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Chapter X · The Book of Dreams and Ghosts

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Chapter ten of the Book of Dreams and Ghosts. This is a LibriVox recording.
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All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and a
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volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Dan Gerzinski. The Book
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of Dreams and Ghosts by Andrew Lang, Chapter ten, Modern Hauntings, The
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Chopoff story of a peculiar type demonical possession, story of Wellington Mill. Briefly
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analyzed authorities for the story, letters a journal the Wesley Ghost given critically and
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why note on similar stories such as the Drummer of Tedworth, Sir Walter Scott's
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skepticism about nautical evidence. Lord Saint Vincent Scott asks where are his letters on
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a ghostly disturbance? The letters are now published Lord Saint Vincent's ghost story reflections.
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Cases like that of Missus Chopoff really belong to a peculiar species of haunted
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houses or ancestors like the modern Chinese, attributed them to diabolical possession, not
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to an ordinary ghost of a dead person. Examples are very numerous and have
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all the same symptoms. As Coleridge would have said, he attributed them to
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a contagious, nervous malady of observation and spectators. Among the most notorious is
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the story of Willington Mill, told by Howitt and borrowed by Missus Crowe in
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the Night Side of Nature. Mister Proctor, the occupant, a Quaker,
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vouched to Missus Crowe for the authenticity of how It's version twenty second July eighteen
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forty seven. Other letters from seers are published, and the Society of Psychical
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Research lately printed Miss Sist's Contemporary Journal. A man, a woman, and
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a monkey were the chief apparitions. There were noises, lights, beds were
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heaved about, nothing was omitted. A clairvoyant was turned on, but could
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only say that the spectral figures which she described had no brains. After the
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Quakers left the house, there seems to have been no more trouble. The
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affair lasted for fifteen years. Familiar as it is, we now offer the
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old story of the hauntings at Epworth, mainly because a full view of the
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inhabitants, the extraordinary family of Wesley, seems necessary to an understanding of the
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affair. The famous and excessively superstitious John Wesley was not present on the occasion.
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The Wesley ghost no ghost story is more celebrated than that of Old Jeffrey,
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the Spirit so named by Emily Wesley, which disturbed the rectory at Epworth,
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chiefly in the December of seventeen sixteen and the spring of seventeen seventeen.
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Yet the vagueness of the human mind has led many people, especially journalists,
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to suppose that the haunted house was that not of Samuel Wesley, but of
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his son, John Wesley, the founder of the Wesleyan Methodists. For the
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better intelligence of the tale, we must know who the inmates of the Epworth
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Rectory were, and the nature of their characters and pursuits. The rector was
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the Reverend Samuel Wesley, born in sixteen sixty two, the son of a
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clergyman banished from his living on Black Bartholomew Day sixteen sixty six. Though educated
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among dissenters, Samuel Wesley converted himself to the truth as it is in the
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Church of England. Became a poor scholar of Exeter College in Oxford, supported
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himself mainly by hackwork in literature. He was one of the editors of a
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penny paper called the Athenian Mercury, a sort of answers married Miss Susannah Ainslie,
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a lady of good family, in sixteen ninety to ninety one, and
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in sixteen ninety three was presented to the rectory of Epworth in Lincolnshire by Mary,
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wife of William of Orange, to whom he had dedicated a poem on
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the life of Christ. The living was poor. Mister Wesley's family multiplied with
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amazing velocity. He was in debt and unpopular. His cattle were named in
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seventeen oh five, and in seventeen oh three his house was burned down.
