Page 67 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Ghosts and Phantoms 47

allowed to sleep. At last Mompesson arranged By the time a king’s commission had
to have the children taken to the house of arrived to investigate the haunting, the phe-
friends. At this tactic, the drummer pounded nomena had been quiet for several weeks. The
severely on Mompesson’s bedroom door, then cavaliers spent the night with the Mompes-
quit its post there to show itself to a servant. sons, then left the next morning, declaring
that the entire two-year haunting was either a
The terrified man told Mompesson that he
hoax or the misinterpretation of natural phe-
could not determine the exact proportions of
nomena by credulous and superstitious men.
the entity, but he had seen a great body with
two red and glaring eyes, which for some time Reverend Joseph Glanvil’s frustration with
were fixed steadily upon him. His Majesty’s investigators is obvious in the
conclusion of Saducismus Triumphatus, his
When the children were returned to their account of the Mompesson family’s ordeal,
home, the thing seemed to want to make up to where he stated that it was bad logic for the
them. The Mompessons and their servants king’s investigators to conclude a matter of
could hear distinctly a purring, like that of a fact from a single negative against numerous
cat in the nursery. The contented purring, affirmatives, and so affirm that a thing was
however, turned out to be but another ploy of never done. “This is the common argument of
the devilish drummer. Four hours later, it was those that deny the being of apparitions,”
beating the children’s legs against the bedposts Glanvil declared. “They have traveled all
and emptying chamber pots into their beds. hours of the night and have never seen any

A friend who had stayed the night in the thing worse than themselves (which may well
haunted house had all of his coins turned be) and thence they conclude that all appari-
black. His unfortunate horse was discovered in tions are fancies or impostures.”
the stables with one of its hind legs firmly fas-
M Delving Deeper
tened in its mouth. It took several men work-
Edsall, F. S. The World of Psychic Phenomena. New
ing with a lever to dislodge the hoof from the
York: David McKay, 1958.
animal’s jaws.
Price, Harry. Poltergeist Over England. London: Coun-
About this time, Drury, the man whose try Life, 1945.
drum Mompesson had confiscated, was locat- Sitwell, Sacheverell. Poltergeists. New York: Universi-
ed in Gloucester Gaol where he had been sen- ty Books, 1959.
tenced for thievery. Upon questioning, he Stevens, William Oliver. Unbidden Guests. New York:
freely admitted witching Tedworth’s justice of Dodd, Mead & Co., 1957.
the peace. He boasted that he had plagued
him and that Mompesson would have no
peace until he had given him satisfaction for The Whaley House
taking away his drum. The Thomas Whaley mansion, completely
Mompesson had the drummer tried for furnished with antiques from the days of early
witchcraft at Sarum, and the man was con- California, is also considered to be a haunted
demned to be transported to one of the Eng- house. Immediately after its construction was
lish colonies. Certain stories have it that the completed in 1857, the mansion became the
man so terrified the ship’s captain and crew by center of business, government, and social
“raising storms” that they took him back to affairs in Old San Diego. The oldest brick
port and left him on the dock before sailing house in Southern California, the Whaley
away again. Witchcraft was a real thing to the house served as a courthouse, a courtroom, a
people of 1663, and noisy hauntings were theater, and a boarding house—as well as the
often recognized as the work of Satan. While family home of Thomas and Anna Whaley
on board ship, Drury had told the captain that and their children.
he had been given certain books of the black Today, no one is allowed in the Whaley
arts by an old wizard, who had tutored him in House after 4 P.M., but police officers and
the finer points of witchcraft. responsible citizens say that someone—or

The Gale Enc y clopedia of the Unusu al and Unexplained