Hilarious Ghost-Ewe Incident in Scotland January 19, 2018
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Bureaucracy hell at the moment in Italy so here is a simple but marvelous stocking filler from 1870. Reminds Beach of one of his favourite ever posts, on a hare in a Manx courtroom. Perhaps not quite as good but almost… We are in northern Scotland near Inverness.
The other evening, while two servant girls in the employment of Mr. Macgregor, refreshment-rooms, Boat of Garten, were gossiping, their conversation happened to turn to the times when the visits of fairies, witches, etc., were popularly believed in. One of the girls related many stories bearing on the subject, and stoutly maintained that in some parts of the Highlands fairies still occupied their ancient green knolls, that witches existed to this day even in some parts of Strathspey, and that she herself firmly believed that a witch could metamorphose herself into the form of a goat or hare with as much celerity and ease as they (the girls) performed their daily occupation at the washingtub. It also happened that Mr. Macgregor’s children had a pet ewe, which, as a matter of course, was quite familiar with all the inmates of the house; and, just as the girl was relating one of these ghost stories which work so powerfully on the mind and imagination, the sheep bolted in through a large glass pane in the window, and stood erect at the table, giving as it did a loud baa, much as if to say, ‘I am one of the evil spirits you have been talking of.’ The relater of the stories uttered a piercing shriek, and in the utmost precipitation made for the door. The unwelcome guest held its position at the table until it calmly surveyed everything around, and then jumped down, breaking a quantity of crystal in its descent. Meantime, the frightened girl was followed to a neighbour’s house, and at last Mr. Macgregor was able to convince her that the visitor was neither ghost, fairy, nor witch, but the identical pet ewe. She returned to her work, but still maintains her belief in the nocturnal perambulations of the supernatural fraternity.
This was excerpted (allegedly) from the Inverness Courier and Beach ripped it from the Belfast Morning News, 10 Jan 1870. Beach double dog dares anyone to better this: drbeachcombing AT gmail DOT com
