Sensation at Symonds Yat.
Alleged Mysterious Occurrences at a Keeper’s Cottage.
Articles said to be moved by unseen hands.
Something in the way of a sensation has been caused din the neighbourhood of Symond’s Yat and the surrounding district, due to the report that mysterious happenings had taken place at a cottage occupied by Mr. Wm. Vaughan, head keeper to Admiral Pearson. Vaughan who is a married man with three children, and has relatives in Monmouth, lives in one of two cottages, known as Hentland Cottages, situated about a mile off the Ross and Monmouth road, under the shadow, but on the opposite side of the Wye, of the Yat rock, and within a stone’s throw of the tomb of John Whitehead Warre who perished near the spot while bathing 105 years ago.
Various reports were current in the district as to the house, and on Wednesday our representative visited it, which it may be stated has been also visited by hundreds of persons since Tuesday, the 30th ult., when it is alleged the mysterious happenings commenced.
There were a few interested persons at the house on Wednesday, and on entering one saw a table in the back-kitchen covered with various articles which a daughter of Vaughan’s alleged had by some means been thrown into the house by way of the ceiling, consisting chiefly of stones of various sizes.
During a conversation the daughter told our representative a really hair-raising story. She said the first unusual thing to happen was on Tuesday, the 30th ult., about 12 p.m., when a handful of stones were thrown at her, although she stated no one was about at the time. Her mother baked bread in the oven in the other house which was empty, and upon four successive occasions when Mrs. Vaughan left the oven and came across the orchard to her own house, and returned to the oven again, she found the fire had been raked out and the ashes placed on the floor. Tuesday being the first day of April, Vaughan, when told of the affair, thought some-one had been playing pranks with him.
However during the next few days various other mysterious things are said to have occurred. A pair of boots suddenly vanished, one being returned, unseen, on one day, and the other the following day, and a fishing reel which had been fastened to a rod, placed in another portion of the house, found its way to the floor of the kitchen when the family were gathered together before the fire. Numerous other things, such as needles, reels of cotton, skewers, stones, potatoes and onions, had also, so the daughter stated, been found on the kitchen floor, whilst at the same times neither potatoes nor onions were supposed to have been in the house, and packets of cigarettes and boxes of matches were also littered over the floor.
On one occasion, when Admiral Pearson was at the house, a bottle of marking ink which the daughter stated with all seriousness she had placed in her box upstairs, appeared at his feet. There were many other things which she stated had happened, such as spoon, knives, razors and combs standing on end on various parts of the floor.
A curious fact connected with the affair is that since Tuesday about noon nothing out of the usual has occurred, which time is exactly a week subsequent to the day when the alleged incidents commenced. The last occurrence was when a packet of needles, which were in a cupboard, was said to have suddenly appeared upon the floor, although the packet itself was in a basket which was locked in a cupboard.
Naturally, when it became known at the beginning of this week that such curious things were supposed to be taking place, this lonely cottage was visited by many, and on Sunday it is estimated over 100 persons paid a visit to this house of mystery.
Our representative visited the empty house, about twenty yards away, and there found all the windows broken and the ashes from under the oven still n the floor.
On Tuesday, also, a gold guard which had been missed from the same house for about three months suddenly made it reappearance and a pair of leggings which had disappeared also it is said now returned. The most curious fact is that of the stones, which it is alleged fell into the house, apparently through the ceiling which is a very substantial one, showing no sign of even a crack, much less holes, of a size large enough to admit stones coming through. The affair is an entire mystery and neither of the family can, apparently, give any explanations of it.
A boy named Johns, who lives at Symonds Yat alleges he saw all sorts of things, chiefly stones, coming from the ceiling, and was not long ere he made his exit. This lad had made a list of the articles which fell, and with almost sacred care handed it over to our representative. He says he will swear the things fell, but when asked how they came to fall, he could not give any reason whatsoever.
A neighbouring farmer who visited the house is strongly of opinion that the affair is no mystery, and hints are expressed as to certain persons moving articles from place to place. With regard to that, it would be difficult to express an opinion, but whatever mysterious agency has been at work, it has caused the greatest excitement in the neighbourhood. It might be added that during the time our representative was at the house, which was over an hour, nothing unusual occurred, although a number of stones were still on a portion of the slanting roof.
