From Phaedra J Kelly, Ryde:

The ghost of Wroxall’s Star Inn, (CP, 31-12-18) may yet have a very earthly cause, which is not good for new landlord’s profits.

Wroxall stands on a rim of cliff which runs inland, and is notoriously unstable, especially after sustained rainfall. St Lawrence is a prime example of this, and that instability can run underground for some distance.

On the April 6, 1580, London was hit by an earthquake that brought chimneys down, and shook the walls of the new theatres built by Burbage and others.

Then, from the 16th century to the end of the 20th, Britain enjoyed the safest, most stable geology in the world. In the 21st century, you have chosen to frack, and now, we have earthquakes, sink holes, and earth tremors. There have already been several sink holes running along a line through the East Wight, and the Star Inn owner should check his pub’s foundations, as a fault line under a pub where people gather is a lot worse than any ghost, and tremors certainly can dislodge glasses, even when a human does not perceive of the movement themselves.

London’s Lord Mayor and several lay preachers blamed Burbage and his contemporaries for the earthquake, and for the plague, and it was their closing of the Inn stages that began the building of theatres in the first place.

I was in Istanbul and Athens in 1999 for the earthquakes there, and the first time I was was ever seasick on land, when a tremor caused the balcony I was on to ripple like a sea-wave, raising me four feet in the air five times until it passed.

But as the weeks went on, they reduced in power, and yet glasses were falling off bars and shelves all over the city for days after that.

It was not a ghost!