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The rectory house, of which a picture is given in Clark's Memoirs of the
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Wesleys eighteen twenty five, was built anew at his own expense. Mister Wesley
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was in politics a strong Royalist, But having seen James the Second shake his
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lean arm at the fellows of Magdalene College and threatened them with the weight of
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a king's right hand, he conceived a prejudice against that monarch and took the
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side of the Prince of Orange. His wife, a very pious woman and
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a strict disciplinarian, was a Jacobite, would not say amen to the prayers
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for the king, and was therefore deserted by her husband for a year or
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more in seventeen o one to seventeen o two. They came together again,
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however, on the accession of Queen Anne. Unpopular for his politics, hated
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by the dissenters, and at odds with the cunning men or local wizards,
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against whom he had frequently preached, mister Wesley was certainly apt to have tricks
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played on him by his neighbors. His house, those surrounded by a wall
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a hedge and its own grounds, was within a few yards of the nearest
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dwelling in the village street in seventeen sixteen when the disturbances began. Mister Wesley's
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family consisted of his wife, his eldest son, Sam, aged about twenty
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three and then absent at his duties as an usher at Westminster, John aged
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twelve, a boy at Westminster School, Charles, a boy of eight away
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from home, and the girls who were all at the parsonage. They were
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Emily about twenty two, Mary, Nancy and Suki probably about twenty one,
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twenty and nineteen, and Hetty, who may have been anything between nineteen and
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twelve, but who comes after John in doctor Clarke's list, and is apparently
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reckoned. Among the children, then there was Patty, who may have been
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only nine, and little Keziah. All except Patty were very lively young people,
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and Hetty, afterwards, a copious poet, was gay and sprightly,
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full of mirth, good humor, and keen wit. She indulged this disposition
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so much that it was said to have given great uneasiness to her parents.
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The servants, Robin Brown, Betty Massey, and Nancy Marshall, were recent
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comers, but were acquitted by Missus Wesley of any share in the mischief.
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The family, though like other people of their date they were inclined to believe
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in witches and warnings, were not especially superstitious and regarded the disturbances first with
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some apprehension, then as a joke, and finally as a bore. The
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authorities for what occurred are first a statement and journal by mister Wesley, then
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a series of letters of seventeen seventeen to Sam at Westminster by his mother,
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Emily and Suki. Next a set of written statements made by these and other
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witnesses to John Wesley in seventeen twenty six, and the last and worst,
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a narrative composed many years after by John Wesley for the Armenian Magazine. The
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earliest document by a few days is the statement of mister Wesley, written with
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a brief journal between twenty first December seventeen sixteen and first January seventeen seventeen.
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Comparing this with Missus Wesley's letter to Sam of twelfth January seventeen sixteen and Suki's
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letter of twenty fourth January, we learned that the family, for some weeks
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after first December had been in the greatest panic imaginable, supposing that Sam,
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Jack or Charlie must also have been absent from home, was dead, or
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by some misfortune killed. The reason for these apprehensions was that on the night
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of first December, the maid heard at the dining room door several dreadful groans,
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like a person in extremists. They laughed at her, But for the
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whole of December the groans, squeaks, tanglings, and knockings were frightful enough.
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The rest of the family, Mister Wesley always excepted, heard a strange
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knocking in diverse places, chiefly in the green room or nursery, where apparently
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Hetty, Patty and Kazayah lay Emily heard the noises later than some of her
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sisters, perhaps a week after the original groans. She was looking up the
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house about ten o'clock when a sound came like the smashing and splintering of a
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huge piece of coal on the kitchen floor. She and Suki went through the
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rooms on the ground floor, but found the dog asleep, the cat at
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the other end of the house, and everything in order. From her bedroom,
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Emily heard a noise of breaking the empty bottles under the stairs, but
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was going to bed when Hetty, who had been sitting on the lowest step
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of the garret stairs beside the nursery door waiting for her father, was chased
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into the nursery by a sound as of a man in a loose trailing gown.
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Suki and Nancy were alarmed by loud knocks on the outside of the dining
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room door and overhead. All this time, mister Wesley heard nothing, and
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was not even told that anything unusual was heard. Missus Wesley at first held
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her peace lest he should think it, according to the vulgar opinion, a
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warning against his own death, which indeed we all apprehended. Mister Wesley only
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smiled when he was informed, but by taking care to see all the girls
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safe in bed sufficiently showed his opinion that the young ladies and their lovers were
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the ghost. Missus Wesley then fell back on the theory of rats and employed
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a man to blow a horn as a remedy against these vermin, but this
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measure only aroused the emulation of the sprite, whom Emily began to call Jeffrey.
