{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_16538/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_16538","id":"gutenberg_16538","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16538","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Psychiatry/Psychology","Ghosts -- Scotland -- Perthshire","Haunted houses -- Scotland -- Perthshire"],"text":"Produced by Clare Boothby, Jeannie Howse and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Transcriber's Note: The Author uses lines of spaced periods to mark\nthe passing of time, this has been preserved in this edition.]\n\n\n\nTHE ALLEGED HAUNTING\n\nOF B---- HOUSE\n\n\n\n[Illustration: ATTICS]\n\n[Illustration: SECOND FLOOR]\n\n[Illustration: GROUND FLOOR L. Lift. A. Iron gate in Area.]\n\n[Illustration: BASEMENT]\n\n\n\n\n  THE ALLEGED HAUNTING\n\n  OF\n\n  B---- HOUSE\n\n  INCLUDING\n\n  A JOURNAL KEPT DURING THE TENANCY OF\n  COLONEL LEMESURIER TAYLOR\n\n\n  EDITED BY\n  A. GOODRICH-FREER (MISS X)\n  AND\n  JOHN, MARQUESS OF BUTE, K.T.\n\n\n  LONDON\n  GEORGE REDWAY\n  1899\n\n\n\n\n   \"I visited B---- representing that Society [S.P.R.], ... and\n   decided that there was no such evidence as could justify us in\n   giving the results of the inquiry a place in our\n   _Proceedings_.\"--_The Times_, June 10, 1897.\n\n  FREDERIC W.H. MYERS,\n  _Hon. Sec. of the Society for Psychical Research_.\n\n_Compare pages 189 et seq._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nTHE ALLEGED HAUNTING OF B---- HOUSE\n\n\nIt was in 1892 that Lord Bute first heard of the matter. It was not,\nas stated by _The Times_ correspondent in that journal for June 8,\n1897, in or from London, but at Falkland, in Fifeshire, and in the\nfollowing manner:--\n\nThere is no public chapel at Falkland, and the private chapel in the\nhouse is attended by a variety of priests, who usually come only from\nSaturday to Monday. Lord Bute's diary for the second week in August\n1892 contains the following entries:--\n\n\"_Saturday, August 6th._--Father H----, S.J., came.\n\n\"_Sunday, August 7th._--In afternoon with Father H---- and John [Lord\nDumfries] to Palace, and then with him to the Gruoch's Den. He gives\nus a long account of the psychical disturbances at B----; noises\nbetween his bed and the ceiling, like continuous explosion of petards,\nso that he could not hear himself speak, &c. &c.\n\n\"[Mr. Huggins afterwards recommended the use of a phonograph for these\nnoises, in order to ascertain absolutely whether they are objective or\nsubjective, and I wrote so to S---- of B----.]\n\n\"_Monday, August 8th._--Father H---- went away.\n\n\"_Tuesday, August 9th._--Mr. Huggins [now Sir William Huggins],\noutgoing President of the British Association, and Mrs. Huggins came.\n\n\"_Saturday, August 13th._--Father H---- came.\n\n\"_Sunday, August 14th._--In afternoon with the children, &c., to the\nPalace, leaving Mr. Huggins as much as possible alone with Father\nH---- (both being with us), in order to interrogate him about the\npsychical noises he heard recently at B----, when there, to give a\nRetreat to some nuns.\n\n\"_Monday, August 15th._--Father H---- went away after luncheon.\"\n\nLord Bute recalls that Father H---- told him that he had been at B----\nfor the purpose of giving a Retreat [a series of sermons and\nmeditations] to some nuns, who were charitably allowed by Mr. S---- to\ntake a sort of holiday, at a house called B---- Cottage, which had\nbeen originally built and occupied by the late Major S----, when he\nfirst took up his residence at B----, which at the time was let.\n\nFather H---- told Lord Bute that in consequence of the disturbance his\nroom had been several times changed, and he expressed surprise that\nthe sounds did not appear to be heard by anybody except himself. He\nalso said that he had spoken of the matter to Mr. S----, who expressed\nan idea that the disturbances might be caused by his uncle, the late\nMajor S----, who was trying to attract attention in order that prayers\nmight be offered for the repose of his soul. The sounds occurred\nduring full daylight, and in a clear open space between his bed and\nthe ceiling. He did not know to what to compare them, but as he said\nthey were explosive in sound, Lord Bute suggested that they might be\ncompared to the sounds made by petards, which are commonly used in\nItaly for firing _feux de joie_. Father H---- answered, \"Yes perhaps,\nif they were continuous enough.\" He said that the sound which alarmed\nhim more than any other was as of a large animal throwing itself\nviolently against the bottom of his door, outside. A third noise which\nhe had heard was of ordinary raps, of the kind called \"spirit-raps.\"\nHe mentioned a fourth sound, the nature of which Lord Bute does not\nremember with the same certainty as the others, but believes it was a\nshriek or scream. Such a sound is described by other witnesses during\nthe subsequent occupation of the house by the H---- family. The fact\nthat the sounds appear to have been inaudible to every one except\nFather H---- is a strong argument in favour of their subjective, or\nhallucinatory, character. It will be found that this was very often\nthe case with the peculiar sounds recorded at B----, and even when\nthey were heard by several persons at the same time, there does not\nappear to be any ground for refusing to recognise them as collective\nhallucinations.\n\nLord Bute's diary and recollections have been here quoted, not as\ndiffering from, but only as being antecedent to, the following\naccount, which has been furnished by Father H---- himself:--\n\n\"I went to B---- on Thursday, July 14th, 1892, and I left it on\nSaturday, July 23rd. So I slept at B---- for nine nights, or rather\none night, because I was disturbed by very queer and extraordinary\nnoises every night except the last, which I spent in Mr. S----'s\ndressing-room. At first I occupied the room to the extreme right of\nthe landing [No. 8],[A] then my things were removed to another room\n[No. 3] (it seems to me at this distance of time that _this_ room\nfaced the principal staircase, or was a little to the left of it). In\nboth these rooms I heard the loud and inexplicable noises every night,\nbut on two or three nights, in addition to these, another noise\naffrighted me--a sound of somebody or something falling against the\ndoor outside. It seemed, at the time, as if a calf or big dog would\nmake such a noise. Why those particular animals came into my head I\ncannot tell. But in attempting to describe these indescribable\nphenomena, I notice now I always do say it was like a calf or big dog\nfalling against the door. Why did I not hear the noises on the ninth\nnight? Were there none where I was? These are questions the answers to\nwhich are not apparent. It may be there _were_ noises, but I slept too\nsoundly to hear them. One of the oddest things in my case, in\nconnection with the house, is that it appeared to me somehow that (1)\nSomebody was relieved by my departure; (2) that nothing could induce\nme to pass another night there, at all events alone, and in other\nrespects I do not think I am a coward.\"\n\nFor the benefit of those who are not aware of the fact, it may be as\nwell to state that the class of people known as spiritualists, hold\nthat when raps are heard, it is the best thing for the hearer to say\naloud, \"If you are intelligent, will you please to rap three times?\"\nand if this is done, to ask the intelligence to rap three times for\n_yes_, once for _no_, and twice for _doubtful_. It is obvious that\nconsiderable conversation can be carried on by such a code, and where\nit is inadequate, as, for instance, in obtaining proper names, it is\nusual to propose to repeat the alphabet slowly, asking the\nintelligence to rap once when the proper letter is reached. This\nsimple method was entirely unknown to Father H----. He had done\nnothing but throw holy water about his rooms, and repeat the prayer\n_Visita quaesumus_, which invokes the Divine protection of a house and\nits inhabitants against all the snares of the Enemy, and which,\ntherefore, in no way concerned any person or thing which is not\nassociated with the powers of darkness. It was natural that no result\nshould be produced.\n\nSir W. Huggins told Lord Bute, as the result of his examination of\nFather H----, that he felt absolutely certain that what the latter had\nexperienced was not the outcome of morbid hallucination, but that it\nwas possible that the sounds themselves might be hallucinatory or\nsubjective. To ascertain whether this were so, or whether they had any\nphysical cause, he suggested the use of a phonograph, as this would at\nleast show whether the sounds were accompanied by atmospheric waves.\nLord Bute happened to know Mr. S---- slightly, having met him\naccidentally while travelling abroad. He accordingly wrote to him, and\ncommunicated Sir William Huggins's suggestion. Mr. S----, after a\ndelay of some days, refused absolutely to allow any scientific\ninvestigation to be made, a refusal remarkably coincident with the\nrecent refusal of his son, the present proprietor, to allow any\nsimilar investigation with seismographical instruments. It would seem\na legitimate conclusion that neither father nor son doubted that the\nsounds are of a psychical character. As regards the present\nproprietor, such a conclusion renders it obvious that we must\nunderstand in some peculiar sense the letter published in _The Times_,\ndated June 10, 1897, in which he says, \"As to the stories contained in\nthe article [_i.e._ of the anonymous _Times_ correspondent], they are\nwithout foundation.\" These words must, however, be, in any case,\naccepted in a special sense, considering the part taken by members of\nhis own family, as well as by tenants and agents, in attesting the\nstories in question.\n\nLord Bute states that Father H---- did not, upon the occasion of his\nvisit to Falkland, say anything as to having seen the brown wooden\ncrucifix (see pp. 132, 142, 154), but after this apparition had been\nseen by two other persons separately, Lord Bute wrote to Father H----\nto inquire whether he could remember anything of the sort. His reply\nwas as follows:--\n\n\"When you mention the brown wooden crucifix, you awaken a new memory\nin me. I now seem to live some of those hours over again, and I\nrecollect that between waking and sleeping there appeared before my\neyes--somewhere on the wall--a crucifix, some eighteen inches, I\nshould say, long, and, _I think_, of _brown_ wood.\n\n\"My own crucifix is of black metal, and just the length of this page\n(seven inches); and though I usually have it with me in my bag, I\ncannot for certain say that it was in my bag at B----.\"\n\nThe following further communication from Father H---- carries the\nrecord further back:--\n\n\"In August 1893 it was that I met, quite by accident, a person who\nknew something about B---- House and its strange noises.\n\n\"Though, on my leaving his house, Mr. S---- begged me not 'to give the\nhouse a bad name,' I did not understand by this that, as a point of\nhonour, I should refrain from ever mentioning the subject. I respected\nhis request to the extent of not alluding indiscriminately to the\nnoises that disturbed my nights there. But I did speak to several\npeople about them, and they had so impatiently and incredulously heard\nmy statements, that I at last refused to repeat them, even when\npressingly requested to do so. It was, therefore, quite a surprise to\nfind myself talking about B---- House, or rather, listening with rapt\nattention to another talking about the place.\n\n\"Miss Y----, I think her name was, kept house for a priest at----. One\nevening, while on a visit there, I found her knitting as I passed the\nkitchen door, and bidding her the time of day, I discovered from a\nremark she made that she had in former days filled more important\nposts. She soon settled down when she found me an attentive listener\nto a somewhat detailed account of by no means a short life.\n\n\"'Had she been in Scotland?' 'Yes, sir; and in a very beautiful part\nof Scotland, in P----shire.' 'Indeed!' In short she told me that she\nhad been, twelve years ago, governess in the S---- family at B----\nHouse. (I need not say that I was now intensely interested.) 'Why did\nshe leave?' 'Well, sir, so many people complained of queer noises in\nthe house, that I got alarmed and left.' I asked her had she seen\nanything? She said No, and the noises were only heard in certain\nrooms, and the servants inhabited quite a different part of the house.\nWhen I closely questioned her she located the queer noises precisely\nin the two rooms I had successively occupied. She did not learn from\nme that I had ever been there. Pressed for a concrete case of fright\nand abrupt leavetaking (I _think_), she told me two military officers\nhad 'left next morning.'\n\n\"In conclusion, as against all the above, my own, and this good\nwoman's account, I must set it down that, before I left the house, two\nyoung ladies, relatives of the family, occupied the rooms in\nquestion, and certainly, to my surprise, did not seem at breakfast as\nif they had spent an unquiet night.\"\n\nInquiry shows that Miss Y----'s residence at B---- must have been\nabout the years 1878-80.\n\nThe earliest witnesses in chronological sequence would be the S----\nfamily themselves; but though much information has been contributed by\nthem to various persons interested in B---- House during the tenancy\nboth of Mr. H---- and Colonel Taylor, the present Editors are\nunwilling to make use of it without permission.\n\nA statement in _The Times_ article, of the character of which the\nreader can here judge for himself, elicited the following letter from\nMrs. S----, which is to be found in the issue of that journal for June\n18, 1897:--\n\n\"May I ask of your courtesy to insert this in the next issue of your\npaper. Seeing myself dragged into publicity in _The Times_ of June 8,\nas 'having made admissions under pressure of cross-examination,' I beg\nto state that I as well as the rest of my family had not the remotest\nidea that our home was let to other than ordinary tenants. In my\nintercourse with them I spoke as one lady to another, never imagining\nthat my private conversations were going to be used for purposes\ncarefully concealed from me--a deceit which I deeply resent.\"\n\nIt will be observed that Mrs. S---- here leaves no doubt as to the\nnature of the information with which she was so good as to favour Miss\nFreer, but, notwithstanding this fact, and the language which Mrs.\nS---- has considered it right to use--or, at least, to sign--with\nregard to Miss Freer, Miss Freer prefers to continue to treat Mrs.\nS----'s statements as confidential, and blanks will accordingly be\nfound in the Journal under the dates on which such conversations\noccurred. Miss Freer extends the same regard for a privacy, which the\nS---- family have themselves violated, to communications made by other\nmembers. There have, however, been several witnesses unconnected with\nthem, some of whom are referred to in the Journal. Not only the\nvillagers and persons in the immediate neighbourhood, but many\naccidentally met with in visits to show-places and in excursions for\ntwenty miles round B----, were ready to pour out traditions and\nexperiences which are not here quoted, as, though often suggestive,\nnot always evidential.\n\nThe Rev. P. H----, already referred to, quotes a witness who testifies\nto processions of monks or nuns having been seen by Mr. S---- from a\nwindow, and of a married couple who, \"relating the events of the\nnight, declared they could not hear each other's voices for the noise\noverhead between them and the ceiling,\" which was especially\ninteresting to him, as corroborative of his own experience.\n\nA former servant at B---- has voluntarily related, at great length,\nthe story of the alleged hauntings, which shows that they have\noccurred at intervals during the past twenty years. He is of opinion\nthat as the earlier hauntings were ascribed to the late Major S----,\nso their revival may be referred to the late proprietor; but his\nreasons, as well as his narrative, are of a nature which might cause\nannoyance to the S---- family, and are therefore withheld.\n\nDr. Menzies, a correspondent of _The Times_, June 10th, who speaks of\nhimself as an old friend of Major S----, refers to a still earlier\nhaunting--a tradition current at the time of the Major's succession in\n1844.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn August 1896, B---- House, with the shooting attached, was let by\nCaptain S----, the present proprietor, for a year to a wealthy family\nof Spanish origin. Their experience was of such a nature that they\nabandoned the house at the end of seven weeks, thus forfeiting the\ngreater part of their rent, which had been paid in advance. The\nevidence of Mr. H---- himself, of his butler, and of several guests,\nwill be found in due chronological sequence.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhen Colonel Taylor, one of the fundamental members of the London\nSpiritualist Alliance, a distinguished member of the S.P.R., whose\nname is associated both in this country and in America with the\ninvestigation of haunted houses, offered to take a lease of B----\nHouse, after the lease had been resigned by Mr. H----, the proprietor\nmade no objection whatever. Indeed, the only allusion made to the\nhaunting was the expression of a hope on the part of Captain S----'s\nagents in Edinburgh, that Colonel Taylor would not make it a subject\nof complaint, as had been done by Mr. H----, in reply to which they\nwere informed that Colonel Taylor was thoroughly well aware of what\nhad happened during Mr. H----'s tenancy, and would undertake to make\nno complaint on the subject. Captain S---- having thus thrown the\nhouse into the open market, and let it to the well-known expert, with\nno reference whatever to the subject of haunting, except that it\nshould not be made a ground of complaint, it is obvious that he\ndeprived himself of any right to complain as to observations upon the\nsubject of local hallucination, any more than of observation upon the\nhabits of squirrels or other local features. Nor had he any more right\nto complain upon this ground, as vendor of the lease, than any other\nvendor of articles exposed for public sale, such as a hatter, who\nafter selling a hat to Lord Salisbury, might complain that he had been\ninduced to provide headgear for a Conservative. At the same time, both\nColonel Taylor and his friends were well aware, from a vexatious\nexperience, that phenomena of the kind found at B---- are very often\nassociated with private matters, which the members of a family\nconcerned might object to see published, just as they might object to\nthe publication of the results of an examination of some object--say,\nold medicine-bottles--found in the house let by them to a strange\ntenant.\n\nActing upon this knowledge, it has been the general rule of the\nSociety for Psychical Research to publish the cases investigated by it\nunder avowedly false names, as private cases are published in medical\nand other scientific journals. Out of a courteous anxiety that nothing\nshould occur which could in any way annoy any member of the S----\nfamily, no one was admitted to the house for the purpose of observing\nthe phenomena, except on the definite understanding that they were to\nregard everything as confidential, and it was always intended that any\npublication on the subject was to be made with all names and\ngeographical indications avowedly fictitious.\n\nAs certain points of Gaelic orthography were found to be involved, it\nwas decided to mention the house as standing in a bi-lingual district\nupon the borders of Wales, and Lord Bute arranged with Sir William\nLewis to have these linguistic points represented by Welsh instead of\nGaelic.\n\nThe affairs of the inquiry, and of any phenomena which might occur,\nwere thus protected, it was believed, by a confidence even more\nabsolute than that usually observed in such affairs of a household as\nto which honour dictates that a guest should be silent.\n\nThe appreciation with which the S---- family responded to this\ncourteous and careful consideration for their possible feelings, was\nmade manifest to the world by the tone which they adopted when,\nimmediately on the appearance of the anonymous article in _The Times_,\nthey rushed into the newspapers, and published everything concerning\nthemselves, their family property, predecessors, and tenants, with all\nthe proper names at full length. After that outburst it has, of\ncourse, been rendered impossible to keep the identity of the place and\npeople any longer secret.\n\nOut of deference to other members of the family who did not take part\nin this, the matter in the present volume remains in as private a form\nas the newspaper correspondence now leaves possible.