The church at Llandysilio, near where the Vyrnwy meets the Severn on the English border, was once badly troubled by a spirit. Things got so bad that the parish sent for a well-known expert to lay it.
It was a hard fight. The spirit very nearly beat him, and the struggle went on hard and fast for a long time. Every so often the ghost-layer came out of the church for fresh air and beer, and people outside could see from his bare arms and the sweat running down his face that there was a terrible battle going on inside.
In the end he won. The spirit, looking like nothing more than a large fly, was caught and put into a bottle, and the bottle was thrown into a deep pool in the River Vyrnwy, where it is still supposed to be. The church had no more trouble.
The writer who heard the story in the late nineteenth century was told it by the person who was showing him over the church. As proof, his guide pointed up at the roof and showed him the beams that had cracked while the spirit was in possession.
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