The Epworth Phenomena | Page 2

on these things have often shown a curious credulity,
and even what seems like wilful blindness.
Mr. Podmore, for example, after a very careful and correct and
necessary analysis of the records-for it is all-important to note the dates
of the various documents, and whether the experience was first-hand or
not-practically dismisses the case because Hetty Wesley had the
"singular wit of trembling in a sound sleep," and because no letter of
hers about the phenomena is extant, while her sisters wrote rather

fully.* True, Mr. Podmore admits that this is no ground for an
accusation, but he uses it as sufficient ground for a strong insinuation.
Presumably the trembling was due to suppressed laughter at the
puzzledom of her parents and sisters, who were sometimes kept up
nearly all night, and had broken sleep for two months; or to the
muscular effort involved in pulling a string which somehow made
distant raps. But, even granting some possibility, but not probability, in
this, we are no nearer an explanation of the invisible something which
thrice pushed Mr. Wesley, or of the crashings among bottles downstairs
(which were found to be unbroken) while all the children were in bed
upstairs, or of several other phenomena occurring at Considerable
distances from this supposedly naughty and extremely clever "little
girl." In spite of my suspicious temperament, I confess that I cannot
believe that Hetty Wesley was the most likely cause of all the
happenings. As Emily Wesley said, the thing went on long enough to
"try all ways of discovering any trick," and in the face of such
testimony by such excellent witnesses it would seem better to suspend
judgment altogether than to insinuate charges based on little more than
the sceptic's own emotional craving for some naturalistic explanation,
be it what it may.
* Modern Spiritualism, vol. i. pp. 37, 38.
Then as to rats, which Mrs. Wesley at first invoked as cause, even
having a horn blown to scare them away -after which the noises
became worse, for the agency evidently objected to the rat theory. And
with reason! Mr. Andrew Lang, following Mrs. Wesley in attributing
remarkable powers to the rat tribe, refers to Tennyson's The Ring as "a
ghost story based on a legend told by Mr. Lowell about a house near
which he had once lived, one of those houses vexed by
'A footstep, a low throbbing in the walls, A noise of falling weights that
never fell, Weird whispers, bells that rang without a hand,
Door-handles turn'd when none was at the door, And bolted doors that
open'd of themselves.'
"These phenomena were doubtless caused by rats and water pipes, but
they do not destroy the pity or the passion of the tale." *

* Alfred Tennyson, p. 201.
Mr. Lang was a novelist and compiler of fairy-tales, and consequently
may have been able to visualise a rat or a water pipe opening a bolted
door, and so forth. Mrs. Wesley, being gifted with less imagination,
could not, and accordingly had to give up the, rat theory, not without
reluctance. Exactly what theory she did accept is not clear, but it was
apparently a supernormal one of some sort.
Most of the other observers were similarly cautious, and were also
gifted with the saving grace of humour.
We need not place much reliance on the man-servant who saw
something like a rabbit, or on the maid who heard blood-curdling
groans, for these are of the witchcraft and orthodox ghost-story type
respectively. But for the most part the Wesleys themselves heard the
kind of thing that is borne out by later investigation, rather than the
"orthodox" kind of thing; and in spite of the general upset and loss of
sleep, they were able to treat "Old Jeffery" with a very wholesome
levity, Mr. Wesley remarking that the narrative "would make a glorious
penny book for Jack Dunton," but that he had no wish for publicity in
the matter. Emily also jokes about it; while son Samuel, with an eye to
the business side, inquires whether they have dug at the spot where
money seemed to be poured out. Altogether a sensible and far from
mystical-minded or credulous household.
The kind and quality of the evidence may be briefly indicated as
follows:-
1. Accounts were written out very soon after the disturbances by four
eye-witnesses, viz. Mr. and Mrs. Wesley and their daughters Susannah
and Emilia. Mrs. Wesley's first letter to Samuel is dated January 12,
1717, while the noises (which had begun in December) were still
occasionally heard. Susannah wrote letters on January 24 and March 27,
Emilia also writing evidently about this time, though the letter is
undated, and the same applies to old Mr. Wesley's account.
As will be seen, these accounts support each other on the main