At eight in the evening, the whole row of pewter dishes, bar one,
fell from a shelf, rolled about a little, and 'as soon as they were
quiet, turned upside down; they were then put upon the dresser, and
went through the same a second time'. Then of two eggs, one 'flew
off, crossed the kitchen, struck a cat on the head, and then burst
in pieces'. A pestle and a mortar presently 'jumped six feet from
the floor'. The glass and crockery were now put on the floor, 'he
that is down need fear no fall,' but the objects began to dance, and
tumble about, and then broke to pieces. A china bowl jumped eight
feet but was not broken. However it tried again, and succeeded.
Candlesticks, tea-kettles, a tumbler of rum and water, two hams, and
a flitch of bacon joined in the corroboree. 'Most of the genteel
families around were continually sending to inquire after them, and
whether all was over or not.' All this while, Ann was 'walking
backwards and forwards', nor could they get her to sit down, except
for half an hour, at prayers, 'then all was quiet'. She remarked,
with stoicism, 'these things could not be helped'. Fowler came in
at ten, but fled in a fright at one in the morning. By five, Mrs.
Golding summoned Mrs. Pain, who had gone to bed, 'all the tables,
chairs, drawers, etc., were tumbling about'.
They rushed across to Fowler's where, as soon as Ann arrived, the
old game went on. Fowler, therefore, like the landlord in the poem,
'did plainly say as how he wished they'd go away,' at the same time
asking Mrs. Golding 'whether or not, she had been guilty of some
atrocious crime, for which providence was determined to pursue her
on this side the grave,' and to break crockery till death put an end
to the stupendous Nemesis. 'Having hitherto been esteemed a most
deserving person,' Mrs. Golding replied, with some natural warmth,
that 'her conscience was quite clear, and she could as well wait the
will of providence in her own house as in any other place,' she and
the maid went to her abode, and there everything that had previously
escaped was broken. 'A nine-gallon cask of beer that was in the
cellar, the door being open and nobody near it, turned upside down';
'a pail of water boiled like a pot'. So Mrs. Golding discharged
Miss Ann Robinson and that is all.
At Mrs. Golding's they took up three, and at Mrs. Pain's two pails
of the fragments that were left. The signatures follow, appended on
January 11.
The tale has a sequel. In 1817 an old Mr. Braidley, who loved his
joke, told Hone that he knew Ann, and that she confessed to having
done the tricks by aid of horse-hairs, wires and other simple
appliances. We have not Mr. Braidley's attested statement, but
Ann's character as a Medium is under a cloud. Have all other
Mediums secret wires? (Every-day Book, i. 62.)
Ann Robinson, we have seen, was a tranquil and philosophical maiden.
Not so was another person who was equally active, ninety years
earlier.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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