The London Times and the Supernatural

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           Stories about supernatural events appeared pretty regularly in the London Times during 1855-1860.  Most likely they appeared so regularly because short articles on odd occurrences are a good way to grab a readers attention and they certainly did a good job of grabbing mine. As a newspaper that was mostly aimed at and written by the educated middleclass, the articles reveal the middleclass’ views on paranormal events. All of the authors approach the subject with skepticism and the belief that only ignorant people actually believe that any magic could have occurred.  The London times seems to be conflicted about what role religion and the paranormal has in everyone’s lives.

            In general The London Times’ believed that supernatural events were probably either misunderstandings or a fabrication of someone involved. One of the first articles I read was titled “A Scotch Ghost Story” published on January 27, 1858 and it told the story of a young woman named Mary W. who befriended the servant of a house named Mrs. S. One day Mary came to Mrs. S. sobbing about how her mother had just died and she needed to borrow a nice black dress for the funeral. Mrs. S. obliged and lent Mary a dress that she went to the funeral in. Later that day however Mary’s pale-faced mother turned up at the house Mrs. S. worked. Eventually Mrs. S. found out that Mary had simply lied about her mother’s death in order to get a nice dress to wear on a date. Most of the ghost stories I read had similar logical explanations like this one.

            When something appeared that could not be explained as a prank, science would be looked to for an explanation.  One case like this is when an article called “A Shower of Herrings” was published on July 28, 1857 about how a bunch of fresh herrings appeared in a garden in Daliham about half a mile away from the shore. Since no one thought the herrings could have been carried there by someone, the assumption was that the herrings came from a waterspout. The article also mentions in a rather condescending manner that some superstitious people were upset that people had eaten the herrings.

            There also, of course, is the religious angle to supernatural events. I ran into an article published on March 24, 1857 about the witch trial of a man named James Tunnicliff. The author was indignant that a witch trial could be held at this day and age even with all the improvements in technology and education. He eventually used the story to argue that England needs to focus more on education since there still seem to people out in the country who believe ridiculous things.

            Judging solely by this article and the articles I mentioned prior, The London Time’s readership seemed to purely be made up of people who based their view of the world completely around science. In reality many of the readers were still somewhat religious. The article about the witch trial actually sparked a religious debate that went on in multiple letters to the editor during March 1857.  The first letter questioned how the author could suggest that we need to improve education if the bible said that witches existed. A couple a days later a response was saying that the previous writer had misinterpreted the bible passage on witches.