Broadside entitled 'Ghosts, &c!'

Commentary

This report begins: 'A True and Particular Account of the Disastrous Circumstances attending the Horrible and most awful Appearance of a GHOST, which took place in a House in the High Street of Edinburgh, on Wednesday Evening, the 17th October, 1827.' What then follows is an extract from the Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle of the 24th October, 1827. This broadside was printed by William Walters, and sold for one penny.

The account details two ghost sightings in Edinburgh, both of which occurred within the space of a week: one in Stevenlaw's Close and the other at 166 High Street. The first sighting appears to have been witnessed by a group of around 500 hundred people, whilst the spectre at 166 High Street was viewed by a solitary maid-servant. Accounts of apparitions and other strange occurrences were extremely popular amongst the broadside-reading public and, as such, always sold in large quantities.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

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