\n\nThe names given in full are those mostly very indirectly concerned;\nother names, including that of the house, are given under the real\ninitials, with the exception of a few of the less prominent, when the\nreal initials would create confusion; and in these latter cases they\nare taken from letters of the alphabet not already used, and are\nplaced in inverted commas; _e.g._ the real initial of a Mr. S---- is\nchanged, in order to avoid confusion with the name of the S---- family\nthemselves, the proprietors of B----.\n\nThe contents of the book are, except in one respect, arranged upon the\nsimple chronological system. They commence with a short sketch of the\nhistory of the S---- family, based in its earlier part upon Douglas's\n\"Baronage of Scotland\"; and all information which the writers possess\nas to the phenomena which have occurred since the death of Major S----\nin 1876, except that supplied by the S---- family, is set forth in\nsuccession.\n\nThe family of S---- date from the earlier part of the middle of the\nfifteenth century, and were settled upon the river T---- within that\ncentury, while they have possessed B---- at least since the earlier\nhalf of the century following.\n\nA stone, carved with their arms, belonging to the old mansion-house,\nis built into the wall, and dated 1579. The present house is modern,\nand does not even occupy the site of the older one.\n\nThe particular proprietor whose arms are so represented, Patrick\nS----, married Elizabeth B----, who survived him and married a second\ntime. James S----, his son, in 1586, married Mary C----, and after her\ndeath, in 1597, Elizabeth R----.\n\nRobert S----, his son by his first marriage, married Margaret C----.\nJohn S----, son of Robert, was killed by the Cromwellians, leaving no\nissue, and was succeeded by his brother, Patrick S----, who married\nElizabeth L----.\n\nIt is not obvious when they adopted the principles of the Reformation,\nbut it is to be remarked that this Patrick stood high in the favour of\nJames II. (and VII.).\n\nCharles S----, son of the foregoing, married Anne D----, and was\nsucceeded by his third son, another Charles, who married Grizell\nM----, and died in 1764.\n\nRobert S----, his son, married Isabel H----. Charles S----, his eldest\nson, died unmarried in 1783.\n\nH---- S----, second son of R---- S----, married Louisa M----, died in\n1834, and had issue--Robert, two other sons, and six daughters.\n\nRobert S----, born January 1806, in 1825 entered the military service\nof the East India Company, from which he retired with the rank of\nMajor in 1850, _i.e._ sixteen years after succeeding to the property.\nHe died in April 1876. His two brothers both died unmarried, and of\nhis six sisters, three married, and a fourth, Isabella, entered a\nnunnery. She there professed under the name of \"Frances Helen\" in\n1850, the year of her brother's return from India, and died February\n23, 1880, aged sixty-six.\n\nMajor S----, by his will dated June 8, 1853, bequeathed B---- to the\nrepresentatives of his married sister Mary, and on his death was\naccordingly succeeded by her second (but eldest surviving) son, John,\nwho on succeeding assumed the name of S----.\n\nMajor S---- was a Protestant, but this John was a Roman Catholic, like\nhis aunt Isabella. His eldest brother died without issue in 1867, but\nhe had a younger brother, married, with issue, and two sisters, Louisa\nand Mary, whom Major S----, by a codicil of December 14, 1868,\ncarefully excluded from all benefit under his will.\n\nThe register of the parish of L----, in which B---- House is situated,\nmentions under the date July 14, 1873, the death of Sarah N----,\nhousekeeper of B---- House (single), aged twenty-seven years, daughter\nof John N----, farmer, and Helen R----. (In Scottish legal documents\nmarried women are described by their maiden name.) It is said that her\nlast illness was very short, lasting only three days. Mrs. S---- had\nthe great charity to attend her on her deathbed. It is mentioned in\nthe register, that the official intimation of Sarah N----'s death was\ngiven, not by her parents nor by Major S----, but by her uncle, Neil\nN----.\n\nMajor S---- seems to have been somewhat eccentric, and was very fond\nof dogs, of which he kept a considerable number. He had very strong\nviews upon psychical subjects. He was a believer in spirit-return, and\nmany witnesses have attested that he frequently spoke of his own\nreturn after death. Among these psychic beliefs were two relating to\nanimals; and as they are of a kind not very commonly discussed even\namong spiritualists, and enter, to some extent, into the following\nnarrative, it is convenient here to state them at length. It is very\ncommonly held that the soul or living personality of man, which will\nsurvive the change called by us \"death,\" is capable of entering living\nbodies and making use of their organs. The form in which this belief\nis most commonly met with, is that of the alleged inspiration of\ntrance mediums by the souls of the dead. Such a case is that of Mrs.\nPiper, said to have been animated by the soul of Dr. Phinuit and other\npersonalities now disincarnated. It has naturally been argued that if\nit is possible for the disembodied spirit to occupy and animate the\nbody of a human being, it would, _a fortiori_, be easy for it to do\nthe same with the body of a beast, where the resistance of will would\npresumably be less.\n\nThis idea, coupled with the belief that the soul can be separated from\nthe body during life, so producing a kind of temporary death, while\nleaving the body in such a state that it is capable of being again\ninhabited and animated, lies at the bottom of the numerous statements\nas to sorcerers and sorceresses changing themselves into hares,\nwolves, or cats, which are to be found in the records of witch trials.\n\nThat this was possible, at least after death, was evidently a strong\nbelief upon the part of Major S----. We are informed that he\nfrequently intimated his intention of entering the body of a\nparticular black spaniel which he possessed, and so strong a belief\nwas attached to his words, that after his death all his dogs,\nincluding the spaniel in question, were shot, apparently in order to\nrender impossible any such action upon his part. The policy of the\nmeasure adopted was short-sighted. If the Major had thoroughly\nsucceeded in animating the body of the living spaniel, the physical\nresources at his disposal would have been too limited to have enabled\nhim to give much trouble. As it is, a series of witnesses attest\napparitions of this spaniel, and of at least one other dog, which may\nnaturally be regarded as much more disturbing.\n\nThe second point is possibly the same as the last, but it appears to\nbe more probably based upon the belief held by Major S----, in common\nwith a large number of those who have made a serious study of\napparitions--and certainly a large number of the members of the\nS.P.R.--that such apparitions are really hallucinations or false\nimpressions upon the senses, created, so far as originated by any\nexternal cause, by other minds either in the body or out of the body,\nwhich are themselves invisible in the ordinary and physical sense of\nthe term, and really acting through some means at present very\nimperfectly known. Such an opinion of course reserves the question of\nthe possible action of unseen forces upon what is commonly called\nmatter involved in 'spirit'-photography, materialisation, levitation,\nthe passage of matter through matter, and other forms of _apport_,\nalthough such a distinction, if logically carried out, becomes\nsomewhat tenuous in face of the generally accepted fact that all\nmental processes are accompanied by physical processes in the brain.\nIn the following pages will be found instances of the phenomenon of\nthe apparent removal of bed-clothing, which raise a question as to the\npropriety of regarding as exhaustive an explanation based solely upon\nthe hypothesis of subjective hallucination which otherwise would\nappear to be generally applicable. It would stand to reason that if\nsuch an intelligence can produce an hallucination of the appearance of\nthe human figure, it would be at least equally easy for it to produce\nan hallucination of the appearance of a beast. A belief to this effect\nseems to be the explanation of the fact mentioned in a letter to _The\nTimes_ of June 10, 1897, by Dr. Menzies, who refers to Major S---- as\n\"an old and dear friend.\" He writes, \"I have no doubt that he created\nmuch scandal by saying to his gardener that he had better take care to\nkeep up the garden properly, for when he was gone his soul would go\ninto a mole and haunt the garden and him too.\"\n\nThis theory of the possibility of producing by mental force the\nhallucination audible or visual of a beast, may also be the\nexplanation, not only of the apparition of the large dog which has\nbeen seen, as well as that of a spaniel, but also of the phenomenon,\nattested by several witnesses, of their having heard the sound as of a\nlarge dog throwing itself from the outside against the lower part of\ntheir doors.\n\nMajor S---- died, as already stated, in 1876, and was buried beside\nSarah N---- and, it is said, an old Indian manservant. The grave is in\nthe middle of the parish churchyard. No monument marks their\nresting-place, but a high enclosure, which surrounds it, is a\nprominent object. The whole of his dogs, fourteen in number, including\nthe spaniel already mentioned, were killed after his death.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe S.P.R. some years ago published a census of hallucinations based\nupon the interrogation of seventeen thousand persons, who were not\nonly taken casually, but from whom those were excluded whose replies\nwere foreseen. From the analysis of these statistics, it appears that\nthe great majority of these phantasms are figures of people who were\nliving and continue to live, although research seems to point to the\nfact that their bodies are either always, or very often, in a state of\napparent unconsciousness at the moment of the phenomenon. Among the\nminority, _i.e._ of apparitions of the dead, the frequency seems to be\nin inverse proportion to the time which has elapsed since death. Those\nwhich appear at the moment of death are very frequent, whereas, on the\nother hand, those of persons who have been very long dead are almost\nunknown; _e.g._ the apparition seen by Lady Galway a few years ago at\nRufford Abbey, where the form represented a person who must have been\ndead for about three hundred years, belongs to a class of which\nexamples are very few.\n\nA haunted house (or any other locality) is merely a place where\nexperience shows that hallucinations are more or less localised, and\nthe only especially interesting question about it is, why the\nhallucinations should be localised at a particular place, and what\ncauses them there.\n\nSuch Phantasms of the Living have been discussed in the monumental\nwork of Mr. Myers and the late Mr. E. Gurney. They need be no further\nremarked upon here, than to observe that the following pages contain\nat least one example, viz. that of the apparition of the Rev. P.\nH----. (See p. 119.)\n\nIt is very difficult to judge of the forces which may act in the\nconditions of what we are accustomed to call \"another world,\" but a\nplausible explanation might be found in the Divine Word, \"Where your\ntreasure is, there will your heart be also.\" The thoughts and\naffections appear to dwell for a time where they have been already\nfixed during life, but changes here, including the gradual reunion on\nthe other side, of all those who are loved with those who love them,\nthe advancing dissociation of the mind with things here, and, no\ndoubt, the evolution of a different life under different conditions,\nseem gradually to efface the ties of earthly memory, connecting the\nfeelings with particular spots on earth.\n\nSuch thoughts not infrequently include repentance, a desire for the\nremedy of acts of injustice, and an eagerness for the compassion and\nsympathetic prayers of those whom we call the living.\n\nIt is natural, therefore, to suppose that haunting, such as that met\nwith at B----, would be connected with persons who had died within\nsome such period as a century at the outside. Now the number of the\nmembers of the S---- family and others, whose thoughts, memories,\nfeelings, and affections may presumably have dwelt largely at B----,\nand who have died within the last hundred years, is very considerable;\nbut--saving the tradition referred to by Dr. Menzies (see p. 22), only\nto be dismissed--there seems to have been no idea of the place being\nhaunted before the deaths of Sarah N---- and of Major S----, whereas\nsince that time the peculiar phenomena have been constantly attested.\n\nJohn S----, his successor, was, as stated, the second son of Major\nS----'s sister Mary, and assumed the name of S---- upon succeeding to\nthe property. He was a Roman Catholic; he was married, and had several\nchildren, of whom the eldest son is the present proprietor. One of the\nyounger sons is a Jesuit, but not yet a priest.\n\nIn January 1895 Mr. S---- went to London on family business, and was\nthere killed by being run over by a cab in the street. It was stated\non the authority of three persons, not counting members of his own\nfamily, that on the morning on which he left B---- for the last time,\nwhile he was talking to the agent in his business-room, there were\nraps so violent as to interfere with conversation. The earliest\nwritten notice of this circumstance, so far as can be discovered, is\nthe following entry in Lord Bute's journal for January 17, 1896:--\n\n\"I hear that the morning the late S---- of B---- left home for the\nlast time, spirits came and rapped to him in his room--doubtless to\nwarn him--so that his death was really owing to the cruel superstition\nwhich had prevented him allowing them to be communicated with.\"\n\nLord Bute's informant appears to have been the Rev. Sir David Hunter\nBlair, as the journal mentions his arrival at Falkland on that day,\nand none of the other guests in the house were people who were likely\nto have heard anything about it.\n\nMr. S---- was succeeded by his eldest son, Captain S----, who showed\nno hesitation in throwing the house into the public market, with its\n4400 acres of shooting. The alleged haunting was not mentioned\nbeforehand to the first tenant, as it afterwards was to Colonel\nTaylor.\n\nThis tenant was Mr. J.R. H---- of K---- Court, C----, in G----shire,\nand the following is the account of experiences during his visit, as\ngiven by his butler:--\n\n\nON THE TRAIL OF A GHOST\n\n_To the Editor of \"The Times\"_\n\n\"SIR,--In your issue of the 8th, under the above heading, 'A\nCorrespondent' tries at some length to describe what he calls a most\nimpudent imposture. I having lived at B---- for three months in the\nautumn of last year as butler to the house, I thought perhaps my\nexperience of the ghost of B---- might be of interest to many of your\nreaders, and as the story has now become public property, I shall not\nbe doing any one an injury by telling what I know of the mystery.\n\n\"On July 15, 1896, I was sent by Mr. H----, with two maidservants, to\ntake charge of B---- from Mr. S----'s agents. I was there three days\nbefore the arrival of any one of the family, and during that time I\nheard nothing to disturb me in any way; but on the morning after the\narrival of two of the family, Master and Miss H----, they came down\nwith long faces, giving accounts of ghostly noises they had heard\nduring the night, but I tried to dissuade them from such nonsense, as\nI then considered it to be; but on the following two or three nights\nthe same kind of noises were heard by them, and also by the\nmaidservants, who slept in the rooms above, and they all became\npositively frightened. I heard nothing whatever, though the noises, as\nthey described them, would have been enough to wake any one much\nfarther away than where I slept, for the noises they heard were made\nimmediately over my room. I suggested the hot-water pipes or the twigs\nof ivy knocking against the windows, but no--nothing would persuade\nthem but that the house was haunted; but as the noises continued to be\nheard nightly, I suggested that I should sit up alone, and without a\nlight, outside their bedroom doors, where the footsteps and other\nrustling noises were heard. I think one other member of the family, or\ntwo young gentlemen, had arrived at this time, and they had also heard\nthe noises. I told them of my intention to sit up alone, for as one\nof them had a revolver I did not want to run the risk of being shot\nfor a ghost. However, I took my post on the landing at 11.30 and kept\nwatch, I am certain, until half-past one; then I must have fallen\nasleep, for about two o'clock Master H----, hearing the knocking as\nusual, came out of his room to hear if I had seen or heard anything,\nbut found me fast asleep on the floor, which gave him a greater fright\nthan the knocking, for he supposed for the moment that I had been\nslain by the ghost.\n\n\"This kind of thing went on nightly, and for three weeks I heard\nnothing, although nearly every one in the house heard these noises\nexcept myself; but my turn had yet to come, although I firmly held the\nopinion during that time that it was the hot-water pipes, and I only\nlaughed at the others for their absurd nonsense, as I then considered\nit to be; but my first experience was that of being awakened three\nsuccessive nights, or rather mornings, at about 3.30. I heard nothing,\nbut seemed to be wide awake in an instant, as though some one had\ntouched me. I would stay awake for some little time and then go to\nsleep again; but on the fourth night, on being awakened as before, and\nlying awake for perhaps two minutes, I heard tremendous thumping just\noutside my door. I jumped out of bed quickly, and opened my door, and\ncalled out in a loud voice, 'Who is there?' but got no answer. I\nascended the stairs and listened for a few minutes, but heard no\nfurther knocking. I then went back to my room, but did not sleep again\nthat morning.\n\n\"I may mention that my room was the one described by 'A Correspondent'\nas the butler's room under No. 3, the room where most noises were\nheard, and the staircase was the service one, and as there is a door\nat the top, if any one had come there to make the noise I should\ncertainly have heard them beating a retreat.\n\n\"The same thing happened with variations almost nightly for the\nsucceeding two months that I was there, and every visitor that came to\nthe house was disturbed in the same manner. One gentleman (a colonel)\ntold me he was awakened on several occasions with the feeling that\nsome one was pulling the bedclothes off him; sometimes heavy\nfootsteps were heard, at others like the rustling of a lady's dress;\nand sometimes groans were heard, but nearly always accompanied with\nheavy knocking; sometimes the whole house would be aroused. One night\nI remember five gentlemen meeting at the top of the stairs in their\nnight-suits, some with sticks or pokers, one had a revolver, vowing\nvengeance on the disturbers of their sleep. During the two months\nafter I first heard the noises I kept watch altogether about twelve\ntimes in various parts of the house, mostly unknown to others (at the\ntime), and have heard the noises in the wing as well as other parts.\n\n\"When watching I always experienced a peculiar sensation a few minutes\nbefore hearing any noise. I can only describe it as like suddenly\nentering an ice-house, and a feeling that some one was present and\nabout to speak to me. On three different nights I was awakened by my\nbedclothes being pulled off my feet. But the worst night I had at\nB---- was one night about the second week in September, and I shall\nnever forget it as long as I live. I had been keeping watch with two\ngentlemen--one a visitor, the other one of the house. We were sitting\nin room No. 2, and heard the noises that I have described about\nhalf-past two. Both gentlemen were very much alarmed; but we searched\neverywhere, but could not find any trace of the ghost or cause of the\nnoises, although they came this time from an unoccupied room. (I may\nmention that the noises were never heard in the daytime, as stated by\n'A Correspondent,' but always between twelve, midnight, and four in\nthe morning, generally between two and four o'clock.) After a thorough\nsearch the two gentlemen went to bed sadder, but not wiser men, for we\nhad discovered nothing. I then went to my room, but not to bed, for I\nwas not satisfied, and decided to continue the watch alone. So I\nseated myself on the service stairs, close to where the water-pipes\npassed up the wall, so as to decide once and for all if the sounds\ncame in any way from the water-pipes.\n\n\"I had not long to wait (about twenty minutes) when the knocking\nrecommenced from the same direction as before, but much louder than\nbefore, followed, after a very short interval, by two distinct\ngroans, which certainly made me feel very uncomfortable, for it\nsounded like some one being stabbed and then falling to the floor.