A Thrilling Ghost Story.
A Mrs Dolland is the tenant of Seymour House, Alexandra-road, Southend, and, as lodgers, there reside with her Major and Mrs Buller and family.
On Monday afternoon, the 22nd ult, the house bells rang, although no one had touched either pull. This was at three o’clock in the afternoon; the ringing was continued at intervals from three to eight; and although the Major set himself to watch for the cause, he was unable to discover it and was completely baffled.
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the mysterious ringing was continued, and all in the house were dreadfully frightened. The tintinnabulation was continued at intervals on Friday. They could stand it no longer, and Mr Ellis was sent for. He took up the boards, and when looking at the wires the bells again rang, although neither line of communication moved. He put down the floor and went away, and all was quiet until Saturday morning, at about 10, when the dreadful sounds were heard again and again until three o’clock in the afternoon. The alarm felt was of the most pronounced kind.
Ellis was sent for, and once more pulled up the boards, but the ghost was not in the wires. From 7.30 he stopped until a quarter to 10, and then left at 10.30. When he again returned he found in the house two ministers of religion and one policeman. The tension was something awful. Once more he pulled up the floor boards and had the wires under inspection; the bells rang out, and he discovered the ghost!
A maiden of 14 summers, servant to Mrs Buller, had just gone down stairs and entered the kitchen. “It was you did that,” shouted Mr Ellis. The girl denied the impeachment and simulated alarm; Mrs Buller was indignant.
“As you like,” replied Ellis, “But I will give her a sovereign if they ring to-morrow and I am in the house.” And then, certain he had got to the heart of the mystery, he went home. Next day the girl confessed she did it and was removed to her father’s house at Thundersley. Her name is Julia Lazell; she is a Salvationist and it is said, but we don’t believe it, that her mischief followed upon the Major’s refusal to contribute to her self-denial card.
How did she do it? She hit the bells with a short stick.
Southend Standard and Essex Weekly Advertiser, 8th November 1888.
Extraordinary Romance at Southend.
“Ghostly” Bell-Ringing.
A “Haunted” House.
Certain rumours having recently been circulated in Southend concerning some very strange antics on the part of an imaginary ghost, our representative has instituted inquiries into the matter, and he finds that the occupants of Seymour House, in Alexandra-road, have had a most unpleasant experience. Seymour House is partly occupied by Major and Mrs Buller, and partly by Mrs Dolling and her four children. Over the kitchen door there are four bells; and at about three o’clock on Monday, October 22nd, these commenced ringing violently at intervals. As there was no sign of how the bells came to ring, the inmates naturally became much alarmed, and began to entertain all sorts of morbid ideas. The ringing commenced again between seven and eight o’clock on the following morning, and after several very loud peals it stopped until about three o’clock in the afternoon, when the ringing re-commenced, and continued at intervals until about eight o’clock.
The same sort of thing occurred during the Wednesday and until late in the evening, but, strange to say, the ringing never occurred during the night. As there seemed nothing to account for these curious phenomena, the inmates gradually got into a very nervous state, and became confirmed in a belief that the house was haunted.
Close by the bells there are some stairs leading to the upper floors of the house, and several times Major Buller sat upon these stairs for a considerable period watching for the bells to ring, and as it was somewhat dark where the bells were, he used a bullseye lantern, whose light he kept directed on the bells. Whenever he was watching, however, the bells never rang, but directly he turned his back to go upstairs they commenced ringing furiously – an event which, to say the least, was sufficiently alarming. The bells would never ring, either, when Major Buller was away from the house.
One day during the week Mr J.W. Steward, the builder, was called in to ascertain if there was any secret communication with the bells from the next house, which is occupied by Miss Bodger. But no such communication could be found, and that fact only tended to increase the belief of Mrs Dolling that the house was haunted.
On Friday Mr Jas. Ellis, of No.8, Alexandra-villas, was summoned to th ehouse and examined the bell wires, but could find no defects, and he also took up the “tracing boards” to see if there were any rats or anything between them; but he was unable to obtain the slightest clue to the solution of the mystery. On Saturday afternoon the ringing was resumed, and Mr Ellis again went to the house and examined the bell wires and the boards, but could find nothing to account for the campanological performance. Whilst he was watching there in the afternoon the bells did not ring, but after he left there were six terribly loud peals within 10 minutes.
