Communications to the Editor.
Sir – About thirty-five years ago, a most extraordinary phenomenon occurred in the parish of Kinclaven, a few miles to the northward of Perth. A young man was haunted and tormented in the following singular manner:
On an evening, he observed, as he thought, at his window, the face of a big stout man, and immediately afterwards a stone drove open the door, and fell to the floor. Imagining that it might be some of his companions who intended to terrify him, he looked out but saw no person, though the stones were showered about him.
This continued for some days, and the noise it occasioned reached the ears of the Minister of the Parish, the late Mr Scott, who naturally ridiculed it as an old wife’s story. The matter, however, at length grew so serious that it was judged proper to have an assemblage of the neighbouring clergymen in Mr Scott’s dining-room, along with the young man. When they were met, a stone which seemed to issue out of a cupboard, struck one of them on the leg.
The Clergymen became intimidated and prayed for the removal of Satan, but their prayers, it seems, had no effect, for stones and old horse-bones began to come in upon them in abundance. Some of these were marked with chalk and thrown over the window, but immediately afterwards made their appearance in the room.
In this way the young man was tormented for a considerable period, and many wonderful stories are told of rather ludicrous scenes which occurred with the stones. A very remarkable circumstance was, the stones harmed no one, they fell like a puffed up bladder.
This supernatural occurrence produced much noise at the time. Kinclaven and the adjoining parishes were held by the stones in terrorem. Speculation was as usual afloat, and many were the reasons assigned for the dreadful circumstance. The person tormented had been one day passing through Stanley, and having thrown some stones at a Witch Wife’s cat, she came running out in wrath and halloed to him, that he would get stones enough yet. With one set of people she was of course at the bottom of the business.
Another set attributed it to the following circumstance: An acquaintance of the young man was returning from Perth market in company with a person of the name of McKendrick, who was afterwards found dead on the road: This young man took his horse from him on his arrival at home, and by the general rule in such cases, supposing McKendrick to have been murdered by his companion, his ghost would haunt the first person who met the murderer, so that McKendrick’s ghost was to blame for disturbing the parish.
This wonderful business happened before my time, and I cannot, of course, bear testimony to its truth myself; but the thing, even to this day, is thoroughly believed in the parish of Kinclaven, and many people there still alive, who were eye-witnesses to it, will swear to its authenticity. I have no great notion of stories about ghosts and hobgoblins, but I have heard this repeated by so many creditable individuals, that my faith has been staggered. Is it possible it can be accounted for from natural causes? Perhaps your inserting this in some corner of your useful paper, may be the means of leading to an investigation regarding this inexplicable circumstance.
I am, &c. Paul Jones.
(Paul Jones has pirated this story we should suppose from that of the “Cock Lane Ghost,” or the “Bridgend Stone Thrower,” who tormented that peaceable neighbourhood a few years ago. We hesitated about inserting it, until on reading the accounts of Prince Hohenlohe’s Miracles, with which some of the daily papers are crowded, it occurred to us that it might not be amiss to call in his assistance in similar cases. – Ed.)
Perthshire Courier, 29th August 1823.