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Not till twenty first December did mister Wesley hear anything. Then came thumbs
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on his bedroom wall. Unable to discover the cause, he procured a stout
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mastiff, which soon became demoralized by his experiences. On the morning of the
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twenty fourth, about seven o'clock, Emily led Missus Wesley into the nursery,
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where she heard knocks on and under the bedstead. These sounds replied when she
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knocked, something like a badger with no head, says Emily. Missus Wesley
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only says, like a badger ran from under the bed. On the night
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of the twenty fifth, there was an appalling the karma. Mister and Missus
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Wesley went on a tour of inspection, but only found the mastiff whining in
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terror. We still heard it rattle and thunder in every room above or behind
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us, locked as well as open, except my study, where as yet
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it never came. On the night of the twenty sixth, mister Wesley seems
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to have heard of a phenomenon already familiar to Emily, something like the quick
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winding up of a jack at the corner of the room by my BedHead.
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This was always followed by knocks, hollow and loud, such as none of
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us could ever imitate. Mister Wesley went into the nursery. Hetty, Kesey
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and Patty were asleep. The knocks were loud beneath and in the room,
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so mister Wesley went below to the kitchen, struck with his stick against the
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rafters, and was answered as often and as loud as I knocked. The
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peculiar knock, which was his own one, two, three, four,
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five, six seven, was not successfully echoed at that time. Mister Wesley
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then returned to the nursery, which was as tapeague as ever. The children
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three were trembling in their sleep. Mister Wesley invited the Agency to an interview
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in his study, was answered by one knock outside all the rest we were
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within, and then came silence. Investigations outside produced no result, but the
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latch of the door would rise and fall, and the door itself was pushed
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violently back against investigators. I have been with Hetty, says Emily, when
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it was knocked under her, and when she is removed, has followed her,
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and it knocked under little Kesey when she stamped with her foot pretending to
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scare Patty. Mister Wesley had requested an interview in his study, especially as
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the Jacobite goblin routed loudly over our heads constantly when we came to the prayers
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for King George and the Prince in a study. The agency pushed mister Wesley
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about, bumping him against the corner of his desk and against his door.
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He would ask for a conversation, but heard only two or three feeble squeaks,
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a little louder than the chirping of a bird, but not like the
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noise of which I have often heard. Mister Wesley had meant to leave home
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for a visit on Friday twenty eighth December, but the noises of the twenty
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seventh were so loud that he stayed at home, inviting the reverend Mister Hoole
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of Haxie to view the performances. The noises were very boisterous and disturbing this
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night, mister Hoole says in seventeen twenty six, confirmed by Missus Wesley twelfth
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January seventeen seventeen that there were sounds of feet trailing gowns, raps and the
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noises of planing boards. The disturbance finally went outside the house and died away.
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Mister Wesley seems to have paid his visit on the thirtieth and notes first
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January seventeen seventeen. My family have had no disturbance since I went away to
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judge by mister Wesley's letter to Sam of twelfth January, there was no trouble
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between the twenty ninth of December and that date. On the nineteenth of January
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and the thirtieth of the same month, Sam wrote full of curiosity to his
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father and mother. Missus Wesley replied twenty fifth or twenty seventh January, saying
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that no explanation could be discovered, but it commonly was nearer heady than the
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rest. On twenty fourth January, Suki said it is now pretty quiet,
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but still knocks at prayers for the king. On eleventh February, mister Wesley,
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much bored by Sam's inquiries, says we are all now quiet. It
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would make a glorious penny book for Jack Duntan, his brother in law,
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a publisher of popular literature such as The Athenian Mercury. Emily no Date explains
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the phenomena as the revenge for her father's recent sermons against consulting those that are
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called cunning men, which our people are given to, and it had a
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particular spite at my father. The disturbances, by no means ended in the
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beginning of January, nor at other dates, when a brief cessation made the
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Wesleys hope that Jeffrey had returned to his own place. Thus, on twenty
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seventh March, Suki writes to Sam, remarking that as Hetty and Emily are
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also writing, so particularly, she need not say much. One thing I
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believe you do not know. That is last Sunday, to my father's no
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small amazement, his trencher danced upon the table a pretty while without anybody stirring
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the table. Send me some news, for we are excluded from the sight
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or hearing of any verstal thing except Jeffrey. The last mention of the affair
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at this time is in a letter from Emily of first April to a mister
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Barry, Tell my brother the sprite was with us last night and heard by
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many of our family. There are no other contemporary letters pre but we may
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note Missus Wesley's opinion twenty fifth January that it was beyond the power of any
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human being to make such strange and various noises. The next evidence is ten
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years after date the statements taken down by Jack Wesley in seventeen twenty six.
