Sampford Peverell, Devon (1810)

These lines were written by me long before this affair at Sampford was heard or thought of, as is well known to many of my friends here. Of their merit there will of course be various opinions, but whether the writer of them is prejudiced in favour of Bigotry I presume there can be but one opinion, and on that account alone are they here introduced.

The illiberality of the Remarks of those Gentlemen who style themselves Examiners is their concern not mine; perhaps it might become those who lay claim to such a title, to be less hasty in their decisions. It would appear that these Gentlemen are very indignant that a Clergyman should believe the existence of any thing he cannot comprehend. With all due deference to such great authorities, I cannot but suspect the creed of these sapient gentlemen would be confiend to the two first words of all creeds, if they were determined to believe only what they have fully examined into, could clearly define, and satisfactorily account for. If they thought such a creed too short for an examiner I would recommend this addition, We believe — in our own ignorance and impertinence. But I will not in charity exasperate these Gentlemen, as I understand their libel fund is low.

By garbling a letter, and producing just such parts of it as suit our own purposes, it were easy to prove or disprove any thing; and those who from such extracts would attempt to give their readers a full view of the whole, act about as wisely and as fairly, as that Man, who when he wished to sell his house, took a brick in his pocket as a specimen.

There are others who positively will admit of no evidence as sufficiently strong to establish any unaccountable facts and occurrences, and who entertain so light an opinion of an oath, that most sacred of human appeals, as to affirm that fifty men may be produced at any time, to swear any thing. Perhaps it would be no easy task to procure fifty men to swear that those who avowed such an opinion were persons possessed of sense or discretion.

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I shall now proceed to lay before my Readers the facts I have promised them, in as clear a manner as I am able.

In the first place, the Room which has of late been the principal scene of action (for I have heard similar noises at times in another apartment) is as ill adapted for carrying on a trick as it is possible to imagine. In this Room there is but one door, not a single cupboard, and one very small chimney, which has been regularly examined. The walls are of stone, it appears, the flooring of new deal, extremely close, and not covered by a Carpet. There is one very large, rather modern window in the Room, and this apartment is one story high. It must not be omitted that there is no visible access to this Room but through another, in which those who wish to satisfy their curiosity constantly sit. Of course, therefore, there are three dead walls in this aforesaid Room, and one partition. [This partition has been often examined by me, is a very few Inches thick, and the slightest aperture on the opposite side, must be instantly visible on a smooth lath and plaister white-washed wall.] This partition is very thin, there is also a window in it, and this partition serves to divide that Room from the Room in which any visitors sit. These circumstances concerning the Room it will be necessary to keep in mind. In the Room where strangers sit, there is also one door only; and there is a kind of landing Room at the top of the stairs opposite this door.

In one corner of that Room where Strangers usually sit during the night, there is a large hole about two feet square and six feet deep; the floor covers this hole, but the boards have been loosened for the purpose of examining it. It is generally supposed that Mr Bellamy, the former proprietor of this house, made use of this hole for the purposes of smuggling. This Cavity I have always most narrowly watched; at times securing the boards that cover it in the manner described in my former letter, at other times by placing sticks and poles in a slanting position, in such a manner that the slightest upward motion of the boards must cause the fall of such poles or sticks, and thus give notice of the ingress or egress of any object whatever. I can most positively affirm that nothing corporeal or material ever passed thro’ this hole while I was in the Room, nor do I see how any such use on the present occasion could be made of it, as persons who watch are constantly within one yard or less of this cavity. Requesting the public to keep these circumstances in mind, I now proceed to detail some of the principal facts, to enumerate the whole of them would exhaust the writer’s and the reader’s patience.

Rather more than four months since, this house became extremely troublesome, altho’ long before that time, some very unaccountable things had occasionally taken place in it. An apprentice boy had expressed himself often dreadfully alarmed by the apparition of a woman, and had heard some extraordinary sounds at night. Little or no attention was paid to this. But to return, rather more than four months from the present time, the inhabitants of the house were alarmed in the following manner; noises and blows by day were heard extremely loud, in every apartment of the house. On going up stairs and stamping on any of the boards of the floor, in any Room, say five or six times, or more, corresponding blows, but generally louder, and more in number, would be instantly returned: the vibration of these boards caused by the violence of these blows, would be sensibly felt thro’ a shoe or boot, on the sole of the foot.

Observer, the floors underneath which these noises were heard, are all of them immediately over Rooms that are ceiled, and various attempts have been made to imitate the same noises by striking with different instruments, every part of the ceilings as were under the Rooms, whose floors were thus disturbed: but neither the vibratory motion of the boards, the sensation excited in the sole of the foot by that vibration, nor any thing at all like the same sounds, could in that way be produced.

Add to this another effect, not to be produced by any blows on the corresponding under ceilings, the dust was thrown up from such boards as were beaten with such velocity as to affect the eyes of the spectators.

These extraordinary circumstances naturally drew together a great concourse of persons, both strangers and neighbours. At mid-day the cause of these effects would announce its approach, by amazingly loud knockings in some apartment or other of the house, above stairs or below, as might happen. The moment they were heard, any person or persons (for at times more than a dozen witnesses have been present at once) on ascending the stairs, and stamping loudly with their feet, would be answered somewhat louder; and then, what is extremely curious, these noises would very often and in repeated instances, absolutely follow the persons through any of the upper apartments, and faithfully answer the stamping of their feet, wherever they went in them. The joists and beams of the flooring certainly opposed not the slightest obstacle to its progress, as it often followed the person who challenged it to answer him by stamping, returning such stamps of his foot much louder, immediately under him, wherever he moved.

Walls it would penetrate with equal facility, as was manifest, in some degree, by its following any person into different apartments, and more clearly still, from the wonderful rapidity with which it changed its scene of action from one room to the other. But still more remarkable –  Suppose five or six persons were in the room attending to these noises, as for instance, A, B, C, &c. Should B observe, on hearing it under the feet of A, “it is now under A’s feet,” before such words were well out of his mouth, B would have these very noises under his feet, and so on. But after having returned the stamps of the stoutest man, stamping with his utmost violence, and even returning such stamps in a still louder manner than those produced by the person, should that very person knock with his knuckles ever so lightly on any part of the wall of such apartment, no matter which, in which the stamps were answered, the slight and small noises produced by his knuckles on the wall, would in many instances be instantly and faithfully returned in the very place in the wall where the blows from the knuckles were struck, and with a similar sound.

These Phenomena by day continued almost incessantly for about five weeks, when they gradually gave place to others still more curious, and alarming. That I have related the above facts without the slightest exaggeration, that they are literally and strictly true, can be at this moment proved from the affidavits of numerous disinterested witnesses; they are as well known in Sampford to have happened as that the sun shines at noon day. Let the incredulous but give themselves the trouble to enquire personally of any who were present on these occasions, some of whom I shall presently name; they will be satisfied, nay, I will forfeit all claim to future credit, if they find I have been guilty of the slightest exaggeration.

Three or four clergymen have heard these noises, and are as much at a loss to account for them as I am. Mr Samuel Chave, no relation to the tenant of the house, but of the same name, and also his wife, and Mr Sully, Exciseman at Sampford, and his wife, expressed this very morning, (viz. September 14) their readiness, if called on, to swear (to use their own expressions before an hundred magistrates) to their knowledge of those facts having happened – and to their utter inability to assign their cause. J Cowling, Esq. Mr Merson, Surgeon, Mr Webber, Tanner, and many others, have often made use of similar expressions before me. These are all neighbours of Mr Chave, and comprise the most respectable persons in the Village. James Dodds, Cooper, voluntarily made oath this very morning before me, in the presence of Mr Sully, Exciseman, that having been for a length of time employed in making butter casks in an out-house attached to Mr Chave’s house, he had constant opportunities by day, of hearing these noises; he also deposed that it was his firm belief they were not the effect of any trick, that he is convinced they were not produced by the inhabitants of the house, and that these sounds were often much louder than the noise caused by him, while working at his trade

Mrs Dennis, a near neighbour, voluntarily made oath also before me, in the presence of Mr Sully, this morning, to her having heard all these noises as I have described them, to her firm belief that the people of the house are not concerned in them, and to her entire ignorance of their cause. Mr Tally, himself, the Landlord of the house, cannot deny that he has heard these noises, when extremely violent. If he should have forgotten this, I must request him to apply to Mr Baker of Halberton, to Mr Cowling, Mr Bennett, Mr Escott, and Mrs Dennis, all of whom can refresh his memory, being present at the time. The noises were then so loud that two men working a winnowing machine in a neighbouring barn, were alarmed by them.

