Page 57 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Ghosts and Phantoms 37

veiled sarcasm did not sit at all well with walked through the rectory, the noises seemed Epworth Rectory.
them. “I wish the ghost would come knocking to play about them. Mysterious crashing sounds (FORTEAN PICTURE LIBRARY)
at your door, Father,” one of them told him. echoed in the darkness. Metallic clinks seemed
to fall in front of them. Somehow managing to
The girls were so angry with their father maintain their courage, the Wesleys searched
that they fought down their fright and vowed every chamber but found nothing.
to ignore the noises until they became so loud
that their no-nonsense parent could not help After he called a family meeting to pool
acknowledging them. They didn’t have long their knowledge about the invisible guest, Rev-
to wait. The very next night, nine loud erend Wesley learned from one of the older girl’s
knocks thudded on the walls of Reverend and observations that the disturbances usually began
Mrs. Wesley’s bedchamber. The clergyman at about ten o’clock in the evening and were
thought some mischief-maker had managed to always prefaced by a “signal” noise, a peculiar
get into the rectory unnoticed and was trying kind of winding sound. The noises followed a
to frighten them. He would buy a dog big pattern that seldom varied. They would begin
enough to gobble up any intruder. in the kitchen, then suddenly fly up to visit a
bed, knocking first at the foot, then the head.
True to his word, the clergyman obtained a These seemed to be the ghost’s warming-up
huge mastiff and brought it into the rectory. exercises. After it had followed these prelimi-
That night, however, as the knocks began to naries, it might indulge any spectral whim
sound, Reverend Wesley was startled to see his which appealed to it on that particular night.
canine bodyguard whimper and cower behind
the frightened children. “Why do you disturb innocent children?”
Wesley roared in righteous indignation one
Two nights later, the sounds in the house night as the knockings in the nursery became
seemed so violent that Wesley and his wife especially violent. “If you have something to
were forced out of bed to investigate. As they say, come to me in my study!”

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