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Seventeen twenty Missus Wesley adds to her former account that she earnestly desired it might
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not disturb her at her devotions between five and six in the evening, and
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it did not rout in her room at that time. Emily added that a
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screen was knocked at on each side as she went round to the other.
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Suki mentioned the noise as on one occasion coming gradually from the garret stairs outside
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the nursery door up to Hetty's bed, who trembled strongly in her sleep.
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It then removed to the room overhead, where it knocked my father's knock on
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the ground as if it would beat them house down. Nancy said that the
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noise used to follow her or precede her, and once a bed on which
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she sat playing cards was lifted up under her several times to a considerable height.
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Robin, the servant, gave evidence that he was greatly plagued with all
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manner of noises and movements of objects. John Wesley, in his account published
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many years after date in his Armenian magazine, attributed the affair of seventeen sixteen
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to his father's broken vow of deserting his mother till she recognized the Prince of
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Orange's king. He adds that the mastiff used to tremble and creep away before
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the noise began. Some other peculiarities may be noted. All persons did not
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always hear the noises. It was three weeks before mister Wesley heard anything.
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John and Kitty Maw, who lived over against us, listened several nights in
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the time of the disturbance, but could never hear anything again. The first
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time my mother ever heard any unusual noise at Epworth was long before the disturbance
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of Old Jeffrey. The door and windows jarred very loud and presently several distinct
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strokes three by three were struck from that night. It never failed to give
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notice in much the same manner against any signal misfortune or illness of any belonging
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to the family, writes Jack once More. On tenth February seventeen fifty,
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Emily, now missus Harper, wrote to her brother John, that wonderful thing
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called by us Jeffrey, how certainly it calls on me against any extraordinary new
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affliction. This is practically all the story of old Jeffrey. The explanations have
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been trickery by servants Priestley, contagious hallucinations Coleridge, devilry Southey, and true
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roockery by Hetty Wesley. Doctor Salmon of Trinity College, Dublin. Doctor Salmon
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points out that there is no evidence from Hetty that she was a lively humorous
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girl, and he conceives that she began to frighten the maids and only reluctantly
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exhibited before her father, against whom, however, Jeffrey developed a particular spite.
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He adds that certain circumstances were peculiar to Hetty, which in fact is
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not the case. The present editor has examined Doctor Salmon's arguments in the Contemporary
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Review, and shown a reason in the evidence for acquitting Hetty Wesley, who
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was never suspected by her family. Trickery from without by the cunning men is
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an explanation which at least provides a motive, but how the thing could be
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managed from without remains a mystery. Sam Wesley, the friend of Pope and
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Adderbury and Lord Oxford not unjustly s wit I fancy might find many interpretations,
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but wisdom none. As a Wesley tail is a very typical instance of a
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very large class. Our study of it may exempt us from printing the well
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known parallel case of the drummer of Tedworth. Briefly, the house of mister
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Mumpessen near Ludgershall and Wilts was disturbed in the usual way for at least two
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years, from April sixteen sixty one to April sixteen sixty three or later.
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The noises and copious phenomenon of moving objects apparently untouched were attributed to the unholy
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powers of a wandering drummer, deprived by mister Mumpessen of his drum. A
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grand jury presented the drummer for trial on a charge of witchcraft, but the
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petty jury would not convict, there being a want of evidence to prove threats
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malominotum by the drummer. In sixteen sixty two, the Reverend Joseph Glanville Frs.
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Visited the house and in the bedroom mister Mompessen's little girls. The chief
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sufferers heard and saw much the same phenomena as the elder Wesley describes in his
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own nursery. The little modest girls were aged about seven and eight. Charles
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the second sent some gentlemen to the house for one night when nothing occurred,
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the disturbances being intermittent. Glanville published his narrative at the time, and mister
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Pepys found it not very convincing. Glanville, in consequence of his book,
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was so vexed by correspondence that I have been haunted almost as bad as mister
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mom Pison's house. A report that imposture had been discovered and confessed by mister
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mom Pisson was set afloat by John Webster in a well known work, and
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may still be found in modern books. Glanville denied it till he was quite
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tired. Mompisson gave a formal denial and a letter dated Tedworth eighth November sixteen
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seventy two. He also, with many others, swore to the facts on
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oath in court at the Drummer's trial, in the Tedworth case, as at
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Epworth, and in the curious Sideville case of eighteen fifty one, a quarrel
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with cunning men preceded the disturbances. In Lord Saint Vincent's case, which follows,
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nothing of the kind is reported as an almost universal ruled. Children,
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especially girls of about twelve, are centers of the trouble. In the Saint
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Vincent's story. The children alone were exempt from annoyance Lord Saint Vincent's ghost story.