Mr Cowling was present with many others, when a certain board in the floor of one of the upper rooms, was most violently beaten and so agitated by the vibrations of the strokes, that the dust was thrown up in a very peculiar manner. – Mr Chave was requested, if possible, instantly to take up that board. He ran down below for a hammer and chisel, and in the act of drawing up that board, the very board adjoining was at that instant beaten more violently than the one he was removing. This very extraordinary circumstance much increased the curiosity of the spectators, but on looking under this board, nothing was visible, and it was also quite evident that the joists were throughout that apartment so close to the floor that not even a mouse could find a passage between them.

These Phenomena, as I before observed, after continuing about five weeks, were succeeded by the following nightly occurrences. There are two apartments in this house, which I have described at large; whatever females sleep in either of these apartments, (with the exception of one single instance, to be hereafter stated) experienced some of them all, and all of them some, of the following sensations. They are most dreadfully beaten as bye-standers may hear and witness. Placing myself, at times, close to the bed, at other times in other parts of the Room, I am quite certain I have heard, myself, more than two hundred blows given in the course of a night.

Mr Pullin, Merchant, of Tiverton, Mr Betty and Mr Govett, Surgeons, and Mr Quick, Landlord of the White Horse, in this town, I refer to for the truth of one or other of the following particulars; one or the other of them having been present with me when they took place. The blows given differ in violence; at times, they can be compared to nothing but a very strong man strking with the greatest force he is master of, with a closed fist on the bed. They leave a great soreness, and visible marks; I saw a swelling at least as big as a turkey’s egg on the cheek of Anne Mills; she voluntarily made oath that she was alone in the bed when she received the blow that caused that protruberance, from some invisible hand. Mrs Dennis, and Mary Woodbury, have both sworn voluntarily before me, one in the presence of Mr Sully, Exciseman, the other in the presence of Mr Govett, that they were so much beaten by some invisible hand, as to experience a peculiar kind of numbness, and were sore many days after. When these things happened to Mrs Dennis, I was present in the room.

The same women also solemnly deposed, that they are positively certain that a little apprentice girl, called Sally Case, not quite 16 years old, who slept in the same bed with these women, could not possibly have produced either the blows they felt, or any of the noises to be hereafter mentioned. Had she stirred hand or foot, they must have perceived it. Observe that when these blows and noises have been most violent, I have generally placed myself close to the bed, and, when they were at their height, without changing my position, have desired one or other of the party to rush in with a candle, kept ready lighted on the outside of the door, for that purpose; but we could discover no cause. Others have then watched the bed, while I took post at the door, and the noise still went on.

Every plan we could think of has been practised to frustrate or foil artifice or design. The position of the bedsteads has been altered, the rooms have been changed, the bedside carpet removed, the beds examined, both top and bottom; the chimney by means of a lighted candle fully inspected, and the walls which are quite smooth minutely investigated, and the deal flooring proved to be solid, and close all through.

Having premised this, I have now to add that the following phenomena took place in my presence; the all of them were witnessed by one or the other of the gentlemen just mentioned, and that the underwritten females swore to their entire ignorance of the causes of them; also that Mr Taylor, a young man not quite twenty years of age, whom some, without any shadow of a reason, as yet produced, have thought proper to suspect, has on these occasions sat wherever we thought proper to place him, without moving from the spot. The names of the females alluded to, are as follows, Mary Dennis, senior, Mary Dennis, junior, Martha Woodbury, Anne Mills, Mrs Pitts, Sally Case. These are all strangers, except Sally Case, and Anne Mills. I have seen a sword, when placed in the hands of some of these women, repeatedly and violently wrested out of them, after the space of a few minutes, and thrown with a very loud noise sometimes into the middle of the room, sometimes still more violently against the wall. This sword I have heard it take up, and with it beat the bed; by its shaking the handle in a particular manner, I have been aware of its taking it up.

I have placed a large folio greek testament, weighing about 8 or 9 pounds, on the bed, it has been repeatedly thrown into the centre of the room. Mr Pullin and Mr Betty were then requested to bring in the candle, and the testament was placed on the end of the bedstead in such a manner, that no part of it could touch the bed. The women from fear, were enveloped entirely in the bed-clothes; these gentlemen were then requested to take particular notice of the position of every fold and wrinkle in the bed; the candle was then removed, Mr Pullin and myself placed ourselves so close to the bed, that had an hand or arm been moved, by any one, we must have heard it, as was afterwards experimentally proved. It is a very curious circumstance that this same testament was then thrown with great violence and a loud noise, from the foot to the head of the same bed, inclining in its direction a little to the right. A candle was instantly produced; the situation of the bed-clothes was not in the slightest degree dereanged; and the females in the bed were in the most solemn manner, in the presence of Mr Pullin and Mr Betty, swore as usual, to their entire ignorance of the cause of that event.

I have often heard the curtains of the bed most violently agitated, accompanied with a loud and almost indescribable motion of the rings; on one occasion there was from the moon, a sufficient degree of light to see this motion, and at the same time clearly to ascertain that the cause, whatever it might be, was something invisible. These curtains, to prevent their motion, were often tied up, each one of them in one large single knot; making of course four knots. There is a very large modern window in this room, when the moon is at full, it is almost light enough in the room to read a large print. Mr Chave, of Mere, no relation at all to Mr Chave who rents this house, can swear to the following fact. Sitting up as he has often done, to hear and see these Phenomena, he was alarmed by one or two very loud shrieks; on rushing into the room his course at the threshold of the door of that apartment was arrested by the following Phenomenon.

– Every curtain in that bed was agitated and the knots thrown and whirled about with such rapidity, all at the same time, that it would have been by no means pleasant to have been in their vortex, or within the sphere of their action; Mr Taylor then stood on the same threshold, close by his side, and they could both distinctly perceive by the clear light of a full moon, that the cause of these effects was invisible. This scene, accompanied with such a violent noise of the rings as (to use Mr Chave’s own expression) could not have been exceeded by four persons stationed one at each curtain, for the purpose, continued for about two minutes, when it concluded with a noise resembling the tearing of a person’s shirt from top to bottom. Candles were then instantly produced, and many rents, one very large one across  the grain of strong new cotton curtains, were discovered.

I have heard, in the presence of other witnesses, footsteps repeatedly walking by me, and round me, when sitting at times by the light of one or two candles, and could see nothing. Mr Quick and myself, sitting in the lower room, distinctly heard it come down the stiars, with a noise like the treading of a man’s foot in a slipper, it then passed through a wall, into another apartment, as appeared by the sounds; but we had two candles burning, and could see nothing.

I have been in the act of opening a door, which was already half open, I had a candle in one hand; the instant my other hand was stretched out for the purpose of fully opening the door, a violent and sudden rapping was produced on the opposite side of the same door. I paused a moment, but while the rapping continued, I drew the door which was before half open, suddenly open; not a second could have elapsed, yet I can swear I could then see nothing! altho’ I had a lighted candle in my hand; nor can I at this moment conjecture the cause of that violent knocking.

