The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-11 00:00:00

THE GHOST STORY.

The LORD MAYOR received tbo following communica-
tions on the subject of what took place at the Mansion-
house on Monday, relative to the individual who is said
to be occupied in winning a wager by appearing in various
terrific characters at night in the villages round the me-
tropolis :
" My Lord Mayor—The public are much indebted to
your Lordship for bringing forward the letter as stated in
yesterday's Mansion-house report. Although there is yet
no authenticity given to that part of the letter in which it is
stated lamentable accidents have arisen from this wicked
prank, that it has been played off lately to a considerable
extent in the neighbouring villages I can assure your Lord-
, ship to be a fact.
" In the neighbourhood of Hornsey, where I have a re-
sidence, some scouldrel has been alarming the inhabitants,
ix these disguises ; and I heard yesterday in our news-room
at Guildhall, from one of the Deputies, that the same
trick has been played off near Kingston ; and from a respect-
able person in Cheapside that Hertfordshire had been simi-
larly ♦isited.
" It is stated that some individual (gentleman he has been
designated) drives about with a livery servant in a cab,
and throwing off a cloak appears in those frightful forms,
and is to win a wager by the joke—if it be a joke—one
that is very likely to produce the catastrophes detailed in the
letter, but which, till the writer comes forward and ac-
knowledges it, cannot be considered as fact.
" I should rather incline to think it is some determined
thief, wbo visits houses in the absence of the heads of the
families, and who seeks by this method of at once paralyzing
the energies of the servants, to obtain and escape with his
booty on easy terms.
" I shall shortly remove my family from my town resi-
dence to that above stated, where, it I catch Mr. Ghost on
any part of my premises, I shall administer that to eis sub-
stantial part that if ever he re-appears it shall be only his
aerial essence, or as a ghost in fact.
" Other heads of families in my neighbourhood having
expressed the same determination, I trust the ghost will
soon be laid. Meantime publicity to the matter will do
good, and attract the notice of the authorities without the
City. " I have thb honour to be, my Lord,
" Your Lordship's most obedient humble servant,
" Bow-lane, Jan. 10, 1831. " THOMAS LOTE."

The writer of the following letter also gives his name,
but we are not at liberty to publish it :
" New Boswell-court, Lincoln's Inn-fields.

"My Lord—l am induced to address your Lordship on
the subject of the Peckham ghost, to which I perceive, by
this morning's papers, your attention has been called. I
will premise that I am an Acting Magistrate for this county,
and a Practising Barrister. I mention this as a guarantee

that I will not improperly trespass upon your Lordship's
valuable time.

" Some few weeks ago an old female domestic, who lived

in my service many years, and who now resides in respect-
able circumstances, as the wife of a decent tradesman at
Hammersmith, called upon me, and, in the course of con-
versation, informed me that the females of Hammersmith
and its vicinity feared to walk abroad after nightfall, in con-
sequence of the molestations of a ghost or monster to which
they were exposed.
" At first I, with your Lordship, thought this visitation
in the nineteenth century, so near the metropolis, and with
such a well-organized police as we now have, too absurd for
belief ; but, on further inquiry, I ascertained that several
young women had really been frightened into fits—dangcr-
ous fits—and some of them had been severely wounded, by
a sort of claws the mircreant wore •n his hands. I ex-

pressed my surprise that the attention of the police had not
been called to this nuisance. My informant assured me
that repeatedly their vigilance had been aroused on the
subject, but the fellow or fellows bad been adroit enough
to elude capture. I have that reliance on the witness I
allude to, that 1 have no doubt she reported facts.
" On perusing your Lordship's observations this morn-
ing, which were precisely of the same kind as my own when
I first heard of the matter, I deemed it my duty to com-
municate the above fact to your Lordship.
" I will take an opportunity of more minutely inquiring

into this affair should the investigation, which the police
will no doubt now institute, fail of fully detecting the mis-
creants who are undoubtedly working real mischief, though
under a childish and grotesque guise.—l am, my Lord
Mayor, &c. &c."
" To the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor—Your

