A Ghost Story.
During the last fortnight in November the quietude of the inhabitants of the Rectory, Liston, near Melford, Suffolk, was sadly disturbed by strange and unusual sounds. Loud knockings were heard in various parts of the mansion, sometimes they appeared to come from the roof, and sometimes from different rooms in the house. Windows were broken, casements rattled, and at times the very foundations of the house seemed shaken.
The Rector, (Mr. Fisher) and his family were of course much annoyed; a watch was set but to no purpose; the sounds still continued, and the windows were still broken. At length the nuisance became so intolerable that police-constable Edwards, of Fox-earth, was called in to endeavour to put a stop to it. For several days it baffled the shrewdness of that officer; but being no believer in antiquated ghost stories, or in the modern vagaries of spirit-rapping, he went to work in the strong conviction that the sounds proceeded from some one who had not yet “shuffled off this mortal coil.”
Accordingly he kept a close eye upon the domestics, and eventually fixed his suspicions upon a girl named Deeks, about 14 years of age. It was noticed that the sounds generally occurred when she had occasion to go alone to some part of the house, when she would rush frantically back exlaiming “Did you hear that noise?”
At length his suspicions were amply verified; having observed her go into one of the rooms, he followed noiselessly, and when the rapping commenced he saw the shadow of her arm in corresponding motion upon the opposite wall. As she was gliding out of the room he met her pretendedly-alarmed inquiry: “Did you hear that, sir?” by replying “Yes, and you did it” – an accusation which she did not long attempt to deny.
Her master being informed of the discovery, experiments were tried in that and other parts of the house, and precisely the same sounds and the same effects were produced. The mansion is somewhat antiquated, and the division walls are in places hollow, being composed of wood panneling; and the girl had discovered what had escaped general observation, that striking upon the hollow walls in different parts of the house would occasion the remarkable and varied sounds and effects already described; besides which it is supposed she used to vary her performances by occasionally in the evenings, slyly lifting up the sash of a window, stepping on to the lawn, and throwing a stone or two through some of the windows.
No motive whatever can be assigned for her pranks. The rev. gentleman and his lady are remarkably kind and indulgent to all about them. The girl was at once dismissed and conveyed home to her parents, and, with the removal of the cause, the rapping has, as a matter of course, ceased in Liston Rectory, and the usual quietude of the household has been restored.
Essex Standard, 16th December 1857.