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Fairfield is a little village, lying near the Portsmouth Road,
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about half-way between London and the sea. Strangers who find
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it by accident now and then call it a pretty
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old-fashioned place. We who live in it and call it
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home don't find anything very pretty about it, but we
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should be sorry to live anywhere else. Our minds have
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taken the shape of the inn and the church and
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the green, I suppose. At all events, we never feel
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comfortable out of Fairfield. Of course, the Cockneys, with their
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vasty houses and noise-ridden streets, can call us rustics if
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they choosed. but for all that fairfield is a better
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place to live in than london doctor says that when
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he goes to london his mind is bruised with the
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weight of the houses and he was a cockney born
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he had to live there himself when he was a
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little chet but he knows better now you gentlemen may
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laugh perhaps some of you come from london way but
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it seems to me that a witness like that is
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worth a gallon of arguments dull well you might find
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it dull but I assure you that I've listened to
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all the London yarns you have spun to-night, and they're
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absolutely nothing to the things that happen at Fairfield. It's
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because of our way of thinking and minding our own business.
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If one of your Londoners were set down in the
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green of a Saturday night when the ghosts of the
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lads who died in the war keep tryst with the
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lasses who lie in the churchyard, he couldn't help being
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curious and interfering, and then the ghosts would go somewhere
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where it was quieter. But we just let them come
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and go and don't make any fuss, and in consequence,
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Fairfield is the ghostliest place in all England. Why, I've
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seen a headless man sitting on the edge of the
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well in broad daylight, and the children playing about his
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feet as if he were their father. Take my word
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for it, spirits know when they are well off as
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much as human beings. Still, I must admit that the
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thing I'm going to tell you about was queer even
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for our part of the world. where three packs of
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ghost hounds hunt regularly during the season, and Blacksmith's great-grandfather
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is busy all night shooing the dead gentleman's horses. Now
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that's a thing that wouldn't happen in London, because of
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their interfering ways. But Blacksmith, he lies up aloft and
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sleeps as quiet as a lamb. Once, when he had
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a bad head, he shouted down to them not to
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make so much noise, and in the morning he found
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an old guinea left on the anvil as an apology.
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He wears it on his watch chain now. but i
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must get on with my story if i start telling
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you about the queer happenings at fairfield i'll never stop
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it all came of the great storm in the spring
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of ninety seven the year that we had two great
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storms this was the first one and i remember it
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very well because i found in the morning that it
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had lifted the thatch of my pigsty into the widow's
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garden as clean as a boy's kite when i looked
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over the hedge the Tom Lamport's widow that was, was
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prodding for her nasturtiums with a daisy grabber. After I
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had watched her for a little, I went down to
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the Pox and Grapes to tell Landlord what she had
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said to me. Landlord, he laughed, being a married man
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at ease with the sex. Come to that, he said.
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The tempest has blowed something into my field. The kind
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of ship I think it'd be. I was surprised at that.
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until he explained that it was only a ghost ship,
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and would do no hurt to the turnips. We argued
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that it had been blown up from the sea at Portsmouth,
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and then we talked of something else. There were two
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slates down at the parsonage, and a big tree in
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Lumley's Meadow. That was a rare storm. I reckon the
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wind had blown our ghosts all over England. They were
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coming back for days afterwards, with bounded horses and as
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foot-sore as possible. and they were so glad to get
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back to Fairfield that some of them walked up the
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street crying like little children. Squire said that his great-grandfather's
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great-grandfather hadn't looked so dead beat since the Battle of Naseby,
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and he's an educated man. What with one thing and another,
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I should think it was a week before we got
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straight again, and then one afternoon I met the landlord
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on the green, and he had a worried face. Oh,
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she'd come and have a look at that ship in
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my field, he said to me, Seems to me it's
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leaning real hard on the turnips. I can't bear thinking
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what the missus will say when she sees it. I
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walked down the lane with him, and sure enough there
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was a ship in the middle of his field, but
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such a ship as no man had seen on the
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water for three hundred years, let alone in the middle
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of a turnip field. It was all painted black and
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covered with carvings, and there was a great bay window
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in the stern, for all the world like the squire's drawing-room.
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There was a crowd of little black cannon on deck
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and looking out of her portals, and she was anchored
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at each end to the hard ground. I've seen the
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wonders of the world on picture postcards, but I've never
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seen anything to equal that. She seems very solid for
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a ghost ship, I said, seeing the landlord was bothered.
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I should say it's a betwixt and between, he answered,
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puzzling it over. but it's going to spoil a matter
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of fifty turnips, and Mrs. she'll want it moved. We
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went up to her and touched the side, and it
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was as hard as a real ship. Now there's folks
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in England would call that very curious, he said. Now
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I don't know much about ships, but I should think
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that that ghost ship weighed a solid two hundred tons,
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and it seemed to me that she'd come to stay,
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so that I felt sorry for Landlord, It was a
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married man. All the horses in Fairfield won't move her
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out of my turn, it she said, frowning at her.
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Just then we heard a noise on the deck, and
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we looked up and saw that a man had come
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out of her front cabin, and was looking down at us,
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very peaceably. He was dressed in a black uniform, set
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out with rusty gold lace, and he had a great
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cutlass by his side and a brass sheet. I'm Captain
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Bartholomew Roberts, he said, in a gentleman's voice, put in
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for recruits. I seem to have brought her rather far
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up the harbour. Harbour? cried Landlord. Why, you're fifty miles
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from the sea. Captain Roberts didn't turn a hair. So
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much as that is it, he said coolly. Well, it's
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of no consequence. Landlord was a bit upset at this.
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I don't want to be unneighbourly, he said. but I
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wish you hadn't brought your ship into my field. You see,
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my wife sets great store on these turnips. The captain
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took a pinch of snuff out of a fine gold
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box that he pulled out of his pocket and dusted
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his fingers with a silk handkerchief in a very genteel fashion.