Lordship, will, I trust, pardon the liberty I have been
induced to take in addressing your Lordship. My rea-
son for so doing is to inform you that the letter you re-
ceived a few days ago respecting some person who makes it
his delight to frighten. the peaceable inhabitants of the su-

burbs of the metropolis is not without foundation. He has
frightened several persons in Stockwell, Brixton, Camber-
well, and Vauxhall, and has caused the death of several,
and many instances can be proved of his frightening peo-
ple into fits. Hoping you will not think lightly of this mat-
ter, I am your Lordship's bumble and obedient servant,
" AN INHABITANT OF STOCKWELL."
The following communication was addressed to Mr.
Hobler :
"'There have been rumours in St. John's Wood and its
neighbourhood for the last fortnight of the appearance of
the monster alluded to in the police-report of yesterday
at the Mansion House, inserted in the Times this morning.
" The bet is, however, understood to be of an even far
more grave nature than is there stated, and if it be true
amounts to murder. As far as the writer has been in-
formed the bet is that the monster shall kill six women in
some given time.
" It is asserted that he has been seen in St. John's
Wood, clad in mail, and as a hear.—Jan. 9, 1838."
" My Lord—On reading the letter in the Chronicle of
this day, received by your Lordship, I perceive that you are
not inclined to give credence to the account furnished by
your correspondent. The villain mentioned in it as appear-
ing in the guise of a ghost, bear, and devil, has been, within
the last week or two, repeatedly seen in Lewisham and
Blackheath. So much, indeed, has he frightened the inha-
bitants of those peaceful districts, that women and children
dare not stir out of their houses after dark. There ought
to be a stop put to this ; but the police, I am afraid, are
frightened at him also.
" I have the honour to remain, your Lordship's most
obedient servant, " J. C."
The LORD MAYOR said it was evident that considerable
terror had been excited by the appearance of some man
or men in the outlets of the metropolis in disguise, and
that a great deal of mischief might arise from a panto-
mimic display at night in retired and peaceful neigh-
bourhoods, but he thought from the first that the
grossest exaggerations must have been made in fun
as well as in fright on such a subject, and he be-
lieved it to be quite impossible that there could
be any real foundation for the report that the
ghost performed the feats of a devil upon earth by clawing
and tearing the flesh and clothes of poor people. He also
withheld his credence from the statement that so many ladies
had been frightened to death, although he had been given to
understand from authority which he could not question that
one of the female servants of a gentleman who resided near
his house at Forest-hill, beyond Peckham, was a short time
since terrified into fits by the sudden appearance of a figure
clad in a bear's skin, which, upon being drawn aside, exhi-
bited a human body in a suit of mail, and with a long
horn, the emblem of the King of Hell himself.
Mr. HOBLER believed that there were stories about the
ghost all round the metropolis, and that in all probability
the matter would one day end in a good ducking. That
some mischievous fellows, who deserved to be well trounced,
were at work, there existed no doubt.
The LORD MAYOR hoped that the fears entertained
would soon vanish altogether. He had the satisfaction to
know now that he would have the assistance of a barrister
and an attorney, whose names and respectability he was
acquainted with ; and all he could say was, that if two
lawyers could not make a fool of the devil himself between
them, he did not know who the devil could.—(A laugh.)

AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL DlN-
?alt.—The anniversary festival of the agriculturists and hor-
ticulturists was held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the
Strand, yesterday. Mr. Glenny presided, supported by Cap-
tain Blakoley and Mr. Pownall, the late candidate for Middle-
sex, and upwards of 150 gentlemen connected with agricul-
tural and horticultural pursuits from all parts of the kingdom.
The health of her Majesty the Queen, the Royal family
the army and navy, and the usual public toasts were given
from the chair and received in the accustomed manner.
A great number of excellent glees were sung by the vocalists
present, under the direction of Mr. Rhodes, and some
very beautiful instrumental music was performed by the
band of the Horse Guards Blue, which was in attendance.
Mr. Carlisle, of Romford, a gentleman celebrated for the
cultivatton of the grape vine, and several other gentlemen,
addressed the companyin the course of the evening, and ex-
patiated on the importance of agricultural and horticultural
science. On the toast" Success to Agriculture" being drunk,
Mr. Pownall spoke in praise of the pursuits of agricul-
ture, and in the course of his speech expressed a wish that
every cottager in England might possess a flitch of bacon in his
cupboard, and good culinary vegetables in his garden. On the
health of Mr. Tyler, of the Surrey Zoological-gardens, being
drunk, that gentleman returned thanks in a speech which was
received with loud cheering, and expressed himself to be most
happy to be able to contribute by his exertions to the promo-
tion of science, and by means of the exhibition which occa-
sionally took place in the gardens with which he was
connected, to the cultivation of botanical knowledge and the
knowledge of natural history, which was in fact at the present
moment a branch of liberal education. On the health of the
Chairman being drunk, that gentleman returned thanks in an
appropriate speech. The company did not leave the room
till a late hour, and seemed highly delighted with the good
I cheer furnished by the landlord and the entertainment of the
I evening.

