order to prove his words, he invited a gentleman
of some standing in the parish io witness a
manifestation. The gentleman, on visiting the
house, found the daughter of Parsons (to whom
the spirit alone appeared, and whom alone it
answered) trembling violently, having, as she
declared, just seen the ghost, and been again
informed that she had died from poison. A loud
knocking was heard from every part of the room,
which so mystified the visitor that he departed,
afraid to doubt, and ashamed to believe, but with
a promise to bring the clergyman of the parish
and several other gentlemen on the following
day, to witness and report upon the mystery.

On the following night he returned, bringing
with him three clergymen and about twenty
other persons, who resolved, if need be, to sit
up the whole night, and await the ghost's
arrival. Parsons began the séance by explaining
the modus operandi. He said that, though the
ghost would never render itself visible to
anybody but his daughter, it had no objection to
answer questions, and that it expressed an
affirmative by one knock and a negative by two
knocks, and its displeasure by a kind of scratching.
(This is precisely the formula of the
spirit-rappers of the present time.) The child
was then put into the bed along with her sister,
and the clergymen examined the bed and the
bed-clothes to satisfy themselves that there was
no deception. They were satisfied. After some
hours, during which they all waited with
exemplary patience, a knocking was heard in the
wall, and the child declared that she saw the
ghost of Fanny. The following questions were
then gravely put through the medium of Mary
Frazer, Parsons's servant, to whom it was said
the deceased Fanny had been much attached.

Q. Do you make this disturbance on account
of the ill usage you received from Mr. Kent?

A. One knock—yes.

Q. Were you brought to an untimely end by
poison?

A. Yes.

Q. How was the poison administered, in beer
or purl?

A. In purl. (That is to say, there were two
knocks for beer, and one knock for purl.)

Q. How long was that before your death?

A. About three hours.

Q. Are you Kent's wife's sister?

A. Yes.

Q. Were you married to Kent after your
sister's death?

A. No.

Q. Can you, if you like, appear visible to
any one?

A. Yes.

Q. Will you do so?

A. Yes.

Q. Can you get out of this house?

A. Yes.

Q. Is it your intention to follow the child
about everywhere?

A. Yes.

Q. Are you pleased at being asked these
questions?

A. Yes

Q. Does it ease your troubled soul?

A. Yes.

(Here there was heard a mysterious noise,
which a person present compared to the fluttering
of wings).

Q. If Mr. Kent is arrested for this murder,
will he confess?

A. Yes.

Q. Would your soul be at rest if he
hanged for it?

A. Yes.

Q. Will he be hanged?

A. Yes.

The fame of these wonderful manifestations
spread over London, and day after day for some
weeks Cock-lane was rendered impassable by the
crowds who assembled round the house of the
parish clerk, in expectation of either seeing the
ghost or hearing the mysterious knocks. Mr.
Parsons, of course, disavowed all mercenary motives;
but he found it necessary, so clamorous were
the people for admission to his house, to admit
only those who paid a fee. This went on for a
long time, the ghost playing its tricks nightly,
and Mr. Parsons making a good thing of it.
The ghost of Cock-lane was the talk of every
circle, and was the theme of innumerable
pamphlets and articles in the newspapers. Mr.
Prior, in his Life of Goldsmith, gives the copy
of a receipt, dated 5th of March, 1762, for three
guineas, as paid by Newbury to Goldsmith for
a pamphlet respecting the Cock-lane Ghost.
With regard to Dr. Johnson's credulity in the
matter, Macaulay says: "He had been weak
enough to pay serious attention to a story about
a ghost which haunted a house in Cock-lane,
and had actually gone himself, with some of his
friends, at one in the morning, in the hope of
receiving a communication from the perturbed
spirit. But the spirit, though adjured with all
solemnity, remained obstinately silent; and it
soon appeared that a naughty girl of eleven
had been amusing herself by making fools of
so many philosophers." Unhappily, however,
for the "future" of the parish clerk, the
ghost was induced to make some promises
which were the means of wholly destroying its
reputation. It promised, in answer to the
question of the Rev. Mr. Aldritch, of Clerkenwell,
that it would not only follow little Miss Parsons
wherever she went, but would also attend him
or any other gentleman into the vault under St.
John's church, where the body of the murdered
woman was deposited, and would there give
notice of its presence by a distinct knock upon
the coffin. As a preliminary, the girl was
conveyed to the house of Mr. Aldritch, near the
church, where a large party of ladies and gentlemen,
eminent for their acquirements, their rank,
and their wealth, had assembled. About ten
o'clock at night the girl was put to bed at Mr.
Aldritch's by several ladies, a strict examination
having previously been made of the bed
and bed-clothes. While the gentlemen, in an
adjoining chamber, were deliberating whether
they should proceed in a body to the vault, they