#Scratching Fanny The Ghost of Cock Lane

[letsgethaunted]

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Episode Thirty-One: Scratching Fanny, The Ghost of Cock Lane Photodump

Image 01: Illustration of the outside of the house on Cock Lane Image 02: Illustration depicting the ghost that ran up the stairs on Cock Lane Image 03: Illustration of one of the Cock Lane Seances Image 04: Illustration of Miss Parsons (child) visited by several people who are trying to figure out if the Cock Lane Ghost is real or not Image 05: What Cock Lane currently looks like (present day)

[frimleyblogger]

Scratching Fanny - The Investigation

The hysteria generated by the Cock Lane ghost, the increasingly lurid reports in the press, and Kent’s protestations of innocence stirred the Lord Mayor of London, Samuel Fluyder, into action. He established a commission to investigate the affair, its members including Bishop John Douglas, Dr George Macaulay, and a Captain Wilkinson who had previously attended a Parsons’ séance armed with a…

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day.

Welcome to Too Much Information Tuesday.

Women tell an average of 11 lies a week. Men, 58.

Loneliness is both physically and mentally damaging.

Listerine was once marketed as a cure for gonorrhoea.

If you suffer from micturition syncope, you faint when you pee.

23 per cent of men and 17 per cent of women never get married.

According to a study, wishing someone luck makes them do better.

The average Briton spends more time on the toilet than they do exercising.

Precrastination is doing something too quickly or too early to get it out of the way.

Scientists at the University of East Anglia spent seven years trying to discover why men exist.

In the 1760s, 33 Cock Lane in London was believed to be haunted by a ghost called Scratching Fanny.

A 2017 issue of the comic book ‘Asterix’ featured a masked antagonist called Coronavirus.

A team of researchers at Tabriz University have suggested that sex is an effective cure for hay fever.

American rock & roll legend Little Richard was the official who married Demi Moore to Bruce Willis.

Stanford University has developed an AI toilet that can diagnose health problems by taking pictures of your poo.

Scarlett Johansson was once so distracted by her own cleavage on a billboard advertisement that she nearly crashed her car.

In 1849, enslaved American Henry Brown boxed himself up and mailed himself to a state where slavery was illegal. He left the box a free man.

In 2019, a Danish politician paid for ads on Pornhub. When questioned he said, "Half the internet is porn and you need to be where the voters are."

In Japan, there's a practice called ‘forest bathing’ or Shinrin-yoku, in which people immerse themselves in forests to relieve stress and improve mental well-being.

In Ancient Egypt, the dead bodies of beautiful women were left to decay for at least a few days before they were sent to the embalmers to prevent acts of necrophilia.

The first iPhone virus was the Ikee worm which infected thousands of Australian iPhones. Its only function was to change the phone’s wallpaper to a picture of Rick Astley.

Highly intelligent people are more likely to underestimate themselves, while dumber people are more likely to believe they're brilliant. This is The Dunning-Kruger Effect.

When stagecoaches were standard in the 1880s, the driver would typically assign his passenger seat to an armed partner whose duty was to keep thieves away. Hence, the expression ‘riding shotgun’.

Early American trains had wood-burning engines that would spew embers into the passenger cars, so some railways gave each passenger a bucket of sand to pour on a neighbour if they caught fire.

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In 1994, the KKK applied to sponsor a section of the I-55 highway near St. Louis, Missouri and the Supreme Court ruled the state could not refuse the sponsorship. So, the state of Missouri renamed the entire stretch of highway The Rosa Parks Freeway.

Before marrying his first cousin, Charles Darwin made a list of the pros and cons of marriage. The pros included "constant companion and a friend in old age” and “better than a dog anyhow." The cons: "less money for books" and "terrible loss of time."

Having too many choices can lead to anxiety and dissatisfaction. When faced with an abundance of options, people may find it more challenging to make a decision and they may be less satisfied with their final choice. This is called The Paradox Of Choice.

The world record for the longest time handcuffed to another human is 123 days, achieved by a couple who kept breaking up and then getting back together and wanted to save their relationship. After the handcuffing, they swore never to get back together again.