THE ARMY.

The following moves of depots have taken place in Ire.
land :

15th depot from Nenagh to Buttevant.
34th depot from Cashel to Fermoy.
61st depot from Templemore to Cashel.
66th depot from Templemore to Fermoy.
73d depot from Clare-castle to Cork.
93d depot from Armagh to Cork.
The service companies of the 11th Regiment. in place of
proceeding- direct from Gibraltar to Quebec, are to be disem-
barked at Bermuda, and there remain until their services may
be required in America.
Major-General John Clitherow, formerly of the Scots
Fusileer Guards, has been appointed to a command in Ca-
nada, for which colony he embarks at Liverpool on Tucsday
next.

The undernamed officers appointed to a particular service
in Canada (see last Gazette) sailed from Liverpool for that
c luny on the Bth inst. : —Lieutenant- Colonel Cox, Majors
Williams and Al' Mail, and Captains De Rottenburg and Swale..
The following embark on Tuesday next for the same destina
tion :—Lieutenant-Colonels Gascoigne, fickle, and Loring,
Major Head, and Captain Jasper Creagh.
If we are to judge from the manner in which the cavalry has
been selected for Canada, we should be inclined to suppose that
the depot system, so much complained of in the infantry, is
about to be extended to this arm of the service, as out of the
five squadrons intended for America, three are to be taken
from the Quecn's Dragoon Guards, and the remaining two
from the 7th Hussars, thus leaving at home a squadron of
each regiment, and giving us very ample cause for our sur-
mises.

LIFE-INSURANCE.—The subject of Life-Insu-
rance is one which deserves the serious consideration of a very
large class of the community, And it is a subject which, it
must be confessed, is increasingly attracting attention. It
affords to many in the middling and higher ranks many of the
advantages which are afforded by benefit-societies and saving-
b-inks to the lower ; nay, the lower ranks themselves may be-
nefit by it. Still, it is to be feared, that many whose peculiar
circumstances, it might have been thought, would have led
them to adopt such a laudable means of providing for those
who are dependent upon them, neglect to do so; and we can
scarcely take up a newspaper of any extensive circulation,
without meeting with heart-rending appeals to the generosity
of the Christian public, in behalf of widows and orphans
accustomed to move in ranks far above the lowest, but who have
bean reduced to a state of absolute destitution by the removal of
a husband and parent, whose whole income depended upon some
situation which he filled, who lived up to the full amount of
that income, and who was perhaps cut off in the prime of

. .
life. There can be little doubt that the number of such cases
would be materially decreased, and that there would be a vast
diminution of much heart-rending poverty--and, perhaps, no
species of poverty is more heart-reading than that too fre-
quently presents itself in those who have been accustomed to
live in comparative comfort—were every father of a family to
bear in mind, that he is imperatively called upon, on every
principle of Christianity as well as of common humanity, to
make as ample a provision as he can, in the case of his de-
cease, for those whom he is bound to support while he is
alive. Many a sad tale of destitution might be unfolded of
the misery into which a family has been plunged by the re-
moval of a father, while there was scarce sufficient property
left to afford the necessary expenses of a decent burial ; and
which might have been wholly prevented had there been due
forethought and common prudence.—Church of England
Magazine.

MR. HORACE SMITH'S NEW NOVEL, " JANE
LoMAx."—ln this work the author hag opened a new vein.
He feels that in the fashionable novels too much importance
is attached to the affairs of a class chiefly interesting to us at
this day as the depositaries of wealth and power, that in those
which assume to represent the middle class an act of injustice
is committed, inasmuch as individuals of, this rank arc only
introduced for the purposes of ridicule. The vulgarity which
is occasional is represented as characteristic, and the covert
purpose seems to be, not to correct the vices of this class, but
to play the game of the class above them. Our author, there-
fore, with an almost romantic abjuration of romance, has at
once fixed his scene in Bermondsey and Shad Thames, al if
on purpose to be as elaborately removed from all taints or
uspicion of Grosvenor-square as it was possible ; and well
and nobly has he succeeded. He has strewed flowers about
the place that will give it a new odour from this time forward—
Eagle Wharf itself is now an interesting spot.—Atlas.
D'EoN.—Some anecdotes have lately been published
relating to the Chevalier D'Eon, whose character was long
involved in mystery. Facts relating to his early life have long
since appeared properly authenticated, but little has been pub-
lished respecting his latter days, which he chiefly spent in this
country, and died at Bath about thirty years ago. While in
England he dressed in female clothes, and appeared to be a
corpulent old woman. When invited to dinner parties, after
drinking a bottle of Madeira, before the cloth was removed,
he retired with the ladies. His voice was gruff, appearance
masculine, and his manners too uncouth for a female. It was
customary annually for Philidor, the celebrated chess-player,
to have a benefit at Parsloe's Club-house, who played blind-
folded against two chess-players, one of whom generally was
D'Eon. Latterly he became acquainted with Mrs. Bateman,
who practised fencing, and with this lady made his appearance
in the Dublin theatre, where they fenced together and else-
where to attract company. The audience of Dublin did not
relish the joke, but pronounced the " fat old lady a man," and
the manager lost by the speculation. Soon after D'Eon died,
previous to which he had an annuity from the Prince of Wales,
as being a heroic female. His toast after dinner was always
"Le Prince des Prince." While in female attire, he always
wore the cross of St. Louis. After his death his body under-
went a post.mortern examination.

