Adventurings in the PsychicalBruce, H. Addington (Henry Addington)
Science
Adventurings in the Psychical
Bruce, H. Addington (Henry Addington)
Parapsychology
"On December 14, 1893, Thursday morning, hearing my father, Mr. Charles
Woodd, was not well, I left Epsom, where I had been staying, for
Hampstead, and found my father in bed and very weak, but I was in no
way anxious about him, as I did not suppose him to be seriously ill. At
eleven o'clock at night, being tired and finding I could not assist my
mother or the nurse, I lay down in an adjoining room, leaving the door
wide open, and fell asleep.
"In a short time I was suddenly awakened by a loud rapping as if at
the door. I jumped up and ran into the passage, thinking my mother had
called me. I listened at the door of my father's room, but no one was
moving. I lay down again and instantly fell asleep, when exactly the
same thing occurred. I did not actually sleep again, and cannot say
whether any sound made me get up the third time, but I went in search of
the doctor and gathered that he was anxious about my father, who was
getting much weaker. We were all aroused, and about eight o'clock A. M.
my father died.
"I did not connect this rapping with the Woodd warning, as all was
so sudden and unexpected, but on mentioning it at breakfast the next
morning to my brother, the Reverend Trevor Basil Woodd, he told me he
also heard a similar warning in his rooms at Vauxhall Bridge Road about
the same time."
To mention only one other of the many instances that might be cited, the
Knocking Ghost was again heard on June 3, 1895, just twenty-four hours
before the death of Mr. Thomas Basil Woodd at Hampstead. Again, too, it
was heard by more than one person and in more than one place, by Mr.
Woodd's daughters, Fanny and Kate, and by his niece, Miss Ethel G.
Woodd, who was at the time visiting friends in Yorkshire, and at first
mistook the Knocking Ghost for somebody hammering nails into the wall of
the next room. Oddly enough, this was also the way it sounded to Fanny
Woodd, in London, as appears from the following statement signed by
her:
"On June 3, 1895, at ten-thirty P. M., Fanny Woodd, staying with Mrs.
Stoney, 83 Wharton Road, West Kensington, heard knocks, apparently from
next door, as of nails being hammered in and pictures hung, which seemed
so unlikely at that hour of night that the next morning she mentioned it
to Mrs. Stoney, whose bedroom was just below hers, asking if she had
heard it or could account for it."
But Mrs. Stoney had heard nothing, and the next-door neighbor, Mrs.
Harriet Taylor, rather tartly declared that: "There has been no putting
up of pictures or knocking of any sort in this house for quite two
years. We are also early risers, and are always in bed and asleep by
ten P. M." That same day Miss Woodd rejoined her father and sister in
Hampstead, and was astonished to hear that the latter had been awakened
about half past ten the previous night by loud knockings against the
window shutters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account