COCK

See also:

• LANE, EDWARD WILLIAM (1801–1876)
• LANE, JAMES HENRY (1814–1866)

LANE

See also:

• GHOST (a word common to the W. Teutonic languages; O.E. vest, Dutch, 'geest, Ger. Geist)

GHOST  , a supposed apparition, the vagaries of which attracted extraordinary public attention in London during 1762 . At a house in Cock Lane, Smithfield, tenanted by one Parsons, knockings and other noises were said to occur at night varied by the appearance of a luminous figure, alleged to be the ghost of a Mrs Kent who had died in the house some two years before . A thorough investigation revealed that ,Parsons' daughter, a child of eleven, was the source of the disturbance . The object of the Parsons family seems to have been to accuse the husband of the deceased woman of murdering her, with a view to blackmail . Parsons was prosecuted and condemned to the pillory . Among the crowds who visited the house was Dr Johnson, who was in consequence made the object of a scurrilous attack by the poet Charles Churchill in " The Ghost." See A . Lang, Cock Lane and Common Sense (1894) .