NIGHT VI.

OF PLACES SUPPOSED TO BE HAUNTED.

SOPHRON. We laid it down, some time ago, as a probability, that there would be some places where we might naturally expect to find appearances of the departed more frequent than in others. In point of fact, we know that the universal voice of mankind has declared that the case is so. That deserted houses, marshy wastes, battle fields, the places where enormous crimes have been perpetrated, lonely roads, and such like spots, are haunted, truly or falsely, has always been, and still is believed. To-night we will examine into some examples of this kind.

PISTUS. You will find as a general rule, that places which once had some connexion with man, but are now deserted by him, are rather those which public belief represents as subject to the visitations of spirits, than such as have never been in any way connected with him. Holy Scripture itself, foretelling the destruction of Babylon, can

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not give a more vivid picture of desolation than by the words, "their houses shall be full of doleful creatures."

SOPHRON. Haunted houses have, as we all know, been the most fruitful source of imposition. I do not mean those where, from time to time, the same kind of apparition presents itself, but those which, for weeks or months together, are kept in a state of disquiet and alarm by extraordinary noises and disturbances. I do not say that these things never have occurred; but I do say that if many of the freaks-I can call them by no other word-which have been recounted in such, be really the work of supernatural agency, then I can only come to Dr. More's sage conclusion, that "there are as great fools out of the flesh as there are in it." And when we consider the ease of imposition in these matters, by confederates artfully arranged, by ventriloquism skilfully managed, by sleight of hand opportunely practised; and when we know that many of these tricks have been detected, such cases seem to me to be in themselves suspicious in a very high degree. The so-called Stockwell and Cock-lane ghosts were detected, to the great confusion of their contrivers. The two most celebrated cases that have ever been known, were, I suppose, what was usually called the Demon of Tedworth, and the Epworth ghost. The first occurred just after the Restoration, and occasioned the most bitter con

troversy as to its reality. I conceive that we are not now in a condition to pronounce a verdict on the matter.

THEOPHILA. What were the particulars in general?

SOPHRON. It appears that from March, 1661, to April, 1663, the house of a Mr. Mompesson, at Tedworth, in Wiltshire, was disturbed in a most extraordinary manner. There was thumping and drumming round the rooms, scratching under the beds, furniture thrown about when persons were in the room, children thrown out of bed, articles of apparel strewn all over the floor, and many apish tricks of the same kind. The house was thronged with visitors, for the thing was known all over England. King Charles II. deputed some gentlemen to inquire into the matter. Glanville himself slept in the house, but nothing ever was discovered which could give the slightest idea of collusion. There were, I confess, several suspicious circumstances: a sword presented at the place where the noise seemed to be, always silenced it; there were no disturbances for three weeks after Mrs. Mompesson's confinement; there were none while the royal commission were in the house : but they took place while Glanville was there; and what he says on the subject is so sensible, that I will read it to you. "It will, I know, be said by some, that my friend and I were under

some affright, and so fancied noises and sights that were not. This is the usual evasion. But

if it be possible to know how a man is affected when in fear, and when unconcerned, I certainly know for my own part that during the whole time of my being in the room and in the house, I was under no more affrightment than I am while I write this relation. And if I know that I am now awake, and that I see the objects that are before me, I know that I heard and saw the particulars that I have told." Now, certainly, I confess, it is rather hard that an honest and clever man is not to be believed, when he speaks in this manner. We must also remember that Mr. Mompesson, if an impostor, was so for no assignable reason; that he suffered in his name, in his estate, in his family. Unbelievers called him an impostor, believers thought it a judgment for some extraordinary wickedness; he was unable to attend to his business through the concourse of visitors; his rest was broken, his peace of mind disturbed, and he never gained the slightest advantage in an imposition, if imposition it was, so painfully practised through so long a time. The Epworth ghost, absurd and useless as the whole thing seems, I cannot disbelieve. I will read you what Southey says on the subject in his Life of Wesley. "Such things may be supernatural and yet not miraculous; they may not be in the ordinary course of nature, and yet imply no alteration of its laws. And with regard to the good end which they may be supposed to answer, it would be end sufficient if sometimes

one of those unhappy persons, who, looking through the dim glass of infidelity, see nothing beyond this life, and the narrow sphere of mortal existence, should, from the well-established truth of one such story, trifling and objectless as it otherwise might appear, be led to a conclusion that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in their philosophy." And that must needs be a most well-authenticated relation which Priestley, if he would not believe, did not profess thoroughly to disbelieve.

EUSEBIA. How is it so well authenticated?

SOPHRON. Because the various members of the family, Mr. and Mrs. Wesley, and their daughters, wrote accounts of the apparition, Old Jefferies, as they called it, to Samuel Wesley, then in London; he preserved them, and they were printed by John Wesley in the Arminian Magazine. Southey reprinted them in the Appendix to the first volume of his Life of Wesley. To relate all the particulars would be impossible. In brief, they are these. On the first of December, 1716, a groaning, as of a person in great bodily pain, was heard by the servants outside the halldoor, but no one could be found there. Strange knockings were then heard in various parts of the house; the young ladies were first informed of it, then their mother, a woman of remarkably strong intellect; and, as Mr. Wesley never appeared to hear the sounds, they were thought to be a warning of his death. They at last grew so trouble