I have been in one or other of the two apartments that are so much disturbed more than once, but particularly in the one which has a large modern window, when from the noises, knockings, blows on the bed, and rattling of the curtains, I did really begin to think the whole chamber was falling in. Mr Taylor, sitting on a chair in the same room, while I was standing close by him, observed, “I thought it was sufficiently terrible last night, but this is worse than I ever heard it.” Mr Govett, Surgeon, of Tiverton, was present with me on this occasion, for I have made it a rule, from which I have not once departed, never to sit up at Sampford without some respectable person as a witness.

Mr Govett can testify that the shrieks which he heard that night were such as could not be counterfeited. Observe, they came from the women who slept there, and were strangers to Mr Chave, and all his family; and the symptoms of real fear could not be mistaken; a most violent perspiration evinced by large drops standing on their foreheads, the aspects of their countenances, and the sounds of terror they uttered, were such as surpassed the powers of a Garrick or a Siddons to imitate in their most unrivalled moments.

One thing is worthy of remark in these noises; they would very often answer by night, as was the case formerly by day, any noises or knockings made by other persons; on one particular night the cause of them was most minutely exact and faithful, in its mode of returning any noises made. These answers by knocks were generally louder than those made by bye-standers, as hath been observed of those by day. But the rapidity equalled only by lightning, with which it changes its position, is in my opinion, one of the most extraordinary features in this mysterious business. As quick as thought, it flies from one part of the room to another; when it has been in the act of beating the females in one bed most violently, and when from the sound of the blows I have had notice of its being at the foot of the bed, I have rushed to the spot, it has instantly been heard at the head of the bed, equally violent, and almost at the same moment, would begin its blows on the opposite bed.

Mr Chave, the occupier of the house deposed before me to the following effect; That one night the two servants were so much agitated that they refused to sleep any longer in their apartment; Mr Chave permitted them in the dead of night to bring their bed and bedclothes into the room where he slept, with Mrs Chave; after they had been quiet about half an hour, and the light was put out, a large iron Candlestick began to move most rapidly over the whole room, producing by its motion a noise exactly resembling the grinding of a malt mill (thus Mr Chave expresses it.) He could hear no footstep, and perceived by calling to the maids, that they were quietly in the corner of the room, in their bed. He was in the act of ringing a bell, to call up the ‘prentice boy, when the candlestick was violently thrown at his head, which it narrowly missed; but after striking the head of the bed, fell upon the pillow. This Mrs Chave and the two servants also know to be fact. A light was afterwards produced and nothing could be seen.

About a fortnight since, Mr Searle, late keeper of the County gaol, informed me of his visit, and intention of going to Sampford, to find out what he termed the grand trick that was there exhibiting. Mr Searle has given numerous proofs of personal courage, and decision of character. He brought a friend with him, and I left them, after having assisted them in thoroughly examining the apartment, in full possession of the scene of action. It was impossible any man could be more confident he should discover this plot, than Mr Searle was on the evening of that night; or more convinced of the difficulty attending it, than he was on the following morning. I then saw him, and discoursed with him. “Quantum mutatus ab illo!” His account was most marvellous, as also appeared from the paragraph he inserted in the Exeter Paper on the following day.

Observer, I left Mr Searle and his friend, at half past eleven on that night, to go back to Tiverton, and three other gentlemen returned with me, as it was my wish that Mr Searle and his friend should prosecute their own method of examination, undisturbed. But I appeal to those three gentlemen whether some phenomena had not even then taken place, which strongly shook their scepticism, and caused them to leave that house with very different impressions from those with which they entered it?

Mr Searle informed me that the blows were extremely loud and violent, on a bed in which a single female slept (Anne Mills,) even while he was sitting on one side of the bed, and his friend on the other. The sword before mentioned was placed, he positively assured me, on the bed when a large folio testament was placed over it, thus by its weight pressing down the sword; they then resumed their position on each side of the bed, so as to be able to ascertain the slightest motion of the person who occupied it. The sword was in a very short space of time hurled with the greatest violence from the bed against the opposite wall, a distance of about seven feet. He was quite certain the female in the bed neither moved hand nor foot. It seems that in Mr Searle’s absence from this room, a few minutes, his friend struck at something and blood was evident on the knife, but as this circumstance took place without any witness, I do not consider it worthy of much attention.

Numberless extraordinary things have been seen and heard by individuals in this house, but I have uniformly rejected all of them from this narrative, and admitted only such facts as have taken place in the presence of two or three witnesses. One fact of this nature, as it has been sworn to, in the presence of Capt. Jones, myself and others, I may venture to relate. Mr Taylor deposes that on going into the room in consequence of the shrieks of the women, the sword that before was lying on the floor, he saw clearly suspended in the centre of the room, with its point towards him; he drew back and contemplated this wonderful object with amazement and terror, when, after the expiration of about a minute it fell to the ground with a loud noise. He also deposed to his perfect ignorance of the cause of this phenomenon.

There is a peculiar hollow sound generally in the knockings, which we have attempted in vain to imitate. On one occasion I stood quite close to the head of the bed, which was at that time shook and agitated violently; I requested Mr Govett to rush in as suddenly as possible with a candle; I kept myself earnestly fixed at the head of the bed, and heard two or three violent blows, after the candle was introduced. Had the agent been visible, I must then have perceived it.

Last Thursday night, September 13th, the family, with one exception, were not much disturbed, nor were they some nights previous to that; but Anne Mills deposed on oath, on Friday morning, before Mr Sully and myself, that she was beaten so violently on that night, that she hesitated whether she should run out of bed or strike a light; in the act of doing the latter she received a very severe blow on the back, the effects of which she deposed were very visible, and the tinder box was forcibly wrenched out of her hand, and thrown into the centre of the room, by the same agent that gave the blows.

To prevent the great influx of strangers, the inhabitants of the house have been recommended to keep this affair for a season as quiet as they can, as their night’s rest has been broken almost as much by them, as by this invisible and unwelcome visitor; and above all things, not to blazon or exaggerate any thing that my take place. The usual solutions of haunted houses have been already advanced and refuted; such for instance as hollow walls, subterranean passages, perforated beams, wires, and every other method of pantomimic deception. But the offspring of error is very vivacious, and truth may be outstripped in the race by falsehood for a time, but always overtakes it in the end.

As truth is our object, I shall enumerate what appeared to me to be suspicious circumstances in this, as yet, unexplained affair. This agent has never yet attacked men – Its operations always are weakened, and generally made to cease altogether by the approach of light – It is very capricious, and by no means constant in its effects – Two or three nights may elapse undisturbed.

I took two women with me both much advanced in years, but one of them certainly possessed of a very strong mind, improved by an excellent education ; two gentlemen from Tiverton also attended; on that night nothing was heard. I communicated my suspicion on this subject to the Editor of the Taunton Courier, but as these suspicions were done away, in my mind, by another circumstance, our correspondence ceased. Some gentlemen have been there by night, and have returned disappointed; but I suspect very few have sat up in that house a whole night without witnessing much for which they could not account.

It must be further observed that many women can depose that they have seen and felt its effects very violently when a candle was in the room, as Mary Woodbury, and others. Neither are its active efforts the less true or marvellous, because at times they cease; for instance, it would be hardly fair to assert that it was impossible that A could have been robbed on Hounslow heath on Monday night, because B passed over it unmolested on Tuesday, yet this mode of reasoning has been resorted to. The circumstance that prevented my further correspondence with Mr Marriott was this: a widow lady from Honiton, of a very superior mind, and strongly inclined to scepticism on the subject of ghosts, passed a week in this house very shortly after the affair above mentioned. Her convictions now, are as strong as her former scepticism. This lady does not wish to have her name made public, but the account she gave me of the Phenomena that produced these convictions, in the presence and hearing of R. Sumpter, esq. of Histon near Cambridge, is as curious as any thing here related.