Vaughan served during the last south African War with the third Welsh Regiment, and the medal he gained for this, has, it is alleged, mysteriously moved from place to place in the house.
All the happenings commenced about 9.30 each morning and continued until 12.30 at night.
It is probable that the explanation, when forthcoming, will be a very natural one.
Monmouthshire Beacon, 9th April 1909.
“Haunted” House Story.
Strange Doings Near Symond’s Yat.
Leather belt flies after a woman.
Investigations into the doings at the “haunted house,” a few miles from Symond’s Yat, show that the occurrences have been of a quite ordinary character as such so-called phenomena go. With remarkable regularity the public are treated almost every week with news of spirit-rappings, furniture-shiftings, &c., in various parts of the country, and an equally remarkable feature about each case, without exception, is that as soon as the strange doings are published broadcast in the press and criticism commences to flow from outside the confines of the immediate district, there comes a sudden stop to bloodcurdling incidents and unexplainable occurrences, and nothing is heard further of them. It is the general experience also that in a few days’ time even the residents in the immediate vicinity become sceptical, and then openly laugh to scorn any suggestion of the supernatural. This was so in the Lampeter spook affair a few years ago – and, probably, that was the most successful spoof in this category that has been played off for a long time past.
There have been several visitors to Henllan Cottage, the venue of the latest “mystery.” Let no one be misled by the statement that the house is in Whichurch, about four miles from Monmouth, for there never was a more misleading direction. In point of fact, the cottage stands alone in a field at the foot of Coppett Hill, which is situate on the far side of the Yat Rock from Symond’s Yat station, and is miles from Whitchurch on the road. Only those who are acquainted with the very peculiar conformation of the country in this district and who know the circuitous bed of the Wye can appreciate the ungetatableness of the cottage.
If anyone desires to avoid a walk of several miles from the railway station over Huntsham Bridge he can only come into view of the house by penetrating the quarter-mile tunnel under the Yat Rock and running the risk of being cut to pieces or being prosecuted by the Great Western Railway Company, or, as an alternative, by climbing over the rocky hillside. Even then he will be only vouchsafed a view of the house, for the river intervenes, and the only means of crossing is by the private boat of the occupant of the house, who is seldom at hand, and is not now exactly willing to ferry any stranger across. This information is given for the guidance of the hundreds of holiday-seekers who will probably choose Symond’s Yat as their pleasure ground to-day (Good Friday) and on Easter Monday.
Henllan Cottage is in the parish of Goodrich, occupied by Mr. William Vaughan (gamekeeper in the employ of Admiral Pearson, of Rocklands), his wife, two daughters aged twenty and fourteen years, and one son, aged ten years. This lad attends Goodrich School, and is just now quite an interesting little fellow.
It seems to be agreed that the inhabitants of the district were first told on Saturday last of some terrifying happenings at the cottage, although it was said that the usual quietness of the place had been upset since the previous Tuesday. All kinds of stories gained currency. Some hinted at Mrs. Vaughan having been bewitched by a certain individual; others hazarded the opinion that the troubled spirit of a former occupant of the cottage was playing ructions with the present household. Everyone spoke of the occurrences with bated breath until a personal visit was paid during the succeeding days, and then a few became more mystified than ever, whilst the others commenced to laugh up their sleeves and to whisper certain conclusions to each other.
It is certain that several people, on visiting the cottage, found stones and boots on the roof of the lean-to kitchen, and the occupants expressed complete ignorance as to how they had got there. They were told strange things by Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan. The latter stated that upon returning from Ross she undid her leather waistbelt, and, rolling it loosely, left it on the parlour table, there being no one else in the house. On going into the kitchen the belt came flying after her, with the buckle fastened.
After that stones had mysteriously rained on to the roof, causing a most disconcerting din, and Mr. Vaughan, determined to fathom the mystery, had stood by the open bedroom window with a loaded gun, ready to shoot at man or spoof, without distinction, who dared to show himself, but without any result. Then, again, Mrs. Vaughan stated that a stone and some manure had come from some unknown quarter and planted themselves in some pastry she had made. A glove, rolled round a box of matches, had mysteriously flopped into the room; an epaulette off the uniform which Mr. Vaughan had worn in South Africa, where he fought with the South Wales Borderers, had found its way from a box upstairs and rattled into the kitchen, and so on.