A study conducted by the University of Virginia found that 67% of male participants would rather give themselves an electric shock than sit alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. Women were far less likely to shock themselves, with only a 25% participation rate.

The 2002 live-action film ‘Scooby-Doo’ was initially rated R due to its "sexual content." Specifically, the MPAA cited several scenes in which Daphne and Velma were shown with exposed cleavage. Their cleavage had to be digitally removed to get it down to a PG rating.

While filming 'The Wizard of Oz’, Judy Garland was subjected to a strict diet of chicken soup, black coffee and 80 cigarettes per day by MGM, along with amphetamines to work and barbiturates for sleep. By the time 17-year-old Garland finished filming the movie, she had become addicted to both.

When released in 1978, it was a double-A side with ‘Bicycle Race, peaked at No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart, No. 10 in Ireland, No. 5 in the Netherlands and sold two million copies in America but, despite this, ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ has mysteriously been omitted from the latest re-release of ‘Queen’s Greatest Hits’.

Okay, that’s enough information for one day. Have a tremendous and tumultuous Tuesday! I love you all.

[natequarter]

[Cock Lane ghost (called "Scratching Fanny") received massive public attention in 18th-century England.]

I need to reference a haunting in the fic I'm writing, so of course I go to check wikipedia to not have to come up with anything on my own...

well thanks reality this is so on the nose it's borderline unusable

[ofgraveconcern]

18th September 1709, birth of English scholar, lexicographer, and one time Ghost investigator Samuel Johnson. Although best known as the author of ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’, published in 1755, Johnson was also the most prominent member of the committee which investigated the 1762 London sensation of the Cock Lane Ghost, in which strange knocking sounds and ghostly apparitions were reported. William Kent the lodger in the building claimed that they were the ghost of his dead wife, named ‘Scratching Fanny’ from the supernatural scratching sounds that were allegedly heard from the room. Regular séances were held and Cock Lane was often made impassable by the throngs of interested bystanders. The house was visited by Samuel Johnson and also Horace Walpole, author of the ‘Castle of Otranto’, the first Gothic novel which was published in 1764. A pamphlet named ‘The Mystery Revealed’ which explained the details of the case was also published the same year, its authorship likely attributed to Johnson’s friend playwright and poet Oliver Goldsmith, best known for his 1770 poem ‘The Deserted Village’. 20th September 1803, birth of English novelist, story writer and playwright Catherine Ann Crowe, writer of The Nightside of Nature, published in 1846. Inspired by German writers, the book gives the reader chilling anecdotes of ghostly events, hauntings and other paranormal phenomena. The book became her most popular work, attempting to find a scientific, or, ‘psychic’ explanation of supernatural sightings and occurrences, during the height of the spiritualism movement. In February 1854, Catherine Ann Crowe was discovered naked in Edinburgh one night, (continued in the comments). #ghosthunting #ghostart #ghostartwork #ghostsightings #ghosthistory #darkhistory #ghostbooks #gothichistory #gothictales #gothicvictorian #victoriangothic #victoriangothicstyle #regencygothic #18thcentury #18thcenturyhistory #darkromantic #darkromanticism #historicalillustration #gothicillustration #historymemes #macabremonday #macabremondays #samueljohnson #castleofotranto #horacewalpole #candleart #candleartist #poltergeist #halloween #halloweendecor https://www.instagram.com/p/CUDKuZyFlfQ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[arawol]

Spoopy Halloween fact for you

the building I work in is supposedly haunted by a ghost called

no joke

Scratching Fanny of Cock Lane

[letsgethaunted]

Scratching Fanny, The Ghost of Cock Lane

In 1762 an alleged haunting took place in London at an inn located on Cock Lane. Was the ghost sent to expose an act of incest?

