[The first part of the article is about the writer’s dubious experiences at seances: “I remained a yet more doubting Thomas.”]
Strange Happenings At A Vicarage.
But let me pass on to something of a more startling nature! It was about the time of certain activities in the famous Borley case. I think the summer of 1933. A relative of mine was vicar of a certain parish some few miles from Peterborough. He was a man with no uncertain opinion about the claims of spiritualists and regarded them as fantastic. Judge my surprise one morning to receive a letter from him informing me of strange events at the Vicarage, which had been going on there for some time and which were reducing the family to a terrible state of fear and nerves.
I received an invitation to pay him a visit, and so began what I must, perforce, call my positive experiences, for I soon discovered that my relatives had under-rated the occurrences, which were frightening in the extreme. It seemed that all the events had a definite connection with the presence of the youngest daughter, a girl of twelve. Nothing would happen if she absented herself from the house, but with her at hand anything might occur, and, in fact, did occur, thick and fast.
No day passed without some damage by missiles coming from goodness knows where, but which had a peculiar attraction for glass objects. There was scarcely a piece of glass left intact. In the house or in the garden the danger was always there. It was impossible by the geography and circumstances of the place for the trouble to emanate from neighbours.
On returning from the local tobacconists, where the girl had been sent on an errand, clay pipes and sometimes small scale weights would drop in the hall as the girl entered the Vicarage, which she did on several occasions under strict observation. I heard all about this while I was sitting down in the drawing room, soon after arrival, and awaiting Tea; but I was to see for myself without delay! Tea was called, and so, placing my pipe on the fender slipper-box I arose, and, shutting the drawing room door, crossed the hall and entered the dining room, shutting this also. While Grace was being said I heard a clatter behind me and beheld my pipe on the floor, just, I suppose, as a reminder that a man and his friend must not be parted. It would take too long to relate all the mysterious occurrences, but within a very few hours I myself witnessed the activity of the mischievous spook.
After Tea, all the members of the family, including myself, lined up in single file with arms upraised as token of our innocence in the matter of tricks, and in this way proceeded in procession up the main stairway to visit each bedroom and to return via the servants’ stairs to the kitchen. I well remember that as we lined up on one end of a bedroom the toilet jug, reposing in its basin on a table the other end of the room, rose in the air to a distance of approximately a foot and, wobbling thus for a short space, descended again to its place.
But this was not all, for hardly had we descended downstairs and entered the study when I beheld a large glass paper weight which had been left on a sheaf of papers rise from its place and seem to vanish into thin air, but there followed immediately a terrific crash of glass and the main study window pane fell in splinters. I rushed out to find the paper weight on the pavement outside the house. Early next morning a similar fate overtook one of the bedroom windows.
One evening, as it approached bedtime, a discussion took place with regard to the clay pipes already referred to, for many of them had, in a few days, materialised from nowhere. In one or two cases something seemed to form in the air a foot or so from the ground, and a pipe would then fall unbroken to the floor. On this occasion the pipes were collected and passed for inspection from hand to hand and finally placed on the table. Next morning it was found that some of the pipes had been neatly marked inside the bowl as with a fine mapping pen. The mark varied between two, thus – either the letters S.K. or S.N., in each case enclosed in a diamond. What it signified no one could say, although we all ventured to give our own ideas as to the solution. The letters were certainly not the initials of anyone known to us.
On another occasion the typewriter was found covered on the keys with a mass of rusty pen nibs. Where they came from no one would even hazard a guess.
Old shoes would on occasion come hurtling through the air. They were always ladies’ shoes and had never belonged to anyone in that household.
My own father’s signet ring, which, on his death, had come into the possession of my relative’s eldest son, and which he kept locked in a writing desk in his bedroom, suddenly tinkled to the floor while I was holding conversation with another person in the kitchen. It was an uncanny business.
I recall that the churchwardens, having been told of what was happening in the Vicarage, expressed themselves as sceptics. “You can’t expect hard-headed business men to believe that.” However, they were invited to see for themselves, and they did see with a vengeance and, turning white like the proverbial sheet, quickly scooted from the house.
The daughter of twelve accompanied her father into the church vestry, where he consulted an old register, shut the safe door, and temporarily left the bunch of keys hanging in the lock. Going to the other end of the vestry for some purpose, he was shocked when the keys came hurtling through space in his direction.
We decided to consult Sir Oliver Lodge, and a full account of all that had occurred was sent to him. In due course, Sir Oliver replied informing us that, in his opinion, my relative was suffering from the attention of a discarnate spirit who was using the daughter as an unconscious medium. Sir Oliver added that “only a spiritual remedy could allay the trouble.” So prayers were said and the spirit urged to rest in peace. Whether this was the eventual cause of a cessation of the trouble one cannot say for certain, but certainly the strength of the manifestations gradually waned, but did not finally cease until what might well have been a terrible calamity occurred one evening.
A study oil lamp had been left burning in the son’s upstairs study. Someone suddenly noticed the smell of burning, and, rushing upstairs, found the lamp in pieces on the landing and a carpet on fire. After this event, the force seemed to have spent itself and left the family alone. Was Sir Oliver right? At any rate, these experiences shocked the family and most of the members suffered from “nerves” for some time afterwards. We all could well have done without these manifestations. One thing was discovered, namely that if anyone crossed at right angles the path the girl had traversed nothing occurred. This seemed strange and seemed to point to some law which made the “spirit” powerless. Otherwise there seemed no rhyme or reason in what was done. Did the discarnate spirit desire to attract attention for some purpose and could not properly control the power used? I leave it to readers to judge.
While I cannot postulate that this influence was evil in itself, it certainly resulted in much mischief. The matter has given me much food for thought, and I am inclined to believe that Sir Oliver Lodge was right and that a discarnate spirit was the culprit. If we accept this, then it opens up higher matters. If a spirit can survive to work in this way, surely all our spirits live, working as the Church believes, if we have been faithful and true, in much higher service. For why should only the evil survive, as, perhaps this one did, to cling to earth; being unable to rise much higher?
Let me conclude by stating that as far as my former experiences were concerned, and I have given you but a few of many, I have never yet heard from lips of mediums, under so-called control, anything which was worth listening to as being words of wisdom from the beyond. I have heard the supposed voice of the late Sir William Crooks, but all I can say is that Sir William, IF he did indeed speak, has lost his knowledge of the science which on earth he knew so well. The utterances in all cases have been marked by triviality of thought and inanities. I have many doubts when I hear that such and such a spirit has come through to this or that medium. There is much wishful thinking, and, I believe, much deception in these Study Circles, and I would urge readers to keep clear of them.
As to the genuine activities of poltergeists there can be no manner of doubt. I HAVE SEEN AND CAN BEAR WITNESS! What it signifies, I cannot tell, and would not presume to guess, but that man or woman is a fool who would leave the Church of his fathers as so many have done, to chase the shadow instead of grasping the substance contained in the faith and practice of the Christian Church.
E.E.W.
Newport & Market Drayton Advertiser, 29th December 1950.