One particular I can safely affirm, that those who have paid this affair the most attention, are the most convinced of what I have been thoroughly satisfied of long since: THE GREAT DIFFICULTY OF DETECTING IT. I have met, many different times, some individual of the family, I have examined him or her on the occurrences of the last night, I have then rode on to the house, and on putting the same questions, have received similar answers; I have invariably found them in one story, and never could perceive the slightest tendency to exaggeration.

I have thus faithfully enumerated most of the leading facts on this extraordinary business; to detail the whole of them, would be to write a volume not a pamphlet. This affair has been going on many months, and still continues. No conjecture has yet been formed to account for it, that has the humble merit of being probable, much less plausible. We are at this moment no less at a loss for the object than the cause. The stale explanation of all haunted houses, viz. a wish on the part of the tenants to purchase cheap – an idle and exploded story about a painting bill, set at rest long ago by the oaths of two credible witnesses, before Mr Govett, Mayor of Tiverton – a conversation between Mr Chave and Mr Tally, sworn before me in the presence of Mr Sully, never to have taken place; and a few other such vague allegations, have been adduced by one who deals much in assertions, but little in facts.

— An Appendix to this Narrative is now in the Press, wherein the Falshood of Mr Marriott’s assertions in the Taunton Courier will be satisfactorily proved by undeniable evidence.

Printed at Smith’s Printing Office, Tiverton.

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Sampford Ghost.

Stubborn facts against vague assertions, being an appendix to ‘A plain and authentic narrative of those extraordinary circumstances hitherto unaccounted for, and still going on at the house of Mr Chave, in the village of Sampford.’

Wherein the scandalous falsehoods, mean motives, and gross misrepresentations of the Editor of the Taunton Courier are clearly and satisfactorily exposed, and some curious facts which have since occurred, faithfully detailed.

“What reward shall be given unto thee, false tongue.”

By the Rev. C. Colton, M.A. Col. Reg. Soc.

Tiverton. Price 6d.

Facts against Assertions. To the Public.

As I have been much misrepresented, and as Mr Chave has suffered materially in the opinion of all who do not know him, I have been under the unpleasant necessity of administering, on some occasions, an oth to those whose evidence was of much importance. But the Public, I trust, will not accuse me of trifling with an appeal so sacred, when they consider the very peculiar situation in which I am for a season placed, by unfounded assertions, and mean insinuations; when they also reflect that wantonly and unjustifiably to attack the character of Mr Chave, or any other man, is an attack upon Society; and lastly, when they call to mind how little danger there is of the unnecessary multiplication of oaths from a case so remarkable as the present and which so rarely occurs.

The body of disinterested evidence about to be submitted to the Public must, I conceive, carry some weight with it, when it appears that in the opposite scale we have nothing but some vague and desultory assertions, communicated in some way or other to Mr Marriott, (most probably over a bottle,) by a very interested person, Mr Tally. Mr Tally may have some good qualities, but I appeal to all his acquaintance, whether a contempt of money be one of them. Now it is clearly Mr Tally’s interest to have it understood that Mr Chave’s house, of which he is the landlord, is a quiet, commodious, and eligible dwelling. But Mr Chave, it has been asserted is also interested in having it thought otherwise.

Suppose we allow this for a moment; then it will follow that the evidence both of Mr Chave and Mr Tally is interested, and therefore suspicious; and according to the spirit of our laws ought to be admitted cum grano salis. To come at the truth, therefore, we must patiently examine the unbiassed testimony, substantiated on oath, of disinterested and impartial persons, to whom Mr Tally and Mr Chave are alike indifferent. Mr Tally has not brought forward a single evidence to prove what Mr Marriott has so confidently asserted for him; many of the most material of those assertions, Mr Tally himself denies, and all of them that go to establish the existence of a plot, or a conspiracy, shall now be made appear, on evidence as clear as the Sun, and as impartial, to be a shameful fabrication of falsehoods.

It is true Mr Marriott has prudently chosen the popular side of the question, and he has a just right to discuss it freely. Neither is his object in this discussion, namely to give publicity and an extensive sale to his paper, a culpable object, until it is dishonourably and unfairly pursued.

It may be necessary, first candidly to inform the public who and what Mr Chave is;  Mr M hath informed us what he is not. The family of the Chaves are very opulent farmers in this neighbourhood; the father of Mr Chave is still alive, a very respectable man. The Mr Chave in question, his son, rents about one hundred per Annum, and keeps a very large shop, containing an extensive assortment of goods. He belongs to that respectable class of the community the Yeomanry of England, has been a member of a troop of Cavalry since the commencement of the war, and is at this moment a serjeant in that troop. I know few men in Mr Chave’s sphere of life whose character stands so high. For the blameless and unimpeached integrity of his conduct, I confidently appeal to the whole neighbourhood, generally, to the members of his corps, particularly; hundreds are ready to bear witness to this, who have known him from his youth up, and who have seen him in different situations. If this account of Mr Chave be not strictly true, I am willing that the whole body of evidence about to be produced, shall be pronounced a baseless fabric of lies.

But we must now come to the point. The first material assertion advanced by the Editor of the Taunton Courier is this. A letter was received on Saturday last by the proprietor of this paper, threatening to shoot him if he attempted to expose the AUTHORS of this PLOT. Mr Marriott did indeed receive on that morning a letter, containing a serious hint that if he took improper liberties with any Gentleman’s name, he would be called to an account for so doing. But I humbly presume that this can never be construed into anything like a threat to shoot a man if he attempts to expose the Authors of a Plot! If Mr Marriott is not to die until he have discovered what he terms a plot, I sincerely wish him joy of his longevity. Here, to swell his own short-lived importance, we have a gross misrepresentation of a plain fact, and a construction put upon a letter, that it cannot possibly bear. Let Mr M. produce that letter fairly to the public; it shall be produced if he does not.

For my own part, I am at any moment ready solemnly to swear I knew nothing directly or indirectly of that letter, its author, or its contents, till the moment when it was so pompously announced in the Taunton Courier. But the gentleman who gave me the information, and repeated to me the substance of the letter, makes not the smallest secret of it. I have myself in the presence of more than three witnesses, at one time, heard him affirm the same. He is at this moment ready to satisfy any fair enquirer. But observe, although he knows full well the contents of that letter, I by no means intend to insinuate that he was the writer of it. This explanation, to use the very words of the Editor, forcibly corroborates beyond a volume of testimony the correctness of my opinion, that Mr Marriott is not in every instance to be depended on.

The very next assertions advanced are thus introduced by Mr Marriott. The said Mr Chave then, it appears, has lived in this house he now occupies at Sampford Peverell, about seven month. About SEVEN MONTHS, reader, for we beg that every circumstance, however minute may be duly attended to. Before he came to this place to exercise his present business of an huckster, the premises in question were unmolested by its present troublesome guest; but Mr Chave, the huckster, brings into the aforesaid premises two servants, the one somewhat stricken in years, the other a girl about eighteen, called SALLY.  A person named Taylor, (Mrs Chave’s brother), is also another inmate of the house, a strapping black haired young man, about twenty-five years of age.

 We are here pompously instructed to attend to every minute circumstance, but truth seems to have been a circumstance so minute as to have escaped the attention of Mr Marriott. Here in the space of fourteen short lines we have five palpable falsehoods, and one of them twice told. Mr Sully exciseman of Sampford can swear from the entry made on his Books, that the house in which he now lives became Mr Chave’s absolute and only place of residence, so early as the third of July, 1809. To confute the next assertion, that this house was not troublesome until Mr Chave came into it, the two following facts are selected from many. Mr Merson, Surgeon, of Sampford, a man not easily to be alarmed or deceived, can affirm that, on returning from his professional duties at a late hour by this house, he has repeatedly seen lights in it when he assuredly knew that it was inhabited by no person whatever.

