character; a noble lord was to be present.' anxious to detect the imposture, if any.

"(Signed)

"STEPHEN ALDRICH,

We are

Rector of St. John's, Clerkenwell.

"JAMES PENN,

Lecturer of St. Ann's, Aldersgate."

In pursuance of this plan, many persons, eminent for rank and character, assembled at Mr. Aldrich's house on January 31, and, about ten at night, met in the chamber where the girl had been put to bed with proper caution. After an hour, hearing nothing, they went down stairs and examined the father, who strongly denied any knowledge or belief of fraud. As the pretended spirit had publicly promised, by an affirmative knock, that she would attend one of the gentlemen to the vault under the church, and give a token by a knock upon the coffin, it was determined to make that trial. While deliberating, they were called into the chamber by ladies who sat near the bed, and had heard noises. The girl said that she felt the spirit like a mouse upon her back, and being required to hold her hands out of bed, from that time there was no evidence of anything preternatural. The spirit was then told they were about to visit the vault, and that the promise about striking the coffin must now be performed. At one o'clock in the morning the party repaired to the church, and two of them entered the vault, but in spite of a solemn demand of the promised sign, all was silent. Then Mr. Kent, accused of murder by the ghost, went down, but no effect followed. The girl would make no confession, and the assembly concluded "that she had some art of counterfeiting particular noises, and that there was no higher agency." It was then reported that the coffin had been displaced or removed.

On the 25th of February, Mr. Kent. the undertaker

who performed the funeral, and several gentlemen, descended into the vault, when the coffin being identified, it was opened, and the body found to be undisturbed. Other means were used to detect the fraud. The girl was taken from house to house, but was constantly attended by mysterious noises, though bound and muffled hand and foot. There was no motion of the lips when she seemed asleep, yet the sounds were frequent, and were said to be heard in rooms a considerable distance from that where she lay. At last she was placed in a hammock six feet from the ground, her hands extended and fastened with fillets, when for two nights no noises were heard. She was then told that if the knockings were not heard again, she and her parents would be sent to Newgate. She asked to be put to bed, to see if the scratchings would return, but they did not. This was on a Saturday. Being told that only one night more would be allowed, she concealed a board under her stays, and said "she would bring Fanny at six the next morning." The master of

the house was warned that she had a board in bed with her. In the morning noises were heard, but quite unlike the former, and, being searched, the board was found. It was thought she had been frightened into this attempt, as the sounds had no resemblance to those heard previously. Things remained thus, when Mr. Kent resolved to vindicate his character at law. On the 10th of July, the Parsonses, Mary Fraser, who acted as the ghost's interpreter, the Rev. Mr. Moore, minister of St. Sepulchre, and one James, a tradesman, were tried at Guildhall, before Lord Mansfield, and convicted of a conspiracy against the life and character of Mr. Kent. The Court permitted Moore and James to purchase their pardon of the injured party by a payment of £600. Parsons was sentenced to be set on the pillory three times in one month, once at the end of Cock-lane, and to be imprisoned

two years. Mrs. Parsons and Mary Fraser were kept in Bridewell, with hard labour, for six months. Mr. Brown, of Amen-corner, for publishing letters on the subject, was fined £50. When Parsons was pilloried, the populace treated him as an object of compassion, and a large collection was made for him. Dr. Johnson was ridiculed in Churchill's "Ghost" for the part he took in the affair; but Boswell mentions that Johnson had expressed great indignation at the fraud, and related the exertions he had made to expose the cheat. The satirical poet asserts that the doctor went into the vault of St. John's Church, but there is no fair ground for the charge. No doubt our great moralist was superstitious, and prone to believe supernatural tales; but in this instance his doubts were quickly roused, and he appears to have been extremely anxious to disabuse the public mind.

The trick was carried on by means of ventriloquism— a faculty then little understood. The girl ultimately confessed as much. She died so recently as 1807, having been twice married. Her second husband was a market

gardener at Chiswick.

Here are a few specimens from Churchill's "Ghost," a poem long forgotten, yet possessing great cleverness:

"Poets who believe not God nor ghost,
And fools who worship every post;
Cowards, whose lips with war are hung;
Men truly brave, who hold their tongue;
Courtiers, who laugh they know not why,
And Cits, who for the same cause cry;
The canting tabernacle brother
(For one rogue still suspects another);
Proud of their intellects and clothes,
Physicians, lawyers, parsons, beaus
And truants from their desks and shops;
Spruce Temple clerks, and 'prentice fops,
To Fanny come, with the same view,
To find her false, or find her true.

Hark! something creeps about the house!
Is it a spirit, or a mouse?

Hark! something scratches round the room!
A cat, a rat, a stubb'd birch-broom.

Hark! on the wainscot now it knock !
'If thou'rt a ghost,' cried Orthodox,
With that affected, solemn air
Which hypocrites delight to wear-
'If thou'rt a ghost, who from the tomb
Stalk'st sadly silent thro' this gloom,
In breach of nature's stated laws,
For good, or bad, or for no cause,

Give now nine knocks; like priests of old,
Nine we a sacred number hold.'
'Psha!' cried Profound (a man of parts,
Deep read in all the curious arts),
'As to the number, you are right;
As to the form, mistaken quite.
What's more, your adepts all agree
The virtue lies in three times three.'

We said, no need to say it twice,

For thrice she knock'd, and thrice and thrice.

The crowd, confounded and amazed,

In silence at each other gazed;

From Cælia's hand the snuff-box fell;

Tinsel, who ogled with the belle,
To put it up attempts in vain;
He stoops, but cannot rise again.
Inane Pomposo was not heard
T'import one foreign crabbed word:
Fear seizes heroes, fools, and wits,
And Plausible his prayers forgets."

After much consultation, the sages and wits of the poem agree to visit the vault. They tremble at the entrance, but at last, for very shame, resolve to risk the adventure; and the finale is thus told :

:

"Let the poets famed of old, Seek, whilst our artless tale we tell, In vain to find a parallel.

Silent all three went in; about

All three turned silent, and came out."

The Hammersmith Ghost was the last "spirit" of much repute in Cockneydom. I can well remember the mighty throngs of inquisitive mortals who wended their way to that then rural suburb, in pursuit of the marvellous; and even when the white-sheeted wag who thus trifled with the fears of the public received a bullet for his pains, many persons still pertinaciously insisted on his unearthly character. Mystery must always have an irresistible charm, and we all long to have a glimpse of the vast unknown future. Some daring criminal is reported to have said, the minute previous to his leap into eternity, "In another moment I shall know the great secret." . .、 May we not be surrounded by disembodied spirits, who, though they have unravelled the mystery of mysteries, do yet "revisit the glimpses of the moon,' "attracted by the sympathies which still connect them with the world? However that may be, the wildest fictions relative to the unseen universe will continue to have ready credence as long as mortals mourn for the lost, and cherish the hope

of a reunion.