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bed; on hearing which most of them were terribly frightened, and would have run off faster than they came, but he assured them they had nothing to fear then out he dragged the half-murdered spirit from its scene of action. But how great was their surprise and shame, when they discovered that this tormenting devil was no other than one of their servant girls, about sixteen years of age, who had been confined to her bed several months by illness.

This ghost was no sooner laid, than two others alarmed the neighbourhood, one of which for a long time shook a house every night and terribly distressed the family; at length they all resolved one night to go over the whole house in a body and see what it was that agitated the building. They examined every room but in vain, as no cause could be discovered, so they very seriously as well as unanimously concluded that it must be the devil.

But, about a fortnight after this, one of the family being out late in the garden saw a great boy get in at the window of an old house next door (part of which was in ruins,) and soon after the house began to shake as usual, on which the family went out of their own habitation and entered the old house where the boy was seen to get in; yet for a long time they could not discover any person, and were just turning to come out again, when one of the company observed the boy suspended over their heads striding over the end of a large beam that ran across both houses.

It was then apparent that the violent agitation of the adjoining house was occasioned by nothing more than his leaping up and down on the unsupported end of this beam.

Another apparition had for a long time stolen many geese, turkeys, &c. and although it had been seen by many, yet nobody would venture to go near it, until at length one person a little wiser than the rest of his neighbours, seeing the famous apparition all over white stealing his fowls, was determined to be fully

satisfied what kind of spirit it could be that had so great a predilection for poultry. He accordingly went round the yard, and as the apparition was coming over the wall he knocked it down. This terrible ghost then proved to be a neighbouring woman who had put on her shroud in order to deter any persons that should by chance see her, from coming near her. Thus, though she had for a long time successfully practised this ingenious way of procuring poultry, the old fox was caught at last.

This is so prolific a subject that I could fill many pages with relations of dreadful spectres, which for a while have reigned with tyrannic sway over weak minds, and at length, when calm reason was suffered to assume its power, have been discovered to be no more objects of terror than those I have here noticed. But doubtless many such instances must have occurred to you.

"Chief o'er the sex he rules with tyrant sway,
When vapours seize them, or vain fears betray;
With groans of distant friends affrights the ear,
Or sits a phantom in the vacant chair;
Fancy, like Macbeth, has murder'd sleep."

PRALL.

It has indeed often astonished me that, in this enlightened age, there should yet remain numbers, not in the country only, but even in the metropolis, who suffer themselves to be made miserable by vain fears of preternatural occurrences, which generally owe their origin to the knavery of some ill-disposed person who has a sinister purpose to answer thereby, or to the foolish desire of alarming the minds of weak people; a practice sometimes (though intended as fun) productive of very serious consequences. Now and then indeed these terrors are owing to accidental and ridiculous causes. As an instance, I shall give you the account of a terrible alarm which some years since took place in a hospital of this city, as related

to me by a gentleman who at the time resided in the house for the purpose of completing his medical education, and on whose veracity I can confidently rely.

For several nights successively a noise had been heard in the lower part of the building, like the continual tapping against a window, which led the night nurses wisely to conclude, it must certainly be occasioned by the spirit of one of the bodies deposited in the dead-house endeavouring to escape; as the sound seemed to proceed from that particular quarter. The dread of these sagacious ladies at last became such as totally to prevent their going from ward to ward to do their duty, and determined my friend to attempt to lay this perturbed spirit; which however he apprehended would more speedily, as well as effectually, be performed by the assistance of a good cudgel, than by exorcisms: he therefore, instead of consulting the chaplain, gave orders the next night that as soon as the usual dreadful sound was heard, to give him notice. This you may suppose they did not neglect doing, though at the same time they were shocked at his temerity, and apprehensive for the consequences. Impressed with an idea of the alarm being occasioned by some servant or patient in the house, he immediately sallied forth with a candle in one hand, and a good tough twig in the other, accompanied by two of the men servants of the hospital, accoutred in the same manner, resolved that, if detected, the party should meet with an ample reward. The dead-house was passed; the noise continued; though it evidently proceeded from a window at some distance in the area. When the cavalcade came near the scene of action, the window suddenly and violently broke without anything being seen. This my friend confessed, for a moment occasioned his making a halt; but, as nothing visible had escaped through the area, it occurred to him something might have made an entrance that way, accordingly he proceeded to the internal part of the building, and on opening, the door

the apparition immediately not only appeared, but disappeared, and that so instantaneously as not to afford time to apply the remedy intended. And what think you was this dreadful spirit? That you may exercise your ingenuity at guessing, I will here conclude with,

I am, dear friend, yours.

LETTER V.

-Were thy education ne'er so mean,

Having thy limbs, a thousand fair courses

Offer themselves to thy election."

BEN JONSON'S Every Man in his Humour.

"Laugh if you are wise."

DEAR FRIEND,

MARTIAL.

A CAT.-An odd beginning of a letter, by the bye -but here highly important and proper, as tending to relieve you from the anxious thoughts which no doubt must have filled your mind on the subject of the concluding part of my former letter. I must give you a laughable instance or two more, which lately happened. Mr Higley the bookseller, famous for selling odd volumes, or broken sets of books, lived next door to a public-house in Russell court, Drury lane; this public-house was separated from his habitation only by a slight wainscot partition, through which Mr Higley caused a hole to be cut, and a slider put over it, so that when he wanted any beer he always drew back the slider, and had it handed to him through this convenient aperture.

The night after Mr Higley's death, which happened a few months since, the man who was left to take care of the corpse, about twelve o'clock, hearing the

landlord and his family going up stairs to their beds, on a sudden drew back the slider and hallowed through the hole, "Bring me a pint of beer." This order the landlord and his family heard and were terribly alarmed, as they really thought it had proceeded from the ghost of their neighbour Higley; the poor maid let fall the warming-pan, which came tumbling down the stairs, the landlady being within the reach of her husband's legs, caught fast hold of them, which in his fright he mistook for poor Higley. But the man bursting into a hearty laugh restored the spirits of our host and his family.

About the year 1781, six or seven mechanics having been drinking near the whole of the day at a public house in the Borough, they at night were at a loss how to procure more liquor, their money being all gone, when two of the company observed, that an old wire-drawer in the room was dead drunk, they proposed to put him into a sack, and to carry him to Longbottom, the resurrection-man. This motion met with the approbation of the whole, and the two that proposed it took him away to Longbottom's house, as a dead subject, and requested a guinea, saying that they would call for the remainder in the morning. Their request was complied with, and the old wire-drawer was left in the sack in a room amongst dead bodies. About midnight the old man awaked, and made a terrible noise which much alarmed Mr Longbottom and his wife, as they really supposed that one of their dead subjects was come to life again; they dared not approach the room but remained for a long time under a dreadful apprehension of what might be the consequences. The old fellow after a long struggle got out of the sack, and after tumbling about awhile over the dead bodies, he at last found his way down stairs, and off he set, leaving Mr Longbottom and his wife in the utmost consternation. The old wiredrawer related this story to my brother, Philip Lackington.