The opening image is that of a small industrial town in Shropshire, circa 1883. It is a summer's evening, but even so the gas is on in the institute and the lights are on in the gym; a man is driving a steam engine and a young girl (wandering home, or playing in the street) sings a hymn. Into this quaintly idyllic charm comes the ghost of Captain Webb, swimming along the canal, even as the low summer sun shines over the railway lines, and over the brick piles and chimneys, shining in at the upstairs back windows of the terraced houses. The frightful water-drenched spectre proceeds to the Congregational Hall where he promptly vanishes.

So far so good.

Verse three appears to hit a bit of a problem with its account of how Webb rose rigid and dead from the canal, thus suggesting more of a Romero-style zombie rather than the quaintly English ghost suggested in the preceding verses. However, here JB is talking of folkloric consequence, how the people got hold of the tale and of the Chinese Whisperings that spread throughout the region and take hold of people's imaginations as the nature of the event changes in the telling of it. So I'm sure JB would have approved of the folk process, as this is exactly what he is describing here.