A ghost at Chelsea.
The neighbourhood of the Fulham-road has been in a state of extraordinary excitement from the rumour that a supernatural apparition had thrown several persons into fits. The following is the story:-
At No. 6, Pond-terrace, College street [now Elystan Street], Chelsea, resides a family of the name of Ward. Ward’s family consists of two sons, excavators, aged 25 and 27, and a daughter aged 17. In the same house resides a family named Parsloe.
On Thursday night, Emma Ward, upon going into her bed-room, saw the apparition and fainted away. Upon her brother James coming home he entered the same room, and was so terrified by the sight that he also fell into violent fits. The noise alarmed the lodgers, and Mrs Parsloe, an elderly matron, opened the door, and she likewise went into fits at the sight of the spectre. The eldest son, upon coming in and ascertaining how matters were, made up to the ghost and endeavoured to clutch it – but, to his horror, although the spectre stood before him, he could feel nothing substantial, and he straight-way followed the example of the preceding ghost seers. His fits, however, required several men to hold him down, and lasted hours.
By this time hundreds of people were collected outside the house, and the policeman on the beat being informed that it was a ghost, most prudently deferred entering the house until he had a reinforcement. Having received the aid of three of his comrades in blue, an entry was made by bursting in the door. What they saw is not clearly known; but they audibly declared that they would not stay in the house for untold gold, and advised the inmates to leave the ghost in uninterrupted possession. Ward, sen. came in at this juncture, and stayed the emigration.
By this time the streets were impassable, and hundreds of people were outside the house as late as five o’clock in the morning. This brought up another reinforcement of the blues, and although they remained and searched the premises in every direction, the most horrible moans and noises continued. The doors kept opening and slamming to without any visible agency.
The description of the spectre given by each of the witnesses is the same – a man with deathly features and snowy garments falling to the floor.
Sussex Advertiser, 13th September 1853.