Empire unusual suggested

36 PASSPORT TO MAGONIA
must have landed—if land it did—unseen, but Mr. Leonard Joliffe,
a dairyman on the farm, reported he heard "a blast one morning at
approximately 6 A.M." 8
On July 23, the London Daily Express was to report that nearly
two weeks earlier, on July 10, Police Constable Anthony Penny
had seen an orange object flash through the sky and vanish near
the Manor Farm field. On the basis of this limited information,
it would seem quite plausible to think that the Charlton crater
was caused by a meteorite. Indeed, when a small piece of metal
was recovered from the hole at the center of the crater, British
astronomer Patrick Moore went to the British Broadcasting
Corporation and stated categorically that the crater had been
caused by a "shrimp-sized meteorite/' crashing down and turning
itself into a very effective explosive. This ended the mystery
as far as the scientific public was concerned. But the true facts of
the matter, as they became known to a few scientists who pursued
the matter further, and to the Army engineers who were in
charge of the investigation, were altogether different.
Farmer Roy Blanchard had sent for the police, who, in turn,
had summoned the Army. Captain John Rodgers, chief of the
Army bomb disposal unit, was the man who conducted most of
the field investigations. His preliminary report indicated that
there were no burn or scratch marks, no trace of an explosion.
And while Captain Rodgers stated that he and his superiors were
baffled, farmer Roy Blanchard mack further disclosures:
There isn't a trace of the potatoes and barley which were growing
where the crater is now. No stalks, no roots, no leaves. The thing
was heavy enough to crush rocks and stones to powder? Yet it came
down gently. We heard no crash and whatever power it uses produces
no heat or noise. 9
Then, on July 19, it was reported that Captain Rodgers had
obtained permission to sink a shaft. The readings obtained were
rather unusual. They indicated a metallic object of some size,
deeply embedded. And it was further learned that "detectors behaved
wildly," presumably because the metallic piece in question
was highly magnetic.
At this stage, it should be pointed out, the investigation was
still open and aboveboard, possibly because the Army, rather
THE GOOD PEOPLE 37
than the British Air Ministry, was involved. And the Army Southern
Command public relations officer at Salisbury told Girvan
lli.it the object was recovered from the hole. It was sent to a
British Museum expert and promptly identified as a piece of
common ironstone, "which could be found buried all over Southcrn
England." The British Museum suggested that it had been
luiried in the ground for some time, thus eliminating the idea of
;i hoax. And Dr. F. Claringbull, Keeper of the Department of
Mineralogy at the Museum, destroyed the meteorite explanation
;ind, according to the Yorkshire Post of July 27, stated: "There is
more in this than meets the eye." The last word stayed with
Southern Command, however, and it commented wisely: "The
cause of the Phenomena is still unexplained but it is no part of
I lie Army's task to unravel such mysteries."
If we try to summarize what we have learned from these incidents—the
Tully nests, the Ohio ring, and the Charlton crater—
we: can state the following: (1) public rumor associates sightings
nf flying saucers with the discovery of circular depressions on the
ground; (2) when vegetation is present at the site, it exhibits the
nction of a flattening force which produces cither a stationary
pattern ("spokes of a wheel") or a rotating pattern (clockwise
or counterclockwise); (3) some of the vegetation is usually removed,
sometimes with the roots, leaves, etc.; (4) the effect of
a very strong vertical force is often noticed, as evidenced by earth
and plants scattered around the site; (5) strong magnetic activity
has been found in one instance, where common ironstone was
buried close to the center of the depression; and (6) a deep hole,
a few inches in diameter, is often present at the center.
Do I need to remind the reader of that celebrated habit of
the fairies, to leave behind them strange rings in the fields and
prairies?
One Sunday in August, as he wandered over the hills of Howth,
Wcntz met some local people with whom he discussed these old
I ales. After he had had tea with the man and his daughter, they
look him to a field close by to show him a "fairy-ring," and while
he stood in the ring, they told him:
Yes, the fairies do exist, and this is where they have often been