When interviewed upon their experiences several people expressed their complete mystification. Some said that when in the house, in company with all the members of the family, stones had rattled into a bucket under the kitchen sink, a bottle of marking-ink had fallen on the floor from the direction of the ceiling, stones had pelted upon the roof outside, and all kinds of funny and unexplained happenings had occurred. “If it was a trick,” they said, “it was very cleverly done, and the peculiar part of it is that we cannot ascribe any motive to the perpetrators – if they are human beings.” When asked to give their candid opinion as to whether the occurrences were of the spook order, and whether they were really in doubt as to the explanation, they all closed up like a knife, and refused to formulate their opinions into words.
It is a peculiar fact that since Tuesday last very little has been heard of the disturbances, and it is quite probable it will be found the Goodrich mystery has already spent itself. On that day some journalists from Hereford visited the house and made somewhat pointed investigations. There is also a rumour abroad that the Goodrich schoolmaster has had a little interview with one of his pupils, and that that gentleman is no longer in doubt as to the explanation of the remarkable experiences. Be that as it may, a trip to the neighbourhood will well re-pay those interested in phenomena which raise learned disquisitions for the Psychical Research Society and similar bodies, because the Symond’s Yat district presents some of the most picturesque scenery in the whole country, and a day’s holiday there will certainly help to rehabilitate jaded nerves and deepen one’s appreciation of the beauties of Nature.
Western Mail, 9th April 1909.
The Symonds Yat Spook.
Is it a “poltergeist” or what?
By Arthur Mee.
Wales and the borders have within the past few years furnished a good deal of material for the investigation of that oft-criticised body, the Psychical Research Society. What with knockings in mines, Revival lights, and mysterious doings in the Rhymney Valley and elsewhere, lovers of the marvellous and the uncanny have had a good bill of fare on which to exercise their minds; and now comes the Symonds Yat spook – during Lent, too, which suggests curious problems not wholly unconnected with theology.
The first thing that sensible, practical-minded people do who read such things is to say it is all rubish, or that someone has been playing a trick. This is an eminently sane attitude of mind, for it is sound commonsense to exhaust all possible sources of explanation before admitting what some call the supernatural. This has been throughout the policy of the Psychical Research Society itself, and, indeed to such a length has its scepticism gone that there is every reason to believe that in some instances it has pooh-poohed and rejected genuine phenomena.
Yet, after all, the society cannot be blamed for this. The whole history of spiritualism from beginning to end is honeycombed with fraud, strewed with instances of the grossest imposture and the absurdest credulity. Even grave scientific men have been taken in by mediums and others who were afterwards proved to be the veriest tricksters. To such an extent is this true that it is not without reason that people are often warned to leave these things severely alone. They have a way of getting on the nerves, and, as a spiritualist once told me, “it is opening a door which you may not be able to shut again.”
At the same time, whilst admitting to the full the fraud that exists, and the danger that may lurk in too close application to these investigations, the fact remains that there is a residuum of phenomena, absolutely genuine, which no ordinary hypotheses are adequate to explain. Up till recent years our scientists were loud in their scoffing and absolute scepticism. Huxley and Tyndall in their day and Haeckel and Newcomb in ours dismiss the whole range of psychic phenomena as humbug more or less, and the mere outcome of conscious or unconscious imposition.
On the other hand, there is a growing number of scientific men every whit as eminent who do not take this view. We have but to instance Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, and Dr Alfred R Wallace in our own country, and Camille Flammarion and many others abroad – men of high distinction whose word in these matters must carry weight against the sceptical and pooh-pooh school.
Every year science is less cocksure in its attitude towards the things of the borderland. The mysteries of mind are more and more recognised. The science of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century regarded Mesmer as a quack and his followers as dupes. To-day mesmerism and hypnotism are recognised as valuable aids by the medical profession. As the eye of man peers more and more intently into the secrets of the universe new paths open out, new tracks are discovered, new realms revealed. The absurdity of yesterday is received to-day when it is found to contain a nucleus of truth.