\nThat was enough for me. I went and asked the two gentlemen who had\njust gone to bed if they had heard anything. One said he had heard\nfive knocks and two groans, the same as I had; while the other (whose\nroom was much nearer to where the sounds came from) said he had heard\nnothing. I then retired to my bed, but not to sleep, for I had not\nbeen in bed three minutes before I experienced the sensation as\nbefore, but instead of being followed by knocking, my bedclothes were\nlifted up and let fall again--first at the foot of my bed, but\ngradually coming towards my head. I held the clothes around my neck\nwith my hands, but they were gently lifted in spite of my efforts to\nhold them. I then reached around me with my hand, but could feel\nnothing. This was immediately followed by my being fanned as though\nsome bird was flying around my head, and I could distinctly hear and\nfeel something breathing on me. I then tried to reach some matches\nthat were on a chair by my bedside, but my hand was held back as if\nby some invisible power. Then the thing seemed to retire to the foot\nof my bed. Then I suddenly found the foot of my bed lifted up and\ncarried around towards the window for about three or four feet, then\nreplaced to its former position. All this did not take, I should\nthink, more than two or three minutes, although at the time it seemed\nhours to me. Just then the clock struck four, and, being tired out\nwith my long night's watching, I fell asleep. This, Mr. Editor, is\nsome of my experiences while at B----.\n\n\"As to 'A Correspondent's' interviews with local people:--\n\n\"As to the old caretaker, she is an old woman, very deaf, and she\nalways occupied a room on the ground floor, where, during the three\nmonths that I was there, nothing whatever was heard, as my two footmen\nslept there, and they did not hear any noises. As to the intelligent\ngardener, if it is the same one that was there when I was there, he,\nsurely, has not forgotten the night he spent with me in my room; he\nwas nearly frightened out of his wits, and declared he would not\nspend another night in my room for any money--a fact that the factor\nor steward and others well know.\n\n\"There are many other incidents in my experience with the mystery of\nB----, but I hope this is sufficient for the purpose I intend\nit--namely, for the truth to be known, for I have no other motive in\nwriting this letter; for I have left the service of the house some\nmonths now. But as to your correspondent's statement that some of the\nhouse were doing it, it is simply absurd; for in turn they were all\naway from B---- for a week or fortnight, and still these noises were\nheard. Another thing; is it possible for any one to keep up a joke\nlike that for three months? or, if any one had been doing it, I should\ncertainly have caught them; and I can assure you that the house were\nvery much annoyed with it, not only for themselves, but for their\nvisitors, for I have sat up all night with some of them, who were\nafraid to go to their beds: and I think that if 'A Correspondent' had\nstayed as long in B---- as I did, and had had some of my experiences,\nhe would have a very different tale to tell, although up to my going\nto B---- I would laugh at any one who told me there were such things\nas ghosts; and even now I am not quite convinced; but of one thing I\nam certain--that is, that there is something supernatural in the\nnoises and things that I heard and experienced at B----. Thanking you,\ndear sir, in anticipation of your inserting this letter, I remain your\nobedient servant,\n\n  \"HAROLD SANDERS.\n  \"CHIDCOCK, NEAR BRIDPORT, DORSET.\"\n\n\nThe passage in _The Times_ article is as follows:--\n\n\"An intelligent gardener whom I questioned told me that he had kept\nwatch in the house on two separate occasions, abstaining from sleep\nuntil daylight appeared at seven o'clock, but without hearing a sound.\nA caretaker, who had spent months in the house, and who had to keep a\nstove alight all night, never heard a sound, probably because there\nwas no one to make any.\"\n\nThe gardener's evidence on this point will be found on p. 218.\n\nWithout admitting, for one moment, the theory that a servant's\nevidence may not be of equal value with that of the so-called educated\nclasses, it was thought desirable, before admitting that of Sanders,\nto make some inquiries as to his character, intelligence, and capacity\nfor observation. His employer spoke well of him, and Colonel Taylor\nhad the advantage of a personal interview with him, which he thus\ndescribes:--\n\n\"_July 18th, 1897._--I went to Coventry yesterday, and saw Sanders the\nbutler. He is a slight, dark young man, and, as far as I could judge,\nquite honest and serious over the B---- affair. He assured me that he\nhad written the letter to _The Times_ without any advice or\nassistance, and that all he wrote was absolutely true. I gathered from\nhim, indirectly, that before his B---- experience he knew nothing of\nghosts, spiritualism, or any occult matter, and does not now. He was\nmuch astonished when I told him that the feeling which he describes as\nlike walking into an ice-house was a common one under the\ncircumstances. He said he omitted in his letter many small personal\nmatters, such as the following:-- During the manifestation in his\nroom, when his bed was shifted, and when he felt as if some one was\nmaking 'passes' over him, and breathing in his face, he made the sign\nof the Cross, on which the 'influence' receded from him, but\napproached again almost at once. After repeating this a few times with\nthe same result, he crossed his arms over his chest, and holding the\nbedclothes close up to his chin, went to sleep. He was at no time\nafraid. He said things were more active during the stay of Father 'I.'\nthan at any other time, and that one of the young H----s had seen a\nveiled lady pass through his room.\"\n\nThe following paragraph in the letter of _The Times_ correspondent\ncalled forth the subjoined letter from Mr. H---- himself, the tenant\nof B----:--\n\n\"The only mystery in the matter seems to be the mode in which a\nprosaic and ordinary dwelling was endowed with so evil a reputation. I\nwas assured in London that it had had this reputation for twenty or\nthirty years. The family lawyer in P---- asserted most positively\nthat there had never been a whisper of such a thing until the house\nwas let for last year's shooting season to a family, whom I may call\nthe H----s. I was told the same thing in equally positive terms by\nthe minister of the parish, a level-headed man from B----shire, who\nhas lived in the place for twenty years. He told me that some of the\nyounger members of the H---- family had indulged in practical jokes,\nand boasted of them. One of their pranks was to drop or throw a weight\nupon the floor, and to draw it back by means of a string. Another\nseems to have been to thump on bedroom doors with a boot-heel, the\nunmistakable marks of which remain to this day, and were pointed out\nto me by our hostess. If there are really any noises not referable to\nordinary domestic causes, it is not improbable that these practical\njokers made a confidant of some one about the estate, who amuses\nhimself by occasionally--it is only occasionally that the more\nremarkable noises are said to be heard--repeating their tricks. The\nsteward or factor on the estate concurs with the lawyer and the\nminister in denying that the house had any reputation for being\nhaunted before the advent of the H---- family. Yet he is a Highlander,\nand not without superstition; for he gave it as his opinion that _if_\nthere was anything in these noises, they must be due to Black Art.\nAsked what Black Art might be, he said he could not tell, but he had\noften heard about it, and had been told that when once set going it\nwould go on without the assistance of its authors. He was quite clear,\nhowever that if there is Black Art, it came in with the H---- family.\"\n\nMr. H----'s rejoinder, which appeared in _The Times_, was dated June\n10th:--\n\n\n_To the Editor of \"The Times\"_\n\n\"SIR,--I must ask you to be good enough to publish, on behalf of the\ntenant of B----, a few remarks on the article that appeared in your\npaper of the 8th inst. with the heading 'On the Trail of a Ghost.' The\nwriter of that article finds a very easy solution to the mystery by\nattacking a private family who happened to be tenants of B---- for a\nshort time, and making them a 'scapegoat' for his argument. I do not\nquite understand if your correspondent pretends to assert that the\nplace had not the reputation of being haunted previous to my tenancy\nfor three months last year; probably he does not charge me with\noriginating such reports, as he mentions a story of the visit of a\nCatholic Archbishop to the house to exorcise the ghost. This must have\nhappened some time ago, and proves that the house was then supposed to\nbe haunted. What your correspondent does state as a fact is, that the\nyounger members of my family played practical jokes, which have given\nrise to Lord Bute's investigations. My object in writing to you is to\ndeny most emphatically this statement. The principal proof that is\nbrought forward to corroborate this slander is, that the doors are\nmarked by the blows struck to produce the noises heard. Surely no one\ncould be frightened after the cause and reason of the noises were once\nascertained by the boot-marks! But there were no such marks on the\ndoors when we left B----. Some of our guests were with us until very\nshortly before my family left, and can testify to this, for the good\nreason that in the endeavour to localise the extraordinary noises, all\ndoors and other parts of the house were constantly examined up to the\nvery last. When I went to B---- at the beginning of August, my family\nhad already been there a few days, and at once they told me they had\nfound out the house was supposed to be haunted, and that they had\nheard most unaccountable noises. I had the greatest difficulty to\npersuade all my people to stay in the place, and after all, we left\nScotland about the end of September, two months earlier than usual. I\npersonally did not give any importance to the rumours that B---- House\nis haunted, and attributed the very remarkable noises heard to the\nhot-water pipes and the peculiar way in which the house is built. In\nfact, I have to confess I cannot believe in ghosts, and, consequently,\nI did my best to persuade everybody that B---- was not haunted, but I\nam afraid I was not always successful. I hope you will forgive me for\ntaking up so much valuable space in your paper, but I had to do so in\nself-defence against a false accusation.--Yours faithfully, H----.\"\n\nIt is believed that, in consequence of this letter, Mr. H---- was\nthreatened with legal proceedings, which, however, have not yet been\ninitiated.\n\nThe following is the account given of the same period by Miss \"B.,\" a\nlady of some position in the literary world:--\n\n\"... We arrived there on Wednesday the 25th August, the house being\nthen tenanted by Mr. J.R. H---- of K---- Court, C----, G----shire. The\nhousehold consisted of Mr. and Mrs. H----, three sons, Miss H----, my\nsister and I, and two other guests, Colonel A---- and Major B----.\n\n\"We had rooms in the wing on the ground floor of the house, opening\noff the main hall, divided from the rest of the house by a long\npassage, and shut off by a swing-door. Our rooms opened off each\nother, and the inner room opened off a little sitting-room, which had\na door with glass panels leading into the passage. The only other\nperson who slept in that wing of the house was Mr. Willie H----, whose\nroom was exactly opposite the door of our room.\n\n\"We heard a great deal of discussion about the 'ghost' when we\narrived, and so that night my sister made me sleep in the inner room\nwith her. We heard nothing that night. The next night I slept in the\nouter room, and neither of us heard anything. The third night, my\nsister being still a little nervous, I slept in the inner room with\nher. The door of the outer room was locked, the door between the rooms\nwas locked, and there was a wardrobe placed against the door leading\ninto the sitting-room. We both, having taken these precautions, fell\nsound asleep.\n\n\"I wakened suddenly in the middle of the night, and noticed how quiet\nthe house was. Then I heard the clock strike two, and a few minutes\nlater there came a crashing, _vibrating_ batter against the door of\nthe outer room. My sister was sleeping very soundly, but she started\nup in a moment at the noise, wide awake.\n\n\"'Some one must have done that,' she said; 'such a noise could never\nhave been made by a ghost!'\n\n\"But neither of us had the courage to go out into the passage! The\nnoise lasted, I should say, for only two or three _seconds_, and\nceased as suddenly as it had begun. We lay awake till the light came\nin, but the house was quite quiet. I may mention, as against the\n'supernatural' origin of the sound, that it came against the outer\ndoor, did not pass in to the inner one, and avoided the glass-panelled\ndoor of the sitting-room, which would certainly have been shivered by\nthe application of force sufficient to produce such noise. Another\nvery curious thing was, that on the nights when it came to our door\n(_we_ only heard it once, but other visitors heard it often) Willie\nH---- heard nothing; whereas on the nights when he was disturbed, we\nheard nothing, yet the rooms were close together.\n\n\"The following night my sister and Miss H---- and two of her brothers\nsat up all night in the morning-room, which opened off the main hall.\nWe sat with the door open and in the dark, but neither heard or saw\nanything; the house was absolutely still.\n\n\"The next night my sister and I stayed in Miss H----'s room, watching\nwith her. It was on the third storey of the house, and on a line with\nthe specially haunted room, then occupied by Colonel A----. Two of the\nmen sat up downstairs.\n\n\"After 2.30 Mr. Eustace H---- came and told his sister we need not sit\nup later, as everything was so quiet, and the noises seldom came after\nthat hour. He went to his room then, but his door was scarcely closed\nwhen we all heard a loud knocking at Colonel A----'s door. We ran out,\nwithout waiting a moment, into the passage, where the lamps were still\nburning brightly, but it was absolutely empty and quiet. We heard it\nseveral times that night in distant parts of the house, and once we\nheard a scream, which seemed to come from overhead. We stayed six days\nin the house after this, but heard nothing more ourselves, though\nevery one else in the house was disturbed nightly.\"\n\nThe Major B---- mentioned in the above statement has been good enough\nto furnish the following note as to his personal impressions:--\n\n\"On 22nd August 1896 I arrived at B----, and remained there until the\n2nd September. During this period I slept in the room on the first\nfloor, which is at the end of a short corridor running from the top of\nthe back stairs to my room [No. 1].\n\n\"Colonel A---- occupied the room next to me [No. 3]. It was a double\nroom, connected by a door, and was situated just at the top of the\nback stair.\n\n\"August 24th, about 3.30 A.M., I heard very loud knocking, apparently\non Colonel A----'s door, about nine raps in all--three raps quickly,\none after the other, then three more the same, and three more the\nsame. It was as if some one was hitting the door with his fist as hard\nas he could hit. I left my room at once, but could find nothing to\naccount for the noise. It was broad daylight at the time. I heard the\nsame noises on the 28th and 30th August at about the same hour, viz.\nbetween 3 and 4 A.M.\"\n\nThe following, which adds somewhat to the above, was contained in a\nprivate letter written in January 1897 from Major B---- to the Hon.\nE---- F----:--\n\n\"Between two and four in the morning there used to be noises on the\ndoor (of Colonel A----'s room), as if a very strong man were hitting\nthe panels as hard as ever he could hit, three times in quick\nsuccession--a pause, and then three times again in quick succession,\nand perhaps another go. It was so loud that I thought it was on the\ndoor of his dressing-room, but he said he thought it was on his\nbedroom door. One theory is, that it was the hot water in the pipes\ngetting cold, which, I am told, would make a loud throbbing noise. I\ntripped out pretty quick the first time I heard it, but could see\nnothing. Of course it is broad daylight in Scotland then.\n\n\"The same banging was, I believe, heard on one of the bedroom doors\ndown the passage, in the wing on the ground floor, and on\ninvestigation I found there were hot-water pipes just outside that\ndoor as well. There were yarns innumerable while I was there about\nshrieks and footsteps heard, and bedclothes torn off. But I did not\nexperience these.... I don't think the noises were done by a\npractical joker, as there were too many people on the alert....\"\n\nThe Hon. E---- F---- wrote to Miss Freer on March 4th:--\n\n\"... [Major] B---- is now in London, and I have seen him twice. He\nsays (1) the hot-water pipe theory is not his own, but was suggested\nby an engineer friend. He should not himself have thought that\nhot-water pipes could make so big a noise. Besides, Colonel A----\ndescribed the noise as a banging either against the door itself, or\nagainst the door of the wardrobe inside the room.... (2) He, B----,\nheard the noise himself several times and bolted out into the passage\nat once, but saw nothing. The noise sounded like a very loud banging\nat A----'s door.... (3) He confirms the story about A---- being unable\nto sleep, and says he used to go to sleep on the moor in consequence.\"\n\nDuring Colonel Taylor's tenancy similar noises were heard, both when\nthe water was totally cut off and when, from some defect in the\napparatus, it never reached a high temperature.\n\nThe Colonel A---- referred to, corroborates this account, as follows,\nin a letter to Major B----:\n\n\"MY DEAR B----, You write asking me about B---- House and its spook.\nWell, I never _saw_ anything, and what I heard was what you heard, a\nterrific banging at one's bedroom door, generally about from 2 to 3\nA.M., about two nights out of three. Of course there were other yarns\nof things heard, &c., but I personally never heard or experienced\nanything else than this banging at the door, which I never could\naccount for....\"\n\nBefore passing from the subject of Colonel A----, it is as well to\nmention that after leaving B---- he went to stay at another country\nhouse, and the butler there spoke to him of the haunting of B----,\nwhere he himself was a servant some years before. This butler was\nasked for further information, but sent only the following reply:--\n\n\"Your note to hand regarding B----. I am afraid what I saw or heard\nwould be of little value to your book, therefore I would rather say\nnothing.\"\n\nIt will be observed that, so far from denying the facts, he admits\nthat he saw and heard certain things, which he refuses to describe;\nbut as this evidence is circumstantial rather than direct, it is\ninserted here rather than in the place to which, chronologically, it\nwould, if fuller, properly have belonged.\n\nMr. and Mrs. \"G.\" were also guests at B---- during the occupation of\nthe H----s. Mrs. \"G.\" published an account of her experiences in a\nmagazine article, of course with fictitious names; but she affirms\nthat she has in no sense \"written up\" the story, which, indeed, is\nentirely corroborated by other evidence:--\n\n\"_October 9th, 1896._--Some friends of mine took the place this year\nfor the shooting, and, relying on the glowing description they had\nreceived, took it on trust, and in July last took possession of it\nwithout having previously seen it. For a few days all went well; the\nfamily established themselves in the old part of the house, leaving a\nnew wing for their guests. The haunted room (for so I may justly call\nit) was inhabited by two or three persons in succession, who were so\nalarmed and disturbed by the violent knockings, shrieks, and groans\nwhich they heard every night, and which were also heard by many others\nalong the same corridor, that they refused to sleep there after the\nfirst few nights. Those who serve under her Majesty's colours are\nproverbially brave; they will gladly die for their country, with sword\nin hand and face to the foe. For this reason a distinguished officer\n[Colonel A----, above quoted] was the next occupant of the haunted\nchamber, and was told nothing of its antecedents. The morning after\nhis arrival he came down refreshed, and keen for the day's sport. I\nmay here mention, no one is ever disturbed the first night of their\nstay. During the succeeding nights, however, he was continually roused\nfrom his slumbers by the most terrific noises, and want of sleep would\ncause him to become drowsy when out shooting on the moor, and would\ntempt him to make a bed of the purple heather and fragrant myrtle.