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Sir Walter Scott, writing about the disturbances in the house occupied by Missus
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Ricketts, sister of the Great Admiral Lord Saint Vincent, asks who has seen
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Lord Saint Vincent's letters. He adds that the gallant Admiral, after all,
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was a sailor, and implies that what the sailor said, if he said
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anything, is not evidence. The fact of unaccountable disturbances, which finally drove
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Missus Ricketts out of Inton Ambner, is absolutely indisputable, though the cause of
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the annoyances may remain as mysterious as ever. The contemporary correspondence, including that
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of Lord Saint Vincent then Captain Jervis, exists and has been edited by Missus
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Henley Jervis, granddaughter of Missus Ricketts. There is only the very vaguest evidence
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for hauntings at Lady Hillsborough's old house of Hinton Ampner, near Arlesford, before
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mister Ricketts took it in January seventeen sixty five. He and his wife were
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then disturbed by footsteps and sounds of doors opening and shutting. They put new
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locks on the doors lest the villagers had procured key, but these proved of
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no avail. The servants talked of seeing appearances of a gentleman in drab and
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of a lady in silk, which Missus Ricketts disregarded. Her husband went to
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Jamaica in the autumn of seventeen sixty nine, and in seventeen seventy one she
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was so disturbed that her brother, Captain Jervis, a witness of the phenomenon,
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insisted on her leaving the house in August. He and Missus Ricketts then
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wrote to mister Ricketts about the affair in July seventeen seventy two, mister Ricketts
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wrote a long and solemn description of her sufferings to be given to her children.
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We shall slightly abridge her statement, in which she mentions that when she
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left Hinton, she had not one of the servants who came thither in her
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family, which evinces the impossibility of a confederacy. Her new like her former
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servants, were satisfactory Camis, her new coachman, was of a Yeoman house
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of four hundred years standing. It will be observed that Missus Ricketts was a
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good deal annoyed. Even before second April seventeen seventy one, the day when
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she dates the beginning of the worst disturbances, she believed that the agency was
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human, a robber, or a practical joker, and but slowly and reluctantly
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became convinced that the exploded notion of an abnormal force might be correct. We
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learned that while Captain Jervis was not informed of the sounds, he never heard
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them, and whereas Missus Ricketts heard violent noises after he went to bed on
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the night of his vigil, he heard nothing. Several instances occurred where very
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loud noises were heard by one or two persons, when those equally near in
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the same direction were not sensible of the least impression. With this preface,
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Missus Ricketts may be allowed to tell her own tale. Some time after mister
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Ricketts left me Autumn seventeen sixty nine, I then lying in the bedroom over
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the kitchen, heard frequently the noise of someone walking in the room within,
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and the rustlings of silk clothes against the door that opened into my room,
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sometimes so loud and of such continuance as to break my rest instant search being
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often made, we never could discover any appearance of human or brute. Being
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repeatedly disturbed in the same manner, I made it my constant practice to search
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the room and closets within, and to secure the only door on the inside.
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Yet this precaution did not preclude the disturbance, which continued with little interruption.
