The Juvenal-street Ghost.
Much annoyance has lately been occasioned to the inhabitants of Juvenal-street and the neighbourhood, owing to the crowds of persons who nightly resort thither in consequence of the rumour that “some phantom of the ether world” is in the habit of visiting the house of a gentleman residing in the street. It is certainly no great proof of the intelligence of the age that so many thousands of the inhabitants of the town should have congregated together, on such an occasion, to gaze, night after night, at the front of the house, and after being starved with the cold, and fatigued with watching, retired to their homes just as wise as they came.
It is, however, we are credibly informed, quite true that unusual noises have latterly been heard in the house. About twelve months ago the family was much alarmed by the ringing of the bells throughout the house, in a very extraordinary manner. After annoying them for some time the noise ceased, and they heard no more of it till about three months ago. On its recommencement, so violent was the agitation of the bells on some of the occasions that they have been seen to change their pendant to an upright position, and strike the ceiling with such force as to knock off the plaster within their range.
A small chain connected the bell wires with the street-door handle, and through oneof the links in the chain the gentleman of the house screwed a gimblet tightly into the wall, in order to stop the ringing from that quarter, conceiving the annoyance was caused by some mischievous persons who pulled the bell-handle and then ran away. The gimblet had, however, been but a short time fastened into the wall when the bells recommenced with such violence, that it was speedily shaken out of the wall by the rapid movement of the wires.
The family, after having tried every means to discover the cause of the annoyance, could bear the noise no longer, and, at last, had the bells taken down. A few days after the removal of the bells, a new scheme to alarm the inmates was adopted.
Sometimes one of the doors and sometimes two or three in the house began to shake and bang to with great violence and rapidity; and so loud and so violent has the noise been during some of these fits that it has not only been sensibly felt in the adjoining houses, but heard also in the street. The windows, too, have been so much agitated that it was thought they would break.There is no certainty as to the time when the noises occur. Sometimes they visit the family three or four times in the course of the day, and then perhaps are not heard during as many days.
This is a plain statement of the case, and it may be relied on. There can be no doubt, however, that human agency is at the bottom of the affair, and as the gentleman who occupies the house is most anxious to discover the author of the trick, it is to be hoped the party will shortly be found out, and meet with the reward to which he is so fully entitled for disturbing a respectable family, and keeping them in a continual state of alarm.
No sooner was the noise heard into the street, that the believers in the marvellous and supernatural immediately announced to the world that the house was haunted. The news spread like wildfire, and multitudes of people, who could have had but little to do at home, – or, if they had, appeared to care little or nothing about it, daily and nightly flocked to the scene of the pranks of the invisible operator. The interruption of the thoroughfare by the crowds of people became at last a greater annoyance to the inhabitants of the street than the noises occasioned by the visits of the supposed troubled spirit.
The assistance of the police was called in, and on Friday night Mr Whitty, accompanied by a strong body of police, entered the street, and dispersed the crowd. Numbers of people still visit the neighbourhood with the expectation of getting a glimpse of the ghost, but as the police are determined to have a monopoly of the company of his ghostship, they are not permitted to stand or assemble in the street, and go away quite disappointed.
Many extraordinary tales are told, and, no doubt, extensively believed, concerning the imaginary supernatural visitor of Juvenal-street. The gossips and seers of wonders brought forth new storeis every day, each of which was more surprising than those already published. Attaching as much importance to the supernatural statements as they deserve, some amusing occurrences arising out the visits of the ghost, have, however, taken place.
The gentleman who occupies the premises invited several scientific persons to visit his dwelling, to discover, if possible, the cause of the annoyance to himself and family. One of these was a bell hanger. This person went through the house examining the state of the bells and wires. While in one of the rooms, in the upper part of the house, the bells struck up such an extraordinary and unusual peal to his ears, that he became dreadfully alarmed, and expecting the immediate appearance of a visitor from another world, he bolted down the stairs into the street with all the agility he was master of, leaving in the house his hat, which had to be taken to him by one of the family.
On another occasion, a gentleman, who resides in an adjoining house, had to awake his servants early one morning to wash, and thinking that it would be a very suitable opportunity to gratify the seekers of the marvellous, should there be any at that early hour in the street, he showed himself at the balcony. There were several persons gazing at the house at the time, but no sooner did they see the gentleman “dressed all in white,” than they scampered off as fast as their legs could carry them, exclaiming, – “There it is! There it is!” – On one of the nights when the crowd was very dense in the street, a young man of the neighbourhood thought he would have some amusement at their expense.For this purpose he covered himself up, in a very becoming spectre-like manner, with a large white sheet, and suddenly pouncing into the crowd, they immediately gave way, crying out, – “The ghost! The ghost!” – tumbling over each other, and rolling into the kennel, in their haste to escape from the supposed supernatural visitor.
