Antiquarian Oddness - The Curious Cumpston Case

The Victoria Hotel, Bristol

 

While looking for Spook Sightings in old newspapers, I often come across stories that don't quite fit into the Spook or Monster category, but are definitely odd enough to be of sufficient interest to include in the blog. Because of this, I've decided to start another series which I'm calling Antiquarian Oddness....and when I stumbled upon the newspaper report for this curious case, I knew that it would be a good starting point!

I've seen the events that took place in Bristol, England on 9th December 1873 mentioned in a few books about paranormal events...often as an example of potential gateways to other dimensions, or earth-born black holes! Some of these books embellish the facts somewhat, but there really is no need, as if the couple in this story are to be believed, the facts are weird enough on their own. Before we can really talk about it, I'd better get on with transcribing the actual news report...

From the Birmingham Daily Post, dated 11th December 1873

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STRANGE VISITORS AT AN HOTEL

At the Bristol Police Court, on Tuesday, before the Mayor (Mr. Barnes), Mr. G. Wills, and Mr. C. Godwin, a young lady and gentleman, giving the names of Anna Martha Cumpston and Thomas B. Cumpston, of Virginia Road, Leeds, were charged with being disorderly and letting off firearms at the Victoria Hotel, Temple Gate.

Mrs. Tongue, the landlady of the hotel, said that the defendants came to her house on the previous night and engaged a bed. At about one o'clock she heard a noise and the defendants appeared to be very excited. She persuaded them to go to bed; but at about four o'clock, she was aroused by screams of murder, apparently from both of them, and heard the lady say something about a knife. She also heard the report of a pistol, and called for assistance, but before she could get any, the defendants had jumped out of the window, which was about 12 feet from the ground, and gone away in the direction of the railway station. They came to the house at about eight o'clock, and were brought by a railway porter. She had not seen them before. They left what luggage they had at the hotel.

Mr. Thomas Harker, night superintendent at the railway station, said that at about four o'clock that morning he was in his office - the booking office - and heard a great noise outside, and presently the office door was forced open and someone ran in, after knocking at the window and screaming out "murder." He may have been dozing at the time, and could not for the minute distinctly understand what was the matter. He walked out to the platform, where he saw both of the defendants going across towards the express platform. 

The lady appeared in a very excited state, and her hair was floating about. Neither of their heads were covered, and they ran back as soon as they saw witness, and said that they had been in some den or other, had been waylaid by thieves, and had tried to get out of their way. Witness could not tell what to make of it at first, and took them into the parcel office by the fire. They were in a very excited state, and he tried to calm them as well as he could, and get some understanding from them as to where they had been. They said that they had been in one of the worst houses they were ever in in their lives, amongst a lot of thieves and rogues, and they had to the best they could to defend themselves. Witness then took them to the waiting room, but could scarcely do anything to pacify them. They were under the impression that somebody was following them to do them some fearful injury. The lady asked witness to go into the inner waiting room to see if there was anyone there, and she took up a poker and said she would defend herself. She told witness that her husband had a revolver. Previous to this, witness had sent one of the men for a city policeman, and during his absence he asked the witness to explain where she had been. They had been to the Victoria Hotel, and witness told them nothing could harm them there, and that it was a very respectable place. Nothing could pacify them, and the city policeman arriving searched the gentleman, and took a revolver from him, and a very large knife. He handed the parties over to the care of the policeman.

The Mayor (to witness) : Did the excitement appear to be produced from drink?  - No, sir, I thought they were insane.

Police-Constable 321 said he was called that morning about twenty minutes past five to the Victoria Hotel, in Bath Parade, and in consequence of what he heard there he went to the railway station, where he found the defendants "very quiet and peaceable in the waiting room." He thought it was fright, for they looked quite frightened, and he could not see anything the worse for liquor in them. Found no property on them except the revolver and two or three knives.

Mr. Cumpston : I wish to ask you whether at the hotel you saw the place where we fell down? - No sir, I did not.

