By the Rev. Canon J. E. JacJcson, F.S.A. 343 



Doors would be opened and shut half-a-dozen times : yet nobody- 

 seemed either to come in or go out; and then again half-a-dozen people 

 seemed to be rushing in at once. During one of the times that the 

 knocks were going on, one of the company, when many were present, 

 mustered courage enough to venture upon exorcising the ghost by 

 this fearful adjuration, '* Satan ! if the drummer set thee a-work, 

 give three knocks and no more." The three knocks were given, 

 and no more : but no further reply. Sir Thomas Chamberlayne, 

 of Oxford, and several others, were present at that performance. 

 Another time the village blacksmith slept in the house, and he 

 undertook to discover all about it. Presently there came into his 

 room a noise as of a man shoeing a horse ; and something or other 

 came as it were with a pair of pincers and snipt at the blacksmith's 

 nose the greater part of the night. Another night a young lady 

 was the victim. Her bed was lifted up, and there were noises 

 underneath. They thrust in a sword, but nobody was hurt. Then 

 there came out a noise like that ol a dog panting for breath. They 

 began to suspect witchcraft : for the bible belonging to the old 

 gentlewoman of the house was found under the grate, open, with 

 the paper side downward. Mr. Mompesson took it up, and observed 

 that it lay open at the third chapter of St. Mark, where there is 

 mention of unclean spirits being cast out by Beelzebub. So then 

 they strewed dust over the floor of the room, to see what marks 

 might be made upon it : and in the morning they found the re- 

 semblance of a great claw, and some mysterious letters, circles, and 

 scratches. Mr. Glanville, the Rector of Bath, himself visited the 

 house, and, though the knockings had ceased, he said he distinctly 

 heard scratchings of the bed, and the panting of the dog very 

 violent. Two or three nights would pass quietly : and then the 

 noises would begin again. The candle would be put out in the 

 children's room : and the children themselves trampled on. Some- 

 thing would purr in their bed, like a cat, and the children themselves 

 would be lifted up, so that six men could not keep them down. 



All this went on, at intervals, for two years. In the third year 

 a gentleman that lay in the house found all the money in his pocket 

 turned black : and one morning Mr. Mompesson going to his stable 