\n\n\"A friend of mine, a man of great nerve and courage, next inhabited\nthe room, and went through the same experiences. He took every\npossible means to discover the cause of the sounds, and failed in\naccounting for them in any way. He said the blows on the door were so\nviolent he often looked, expecting to see it shattered to atoms. Since\nhe left no one has been put into this room, but the noises continue,\nand are heard throughout the house. Even the dogs cannot be coaxed\ninto this room, and if forced into it, they crouch with marked signs\nof fear.\n\n\"The disturbances take place between 12 and 4.30, and never at any\nother time. A young lady, of by no means timid disposition, and\npossessed of great presence of mind, has often heard the swing-door\npushed open and footsteps coming along the corridor, pausing at the\ndoor. She has frequently looked out and seen nothing. The footsteps\nshe has also heard in her room, and going round her bed. Many persons\nhave had the same experiences, and many have heard the wild unearthly\nshriek which has rung through the house in the stillness of the night.\n\n\"I will now give my own experience. I arrived with my husband and\ndaughter on September 17, having been duly warned by my friends of the\nnocturnal disturbances. We were put in rooms adjoining, at the end of\nthe new wing. I kept a light in my room, but the first night all was\nstill. Next night, about 2 A.M., a succession of thundering knocks\ncame from the end of our passage, re-echoing through the house, where\nit was heard by many others. About half-an-hour afterwards my husband\nheard a piercing shriek; then all was still, save for the hooting of\nthe owls in the neighbouring trees. When the grey dawn stole in it was\nwelcome; so was the cheery sound of the bagpipes, as the kilted piper\ntook his daily round in the early morning. The next night and\nsucceeding ones we heard loud single knocks at different doors along\nour passage. The last night but one before we left I was roused from\nsleep by hearing the clock strike one, and immediately it had ceased\nsix violent blows shook our own door on its hinges, and came with\nfrightful rapidity, followed by deep groans. After this sleep was\nimpossible. The next night, our last in Scotland, my husband and\nothers watched in our passage all night, and though the sounds were\nagain heard in different directions, nothing was to be seen. As I\nwrite, at the commencement of October, the house on the lonely\nhillside is deserted; the tenants have gone southwards; an old\ncaretaker (too deaf to hear the weird sounds which nightly awaken the\nechoes) is the sole occupant. Even she closes up all before dusk, and\nretires into her quarters below; though she hears not, her sight is\nunimpaired, and she perhaps dreads to meet the hunchback figure which\nis said to glide up the stairs, or the shadowy form of a grey lady who\npaces with noiseless footfall the lonely corridor, and has been seen\nto pass through the door of one of the rooms. Within the last two\nmonths a man with bronzed complexion and bent figure has been seen by\ntwo gentlemen, friends of mine. They both describe him as having come\nthrough the door and passed through the room in which they were about\nthree in the morning. I have tried to give a faithful and accurate\naccount of these strange events. I leave it to each and all to form\ntheir own opinion on the matter.\"\n\nSome passages in private letters to Miss Freer and Lord Bute written\nby Mrs. \"G.,\" should be quoted as bearing upon some points in the\nabove:--\n\n\"_February 9th._--I am going to ask you if you do go there [B----\nHouse] if you would let me know if you see or hear anything. I am\nimmensely interested in it, as we stayed there in the autumn with some\nfriends who took it, and anything more horribly haunted could not be.\nI never should have believed it if I had not been there.\"\n\nAfter the appearance of _The Times_ correspondent's accusation against\nthe H---- family, Mrs. \"G.\" wrote as follows to Lord Bute:--\n\n\"_June 10th._--If the noises complained of by nearly all who have\nstayed at B---- were the result of practical jokes perpetrated by the\nH----s, how is it that not only were they heard by guests who stayed\nthere years ago, but are admitted by members of the S---- family to\nhave been heard by themselves? Miss Freer also has told me, that the\nsame noises were heard at all hours day and night by herself and her\nguests for months after the H---- family and their servants had left\nScotland. This so completely exonerates them from the absurd charge,\nthat I should hardly have mentioned it, had not Miss Freer seemed\nquite under the impression that practical jokes had been played during\nthe tenancy of the H----s; and as a proof of this, she told me that\nthe doors, especially of two of the rooms, were marked with nailed\nboots, and the panels even split through, and this damage was\nattributed by her to the younger members of the H---- family. I am\nhappy to say I was able to disabuse her mind of this idea, as we were\nstaying at B---- within a few days of their leaving Scotland, and I\nhad most carefully examined the doors especially of the two rooms\nspecified, one of which was our own room. There was not a scratch, nor\nthe smallest mark or indentation; others can also vouch for this fact.\nThe H----s had all left B---- for good at that time, except the\neldest son, and Miss Freer agreed with me that whatever damage was\ndone to the doors, must therefore have been done after the H----s\nleft, and before her party came in.... The hot-water pipe theory\nrevived by the writer of the article in _The Times_ is disproved by\nMiss Freer, who told me that the hot-water apparatus was not used for\nsome time, and that the disturbances continued just the same.... The\nstories told in connection with B---- were not circulated or started\nby the H---- family. They were told _to_ them by persons living around\nB----.\"\n\nIn a letter to Miss Freer, dated June 12th, Mrs. \"G.\" writes, in\nreference to the charge of practical joking:--\n\n\"They are the most unlikely family to do such a thing; and besides, if\nfurther proof were wanted, the young men of the family were away from\nB---- when we stayed there ten days, and there was only one night when\nwe did not hear the noises.\"\n\nMiss Freer of course entirely accepts Mrs. \"G.'s\" statement, and that\nof Mr. H---- as published in _The Times_. She had been led to her\nearlier conclusions as to the marks of a boot-heel on the upper panels\nof the doors by the statements of interested persons.\n\nA suggestive point in this connection is the fact, to which Miss \"G.\"\nhas herself testified, that while Mr. and Mrs. \"G.\" were disturbed to\nthe utmost degree, their daughter, who slept in a room communicating\nwith that of her mother, heard nothing whatever; from which it would\nappear that the noises heard by them were subjective, and that the\nalleged evidence of the boot-heel, even were it credible, would be, in\nfact, irrelevant.\n\nThe mention of the hallucinatory nature of such phenomena suggests\nattention to the intellectual acumen displayed by _The Times_\ncorrespondent in saying that \"Lord Bute ought to have employed a\ncouple of intelligent detectives\" for the purpose of catching\nsubjective hallucinations. On the same principle, he ought to offer to\nhis learned friend, Sir James Crichton-Browne, well known as an\nalienist, some advice as to the best mode of securing morbid\nhallucinations in strait-waistcoats. Is he prepared to propose to take\nphotographs of a dream, to put thoughts under lock and key, or to\nadvocate the supply of hot and cold water on every floor of a castle\nin the air?\n\nOne of the guests at B---- during Colonel Taylor's tenancy wrote after\nhis return to London to Miss Freer as follows:--\n\n\"_March 24th._--I went to call the other day on the 'G.'s' who chanced\nto be still in town.... I begin chronologically, and give you what I\nwas told in all seriousness.... The H----s knew nothing about any\nstories of haunting when they took the place, and Miss H---- and one\nof the sons went up, most innocently, to prepare for the arrival of\nthe others. As soon as they entered it the son said to his sister that\nhe couldn't explain why, but he had a conviction that the house was\nhaunted. That night, however, nothing happened. But the second night\nthe bangings began. An old Spanish nurse was in the haunted room, and\nwas greatly disturbed by the noise upon her door, which seemed as if\nit were going to be burst open. She didn't seem to be alarmed in the\nleast however, and later took steps to secure its remaining shut by\nstuffing a towel under the chink (why this should secure it I rather\nfail to see, still that was her view). Apparently the ghost resented\nthis, and one night did actually burst the door open, with such\nviolence that the towel was precipitated into the middle of the room.\nThe longer they stayed in the house, the worse things got. The noises\nwere all over the house more or less, and were by no means confined to\nbangings. Miss H---- slept in room No. 8, where the ghost limped round\nher bed. She was so alarmed that she fetched her brother in, and he\nslept on the sofa. The limping began again, and she asked him if he\nheard anything, and he at once agreed that somebody was walking round\nthe bed. In his own room--I forget which--he twice _saw_ the ghost,\nonce in the shape of an indeterminate mist, once in the shape of a\nman, who came in by the door and vanished in the wall. Mrs. 'G.'[B]\nnow appears on the scene, and slept in No. 1 (I _think_). She heard\nonly the bangings, which she declares were indescribably loud. They\nwere mostly at the door of the haunted room. Traps were laid to catch\nunwary jesters; the door, or the surrounding floor, I forget which,\nwas covered with flour, and wires were stretched across the door; and\nif I had the proper mind of a ghost-story narrator, I should say that\nthe bangings were as bad as ever, and the flour and the wires were\nfound undisturbed.\n\n\"But as a matter of fact she didn't say that, though doubtless she\nintended to, but jumped on to something else. Mr. \"G.,\" who was there\nsome weeks after his wife, was put down in the wing--I don't know\nwhich room--and had visitations. He heard steps approach down the\npassage, followed by a heavy body flinging itself against his door. He\nalso heard screams, which seemed to him to recede as though the\nscreamer was passing through the walls. (I couldn't quite understand\nthis effect, but that was how he described it.) Their chaplain, who\nwas put into the haunted room, was also greatly worried, and both he\nand the Spanish nurse and Colonel A---- all had the sensation that\ntheir bedclothes were being pulled off, and they had to hold on to\nthem to prevent their departure. The most interesting part of the\nstory is that Mrs. S---- later admitted to Mrs. \"G.\" that it was quite\ntrue the house was supposed to be haunted, that she had lived there\nfor twenty years, and at various times there had been outbreaks of\nthis kind of thing of greater or less duration, but that the outbreaks\nhad not been often enough for them to think it worth while mentioning\nthe fact to incoming tenants. It appears also that the story of the\nbangings on the table in the daylight on the occasion of the last\ninterview between the late Mr. S---- and the land-steward, came from\none of the young S----s. It was also said that one of the young S----s\nused to sleep in the dressing-room between No. 1 and the haunted room,\nand used to complain that somebody kept pulling his bedclothes off.\n\n\"I may add that it is quite clear that the people about the\nplace--some of whom, on my leaving, I vainly tried to draw--have been\nthreatened not to talk about the ghost. There was no mystery about it\nwhatever last year, the station officials being exceedingly loquacious\nand full of information....\"\n\nThe above are the circumstances which _The Times_ correspondent thus\ndescribes:--\n\n\"Lord Bute's confidence has been grossly abused by some one. It was\nrepresented to him by some one that he was taking the 'most haunted\nhouse in Scotland,' a house with an old and established reputation for\nmysterious if not supernatural disturbances. What he has got is a\nhouse with no reputation whatever of that kind, with no history, with\nnothing germane to his purpose beyond a cloud of baseless rumours\nproduced during the last twelve-month. Who is responsible for the\nimposture it is not my business to know or to inquire, but that it is\nan imposture of the most shallow and impudent kind there can be no\nmanner of doubt. I interviewed in P---- a man who has the district at\nhis finger-tips, and was ready to enumerate in order all the shooting\nproperties in the valley. He had never heard until the moment I spoke\nto him of B---- possessing any reputation, ancient or modern, for\nbeing haunted, although he is familiar with the estate, and has slept\nin the house. It has no local reputation of the kind even now beyond\nthe parish it stands in. The whole thing has been fudged up in London\nupon the basis of some distorted account of the practical jokes of the\nH----s.\"\n\nAs the writer in question obtained his admission to the house as a\nguest by Sir James Crichton-Browne's solicitation through Sir William\nHuggins and Lord Bute, it might naturally have been supposed that the\nreal facts were known to him, at least so far as they were concerned.\nIt appears, however, that he cherished a voluntary ignorance upon the\nsubject, to judge from the phrase, \"it is not my business to know or\nto inquire.\" Of such a writer, and of such statements, the reader will\nnow form his own opinion; but that the correspondent in question\nshould continue to cling to his journalistic anonymity, is little to\nbe wondered at.\n\nColonel Taylor served in the Bedfordshire Regiment. He was afterwards\nProfessor of Tactics at Sandhurst, and retired in 1894. Possessed of\nmeans, leisure, and intelligence, he chose to make the study of\npsychic subjects his particular occupation. He is one of the seven\nfundamental members who, in 1895, signed the Articles of Association\nof the London Spiritualist Alliance, holds office in the Society for\nPsychical Research, and has rendered very valuable services in\ninvestigation of various kinds. Having made the investigation of\nhouses alleged to be haunted his special province, he may be fairly\nconsidered to be somewhat of an expert in this matter. It may, or may\nnot, be regarded as a drawback to his usefulness in this direction,\nthat he is so peculiarly insensitive to subjective impressions, that a\nman who is colour-blind would be almost as useful a witness as to\nshades of colour as Colonel Taylor upon hallucinations, local or\notherwise; but, as will be seen, he is fertile in expedients,\nexperienced in research, and careful and observant of the phenomena\nexperienced by others.\n\nLord Bute, who takes some interest in scientific matters, has been\naccustomed not infrequently to defray the cost of scientific work\nwhich he is unable to undertake himself, and he offered to meet the\nexpense of the lease of B---- if Colonel Taylor would take the house,\na proposal which he accepted.\n\nThis is what _The Times_ correspondent of June 8, 1897, thought proper\nto describe in the words, \"for reasons which are differently stated in\nLondon and in Perth, where the agent for the proprietor is to be\nfound, Lord Bute did not take the house in his own name, but in that\nof Colonel Taylor.\"\n\nIt would have been equally true to say of the Coptic texts, published\nat Lord Bute's expense by Mr. Budge of the British Museum, that Lord\nBute wrote and published these books under the name of Budge.\n\nHad Colonel Taylor been prevented by circumstances from becoming\ntenant of B---- House, Sir William Crookes, the present President of\nthe British Association and of the Society for Psychical Research, or\nMr. Arthur Smith, Treasurer of the S.P.R., was willing to take the\nlease.\n\nHaving thus agreed to Lord Bute's proposal, Colonel Taylor at once\nproceeded to make himself acquainted with the history of B---- House.\nHe naturally placed himself in communication with the late tenant,\nassuming that that gentleman would be willing to assist in\ninvestigating the phenomena by which his family and guests had been\nannoyed. But the only information which Mr. H---- seemed disposed to\ngive was an admission that some members of his family had heard\nnoises, and that the house was locally reported to be haunted.\n\nHowever, other sources of information as to the experiences of the\nH---- establishment were fortunately available.\n\nCaptain S----'s agents made no scruple about letting the house to the\nwell-known expert. The Edinburgh agents, Messrs. Speedy, indeed\nmentioned the haunting, and expressed the hope that Colonel Taylor\nwould not make it the subject of complaint, as had been done by the\nH---- family, and they received the assurance that this was not a\nscore upon which he would give trouble. In regard to the letters of\nMessrs. R.H. Moncrieff & Co., dated June 12, 1897, which appeared in\n_The Times_, it can only be said that the impression which they were\nlikely to convey was, that Colonel Taylor was an imaginary being like\nJohn Doe or Richard Roe. Their scepticism must have been of recent\norigin, since none was manifested on receiving his rent. Their\nposition is in any case unfortunate, since, even if unclouded by doubt\nas to the Colonel's personality, they appear to wish the public to\nbelieve that they seriously thought that one well known as a\nSpiritualist in England and America, a retired Professor of Military\nTactics, with a comfortable house at Cheltenham, a member of the\nJunior United Service Club in London, a man who neither shoots nor\nfishes, had been suddenly seized in his mature years with a desire to\nhire an isolated country house in Perthshire, in the depths of winter,\nfor the purpose of trying his 'prentice hand upon rabbit-shooting on a\nsmall scale.\n\nColonel Taylor, who is a widower without a daughter, was at this time\nmuch occupied by the illness and death of a near relative, and was\nunable for the moment to take up residence at B---- House. Lord Bute\naccordingly expressed a hope that Miss Freer would undertake to\nconduct the investigation. Mr. Myers also wrote urgently to her,\nsaying, \"If you don't get phenomena, probably no one will.\" She was\nabroad at the time, but at considerable personal inconvenience\nconsented to return, and on December 26th she wrote to Lord Bute,\nstating that she could reach Ballechin on February 2nd, and adding--\n\n\"I have been reflecting further on the question of the personality of\ninvestigators. I think the names you suggest, and some others which\noccur to me, divide naturally into three classes (assuming, and I\nthink you agree with me, that it does not follow that every one can\ndiscover a ghost because it is there, nor that their failure to\ndiscover it is any proof that it is not there). (1) Those who have\npersonal experience of phenomena, and may be expected to be\nsusceptible to psychic influences; (2) those who have no personal\npowers in that line, but are open-minded and sympathetic; and (3)\nthose who are passively open to conviction. A fourth class, those who\ncome to look for evidence against the phenomena, but will accept none\nfor it, should, I think, be left until we have some demonstrable\nevidence to show.... Mr. Myers proposes himself for April 14-21.... I\nshould suggest the keeping of a diary, in which every one willing to\ndo so should make entries, negative or affirmative.\"\n\nThe _Times_ Correspondent further criticised the method of inquiry\nemployed at B----.\n\n\"Lord Bute's original idea was a good one, but it was never properly\ncarried out. Observing that the S.P.R. had made many investigations in\na perfunctory and absurd manner by sending somebody to a haunted house\nfor a couple of nights and then writing an utterly worthless report,\nhe desired in this case a continuous investigation extending over a\nconsiderable period. He ought, therefore, to have employed a couple of\nintelligent detectives for the whole term, and thus secured real\ncontinuity. As things are, the only continuity is to be found in the\npresence--itself not entirely continuous--of the lady just mentioned.\nBut simply because she is a lady, and because she had her duties as\nhostess to attend to, she is unfit to carry out the actual work of\ninvestigating the phenomena in question. Some of her assistants sat up\nall night, with loaded guns, in a condition of abject fright; others,\nthere is reason to suspect, manufactured phenomena for themselves; and\nnearly all seem to have begun by assuming supernatural interference,\ninstead of leaving it for the final explanation of whatever might be\nclearly proved to be otherwise inexplicable.