Loading

Trinity, Edinburgh (1835)

 Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World, by Robert Dale Owen.

… ‘The Lawsuit’ is the title of a narrative of disturbances in a house near Edinburgh. We quote at length:-

A certain Captain Molesworth, rented the house in question, situated at Trinity, two miles from Edinburgh, from a Mr Webster in May, 1835. After two months’ residence there, the captain began to complain of certain unaccountable noises, which, strangely enough, he took it into his head were made by his landlord, Mr Webster, who occupied the adjoining dwelling. The latter naturally represented that it was not probable he should desire to damage the reputation of his own house, or drive a responsible tenant out of it; and retorted the accusation. 

Meanwhile, the disturbances continued daily and nightly. Sometimes there was the sound of invisible feet; sometimes there were knockings, scratchings, or rustlings, first on one side, then on the other. Occasionally the unseen agent seemed to be rapping to a certain tune, and would answer, by so many knocks, any question to which the reply was in numbers; as, “How many persons are there in this room?” So forcible at times were the poundings that the wall trembled visibly. Beds, too, were occasionally heaved up, as by some person underneath. Yet, search as they would, no one could be found.

Captain Molesworth caused the boards to be lifted in the rooms where the noises were loudest and most frequent, and actually perforated the wall that divided his residence from that of Mr Webster; but without the least result. Sheriff’s officers, mason, justices of the peace, and the officers of the regiment quartered at Leith, who were friends of Captain Molesworth, came to his aid, in hopes of detecting or frightening away his tormentor; but in vain. Suspecting that it might be some one outside the house, they formed a cordon round it; but all to no purpose. No solution of the mystery was ever obtained.

Suit was brought before the Sheriff of Edinburgh, by Mr Webster, against Captain Molesworth, for damages committed by lifting the boards, boring the walls, and firing at the wainscot, as well as for injury done in giving the house the reputation of being haunted, thus preventing other tenants from renting it. On the trial, the facts above stated were all elicited by Mr Lothian, who spent several hours in examining numerous witnesses, some of them officers in the army, and gentlemen of undoubted honour and capacity for observation.

It remains to be stated that Captain Molesworth has had two daughters; one of whom, named Matilda, had lately died, while the other, a girl between twelve and thirteen, named Jane, was sickly and usually kept in her bed. It being observed that wherever the sick girl was the noises more frequently prevailed, Mr Webster declared that she made them; and it would seem that her father himself must, to some extent, have shared the suspicion; for the poor girl was actually tied up in a bag, so as to prevent all possible agency on her part. No cessation or diminution of the disturbance was, however, obtained by this harsh expedient.

The people in the neighbourhood believed that the noises were produced by the ghost of Matilda warning her sister she was soon to follow; and this belief received confirmation when that unfortunate young lady, whose illness may have been aggravated by the severe measures dictated by unjust suspicion, shortly after died.

Alloa Advertiser, 2nd Novembeer 1861.