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I'm only here for a few months, he said, but
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if a testimony of my esteem would pacify your good lady,
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I should be content. and with the words he loosed
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a great gold brooch from the neck of his coat
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and tossed it down to Landlord. Landlord blushed as red
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as a strawberry. I'm not denying she's fond of jewellery,
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he said, but it's too much for half a sackful
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of turnips, and indeed it was a handsome brooch. The
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captain laughed. Tut, man, he said, it's a forced sale,
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and you deserve a good price. Say no more about it.
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And nodding good day to us, he turned on his
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heel and went into the cabin. Landlord walked back up
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the lane like a man with a weight off his mind.
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That tempest has blowed me a bit of luck, he said.
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The missus will be much pleased with that brooch. It's
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better than blacksmith's guinea any day. Ninety-seven was Jubilee year,
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the year of the second Jubilee, you remember, and we
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had great doings at Fairfield. so that we hadn't much
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time to bother about the ghost ship, though, anyhow, it
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isn't our way to meddle in things that don't concern us. Landlord,
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he saw his tenant once or twice when he was
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hoeing his turnips, and passed the time of day, and
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landlord's wife wore a new brooch to church every Sunday.
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But we didn't mix much with the ghosts at any time,
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all except an idiot lad there was in the village,
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and he didn't know the difference between a man and
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a ghost, poor innocents. On Jubilee Day, however, somebody told
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Captain Roberts why the church bells were ringing, and he
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hoisted a flag and fired off his guns like a
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loyal Englishman.' Tis true the guns were shotted, and one
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of the round shot knocked a hole in Farmer Johnston's barn,
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but nobody thought much of that in such a season
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of rejoicing.' It wasn't till our celebrations were over,' that
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we noticed that anything was wrong in fairfield twas shoemaker
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who told me first about it one morning at the
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fox and grapes you know my great-great-uncle he said to
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me you mean joshua the quiet lad i answered knowing
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him well quiet said shoemaker indignantly quiet you call him
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coming home at three o'clock every morning as drunk as
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a magistrate and waking up the whole house with his
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noise Why, it can't be Joshua, I said, for I
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knew him for one of the most respectable young ghosts
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in the village. Joshua it is, said Shoemaker, and one
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of these nights he'll find himself out in the street
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if he isn't careful. This kind of talk shocked me,
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I can tell you. for I don't like to hear
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a man abusing his own family, and I could hardly
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believe that a steady youngster like Joshua had taken to drink.
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But just then in came Butcher Alewyn in such a
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temper that he could hardly drink his beer, for young puppy,
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the young puppy, he kept on saying. And it was
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some time before Shoemaker and I found out that he
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was talking about his ancestor that fell at Senlac. Drink?
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said Shoemaker hopefully, for we all like company in our misfortunes,
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and Butcher nodded grimly. The young noodle, he said, emptying
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his tankard. Well, after that, I kept my ears open,
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and it was the same story all over the village.
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There was hardly a young man among all the ghosts
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of Fairfield, who didn't roll home in the small hours
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of the morning the worse for liquor. I used to
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wake up in the night and hear them stumble past
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my house singing outrageous songs. The worst of it was
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that we couldn't keep the scandal to ourselves, and the
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folk at Greenhill began to talk of Sodden Fairfield, and
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taught their children to sing a song about us. Sodden Fairfield,
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Sodden Fairfield, has no use for bread and butter. Rum
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for breakfast, rum for dinner, rum for tea and rum
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for supper. We are easy going in our village, but
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we didn't like that. Of course we soon found out
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where the young fellows went to get the drink, and
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Landlord was terribly cut up that his tenant should have
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turned out so badly. But his wife wouldn't hear of
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parting with the brooch, so that he couldn't give the
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captain notice to quit. But as time went on things
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grew from bad to worse, and at all hours of
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the day you would see those young reprobates sleeping it
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off on the village green. nearly every afternoon a ghost
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wagon used to jolt down to the ship with a
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lading of rum and though the older ghost seemed inclined
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to give the captain's hospitality the go-by the youngsters were
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neither to hold nor to bind so one afternoon when
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i was taking my nap i heard a knock at
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the door and there was parson looking very serious like
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a man with a job before him that he didn't
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altogether relish i'm going down to talk to the captain
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about all this drunkenness in the village, and I want
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you to come with me, he said straight out. I
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can't say that I fancied the visit much myself, and
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I tried to hint to Parson that as after all
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there were only a lot of ghosts it didn't very
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much matter. Dead or alive, I'm responsible for the good conduct,
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he said, and I'm going to do my duty and
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put a stop to this continued disorder, and you're coming
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with me, John Simmons. So I went. Parson being a
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persuasive kind of man. We went down to the ship,
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and as we approached her, I could see the captain
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tasting the air on deck. When he saw Parson, he
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took off his hat very politely, and I can tell
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you that I was relieved to find that he had
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a proper respect for the cloth. Parson acknowledged his salute,
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and spoke out stoutly enough, Sir, I should be glad
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to have a word with you. Come on board, sir,
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come on board, said the captain, and I could tell
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by his voice that he knew why we were there.
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Parson and I climbed up an uneasy kind of ladder,
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and the captain took us into the great cabin at
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the back of the ship, where the bay window was.
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It was the most wonderful place you ever saw in
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your life, all full of gold and silver plate, swords
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with jewelled scabbards carved oak chairs and great chests that
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looked as though they were bursting with guineas even parson
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was surprised and he did not shake his head very
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hard when the captain took down some silver cups and
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poured us out a drink of rum i tasted mine
241
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and i don't mind saying that it changed my view
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of things entirely there was nothing betwixt and between about
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that rum and I felt that it was ridiculous to
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blame the lads for drinking too much of stuff like that.
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It seemed to fill my veins with honey and fire.