\"\n\nIt is hardly necessary to repudiate such a condition of mind on the\npart of the guests at B----, but it may be well to remark that the\nwriter of this sapient paragraph seems to be under the impression that\nevery result of certain forces at present imperfectly understood is\nsupernatural. The assertion that any one who was in the house during\nColonel Taylor's tenancy believed in the possibility of the existence\nof anything supernatural is, so far as the present editors are aware,\na pure fabrication, having no foundation whatever. In their own belief\nall things which exist, or can exist, are, _ipso facto_, natural,\nalthough their nature may not belong to the plane of being in which we\nare normally accustomed to move.\n\nIn this connection may be usefully quoted the following passages from\nMiss Freer's article in _The Nineteenth Century_, August 1897:--\n\n\"Some of my friends asked me how I proposed to organise a haunted\nhouse research, to which I could only reply that I didn't propose to\ndo anything of the sort. It seemed to me that among several things to\nbe avoided was self-consciousness of any kind, that the natural thing\nto do was to settle down to a country-house life, make it as pleasant\nas possible, and await events.... The subject of the 'haunting' was\nnever accentuated, and we always tried to prevent talking it over with\nnew-comers.... As to the guests, for the most part they came on no\nspecial principle of selection.... Several of our visitors had more or\nless special interest in the inquiry, but others merely came for a\ncountry-house visit or for sport, and some knew nothing whatever till\nafter their arrival of any special interest alleged to attach to the\nhouse.... Analysing our list of guests, I find that there were eleven\nladies, twenty-one gentlemen, and _The Times_ Correspondent. Of the\ngentlemen, three were soldiers, three lawyers, two were men of\nletters, one an artist, two were in business, four were clergy, one a\nphysician, ... and five, men of leisure.\"\n\nIt would be unnecessary to quote all the preliminary correspondence;\nbut the following passages from Lord Bute's letters to Miss Freer help\nto explain the situation, and the relation of those concerned:--\n\n\"_December 20th.--_ ... I am afraid I shall encroach even further upon\nyour kindness. Myers has all the papers, but I fancy you would rather\nknow as little as possible, so as not to be influenced by expectation.\nIt is no case of roughing it. B---- House is, I believe, a luxurious\ncountry house, ample, though not too large, in a beautiful\nneighbourhood....\"\n\nA letter of December 22nd refers to a suggestion that the phenomena\nwere produced by trickery, a fact which is mentioned to show that the\npossibility was kept in view from the first.\n\nOn January 23rd, \"Not a day should be lost in beginning the\nobservation, which ought to be continuous. Such a chance has never\noccurred before, and may never occur again. Orders have been given to\nget the house ready for immediate occupation.\"\n\nMiss Freer, accompanied by her friend Miss Constance Moore (a daughter\nof the late Rev. Daniel Moore, Prebendary of St. Paul's and Chaplain,\nto the Queen), arrived at B---- House on February 3, 1897.\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[A] Here and in all references to rooms by their numbers, see\nFrontispiece.\n\n[B] See her own account, p. 64. The account here given, as will be\nseen, is not quite accurate as to the precise rooms. Mrs. \"G.\" slept\nin the wing.\n\n\n\n\nJOURNAL KEPT DURING A VISIT TO B---- HOUSE\n\n\n\n\nJOURNAL KEPT DURING A VISIT TO B---- HOUSE\n\n\n   _February 3rd, Wednesday._--Constance Moore and I arrived from\n   Edinburgh, with Mac., the maid, a little after 10 P.M., having\n   sent on beforehand the following servants:--Robinson and Mrs.\n   Robinson, butler and cook; Carter and Hannah, two housemaids.\n\n   I had engaged them on behalf of Colonel Taylor in Edinburgh last\n   evening. They had all good characters, and were well\n   recommended. We told them nothing, of course, of the reputation\n   of the house, and were careful to choose persons of mature age,\n   and not excitable girls.\n\n   I had seen no plans nor photographs of the house, and merely\n   desired that any rooms should be prepared for us that were near\n   together--_i.e._ bedroom, dressing-room, and maid's room. Mr.\n   C---- [who met us in Edinburgh, and is a lawyer, mentioned\n   hereafter], who had seen plans, asked what orders we had given,\n   and remarked that, as far as he knew, we should secure one quiet\n   night, as the \"haunted\" part contained, apparently, no\n   dressing-rooms.\n\n   The house looked very gloomy. It was not cold out of doors,\n   though thick snow lay on the ground. Inside it felt like a\n   vault, having been empty for months. None of the stores ordered\n   had arrived. We had no linen, knives, plate, wine, food, and\n   very little fuel or oil. Candles and bread and milk and a tin of\n   meat had been got for us in the village. We ate and went to bed.\n   The room was so cold that we had to cover our faces, and we had\n   no bed-linen. We had been very busy all day in Edinburgh, and\n   soon fell asleep.\n\n   _February 4th, Thursday._--I awoke suddenly, just before 3 A.M.\n   Miss Moore, who had been lying awake over two hours, said, \"I\n   want you to stay awake and listen.\" Almost immediately I was\n   startled by a loud clanging sound, which seemed to resound\n   through the house. The mental image it brought to my mind was as\n   of a long metal bar, such as I have seen near iron-foundries,\n   being struck at intervals with a wooden mallet. The noise was\n   distinctly as of metal struck with wood; it seemed to come\n   diagonally across the house. It sounded so loud, though distant,\n   that the idea that any inmate of the house should not hear it\n   seems ludicrous. It was repeated with varying degrees of\n   intensity at frequent intervals during the next two hours,\n   sometimes in single blows, sometimes double, sometimes treble,\n   latterly continuous. We did not get up, though not alarmed. We\n   had been very seriously cautioned as to the possibilities of\n   practical joking; and as we were alone on that floor in a large\n   house, of which we did not even know the geography, we thought\n   it wiser to await developments. We knew the servants' staircase\n   was distant, though not exactly where.\n\n   About 4.30 we heard voices, apparently in the maid's room,\n   undoubtedly on the same floor. We had for some time heard the\n   housemaids overhead coughing, occasionally speaking, and we\n   thought they had got up and had come down to her room.\n\n   After five o'clock the noises seemed to have ceased, and Miss\n   Moore fell asleep. About 5.30 I heard them again, apparently\n   more distant. I continued awake, but heard no more.\n\n   About 8 A.M. the maid brought us some tea. She said she had\n   slept very badly, had worried over our apparent restlessness, as\n   she had heard voices and footsteps and the sound of things\n   dragged about, but that the maids had not been downstairs. We\n   had never risen, and had spoken seldom, and in low tones, and an\n   empty room (the dressing-room) intervened between Mac.'s room\n   and ours.\n\n   In order, as we supposed, to follow up the noises we, later, in\n   the day moved our rooms to the other side of the house,\n   especially choosing those from which the sounds seemed to\n   proceed--Nos. 6 and 7--leaving Mac., the maid, in No. 3.\n\n   The whole day has been occupied with exploring the house,\n   sending for food and supplies, trying to thaw the rooms, moving\n   furniture to make things homelike, and trying to arrive at a\n   little comfort.\n\n   The house will soon be very pleasant, and only needs living in,\n   but it feels like a vault. It is very roomy and very light.\n   Nothing less like the conventional \"haunted\" house could be\n   conceived. The main body of the house was built in 1806, the\n   wing about 1883, with the apparent object of providing the\n   children of the family with rooms outside the \"haunted\" area. It\n   is cheerful, sunny, convenient, healthy, and built on a very\n   simple plan, which admits of no dark corners or mysteries of any\n   kind. A pleasanter house to live in I would not desire, but it\n   is constructed for summer rather than for winter use. It has\n   been added to at least twice, and there is much waste space. The\n   original mansion, which was, I understand, upon a different\n   site, was dated 1579; the new wing was built about fourteen\n   years ago, and consists of four rooms and offices, adapted for\n   schoolroom or nursery use. But the older walls are of great\n   thickness.\n\n   After dusk we sat down to rest, and for the first time read the\n   papers relating to the house,[C] breaking open the envelope in\n   which Mr. Myers had given them to me. I had done this for my own\n   satisfaction, as I wanted, if only for a few hours, to have as\n   unprejudiced a presentation of the place as was possible under\n   the circumstances. Miss Moore had heard some of the rumours\n   about the house in Edinburgh from Mr. MacP---- and Mr. C----,\n   but I had avoided all information as far as I could.\n\n   We now learnt, to our chagrin, that we had done the wrong thing,\n   and had left rooms alleged to be haunted, and taken two\n   apparently innocent. We, however, consoled ourselves by the\n   reflection that we can offer the others to our guests, and that\n   we are at all events _next_ to No. 8, which has an evil\n   reputation.\n\nIt is the room in which Sarah N---- died, and in which Miss H----\nheard the limping footsteps walking round her bed.\n\n   As we had been told that the avenue is shunned by the whole\n   neighbourhood after dark, we went out for a stroll up and down\n   about six o'clock. We saw nothing, but our dog Scamp growled at\n   the fir plantation beside the road.\n\n   Mr. L. F---- [eminent as an electrical engineer], arrived about\n   10 P.M. We thought it polite to give him a quiet night after so\n   long a journey, and he is sleeping in No. 5.\n\n   _February 5th, Friday._--Miss Moore and I slept well. We were\n   both desperately tired.\n\n   Mr. L. F---- awoke suddenly at 2.30. No phenomena. He has an\n   excellent little apparatus, an electric flashlight, which he is\n   able to keep under his pillow and turn on at a second's notice,\n   very convenient for \"ghost\" hunting--no delay, and no\n   possibility of blowing it out.\n\n   The maids tell mine that they heard the sounds below them of\n   continuous speaking or reading, and \"supposed the young ladies\n   were reading to one another.\"\n\nThis is the first occasion on which there has been mention of the\nsound of continuous reading aloud, which afterwards became extremely\nfamiliar. The sound was always that well known to Roman Catholics as\nthat of a priest \"saying his office.\" It may be as well to remind the\nreader that Clerks in Holy Orders of that Church are, like those of\nthe Anglican, strictly bound to read through the whole of the Daily\nService every day, and it is not permitted to do this merely by the\neye, the lips must utter the words. In practice some are accustomed\nto move the lips with hardly any sound, and such, we have ascertained,\nis the custom of the Rev. P---- H----; others read it absolutely\naloud, and will retire to their own rooms or other places, where they\nmay be alone for the purpose. This, we heard, was the invariable\npractice of the Rev. Mr. \"I.,\" the chaplain of Mr. and Mrs. \"G.\"\n\n   As a matter of fact, we were sleeping on the other side of the\n   house, and the rooms under the maids' rooms were empty.... In\n   the evening, about six o'clock, we strolled down the avenue\n   again, and Scamp, who never does bark except under strong\n   excitement, again barked and growled at the copse.\n\n   The Hon. E. F----, a fellow-member of an S.P.R. committee,\n   arrives to-night. Hospitality constrains us to put him in No. 4,\n   which is \"not haunted.\"\n\n   I asked after the success of the new kitchenmaid, a local\n   importation, who arrived yesterday. I was told she had already\n   gone. The cook told me \"she talked all sorts of nonsense about\n   the house, and the things that had happened in it, and had been\n   seen in it, all day; and then at night refused to sleep here,\n   and the butler had to walk home with her at eleven o'clock.\"\n\n   The Factor [_anglice_: bailiff] came this morning, and I fancied\n   a special intention in his manner. He was much annoyed about the\n   kitchenmaid, said such talk was \"all havers\" [_anglice_:\n   \"drivel\"], begged me not to employ her again, and undertook to\n   get another, lending me a girl in his own service meanwhile.\n\n   I went with him into the wing to get him to see to things there.\n   We have been too busy in getting the rest of the house into\n   order to look after it yet; but I find the pipes are out of\n   order, the cisterns frozen, and the \"set-basins\" in the three\n   bedrooms and bath-room out of working order. He promised\n   attention, but discouraged the use of the wing. \"Had we not room\n   enough without?\" and so on. I suggested that, any way, for the\n   sake of the rest of the house it must be aired and thawed, and\n   he insisted that the kitchen fire below did that sufficiently.\n\n   I cannot help remembering that this is the scene of the\n   phenomena recorded by Miss \"B----,\" as Duncan R----, the factor,\n   is well aware. Also, he was persistent about \"keeping out the\n   natives,\" and their chatter, if I wanted to keep the servants,\n   but did not specify the nature of the chatter, and I asked no\n   questions.\n\n   _February 6th, Saturday._--No phenomena last night. The house\n   perfectly still.\n\nDuring Colonel Taylor's tenancy a good many experiments of different\nkinds were made in hypnotism, crystal gazing, and automatic writing.\nThese, however, belong to a class of matter quite different from that\nof spontaneous phenomena, and are therefore not referred to, with the\nexception of a single instance of crystal gazing, which, though\nrelating to B----, was made elsewhere, and one or two occasions of\nautomatic writing. This latter method of inquiry displayed all the\nweakness to which it is usually, and apparently, inherently liable,\nand is only mentioned here as explaining other matters. Its chief\ninterest was that it supplied a name marked by a certain peculiarity\nwhich afterwards became familiar, and that it led to a hypothesis as\nto at least one of the personalities by whom certain phenomena were\nprofessedly caused.\n\nIn the afternoon an experiment was made with the apparatus known as a\n_Ouija_ board, and this, as is very often the case, resolved itself,\nafter a time, into automatic writing. There is in the library a\nportrait of a very handsome woman, to which no name is attached, but\nwhich shows the costume of the last century. Her name was asked, and\nthe word _Ishbel_ was given several times. It is not certain whether\nthis word was meant as an answer to the question, or whether, as often\nhappens in such cases, it was intended merely as an announcement of\nthe name of the informant supposed to communicate.\n\nThe word, as given, possesses the following peculiarity. In the\nGaelic language the vowels _e_ and _i_ have the effect of aspirating\nan _s_ immediately preceding them, in the same way in which they\neffect the _c_ in Italian, or the _g_ in Spanish, so that, as in\nItalian _ce_ and _ci_ are pronounced _chay_ and _chee_, so in Gaelic\n_se_ and _si_ are pronounced _shay_ and _shee_. The name Isabel is\nwritten in Gaelic _Iseabal_, but the _e_ is absorbed in its effect\nupon the _s_ (like the _i_ in the Italian _cio_) and the first _a_ is\nso slurred as to be almost inaudible, so that the word is pronounced\n\"Ish-bel.\"\n\nIt was obvious, therefore, that the intelligence from which the\nwriting proceeded (if such existed) could write in English, and was\nfamiliar with the colloquial Gaelic pronunciation of the name, but was\nunacquainted with the Gaelic orthography. On this occasion also the\nname \"Margaret\" was given in its Gaelic form of Marghearad (somewhat\nsimilarly misspelt as _Marget_), without any special connection either\nwith the questions asked, or, so far as could be discovered, with\nanything in the mind of any present, none of whom had interested\nthemselves at that time in the S---- ancestry.\n\nIn reply to questions as to what could be done that was of use or\ninterest, the writers were told to go at dusk, and in silence, to the\nglen in the avenue, and this, rightly or wrongly, some of those\npresent identified with what had been called Scamp's Copse. They were,\nhowever, perplexed by being told to go \"up by the burn,\" for though\nMiss Freer and Miss Moore had twice explored the spot, they had not\nobserved the presence of water. The journal continues--\n\n   We decided to walk in the avenue, and to explore \"Scamp's Copse\"\n   before dinner, in spite of the fact that we were expecting Mr.\n   MacP---- [a barrister], Mr. C---- [a solicitor], and Mr. W----\n   [an accountant] just about the time that we should be absent.\n   Miss Moore took the dog off in the opposite direction, and we\n   walked in silence to the plantation, Mr. L. F----, Mr. F----,\n   and I. It was quite dark, but the snow gleamed so white, that we\n   could see our way to the plantation. We went up among the trees,\n   young firs; the snow was deep and untrodden; and when we got\n   well off the road, we found that a burn comes down the brae\n   side. It is frozen hard, and we found it out only by the shining\n   of the ice.\n\n   We walked on in silence to the left of the burn, up the little\n   valley, along a small opening between the trees and the railing\n   which encloses them, Mr. L. F---- first, then I, then Mr.\n   F----.\n\n   In a few minutes I saw what made me stop. The men stopped too,\n   and we all stood leaning over the railings, and looking in\n   silence across the burn to the steep bank opposite. This was\n   white with snow, except to the left, where the boughs of a large\n   oak-tree had protected the ground.\n\n   Against the snow I saw a slight black figure, a woman, moving\n   slowly up the glen. She stopped, and turned and looked at me.\n   She was dressed as a nun. Her face looked pale. I saw her hand\n   in the folds of her habit. Then she moved on, as it seemed, on a\n   slope too steep for walking. When she came under the tree she\n   disappeared--perhaps because there was no snow to show her\n   outline. Beyond the tree she reappeared for a moment, where\n   there was again a white background, close by the burn. Then I\n   saw no more. I waited, and then, still in silence, we returned\n   to the avenue.\n\n   I described what I had seen. The others saw nothing. (This did\n   not surprise me, for though both have been for many years\n   concerned in psychical investigation, and have had unusual\n   opportunities, neither has ever had any \"experience,\" so that\n   one may conclude that they are not by temperament likely to\n   experience either subjective phenomena or even\n   thought-transference.) It was proposed that we should ascend the\n   glen in her track on the other side of the burn. It was very\n   difficult walking, the snow very deep, and after two or three\n   efforts to descend the side of the bank we gave it up, and\n   followed to nearly her point of disappearance, keeping above the\n   tree, not below as she had done. We saw no more, and returned to\n   the house, agreeing not to describe what had occurred, merely to\n   say that as the factor (who looks about eighteen stone) is said\n   not to like the avenue at dark, we had been setting him and\n   others a good example.\n\nIn a letter to Lord Bute under date February 25th, Miss Freer\ndescribes this figure with some detail:--\n\n\"As you know, these figures do not appear before 6.30 at earliest,\ntherefore there is little light upon their surface. Like other\nphantasms seen at dark, they show 'by their own light,' _i.e._ they\nappear to be outlined by a thread of light. It is therefore only when\nthe face appears in profile that one can describe the features, and\nthis is somewhat prevented by the nun's veil. 'Ishbel' appears to me\nto be slight, and of fair height. I am unable, of course, to see the\ncolour of her hair, but I should describe her as dark. There is an\nintensity in her gaze which is rare in light-coloured eyes. The face,\nas I see it, is in mental pain, so that it is perhaps hardly fair to\nsay that it seems lacking in that repose and gentleness that one looks\nfor in the religious life. Her dress presents no peculiarities. The\nhabit is black, with the usual white about the face, and I have\nthought that when walking she showed a lighter under-dress. She speaks\nupon rather a high note, with a quality of youth in her voice. Her\nweeping seemed to me passionate and unrestrained.\"\n\nThe appearance of a nun was entirely unexpected, as the name \"Ishbel\"\nhad been associated rather with the portrait of the beautiful woman in\nan eighteenth-century dress in the library, and it was she whom the\nwitnesses, had they expected anything at all, would have expected to\nsee. Miss Freer, moreover, the first witness, had regarded the\nstatements of \"Ouija\" with her habitual scepticism as to induced\nphenomena, more particularly those of automatic writing, in which, as\nin dreams, it is almost always difficult to disentangle the operations\nof the normal from those of the subconscious personality.