Mysterious Case.
There is at present a case in progress in the Sheriff Court of Edinburgh, the circumstances of which are as unaccountable as they are of rare occurrence. A military gentleman and his family became tenants of a house at Newhaven, and for some time occupied the premises without being subjected to any annoyance; but at length they began to be disturbed by strange sounds issuing from different parts of the building.
At first little attention was given to ascertain the cause; however, the noise became so loud, and the intervals of peace so short, that the tenant thought an investigation into the cause of the disturbance could no longer be delayed: accordingly watch was kept at the places where the sounds in general proceeded from, but no discovery could be made. The floor was torn up when the noise was thought to come from that quarter, and the lath and plaster was pulled down, when the invisible being was heard in the wall, yet nothing could be seen, nor could the cause of the mysterious sounds be found out.
When the spirit spoke from the roof, a blunderbuss was fired through the ceiling; but neither shrieks followed the report nor a drop of blood issued from the wounded plaster. The tenant brought his brother officers to hear the noise, and endeavour to find out the cause; but their united efforts were exerted in vain, nothing could induce them to believe that mortal man was the author of the disturbance, and the devil was blamed for playing them a trick.
A daughter of the tenant lay indisposed in a bed in one corner of the room, in which the sounds were most frequently heard, and at one time it was imagined that she might, by some means or other, produce the unaccountable noise, but, after watching her narrowly, removing her from one place to another, and even engaging her in conversation during the continuance of the sounds, they were convinced that she was entirely guiltless, and at last the tenant concluded that the noise proceeded from the troubled spirit of a friend deceased.
The case was entered before the Sheriff, so that a judicial examination of the house might take place, and witnesses have been brought forward who swear to hearing the sounds. At one time something resembling the crowing of a cock, they say, was heard, and at other times the invisible spirit imitated the cries of various animals, but the whole story still remains a mystery.
Weekly True Sun, 12th November 1837.