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Parson put the case squarely to the captain, but I
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didn't listen much to what he said. I was busy
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sipping my drink and looking through the window at the
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fishes swimming to and fro over landlord's turnips. Just then
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00:14:50.059 --> 00:14:52.220
it seemed the most natural thing in the world that
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they should be there, though afterwards, of course, I could
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see that that proved it was a ghost ship. but
253
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even then I thought it was queer when I saw
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a drowned sailor float by in the thin air, with
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his hair and beard all full of bubbles. It was
256
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the first time I had seen anything quite like that
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at Fairfield. All the time I was regarding the wonders
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of the deep, Parson was telling Captain Roberts how there
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was no peace or rest in the village, owing to
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the curse of drunkenness, and what a bad example the
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youngsters were setting to the older ghosts. The captain listened
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very attentively, and only put in a word now and
263
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then about boys being boys, and young men sowing their
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wild oats. But when Parson had finished his speech, he
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filled up our silver cups, and said to Parson with
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a flourish, I shall be sorry to cause trouble anywhere
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where I have been made welcome, and you will be
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glad to hear that I put out to sea tomorrow night,
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and now you must drink me a prosperous voyage. So
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we all stood up and drank the toast with honour,
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and that noble rum was like hot oil in my veins.
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After that, Captain showed us some of the curiosities he
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had brought back from foreign parts, and we were greatly amazed,
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though afterwards I couldn't clearly remember what they were, and
275
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then I found myself walking across the turnips with Parson,
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and I was telling him of the glories of the
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deep that I had seen through the window of the ship.
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He turned on me severely. If I were you, John Simmons,
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he said, I should go straight home to bed, He
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00:16:27.029 --> 00:16:29.600
has a way of putting things that wouldn't occur to
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00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:32.879
an ordinary man, has Parson, and I did as he
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told me. Well, next day it came on to blow,
283
00:16:37.860 --> 00:16:40.919
and it blew harder and harder, till about eight o'clock
284
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at night I heard a noise and looked out into
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the garden. I dare say you won't believe me, it
286
00:16:46.350 --> 00:16:49.250
seems a bit tall even to me, but the wind
287
00:16:49.289 --> 00:16:52.169
had lifted the thatch of my pigsty into the widow's
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00:16:52.230 --> 00:16:55.799
garden a second time. I thought I wouldn't wait to
289
00:16:55.820 --> 00:16:58.440
hear what Widow had to say about it, so I
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00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:01.039
went across the green to the fox and grapes, and
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the wind was so strong that I danced along on
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tiptoe like a girl at the fair. When I got
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to the inn, Landlord had to help me shut the door.
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It seemed as though a dozen goats were pushing against
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it to come in out of the storm.' It' s a
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00:17:15.609 --> 00:17:19.230
powerful tempest,' he said, drawing the beer.' I hear there's
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00:17:19.289 --> 00:17:22.859
a chimney down at Dickery End.' it's a funny thing
298
00:17:23.099 --> 00:17:26.400
these sailors know about the weather i answered when captain
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said he was going to-night i was thinking it would
300
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take a capful of wind to carry the ship back
301
00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:35.059
to sea but now he is more than a capful
302
00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:39.799
ah yes said landlord it's to-night he goes true enough
303
00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:43.309
and mind you though he treated me handsome over the
304
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rent i'm not sure it's a loss to the village
305
00:17:46.789 --> 00:17:49.509
i don't hold with gentrists who fetch their drink from
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00:17:49.569 --> 00:17:53.089
london instead of helping local traders to get their living.
307
00:17:54.130 --> 00:17:56.690
But you haven't got any rum like his, I said,
308
00:17:56.799 --> 00:18:00.099
to draw him out. His neck grew red above his collar,
309
00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:03.079
and I was afraid I'd gone too far, but after
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00:18:03.140 --> 00:18:06.859
a while he got his breath with a grunt. John Simmons,
311
00:18:06.900 --> 00:18:10.319
he said, if you've come down here this windy night
312
00:18:10.380 --> 00:18:15.099
to talk a lot of fool's talk, you've wasted a journey. Well,
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00:18:15.140 --> 00:18:17.690
of course, Then I had to smooth him down with
314
00:18:17.779 --> 00:18:20.740
praising his rum, and heaven forgive me for swearing it
315
00:18:20.779 --> 00:18:23.880
was better than Captain's, for the like of that rum
316
00:18:24.140 --> 00:18:28.039
no living lips have tasted save mine and Parson's. But
317
00:18:28.119 --> 00:18:32.420
somehow or other I brought Landlord round, and presently we
318
00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:35.710
must have a glass of his best to prove its quality.'
