Research source

I am still near, Watching the smiles I prized on earth, Your converse mild, your blameless mirth.[64

Date of account: Late nineteenth-century compilation
Source: The Ghost World
Reference: The Ghost World · selected passage 123
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

After a long absence he returned, having witnessed many horrible sights which he refused to relate

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

After a long absence he returned, having witnessed many horrible sights which he refused to relate. Soon afterwards he became a monk. After a time the same cry was heard, and he went over and succeeded in laying the ghost where it now rests. But Bourne, who has preserved a form for exorcising a haunted house, ridicules the fancy that 'none can lay spirits but Popish priests,' and says that 'our own clergy know just as much of the black art as the others do'--a statement which is amply confirmed. Thus, a ghost known as 'Benjie Gear' long troubled the good people of Okehampton to such an extent that, 'at last,' writes Mr. James Spry, in 'The Western Antiquary,' 'the aid of the archdeacon was called in, and the clergy were assembled in order that the troubled spirit might be laid and cease to trouble them. There were twenty-three of the clergy who invoked him in various classic languages, but the insubordinate spirit refused to listen to their request.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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