Devonshire Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Devonshire Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England) -- Biography; Devon (England) -- History
Soon after this a female ghost appeared in the house, and was seen by
the same young man, as also by Mrs. Thomasine Gidley, Anne Langdon,
and a little child. She was able to assume various shapes: sometimes
she appeared as a dog, belching fire, at another she went out of the
window in the shape of a horse, breaking one pane of glass and a piece
of iron. It was certainly vastly considerate of her in the bulk of a
horse to do so little damage! But usually she stalked along the passage
and appeared in the rooms in her own form. No doubt could exist as to
who this troublesome ghost was. The “spectrum” of the old gentleman
had already hinted that his second wife was a bad woman, and could make
herself unpleasant.
On one occasion, invisible hands laid hold of the young man, and rammed
his head into a narrow space between the bedstead and the wall, and it
took several persons to extricate him; and then, what with fright and
what with the pressure, he was so unwell that a surgeon was sent for to
bleed him. No sooner was this operation performed, than the ligatures
about the arm were suddenly snatched at and torn off, and slung about
his waist, and there drawn so tight that he was nearly suffocated. They
had to be cut through with a knife to relieve him. At other times his
cravat was drawn tight.
The spectre was of a playful humour sometimes, and would pluck the
perukes off the heads of people, and one that was on top of a cabinet
in a box, with a joint-stool on it, was drawn out and ripped to
shreds--and this was the most costly wig in the house.
At another time the youth’s “shoe-string” was observed without
assistance of hands to come out of his shoe of its own accord and cast
itself to the other side of the room, whereupon the other shoe-lace
started crawling after its companion. A maid espying this, with her
hand drew it back, when it clasped and curled round her hand like an
eel or serpent.
The young man’s clothes were taken off and torn to shreds, as were
those of another servant in the house, and this while they were on
their backs. A barrel of salt was seen to march out of one room and
into another, untouched by human hands. When the spectre appeared in
her own likeness she was habited in the ordinary garments of women
at the time, especially like those worn by Mrs. Philip Furze, her
daughter-in-law.
On Easter Eve the young man was returning from the town when he was
caught by the female spectre by his coat and carried up into the air,
head, legs, and arms dangling down.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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