William Harris, an honest labourer, voluntarily made oath in my presence and in the presence of Mr Sully, exciseman, to the following effect. That he was standing at some distance from this house, on a very dark night, no moon, in company with his son in law. They both clearly saw a strong light in one of the windows. That he had a lanthern in his hand, the light from which he immediately blinded by covering it up in the skirt of his coat. That knowing the house to be uninhabited, he was much alarmed, that he himself kept his station while his son in law ran up to the house, to ascertain, if possible, the cause; that his son in law can swear to the same, in as much as they both perceived this light; and that they fully satisfied themselves that no one on that night, or any night previous, either was, or had been in that house.

We are next informed that Mr Chave brought with him two servants into the premises, the one somewhat stricken in years. Now this woman has not lived with Mr Chave eleven weeks. The father of Sally Case, an apprentice girl, will inform Mr M that his daughter is not more than sixteen. I appeal to all that have seen her, whether she looks more than thirteen. To be convinced of the scandalous baseness of Mr M’s insinuations with respect to this girl, it is only necessary to see her. To suit the like purposes of Mr M, five long years at once are added to the life of Mr Taylor. Mr Taylor’s mother-in-law can inform us, he is not more than twenty. But these, I presume are the five years which make up that part of Mr Taylor’s life, which we are informed he spent with Mr Moon! This is another of Mr M’s lunar observations.

But when it happens to favour his own side of the question, Mr M can inform us that Mr Tally has lived in this house two years. Now this might perhaps be true, if Mr M gave back those months of residence to Mr Chave, he has gratuitously added to Mr Tally. But this is with a vengeance borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. We are next informed by Mr Marriott that Sally saw in the dark under the bed-clothes a man’s hand and arm perfectly white. In the presence of Mr Sumpter, Mary Dennis and Sally Case deposed voluntarily to the following effect: That on a Sunday Morning, at half-past seven o’clock, they were violently beaten while in bed; that the bed in which they slept was opposite to the large modern window described in my former pamphlet; that while nothing interfered between them and the light but a thin sheet, they distinctly saw an arm, suspended over the bed, without any body attached to it. The possibility of seeing such a phenomenon, if it was there to be seen, I have convinced myself of.

After a great deal of prate and nonsense, in lieu of Mr M’s long promised detection, we have a stale exploded story of a painting bill of nine Pounds. This tremendous bill Mr M would insinuate, produced a most violent altercation between Mr Tally and Mr Chave. This is utterly false. Mr Chave had about as much to do with this dispute as the Lord Chancellor. This dispute was entirely confined to Mr Escott, Painter of Halberton, and Mr Tally. The truth is this: Mr Tally had given an order to Mr Escott to paint some part of Mr Chave’s house. When the bill was presented, Mr Tally conceived that Mr E. had exceeded his orders, and presumed that the additional work done, had been done at the desire of Mr Chave. “No such thing,” says Mr Escott, “you alone gave me the order, and by you alone do I expect to be paid.” “Prove that,” replies Mr Tally, “and then, and not before, will I pay the bill.” Mr Escott on this voluntarily comes to Tiverton, with his man, and they both make oath before a very respectable Magistrate, from whom I have this information, that they heard Mr Tally give this order, and that no one besides had given any such order. Mr Tally then immediately paid the Money. Observe, Mr Tally is not the most likely man in the world to pay for work which he did not order.

Then follows a very angry kind of conversation asserted to have taken place between Mr Tally and Mr Chave. Mr Chave and his wife, both voluntarily swore before me on Friday morning last, the fourteenth of this present month, September, in the presence of Mr Sully, that no such conversation ever did take place; also, that they do not recollect any angry words that have ever passed between them and their landlord. But where it is dangerous to affirm, Mr M can insinuate, in utrumque paratus. In a passage very prudently left out of this pamphlet, but which will be produced in a court of justice, we are slily led to suspect from some passages in the shape of a play bill, that Mr Chave and his domestics are getting money by this mysterious Visitor.

Mr Chave can swear he has already lost more than forty pounds in consequence of this affair, and justly fears his losses will increase as the days diminish. It will be also shortly proved to the satisfaction of the public, though not perhaps to that of Mr M, that Mr Chave has already sustained damages in consequence of his unfounded assertions, and foul insinuations. But to the Point, for the present. Mrs Chave and the two servants, in the presence of Mr Sumpter and myself, voluntarily made oath that they have in no instance taken so much as a single sixpence on this occasion. This I knew to be the fact. But suppose Mr M could prove, what is certainly false, that Mr Chave has an object in view in encouraging these proceedings, we are even then as far as ever from the promised detection of the plot.

Mr Marriott first told us he knew the end in view; his end in saying so is apparent enough: but he has now at last told us all he knows, and we are just as wise as ever. His Mopstick story had been told and confuted ever since the middle of last June. But we want the detection; we want the means by which these phenomena are produced; we want, presumptious wish, to be a little wiser than Mr Marriott; we want to know the end in view, which he has not, and the means, which he cannot inform us of. Let him fulfil his promise, and he may depend on it I shall not be worse than my word, nor shall I envy him the triumph of the discovery. Of him at present it may be truly said, fallere et effugere est triumphus.

But suppose Mr Chave was even growing rich in consequence of all this; are we therefore uncharitably to conclude that all who are getting any thing by this mysterious affair, are necessarily coadjutors in it, and conspiritors? In this case I have my doubts whether Mr M himself would escape suspicion; and this would in that case be one of the most black and diabolical plots that ever existed, comprehending most of the hawkers, publishers, printers, and printer’s devils in the neighbourhood.

But to the point again. As more of Mr M’s falsehoods must now rapidly unfold themselves. When Mr Tally slept in this house, on the eleventh of last June, we are informed by Mr Marriott that Mr Tally stipulated that none of the servants should remain in the premises, and that this was also, with much reluctance, acquiesced in. Now it happens that Mr and Mrs Chave are ready to swear that no such promise was made to Mr Tally, that it was never asked! and the whole family can swear that not a single servant was sent out of the house on that occasion.

Then follows a very dark and mysterious conversation between Mr Dodge and Mrs Chave, overheard by Mr Tally. Now this conversation is the most wonderful part of Mr Marriott’s whole account, it is rare and precious, for it happens to be true!!!!!!

Marvellous to relate, an apprentice boy had been frightened by something in this House, and was afraid, as from a certain little Anecdote, I suspect the magnanimous Mr Marriott himself would be, to sleep alone in that apartment. Still more marvellous, Mr Dodge the Cooper consented to sleep with him, and this is that mysterious promise which Mr Tally so ingeniously, if not ingenuously overheard. No attempt nor even wish was evinced to conceal this circumstance from Mr Tally; and even if it had, those who are ingenious enough to carry on the plot, must be possessed of too much cunning to post their agent where he was only half concealed, and where it was impossible for Mr Tally to avoid seeing him. But observe, Mr Tally himself now admits that he recollects he did not see any man half concealed, behind a curtain, for the plainest of all possible reasons, THERE WERE NO CURTAINS to that bed on which he saw Mr Dodge sitting. Mr Dodge is a Cooper, and has nothing at all to do with Mr Chave. His evidence therefore is impartial. Before Mr R Aldridge, Merchant, Queen’s Parade, Bristol, myself, and Mr Sully, the exciseman, he solemnly deposed as follows: That his reason for sleeping there that night was as I have related; that there were no curtains on the bed on which Mr Tally saw him sitting; that it is false that Mr Tally desired him to pull off his clothes; but that he did pull them off according to his constant custom; and that he never once that day or night entered that room where Mr Tally slept.

