pertinacity is a most extraordinary instance of what revenge is capable
of. It was believed by many, at the time, that Mr. Mompesson himself was
privy to the whole matter, and permitted and encouraged these tricks in
his house for the sake of notoriety; but it seems more probable that the
gipsies were the real delinquents, and that Mr. Mompesson was as much
alarmed and bewildered as his credulous neighbours, whose excited
imaginations conjured up no small portion of these stories,

"Which rolled, and as they rolled grew larger visibly."

Many instances of a similar kind, during the seventeenth century, might be
gleaned from Glanvil and other writers of that period; but they do not
differ sufficiently from these to justify a detail of them. The most
famous of all haunted houses acquired its notoriety much nearer our own
time; and the circumstances connected with it are so curious, and afford
so fair a specimen of the easy credulity even of well-informed and
sensible people, as to merit a little notice in this chapter. The
Cock-Lane Ghost, as it was called, kept London in commotion for a
considerable time, and was the theme of conversation among the learned and
the illiterate, and in every circle, from that of the prince to that of
the peasant.

[Illustration: THE HAUNTED HOUSE IN COCK LANE.]

At the commencement of the year 1760, there resided in Cock Lane, near
West Smithfield, in the house of one Parsons, the parish clerk of St.
Sepulchre's, a stockbroker, named Kent. The wife of this gentleman had
died in child-bed during the previous year, and his sister-in-law, Miss
Fanny, had arrived from Norfolk to keep his house for him. They soon
conceived a mutual affection, and each of them made a will in the other's
favour. They lived some months in the house of Parsons, who, being a needy
man, borrowed money of his lodger. Some difference arose betwixt them, and
Mr. Kent left the house, and instituted legal proceedings against the
parish-clerk for the recovery of his money.

While this matter was yet pending, Miss Fanny was suddenly taken ill of
the small-pox; and, notwithstanding every care and attention, she died in
a few days, and was buried in a vault under Clerkenwell church. Parsons
now began to hint that the poor lady had come unfairly by her death, and
that Mr. Kent was accessory to it, from his too great eagerness to enter
into possession of the property she had bequeathed him. Nothing further
was said for ne