\n\nIf the name \"Ishbel\" were really intended to apply to the nun, it\nbecomes a very curious question who is the person meant. A Robert\nS---- of B---- married, as has been already mentioned, Isabella H----,\nwho died in 1784, but we know of no reason for supposing that she\never became a nun.\n\nThe portrait may possibly have represented her, but it shows a much\nolder woman than the phantom so often seen; on the other hand, the\ndates are not inconsistent, and a considerable distance of time is\nsuggested by certain phrases which occurred in the automatic writing.\n\nThe person to whom the mind more naturally reverts is Miss Isabella\nS----, the sister, and apparently the favourite sister, of Major\nS----. As already mentioned, she professed as a nun under the name of\nFrances Helen in 1850, and died in 1880, aged sixty-six. She did not,\ntherefore, enter her convent till the age of thirty-five, an age much\ngreater than that shown by the phantom.\n\nIt is, moreover, interesting to note that this lady's name was\nIsabella _Margaret_, so that both names, as given automatically, may\nhave really referred to her. In the seventh edition of \"Burke's Landed\nGentry,\" 1886, there appears for the first time this entry--\n\n\"_IV. Isabella Margaret, a nun, regular Canoness of the Order of the\nHoly Sepulchre, d. 23 Feb. 1880._\"\n\nThe editors have obtained from the Nunnery, where she lived and died,\na photograph, representing the dress of the Community, and a\ndescription of herself, which is as follows:--\n\n\"She died 23rd February 1880, quickly, of an attack of pneumonia or\nacute bronchitis. She died a most edifying death, in perfect\nconsciousness, assisted by the Confessor ... and the Community around\nher, and having received the last Sacraments only a few hours before\nshe expired. As to her appearance, she was short, rather fair, not at\nall stout, but not extraordinarily thin.\n\n\"She entered the Community in April 1848, was clothed in May 1849, and\nprofessed May 1850. We do not know whether she could speak Gaelic. She\nwas very fond of Scotland, and very particular about the pronunciation\nof Scotch names. She was a most entertaining companion, being full of\nnatural wit.\"\n\nThe dress, which is dignified, is very peculiar and striking, and not\nthe least like the very ordinary nun's attire in which the phantom\nappeared, while it would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast\nthan that between the merry old lady of the description and the\nweeping girl so often seen.\n\nThere was, however, at least one very peculiar reason, which will be\nnoticed presently, for supposing that this phantom was really intended\nto represent the late Rev. Mother Frances Helen, and that its\ninaccuracy was owing to the stupid, and rather melodramatic\nmisconception in the mind which originally imagined it and transferred\nit to the witnesses at B----.\n\n   This is our arrangement for to-night:--\n\n    Room 1 (where we heard noises). Mr. F----.\n      \"  2. Dressing-room communicating with Nos. 1 and 3; doors\n            opened between.\n      \"  3. Mr. L. F---- (specially \"haunted\").\n      \"  4. Mr. MacP----.\n      \"  5. Mr. W----.\n      \"  6. Dressing-room, Miss Moore.\n      \"  7. Myself.\n      \"  8. Mr. C----. (Sounds alleged, see evidence.)\n    _N.B._--Nothing is alleged against 4 and 5.\n\n   _February 7th, Sunday._--Miss Moore was awakened this morning\n   soon after one o'clock by a loud reverberating bang, which\n   seemed close to her bed. She lay awake for a long time\n   afterwards, but the sound was not repeated. The men heard\n   nothing. They report that they went to bed soon after eleven,\n   and very quietly.\n\n   My maid, who has had to give up her room, slept downstairs last\n   night. She was kept awake nearly all night by noises and\n   footsteps. The wing is not yet fit for use, as all the pipes are\n   frozen, and the only downstairs bedroom was insufficiently\n   aired; so I told her to use that for dressing, and make herself\n   up a bed on one of the sitting-room sofas, and she slept (or\n   rather, lay awake) in the drawing-room. She was not frightened,\n   as she thought all the noises were made by the gentlemen; but\n   they declare they made no noise.\n\n   I asked her as to the other servants. She says the maids are\n   still very nervous. I spoke to them for the first time about the\n   noises to-day. The butler's wife has heard sounds, but her\n   husband only scoffs. The upper housemaid thinks ghosts the\n   proper thing, and tolerates them along with the high families to\n   which she is accustomed. The under housemaid is very shy, is\n   Highland, and knows little English, and won't talk, but owns to\n   discomfort, and is scoffed at by the other servants, who think\n   it all part of her having been only a \"general\" till she came\n   here. The kitchenmaid goes home to sleep, but I believe some one\n   fetches her.\n\n   I have had a girl out of the village to make up the linen, and\n   she, we notice, is careful to go home before dark.\n\n   This morning we all went to churches of various sorts. When the\n   men came in to tea they reported that they had had a\n   conversation with an outdoor servant, who proved to have been\n   in the service of [Mr. F----'s father] Lord D----, and was\n   consequently the more communicative. I know him, and have found\n   him extremely intelligent.\n\n   He says that having heard from the H----s' butler (who slept on\n   the dining-room floor, in the room my maid is to occupy\n   to-night) that it was impossible to sleep in a room so noisy, he\n   induced him to allow him to share his room, that they heard\n   much, but they dared not show a light for fear of his admission\n   being discovered (the H----s being much on the alert), and they\n   saw nothing [_cf._ p. 40 for evidence of the H----s' butler].\n\n   We did not like to send for him on a Sunday, but decided to have\n   him in on Monday, and test him as to the intensity of the noise.\n\n   In the evening, while we were all chatting in the drawing-room,\n   Miss Moore came out into the hall, where she had been looking\n   after the dog. In spite of the noise we were all making, she\n   distinctly heard the clang noise upstairs. She had said the same\n   thing, though with less certainty, once before, and we agreed\n   that one night some one must sit up in the hall. (This was\n   afterwards done without result.)\n\n   _February 8th, Monday._--Last night my maid heard footsteps and\n   the sound of hands fumbling on her door; this she told us when\n   she came in with our early tea.\n\n   Miss Moore in the early morning, between one and two, heard\n   again the sharp, reverberating bang as before. We speculated at\n   breakfast as to whether the sound could have been made by the\n   men after we had gone upstairs, though they were all sure of\n   having been quite still before midnight. We made them rehearse\n   every sound they had in fact made, but nothing was in the least\n   like it, either in quality or quantity.\n\n   I had been disturbed about 5.30 A.M. by the sound (which we had\n   not heard hitherto) described by former witnesses as\n   \"explosive.\" I know of nothing quite like it. I have heard the\n   Portsmouth guns when at a place eight miles away; the sound was\n   like that, but did not convey the same impression of distance. I\n   heard it, at intervals, during half-an-hour. Miss Moore is a\n   very light sleeper, but she did not awake. At six I got up and\n   went through my room to the dressing-room door (No. 6), after a\n   sound that seemed especially near. It was so near, that though I\n   thought it quite unlikely under the circumstances, I wanted to\n   satisfy myself that no one was playing jokes on Mr. C----, whose\n   room was close by. The house was deadly still. I could hear the\n   clocks ticking on the stairs. As I stood, the sound came again.\n   It might have been caused by a very heavy fall of snow from a\n   high roof--not sliding, but percussive. Miss Moore had wakened\n   up and heard it too.\n\n   (_N.B._--We afterwards found that, as the roof is flat, the snow\n   is cleared away daily.)\n\n   Mr. W----, an utter sceptic, he declares, left early; then we\n   all went for a walk. We spent the whole afternoon making\n   experiments. Miss Moore or my maid or I, as having heard the\n   noises, shut ourselves up in the room whence they were heard, or\n   stood in the right places on hall or staircase.\n\n   The experimental noises made were as follows:--\n\n   1. Banging with poker or shovel as hard as possible on every\n   part of the big iron stove in the hall; kicking it, hitting it\n   with sticks (as Miss Moore and I persisted that the first noise\n   was as of metal on wood, or _vice versa_).\n\n   2. Trampling and banging in every part of the house, obvious and\n   obscure, in cupboards and cistern holes.\n\n   3. (On the hypothesis of tricks from outside.) Beating on\n   outside doors with shovels and pokers and wooden things, on the\n   walls and windows accessible; banging and clattering in outside\n   coal-cellars and in the sunk area round the house.\n   (_N.B._--Beating on the front door handle with a wooden racket,\n   was right in kind, but not nearly enough in degree.)\n\n   Miss Moore, who was familiar with the noise, did it rather well\n   by going into a coal-cellar (always locked at night, however)\n   outside and throwing big lumps of coal, from a distance, into a\n   big pail, but _it wasn't nearly loud enough_.\n\n   4. Finally the men climbed on to the roof, outside, while Miss\n   Moore and I shut ourselves into the proper places. They\n   clattered and walked and stamped and kicked and struck the\n   slates, but _they couldn't make noise enough_.\n\n   Then we had in the gardener they saw yesterday, and put him in\n   the butler's room, and the four men made hideous rows as before.\n   He was grateful and respectful, but contemptuous. _They couldn't\n   make noise enough._\n\n   We went out at dusk, having sent Mr. MacP---- and Mr. C---- to\n   pay a visit (as they had not been told of the brook scene),\n   intending that the same trio as before should go to the copse.\n   Mr. L---- F---- couldn't come, and as Mr. F---- and I went on\n   alone, we met Mr. MacP---- and Mr. C---- returning before they\n   were expected. On the spur of the moment I asked Mr. C---- to\n   come with me, leaving Mr. F---- and Mr. MacP---- in the avenue.\n   The snow had gone, and I saw less distinctly; but I saw the nun\n   again, and an older woman in grey, who talked earnestly with\n   her, she answering at intervals. I could hear no words; the ice\n   was giving, and the burn had begun to murmur. (I tried to\n   persuade myself that the murmur accounted for the voices, but\n   the sounds were entirely distinct, and different in quality and\n   amount.)\n\nThis older woman in grey afterwards became familiar. The name \"Marget\"\nwas given to her at first half in fun and simply because this was one\nof the two names given by Ouija (_cf._ p. 98). She is apparently the\ngrey woman referred to in the paper published by Mrs. G---- (_cf._ p.\n64).\n\nThe fact of voices being heard by two persons, while one alone saw the\nfigures, seems a clear proof that the figures were hallucinatory. It\nseems probable that the sounds also were hallucinatory, but were what\nis called in the vocabulary of the S.P.R. the \"collective\"\nhallucination of two persons. This seems to render it highly probable\nthat in the case of each the hallucination had a cause external to\nboth, although common to both; moreover, hallucinations are often\ncontagious. _The Times_ correspondent states, that \"the lady admitted\nthat the apparition was purely subjective, but in regard to other\nmatters was not willing to suppose that she might be the victim of\nhallucinations of hearing as well as of sight.\" On the contrary, as\nall readers of Miss Freer's published works are aware, she is entirely\nof opinion that such sights and sounds are pure sense-hallucinations,\nwhatever may be their ultimate origin.\n\n   We rejoined the others in silence. Then Mr. MacP---- said to Mr.\n   C----, \"Did you see anything?\" \"Nothing; I only heard voices.\"\n   \"What sort of voices?\" \"Two women. The older voice talked most,\n   almost continuously. I heard a younger voice, a higher one, now\n   and then.\"\n\n     _Note by Mr. MacP----._\n\n   \"I knew previously, though Mr. C---- did not, that Miss Freer\n   had seen something up the burn; and when waiting for her and Mr.\n   C----, Mr. F---- told me the whole story.\"\n\n   _February 9th, Tuesday._--Last night we--Miss Moore and I--heard\n   the \"explosive\" noises about 11.30 P.M., and speculated as to\n   the possibility of their being caused by the wind in the\n   chimney. There was a little wind last night--very little. It is\n   worth mentioning, that ever since we have been here the air has\n   been phenomenally still. One can go outside, as we do\n   frequently, to feed the birds and squirrels without hats and not\n   feel a hair stirred. Even when the snow was on the ground we\n   never felt the cold, owing to the absence of wind, and the thaw\n   has been imperceptible. Snow is still on the hills. I have\n   several times thrown open my bedroom window about dawn for an\n   hour to familiarise myself with the outside noises. There is\n   nothing human within a quarter of a mile. (_N.B._--The others,\n   who are much more likely to be accurate as to distance than I,\n   say the lodges are farther off.) The servants' houses are in a\n   group of buildings on the hill above the house, but are, I\n   believe, all empty. We found, and adopted, a deserted cat, whose\n   condition certainly testified to the nakedness of the land.\n   There are two inhabited lodges far out of hearing. A gardener\n   comes round to the houses about 10 or 10.30 P.M., but we have\n   watched him, and know exactly what sounds he creates.\n\n   _February 10th, Wednesday._--Mrs. W---- arrived this morning\n   from London; also Miss Langton, who is \"sensitive,\" but wholly\n   inexperienced. In the evening, at 6 P.M., Colonel Taylor\n   arrived. He is in No. 8.\n\n   Miss Moore and I moved back into No. 1, and moved Mr. F---- into\n   No. 3, the room reported (by the H----s) as specially haunted,\n   where Colonel A---- and Major B---- had slept, and in our time\n   Mr. L---- F----, who left last night.\n\n   The wing is now ready for habitation, except that the pipes are\n   out of order, and the \"set-basins\" useless, also the bath.\n   (_N.B._--The fact that the pipes are all out of working order,\n   and not a drop of hot water is to be had except in the kitchen,\n   does away with a theory, which has been rather emphatically put\n   forward, that \"it is all the hot-water pipes.\")\n\n   We are anxious to test the wing. Only one story, Miss \"B----'s,\"\n   is connected with it, and if there has been any practical joking\n   anywhere, I personally incline to think that was the occasion.\n   The wing is new, built, they say, in 1883, and the \"ghost\"\n   showed human intelligence in selection of doors and victims.\n   (After my return to London I had a conversation with Mrs. G----,\n   which convinced me that I was mistaken in supposing that tricks\n   had been played upon Miss \"B----.\" See p. 71.)\n\n   An old woman in the village asked Miss Moore to-day with\n   interest, \"Hoo'll ye be liking B----?\" She spoke of the\n   hauntings, and her husband insisted (the Highlander always\n   begins that way) that there were not any, and so on, and the old\n   woman explained that it was just the young gentlemen last year\n   that was having a lark. Later she admitted, \"There's nae ghaists\n   at B----, but the old Major\" (who died about twenty years ago);\n   \"he'd just be saying to Gracie if she didn't do as she was told,\n   that he'd be coming back and belay the decks\" (_cf._ p. 136).\n\n   _P.S._--_Monday 15th._--In the kirkyard to-day at L---- we were\n   shown the Major's grave. It is one of three, inclosed by a rough\n   stone wall. They have no headstones, and seem quite uncared for.\n   One is, we are informed, that of his housekeeper, Sarah N----.\n   The other is said to be that of a black man-servant.\n\n   Last night we slept as follows:--\n\n    Room 1 and 2. Myself and Miss Moore.\n      \"        3. Mr. F----.\n      \"        4. Miss Langton.\n      \"        5. Mrs. W----.\n      \"  6 and 7. Empty.\n      \"        8. Colonel Taylor.\n\n   Miss Moore lay awake nearly the whole night. She heard, though\n   in less degree, the old noises; and in the early morning\n   (compare our first night) heard the sound of women's voices\n   talking. When I awoke, about 6 A.M., she told me she had been\n   disturbed, and said she feared that the others had also, as she\n   had heard Mrs. W---- talking in Miss Langton's room.\n\n   At breakfast Mrs. W---- reported that she had been awakened by\n   knockings, but had never moved. Miss Langton had heard nothing.\n\n   The Colonel reported that about, or just before, six he had\n   heard footsteps over his head. There is no room over No. 8,\n   which is mostly a built-out bow, and the servants had not moved\n   before 6.30. (If they moved then, it was contrary to their\n   habits!) We heard later that Hannah had gone, about 6.30, \"in\n   her stocking-feet, only without her stockings,\" to ask the time\n   at the cook's door.\n\n   The Colonel (before our inquiries) had imitated the noise by\n   stamping heavily with striding steps across the library.\n\n   _February 11th, Thursday._--The Colonel moved down into \"Miss\n   B----'s room\" in the wing, and Mr. F---- into the room next to\n   him.\n\n   _February 12th, Friday._--No phenomena. The great business\n   to-day, which we had specially reserved for the Colonel's\n   arrival, was the making of sketches and measurements for the\n   plan of the house. We found no mysteries. The walls are\n   immensely thick, but all the space is accounted for.\n\n   _February 13th, Saturday._--Miss Moore slept very badly again\n   last night. She heard the noises at intervals between three and\n   five; she was awake before and after. They were loudest and most\n   frequent after four. At 5.30 I was awakened by a loud crash as\n   of something falling very heavily on the floor above. The maids\n   sleep there, but can give no account of any fall. Miss Moore, of\n   course, heard it as, and when, I did.\n\n   Mrs. W---- reports having heard loud raps. She thinks the noise\n   may have wakened her, but after she was awake enough to get a\n   light and look at her watch (3.40) she heard what she describes\n   as \"a double knock.\"\n\n   _February 14th, Sunday._--Our first wet day. The weather so far\n   has been perfect. We all got very wet coming from church.\n\n   In the evening we did various experiments--thought-transference,\n   crystal gazing, &c.--but nothing came of it in regard to the\n   house.\n\n   _February 15th, Monday._--Mr. F---- left early.\n\n   We all walked to the Parish Church, and had some talk with the\n   sexton, and I had to listen to long yarns about the Major (see\n   under date February 9th). I was tired, and could not go to the\n   copse.\n\n   In the evening we played games, and were very lively. Miss\n   Langton came into my room for a few minutes, and was certainly\n   not in any nervous condition, nor did we speak of the hauntings.\n   But this morning (Tuesday) at breakfast she reported having\n   heard a loud crash almost directly after getting to her room. We\n   considered possible causes, but could not discover that any one\n   was moving in the house. The servants had gone to bed some time\n   earlier, and we had put out the lights ourselves in the hall and\n   on the stairs.\n\n   _February 16th, Tuesday._--I had an experience this morning\n   which may have been purely subjective, but which should be\n   recorded. About 10 A.M. I was writing in the library, face to\n   light, back to fire. Mrs. W---- was in the room, and addressed\n   me once or twice; but I was aware of not being responsive, as I\n   was much occupied. I wrote on, and presently felt a distinct,\n   but gentle, push against my chair. I thought it was the dog and\n   looked down, but he was not there. I went on writing, and in a\n   few minutes felt a push, firm and decided, against myself which\n   moved me on my chair. I thought it was Mrs. W----, who, having\n   spoken and obtained no answer, was reminding me of her presence.\n   I looked backward with an exclamation--the room was empty. She\n   came in directly, and called my attention to the dog, who was\n   gazing intently from the hearthrug at the place where I had\n   expected (before) to see him.