The following assertion is next made, This fellow contrived to get up stairs by one of the three entrances… Hear the oath of Edward Brown, an experienced carpenter, made before the same witnesses. “I have minutely examined the premises, and depose that there is but one entrance to get up stairs.”

We are next informed that Mr Tally then took the precaution to lock ALL the doors, and taking the keys with him, went into the bed prepared for him in Sally’s room; and then it follows that  Mr T on the following morning went into the Chamber where Dodge was, who could not quit his room till Mr T rose to let him out of it, he having taken the key! This is rather miraculous, as I shall now make it fully appear that the door of this identical chamber where Mr Dodge slept on that memorable night, with the apprentice boy, hath never had since its formation, either key-hole, lock, bolt, bar, or any thing to secure it, but a very common thumb latch, even the catch of which was gone. But what is curious enough, Mr Tally does now recollect that he did not lock up any one on that night, or unlock any one on that morning, and also he now recollects that he did not lock a single door in those apartments, nor put a single key in his pocket!

This wonderful door is a half inch, red, unpainted, deal door; Elizabeth Merson, a disinterested witness, aged fifty three, formerly a servant to Mrs Bellamy, was sent for on Wednesday last by me, to look at this door. In the presence of many witnesses, she swore to her perfect recollection of that door; that it had always stood where it now stands, that it never had any other mechanism to secure or fasten it than a simple thumb latch before described, the catch of which was then gone. But Mr Tally could neither lock up any other man nor himself, as is quite evident from the formation of the door of the room wherein he slept. On the inside of it there neither is nor has been any keyhole, bolt or bar. There is a key and keyhole on the outside of the door, but none on the inside. There is not the smallest question about the room in which the Cooper slept, Mr Tally allows that he did sleep in that room.

But it appears Mr Tally was terribly haunted three different times by a ghost in the shape of a Mopstick. Surely those who are wise enough to play such marvellous freaks with a mopstick, as the credulous Mr Marriott would persuade us to believe, are not quite fools enough to leave their instrument about in so careless a manner, in pump troughs, by the side of walls, and in other conspicuous places, where Mr Tally could not fail to perceive it. But wherever Mr Tally went, this wooden ghost seems to have stuck to him like his shadow. Is this a Mopstick that I see before me? Come let me clutch thee! Indeed, I really wonder, that Mr Tally, who knows the value of such an instrument, did not carry it home in triumph. It would have been singularly useful at Prescott house, as the winter is approaching, seeing that this marvellous mopstick has a power of fitting up beds with curtains, without the expensive aid of an Upholsterer, and giving locks, bolts, keys and keyholes to doors without the instrumentality of a blacksmith.

But this Mopstick has another very extraordinary property; it acts without an agent; for Mr Dodge the cooper will come before any magistrate, at any time, and voluntarily swear to the following effect; that he, never, directly or indirectly, with or without an instrument of any sort, did make on or in any part of those premises of Mr Chave, any noises, by blows, knocks, &c. the object of which was to alarm or deceive any one human being whatever, or to cause a belief that there was any thing supernatural in that house; also, that he never had even an intention of so doing, nor was ever requested by another person to attempt it. He signified his willingness so to do immediately, yesterday, before Major M–d–d, Mr Latham, Solicitor, Mr Latham, his brother, and myself, and the above gentlemen, with the addition of Mr Sully, exciseman, and Mr Aldridge, before mentioned, know the situation of the doors, and the reports of the witnesses to be exactly and minutely as I have described.

But Mr Chave, his wife, his relations and domestics, are also coming forward in a few days to swear to the same effect, that they never attempted to make any noises of this kind, and of their ignorance of their cause.

I must repeat that it is rather odd that these conspirators who have puzzled the whole neighbourhood, for so many months, should post their principal agent in the very place where Mr Tally could not possibly fail to see him! Did the conductors of this plot presume that this marvellous mopstick, which they also left about in so slovenly a manner, would make Mr Dodge invisible. By its talismanic influence it had made Mr Tally so keen sighted as to see invisible curtains, and so ingenious as to lock and unlock doors that had neither keys nor keyholes! Nay, we are informed he put the keys of all those wonderful doors in his pocket.

The trifling impossiblity of this little affair has refreshed Mr Tally’s memory, and he now admits that he did not lock a single door, nor put a single key in his pocket. yet all this, the credulous Mr Marriott presumes the public will believe on his bare assertion; to all this, Mr Tally a man of irreproachable character, is to swear, to oblige his friend, not on a greek testament, but on an English bible; and to complete this climax, this par nobile fratrum, undertake to prove all this in any court of judicature in the kingdom! Let them do this, and I shall not despair of their finding out the conspiracy at Sampford.

It is a circumstance rather strange that this Mopstick story, known to the whole neighbourhood very early in June, should be produced as a new discovery by Mr Marriott in September. I presume Mr M immediately perceived this would make but a bungling ghost, and therefore wisely kept it in the background, trusting to time for something better to help him out of the scrape; but finding he had as usual committed himself in promising more than he could perform, he boldly sallies forth with his mopstick in his hand to pay the reckoning.

But the truth in a moment clears up all these absurdities; Mr Dodge took no pains to hide himself, for a very plain reason, – he did not wish to be concealed. Did he not immediately give a plain answer to Mr Tally’s plain question? Was there any hesitation, any confusion? “Cooper, how came you here?” “I came to sleep with the apprentice boy, because the boy was afraid to sleep alone.” Really it is not to be wondered at that Mr M gave up the Law, when having the popular side of the question to defend, he murders it so miserably.

But this Mr Dodge is a very extraordinary person, altho’ Mr Tally could lock him up without a key, yet it seems Mr Dodge himself could imperceptibly ascend into his chamber thro’ the ceiling! Alas, the ideas of Mr Dodge are not quite so high flown. Mr Dodge will come forward and swear he got into his chamber by ascending the very same stair-case that Mr Tally afterwards did. Mr Tally says he thinks this was impossible, as he must have seen him; for Mr Tally tells us now what Mr Marriott had suppressed, that he supped in the lower room, through which Dodge must have passed, in which case Mr Tally tells us he must have seen him. Gentle reader, if thou hast ever seen Mr Tally sit down to supper, at another man’s house, I need not inform thee that at such an interesting moment, Mr Chave on his charger, might have rode up the stairs, without arresting his attention.

Mr Tally, we are informed, knows all the subterraneous Passages in the house; I challenge him to show one of them. But when Mr M finds the upper apartments are not such as suit his purposes, he descends into the lower, flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo. Like a fox hard run, he takes to earth.

That Mr Tally himself was much alarmed by noises in the night, the candid Mr Marriott has studiously suppressed. Mr Taylor who slept with Mr Tally can swear that the following conversation took place between them; during the noises by night Mr Taylor wished Mr Tally to go into that room where they were most audible, to convince himself of their cause. This he refused to do, but wished Mr Taylor would go. “If I do,” said Mr Taylor, “you will perhaps say tomorrow that you have heard nothing.” Mr Tally promised he would not; on which Mr Taylor struck a light and went into the room where the noises were.

Speaking of the house, Mr Marriott has this assertion; The building is a very ancient one, and is what Carpenters call battened from top to bottom from one extremity of the premises to another. Here again the oath of Edward Brown, Carpenter, sworn before Mr Sully, Mr Aldridge, and myself, viz. that he has minutely examined the house, that the walls of the two rooms in which the noises by day were principally heard are not battened but solid walls; also that in all the upper apartments the joists are but four inches deep between the floor and ceiling; and that it is impossible any human agent could act between them; that it is his firm belief that such noises as were described this morning to him, by those who heard them, could not be produced by any art or ingenuity with which he is acquainted.