[letsgethaunted]

Mobile Tags! SEASON 2

Ep. 28 Tag: Yetis, Ghosts, Trapped Souls, & Aliens - Haunted Mt. Everest

Episode 28 Link Photodump

Ep. 29 Tag: The Cursed Treasure of Oak Island

Episode 29 Link Photodump

Ep. 30 Tag: The Ritual Sacrifice of Mark Kilroy

Episode 30 Link Photodump

Ep. 30.5 Tag: LISTENER STORIES #4

Episode 30.5 Link Photodump

Ep. 31 Tag: Scratching Fanny, the Ghost of Cock Lane

Episode 31 Link Photodump

Ep. 32 Tag: Roasted Fetuses Dipped in Gold - the Lore Behind Kuman Thong

Episode 32 Link Photodump

Ep. 33 Tag: The Mysterious Disappearance of Lars Mittank

Episode 33 Link Photodump

Ep. 34 Tag: Real Japanese Curses and Urban Legends

Episode 34 Link Photodump

Ep. 35 Tag: Operation Wandering Soul & the Paranormal Side of the Vietnam War

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Ep. 36 Tag: Late Stage Cannibalism Aboard the Doomed Ghost Ship H.M.S. Terror

Episode 36 Link Photodump

Ep. 37 Tag: Indonesian Ghosts During Coronavirus

Episode 37 Link Photodump

Ep. 38 Tag: Charles “The Bewitched” Hapsburg & Inbreeding in the Royal Family

Episode 38 Link Photodump

Ep. 39 Tag: The Kennedy Curse

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Ep. 40 Tag: John Wayne Gacy and his Haunted Artwork

Episode 30 Link Photodump

Ep. 40.5 Tag: LISTENER STORIES #5

Episode 40.5 Link Photodump

Ep. 41 Tag: Randonautica and Mind Matter Interaction (ft. Joshua Lengfelder and Dean Radin)

Episode 41 Link Photodump

Ep. 42 Tag: QAnon, Adrenochrome, and the 5th Dimension

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Ep. 43 Tag: The Happy Valley Dream Survey & The Willamette Valley Dream Survey

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Ep. 44 Tag: The Whaley House

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Ep. 45 Tag: The Pope Lick Monster of Louisville (ft. Steven Suptic)

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Ep. 46 Tag: The Black Death and the Haunting of Poveglia Island

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Ep. 47 Tag: The Murder of the Hammersmith Ghost (ft. Elyse Willems and James Willems)

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Ep. 48 Tag: Anatoly Moskvin’s Black Magic Dolls (ft. Cib and Sami Jo)

Episode 48 Link Photodump

Ep. 49 Tag: Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm? (ft. Steve Zaragoza)

Episode 49 Link Photodump

Ep. 50 Tag: Filipino Folklore (ft. Sapphire Sandalo)

Episode 50 Link Photodump

Ep. 50.5 Tag: LISTENER STORIES #6

Episode 50.5 Link Photodump

Ep. 51 Tag: Lake City Quiet Pills

Episode 51 Link Photodump

Ep. 52 Tag: The Dibbuk Box

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Ep. 53 Tag: The Curse of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

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Ep. 54 Tag: The Andes Flight Disaster

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Ep. 55 Tag: The Ritual Murder of Pastor Carol Daniels

Episode 55 Link Photodump

BONUS Q&A Season 2 Finale

Episode Link Photodump

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Welcome to Too Much Information Tuesday!

Red placebo pills work better than blue ones.

Eyebrows evolved to make humans look friendlier to each other.

It takes four seconds for a silence to become awkward.

You retain information better if it is accompanied by a pun.

The Chupa Chups logo was designed by Salvador Dalí.

All ten species of the most venomous snakes in the world live in Australia.

In the 1760s, 33 Cock Lane in London was believed to be haunted by a ghost called Scratching Fanny.

It requires seven to eight trees to provide enough oxygen for just one person per year.

Two-thirds of all the people in the world who have ever lived to be 65 are still alive today.

Psychology says no matter how angry you get, you always end up forgiving the people you love.

Within 200 yards of the flat in Islington where George Orwell had the idea for 1984, there are now 32 CCTV cameras.

The 'coffee break' was invented in 1952 by the American Coffee bureau.

The palm trees in Los Angeles, are the result of a job-creation scheme in the 1930s.

There are more phone calls placed on Mother's Day than any other day of the year.