\n\n   As the day began with the above, and I had had a quiet rest, I\n   went to the copse at dusk. The moon was bright, and the twilight\n   lingered. We waited about in the avenue to let it get darker,\n   but it was still far from dark when we made our way up the\n   glen--Miss Moore, Miss Langton, and myself.\n\n   I saw \"Ishbel\" and \"Marget\" in the old spot across the burn.\n   \"Ishbel\" was on her knees in the attitude of weeping, \"Marget\"\n   apparently reasoning with her in a low voice, to which \"Ishbel\"\n   replied very occasionally. I could not hear what was said for\n   the noise of the burn. We waited for perhaps ten or fifteen\n   minutes. They had appeared when I had been there perhaps three\n   or four.\n\n   When we regained the avenue (in silence) Miss Moore asked Miss\n   Langton, \"What did you see?\" (She had been told nothing, except\n   that the Colonel, who did not know details then, had said in\n   her presence something about \"a couple of nuns\".) She said, \"I\n   saw nothing, but I heard a low talking.\" Questioned further, she\n   said it seemed close behind. The glen is so narrow, that this\n   might be quite consistent with what I saw and heard. Miss Moore\n   heard a murmuring voice, and is quite certain it was not the\n   burn. She is less suggestible than almost any one I know.\n\n   The dog ran up while we were there, pointed, and ran straight\n   for the two women. He afterwards left us, and we found him\n   barking in the glen. He is a dog who hardly ever barks. We went\n   up among the trees where he was, and could find no cause.\n\n   Miss Moore and I moved into No. 8 (dressing-room No. 6). It is a\n   \"suspect\" room, which I had not tried, and Miss Moore had\n   scarcely slept all the week in No. 1, and was looking so worn\n   out, that I decided to move.\n\n   _February 17th, Wednesday._--A most glorious day, still, bright,\n   and sunny.\n\n   Nothing happened till evening. The Colonel, Mrs. W----, Miss\n   Langton, Miss Moore, and I were in the drawing-room after\n   dinner. Some of us, certainly the last four, heard footsteps\n   overhead in No. 1, which is just now disused. I was lying on the\n   sofa, and could not get up quickly: but Mrs. W---- and Miss\n   Langton ran up at once, and found it empty and dark, and no one\n   about.\n\n   Later, about 10.30, we all five heard the clang noise with which\n   some of us are so familiar. The servants had gone to bed--or so\n   we presumed, as all lights were out, except on the upper floor.\n   It occurred four times. It is of course conceivable they may\n   have made it, but we do not hear it when we know them to be\n   about, and we do hear it when we know them not to be about.\n\n   The following quotation is from Miss Langton's private diary:--\n\n   \"On the night of Wednesday, February 17th, I had a curious dream\n   or vision. I seemed to be standing outside the door of No. 4,\n   looking up the corridor to No. 2, when suddenly I saw a figure\n   with his back to the door of No. 2, and quite close to the door\n   which leads to No. 3. His face was quite distinct, and what\n   struck me most was the curious way in which his hair grew on his\n   temples. His eyes were very dark, keen, and deep-set; his face\n   was pale, and with a drawn, haggard expression. He looked about\n   thirty-nine years of age. His hair was dark and thick, and waved\n   back from his forehead, where it was slightly grey. It was a\n   most interesting and clever face, and one that would always, I\n   should think, attract attention. He was dressed in a long black\n   gown like a cassock, only with a short cape, barely reaching to\n   the elbows.\"\n\n   A further reference to this vision, which at the time seemed\n   irrelevant, will be found on page 225.\n\n   _February 18th, Thursday._--This morning's phenomenon is the\n   most incomprehensible I have yet known. I heard the banging\n   sounds after we were in bed last night. Early this morning,\n   about 5.30, I was awakened by them. They continued for nearly an\n   hour. Then another sound began _in_ the room. It might have been\n   made by a very lively kitten jumping and pouncing, or even by a\n   very large bird; there was a fluttering noise too. It was close,\n   exactly opposite the bed. Miss Moore woke up, and we heard it\n   going on till nearly eight o'clock. I drew up the blinds and\n   opened the window wide. I sought all over the room, looking\n   into cupboards and under furniture. We cannot guess at any\n   possible explanation.\n\nFurther experience of these curious hallucinatory sounds, combined\nwith visual hallucination in the same room, taking also into\nconsideration the interest which our own dogs always displayed in\nthese phenomena, led us to the conclusion that our first deductions\nhad been wrong, and that the sounds were those of a dog gambolling.\n\n   (The Rev.) Mr. \"Q.\" (an English vicar), arrived. In the evening,\n   at 6.30, Miss Langton and I took him down to the glen. It was a\n   very light evening. I saw the figure of Ishbel, not very\n   distinctly, in conversation with the second figure, which was\n   barely defined. We remained in perfect silence as usual. On\n   regaining the avenue Miss L---- said she had heard voices, and\n   thought she had seen what might be the white parts of the nun's\n   dress. Mr. \"Q.\" said he had seen a light under the big tree. The\n   figures were nearer the tree than usual. Miss Langton went up a\n   second time with the Colonel, and again heard voices.\n\nIt is worth remarking that Mr. \"Q.\" has, doubtless from some\nidiosyncrasy, since developed a faculty of seeing lights where other\npeople see phantasms.\n\n   _February 19th, Friday._--No phenomena last night. We have spent\n   the day in A----, the neighbouring town, where I had a fall and\n   hurt my foot, so that I was obliged to drive home, and could not\n   go to the glen. Miss Langton and Mr. \"Q.\" went down about seven\n   o'clock. Mr. \"Q.\" saw the outline of a figure of which he has\n   written the description. Miss Langton heard the usual voices on\n   the other side of the burn; they seemed to her to be interrupted\n   by a third voice, in deeper tones; and she also heard the\n   footsteps of a man passing behind her, a heavy tread, \"not like\n   a gentleman.\"\n\nThe following, the account referred to, was contained in a private\nletter from Mr. \"Q.\" to Lord Bute. The description of Ishbel in the\nJournal of February 26th, was, it will be observed, of later date,\nalthough before Miss Freer had seen the following:--\n\n\"_February 19th and 20th, 1897._--I had heard only that Miss Freer had\nseen two figures by the burn, one of which was that of a nun, the\nother a woman, before whom, on one occasion, the nun appeared to be\nkneeling. I had always pictured the nun as standing or kneeling with\nher back to the spectator.\n\n\"On February 19th, at about 6.45 P.M., I visited the burn with Miss\nLangton (_and not Miss Freer_). After looking a little I saw (_a_);\nthe white was very plain, and the head clearly outlined, but the\nvision was for the fraction of a second. I was conscious of it\nindistinctly for a few minutes, and there seemed a good deal of\nmovement. Suddenly I was again conscious of the figure as shown in\n(_b_), full-face, as though gazing at me; again the white part was\nvery distinct, but I could distinguish no features.\"\n\n[Illustration: a]\n\n[Illustration: b]\n\n  _February 20th, Saturday._--This morning we went down to ---- and\n  had a little talk with the old servant who told us stories the\n  other day about the Major, and she repeated the story of his\n  threatened return. The same story was repeated independently this\n  afternoon by [a local tradesman], who opened conversation by\n  inquiring whether we had \"seen the Major yet.\"\n\n   Miss Moore and I again this morning heard noises in No. 8, more\n   especially those of the pattering footsteps, just after\n   daylight, and a violent jump and scramble, which we thought was\n   our dog, until we found that he was sleeping peacefully as usual\n   on his rug at our feet.\n\nIn a letter to Lord Bute, dated February 21, 1897, Mr \"Q.\" gives the\nfollowing account:--\n\n\"On February 20th, at about 6.45 P.M., I visited the burn with Miss\nFreer and Miss Langton. I was very briefly conscious of the figure\n(_a_) on the bank of the burn, but saw no more till Miss Freer pointed\nto the hollow of a large tree, when I again saw (_b_). On each\noccasion of seeing (_b_) a curious sensation was noticeable, and I\nfelt I was being looked at. On speaking afterwards to Miss Freer, I\nfound her vision of the nun _under the tree_ to be the same as mine at\n(_b_), _i.e._ full face, as indeed Miss Freer had seen it on previous\noccasions. This is the second sketch I have drawn of the full face\n(_b_). The first I showed to Miss Freer, remarking to her, 'I have\nmade the figure _too broad_' (being unaccustomed to drawing). 'Yes,'\nsaid Miss Freer, 'for the nun is very slight.'\"\n\nIt was seen at the same moment also by Miss Freer and Miss Langton.\n\n   _February 21st, Sunday._--Again this morning we heard noises of\n   pattering in No. 8, and Scamp got up and sat apparently watching\n   something invisible to us, turning his head slowly as if\n   following the movements of some person or thing across the room\n   from west to east. During the night Miss Moore had heard\n   footsteps crossing the room, as of an old or invalid man\n   shuffling in slippers. We both heard a bang at the side of the\n   room about 6.20, some time before any sounds of moving were\n   heard from the servants above. The noise was muffled in quality,\n   and had no resonance, and seemed to come from behind a small\n   wardrobe on the east wall. The room (No. 7) on that side was\n   unoccupied. [This bang was heard at other times in the same\n   spot. Experiment showed that no noise made in No. 7 was audible\n   in No. 8, not even hammering with a poker on the wall, which is\n   curved at this point.]\n\n   This morning, on coming out of church, I received a letter from\n   Mr. F----, in which was the following passage:--\n\n   \"... Miss H----, who slept, I believe, in the room occupied by\n   you when I left, heard sounds of footsteps going round her room,\n   footsteps with the most unmistakable limp in them. Shortly after\n   she heard stories connected with the former owner, who used to\n   go by the name of B----, an aged man [the Major]. She asked if\n   he could be described. 'No,' said her informant; 'the only thing\n   he could remember about him was that he had a most peculiar\n   limp,' and he forthwith gave an exhibition, which tallied\n   exactly with the limp around the bed.\"\n\n   In discussing this, Miss Moore and I agreed that, had Miss H----\n   slept in No. 8 instead of in No. 1, as Mr. F---- supposed, we\n   should have considered these limping sounds as probably\n   identical with those we ourselves had heard. After I had closed\n   my reply to Mr. F----, Miss Moore discovered Miss \"B----'s\" plan\n   of the house (in the packet of evidence of the H----s' tenancy,\n   see p. 96), which showed that in fact No. 8 _was_ the room\n   referred to. Hence it appears that the room in which Miss H----\n   heard the footsteps was the same as that in which _we_ heard\n   them. We had been misled by Mr. F---- speaking of \"the room you\n   occupied when I left,\" a mistake on his part, as, though the\n   change had been spoken of, we had not left No. 1.\n\n   This afternoon Miss Langton experimented with Ouija at Mr.\n   \"Q.'s\" request.\n\nLord Bute had suggested various test-questions in relation to the\nphantasm of the nun, to be asked the next time the Ouija board was in\noperation, and answers to these were attempted at various times, with\nthe usual result of showing the influence, conscious or sub-conscious,\nof the sitters, almost all statements as to matters not actually known\nto them being worthless. On this occasion, however, in reply to the\nquestion, \"How old was Ishbel when she died?\" answers were spelt out\nto the effect that she was still living, and that her age was\nfifty-nine.\n\nThis may perhaps be taken as throwing light upon the intended\npersonality of Ishbel, and supplying a possible clue to the identity\nof the mind of which she seems to be an imaginary creation.\n\nFifty-nine was the age of the late Rev. Mother Frances Helen in the\nyear 1873, when Sarah N---- died. They are not people who are at all\nlikely to have met each other upon \"the other side\" any more than upon\nthis.\n\nIt is a generally recognised fact that the conditions which we call\n\"time and space\" exist on in the world beyond in a form so very\ndifferent from those in which they are conceived of by us, that from\nour point of view they can hardly be said to exist at all. It is\nnatural, therefore, to seek the utterer of this remarkable statement\nin some person connected with B---- who did not know the late Mother\nFrances Helen (supposing her to be the person for whom Ishbel was\nintended), but had heard of her.\n\n   _February 22nd, Monday._--Mr. \"Z----\" _came_.\n\nThe whole matter of the inquiry had been made known to Mr. \"Z----,\"\nthe proprietor of a prominent Scottish newspaper, of course in the\nstrictest confidence, which was carefully made a condition of the\nadmission of any one to the house, a confidence which he most\nhonourably observed. It was arranged that if anything occurred within\nthe observation of himself or his son, the scientific value of which\nrendered it, in their judgment, desirable to publish a notice of it in\n_The ----_, the notice should be published under avowedly false names\nand geographical indications. Mr. \"Z----\" was unable to come himself,\nbut his son arrived this day.\n\n   Mr. \"Endell\" (a Member of the S.P.R.) arrived while we were out,\n   and made a tour of inspection alone of the outside of the house\n   and the ground-floor rooms. He intuitively fixed on the window\n   of No. 3 as that of a \"haunted\" room, and has since, equally by\n   intuition, diagnosed the drawing-room and library as \"creepy,\"\n   and the dining-room as definitely cheerful. (This coincides with\n   our experience.)\n\n   My own experiences to-day were confined to ejection from a high\n   waggonette, while waiting at the station for Mr. \"Z----,\" the\n   horse having bolted at the appearance of the train.\n\n   No phenomena. We are putting Mr. \"Z----\", at his own request, in\n   No. 3, the \"ghost-room.\"\n\n   _February 23rd, Tuesday._--Pouring wet. No phenomena. Visit to\n   glen impossible.\n\n   Mr. and Mrs. R---- (local residents) came to lunch. Though in\n   great pain I was able to see them for a few minutes, and both\n   inquired whether we had had any experience of the reported\n   hauntings, of which, however, they could give us no details.\n\n   _February 24th, Wednesday._--Mr. \"Z----\" left early. (_N.B._--No\n   phenomena reported by any one during his visit; he himself slept\n   soundly in the \"haunted\" room, but does it the justice to\n   acknowledge that he \"could sleep through an earthquake.\")\n\n   Miss \"N.\" (the daughter of a landowner of the district) arrived.\n\n   Mr. Garford (an old friend and excellent observer) came from\n   London. We sleep to-night as follows:--\n\n   In the wing, in the two rooms alleged by guests of the H----s\n   to be haunted, the Colonel and Mr. \"Endell.\"\n\n    No. 1. Mr. Garford.\n     \"  3. Mr. \"Q.\" (\"ghost-room\"; he has just asked to be\n           removed from his former room in the wing).\n     \"  4. Miss Langton.\n     \"  5. Mrs. W----.\n     \"  7. Miss \"N.\"\n     \"  8. Miss Moore, myself, and dog.\n\n   _February 25th, Thursday._--Mr. \"Endell\" reported this morning\n   having heard a sound he could in no way account for, which seems\n   to us to correspond with the \"clanging\" noise. We asked how he\n   would imitate it as to volume and quality, and he said that a\n   large iron kettle, about the size of the dinner-table (we are\n   dining eight), boiling violently, so that the lid was constantly\n   \"wobbling,\" might produce it.\n\n   (_N.B._--Mr. \"Endell's\" opinion later is that a pavior's crowbar\n   heavily dropped, so as to produce a prolonged reverberation, is\n   a better illustration.)\n\n   Mr. Garford, who was not told that any sounds might be expected\n   in No. 1, says he was awakened by a violent banging at the door\n   of communication between Nos. 1 and 2 (No. 2 is empty). Mr.\n   \"Endell,\" Mr. \"Q.,\" and Miss Moore went up later in the day to\n   experiment on the door, and found that it would _open_ with the\n   slightest push. Mr. Garford had closed it on going to bed, and\n   found it closed in the morning. He had not been alarmed, and had\n   almost called out to his supposed visitors, before he remembered\n   supernormal possibilities. He described the sound as a muffled\n   bang, and in order to reproduce it to his satisfaction one of\n   the party held a thick rug on the inner side while another\n   hammered on the panels without.\n\n   Mr. \"Q.'s\" experiences in No. 3 will be reported by himself. The\n   groans which he heard coming from No. 2 some of our party\n   suggested might have been made in sleep by the occupant of No.\n   1, but on trying experiments it was found that no sounds of the\n   kind which he could make in his room were audible in No. 3.\n\n   Mr. \"Q.\" left.\n\n   Miss Langton went up the glen with Mr. Garford, and was\n   perplexed by seeing the grey figure when looking for the nun;\n   she saw it but dimly, but later in the evening recovered it in\n   the crystal, more clearly and in greater detail.\n\nThe following is Mr. \"Q.'s\" account of his experience, written on\nFebruary 24th and March 4th, in private letters to Lord Bute, but, in\norder to avoid the possibility of suggestion to others, not\ncontributed at the time to this journal. The Editors have been\npermitted also to read another account written by Mr. \"Q.\" of this and\nof his subsequent experience, written immediately after the occasion,\nwhich agrees with his letters to Lord Bute in every particular.\n\n\"_February 24th, 1897._--I slept in room No. 3. I knew it had a 'bad'\nreputation, also I had heard through Ouija of probable appearances and\nnoises at 3 A.M. and 4.30 A.M. I noted the time of retiring in passing\nthe clock on the staircase, _i.e._ 12.10.\n\n\"Before going to bed I sat in a chair with my back to a small mahogany\ncupboard, placed against the wall of the dressing-room, into which my\nroom (No. 3) opens. About 1 A.M. I was much startled at hearing behind\nme very distinctly a loud groan, coming, apparently, from the\ndressing-room, in the direction of the mahogany cupboard. The sound\nwas very distinct, and but for the fact of there being no one visible,\nI should have estimated its origin as _in_ the room, its distinctness\nbeing such that, coming from the next room, with the door closed, it\nwould have sounded slightly muffled. So distinct was it that I heard\nwhat I can only describe as the throat vibration in the tone.\n\n\"I tried to ascribe it to the bubbling of the hot-water pipe of a\nwashing basin fixed in the dressing-room, as I supposed, against the\nwall of the bedroom, but saw next day that the basin in question was\nfixed against the opposite wall of the dressing-room.\n\n[Illustration: A, Cupboard. B, Chair. C, Washing-stand (fixed).]\n\n\"The sound was a greatly magnified and humanised edition of what I\nhave several times heard in the drawing-room below the dressing-room,\nand which has been heard by several of the party together.\"\n\nAnd in a letter dated March 4.--\"I went upstairs at 12.10. On shutting\nthe door of my room I experienced a curiously cold sensation. I stood\nby the fire, which was burning brightly, and shivered to an extent\nthat was quite phenomenal; the fire did not in the least remove the\ncold shudderings which ran from head to feet.\n\n\"I threw the feeling off as best I could, but not entirely. I read a\nlittle and then prayed. I read the office of compline and my private\nprayers, and praying according to my custom for all faithful departed,\nand especially for those who had previously lived in the house or been\nconnected with it. After this I looked at my watch; it was just upon\none o'clock, and I sat for a few minutes in the chair by the fire,\nwhen I heard the noise described, behind me.\n\n\"I changed my position and placed the chair with its back to a table\nand facing the door, the candle on the table, and took a book and\nread; my shuddering sensations had been worse than ever. Suddenly I\nlooked up, and above the bed, _apparently_ on the wall, I got just a\nglimpse (like a flash) of a brown wood crucifix: the wall was quite\nbare, not a picture, nothing to make it explainable by imperfect light\nor reflection. From that time the sensation of cold and shuddering\nwent away: I don't say immediately, but I was quite conscious of being\nreassured.\n\n\"About half-an-hour afterwards all feeling of distress of any sort had\ngone. I went to bed and to sleep. My own idea now is, that the sound I\nheard was an inarticulate cry for help, probably by means of prayer.\nThe influence I feel was _bad_, but something overcame it.