Ghost with a wart.
His chase for a medium.
Servant girl victim in a house.
A story of strange happenings at a house in Belsize Park, Hampstead, was related yesterday by the housekeeper, who explained that it all began with the arrival of a new servant girl from the country. The house is furnished in substantial old-fashioned style, and containes pieces of armour, numerous helmets, and ancient and modern military relics.
“The servant girl was about 22,” said the housekeeper, “and evidently a born medium and clairvoyant without knowing it. I am something of a medium too, and perhaps it was when we got together that the spirits had their chance. About two weeks after she came we began to hear knockings and moanings and scratchings about two o’clock in the morning. One night she lit a candle in our room, and about 4 a.m. a glass on the candlestick broke without warning. Several objects fell in the house, and a collection of arms that had just been tied up with new cord in the hall collapsed in a heap, bringing down a valuable picture as well. Eventually it was decided that the girl would have to go, and since her departure the knockings and moanings have ceased.”
A well-known West End medium of twenty years’ experience who was asked to investigate the affair said: “I already knew of what was happening, as the spirit of the Hampstead house came through to me at one of our seances. He would be about 65, with side whiskers, prominent forehead, and rather thick nose, and he has a kind of wart on the right cheekbone. He seemed to be wearing baggy trousers and a loose smoking jacket, and carried a long pipe. I have seen him twice, and he has a message to the effect that he wants to deliver something to the proper hands, and seems very restless about it. He gives three knocks first, and then four knocks, and brings a horrid smell with him in order to make you take notice of him. I think the trouble at the house arose from the fact that the new servant was used by the old man to try and get his message through to the proper person.”
Birmingham Daily Gazette, 29th August 1923.