Research source

XIV. I GO ON WITH THE HISTORY OF MY LIFE, AND NARRATE A GHOSTLY HAPPENING IN LIVERPOOL 183

Date of account: Published 1916
Source: Twenty Years' Experience as a Ghost Hunter
Reference: Twenty Years' Experience as a Ghost Hunter · selected passage 112
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

“You may laugh—so did I years ago, afore I took to this sort of thing

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

“Because it’s haunted,” he said. “You may laugh—so did I years ago, afore I took to this sort of thing. But sleeping out-of-doors all night has taught me more than any politicians, bishops, or schoolmasters know; or any of those fine ladies that swell about in their carriages know; I’ve seen sights that would make an hangel afraid; I’ve seen ghosts of all sorts. They’re not all like us, neither. Some of them ain’t human at all, they’re devils. You may laugh when you read about them in them library books, but it’s no laughing matter when you see them, as I’ve seen them, all alone and cold, in some wayside ditch. This tree, I tell yer, is ’aunted—and it’s a devil that ’aunts it. Ask my mates, any of them that you’ll find sleeping in the parks. There’s many of them that ’ave experienced it. They’ve seen something hiding in the branches, and when they’ve seen it, they’ve felt they must either kill themselves or someone else.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a historical account assembled under the reporting and publishing conventions of its period. It may preserve testimony, hearsay, retelling and editorial interpretation together.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

A modern comparison can identify recurring descriptions and possible explanations, but the account is not treated as independently verified evidence merely because it appeared in print.

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