same month, Sam wrote, full of curiosity,
to his father and mother. Mrs. Wesley replied (25th or 27th January),
saying that no explanation could be discovered, but "it commonly was
nearer Hetty than the rest". On 24th January, Sukey said "it is now
pretty quiet, but still knocks at prayers for the king." On 11th
February, Mr. Wesley, much bored by Sam's inquiries, says, "we are all
now quiet. . . . It would make a glorious penny book for Jack
Dunton," his brother-in-law, a publisher of popular literature, such
as the Athenian Mercury. Emily (no date) explains the phenomena as
the revenge for her father's recent sermons "against consulting those
that are called cunning men, which our people are given to, and _it
had a particular spite at my father_".

The disturbances by no means ended in the beginning of January, nor at
other dates when a brief cessation made the Wesleys hope that Jeffrey
had returned to his own place. Thus on 27th March, Sukey writes to
Sam, remarking that as Hetty and Emily are also writing "so
particularly," she need not say much. "One thing I believe you do not
know, that is, last Sunday, to my father's no small amazement, his
trencher danced upon the table a pretty while, without anybody's
stirring the table. . . . Send me some news for we are excluded from
the sight or hearing of any versal thing, except Jeffery."

The last mention of the affair, at this time, is in a letter from
Emily, of 1st April, to a Mr. Berry.

"Tell my brother the sprite was with us last night, and heard by many
of our family." There are no other contemporary letters preserved,
but we may note Mrs. Wesley's opinion (25th January) that it was
"beyond the power of any human being to make such strange and various
noises".

The next evidence is ten years after date, the statements taken down
by Jack Wesley in 1726 (1720?). Mrs. Wesley adds to her former
account that she "earnestly desired it might not disturb her" (at her
devotions) "between five and six in the evening," and it did not rout
in her room at that time. Emily added that a screen was knocked at on
each side as she went round to the other. Sukey mentioned the noise
as, on one occasion, coming gradually from the garret stairs, outside
the nursery door, up to Hetty's bed, "who trembled strongly in her
sleep. It then removed to the room overhead, where it knocked my
father's knock on the ground, as if it would beat the house down."
Nancy said that the