The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies

—in the room. "As far as I could see, he did not even touch the table." The chair belonging to Amy (who was thirteen months old) was moved, just like that of the teacher Mr. Morse two hundred years earlier. A table leaped into the lap of a member of the audience. There were thumps and noises that "seemed to shake the entire building." Lights floated everywhere. A slate, covered in flour, was placed on C.'s lap; his hands were resting on the table. Fingerprints appeared in the flour and, in response to a request, the mark of "a naked baby's foot." The children present were wearing laced boots, and we are not told that little Amy was under the table. Bluish lights and the ghost of a dog were seen.

All of this corresponds to an old example: the disturbances at Mr. Wesley's house in Epworth, between December 1715 and January 1716. 10 Memoirs of the Wesley Family, by Adam Clarke, LL.D., FAS London, 1823, pages 161-200. The house was new, having been rebuilt in 1709. We have the diary of Mr. Samuel Wesley The father of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, along with many letters from family members at the time and later recollections. There were many lively girls in the house and two servants—a maid and a man—who had recently been hired. The disturbances began with groans, followed by knocks that fluttered through the house. Mr. Wesley heard nothing until December 21st. The knocks responded to those made by the family, but the family could never imitate the specific sounds.

Wesley and Emily saw an object "resembling a badger" that ran out from under a bed and disappeared. The mastiff a large breed of dog was greatly alarmed by the sounds. Mr. Wesley was "pushed three times by an invisible power." The man was a Jacobite a supporter of the exiled King James II and his descendants, as was Mrs. Wesley; Mr. Wesley, however, was in favor of King George. The knocks became violent whenever prayers were said for that "usurper" King George I. They did not attempt to pray for King James. Robin, the servant, saw a hand-mill that was operating with great violence. "Nothing bothered me more than the fact that it was empty. I thought that, if it had been full of malt, it could have ground its heart out for me." But this was a playful demon, not a hardworking one. Robin called it "Old Jeffries," after a gentleman who had recently passed away; the family called it "Jeffrey," unless the name is simply a spelling error. It "seemed to sweep behind" Nancy Wesley when she was sweeping the rooms. "She thought he might have done it for her to save her the trouble." Mrs. Wesley hid the matter from her husband, "so that he would not think it was a sign of his own death" (Letter of January 12, 1716-17). This belief in noises that announce death is very common; compare this to the nightly disturbances experienced by Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford when Bullock, his building agent, was dying in London. The uproar occurred on April 28th and—

—on April 29, 1818, Scott examined the scene "with Beardie's sword under his arm." 11 Bullock died in Tenterden Street, London, although it is not easy to determine if it was April 28th or 29th. "The noise sounded like half a dozen men placing boards and furniture, and nothing can be more certain than the fact that there was no one in the place at the time." 12 The noises used to follow Hetty Wesley and resonate under her feet, like those of C. in Professor Alexander's narrative. Mr. Wesley's plate "danced before him on the table for a good while, without anyone moving the table." 13 The disturbances subsided in January but occurred again on March 31st. Similar phenomena had happened "long before" in the family. 14 "The sound often seemed to be in the air, in the middle of a room, and they could never produce it themselves by any trickery." 15

On February 16, 1740, twenty-three years later, Emily writes to Jack John Wesley about "that wonderful thing we call Jeffrey... That 'something' calls to me before any new and extraordinary affliction."

Priestley Joseph Priestley, the famous chemist and theologian describes this case as "the best documented that survives." He assumes it was "a prank by the servants, for the sole purpose of amusement." The modus operandi original: "modus operandi"; meaning: method of operation is difficult to explain. We hear nothing of ill health or hysteria in the house. 16 For our purpose it was—