India used to be the richest country in the world until the British invasion in the early 17th Century.

Human saliva contains a painkiller called opiorphin that is six times more powerful than morphine.

Climate change is making it harder to sleep. On average, you are losing 44 hours of sleep a year due to higher temperatures.

All polar bears are Irish: they’re descended from brown bears that lived in Ireland over 10,000 years ago.

On the set of ‘Jaws’, the shark was named Bruce after Steven Spielberg's lawyer.

Cacozelia is the use of foreign words to make one appear un peu plus cultivé.

In 2002, a NASA intern stole a safe full of moon rocks, sprinkled them on a hotel bed, and had sex with his girlfriend on top of them.

Football World Cup referees have to learn swear words in other languages.

The sign-language equivalent of a tongue-twister is a ‘finger fumbler’.

Inserting a swear-word in the middle of another word, such as ‘abso-fucking-lutely’, is called an Expletive Infixation.

The thermostat knobs in many hotel rooms don't work; they're rigged to save electricity.

Disneyland shut down its gondola rides because too many people were having sex on them.

According to new research from Dartmouth College, people are at their most miserable when they are 47.2 years old.

About a third of the UK population has discussed the weather within the last hour.

Dancing Queen gets 16 times as many Spotify streams as the average ABBA song.

Breakups are hard to deal with because the body and mind goes through withdrawal, like drug addiction, we become addicted to love.

‘Billie Jean’ was about a girl who climbed over Michael Jackson's wall one morning and accused him of being the father of one of her twins.

King George VI's wedding was not broadcast on the radio in case people listened without removing their hats.

Not realising his microphone was switched on, Ronald Reagan once joked that the US was about to bomb Russia.

The harder you work for something, the greater you'll feel when you finally achieve it.

The first iPhone virus was the Ikee worm which infected thousands of Australian iPhones. Its only function was to change the phone’s wallpaper to a picture of Rick Astley.

In 2019, a Danish politician paid for ads on Pornhub. When questioned, he said, "Half the internet is porn and you need to be where the voters are."

In 1923, an American man was killed trying to open a coconut with the butt of his (loaded) revolver and died from a bullet wound to the abdomen.

In 2019, a 31-year-old North Carolina man named Aaron Smith created and launched a new dating app, but there was a catch. He was the only guy on it. He banned all other men from joining.

In 2003, six monkeys were funded by the Arts Council of England to see how long it would take them to type the works of Shakespeare. After six months, they had failed to produce a single word of English, broken the computer and used the keyboard as a lavatory.

Okay, that’s enough information for one day. Have a tremendous and tumultuous Tuesday! I love you all.

[ofgraveconcern]

12th January 1762, first public séance to investigate the validity of claims of a knocking ghost in Cock Lane, London. The Cock Lane ghost was a purported haunting that attracted mass public attention in 1762. Several accounts of strange knocking sounds and ghostly apparitions were reported, William Kent the lodger in the building claimed that they were the ghost of his dead wife, named ‘Scratching Fanny’ from the supernatural scratching sounds that were allegedly heard from the room. Regular séances were held and Cock Lane was often made impassable by the throngs of interested bystanders. A committee was also formed to investigate the claims, the most prominent member being Dr Samuel Johnson, more famously known as the author and compiler of his English language dictionary. On or about the 25th of February, a pamphlet called ‘The Mystery Revealed’ was published, most likely written by Oliver Goldsmith. Settling in London in 1756, Goldsmith had held various brief jobs as an apothecaries assistant, and a hack journalist in Grub Street, known for its impoverished writers and artists. A lifestyle which earned him the moniker of ‘inspired idiot’ by Horace Walpole, author of the ‘Castle of Otranto’, the first Gothic novel which was published in 1764. Horace Walpole had also visited Cock Lane at the end of January. Continued in the comments. #londonghosts #ghostillustration #ghostartwork #ghosthistory #illustrationwork #historymystery #historymysteries #strangehistory #weirdhistory #macabrehistory #hiddenhistory #historicalmystery #historicalmysteries #darkhistory #oddhistory #historicalstories #historicalstory #gothicliterature #gothicstyle #darkillustration #illustrationartwork ##historicalillustration #macabreillustration #ghostsighting #olivergoldsmith #horacewalpole #thecastleofotranto #paranormalhistory #ghoststories https://www.instagram.com/p/CNIR9dXHjmL/?igshid=riiv70bak85z

