"
Nobody, in short, could enter this room, except by passing through
that of Mrs. Ricketts, the door of which "was always made fast by a
drawn bolt". Yet somebody kept rustling and walking in the inner
room, which somebody could never be found when sought for.
In summer, 1770, Mrs. Ricketts heard someone walk to the foot of her
bed in her own room, "the footsteps as distinct as ever I heard,
myself perfectly awake and collected". Nobody could be discovered in
the chamber. Mrs. Ricketts boldly clung to her room, and was only now
and then disturbed by "sounds of harmony," and heavy thumps, down
stairs. After this, and early in 1771, she was "frequently sensible
of a hollow murmuring that seemed to possess the whole house: it was
independent of wind, being equally heard on the calmest nights, and it
was a sound I had never been accustomed to hear".
On 27th February, 1771, a maid was alarmed by "groans and fluttering
round her bed": she was "the sister of an eminent grocer in
Alresford". On 2nd April, Mrs. Ricketts heard people walking in the
lobby, hunted for burglars, traced the sounds to a room whence their
was no outlet, and found nobody.
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