The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-SeersCrowe, Catherine
Religion
The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers
Crowe, Catherine
Ghosts; Parapsychology
Only last year, there was a very curious circumstance happened in the
south of England, in which these lights were seen. I give the account
literally as I extracted it from the newspaper, and also the answer of
the editor to my further inquiries. I know nothing more of this story;
but it is singularly in keeping with others proceeding from different
quarters.
“A GHOST AT BRISTOL.—We have this week a ghost-story to relate. Yes, a
ghost-story; a real ghost-story, and a ghost-story without, as yet, any
clew to its elucidation. After the dissolution of the Calendars, their
ancient residence, adjoining and almost forming a part of All-Saint’s
church, Bristol, was converted into a vicarage-house, and it is still
called by that name, though the incumbents have for many years ceased to
reside there. The present occupants are Mr. and Mrs. Jones, the sexton
and sextoness of the church, and one or two lodgers; and it is to the
former and their servant-maid that the strange visiter has made his
appearance, causing such terror by his nightly calls, that all three
have determined on quitting the premises, if indeed they have not
already carried their resolution into effect. Mr. and Mrs. Jones’s
description of the disturbance as given to the landlord, on whom they
called in great consternation, is as distinct as any ghost-story could
be. The nocturnal visiter is heard walking about the house when the
inhabitants are in bed; and Mr. Jones, who is a man of by no means
nervous constitution, declares he has several times seen a light
flickering on one of the walls. Mrs. Jones is equally certain that she
has heard a man with creaking shoes walking in the bed-room above her
own, when no man was on the premises (or at least ought to be), and “was
nearly killed with the fright.” To the servant-maid, however, was
vouchsafed the unenvied honor of seeing this restless night-visiter; she
declares she has repeatedly had her bed-room door unbolted at night
between the hours of twelve and two o’clock—the period when such beings
usually make their promenades—by something in human semblance; she can
not particularize his dress, but describes it as something antique, and
of a fashion “lang syne gane,” and to some extent corresponding to that
of the ancient Calendars, the former inhabitants of the house. She
further says he is a “whiskered gentleman” (we give her own
words)—which whiskered gentleman has gone the length of shaking her
bed, and she believes would have shaken herself also, but that she
invariably puts her head under the clothes when she sees him approach.
Mrs. Jones declares she believes in the appearance of the whiskered
gentleman, and she had made up her mind, the night before she called on
her landlord, to leap out of the window (and it is not a trifle that
will make people leap out of the windows) as soon as he entered the
room. The effect of the ‘flickering light’ on Mr. Jones was quite
terrific, causing excessive trembling, and the complete doubling up of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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