MR. BULWER'S NEW NOVEL, " ERNEST MAL-
TRAVERS."-We consider " Rienzi" as the master-piece of Mr.
Bulwer in romance, and up to the appearance of this work
we had thought " Pelham" the best of the novels, but it is sur-
passed by Ernest Nlaltravers ; the higher design of which—
the illustration of the man of genius—has been wrought out
with a higher excellence. " Pelham" is more pointed and
brilliant in parts, but the aim of" Maltravers" ranges above
point and brilliancy—it is more even on a more lofty level.
We fancy that we can here mark the difference between the
young author who seized upon the attention of the public by
sparkling thoughts and epigrammatic effects, and the writer
of assured reputation, confident of being followed as he pur-
sues his story, and regardful only of what pertains to the de-
sign or the action of it. The handling of this work is indeed
eminently easy and steady. Nothing appears strained in it ;
there is the smoothness of the most perfect facility, and there
is the product of the greatest powers of authorship. We
have read it with an interest and an admiration not to bo

expressed in the hackneyed terms of praise. The ♦ariety,
the still advancing merit, and the rapidity of Mr. Bulwer's
productions, altogether make a phenomena in literature.--
Examiner.
THE ZEAL OP LAWYERS FOR THEIR CLIENTS.
—Everybody who has been in our courts of law must
have been struck with the amazing zeal which counsel mani-
fest for the interests of their clients. There is an earnestness
in their manner which could not, in appearance, be exceeded,
were they engaged in a case which affected the life of their
dearest friend. I have always looked on barristers as a spe-
cies of theatrical actors. Their zeal for their clients is assumed,
when about to make their speeches, just as a tragedian assumes
the character he is about to represent. Were it real ; did
they actually feel as intensely as they appear to do, they would
be the most unhappy beings on the face of the earth. Only
fancy Sir William Follett, Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, or any
other member having a large practice, feeling as deeply af-
fected as he seems to do, at the alleged wrongs of his nume-
rous clients 1 Why, in such a case, counsel would literally
sink under the heavy load of their sympathetic woes. How
lightly, notwithstanding all their warmth and energy in the
cause of their clients, they really feel for those clients, is a
fact which is often proved by their leaving court the moment
they have finished their speeches, and never, perhaps, after-
wards troubling themselves to inquire into the result of the
action. It consists with my own knowledge that this is no un-
common thing, though the result is of course communicated to
them, sooner or later, by some means or other.— The Bench
and the Bar, by the Author of " Random Recollections."
A KANGAROO.--A friend of ours, not remark-
able for his geographical knowledge beyond the bounds of the
parish, was lately employed to transact some business in Ar-
ran, which required him to travel a distance. In the mean-
time, a wag having made him believe there were no regular
roads in the island, but on the contrary it was full of rocks
and moss-hags, and in performing his journey that he would be
obliged to leap from rock to rock, and from one hag to
another, he immediately returned the papers to his employer,
observing, at the same time, " Hang it, do you take me to be
a Kangaroo."—Ayr Observer.

SILVER TEA AND COFFEE SERVICES.—
T. COX SAVORY, 47, Cornhill, London (Seven Doors from
Gracechurch-street), offers for selection an elegant and most exten-
sive assortment of Silver Tea Services, ♦arying in price from 151. to
301., th• service of Teapot, Sugar Basin, and Milk Ewer. The
ground-floor, and first, second, and third floors, are fitted up ex-
pressly for the display of Plate and Plated Goods, and a Pamphlet
is given gratis, with Drawings, and a list of prices. T. CO%
SAVORY, Goldsmith, Watchmaker, and Silversmith, 47, Corn-
hill, London.