A Ghost Story.
A strange story comes from Ellerton-on-Swale, near Richmond, which, however marvellous, has the evidence of so many persons to it that it cannot be rejected. It is to be hoped that some solution of the affair may be found without being compelled to ascribe the strange proceedings to supernatural agency. It is this:-
On Friday, the 15th inst., about two in the afternoon, a widow woman who resides in a small cottage near the roadside in the scattered hamlet, the only inmates of the house being herself and grand-child, heard a loud thumping at the backdoor; but on a child going to the door, no one was found there. A few minutes elapsed, when the thumping was repeated, and again no visitor appeared.
Shortly afterwards a stone came through the window, to the great alarm of the occupants of the cottage. This was soon followed by another, and the missiles then kept following in quick succession all the afternoon, and until eleven at night.
There is a large field at the back of the house, the hedge of which is some 200 yards from the cottage, and there is no opportunity for the shelter of any person mischievously disposed at the back in the direction from which the stones came.
At the opposite side of the road, to the front of the house, there is a stone wall, which forms the boundary of another large field,without any cow byre or other shelter in it, and before long the stones came in at the front windows as well as at the back.
A watch was set immediately the neighbours got home from work, but without avail, as the stones continued to pour in at the windows all the evening. A cessation took place near midnight, only to be renewed the following morning, and the pelting continued until Saturday afternoon without any discovery being made as to the cause.
The old woman was in the greatest consternation, and evidently ascribed the visitation to the Evil One, not knowing what she had done to deserve such treatment. Strange to say, every stone was aimed at the window with such unerring precision that there is scarcely a whole pane left in any of them. Some of the stones were larger than a man’s hand, which entirely does away with the supposition that they have been thrown by a catapult.
York Herald, 30th December 1871