The Haunted Tower.
For some weeks past, a family residing in the Tower of London have been very much anoyed and disturbed by a variety of unpleasant noises, heard in different parts of the house, during the night; and the sentries, on duty at the door of the Royal Regalia, to which this house belongs, have frequently been disturbed by the most violent knocking; and (according to their account) even deep and hollow groans have been heard; and the feeling of superstition having spread very much among the soldiery, with whom the ghost is now a cant phrase, an additional sentry has lately been placed on the rampart immediately over the mysterious spot, and every possible exertion used by the occupier of the house, towards elucidating the cause of the disturbance.
Officers of the garrison have watched for whole nights; nothing but a continuance of the noise was heard, but no visible cause discovered, until late on the night of Thursday the 11th inst. the inhabitants of the Tower were thrown into the greatest possible confusion by the screaming and roaring of the sentry stationed at the door of the Regalia depot, and the turning out of the guard, which, upon repairing to the spot, found the soldier extended on the pavement in a senseless state. He was immediately carried off to the guard-room, and when sufficiently restored to his senses, positively affirmed, that whilst upon duty a small figure crept from under the door at which he was stationed, and gradually made its approach to him, at the same time changing its appearance into that of a human being, and afterwards into that of a dog. These sudden transformations so completely affrighted the soldier, that, after alarming the whole neighbourhood with his bellowing, he fell down senseless.
Nothing was seen by the soldier on the rampart, and the most rational conclusion is, that imbecility of mind has, in this case, been worked upon by the ridiculous and absurd tales of the ghost, with which, most probably, the poor fellow's brains have been crammed; and certainly no rational person can say, that doubling the sentries, for such reasons as in this case, tends much to assure the uneducated mind of such fallacies, as it appears this soldier has fallen a martyr to.
At the same time it is absolutely necessary that proper methods should be resorted to, to clear up the mystery with which it is at present enveloped; although there is very little doubt but that in a building so ancient as the one in question, containing innumerable passages and blocked-up apartments, loop-holes and crevices, Boreas, occasionally gives a concert, in which he is most musically accompanied by all the bats, and consequently many cats of the garrison.
From The Liverpool Mercury, January 26th, 1816.
