we may even say troublesome, if not expensive."
(_Norfolk Chronicle_, June 1, 1833.)
* * * * *
"SYDERSTONE PARSONAGE
"_To the Editor of the Norfolk Chronicle._
"SIR,--My name having lately appeared in the _Bury Post_, as well as in
your own journal, without my consent or knowledge, I doubt not you will
allow me the opportunity of occupying some portion of your paper, in
way of explanation.
"It is most true that, at the request of the Rev. Mr. Stewart, I was
at the Parsonage at Syderstone, on the night of the 15th ult., for the
purpose of investigating the cause of the several interruptions to
which Mr. Stewart and his family have been subject for the last three
or four months. I feel it right, therefore, to correct some of the
erroneous impressions which the paragraph in question is calculated to
make upon the public mind, and at the same time to state fairly the
leading circumstances which transpired that night.
"At ten minutes before two in the morning, '_knocks_' were distinctly
heard; they continued at intervals, until after sunrise--sometimes
proceeding from the bed's-head, sometimes from the side-boards of the
children's bed, sometimes from a three-inch partition, separating
the children's sleeping-rooms; both sides of which partition were
open to observation. On two or three occasions, also, when a definite
number of blows was requested to be given, the precise number required
was distinctly heard. _How_ these blows were occasioned was the
subject of diligent search: every object was before us, but nothing
satisfactorily to account for them; no trace of any human hand, or of
mechanical power, was to be discovered. Still, I would remark, though
perfectly distinct, these knocks were by no means so powerful as your
paragraph represents--indeed, instead of '_being even louder, and of
longer continuance that night_, as if to give _the visitors a grand
treat_,' it would seem they were neither _so_ loud nor _so_ frequent
as they commonly had been. In several instances they were particularly
gentle, and the pauses between them afforded all who were present
the opportunity of exercising the most calm judgment and deliberate
investigation.
"I would next notice the '_vibrations_' on the side-board and post of
the children's beds. These were distinctly felt by myself as well as
others, not only once, but frequently. They were obviously the effect
of different blows, given in some way or other, upon the different
parts of the beds, in several instances while those parts were actually
under our hands. It is not true that '_the effect on all present was
like a shock of electricity_,' but that these '_vibrations_' did take
place, and that too in beds, perfectly disjointed from every wall, was
obvious to our senses; though in what way they were occasioned could
not be developed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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