The Mysterious.
On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the inhabitants of Milnthorpe were in a state of considerable excitement, we may say almost astonishment and terror, in consequence of it being known that the windows and doors of the house of Thomas Ashburner were broken in, in a mysterious manner, by an unseen hand.
Marvellous tales were told respecting different articles of furniture moving about, – the tea table, resembling Mahomet’s Corrin, viz., moving up to the ceiling, and the fire shovel dancing in the middle of the floor, &c., &c.
Great numbers of persons were seen on Wednesday forenoon, wending their way towards the scene of these extraordinary feats. It was stated by many, some whom we should have expected would have known better, that the whole affair was the work of his Satanic Majesty – who, although he does not bear a good character, yet he is often libelled.
Other parties who went to this exciting scene, and who were more sceptical, observed that all the windows in the front side of the house were broken from within, and those at the back broken from without; this was quite apparent from the way in which the lead was bent, and suggested the propriety of their daughter, a woman possessed of rather crooked ideas of propriety, being removed, and, strange to say, nothing has disturbed the peace of the little cottage since.
Kendal Mercury, 16th February 1856.