[ofgraveconcern]

In celebration of National Reading Month, happening this month, (March) ‘Wednesday Wares’ will every wednesday this month be detailing great historical Gothic fiction from the 18th and 19th century, and the art I make celebrating it. This week: The Castle of Otranto, & The Cock Lane Ghost (where all Gothic Horror fiction begans). The first work of Gothic fiction belongs to English writer, art historian, antiquarian and initiator of gothic revivalism, Horatio Walpole, who was born on the 2nd March 1757. Combining fiction, horror, medievalism and romanticism, his work ‘The Castle of Otranto’, was first published in 1764. In the first edition, Walpole erroneously claimed the work to be from a manuscript printed in Naples, Italy in 1529. Alongside these medieval themes, could he have been influenced by more recent events taking palace in the preceding couple of years? In Cock Lane, London in 1762, a ghost hysteria was taking place. The Cock Lane ghost was a purported haunting that attracted mass public attention that year. Several accounts of strange knocking sounds and ghostly apparitions were reported, William Kent the lodger in the building claimed that they were the ghost of his dead wife, named ‘Scratching Fanny’ from the supernatural scratching sounds that were allegedly heard from the room. Regular séances were held and Cock Lane was often made impassable by the throngs of interested bystanders, one of these being Horace Walpole. An investigative committee was formed to investigate the claims, possibly the first ghost hunting group, with English scholar and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, best known as the author of ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’, published in 1755; being the most prominent member, continued in the comments: #nationalreadingmonth #historicalstories #historicalstory #gothicliterature #darkillustration #illustrationartwork #ghostaesthetic #gothichistory #gothicfiction #gothicillustration #printmaking #printedart #fantasmagoria #horrorfiction #bookworm #booknerd #bookgram #booklife #bookpic #bookcover #booksofig #igbooks #books #bookaesthetic #bookish #classicbooks #classicliterature #classiclit #bibliophile #castleofotranto https://www.instagram.com/p/CL9t7BMn-1B/?igshid=1q5jcvpse0s5d

[ofgraveconcern]

👻 12th January 1762, first public séance to investigate the validity of claims of a knocking ghost in Cock Lane, London. The Cock Lane ghost was a purported haunting that attracted mass public attention in 1762. Several accounts of strange knocking sounds and ghostly apparitions were reported, William Kent the lodger in the building claimed that they were the ghost of his dead wife, named ‘Scratching Fanny’ from the supernatural scratching sounds that were allegedly heard from the room. Regular séances were held and Cock Lane was often made impassable by the throngs of interested bystanders. A committee was also formed to investigate the claims, the most prominent member being Dr Samuel Johnson, more famously known as the author and compiler of his English language dictionary. On or about the 25th of February, a pamphlet called ‘The Mystery Revealed’ was published, most likely written by Oliver Goldsmith. Settling in London in 1756, Goldsmith had held various brief jobs as an apothecaries assistant, and a hack journalist in Grub Street, known for its impoverished writers and artists. A lifestyle which earned him the moniker of ‘inspired idiot’ by Horace Walpole, author of the ‘Castle of Otranto’, the first Gothic novel which was published in 1764. Horace Walpole had also visited Cock Lane at the end of January. Continued in the comments. #londonghosts #ghostillustration #ghostartwork #ghosthistory #illustrationwork #historymystery #historymysteries #strangehistory #weirdhistory #macabrehistory #hiddenhistory #historicalmystery #historicalmysteries #darkhistory #oddhistory #historicalstories #historicalstory #gothicliterature #gothicstyle #darkillustration #illustrationartwork ##historicalillustration #macabreillustration #ghostsighting #olivergoldsmith #horacewalpole #thecastleofotranto #paranormalhistory #ghoststories https://www.instagram.com/p/CKG_S48nz-X/?igshid=16om23ta3i6yd

