The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-30 00:00:00

THE MONTOO*ERYSHIRE GHOST•

To a town not far from L 61341144 iu Montgo-
meryshire,a supervisor ofexcise, named Thomas, Was

ordered some weeks back, to occupy the district of
another supervisor, who had been shifted to another
station, as is usual with the servants of the excise
department; and, having a wife and children, he
proceeded on first, in order to select a suitable house
for his family. lie had never been in Walec before,

and, consequently, he met with many inconveniences.
The only house vacant was a large old mansion,
which stood in decay, at the foot of a mountain ; and
to this the supervisor was directed, as the only ha-
bitable place that was not occupied. On the -first
view of. so large a house, all notion of becoming a
tenant was abandoned; but as the place had a mys-
terious curiosity .about.it, the mansion being large,
the garden being choked with 'weeds, the steps
leading to the doors moss-grown, several ..of the
windows being broken, and the whole having an air
of grandeur in neglect, be was prompted to make
inquiries : and an old man to whom he was referred
as being the only owner as long as any neighbouy
could remember, instantly offered to let him the
mansion at the small rent of .5/. r-year. • The
supervisor did not want so large a house; but as
the lowness of the rent operated as an induce-
ment, he struck the bargain, got in a few little
things until his wife should arrive with all the do-
mestic equipments of a family, and forthwith wrote
off for her. The first night of his sojournment he
lighted a fire to dispel the dampness, and having
taken his cup of grog, he lay down and enjoyed an
excellent night's rest. On rising in the morning,
his first visit was to "a barber's shop in the town in
order to get shaved, and there several persons in-
quired most earnestly how he had slept; and when
he declared that he bad never enjoyed a better
night's rest in his life, every one seemed amazed.
The mystery was • now dispelled, and his eyes were
opened by being Informed the el Tee GWyn, or
White House" as the mansion lOW called, bad been
haunted for fifty years back. The supervisor laughed •
at this notion, and avowed his otter disbelief in
ghosts. He spent, however, the greater part of the
day in rummaging the vaults and every hiding-place,
but without discovering any thing. - As night ad-
vanced, be threw an extra log on the fire, and hav-
ing borrowed a chair in the town, he sat himself
down before it, ate his bread and cheese, and sipped
his cup amid various ruminations. At one time be
thought This situation rather dangeronsin the event
of his suspicions being true, there was no assistare—
at hand. He might have his throat cut from ear to
ear, and his body thrown into a tub, while his wife
and family would be none the wiser. Fears of the
living, more than the dead, flitted in sudden flashes
across his brain, and at length he resolved, in case
ht heard, any thing going on, to remain as quiet as
possible, and senu all the information he could to
the head of his department. • He could•see by his
watch that it was nearly twelve o'clock, bat " Na-
ture's fond nurse" had' forsaken him, and he felt no
inclination to sleep.
.On a sudden he heard footsteps on the staircase,
and he felt or thought he felt his hair lift his hat in-
voluntarily, at least an inch off his forehead. His
heart fluttered, the to did not seem to blaze so
bright; he listened anxiously, but he
After abiding his fancy for frightening hitn,'he mus-
tered courage enough to open the door, which he
left in that state, and 'then betook himself to his
couch, after a paralytic sort of a poke at the fire.
Scarce had the first doze relaxed his limbs when lie
was awakened by a strange clattering on the stair-
case, as if ten thousand imps were ascending to his
room! In the panic of the moment he jumped up,
rushed to the land-place, where he distinctly heard
the said imps clatter down the broad staircase again,
making faint shrieking cries, which died away with
the sounds of their footsteps as they seemed to gain
the vaults beneath the house. On his visit to the
town that morning, the previous day's inquiries were
repeated ; but he strenuously denied having becu
listurbed, for fear he should be *meat a coward.
Toward& the next evening, lie deterthined to ascer-
tain whether anything really did' ascend the Stair- .
case, or whether it •was Mere fatter aid., for. this •
purpose, he ,mirokd a thick ooat of .'sand, on, every
step, imagining; shrewdly enough, that if his ter,
mentors were -really substantial, they 'roust leave
some tracks behind.them. • The next-pight was ac-
companied by, the same extraordinarrnoises s but
the supervisor had provided . himself with pistols,
and being doubly armed with a lamp also, he pro-
ceeded down stairs as fast as he could. The 'imps,
however, were too nimble for him, and he could not
even get a glimpse of them. . Again did he search in
every hole and corner, disturbing the poor *spiders
with the blaze of his lamp ; and finding his scrutiny
in vain, he was retracing his steps, when be recol-
lected the sand, which, in his terrified descent, he
had forgotten ; when, lo ! and behold! he perceived
some five or six hundred cloven tracks! They were
too small for old devils, and much too large for rats,
and therefore he concluded they must be super-
natural beings of some sort. All the day long his
brain was racked with conjectures as to the species
of creature that could. have disturbed his quiet.
He had given up' every idea that rats could have
made such a noise or tracks so large, but he deter-
mined to try if a few rat-traps could solve the
mystery. Accordingly, he procured six, which were
all that he could get, and on, the, fourth night care,
fully set them in a rove on the staircase. About. the
mystic hour of twelve, he again heard the devils
jumping or hopping, as it seemed, up the stairs, and
while he cocked one of the pistols. he heard a trap
go off, then another, succeeded by appalling shrieks
and the same clattering noise down stairs again. He
proceeded to the spot, and there to 11:s infinite asto-
nishment he found, not a devil, not an imp, not any
thing supernatural, but three fine fat, rabbits, caught
by the legs in the traps. The simple fact was, that
the inhabitants of an adjoining rabbit warren used to
make their way up through the sewers into the de-
serted mansion : and their gambols through the
empty rooms first gave rise to the story of the" Tee
Gwynn" being haunted. It is needless to add, that
Mr. Thomas forthwith sent for his family, and they
now enjoy a house and as many rabbits as they cap
eat for five pounds a year.

At the late Sessions dinner, the nobs of our
Corporation had well nigh fell to loggerheads ; a
challenge at fisty-cuffs, it is said, was actually
given by one Alderman, but not being.accepted,
the matter ended in a mere pot-house.
Cambridge Independent Press.

SHOPLIFTING EXTRAORDINARY.A ~fc
tv
days since a person in the garb of a gentlemin,
and bearing his Majesty's commission, which he
should have better honoured, went about' mid-
day into the, shop of a broker in this city, and
imagining that no one saw him, he took a pair
salt-cellars, t-1 la rasr,t
ea
os secreted egrej
stesds
and a piece of
them about his
paersgss
olan; another
music, were also pocketed ; at length a carpet-
bag struck his fancy, which he tried to ct,,
_1
under his coat, but upon buttoning it over a
tion of it was visible ; unwilling, however, to
give up his prize he ventured upon loosening his
braces for the purpose of more securely hiding
it ; at this unfortunate moment some ladies en-
tered the premises, the pilferer drop' the bag, and
was leisurely taking his departure, when the
shopman, who had been in a remote corner, and
had witnessed the whole transaction in a mi •
rror,
advanced and reminded the gentleman that 4, Q
had about him property not his own. At first
it
was stoutly denied, but the facts appearing
too
evident, the articles were dislodged,
and we re-
gret to say, the ends of u d-8---0 frustrated, the
felony being compromise by the broker's ac.'
cepting the amount of the stolen property.—
Exeter Gazette. ,