Research source

By the spectre, then there was no telepathic hallucination, but an actual being of an awful kind was in…

Date of account: Published 1894
Source: Cock Lane and Common-Sense
Reference: Cock Lane and Common-Sense · selected passage 173
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

by the spectre, then there was no telepathic hallucination, but an actual being of an awful kind was in Smailholm Tower

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

by the spectre, then there was no telepathic hallucination, but an actual being of an awful kind was in Smailholm Tower. Again, the cases in which dogs and horses, as Paracelsus avers, display terror when men and women behold a phantasm, are not easily accounted for by telepathy, especially when the beast is alarmed _before_ the man or woman suspects the presence of anything unusual. There is, of course, the notion that the horse shies, or the dog turns craven, in sympathy with its master's exhibition of fear. Owners of dogs and horses may counterfeit horror and see whether their favourites do sympathise. Cats don't. In one of three cases known to us where a cat showed consciousness of a spectral presence, the apparition _took the form of a cat_. The evidence is only that of Richard Bovet, in his Pandemonium; or, the Devil's Cloyster (1684). In Mr. J. G. Wood's Man and Beast, a lady tells a story of being alone, in firelight, playing with a favourite cat, Lady Catherine. Suddenly puss bristled all over, her back rose in an arch, and the lady, looking up, saw a hideously malignant female watching her. Lady Catherine now rushed wildly round the room, leaped at the upper panels of the door, and seemed to have gone mad.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This comes from historical psychical research. Methods, witness handling and standards of evidence differ from present-day research and should be assessed from the cited passage and edition.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

The passage can support a history of claims and recurring descriptions. It does not establish a paranormal mechanism, and competing psychological, social and physical explanations remain relevant.

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