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00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:39.529
Beat that if you can!' he cried, and we both
320
00:18:39.609 --> 00:18:43.029
raised our glasses to our mouths, only to stop off-way
321
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and look at each other in amaze. for the wind
322
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that had been howling outside like an outrageous dog had
323
00:18:49.390 --> 00:18:52.119
all of a sudden turned as melodious as the carol
324
00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:57.019
boys of a Christmas Eve. Surely that's not my Martha,
325
00:18:57.059 --> 00:19:01.039
whispered Landlord, Martha being his great-aunt that lived in the
326
00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:04.920
loft overhead. We went to the door, and the wind
327
00:19:05.019 --> 00:19:08.200
burst it open so that the handle was driven clean
328
00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:11.079
into the plaster of the wall. Ah, but we didn't
329
00:19:11.140 --> 00:19:14.089
think about that at the time. for over our heads
330
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sailing very comfortably through the windy stars was the ship
331
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that had passed the summer in landlord's fields her portals
332
00:19:22.670 --> 00:19:25.880
and her bay window were blazing with lights and there
333
00:19:25.890 --> 00:19:28.779
was a noise of singing and fiddling on her decks
334
00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:33.960
he's gone shouted landlord above the storm and he's taken
335
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half the village with him i could only nod in
336
00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:42.450
answer not having lungs like bellows of leather in the
337
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morning We were able to measure the strength of the storm,
338
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and over and above my pigsty there was damage enough
339
00:19:50.170 --> 00:19:53.710
wrought in the village to keep us busy. True it
340
00:19:53.890 --> 00:19:56.410
is that the children had to break down no branches
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for the firing that autumn, since the wind had strewn
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the woods with more than they could carry away. Many
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of our ghosts were scattered abroad, but this time very
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00:20:06.609 --> 00:20:09.740
few came back. all the young men having sailed with
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captain and not only ghosts for a poor half-witted lad
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was missing and we reckoned that he had stowed himself
347
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away or perhaps shipped his cabin-boy not knowing any better
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what with the lamentations of the ghost girls and the
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grumbling of families who had lost an ancestor the village
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was upset for a while and the funny thing was
351
00:20:32.339 --> 00:20:34.480
that it was the folk who had complained most of
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the carryings-on of the youngsters who made most noise now
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that they were gone. I hadn't any sympathy with Shoemaker
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00:20:43.529 --> 00:20:46.789
or Butcher, who ran about saying how much they missed
355
00:20:46.809 --> 00:20:49.890
their lads, but it made me grieve to hear the
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poor bereaved girls calling their lovers by name on the
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village green at nightfall. It didn't seem fair to me
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that they should have lost their men a second time
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00:21:00.650 --> 00:21:03.509
after giving up life in order to join them as
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like as not. Still, Not even a spirit can be
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00:21:07.299 --> 00:21:10.819
sorry forever. And after a few months, we made up
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our mind that the folk who had sailed in the
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ship were never coming back, and we didn't talk about
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it any more. And then one day, I dare say
365
00:21:18.950 --> 00:21:20.970
it would be a couple of years after, when the
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00:21:21.009 --> 00:21:25.109
whole business was quite forgotten, here should come, traipsing along
367
00:21:25.150 --> 00:21:27.910
the road from Portsmouth, but the daft lad who had
368
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gone away with the ship, without waiting till he was
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dead to become a ghost. You never saw such a
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00:21:33.720 --> 00:21:36.180
boy as that in all your life, He had a
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00:21:36.259 --> 00:21:39.940
great rusty cutlass hanging to a string at his waist,
372
00:21:40.460 --> 00:21:43.589
and he was tattooed all over in fine colours, so
373
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that even his face looked like a girl's sampler. He
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had a handkerchief in his hand full of foreign shells
375
00:21:50.450 --> 00:21:54.470
and old-fashioned pieces of small money, very curious, and he
376
00:21:54.549 --> 00:21:57.029
walked up to the well outside his mother's house and
377
00:21:57.069 --> 00:21:59.869
drew himself a drink, as if he had been nowhere
378
00:21:59.910 --> 00:22:03.880
in particular. The worst of it was that he had
379
00:22:03.930 --> 00:22:06.589
come back as soft-headed as he went and try as
380
00:22:06.650 --> 00:22:09.549
we might, we couldn't get anything reasonable out of him.
381
00:22:10.349 --> 00:22:13.779
He talked a lot of gibberish about keel-hauling and walking
382
00:22:13.819 --> 00:22:18.119
the plank and crimson murders, things which a decent sailor
383
00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:21.079
should know nothing about, so that it seemed to me
384
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that for all his manners, Captain had been more of
385
00:22:24.029 --> 00:22:27.890
a pirate than a gentleman mariner. But to draw sense
386
00:22:28.029 --> 00:22:30.950
out of that boy was as hard as picking cherries
387
00:22:31.089 --> 00:22:34.640
off a crab-tree. One silly tale he had, that he
388
00:22:34.680 --> 00:22:37.720
kept on drifting back to, and to hear him, you
389
00:22:37.740 --> 00:22:39.819
would have thought it was the only thing that happened
390
00:22:39.859 --> 00:22:42.720
to him in his life. We was at anchor, he
391
00:22:42.759 --> 00:22:46.140
would say, off an island called the Basket of Flowers,
392
00:22:46.799 --> 00:22:49.299
and the sailors had caught a lot of parrots, and
393
00:22:49.339 --> 00:22:52.839
we were teaching them to swear, up and down the decks,
394
00:22:53.380 --> 00:22:56.849
up and down the decks, and the language they used
395
00:22:57.029 --> 00:23:00.950
was dreadful. Then we looked up, and saw the masts
396
00:23:01.009 --> 00:23:04.849
of the Spanish ship outside the harbour, outside the harbour
397
00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:07.769
they were, so we threw the parrots into the sea
398
00:23:07.910 --> 00:23:10.789
and sailed out to fight, and all the parrots were
399
00:23:10.809 --> 00:23:14.609
drownded in the sea, and the language they used was dreadful.
400
00:23:16.250 --> 00:23:19.289
That's the sort of boy he was, nothing but silly
401
00:23:19.329 --> 00:23:21.730
talk of parrots when we asked him about the fighting,
402
00:23:22.589 --> 00:23:25.269
and we never had a chance of teaching him better,
403
00:23:25.750 --> 00:23:28.410
for two days after he ran away again, and hasn't
404
00:23:28.430 --> 00:23:33.380
been seen since. That's my story, and I assure you
405
00:23:33.420 --> 00:23:36.519
that things like that are happening at Fairfield all the time.
406
00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:40.339
The ship has never come back, but somehow as people
407
00:23:40.380 --> 00:23:42.680
grow older, they seem to think that one of these
408
00:23:42.740 --> 00:23:45.849
windy nights she'll come sailing in over the hedges with
409
00:23:45.900 --> 00:23:49.289
all the lost ghosts on board. Well, when she comes,
410
00:23:49.329 --> 00:23:53.049
she'll be welcome. There's one ghost last that has never
411
00:23:53.089 --> 00:23:56.630
grown tired of waiting for her lad to return. Every
412
00:23:56.690 --> 00:23:59.450
night you'll see her out on the green, straining her
413
00:23:59.509 --> 00:24:02.630
poor eyes with looking for the mast bites among the stars.