[ofgraveconcern]

Ghosts and Phantasmagoria: 1572 - 1846 Act I: From Shakespeare to the Gothic Sublime All art shown is original, or are reproductions of the original publications, alongside original artwork, and based upon the history and historical accounts listed. All the books are reproductions with original artwork, and are made from actual antique salvaged books, which are presented to be hung on a wall for a unique display. All art is also for sale on the website. See link in bio. ⚰️Of Ghosts and Spirits Walking by Night. 1572 Written by the Swiss theologian Ludwig Lavater in 1569, ‘Of Ghostes and Spirites Walking by Nyght’ was an early work upon the existence of ghosts. Translated into English in 1572, the book became the most frequently printed demonological works of the period. In the work Lavater came to the conclusion that ghosts or apparitions were not the souls of the deceased, but "either good or evil angels”. As seen by the plays of William Shakespeare, especially in Hamlet written between 1599 and 1602; the existence of ghosts and their ability to visit and affect the fate of the living, was an exceptionally popular idea during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods; alongside the reemergence of alchemy and the occult. Cock Lane Ghost. 1762 The Cock Lane ghost was a purported haunting that attracted mass public attention in 1762. The location was a room in a building in Cock Lane, London. Several accounts of strange knocking sounds and ghostly apparitions were reported, William Kent the lodger of the building claimed that they were the ghost of his dead wife, named ‘Scratching Fanny’ from the supernatural scratching sounds that were allegedly heard from the room. Continued in the comments: #ghost #ghosts #ghostart #ghostsighting #ghostaesthetic #gothicstyle #gothicart #gothichistory #ghosthistory #macabreartwork #dark #darkart #strangehistory #darkhistory #illustration #illustrationartist #darkillustration #darkillustrations #halloween #halloween #mythical #halloweenart #halloweenart #halloweeneveryday #hamlet #gothicliterature #williamshakespeare #shakespeare #cocklaneghost #samueljohnson https://www.instagram.com/p/CG5KmoEg1GH/?igshid=peoqrr6n3kxl

[ofgraveconcern]

Ghosts Invisible but recorded 18th September 1709, birth of English scholar, lexicographer, and one time Ghost investigator Samuel Johnson. Although best known as the author of ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’, published in 1755, Johnson was also the most prominent member of the committee which investigated the 1762 London sensation of the Cock Lane Ghost, in which strange knocking sounds and ghostly apparitions were reported. William Kent the lodger in the building claimed that they were the ghost of his dead wife, named ‘Scratching Fanny’ from the supernatural scratching sounds that were allegedly heard from the room. Regular séances were held and Cock Lane was often made impassable by the throngs of interested bystanders. The house was visited by Samuel Johnson and also Horace Walpole, author of the ‘Castle of Otranto’, the first Gothic novel which was published in 1764. A pamphlet named ‘The Mystery Revealed’ which explained the details of the case was also published the same year, its authorship likely attributed to Johnson’s friend playwright and poet Oliver Goldsmith, best known for his 1770 poem ‘The Deserted Village’. 20th September 1803, birth of English novelist, story writer and playwright Catherine Ann Crowe, writer of The Nightside of Nature, published in 1846. Inspired by German writers, the book gives the reader chilling anecdotes of ghostly events, hauntings and other paranormal phenomena. The book became her most popular work, attempting to find a scientific, or, ‘psychic’ explanation of supernatural sightings and occurrences. In February 1854, she was discovered naked in Edinburgh one night, convinced that spirits had rendered her invisible. #ghosts #ghoststories #ghosts #ghosthistory #candles #gothiccandles #gothicliterature #castleofotranto #horacewalpole #samueljohnson #phantasmagoria #history #historical #historicalfacts #hiddenhistory #macabre #macabreart #gothic #gothicstyle #ghoststyle #dark #darkstyle #tarot #tarotcards #tarotart #tarotartist #18thcentury #victorian https://www.instagram.com/p/CFXDTzYgKB0/?igshid=m7zc6s0jh6st