Headless Badgers and Witchy Rabbits April 1, 2022
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Boggart and Banshee’s new podcast is here on the Wesley Poltergeist. Readers of many years may recall that I visited this case in a long thread of posts back in 2015. Well, now Chris and I have returned to rake through the poltergeist ashes.
I was struck again by how while this might not be the most dramatic poltergeist case, it is the best documented from pre-war Britain. I also read one particular passage with more knowledge than I had had back in 2015 (‘the coming of wisdom with time’). Those familiar with the haunting will remember that the poltergeist appears twice as a headless badger and once as a white rabbit. This is the rabbit incident and the witness here was a man servant in the Wesley’s employ.
Something came out of the copper hold like a rabbit, but less, and turned round five times very swiftly. Its ears lay flat upon its neck and its little scut [tail] stood straight up. [The man servant] ran after it with the tongs in his hands, but when he could find nothing, he was frighted, and went to the maid in the parlour. [Note it is referred to as being ‘white’ in another report.]
The Wesley case was connected, on several occasions, with witchcraft by the family. There is also a long British tradition of witches being able to turn into rabbits and hares or related indeterminant creatures. Crucially I have a memory chord sounding somewhere in my head of a witch carrying out a spell by turning round repeatedly in the form of a rabbit. If I’m correct then this is surely what is happening here: ‘turned around five times’ was not a chance animal wile, it was an attempt to magic up the family. Folklore has got caught in the aspic of a poltergeist case.
If anyone can remember this half (imagined) rabbit turning then please get in touch: drbeachcombing AT gmail DOT com