This is also the firm opinion of Mr Sully the exciseman, a very ingenious mechanic, as all who know him can testify. He living on the spot, has paid these noises very particular attention, is completely puzzled by them, and will swear that he cannot guess any possible means by which they are produced. He has always had full liberty to examine any of the premises at any time, is well acquainted with the nature of building, and has tried and thought of every means in his power to produce the same effects, but without success.

On last Wednesday morning September 19th Mr Sully and myself accurately examined the premises; many were present who had heard repeatedly these noises; we tried to imitate them in every possible way we could think of, but the persons present distinctly could recollect the difference between those noises we then produced, and those they heard. There was only one way in which we could imitate them, namely, by ripping up one of the boards of the floor, and then by striking with some instrument on the under side of the board adjoining.

The mutilations in the ceilings beneath were a fine handle for the mopstick, and of course Mr Marriott sets it immediately to work. Now these marks and mutilations were cause by those persons who very naturally from curiosity went below, while others continued above, and from time to time attempted to imitate those noises while they occurred by striking the corresponding ceilings with sticks or other instruments. But this marvellous mopstick is a Proteus also, for none of the marks on the ceilings, as Mr Sully and others can testify, correspond to the shape of such an instrument. I can refer any persons who wish for further information on these marks to many Gentlemen who made them.

In this same marvellous page we are next informed that Mr Tally will swear to all the foregoing assertions of Mr Marriott’s. Indeed! Then Mr T will do more for Mr M than any other man in the kingdom. The friendship of Pylades and Orestes is nothing to this.

The public are next informed that I begin to flinch from my promise; produce the man that has heard me even hint such a thing; if Mr Marriott after his base insinuations does not do this, I must then leave my readers to form their own conclusions concerning him. I am ready to fulfil my promise, the moment Mr Marriott fulfils his.

Mr M has often asked what possible employment Mr Chave can find for Mr Taylor? He eats the bread of industry by working on the Farm; an occupation much more creditable than that of those who live by vilifying their neighbours.  But this bottle conjuror Mr Marriott knows a great deal more of others than they know of themselves. The public would be much obliged to Mr Marriott if he would inform them the time, and the place, the when and the where Mr Taylor received this marvellous education under Mr Moon. Mr Moon himself does not remember one Iota of the circumstance. Mr Taylor and all his relations are ready to swear to the utter falsehood of the whole assertion. But the whole difficulty vanishes at once, if we reflect that the five years which Mr Marriott has been so bountiful as to tack on to Mr Taylor’s life, were passed not with Mr Moon, but with the Man in the Moon. But what are dates and seasons, what is time and place to Mr Marriott; when once he has taken a pen in his hand? fiat injustitia ruat coelum.

It is perhaps true that Mr Taylor now and then attended Mr Moon’s performances during his occasional exhibitions; nor am I prepared to deny that he might have been at times in his company. But is Mr M warranted from hence to assert that Mr Taylor was a regular pupil of Mr Moon’s? that he put himself under his tuition; became versed in the various arts of necromancy, so as to enable him to display cabalistic attainments? If Mr Taylor knew indeed all this; as we are pompously informed, I suspect he would in that case be qualified to teach Mr Moon.

Mr Marriott informs us that himself and another gentleman were permitted to visit the haunted room, after a short delay, because the maid servants were not up. Here Mr Marriott would have us suspect a falsehood in Mr Taylor. Did this conversation rest on the sole authority of Mr Marriott, I should not in that case think it worthy the slightest attention; of the other gentleman I entertain a very different opinion; he is sterling. Now it has been very much the wish of both Mr and Mrs Chave, so to manage as to satisfy the curious from the testimony of women quite unconnected with the house. But when the above gentlemen called, it was so late that their whole family had been some time in bed; therefore at so late an hour, to procure any disinterested woman whose evidence would of course be more satisfactory than that of the two servants, was impossible.

But what is rather extraordinary, this detected plot is still going on. Hear the affidavit of Mr Sully, exciseman, voluntarily made before Mr Aldridge and myself. Mr Sully deposes on Friday the 14th of this present month, he went about ten at night into that chamber, which in my former pamphlet I have described as having a modern window in it; that he desired Mr Chave, and Mr Taylor, to walk up with him, and to place themselves at that window, and on no account to move from it; that Mr Sully then held the door in his hand that leads from the larger into the lesser room, in which lesser room a single woman only slept; that Sally was confined with Mrs Chave during the whole of that time in another apartment, at Mr Sully’s request. While Mr Sully held this door half open in his hand, which door is about three feet from the foot of the bed in which this single woman slept, he clearly and distinctly heard something coming up the stairs; he heard it plainly cross the antichamber, and came upon the bed, in which this woman was. It immediately beat her violently, principally as Mr S could perceive by the sounds, over the hips and legs.

In the midst of these blows, while they were at their greatest height he instantaneously drew the door fully open – the moon shone very bright, directly into the apartment, had any thing material attempted to escape, he affirms he must have seen or heard it, as the window is very large (occupying I think two thirds of the breadth of the whole room). He is quite positive that he heard and saw nothing escape, and that Mr Taylor and Mr Chave kept their position at the window. Mr Sully is in Tiverton usually once a week, and to him I refer those who would wish to hear this fact, or any others wherein I have mentioned his name.

On another very late occasion, also, Mr Chave, of Chief-Lownian, a Cousin of Mr Chave of Sampford, was not a little astonished by some occurrences he related to me, equally unaccountable with the above. He is in Tiverton every Tuesday, and to him I refer the curious.

Mr Marriott could not conclude his last paragraph without four falsehoods, ad imum qualis ab incepto processerat, I there find to my great surprise that I have attempted to bully Mr Marriott into an abandonment of his duty. I was not before aware that Mr Marriott thought it his duty to tell a farrago of lies. But Mr M is in this instance also so much mistaken; as on the contrary, after the manner in which he has treated me, I was not very much displeased to see him make himself a great fool, which he invariably does whenever he takes up a pen. I know of no such treatise in favour of the Manichean System as that for which he has given me credit.

The Heresiarch Manes gives us but a lame account of that mixture of good and evil which we must admire and deplore. The immortality of the soul brought to light by the gospel, and confirmed by reason, no less than revelation; this is that key of the moral world that unlocks every mystery in the natural. I look not for optimism in a state of probation, and when I meet with such an head and heart as Mr Marriott’s, I do not go to the Manicheans to solve the difficulty. But as Mr Marriott has informed the public what I learnt at college, I wish I could return the compliment by informing them what Mr Marriott has ever learnt at any time, or in any place.

After what has been here advanced, I suspect the magistrates of this county will not go to Mr Marriott to learn their duty; neither do I conceive he will find it very easy when called upon to fulfil his promise of proving his statement in any court of judicature in the kingdom.

To the following simple fact I beg my reader’s particular attention. Mr Milton, a very respectable tradesman of Tiverton, will come forward and swear at any time, that in the presence of R. Pell, Esq. he heard Mr Tally positively assert that he never in his life gave Mr Chave warning to quit that house or directed any other person to do so. (This Morning, September 25th, Mr Chave informed me he received such notice Yesterday).

Having thus traced this Gentleman through his mazy Labyrinth of falsehoods, and misrepresentations, I shall cheerfully acquiesce in the decision of the public. that impartial tribunal must now decide who deals most in facts, and who in assertions. It is much easier to affirm what is false, than to prove what is true. Like a pack-horse that has kicked off his Panniers, Mr Marriott gets nimbly over the ground, having divested himself of those two trifling incumbrances truth and reason. Really Mr Marriott thinks too highly of himself, and too meanly of the public, when he presumes the pert flippancy of his remarks will cover the fallacy of his affirmations, or the failure of his promises. Have patience and I will fulfill them all. On the first part of this sentence Mr M has harangued week after week most drowsily; the second part has been invariably put off to a more convenient season. Is Mr M a friend to sober inquiry, so am I; but not to abuse and misrepresentation. Is it not a shameful thing, first to lower Mr Chave by degrading appellations, to ruin his peace and that of his family, and then to accuse him of a crime which by our laws is felony, on such absurd and unfounded allegations as those produced by Mr Marriott?

