is due to truth and propriety than to lend themselves to a vulgar fraud.
But these rappings are not of recent date. It is well known that at Finedon, a year or two ago, a similar circumstance occurred, to the wonder, and naturally so, of the inhabitants. If we mistake not, it was at Rochester, also, that a like “knocking at the door” occurred; finally, they ceased; and in all probability the mysterious knockigs at Haggis’s will ere long be “knocked out of time.” And the sooner the better for the comfort and rest of the family, and the allaying the perhaps pardonable curiosity of an over-excited and wondering public. – Cambridge Independent Press.
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 27th February 1857.
The Cambridge Ghosts.
The sensation created during last week by the freaks of Haggis’s ghost has not yet subsided. Up to last Friday the ghost had confined its “knocking at the door” between the respectable hour of six and ten; a legitimate ghost, however, should confine his visit to the “witching hour of night,” and vanish at the “crowing of the cock;” but, after reading the Independent Press of last week, this ghost, seeing his own importance, became bolder, and now raps away day and night, giving the residents no peace.
It is a great pity that this ghost cannot find some better employment than devoting so much valuable time to the annoyance of a respectable family. If he or she (whatever the sex may be) have anything to communicate, it would be far more creditable to at once a “tale unfold,” without thus “making each particular hair stand erect, like quills upon the fretful porcupine” on the heads of the Haggis’ family.
The following, as another ghost story, may be relied on. One night last week, as a carter was driving his team on the Madingley-road (near Haggis’s farm) he was surprised at his horses coming to a direct stand still; they snorted (with their noses, no doubt); they pawed the earth (with their feet, beyond question); the driver went in front, and behold! there was a ghost! No wonder the horses were frightened, for “No nose it had, nor e’en an eye, / Nor mouth to eat its bread; / And would you know the reason why? / Alas! it had no head.”
The carter cracked his whip, and the ghost was “off in a crack.” He went home dreadfully alarmed, and “took to his bed” two days.
Another of these “ticket of leave” ghosts has been sadly misconducting itself on the East-road, to the great annoyance of the residents of the house. A well-known auctioneer states that for months he has been annoyed by a female sprite, who actually removes the pillow from his head; sometimes (he says) it is dressed in green, at other times it varies its attire; but the banging, slamming, shaking noises are such as to render his abode the reverse of pleasant. Surely it must be some low female ghost, looking for another £5 note.
If these ghosts continue their antics, it will be a sad loss to the landlords of the houses where this friskiness is carried on, for no one will live in them, unless the rents be lowered.
Cambridge Independent Press, 28th February 1857.
Under the heading “The Cambridge Ghost” a paragraph appeared in these columns a fortnight ago describing some strange knockings at a house on the Burton-road: these knockings, according to the Cambridge Chronicle, are louder than ever, although every means have been tried to discover the cause of this mysterious circumstance.
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 13th March 1857.