The two latter are the only tangible ghost stories that can be depended upon, and while we repudiate the marvellous and supernatural altogether, as connected with the whole affair, we have no doubt whatever that it is a mere trick. It is not, however, the first of the kind which has come under our notice, but as yet we have heard of no satisfactory solution to it.
We are informed that the gentleman who resides in the house would feel deeply obliged to any one who has been similarly annoyed for such information as would put him in the way of discovering the cause of the annoyance. Although we do not pretend to explain the apparently supernatural doings of this invisible agent, there is one thing of which we are thoroughly persuaded, and that is, that to interest or private pique the plot is to be ascribed. Such frolics as those played off in Juvenal-street have been practised over and over again, and we recollect our townsmen having been horrified some years ago with the pranks of a wag who amused himself, or we should rather say herself, with breaking windows in a house in old John-street. We believe the trick was traced to a servant, but the object of the person who set her on, as is generally the case in such affairs, was to get the house a bad name, and to induce the proprietor, as the saying is, to sell it for “an old song.” A haunted house is not likely to fetch so good a price as one that is not reputed to be the resort of evil spirits.
On Wednesday last, a gentleman, yclept a flying stationer, was brought before Mr Rushton, for gathering a crowd in Church-street, to whom he was bawling out and vending”a full, true, and particular account of the ghost of Juvenal-street, which had been seen by Mr Rushton, the Mayor, and the clergy of Liverpool, together with the particulars of the dreadful accident which had happened on the occasion.” – After an admonition from Mr Rushton, on the impropriety of his conduct, the prisoner was discharged.
Liverpool Mercury, 7th May 1841.
The Haunted House.
The rod of the schoolmaster has been almost as potent in England as that of St Patrick, some centuries ago, in Ireland. The former has wellnigh whipped the last remnants of vulgar superstition out of the land, as St Patrick whilom, with sundry flourishes of his potent crosier. “Give the snakes and the toads a twist / And banished all the varmint.”
Fairies have long since secluded themselves in the land of the tiny people; witches confine their orgies to “the pit of Acheron”; and old women and black cats enjoy an indemnity from persecution. “Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray,” no more mingle with and mar the sports of mortals; while gliding ghosts and apparitions, all in white, finding themselves no longer the awe-inspiring beings that they were thirty or forty years ago, have taken the sulks and removed to the banks of the Styx, where they may wander without fear of bell, book, or consecrated candle.
Occasionally, however, we find an individual or two who seem bent on keeping our grandmothers in countenance, and it is surprising how the infection spreads amongst the populace. Though truth is now confessed to be stranger than fiction, yet hundreds are all agog, on the slightest hint, to believe in an impossibility. They have ceased to wonder at the prodigies performed by machinery as they would soon do at absolute miracles, which, if common, would anon bear no such designation and excite no astonishment. Tell them of a ghost or a strange noise, and straight they run, open-mouthed, and swallow any extravagance or gross absurdity that may be detailed, as if they wished to be deceived against the evidence of reason and sense.
We have had a few ghostly visitants in our own town within our recollection, one of which was an apparition that haunted the corner of Warwick-street a few years ago; and, within the last month, a house, in Juvenal-street, has attained a celebrity which bids fair to rival that acquired formerly by a certain mansion in Cock-lane, in the great metropolis of England.
The Warwick-street ghost soon returned to the region from whence he sprung, a region, we believe, much more shallow than “the vasty deep”, where ghosts, even to the redoubtable Flying Dutchman, have long since ceased to answer the calls of mortal man, though hailed through a speaking-trumpet. The people, with laudable perseverance, thronged, night after night, to the vacant space where the ghost was reported to take his walks, and there they stood, gazing into the gloom, but the sulky spirit disappointed every man and woman of them, for he doggedly kept out of view, and thereby he lost his reputation, like Michael Cassio, who was deprived of the “immortal part of himself” through the “invisible spirit of wine.” The merry publicans of the district found that the ghost-seekers had no objection to substitute rum or whisky for the spirit which had given them so much trouble for nothing.
