Here, not far from Ellesmere, another tale of traditional exorcism was current in the late nineteenth century. By praying incessantly for three days and three nights, a parson forced a ghost which used to appear in the form of a headless man to change into that of a cat, and then shrank it till it was small enough to be imprisoned in a glass bottle. This bottle he put into three iron chests, one inside the other, and buried the whole lot under a barn, where the ghost would have to remain for ninety-nine years. ‘But the poor minister was so exhausted by the task that he died.’
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SOURCE:
Haunted England : The Penguin Book of Ghosts – Written by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson –
Copyright © Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson 2005, 2008