(From Bristol)
Joseph Glanvill was a West-Country parson of the days of Charles II, who held various Somerset livings and was finally rector of the Abbey Church, Bath, where he died in 1680. He was deeply interested in what is nowadays called psychical research, and was a pioneer inquirer along scientific lines into spectral happenings and appearances. A brave old fellow, he faced mysterious lights and 'sulphureous' smells and devils and the beating of phantom drums with unshaken courage, and his accounts of his ghost-hunting experiences include some gruesome and surprising stories of witches, spooks and demons.