The history of the life and adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell : $b a gentleman, who, tho' deaf and dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first sight, with their future contingencies of fortune
General
The history of the life and adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell : $b a gentleman, who, tho' deaf and dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first sight, with their future contingencies of fortune
Campbell, Duncan, 1680?-1730; Deaf people -- Great Britain -- Biography; Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Prophets -- Great Britain -- Biography
Near eighty years since, in the parish of Wilcot, which is by Devizes,
in the vicar's house, there was heard for a considerable time the sound
of a bell constantly tolling every night. The occasion was this: A
debauched person who lived in the parish came one night very late and
demanded the keys of the church of the vicar, that he might ring a peal,
which the vicar refused to let him have, alleging the unseasonableness
of the time, and that he should, by granting his desires, give a
disturbance to Sir George Wroughton and his family, whose house adjoined
the churchyard. Upon this refusal, the fellow went away in a rage,
threatening to be revenged of the vicar, and going some time after to
Devizes, met with one Cantle or Cantlow, a person noted in those days
for a wizard, and he tells him how the vicar had served him, and begs
his help to be even with him. The reply Cantle made him was this; Does
he not love ringing? he shall have enough of it: and from that time a
bell began to toll in his house, and continued so to do till Cantle's
death, who confessed at Fisherton gaol, in Sarum, where he was confined
by King James during his life, that he caused that sound, and that it
should be heard in that place during life. The thing was so notorious
that persons came from all parts to hear it; and King James sent a
gentleman from London on purpose to give him satisfaction concerning the
truth of the report. Mr. Beaumont had likewise this story, as he tells,
from the mouth of Sir George Wroughton's own son; with this remarkable
circumstance, that if any in the house put their heads out of the window
they could not hear the sound, but heard it immediately again as soon as
they stood in the room.
The reader here sees that good and bad genii exercise themselves upon
very little functions, knocking at bed's-heads, and ringing of bells.
For proof of this we have the testimonies of two divines, of a man of
quality and probity, and the same satisfaction that a learned king had,
who sent to inquire into the matter; and after this there can be, I
think, no room for doubt.
But to carry the point still nearer home; inasmuch as I know some will
leave no stone unturned to make the extraordinary actions which the
person whose life I write has performed, appear impostures, and inasmuch
as for this end they may say, that though many people may have been
gifted in this extraordinary manner, yet not so as to make a profession
of it, and therefore, from thence they take their suspicions, I shall in
this place, to remove every nicest scruple they can have touching this
affair, give the reader one instance of this kind likewise, before I
proceed with my history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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