414
00:24:03.450 --> 00:24:06.329
A faithful lass, you'd call her, and I'm thinking you'd
415
00:24:06.349 --> 00:24:10.299
be right. Landlord's field wasn't a penny the worse for
416
00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:13.779
the visit, but they do say that since then the
417
00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:16.299
turnips that have been grown in it have tasted of rum.
418
00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:21.119
End of The Ghost Ship
1
00:00:00.670 --> 00:00:05.870
Fairfield is a little village, lying near the Portsmouth Road,
2
00:00:05.889 --> 00:00:28.820
about half-way between London and the sea. Strangers who find
3
00:00:28.859 --> 00:00:31.859
it by accident now and then call it a pretty
4
00:00:31.949 --> 00:00:35.390
old-fashioned place. We who live in it and call it
5
00:00:35.469 --> 00:00:39.710
home don't find anything very pretty about it, but we
6
00:00:39.750 --> 00:00:43.030
should be sorry to live anywhere else. Our minds have
7
00:00:43.049 --> 00:00:45.149
taken the shape of the inn and the church and
8
00:00:45.170 --> 00:00:48.189
the green, I suppose. At all events, we never feel
9
00:00:48.270 --> 00:00:52.609
comfortable out of Fairfield. Of course, the Cockneys, with their
10
00:00:52.649 --> 00:00:56.469
vasty houses and noise-ridden streets, can call us rustics if
11
00:00:56.509 --> 00:01:00.159
they choosed. but for all that fairfield is a better
12
00:01:00.200 --> 00:01:03.460
place to live in than london doctor says that when
13
00:01:03.500 --> 00:01:06.379
he goes to london his mind is bruised with the
14
00:01:06.420 --> 00:01:08.739
weight of the houses and he was a cockney born
15
00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:11.349
he had to live there himself when he was a
16
00:01:11.370 --> 00:01:15.010
little chet but he knows better now you gentlemen may
17
00:01:15.049 --> 00:01:18.390
laugh perhaps some of you come from london way but
18
00:01:18.450 --> 00:01:20.829
it seems to me that a witness like that is
19
00:01:20.890 --> 00:01:25.560
worth a gallon of arguments dull well you might find
20
00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:28.480
it dull but I assure you that I've listened to
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00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:31.620
all the London yarns you have spun to-night, and they're
22
00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:35.780
absolutely nothing to the things that happen at Fairfield. It's
23
00:01:35.819 --> 00:01:38.840
because of our way of thinking and minding our own business.
24
00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:41.640
If one of your Londoners were set down in the
25
00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:44.170
green of a Saturday night when the ghosts of the
26
00:01:44.230 --> 00:01:46.510
lads who died in the war keep tryst with the
27
00:01:46.549 --> 00:01:49.629
lasses who lie in the churchyard, he couldn't help being
28
00:01:49.730 --> 00:01:53.150
curious and interfering, and then the ghosts would go somewhere
29
00:01:53.189 --> 00:01:56.620
where it was quieter. But we just let them come
30
00:01:56.700 --> 00:01:59.180
and go and don't make any fuss, and in consequence,
31
00:01:59.620 --> 00:02:03.019
Fairfield is the ghostliest place in all England. Why, I've
32
00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:05.079
seen a headless man sitting on the edge of the
33
00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:08.150
well in broad daylight, and the children playing about his
34
00:02:08.219 --> 00:02:11.110
feet as if he were their father. Take my word
35
00:02:11.189 --> 00:02:13.569
for it, spirits know when they are well off as
36
00:02:13.629 --> 00:02:17.990
much as human beings. Still, I must admit that the
37
00:02:18.030 --> 00:02:20.219
thing I'm going to tell you about was queer even
38
00:02:20.250 --> 00:02:22.750
for our part of the world. where three packs of
39
00:02:22.810 --> 00:02:27.900
ghost hounds hunt regularly during the season, and Blacksmith's great-grandfather
40
00:02:27.939 --> 00:02:31.340
is busy all night shooing the dead gentleman's horses. Now
41
00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:34.539
that's a thing that wouldn't happen in London, because of
42
00:02:34.580 --> 00:02:38.439
their interfering ways. But Blacksmith, he lies up aloft and
43
00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:41.419
sleeps as quiet as a lamb. Once, when he had
44
00:02:41.460 --> 00:02:43.460
a bad head, he shouted down to them not to
45
00:02:43.500 --> 00:02:46.199
make so much noise, and in the morning he found
46
00:02:46.259 --> 00:02:48.689
an old guinea left on the anvil as an apology.
47
00:02:49.150 --> 00:02:51.669
He wears it on his watch chain now. but i
48
00:02:51.710 --> 00:02:54.150
must get on with my story if i start telling
49
00:02:54.189 --> 00:02:57.229
you about the queer happenings at fairfield i'll never stop
50
00:02:59.030 --> 00:03:01.650
it all came of the great storm in the spring
51
00:03:01.689 --> 00:03:04.289
of ninety seven the year that we had two great
52
00:03:04.349 --> 00:03:08.090
storms this was the first one and i remember it
53
00:03:08.150 --> 00:03:11.169
very well because i found in the morning that it
54
00:03:11.210 --> 00:03:14.229
had lifted the thatch of my pigsty into the widow's
55
00:03:14.289 --> 00:03:17.750
garden as clean as a boy's kite when i looked
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over the hedge the Tom Lamport's widow that was, was
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prodding for her nasturtiums with a daisy grabber. After I
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had watched her for a little, I went down to
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the Pox and Grapes to tell Landlord what she had
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said to me. Landlord, he laughed, being a married man
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at ease with the sex. Come to that, he said.
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The tempest has blowed something into my field. The kind
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of ship I think it'd be. I was surprised at that.
