A Strange Ghost Story.
Much gossip has been occasioned at Weston-super-Mare by a ghost story. John Clark, a gardener, living in a small house near the Infant School, declares that his family, and two labouring men who lodge at his house, were all in bed on Sunday night last, when, between eleven and twelve o’clock, strange noises were heard below by all of them, resembling the rattling of chairs, tables, &c. The noise having subsided, the inmates of the house, with the exception of Clark, went to sleep.
Clark states that he was wide awake, and heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and presently a man entered the room, and coming up to the bed-side, placed his hands on Clark’s face, drew down his arms, and grasped him very tight by his two hands; he held him in this situation for a short period, when the hands of the nocturnal visitor appeared to get gradually smaller till they became as small as a young child’s, when his hold relaxed, and the apparition disappeared.
Clark says it appeared to be a man about five feet six inches in height, with very black curly hair, and rather stout; that when he was holding him he placed his face very near his, and that he felt his breath very hot, as were also his hands. Clark said he tried to speak and move, but had no power to do either, but immediately his visitor left he jumped up in bed and gave an alarm.
He was terribly frightened, and could not close his eyes. He got up and went to work on the Monday morning, but such was the effect of the shock he received that he became very ill and was obliged to leave his work and go to bed.
On Thursday he told his tale to a man named Tripp, who lived in the same house three years previous to Clark’s occupying it, and from Tripp he received the cheering assurance that he must expect frequent visits from this unwelcome guest, as during the three years he had lived in the house he had appeared to him upwards of a dozen times nearly in a similar way, his last visit being about six weeks before he left the house; the other persons in the house could always hear the chairs and tables rattling down stairs on those occasions, but the visitor never made his appearance to any one but himself.
The men both say the doors and windows were all found secure in the mornings, and the furniture in the same position as when left the previous evening. The ghost, we have no doubt, was the “night mare” or a high wind.
Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, 12th June 1851.