Unless the Symonds Yat phenomena are proved a fraud they will, no doubt, he systematically investigated, and the results of that investigation added to the great body of evidence which is already being accumulated. People, however, are too ready, when faced with the fact of a given phenomenon, to rush to the conclusion that it must be a ghost – the spirit of somebody departed. It is here that a warning word has to be said. We know far too little of the borderland to be in a position to admit that these hauntings, where known to be genuine, are the work of discarnate spirits who once were beings like ourselves.
A very grave danger lies here, and one that has its most pathetic as well as its ludicrous side. It is far more likely that the usual phenomena of the haunted house are produced by beings on a lower plane than ours, or it may be that they are vibrations of will power re-produced in some way that cannot at present be explained. The spook that throws things about, makes objectionable noises, and conducts itself generally in an irreverent fashion is what the Germans call a “poltergeist,” a goblin of a lower order that has somehow or other possessed itself of the power to carry on these uncanny and mischievous pranks. John Wesley’s father was plagued in this way at his parsonage in Epworth, and there are plenty of other instances. Those who believe the dead return to make unseemly exhibitions of themselves, or that Shakespeare or Cardinal Newman or Mr Spurgeon come back to knock tables or utter platitudes, have a strange idea of the universe – a limited conception of its mysteries.
The late Mr Myers was an ardent Psychical Researcher, if ever there was one. He promised that after his death he would communicate with those left behind under test conditions. Communications have come; but up to now they have been absolute failures. The spirit of Myers has not pierced the veil, has not stood the test that was set for it, though the one word spoken would do more to further the cause than all the reams of platitudes that have been spun out by supposed spirits, who, if they exist at all, are mere lower orders of intelligence, goblins who for purposes of their own communicate with mortals and have more cunning than honesty in their composition.
Is it wise to curry the favour of such creatures or hob-nob with them? What is gained by their communications? Out of the multitude of messages that have come over there is all told hardly a page of matter that gives us a more certain outlook on the world beyond. These things bring joy and hope and comfort to many minds and hearts. I would not rob them of that comfort for worlds. Profoundly believing as I do in a spirit-world and the after-life, I must yet reject these evidences of the return of those who have gone before. Still, they have this lesson for us – they do show that there are forces at work, intelligent forces, which sceptical philosophers can only explain (in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary) as the result of conscious or unconscious fraud. I firmly believe that Science will yet lift the great question of Immortality from the region of faith into that of fact; but, as with the flying machine, the path to that achievment will be strewn with [weeds?].
Western Mail, 12th April 1909.
“Haunted Cottage”
Queer Ghost Story.
A curious “ghost” story comes from the West, vouched for by many local residents, and firmly believed in by many more. The scene of the doings of this prank-playing “spirit” is a cottage in a remote spot near Symonds Yat, seven miles from Monmouth, and not far from the river. Here reside William Vaughan, head gamekeeper to Admiral Pearson, and Mrs. Vaughan.
A few weeks ago the cottage was a quiet enough retreat for a hermit. Now it is the constant resort of scores of curious “spook” hunters, whom the gamekeeper’s wife finds nearly as harassing as the weird happenings that have startled the neighbourhood.
The mysterious demonstrations began nine days ago, when inanimate articles are alleged to have first showed a tendency to move about of their own accord. This is said to have developed to an amazing and very unpleasant extent.
To a Press man who visited the house, Mrs. Vaughan declared that candles had jumped from candlesticks and stood on end on the floor, and that boots and leggings and other articles had vanished out of the house and returned again. Once while she was cooking, she said, a pen stood in front of her with the nib stood in a piece of wood. On the roof of the cottage are many stones which some people, including Mrs. Vaughan, gravely assert jumped from the ground of their own volition.
Mrs. Vaughan who, as will be noted, is more than a little superstitious, adds that these things happened because she was bewitched! The family have occupied the cottage for eight years.
During the last few days inexplicable movements of articles of clothing and furniture are said to have been seen by many persons. So alarmed was the husband at the occurrences that he armed himself with a gun, but found nothing to shoot at.
And so for the present the situation remains. Meanwhile, Mrs. Vaughan declares that if the rush of ghost investigators continues she will lock up the house.
Leominster News and North West Herefordshire and Radnorshire Advertiser, 16th April 1909.
SO567163 ‘Hentland’ at foot of symonds yat rocks, on current edina map. but looks absurdly inaccessible (only by water?)