DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0101
ACCOUNT OF THE COCK LANE GHOST.
83
required to hold her hands out of bed. From that time,
though the spirit was very solemnly required to manifest
its existence by appearance, by impression on the hand
or body of any present, by scratches, knocks, or any
agency, no evidence of any preternatural power was ex-
hibited.
“The spirit was then seriously advertised that the per-
son, to whom the promise was made of striking the coffin,
was then about to visit the vault, and that the perform-
ance of the promise was then claimed. The company, at
one, went into the church, and the gentleman to whom
the promise was made, went with one more into the vault.
The spirit was solemnly required to perform its promise,
but nothing more than silence ensued. The person sup-
posed to be accused by the ghost, then went down with
several others, but no effect was perceived. On their re-
turn they examined the girl, but could draw no confes-
sion from her. Between two and three she desired and
was permitted to go home to her father.
“ It is therefore the opinion of the whole assembly that
the child has some art of making or counterfeiting parti-
cular noises, and that there is no agency of any higher
cause.”
To elude the force of this conclusion, it was given out
that the coffin in which the body of the supposed ghost
had been deposited, or at least the body itself, had been
displaced, or removed out of the vault. Mr. Kempe,
therefore, thought proper to take with him to the vault,
the undertaker who buried Miss Fanny, and such other
unprejudiced persons, as, on inspection, might be able to
prove the fallacy of such a suggestion.
Accordingly in the afternoon of the 25th of February,
Mr. Kempe, with a clergyman, the undertaker, clerk,
and sexton of the parish, and two or three gentlemen,
went into the vault, when the undertaker presently knew
m 2 the
83
required to hold her hands out of bed. From that time,
though the spirit was very solemnly required to manifest
its existence by appearance, by impression on the hand
or body of any present, by scratches, knocks, or any
agency, no evidence of any preternatural power was ex-
hibited.
“The spirit was then seriously advertised that the per-
son, to whom the promise was made of striking the coffin,
was then about to visit the vault, and that the perform-
ance of the promise was then claimed. The company, at
one, went into the church, and the gentleman to whom
the promise was made, went with one more into the vault.
The spirit was solemnly required to perform its promise,
but nothing more than silence ensued. The person sup-
posed to be accused by the ghost, then went down with
several others, but no effect was perceived. On their re-
turn they examined the girl, but could draw no confes-
sion from her. Between two and three she desired and
was permitted to go home to her father.
“ It is therefore the opinion of the whole assembly that
the child has some art of making or counterfeiting parti-
cular noises, and that there is no agency of any higher
cause.”
To elude the force of this conclusion, it was given out
that the coffin in which the body of the supposed ghost
had been deposited, or at least the body itself, had been
displaced, or removed out of the vault. Mr. Kempe,
therefore, thought proper to take with him to the vault,
the undertaker who buried Miss Fanny, and such other
unprejudiced persons, as, on inspection, might be able to
prove the fallacy of such a suggestion.
Accordingly in the afternoon of the 25th of February,
Mr. Kempe, with a clergyman, the undertaker, clerk,
and sexton of the parish, and two or three gentlemen,
went into the vault, when the undertaker presently knew
m 2 the