THE PORTSMOUTH GHOST
Reading edition
OR A
Full and true Account of a Strange, wonderful, and dreadful Appearing of the Ghost of Madam Johnson, a beautiful young Lady of Portsmouth
SHEWING
1. Her falling in Love with Mr. John Hunt, a Captain in one of the Regiments sent to Spain.
2. Of his promising her Marriage, and leaving her big With Child.
3. Of her selling herself to the Devil to be revenged on the Captain.
4. Of her ripping open her own Belly, and the Devil's flying away with her Body, and leaving the Child in the room.
5. Of the Captain's Fleet being drove back by a Storm to St. Helen's.
6. Of her appearing to several Sailors, acquainting them who she was.
7. Of her Carrying him away in the night in a flame of fire.
Printed and Sold by Cluer Dicey and Co. in Aldermary Church Yard, Bow Lane.
This book is useful, as it shows the early date of the firm of Dicey in Aldermary Churchyard. It must have been published very early in the century, for her ghost appeared to him whilst on his voyage to Vigo; the date of the famous capture of the galleons and the large quantity of snuff, which augmented, if it did not almost inaugurate, the taste for snuff-taking in England, being 1702. The catastrophe of the poem is graphically told.
"The next time that she came again For to have perish'd on the main, They all expected for to rue So violent the storm it grew. They all at fervent prayers were, At length this sailor, I declare, Did speak to her, and thus did say, What ails thy troubled spirit pray? The truth she quickly then did tell. Saying Him I'll have, then all is well Then with a visage fierce and Grim, She strait approached unto him, He went to turn and hide his face, She cry'd False man it is too late, She clasp'd him in her arms straitway, But no man knew his dying day. In a flash of fire many see She dragged him into the sea The storm is soon abated where They all returned thanks by prayer Unto the Lord that sav'd their lives And delivered them from that surprise Let this a warning be to all That reads the same both great and small."