Perhaps the latest ghost in a court of justice (except in cases aboutthe letting of haunted houses) "appeared" at the Aylesbury PettySession on 22nd August, 1829. On 25th October, 1828, William Edden, amarket gardener, was found dead, with his ribs broken, in the roadbetween Aylesbury and Thame. One Sewell, in August, 1829, accused aman named Tyler, and both were examined at the Aylesbury PettySessions. Mrs. Edden gave evidence that she sent five or six timesfor Tyler "to come and see the corpse. . . . I had some particularreasons for sending for him which I never did divulge. . . . I willtell you my reasons, gentlemen, if you ask me, in the face of Tyler,even if my life should be in danger for it." The reasons were that onthe night of her husband's murder, "something rushed over me, and Ithought my husband came by me. I looked up, and I thought I heard thevoice of my husband come from near my mahogany table. . . . I thoughtI saw my husband's apparition, and the man that had done it, and thatman was Tyler. . . . I ran out and said, 'O dear God! my husband ismurdered, and his ribs are broken'."Lord Nugent--"What made you think your husband's ribs were broken?""He held up his hands like this, and I saw a hammer, or something likea hammer, and it came into my mind that his ribs were broken." Sewellstated that the murder was accomplished by means of a hammer.The prisoners were discharged on 13th September. On 5th March, 1830,they were tried at the Buckingham Lent Assizes, were found guilty andwere hanged, protesting their innocence, on 8th March, 1830."In the report of Mrs. Edden's evidence (at the Assizes) no mention ismade of the vision." {144}Here end our ghosts in courts of justice; the following ghost gaveevidence of a murder, or rather, confessed to one, but was beyond thereach of human laws.This tale of 1730 is still current in Highland tradition. It has,however, been improved and made infinitely more picturesque by severalgenerations of narrators. As we try to be faithful to the bestsources, the contemporary manuscript version is here reprinted fromThe Scottish Standard-Bearer, an organ of the Scotch Episcopalians(October and November, 1894).
Informational
