The Cock Lane Ghost by Paul Chambers

Sex, death and things that go bump in the Georgian night

A real cock-and-bull story, it seems very funny now. To the chattering classes of the early 1760s, it seemed hilarious. But one person who never got the joke was William Kent, an unwise fellow who could have been hanged for murder on the say-so of "Scratching Fanny", the ghost of Cock Lane.

The story of love, folly and things that go bump in the night is still sketched out during guided walks in Olde London Towne. In The Cock Lane Ghost, Paul Chambers has written a documentary account which puts flesh on the skeleton of the yarn. Thanks to its enthralling details and preposterous goings-on, it reads like a novel.

The next world came knocking when and Mr and "Mrs" Kent moved into Number 21, the lodgings from hell. It had an allegedly supernatural rapping which occurred only in the presence of Betty, the landlord's daughter. Kent was already in trouble before he moved into the dingy street near St Paul's. He had made an unmarried woman pregnant, again - and couldn't marry her, as she was the sister of his deceased first wife. He had just got himself thrown out of his previous lodgings by lending the landlord a large sum and then daring to ask for repayment. He did the same at Cock Lane, with the same result.

Richard Parsons, the vindictive, drunken landlord, put it about that the ghostly knockings emanated from the dead Mrs Kent, returning from beyond the grave to express her horror at her husband carrying on with her sister. After the couple had been booted out, Fanny caught smallpox and died. Parsons declared that it was murder - and the ghost agreed. When questioned, it would knock once for Yes and twice for No. According to Parsons, this was now another ghost, the shade of just-dead Fanny; the spooky message was that she had died from Kent's poison.

Curious and gullible mobs packed the house and street. Kent looked like taking the rap for murder until a team of ghostbusters, led by Samuel Johnson, revealed the fraud: the noises were created by young Betty. Now it was Kent's turn to go on the offensive against those who could have had him hanged. They ended up in the dock and, in Parsons' case, in the pillory. Annoyingly, the ghost was never sued for libel: knock once for innocent, twice for guilty.