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until he explained that it was only a ghost ship,
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and would do no hurt to the turnips. We argued
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that it had been blown up from the sea at Portsmouth,
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and then we talked of something else. There were two
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slates down at the parsonage, and a big tree in
69
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Lumley's Meadow. That was a rare storm. I reckon the
70
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wind had blown our ghosts all over England. They were
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coming back for days afterwards, with bounded horses and as
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foot-sore as possible. and they were so glad to get
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back to Fairfield that some of them walked up the
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street crying like little children. Squire said that his great-grandfather's
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great-grandfather hadn't looked so dead beat since the Battle of Naseby,
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and he's an educated man. What with one thing and another,
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I should think it was a week before we got
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straight again, and then one afternoon I met the landlord
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on the green, and he had a worried face. Oh,
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she'd come and have a look at that ship in
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my field, he said to me, Seems to me it's
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leaning real hard on the turnips. I can't bear thinking
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what the missus will say when she sees it. I
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walked down the lane with him, and sure enough there
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was a ship in the middle of his field, but
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such a ship as no man had seen on the
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water for three hundred years, let alone in the middle
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of a turnip field. It was all painted black and
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covered with carvings, and there was a great bay window
90
00:05:09.350 --> 00:05:13.069
in the stern, for all the world like the squire's drawing-room.
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There was a crowd of little black cannon on deck
92
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and looking out of her portals, and she was anchored
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at each end to the hard ground. I've seen the
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wonders of the world on picture postcards, but I've never
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00:05:27.610 --> 00:05:32.230
seen anything to equal that. She seems very solid for
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00:05:32.269 --> 00:05:35.649
a ghost ship, I said, seeing the landlord was bothered.
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I should say it's a betwixt and between, he answered,
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puzzling it over. but it's going to spoil a matter
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of fifty turnips, and Mrs. she'll want it moved. We
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went up to her and touched the side, and it
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was as hard as a real ship. Now there's folks
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in England would call that very curious, he said. Now
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I don't know much about ships, but I should think
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that that ghost ship weighed a solid two hundred tons,
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and it seemed to me that she'd come to stay,
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so that I felt sorry for Landlord, It was a
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married man. All the horses in Fairfield won't move her
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out of my turn, it she said, frowning at her.
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Just then we heard a noise on the deck, and
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we looked up and saw that a man had come
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out of her front cabin, and was looking down at us,
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very peaceably. He was dressed in a black uniform, set
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out with rusty gold lace, and he had a great
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cutlass by his side and a brass sheet. I'm Captain
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Bartholomew Roberts, he said, in a gentleman's voice, put in
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for recruits. I seem to have brought her rather far
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up the harbour. Harbour? cried Landlord. Why, you're fifty miles
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from the sea. Captain Roberts didn't turn a hair. So
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much as that is it, he said coolly. Well, it's
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of no consequence. Landlord was a bit upset at this.
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I don't want to be unneighbourly, he said. but I
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wish you hadn't brought your ship into my field. You see,
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my wife sets great store on these turnips. The captain
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took a pinch of snuff out of a fine gold
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box that he pulled out of his pocket and dusted
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his fingers with a silk handkerchief in a very genteel fashion.
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I'm only here for a few months, he said, but
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if a testimony of my esteem would pacify your good lady,
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I should be content. and with the words he loosed
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a great gold brooch from the neck of his coat
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and tossed it down to Landlord. Landlord blushed as red
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as a strawberry. I'm not denying she's fond of jewellery,
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he said, but it's too much for half a sackful
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of turnips, and indeed it was a handsome brooch. The
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captain laughed. Tut, man, he said, it's a forced sale,
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and you deserve a good price. Say no more about it.
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And nodding good day to us, he turned on his
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heel and went into the cabin. Landlord walked back up
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the lane like a man with a weight off his mind.
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That tempest has blowed me a bit of luck, he said.
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The missus will be much pleased with that brooch. It's
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better than blacksmith's guinea any day. Ninety-seven was Jubilee year,
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the year of the second Jubilee, you remember, and we
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had great doings at Fairfield. so that we hadn't much
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time to bother about the ghost ship, though, anyhow, it
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isn't our way to meddle in things that don't concern us. Landlord,
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he saw his tenant once or twice when he was
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hoeing his turnips, and passed the time of day, and
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landlord's wife wore a new brooch to church every Sunday.
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But we didn't mix much with the ghosts at any time,
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all except an idiot lad there was in the village,
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and he didn't know the difference between a man and
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a ghost, poor innocents. On Jubilee Day, however, somebody told
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Captain Roberts why the church bells were ringing, and he
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hoisted a flag and fired off his guns like a
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loyal Englishman.' Tis true the guns were shotted, and one
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of the round shot knocked a hole in Farmer Johnston's barn,
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but nobody thought much of that in such a season
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of rejoicing.' It wasn't till our celebrations were over,' that
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we noticed that anything was wrong in fairfield twas shoemaker
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who told me first about it one morning at the
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fox and grapes you know my great-great-uncle he said to
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me you mean joshua the quiet lad i answered knowing
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him well quiet said shoemaker indignantly quiet you call him
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coming home at three o'clock every morning as drunk as
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a magistrate and waking up the whole house with his
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noise Why, it can't be Joshua, I said, for I
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knew him for one of the most respectable young ghosts
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in the village. Joshua it is, said Shoemaker, and one
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of these nights he'll find himself out in the street
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if he isn't careful. This kind of talk shocked me,
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I can tell you. for I don't like to hear
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a man abusing his own family, and I could hardly
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believe that a steady youngster like Joshua had taken to drink.
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But just then in came Butcher Alewyn in such a
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temper that he could hardly drink his beer, for young puppy,
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the young puppy, he kept on saying. And it was
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some time before Shoemaker and I found out that he
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was talking about his ancestor that fell at Senlac. Drink?