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Nobody, in short, could enter this room except by passing through that
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of Missus Ricketts, the door of which was always made fast by a drawn
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bolt. Yet somebody kept rustling and walking in the inner room, which somebody
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could never be found when sought for. In summer seventeen seventy Missus Ricketts heard
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someone walk to the foot of her bed in her own room, the footsteps
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as distinct as ever I heard myself perfectly awakened collected, nobody could be discovered
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in the chamber. Missus Ricketts boldly clung to her room, and was only
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now and then disturbed by sounds of harmony and heavy thumps downstairs. After this,
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and early in seventeen seventy one, she was frequently sensible of a hollow
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murmuring that seemed to possess the whole house. It was independent of wind being
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equally heard on the calmss nights, and it was a sound I had never
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been accustomed to hear. On twenty seventh February seventeen seventy one, a maid
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was a lot by groans and fluttering round her bed. She was the sister
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of an eminent grocer and allers Ford. On second April, Missus Ricketts heard
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people walking in the lobby, hunted for burglars, trace the sounds to a
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room whence there was no outlet, and found nobody. This kind of thing
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went on till Missus Ricketts despaired of any natural explanation. After Midsummer seventeen seventy
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one. The trouble increased in broad daylight, and a shrill female voice answered
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by two male voices was added to the afflictions. Captain Jervis came on a
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visit, but was told of nothing and never heard anything. After he went
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to Portsmouth, the most deep, loud, tremendous noise seemed to rush and
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fall with infinite velocity and force on the lobby floor adjoining my room, accompanied
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by a shrill and dreadful shriek seeming to proceed from under the spot where the
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rushing noise fell, and repeated three or four times. Missus Ricketts resolution remained
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firm, but her health was impaired. She tried changing a room without results.
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The disturbances pursued her. Her brother now returned. She told him nothing
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and he heard nothing, But next day she unbosomed herself. Captain Jervis therefore
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set up with Captain Lutral and his own man. He was rewarded by noises
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which he in vain tried to pursue. I should do great injustice to my
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sister, he writes to mister Ricketts on ninth August seventeen seventy one. If
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I did not acknowledge to have heard what I could not after the most diligent
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search and serious reflection, any way account for Captain Jervis during a whole week
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slept by day and watched armed by night. Even by day he was disturbed
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by a sound as of immense ways falling from the ceiling to the floor of
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his room. He finally obliged his sister to leave the house. What occurred
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after Missus Ricketts's abandoned Hinton is not very distinct. Apparently, Captain Jervis's second
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stay of a week when he did hear the noises, was from first August
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to eighth August. From a statement by Missus Ricketts, it appears that when
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her brother joined his ship the Alarm ninth August, she retired to Dame Camis's
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house, that of her coachman's mother. Then she went and made another attempt
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to live at Hinton, but was soon after assailed by a noise I never
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before heard very near me, and the terror I felt not to be described.
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She therefore went to the new boats, and thence to the old palace
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at Wynton. Later on, mister Rickett's returned to the parsonage and then to
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Longwood to the old house there near alhah Ford. Meanwhile, on eighteenth September,
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Lady Hillsborough's agent lay with armed men at him, and, making no
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discovery, offered fifty pounds, increased by mister Ricketts to one hundred pounds for
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the apprehension of the persons who caused the noises. The reward was never claimed.
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On eighth March seventeen seventy two, Camis wrote, I am very sorry
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that we cannot find out the reason of the noise. At other dates he
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mentioned sporadic noises heard by his mother and another woman, including the murmur.
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A year after Missus Ricketts left, a family named Lawrence took the house,
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and, according to Old Lucy Cammis, in eighteen eighteen, mister Lawrence very
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properly threatened to dismiss any servit who spoke of the disturbances. The result of
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this sensible chorus was that the Lawrences left suddenly at the end of the year,
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and the house was pulled down. Some old political papers of the Great
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Rebellion and a monkey's skull, not exhibited to any anatomist, are said to
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have been discovered under the floor of the lobby or of one of the rooms.
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Missus Ricketts adds, sadly, the unbelief of Chancellor Hoadley went nearest my
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heart, as she had previously a high opinion of her veracity. The Bishop
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of Saint Assef was incredulous, on the ground that such means were unworthy of
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the deity to employ. Probably a modern bishop would say that there were no
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noises at all, that everyone who heard the sounds was under the influence of
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suggestion, caused first in Missus Rickett's own mind by vague tales of a gentleman
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in drab seen by the servants. The contagion, to be sure, also
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reached two distinguished captains in the navy, but not till one of them was
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told about disturbances which had not previously disturbed him. If this explanation be true,
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it casts an unusual light on the human imagination. Physical science has lately
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invented a new theory. Disturbances of this kind are perhaps seismic caused by earthquakes.
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See Professor Milne in The Times, twenty one June eighteen ninety seven,
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end of chapter ten.