Mr Ellis returned with some friends in the evening about eight o’clock, and remained until a late hour. For some time they held the wires, and once while they were doing this the bells rang, and Mr Ellis thereupon became suspicious that they were rung by someone in the house. Mrs Dolling went to the Public Hall on Saturday evening, October 27th, and afterwards called at the Police-station, and reported to Supt. Hawtree what had been taking place during the week. P.c. A. Marden was deputed to accompany Mrs Dolling to the house to instituted inquiries. Whilst he was there, Mr Ellis, who had had his suspicions aroused that a young servant girl engaged there was the cause of all the trouble, was looking over the bannister rails, and saw her, whilst she was on the stairs, dangle the bells with her arm. Immediately she had done so, she commenced screaming and groaning, and affected to be very much frightened. Mr Ellis at once accused the girl of ringing the bells, but she most emphatically denied the soft impeachment.
Mr Ellis informed Major and Mrs Buller that he saw her ringing the bells; but they were confident that she could not have done it, and were quite indignant at such a suggestion. Mr Ellis, however, was equally convinced that he had solved the mystery, and he offered to take the girl to his house and keep her for a week; and if in the meantime the bells rang he would give her a sovereign for accusing her wrongfully. The offer was not accepted. Mr Ellis reported the matter to the police authorities, and on Sunday afternoon Sergt. W.H. Spooner and P.c. A. Marden went to Seymour House with the intention of concealing themselves so as to try and catch the girl in the act of ringing the bells; but when they arrived they found that the girl had confessed to being the culprit, and that Mr Ellis was just about to take her to her parents, who belong to the Peculiar People, and live at Thundersley. And so this mystery, which had caused the inmates of Seymour House much anxiety and worry, many sleepless hours, and no little expense, was solved!
Our representative had an interview with Mrs Dolling last Monday afternoon, when she corroborated the above information, and also furnished him with some additional particulars. The girl, it appears, is only about fourteen years of age, and her name is Julia Lazell. She is a member of the Salvation Army; and some little time back she had some small square envelopes, in which she asked several people to put coppers for the Army. Amongst those she asked to do so was Major Buller, who, however, declined to subscribe to the funds of the Army, he being a Roman Catholic. Mrs Dolling remembers hearing the girl say at the time she would play him a trick for that, but she took no notice of the remark, and thought nothing further of it until the girl was found to be the guilty party in this matter.
The bells were just outside the kitchen, and there is no doubt the girl sometimes rang them with a stick or a brush, and at others with her arm. She must have done it with great dexterity, however, and Mrs Dolling says that as soon as they commenced ringing she used to run to her screaming and groaning, professing to be greatly frightened. Several times when she must have rung the bells she went upstairs to Major Buller and asked him if he had rung for her, thus causing him considerable annoyance, and Mrs Dolling thinks that has been her object throughout.
Mrs Dolling’s husband is an officer on one of the P. and O. boats , and is at the present time away at sea; and the girl suggested to Mrs Dolling that the bell-ringing was a token that her husband had been drowned. Altogether the inmates were in a state of mortal fear and spent a most unpleasant week. Father Moore and his assistant priest visited the house several times during the week, as did other friends of Major and Mrs Buller. One night Father Moore remained there until nearly twelve o’clock, and upon one occasion he “blessed” the rooms, and invoked the aid of the Virgin Mary. The girl looked in the room whilst this ceremony was being performed, and, according to Mrs Dolling, laughed heartily at it.
As further proof of the coolness with which the girl has acted, it may be mentioned that on Friday night, October 26th, Mrs Dolling was in a such a frightfully nervous state that she could not sleep in her ordinary bedroom within the sound of the bells, and she, therefore, moved the bedding, &c., to a room at the top of the house, in which operation she was assisted by the girl herself. On the following (Saturday) night Mrs Dolling and her children remained all night in the downstairs sitting-room, as they were too much upset to go upstairs, and the girl also remained in the room with them, and slept under the table. Some policemen kindly visited the house two or three times during the night to see that the inmates were getting on all right.
When the girl was asked for an explanation of her behaviour she stated that “she only did it for a joke.” It is almost needless to add that upon admitting her guilt she was immediately dismissed. The pity is that she could not be punished in some more substantial way, as a gentle reminder that there is always more than one side to a practical joke.
Essex Weekly News, 9th November 1888.