Mortlake Mystery.
Workmen using a large stone shed on the bank of the Thames near Mortlake have been startled by strange noises, sharp as a rifle shot, as of something striking the corrugated iron roof. No mark was left on the shed. The noises would come even when men were in the shed, and so insistently that more than one workman left the place.
Investigations were made, with no result. But the mystery has been solved by the admission of a gentleman whose garden runs down to the river nearly opposite the shed. He is a golfer. He has been wont to use old balls to drive from his lawn by way of keeping his hand in, and he states that with very little practice he was soon able to place each one accurately on the roof of the shed. Here they would land with the ghostly thump that disturbed the workmen, and bounce from the slanting roof into the water. Hence they were never found. But for this confession the Mortlake ghost might have passed into history.
Londonderry Sentinel, 10th February 1906.