Mr. Cumpston being asked what he had to say in answer to the charge, spoke with apparent incoherency, and his wife explained that he had an impediment in his speech. He said that they came from Clifton on the previous day, and intended to proceed to Weston-super-Mare that morning. A porter took their luggage, and they asked at what hotel they could pass the night. He said he could take them to a very nice one, and mentioned the George and the Victoria. He took them across the line, and instead of taking them to the George he took them to the Victoria. They went to bed about twelve o'clock, and about one they became annoyed by a disagreeable row. He could not explain it. They were both frightened. The bed was a peculiar one. It opened, and did all sorts of strange things. And the floor opened, and they heard voices, and then they jumped out of the window.

Mrs. Cumpston was asked to give her version of the affair. She said they were very much frightened about one o'clock that morning by what they heard, but the landlady came and reassured them for a time, and then went back to bed. About three or four o'clock they heard worse noises, but what they were they had no idea. The floor seemed to be giving way, and the bed also seemed to open. They heard voices, and what they said was repeated after them. Her husband wished her to get out of the way. The floor certainly seemed to open, and her husband fell down some distance, and she tried to get him up. She asked him to discharge his pistol to frighten anybody that might be near, and he fired his revolver into the ceiling. They got out of the window, but she did not know how, being so frightened ; and when they got to the ground she asked him to fire off another shot, which he did. She certainly heard the repetition of their voices. Some one spoke every time they spoke.

Mr. Williams : Did you hear any sound?

Mrs. Cumpston : Yes. I heard sounds of whispering, and of repetition of our own conversation. I could hear somebody at the time I spoke, and could hear the floor shake.

After some further conversation, a telegram was sent to some friends of the defendants at Gloucester, and in the course of an hour a gentleman attended who stated they were friends of his, and were in a very good position. They were then released from custody.

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Weird story, isn't it? The fact the landlady heard some sort of commotion at 1am as well as the Cumpstons is interesting, but it is frustrating that we're never really told what these first noises actually sounded like. Whatever they were they seemed to unsettle the Cumpstons in particular...or was it they themselves creating the commotion?

The whispering, and the 'opening' of the bed and floor are what interests most paranormal story collectors, and this story often gets put along with 'mysterious disappearance' stories. The problem with most of the stories this tends to get umped in along with though, is that the majority of them are likely fictitious creations of Ambrose Bierce. To me, it sounds less like a portal has opened up, and more like the Cumpstons thought that they were in some sort of murder den...a bit like Sweeney Todd's barber shop, and that the holes in the floor and bed were trying to drop them to their doom or plant them in amongst thieves and robbers who would take what they want and then finish them off!

Ambrose Bierce

The repetition of the Cumpstons' conversation is interesting though, and in my opinion the best evidence of some sort of portal or time loop. Was it themselves they were hearing? Or was it some otherworldly creature that was mimicking them? I guess we'll never know....

One final point I'd like to make before finishing up is that whilst researching this story, I discovered a lot of confusion about the age of the couple. A lot of the books that tell the tale have them as an elderly pair, and use this to explain away the confusion, as if to say, 'Oh..maybe it's just mad old folks!'...but, nope, having found the exact date of Mr. Cumpston's death and looking at his wife's name in the report, I can see that some people are getting Thomas confused with his father, who has the exact same name and middle initial, and who was indeed getting on in years at this point. But young Robert was only 26 at the time of this incident, which would explain how he and his wife could jump 12 feet out of a window without much trouble!

The policemen, porters and all seem to be certain that drink wasn't a factor, so what did actually happen that night? Is there some big cover up conspiracy about an actual murder den? Was it some sort of weird dimensional rift? Or just some sort of collective temporary madness brought on by whatever scared the couple earlier in the night? Let me know what you think, if you have an opinion....

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Also feel free to let me know what you thought about this first Antiquarian Oddness post. I know it's a bit different, but like I said, there's quite a few weird tales to be found in the old papers, and I'd like to share some more and see what people think about them!

For now, if you still have some spare time on your hands, be sure to head on over to the Countdown hub and see what the other bloggers have for you today. I'll be back here tomorrow with another peculiar post! Later, Stuffers!