Huntingdon.
A Ghost!
Some fun and excitement was caused in this town last week by the alleged performance of a ghost (which no one had seen) by repeated violent knocking in and about the house of Mr W. Rayner, carrier, of this town. The game began on Friday night, or last Saturday morning, and so strong were the knocks that they disturbed part of the neighbourhood.
The rector of All Saints was called up at an early hour in the morning, and he, with two police constables, took up posts of observation in one of the apartments, but the knocking did not appear to pay much respect to the visitors, but seemed to persist in defying them all.
The mystery did not get cleared up, and the next day a long yarn of a ghost tale was freely circulated, and in the evening a large concourse of people assembled before the house waiting anxiously to hear the performance. A large number also visited the house. Little, however, took place, except a few knocks. One person suspected the girl who attended on Rayner’s wife, and it was intimated that if she was quietly got out of the way there would be no more knocking. This was accordingly done, and the disturbance ceased, there having been no more nocturnal rappings, to the disquiet of the inmates and the public.
St Neots Chronicle and Advertiser, 2nd December 1865.
Who’s dat Knocking? – This [n-] phraseology might not inaptly have been used at the latter end of last week, in a ridiculous case of pretended spiritualism in this Borough, which caused for a short time an unusual amount of interest and excitement. In a small cottage in the High-street, nearly opposite to the Waterloo public-house, resides a carrier named Rayner and his wife, and as the latter is old and infirm, a girl of almost 18 years of age has been in the house as a servant to wait upon her.
Late on Friday night, or early last Saturday morning, a series of unaccountable noises and knockings, commenced in the house to the disturbance of the quiet couple who occupied it. The noise, we believe, began with a scratching, &c., and on Mrs Rayner coming down stairs to ascertain the cause, the noise was upstairs where the girl was, and on the latter coming down the noise was down stairs, and soon there was a clatter or knocking that was really uncomfortable.
Blow followed blow with such violence that a number in the neighbourhood heard it a considerable distance off, but still no suspicion fell on any one in the house. Rayner regarded it as a supernatural noise, and long before light he went off for the Rector of All Saints, who with the personal or bodily presence of two police constables ventured into the terrible apartment, and most assuredly there was a knocking, which did not appear to pay much respect for either rector or constables. Bang came an apparent blow on the door, of which one of them held the handle, but no one could see what earthly agency did it, and knock after knock resounded in the house, and no one present appeared in any way to be able to solve the mystery.
During Saturday the news spread remarkably, and in the evening Rayner’s house had become notorious. A large crowd assembled before it, and persons eagerly pressed for admittance, and in one or more cases a forcible ejection took place. A tolerable roomful was, however, present at a time, amounting to about 15 in number, who patiently waited for the ghostly performance. The ghost, on this occasion, seemed rather shy, and only indulged a few with a knock now and then, as the company was, possibly, too large for the ghost to do much with impunity.
Mr Foster suggested to the police (aside) the removal of the girl quietly, without any accusation, and intimated the knocking would cease. This being done, the house, saving the crowd and visitors, relapsed again into its original and quiet state, which has not since been disturbed, and thus ends so far this silly ghost bubble.
Possibly the rioting in George Lane would not have taken place but for the excitement of this silly imposition. It is really a pity the perpetrator of the pranks cannot be punished for such folly.
Cambridge Independent Press, 2nd December 1865.
A Ghost! A Ghost!
A very silly affair came off here at the latter end of last week, which excited in the minds of the public the emotions of fear and laughter. It appears that a cottage in the High-street, adjoining the pork shop kept by Mrs Reynolds, is occupied by a carrier named Rayner and his wife, who had lived there some years, and lately, as the wife has become more feeble by age, she having arrived at about her three score years and ten, a girl has been taken into the house to attend her.
Last Saturday morning strange fracas took place; the household, or at least Rayner and his wife, were disturbed by strange noises in the house, which commenced we believe at night, and such was the nature of the violent blows heard that they even disturbed some part of the neighbourhood.
This banging or knocking continuing, Rayner fetched the Rev. F.G. Vesey, Rector of All Saints, that he might hear for himself and see that there was no doubt as to a noise or knocking, which was very violent. He took the precaution of having two police-constables present, but neither the representatives of the law nor the gospel could prevent the noise, or in any satisfactory way solve the mystery.
Accordingly the next day a pretty rumour got into circulation, and what was a mole-hill soon became a mountain. The news spread, and the next evening there was quite a concourse of people in front of the house anxious for themselves to see and hear all they could of the ghostly performance. The house was pretty well filled with visitors, and ejection had even taken place, so great had the anxiety to hear become.
But now the public were so freely admitted the knocks became rather scarce, and one gentleman called and suggested that if the girl were got out of the way without any accusation, there would be no more knocking. This was accordingly done, and the disturbance did not again revive.
Quiet has again become the order of the house, and the people have lost their keen relish for the ghostly performance, which there is reason to believe was nothing more than an audacious imposition.
Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, 2nd December 1865.
The following is immediately underneath:
What the Ghost Wanted.
Presuming that these shadows of the departed do not re-visit this sublunary scene without some special object, because so great an amount of noise and confusion as they invariably create would be unprofitably expended if it only frightened half-a-dozen people out of their senses, we were anxious to learn whether it had transpired that this poor ghost had been disturbed by the late political excitement about the Municipal Election; whether he had any special antipathy to either Whig or Tory; or whether he was a friend of the writer of “The Saturday Evening of the World” (who brings all things to a close in 1857), and came to add his testimony to the warning; or whether, as the common report ran, he had come to look after some stray title deeds which he claimed whilst in the flesh.
We therefore made diligent inquiry for our own satisfaction in particular, as well as for that of our readers generally (who, we are sure, will feel deeply obliged to us), and if what we have heard be true the tendency of the evidence is decidedly towards the one absorbing question which has engrossed so much of the attention of the Liberals of the Borough during the past month, viz., as to the future Mayoralty.
When the clergyman entered the house at three o’clock in the morning he found the inmates in a state of terror (and he may be pardoned if in the excitement around him, and the dreadful knockings which greeted his arrival, he himself was not exactly free from a similar impeachment); somebody suggested that inquiry should be made for the reason why the nocturnal visitor disturbed the peace of the neighbourhood at such an unseemly hour.
We do not know whether this is the legitimate way of exorcising ghosts, but presuming that if they can use their limbs they can also use their tongues, it seemed a very rational one, and the questions were therefore put–
“What, then, do you want?” “FOSTER FOR MAYOR!” with much emphasis, and in a deep sepulchral tone which startled those who heard it. Finding the ghost was a man of words, one of the police, being rather a facetious fellow, and of course a bold man to address such a question to such a visitor at such a time, put the inquiry- “How’s your poor feet?” To which came the rejoinder, “I want Foster,” thereby indicating, it was presumed, that he was anxious for some surgical operation or to have his corns cut.
Accordingly Mr Foster, very properly, in the course of the morning attended, and at once entered into conversation with the evil spirit, of whom he seems to have had some previous knowledge, for he no sooner put the question in peremptory terms, “What do you do here? You must leave this house,” than the ghost was non-plused and went its way; the noises ceased; the furniture remained in its place; and the police were set at liberty.
If to his other manifold qualifications, therefore, his friends now add the new one of being able to “lay ghosts,” we think Mr Foster will have well earned the civic chair; and the Town Council, we are sure, as sensible men, will grant him the dignity, rather than run the risk of again inviting this “or any other ghost” to revisit the town and throw it into such a state of commotion as was witnessed on Friday and Saturday nights last.
Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, 2nd December 1865.