Suppose fifty or an hundred copies extraordinary of the Taunton Courier are thrust into circulation in consequence of the contemptible farrago it has of late contained, yet must it derive from so mean a source but a momentary popularity, and now that the bubble is burst, it must fall below even its former level. That man deserves to starve and to shiver who burns down his neighbour’s house to warm his fingers at the blaze. Far better would it be for this babbler to pursue the original plan on which he first started, and whip a few more hacks to death, in order that the good people of Taunton may know a few hours sooner than their neighbours, that London stands just where it did, than thus to court a short lived notoriety by mounting himself upon the shoulders of a Ghost!!! Let him stick tight, or the Ghost will throw him in the mire. Surely Mr M will have time enough to rail at Mr Chave and to call him a detestable conspirator, when he has proved him to be such; till then these terms injure only the man that uses them. Mr M professes himself a friend to the constitution, then let him act up to the spirit of its laws, and conclude all men innocent till they are proved to be guilty.

The public are much displeased at the slow progress made by Mr M. He has merely told us, but in not quite so gentlemanlike language, what Mr Tally had told us before. Mr Tally’s story was always a lame one, but as it now comes from Mr M it hobbles most miserably. But surely a man who undertakes to inform the public, might at least aspire to the humble merit of being correct in his statements, and not lend a gossip’s ear to every idle report in circulation. But what we condemn most in Mr M is that rancour and resentment so very apparent in his remarks. It is true his anger smokes rather than blazes, and blackens rather than burns.

But if he cannot be witty, is it necessary he should be abusive? If the ports of Attica are shut against him, must he throw himself into the arms of the Nymphs of Billingsgate? Mr Chave is to the full as respectable a member of society, in every point of view as Mr Marriott, and if he were not, he is not to be trampled under foot. But Mr M would persuade us that he has acted thus rashly, from an overweening regard for the interests of society. To attack the innocent is rather an odd way of showing this regard. I will indeed allow that he has leaped into a gulf with all the temerity of Curtius, but with none of his patriotism. But suppose he could substantiate any of his accusations; Yet even in that case, candour and charity are sacrifices too costly to be offered up even at the altar of truth; much less to the idol of falsehood. In his zeal without knowledge Mr M defaces what he means to defend, and with the blind fury of the father of Virginia, murders his cause to prevent its violation.

But it is impossible to be serious on such a subject as Mr M. The powers of Mr M are as marvellous as any thing that has occurred at Sampford. He fills pages and columns with matter, which after all is immaterial; he has the faculty of talking a great deal, and saying very little, of looking into every thing, and seeing into nothing. The stale scraps of the Taunton Courier by the help of a little book-making, and the liberal use of a pair of scissors, no longer slumber in the office of their Editor, but are again resold to the public in the inviting shape of a pamphlet, rendered irresistibly alluring by those two tremendous words a Ghost!!! and a Conspiracy!!! The two I suspect will overpower poor John Bull, he will exclaim with Macheath, How happy could I be with either, were to’ther dear Charmer away. These ghostly fragments embodied in a pamphlet quit that dark region, the Brain of Mr M and are again ushered into the world, Supera ut convexa revisant, Rursus et incipiant in corpora velle reverti.

This wonderful performance is the joint production of Mr Norris and Mr M. Mr M found the scissors and the paragraphs, Mr N the types and paper. People are sadly mortified that they have not in the slightest degree added to their stock of knowledge by reading it; that they have less in their pockets, but nothing more in their heads. but I think the second paragraph contains three pieces of intelligence, of which the public were entirely ignorant before, and never would have found it out had it not been there communicated. First, That the Editor of the Taunton Courier industriously applied himself to the investigation of this subject; next, that this same Courier is a widely extended, and very popular publication; and lastly, that it contains information in its pages! I will allow that these three pieces of intelligence are all that any man can learn from this performance, but if they are worth two pence apiece, we have no right to grumble. But I beg Mr Marriott’s pardon, we learn another truth from the perusal of this pamphlet; The vulgarity and ignorance of the writer.

Mr M has given up one profession and taken to another, but he has not yet found his forte. His feeble is sufficiently evident. I cannot but suspect that Nature meant this good man for a Taylor, for in this, as in all his other publications, he has certainly made more use of his scissors than his pen. Nature is irresistable, and must be obeyed. Naturam expellas furca tamen usque recurret. Nature meant that he should use the goose; he vociferates for the goose-quill; he snatches at the pen, but nature forces the scissors into his hand.

These scissars take, she said, these fatal shears / Shall slit the goblin’s nose, and clip his ears.

As a Taylor Mr M might certainly shine, he might be useful and ornamental to Society. By the help of this little instrument, he might still cut up the cloth!  and also convert all the bad steps he has lately taken in his Taunton Courier into excellent measures. How grateful ought Mr M to be to me for this profitable hint.

I now come to what I consider the most extraordinary Phenomenon in this whole affair, namely, that Mr Marriott should be able so far to impose upon the public as to attract the slightest degree of their attention. A great man in a small circle, but a very little man in a great one; Mr M mounted on a few copies of his Courier, crows once a week triumphantly. Primitae miserae, bellique prompinqui dura rudimenta. With Mr Tally for his Apollo, a three legged stool for his tripod, a mopstick in one hand, and a pair of scissors in the other, we view in Mr Marriott the Oracle of Taunton, large as life. It is true, he has neither the inspiration of the Pythian Priestess, nor her spirit of prophecy; but he has something of her fury, much of her madness and all her ambiguity.

I shall now inform the public of Mr Marriott’s motives in his attacks upon me. A Parson is Nuts to an half starved printer. I may perhaps prove a little hard in the cracking. Mr M had attempted to amuse the public at my expense for some time; I permitted him to go on a few weeks with his innuendos, insinuations, and as much slander as he dared venture upon. I clearly foresaw, from his style and manner, that he would commit himself very shortly; accordingly I gave him rope, and he has hanged himself. When the public disgust excited by the falsification of Mr M’s promises, was at almost as great an height as it is at present, a very unfortunate discovery was made by this gentleman. He found out at last that all the world, whom he suspected had been laughing with him, were laughing at him. This discovery, like that of the longitude turned the brain of this mistaken man, and the last rational words he uttered were these, Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise. He was, in addition to all this, a good deal pestered by those whose patience he had exhausted, and who were determined to live no longer upon wind. Every body wondered at Mr M’s delay; but I foresaw his progress must be slow, and that he would not soon reach the end of his journey, for a very simple reason; when he started, he put the cart before the horse; he began just where he ought to have finished; and wasted that precious time in abuse and invective, which he ought to have dedicated to investigation. He was also nettled by the receipt of that memorable letter before described; he was n ettled because Mr Chave would not get out of his bed to let him into his house at a very unseasonable hour; he was nettled because after having vapoured a great deal to those good people of Taunton who pin their faith upon his sleeve, he was sent home again after a sleeveless errand. Now Mr M has a great advantage over most men when in a passion; other men in such a state of mind, run a risk of losing a little sense, but there is no danger to be apprehended on this score by Mr Marriott. He cannot lose what he never had. But to raise the harmless indignation of this poor man higher still, the following Poem about this time made its appearance. Some friends of his insinuated to Mr M that I was the Author of it, and Mr M’s own conscience whispered to him that he deserved something at my hands. I think from the increasing virulence and decreasing argument in his writings, I could point out the very period when this terrible poem came to hand.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Sampford_Ghost_A_Plain_and_Authentic_Nar/bKU-Jxo4gxQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22colton%22+%22sampford+peverell%22&printsec=frontcover