“Touching this ghost”, or whatever it is that provoked so much idle curiosity towards the house in Juvenal-street, we have heard so many absurd stories that we scarcely know how to separate one trumpery invention from another, though we will give our readers to know what is averred by the inmates of the residence. That there is imposition in some quarter is undoubted, and we should hardly waste the time of our readers by descanting on the folly, were it not that the subject is somewhat amusing.
In brief, then, a certain family in Juvenal-street has, of late, complained loudly of strange and unaccountable noises being heard throughout the house in which they reside. At first, the bells were run violently by invisible hands, and the female inmates were filled with alarm and consternation. The policemenon the district endeavoured to trace the cause of this extraordinary effect, but, as the bells were uniformly still and silent enough when they were present, their investigations were unattended by any result. As, however, they were continually pestered by the alarmed ladies, a shrewd officer at once put an end to the difficulty by removing the bells, thus depriving the invisible ringer of the very material for its extraordinary recreation.
This was no sooner effected than the plan of operations was changed. The doors were now slammed backwards and forwards with extreme violence, and occasionally horrible shrieks were heard in various parts of the house. The officers were again in various parts of the house. The officers were again and again summoned to investigate the cause of this effect defective, but they were baffled as before, for the doors, while they were present, rested quietly on their hinges and resolutely refused to perform more than their ordinary offices.
Meanwhile, the story spread through the town, and crowds of idle people assembled in Juvenal-street and the neighbourhood, hoping to hear or see something that would “astonish their weak nerves.” The most extraordinary stories were soon rife amongst these anxious inquirers, and the most horrible sights had been seen at the house in question, though it was amusing enough to observe that scarcely one individual amongst them knew where it was.
Some stated that an invisible band of musicians paraded, at stated periods, from the top of the dwelling to the bottom, blowing invisible trumpets, horns, and clarionets, and beating invisible drums with invisible drumsticks. Others said, that a female form, clad in garments of flowing white, glided silently through the house, while those of more active imagination peopled every room with “ghastly sights and horrid shapes.” At length, Mr Dowling paid a visit to the house. He found the streets full of silly people whom the police-officers could not persuade to go home, and he examined the dwelling attentively, but he could not find anything uncommon in its construction. He, however, made minute inquiries into all the circumstances, and found that the noises never occurred when the gentleman of the house was at home. The latter has lately married a second wife, who has for her companion a young lady whose manner betokens great shrewdness and some degree of sly humour.
Two daughters and two sons by the former wife dwell in the house, and of the female inmates these two daughters seem to be the most unfeignedly alarmed. The lady of the house told Mr Dowling, that, since the bells were removed, the whole alarm has arisen from the slamming of doors. A neighbour, however, has stated, that the same lady has complained loudly of the most terrific and appalling shrieks having been heard.
We forbear to offer any remarks as to the probable cause of these noises, though we know that Mr Dowling offers a very shrewd solution of the difficulty. We leave our readers to draw their own conclusions.
Liverpool Albion, 10th May 1841.
The Ghost of Juvenal-Street.
For some time past, more especially for the last ten days, much annoyance has been occasioned to the inhabitants of Juvenal-street and the neighbourhood, owing to the immense crowds of persons who nightly assemble there in consequence of a rumour that “some phantom of the other world” is in the habit of paying his or her (for sex is doubtful) nocturnal visits to the house of a respectable gentleman residing at No. 2 Juvenal-street.
Several respectable inhabitants of the neighbourhood have assured us that most unusual noises are frequently heard in the house alluded to, although they smile at the idea of these noises being occasioned by supernatural agencies.
A lady residing near, a person of education, and not likely to have her fancy led astray by a belief in supernatural beings, told us that the nuisance occasioned by the ringing of the bells in the house, without apparently anything to account for setting them in motion, became so great, not only to the inhabitants of the house, but to the neighbours, that it was deemed necessary to take them all down, and they remain so.
This unusual occurrence commenced about three months ago. After the bells were taken down a greater nuisance occurred, owing to an unusual and unaccountable noise being heard at intervals in the house, occasioned by the sudden and simultaneous bursting open and banging to of the doors of the different rooms.
No later than yesterday at noon, so great was the noise thus occasioned, that it might have been heard a hundred yards off, and the vibration was such as to cause the house to shake to such a degree as to attract the attention of the police-officers (who have for some time been appointed to parade before the house), and persons in the street.
These statements we had confirmed by several of the neighbours, and they may be depended upon as facts, let what will occasion the effects named. The police and others have investigated the matter, but no clue has yet been obtained to account for the unusual occurrence.
Liverpool Journal.
Sun (London) 12th May 1841.