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said Shoemaker hopefully, for we all like company in our misfortunes,
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and Butcher nodded grimly. The young noodle, he said, emptying
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his tankard. Well, after that, I kept my ears open,
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and it was the same story all over the village.
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There was hardly a young man among all the ghosts
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of Fairfield, who didn't roll home in the small hours
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of the morning the worse for liquor. I used to
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wake up in the night and hear them stumble past
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my house singing outrageous songs. The worst of it was
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that we couldn't keep the scandal to ourselves, and the
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folk at Greenhill began to talk of Sodden Fairfield, and
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taught their children to sing a song about us. Sodden Fairfield,
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Sodden Fairfield, has no use for bread and butter. Rum
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for breakfast, rum for dinner, rum for tea and rum
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for supper. We are easy going in our village, but
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we didn't like that. Of course we soon found out
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where the young fellows went to get the drink, and
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Landlord was terribly cut up that his tenant should have
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turned out so badly. But his wife wouldn't hear of
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parting with the brooch, so that he couldn't give the
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captain notice to quit. But as time went on things
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grew from bad to worse, and at all hours of
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the day you would see those young reprobates sleeping it
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off on the village green. nearly every afternoon a ghost
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wagon used to jolt down to the ship with a
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lading of rum and though the older ghost seemed inclined
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to give the captain's hospitality the go-by the youngsters were
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neither to hold nor to bind so one afternoon when
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i was taking my nap i heard a knock at
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the door and there was parson looking very serious like
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a man with a job before him that he didn't
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altogether relish i'm going down to talk to the captain
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about all this drunkenness in the village, and I want
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you to come with me, he said straight out. I
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can't say that I fancied the visit much myself, and
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I tried to hint to Parson that as after all
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there were only a lot of ghosts it didn't very
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much matter. Dead or alive, I'm responsible for the good conduct,
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he said, and I'm going to do my duty and
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put a stop to this continued disorder, and you're coming
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with me, John Simmons. So I went. Parson being a
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persuasive kind of man. We went down to the ship,
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and as we approached her, I could see the captain
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tasting the air on deck. When he saw Parson, he
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took off his hat very politely, and I can tell
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you that I was relieved to find that he had
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a proper respect for the cloth. Parson acknowledged his salute,
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and spoke out stoutly enough, Sir, I should be glad
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to have a word with you. Come on board, sir,
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come on board, said the captain, and I could tell
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by his voice that he knew why we were there.
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Parson and I climbed up an uneasy kind of ladder,
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and the captain took us into the great cabin at
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the back of the ship, where the bay window was.
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It was the most wonderful place you ever saw in
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your life, all full of gold and silver plate, swords
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with jewelled scabbards carved oak chairs and great chests that
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looked as though they were bursting with guineas even parson
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was surprised and he did not shake his head very
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hard when the captain took down some silver cups and
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poured us out a drink of rum i tasted mine
241
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and i don't mind saying that it changed my view
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of things entirely there was nothing betwixt and between about
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that rum and I felt that it was ridiculous to
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blame the lads for drinking too much of stuff like that.
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It seemed to fill my veins with honey and fire.
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Parson put the case squarely to the captain, but I
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didn't listen much to what he said. I was busy
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sipping my drink and looking through the window at the
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fishes swimming to and fro over landlord's turnips. Just then
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it seemed the most natural thing in the world that
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they should be there, though afterwards, of course, I could
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see that that proved it was a ghost ship. but
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even then I thought it was queer when I saw
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a drowned sailor float by in the thin air, with
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his hair and beard all full of bubbles. It was
256
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the first time I had seen anything quite like that
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at Fairfield. All the time I was regarding the wonders
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of the deep, Parson was telling Captain Roberts how there
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was no peace or rest in the village, owing to
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the curse of drunkenness, and what a bad example the
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youngsters were setting to the older ghosts. The captain listened
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very attentively, and only put in a word now and
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then about boys being boys, and young men sowing their
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wild oats. But when Parson had finished his speech, he
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filled up our silver cups, and said to Parson with
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a flourish, I shall be sorry to cause trouble anywhere
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where I have been made welcome, and you will be
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glad to hear that I put out to sea tomorrow night,
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and now you must drink me a prosperous voyage. So
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we all stood up and drank the toast with honour,
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and that noble rum was like hot oil in my veins.
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After that, Captain showed us some of the curiosities he
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had brought back from foreign parts, and we were greatly amazed,
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though afterwards I couldn't clearly remember what they were, and
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then I found myself walking across the turnips with Parson,
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and I was telling him of the glories of the
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deep that I had seen through the window of the ship.
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He turned on me severely. If I were you, John Simmons,
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00:16:23.740 --> 00:16:26.990
he said, I should go straight home to bed, He
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00:16:27.029 --> 00:16:29.600
has a way of putting things that wouldn't occur to
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00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:32.879
an ordinary man, has Parson, and I did as he
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told me. Well, next day it came on to blow,
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and it blew harder and harder, till about eight o'clock
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at night I heard a noise and looked out into
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the garden. I dare say you won't believe me, it
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00:16:46.350 --> 00:16:49.250
seems a bit tall even to me, but the wind
287
00:16:49.289 --> 00:16:52.169
had lifted the thatch of my pigsty into the widow's
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garden a second time. I thought I wouldn't wait to
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hear what Widow had to say about it, so I
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went across the green to the fox and grapes, and
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the wind was so strong that I danced along on
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tiptoe like a girl at the fair. When I got
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to the inn, Landlord had to help me shut the door.
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It seemed as though a dozen goats were pushing against
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it to come in out of the storm.' It' s a
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powerful tempest,' he said, drawing the beer.' I hear there's
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a chimney down at Dickery End.' it's a funny thing
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these sailors know about the weather i answered when captain
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said he was going to-night i was thinking it would
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take a capful of wind to carry the ship back
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to sea but now he is more than a capful
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ah yes said landlord it's to-night he goes true enough
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and mind you though he treated me handsome over the
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rent i'm not sure it's a loss to the village
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i don't hold with gentrists who fetch their drink from
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london instead of helping local traders to get their living.
