Page 64 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

44 Ghosts and Phantoms

the late nineteenth century. According to the The drummer, whose name was Drury,
story surrounding his death, a stranger on begged Mompesson to check his story with
horseback who claimed to be in desperate need Colonel Ayliff of Gretenham. The colonel
of an attorney called him to the porch one would vouch for his integrity, the drummer
evening. When Winter stepped outside to see insisted. Mompesson was swayed by the drum-
how he might be of service, the man shot him mer’s pleas that he not be put into jail, but he
and rode away. Fatally wounded, Winter stag- told the man that he would confiscate his
gered through the house, painfully climbed the drum until he had checked out his story. Drury
stairs, and died in the arms of his wife. demanded that his drum be returned, but
Mompesson told him to be on his way and to
Throughout the years, many residents and
their employees have heard their names called give thanks for his own freedom.
by invisible entities. The haunting phenome- Mompesson had the drum sent to his house
na seemed to fade and flow, intensifying and for safekeeping, then left on a business trip to
then lessening in its manifestations. Now that London. Upon his return, his wife informed
the place is also a bed and breakfast hotel, Eby him that the household had been terrorized by
said that the staff knows when the Myrtles is strange noises in the night. She could only
having a bad night by the number of guests accredit the sounds to burglars trying to break
who call up at midnight and demand to leave into the house. On the third night of his return,
the place at once. Mompesson was brought to his feet by a loud
knocking that seemed to be coming from a side
M Delving Deeper door. With a pistol in one hand and another in
Hauck, Dennis William. Haunted Places: The National his belt, Mompesson opened the door. No one
Directory. New York: Viking/Penguin, 1996. was there, but now the knocking had begun at
Norman, Michael, and Beth Scott. Historic Haunted another door. He flung that one open, too, and
America. New York: Tor Books, 1996. finding no one there, walked around the out-
Taylor, Troy. “The Myrtles Plantation ‘One of Ameri- side of the house in search of the culprit. He
ca’s Most Haunted.’” Ghosts of the Prairie. [Online] found no one on his search, nor could he
http://www.prairieghosts.com/myrtles.html. account for the hollow drumming that sounded
Turnage, Sheila. Haunted Inns of the Southeast. Win- on the roof when he went back to bed.
ston-Salem, Mass.: John F. Blair, 2001. From that night on, the drumming came
always just after the Mompessons had gone to
bed. It made no difference whether they
The Tedworth Drummer retired early or late, the invisible drummer was
ever prepared to tap them an annoying lullaby.
The bizarre haunting phenomena that beset
the family of John Mompesson of Tedworth, After a month of being contented with rooftop
England, in March of 1661 had overtones of maneuvers, the disturbances moved inside—
witchcraft and the fixing of a terrible curse. into the room where Mompesson had placed
The “demon” of Tedworth is so much a part of the ex-soldier’s drum. Once it had established
the legend and folklore of England that ballads itself in the home, the ghostly drummer
and poems have been written in celebration of favored the family with two hours of martial
the incredible prowess of the pesky ghost. rolls, tattoos, and points of war each evening.
On the night in which Mrs. Mompesson
John Mompesson, a justice of the peace,
had brought before him an ex-drummer in was being delivered of a child, the drummer
Cromwell’s army, who had been demanding was respectfully quiet. It maintained this
money of the bailiff by virtue of a suspicious silence for a period of three weeks, as if it were
pass. The bailiff had believed the pass to be allowing the mother to fully recover her
counterfeit, and Mompesson, who was famil- strength before it began its pranks in earnest.
iar with the handwriting of the gentleman The children were the ones who suffered
who had allegedly signed the note, immedi- most when the drummer terminated its truce.
ately declared the paper to be a forgery. With terrible violence, the thing began beat-

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