Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Beating Up Ghosts February 20, 2017

It is surprising (or perhaps depressingly predictable) that many ghosts turn out to be men dressed up in sheets. Very often these ghosts are roistered by the local population, who seem to enjoy the hunt: memory of ghost riots… Here are two reminders of why you never want to be that person: when the Scooby Doo moment comes and they pull off the mask.

For some days past the inhabitants of Mumbles Head have been in state of excitement over the alleged mysterious visitation of ghosts round the Mumble after nightfall. Being determined to fathom the mystery, a number of men secrete;! themselves on Newton Hill, when the spectre duly appeared the form of clothed in white, with blackened face. Hands were instantly laid upon the ghost, who was discovered to be well known in the district. He was stripped of his garments and a sound flogging administered, notwithstanding his entreaties and protestations that it was only a joke. Meanwhile, the crowd had assembled, including the vicar of the parish. On being interrogated, the ‘ghost’ said what he had done was only amuse the children. The vicar said he had acted in a very foolish manner. Not Ev Post 22 Apr 1887, 3

The vicar said that he had acted in a very foolish manner… Ha! There is a lot of nineteenth-century England in that sentence. Our next case was, reading between the lines, a ghostly rapist. He ran, though, one day into a transvestite.

Much excitement has been occasioned within the last few days in the neighbourhood of the Wandsworth-road in consequence of the mysterious appearance and disappearance of a supposed ‘ex-human being’ all in white, whose perambulations were confined to certain lanes and other isolated places in the vicinity of Shorts-fields. The taste of the perturbed spirit was exceedingly equivocal, inasmuch as rumour with its ‘hundred tongues’ [ah when journalists quoted Virgil effortlessly] stated that this ghost seldom attacked other than the fair sex. To the cost of sundry of the latter they discovered that there was a ‘method in the madness’ of their tormentor partaking more of this life than of the other, consequently some of the rougher sex on Friday night last, at a quarter to ‘the witching hour’ exact, sallied forth, and placed themselves in various parts of the ghost’s domain. They were disguised a la petticoat, and carried arms— not exactly legitimate, but as they were to be used against a supernatural agent were excusable on that account. The assailants waited but a little while ere they lured from his lair the object for which they had repudiated their beds. The ghost suddenly sprang from a hedge by the road side and approached, and embraced one of the party nearest his clutch. But the amorous spirit in that embrace met a deserved fate, he was quietly dragged from his intended victim, and tied to a lamp post, in which position he must have felt that the flogging system was not altogether done away with. The pseudo-ghost proved to be the son of a respectable innkeeper resident in the Wandworth-road. Morning Post 29 Feb 1836

Today you get put on the sex offender’s list, in 1836 you were assailed by men in dressed and beaten within in an inch of your life. No wonder the Hammersmith Ghost got shot! Any other beaten ghosts: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com And here to round off is a reminder that fake ghosts faced other dangers:

The women and children of Rossett, near Chester, have been greatly alarmed by an apparition in white in country lanes. Terror also reigned in neighbouring villages, where the repute of the ghost’s moonlight flittings had become noised abroad. One night the ghost solemnly approached a gentleman returning home. His large dog, which accompanied him, at once bounded forward and seized the apparition, which yelled lustily with pain. The gentleman released the ghost, who turned out to be a villager, not over fond of work, tricked out in white clothes. Man Cour 5 Feb 1887, 16.