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But you haven't got any rum like his, I said,
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to draw him out. His neck grew red above his collar,
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and I was afraid I'd gone too far, but after
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a while he got his breath with a grunt. John Simmons,
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he said, if you've come down here this windy night
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to talk a lot of fool's talk, you've wasted a journey. Well,
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of course, Then I had to smooth him down with
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praising his rum, and heaven forgive me for swearing it
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was better than Captain's, for the like of that rum
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no living lips have tasted save mine and Parson's. But
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somehow or other I brought Landlord round, and presently we
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must have a glass of his best to prove its quality.'
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Beat that if you can!' he cried, and we both
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raised our glasses to our mouths, only to stop off-way
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and look at each other in amaze. for the wind
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that had been howling outside like an outrageous dog had
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all of a sudden turned as melodious as the carol
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boys of a Christmas Eve. Surely that's not my Martha,
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whispered Landlord, Martha being his great-aunt that lived in the
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loft overhead. We went to the door, and the wind
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burst it open so that the handle was driven clean
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into the plaster of the wall. Ah, but we didn't
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think about that at the time. for over our heads
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sailing very comfortably through the windy stars was the ship
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that had passed the summer in landlord's fields her portals
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and her bay window were blazing with lights and there
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was a noise of singing and fiddling on her decks
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he's gone shouted landlord above the storm and he's taken
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half the village with him i could only nod in
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answer not having lungs like bellows of leather in the
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morning We were able to measure the strength of the storm,
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and over and above my pigsty there was damage enough
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wrought in the village to keep us busy. True it
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is that the children had to break down no branches
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for the firing that autumn, since the wind had strewn
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the woods with more than they could carry away. Many
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of our ghosts were scattered abroad, but this time very
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few came back. all the young men having sailed with
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captain and not only ghosts for a poor half-witted lad
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was missing and we reckoned that he had stowed himself
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away or perhaps shipped his cabin-boy not knowing any better
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what with the lamentations of the ghost girls and the
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grumbling of families who had lost an ancestor the village
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was upset for a while and the funny thing was
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that it was the folk who had complained most of
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the carryings-on of the youngsters who made most noise now
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that they were gone. I hadn't any sympathy with Shoemaker
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or Butcher, who ran about saying how much they missed
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their lads, but it made me grieve to hear the
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poor bereaved girls calling their lovers by name on the
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village green at nightfall. It didn't seem fair to me
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that they should have lost their men a second time
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after giving up life in order to join them as
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like as not. Still, Not even a spirit can be
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sorry forever. And after a few months, we made up
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our mind that the folk who had sailed in the
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ship were never coming back, and we didn't talk about
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it any more. And then one day, I dare say
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it would be a couple of years after, when the
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whole business was quite forgotten, here should come, traipsing along
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the road from Portsmouth, but the daft lad who had
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gone away with the ship, without waiting till he was
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dead to become a ghost. You never saw such a
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00:21:33.720 --> 00:21:36.180
boy as that in all your life, He had a
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great rusty cutlass hanging to a string at his waist,
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00:21:40.460 --> 00:21:43.589
and he was tattooed all over in fine colours, so
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that even his face looked like a girl's sampler. He
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had a handkerchief in his hand full of foreign shells
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and old-fashioned pieces of small money, very curious, and he
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00:21:54.549 --> 00:21:57.029
walked up to the well outside his mother's house and
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drew himself a drink, as if he had been nowhere
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in particular. The worst of it was that he had
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come back as soft-headed as he went and try as
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we might, we couldn't get anything reasonable out of him.
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He talked a lot of gibberish about keel-hauling and walking
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the plank and crimson murders, things which a decent sailor
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should know nothing about, so that it seemed to me
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that for all his manners, Captain had been more of
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a pirate than a gentleman mariner. But to draw sense
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out of that boy was as hard as picking cherries
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off a crab-tree. One silly tale he had, that he
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kept on drifting back to, and to hear him, you
389
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would have thought it was the only thing that happened
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00:22:39.859 --> 00:22:42.720
to him in his life. We was at anchor, he
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would say, off an island called the Basket of Flowers,
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and the sailors had caught a lot of parrots, and
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we were teaching them to swear, up and down the decks,
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00:22:53.380 --> 00:22:56.849
up and down the decks, and the language they used
395
00:22:57.029 --> 00:23:00.950
was dreadful. Then we looked up, and saw the masts
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of the Spanish ship outside the harbour, outside the harbour
397
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they were, so we threw the parrots into the sea
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and sailed out to fight, and all the parrots were
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drownded in the sea, and the language they used was dreadful.
400
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That's the sort of boy he was, nothing but silly
401
00:23:19.329 --> 00:23:21.730
talk of parrots when we asked him about the fighting,
402
00:23:22.589 --> 00:23:25.269
and we never had a chance of teaching him better,
403
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for two days after he ran away again, and hasn't
404
00:23:28.430 --> 00:23:33.380
been seen since. That's my story, and I assure you
405
00:23:33.420 --> 00:23:36.519
that things like that are happening at Fairfield all the time.
406
00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:40.339
The ship has never come back, but somehow as people
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grow older, they seem to think that one of these
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windy nights she'll come sailing in over the hedges with
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all the lost ghosts on board. Well, when she comes,
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00:23:49.329 --> 00:23:53.049
she'll be welcome. There's one ghost last that has never
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grown tired of waiting for her lad to return. Every
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night you'll see her out on the green, straining her
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poor eyes with looking for the mast bites among the stars.
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A faithful lass, you'd call her, and I'm thinking you'd
415
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be right. Landlord's field wasn't a penny the worse for
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00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:13.779
the visit, but they do say that since then the
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00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:16.299
turnips that have been grown in it have tasted of rum.
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End of The Ghost Ship