\"\n\nIt is desirable to add, as a question of evidence, for comparison of\nthe dates of this and Miss Freer's subsequent account of the same\nphenomenon, that a letter from Mr. \"Q.\" in Lord Bute's possession,\ndated March 16th, begins, \"I have no objection to Miss Freer seeing my\nletter on the subject of the crucifix....\"\n\nMr. \"Q.\" also states that his delay in writing to Lord Bute about the\ncrucifix was, that he thought it might be a mental reproduction of one\nwhich he sometimes sees in his own home, but that he found on\nexamining the latter that it has a white figure, whereas that of the\napparition has the figure of the same brown wood as the cross. In the\nprivate account above referred to Mr. \"Q\" writes, \"I found that the\ncrucifix at home _in no way_ resembles what I saw at B----\". It will\nbe remarked that this peculiar apparition was seen in the same room by\nthe Rev. P. H---- in August 1892 (see p. 17), and it was again seen on\nMarch 6th by Miss Freer, who had not heard at all of his experiences,\nand only a bare mention, without detail or description, of that of Mr.\n\"Q.\" A fourth vision in this connection--that of Miss Langton, who had\nheard of none of the other three, is described under date March 19.\n\n   _February 26th, Friday._--Nothing happened till I was in the\n   drawing-room in the evening, when I was, as usual since my\n   accident, taking my meal alone. A screen stood between my sofa\n   and the door, so that it was impossible to see who entered. I\n   saw the shadow of a woman on the wall, and supposed it to be a\n   maid come to see after the fire. Next, the figure of an old\n   woman emerged from behind the screen; she was of average height,\n   and stout; she wore a woollen cap, and her dress was that of a\n   superior servant indoors. Supposing her to be some servant's\n   visitor come to have a look at the drawing-room while the party\n   were at dinner, I moved to attract her attention, with no\n   result. She walked a few steps towards the middle of the room,\n   then disappeared. Her countenance was not pleasing, but\n   expressed no personal malevolence; her face may have been\n   coarsely handsome. Her dress was dark, and made in the fashion\n   which was worn in my childhood. When the dog came in later he\n   seemed to sight something from behind the screen and followed it\n   across the room, when he lay down under my couch, instead of on\n   the hearth as usual. He had done the same thing yesterday\n   morning, looking much frightened, and had then taken refuge\n   under Miss Langton's chair.\n\nIn connection with this it will be seen elsewhere that footsteps were\nconstantly heard in the drawing-room, both at night and in daylight.\n\n   Mr. Garford, in No. 1, heard last night what seemed like the\n   detonating noise, which he describes as like a wheelbarrow on a\n   hard road, \"a sharp, rapidly repeated knocking,\" at a distance.\n\n   _February 27th, Saturday._--Colonel C---- and Mr. MacP----\n   arrived.\n\n   To-night we sleep as follows:--\n\n    No. 1. Mr. Garford.\n    No. 2. Miss Langton.\n    No. 3. Colonel C---- (I had planned for him to go in the\n           wing, but the butler, an old soldier with two medals,\n           seemed to think it due to such a distinguished\n           officer to put him in the haunted room).\n    No. 4. Mr. MacP----.\n    Nos. 5, 7, and 8 as before.\n    The Colonel and Mr. \"Endell\" unchanged.\n\n   The glen was visited by Colonel C---- and Mr. MacP----, escorted\n   by Miss Langton.\n\n   _February 28th, Sunday._--All slept well. I assisted Miss\n   Langton with some Ouija experiments in the presence of, first,\n   Mr. \"Endell,\" then Mr. MacP----, then of Colonel C---- and Miss\n   \"N.\"\n\n   _March 1st, Monday._--Mr. MacP---- reported at breakfast that he\n   had awakened at 5.45, and almost immediately heard a loud\n   clanging sound in the north-west corner of his room; he was\n   fully awake, struck a light, saw nothing, and looked at his\n   watch. We tried later to reproduce this noise, which he\n   described as resembling a loud blow upon a washhand basin. I\n   shut myself into No. 1, and found this a fair, but too faint,\n   imitation of the sounds Miss Moore and I had heard there.\n\n   Colonel C---- and Mr. MacP---- left.\n\n   Miss M---- and the Colonel have to-day had some talk with ----\n   [who had an intimate knowledge of the S---- family. See under\n   dates Feb. 9th and 20th]. She repeated her former story of the\n   Major's promised \"return,\" especially a statement made to an old\n   woman who worked in the garden, who had told him that at least\n   \"he'd no get in there, she'd keep the gate locked,\" that he\n   \"would come in below the deck\" (_cf._ p. 114). He was described\n   as a short, broad man, with white hair and beard, \"a'ful fond o'\n   dogs (of which he had many), and so noisy with them in the\n   morning, that when he and his housekeeper-body let them out, his\n   voice could be heard on the hill.\" She also said that on Major\n   S----'s return from India to assume the property he found a\n   tenant in possession, and had built himself a small house beyond\n   the grounds, which he afterwards let with the shooting. In the\n   late Mr. S----'s time this house was used as a retreat during\n   the summer for nuns (a statement which interests us greatly, as\n   affording a possible clue to the apparition).\n\n   The Major was greatly attached to the place, and had a great\n   dislike to the presence of strangers in it, or to its going out\n   of the old name. The estate, we hear, was much encumbered when\n   he succeeded to it, but he cleared off all debts in a few years,\n   and appears to have lived a somewhat eccentric and recluse life,\n   in the society of his dogs and dependants.\n\n\nThis is the first mention of the fact that nuns had ever lived at\nB----. Miss Freer had not been aware that the object of the Rev. P.\nH----'s visit in 1892 had been to give what is called a Spiritual\nRetreat to those who had been occupying the cottage. It is only fair\nto suggest that the phantasmal nun, to whom the name Ishbel had been\ngiven, may really have been the phantasm of one of these visitors, and\nthat the dress of at least some of them was identical with or closely\nresembled hers, while it was totally unlike that worn by the community\nto which the late Mother Frances Helen belonged. At the same time,\nIshbel's dress was of a kind so very common among nuns, that it would\nhave been that with which she would, most naturally, have been clothed\nby the imagination of any one unacquainted with the very rare Order\nto which Mother Frances Helen belonged. To make further investigation\ninto the history of all the Sisters who ever stayed at B---- through\nthe kindness of the late Mr. S---- would have been a task impossible\nfor its vastness, and almost certainly futile through the natural\nreticence of their communities with regard to any matters likely to\noccasion haunting.\n\n   _March 1st (continued), Monday._--I went up the burn for the\n   first time since my accident on Saturday, February 20th. We had\n   had a promise from Ouija on Sunday that if Mr. \"Endell\" were to\n   visit the copse with me after 6.30 he would be touched on the\n   left shoulder. He was told to go to the farther side of the\n   burn, and to stand under the sapling, which is at some little\n   distance from the spot where the phantasm usually appears. This\n   we accordingly did. I was barely able in the dusk to distinguish\n   the figure from my post on the west bank, but the phantasm\n   appeared very near him, as I could distinguish the white\n   pocket-handkerchief in his breast pocket. I saw her hand\n   approach this, but could not positively say that it touched him.\n   Mr. \"Endell\" saw nothing, and could not positively say that he\n   felt a touch, though conscious of a sense of sudden chill, and\n   agreed with me that had he certainly felt one, he would probably\n   have considered it the effect of expectation. We stood there for\n   perhaps ten minutes, and he was for a short time conscious of\n   the subjective sensations which he commonly feels in the\n   presence of phenomena. We returned simultaneously to the avenue,\n   where we discussed the occurrence and the possibilities of\n   making it evidential. The only thing we could think of was to\n   send for Miss Langton, and without telling her anything of what\n   we had seen or expected, ascertain whether she saw the phantasm\n   in its usual position (high up on the bank), or a good deal\n   farther to the left, and nearer the burn, as I had done. By the\n   time she arrived it was much darker, but she saw the figure\n   under the tree by the brook, and described it as \"kneeling.\" She\n   has better sight than I, and believed it to be behind Mr.\n   \"Endell.\" I should have judged her to be crouching or stooping\n   in front of him, but judging from comparison of our normal\n   sight, she is much more likely to be accurate than I.\n\nMr. \"Endell's\" separately recorded account, dated March 5, exactly\nagrees with this, but adds some additional touches to the latter part.\n\n\"At Miss Freer's suggestion, I fetched Miss Langton, telling her\nnothing of what had occurred, but merely that we were trying an\nexperiment, and she was to report what she saw.\n\n\"I stood again under the sapling. This time I began to shudder almost\nimmediately. It was so dark they told me that they could only see my\ncollar though I was only ten yards from them.\n\n\"Miss Langton said that thirty seconds after I had taken up my\nposition, the figure appeared behind me a little to my left, and\nseemed to raise its arm. Miss Freer said it was waiting for me, and\ntouched me as before.\n\n\"I felt no touch throughout, only shiverings that seemed to coincide\nwith appearances.\"\n\n   To-night Miss \"N.\" wishes to sleep in No. 3, and Miss Langton\n   will remain in No. 2; the door of communication can be opened\n   between them.\n\n   _March 2nd, Tuesday._--This morning I was reading in bed by\n   candlelight from 5.30 to 6 o'clock, and again heard the\n   pattering sound which has become familiar to us in No. 8. Miss\n   Moore was asleep, but happened to awake while the sound was\n   specially distinct, and without speaking signified that she was\n   giving it her attention. Shortly after six we heard the sound of\n   a violent fall about the middle of the west wall, between the\n   fireplace and window. Our first thought was that one of the\n   maids upstairs must have fallen, till we remembered that there\n   was no room above us. We have since inquired, and find that none\n   of them moved till nearly seven o'clock, nor was anything heard\n   either by them or by Mr. Garford, whose room (No. 1) joins our\n   west wall.[D]\n\n   Miss \"N.\" passed a very disturbed night. She went to bed about\n   twelve o'clock; she is habitually an exceptionally good sleeper,\n   and, moreover, has slept in many rooms alleged to be haunted\n   without the slightest inconvenience, and has never had an\n   \"experience\" of any sort. She lay awake in discomfort till 3\n   A.M., and then sought refuge with Miss Langton.\n\n   Miss \"N.\" left. The following is the record of her\n   impressions:--\n\n   \"_March 4th._--You ask me to write exactly what I felt in No. 3\n   when I slept there on March 1st. Well, it is rather difficult to\n   describe! I never felt frightened out of my wits at nothing\n   before, if it _was_ nothing. I certainly saw no shadows or\n   figures, and the only noise I heard was the thud twice, which\n   sounded as if it came from the storey below. If I shut my eyes\n   for a minute I felt as if I was struggling with something\n   invisible (not indigestion, as I never have it!). I was so\n   paralysed that I _dare_ not call out to Miss Langton, and lay\n   awake from twelve to three without moving! In the morning, of\n   course, I felt I had been a fool to be so silly, and I would go\n   and sleep there again to-night if I had the chance.\"\n\n   Mrs. B. C---- came. She is an Associate S.P.R., is a Highlander,\n   has been all her life interested in psychical matters, but has\n   had no \"experience.\"\n\n   Mr. \"Endell,\" Miss Moore, and I sat up in No. 3 till about 2.30\n   in the dark, except for the firelight, and in silence, except\n   when any one wished to draw the attention of the rest to sounds\n   or sensations. There were no sounds for which, on reflection, we\n   found it impossible to account. Mr. \"Endell\" suffered, as on\n   previous occasions, from the sensation known as \"cold-air,\" and\n   very visibly shivered, though clearly not in the least nervous.\n   He is keenly interested in psychical inquiry, but has never had\n   any \"experience\" other than subjective sympathy with the psychic\n   impressions of others, or a consciousness, such as he described\n   on his arrival here, of an atmosphere other than normal. (This\n   last has been of frequent occurrence, and seems to have been\n   always veridical.)\n\n   The sole experience of any kind on this occasion was my own. Mr.\n   \"Endell,\" by way of reproducing the conditions of former\n   occupants of the room, threw himself on the bed about twenty\n   minutes to 2 A.M. Soon after he was seized by audible and\n   visible shivers. We did not speak till he uttered some forcible\n   ejaculation of complaint, when, looking towards him, I saw a\n   hand holding a brown (probably wooden) crucifix, as by a person\n   standing at the foot of the bed. He immediately said, \"Now I'm\n   better,\" or words to that effect.\n\n   We persisted in silence till perhaps 2.30, when we agreed to\n   separate, and while we were having some refreshment over the\n   fire, I told Miss Moore and Mr. \"Endell\" what I had seen. (_Cf._\n   under date February 25, p. 132.)\n\n   _March 3rd, Wednesday._--Mrs. W---- left.\n\n   This afternoon we had a call from Mrs. S---- and her daughter.\n   The Colonel, Miss Moore, and I were in the room.\n\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n\n\n   _March 4th, Thursday._--Mr. \"Endell\" left.\n\n   Heavy snowstorm.\n\n   _March 5th, Friday._--Last night I was in bed and asleep before\n   Miss Moore came in from her dressing-room. She did not light the\n   candle for fear of waking me, but, while sitting by the fire\n   reading, she heard the pattering noise just behind her, in the\n   same place where we have heard it and the fall before, though\n   never till then at night. It only lasted a few minutes, but\n   there was apparently nothing to account for it, though of course\n   she took every possible means to discover its cause.\n\n   Mrs. B. C---- left to-day. Miss Moore happened to mention at\n   breakfast that the upper housemaid had told her that the maids\n   had twice again on the last two nights heard the sound of\n   monotonous reading, once as late as 2 A.M.\n\nThe theoretical hour for Mattins is midnight, which, however, is only\nobserved in practice in certain very rigid monasteries; in others it\nbegins at two. But it is easily conceivable that a priest, if wakeful\nat that time, would select it in preference to another.\n\n   Mrs. B. C---- at once said that she also had heard precisely\n   that sound each night, and had spoken of it to her maid, and,\n   like the servants, had concluded that Miss Moore was reading to\n   me, although it was as late as twelve o'clock. She had also\n   heard a bang on a door close to her own, but had supposed it was\n   a late comer, possibly one of the gentlemen from the\n   smoking-room, and had not been disturbed. She had been sleeping\n   in No. 1, her maid in No. 2, and none of the gentlemen are on\n   the same floor. Mr. Garford, who is now in the wing, remarked\n   that he too had heard voices as of speaking or reading several\n   times when sleeping in No. 1, but had assumed that they were\n   normal. As a matter of fact, Miss Moore goes straight to her\n   dressing-room on going upstairs, and I am always too tired to\n   read or speak. No two persons sleep in any other room.\n\n   We tested this by getting Colonel Taylor to shut himself into\n   No. 1 while I, in No. 8, read aloud at the top of my voice, Miss\n   Langton remaining in the room with me. The Colonel could hear no\n   sound less than direct banging on the wall with a poker.\n\n   The cook has been talking to-day of the various noises heard at\n   night; she is not nervous, nor are the maids, but all speak of\n   voices and bangs for which they cannot account; except the\n   butler, who has heard nothing, but is obviously impressed with\n   his wife's experience last night. Her story is that, not feeling\n   well, she went up to bed early, before the servants' supper, the\n   rest of the household being as usual in the drawing-room. While\n   in bed, before ten o'clock, she distinctly heard the sound of\n   voices talking, apparently below, but not far distant (her room\n   is over No. 7, at present empty). She \"wondered if it could be\n   the servants in the servants' hall at supper\"--an obvious\n   impossibility, as their room is _not_ underneath, is two storeys\n   away, and has no connection with the upper part of the house.\n   She also heard bangs on the wall, behind her bed and to the\n   side; there was no furniture there to crack, and it was mostly\n   on the _outside_ wall, so she finally became uncomfortable, and\n   buried her head in the clothes to deaden the sound. She \"doesn't\n   believe in ghosts,\" but thinks the house \"very queer,\" and says\n   that far and wide in the country round it is spoken of as\n   \"haunted,\" though no one seems to know of any story, as to the\n   cause, except that, very improbable, about the murder of a\n   priest by the wife of a former proprietor. It appears that a\n   maid engaged in the village refused to sleep in the house,\n   because when in service here once before she had been frightened\n   by bangs at the door of her bedroom (in a room over No. 1); she\n   had also heard the sounds of a rustling silk dress on the\n   back-stairs, and had seen the bedroom door pushed open and a\n   lady come in.... A maid, who came after this one had left, told\n   the cook that she believed there was a story of a \"priest\n   murdered somewhere at the Reformation\"; she had once been told\n   it by Mrs. S---- in explanation of the noises, but had not heard\n   whether the said murder was in the house or the grounds, and\n   thought Mrs. S---- particularly did not wish the spot known.\n   This maid has only been an occasional help in the house, but has\n   lived for years in the district, and knows the place well by\n   reputation.\n\n   To-day as we passed through the churchyard, [a resident in the\n   neighbourhood] pointed out the desolate grave of the Major, with\n   the remark that one could hardly be surprised at a man being\n   said to \"walk\" who was expected to rest in such a place as that.\n   He said that there had been a great deal of talk all over the\n   neighbourhood as to the excitement during the H----s' stay at\n   B----, and seemed to believe that practical joking might account\n   in part for what had occurred. He did not, however, deny that\n   stories had been told long before their coming to the place.\n\nThis resident is the one as to whom the _Times_ correspondent\ndogmatically stated, that having lived in the place for twenty years\nhe asserted that there had never been a whisper of the haunting of\nB---- until the tenancy of the H----s.\n\n   _March 6th, Saturday_.--Mr. Garford left.\n\n   The Colonel is to sleep to-night in No. 3, which has not been\n   occupied since Miss \"N.\" left.\n\n   Mr. C---- arrived. He sleeps, by his own choice, in No. 2. He\n   has had a conversation with the butler, whom he had been\n   instrumental in engaging for us, which began by his asking how\n   he liked his situation? He expressed himself satisfied with\n   everything, but added, \"But there's something very queer about\n   the house,\" and then proceeded to tell his wife's experience.\n\n   _March 7th, Sunday_.--Mr. C---- has written an account of his\n   experiences last night.\n\n   Robinson has this morning told him of his first experience! He\n   was awakened by the noise of a heavy body falling in the middle\n   of the room; he awoke his wife, struck a match, and looked at\n   his watch--it was 3.30; no one else had been disturbed. Mr.\n   C----'s account follows:--\n\n   \"_March 7th, 1897._--It was arranged that Colonel Taylor should\n   occupy No. 3, and that I should sleep in No. 2. I went to bed\n   about twelve, but did not go to sleep at once.\n\n   \"I awoke suddenly with the distinct impression that there was\n   some one in the room. I lay still, and tried to realise what was\n   in the room, but could not do so. There was no idea of movement\n   in my mind, but still I felt convinced that some one was there.\n   The impression seemed gradually to fade out of my mind after\n   about seven or ten minutes, and then I got up and looked at my\n   watch--the time was 4.40 A.M.\n\n   \"I then went back to bed, but did not go to sleep. I heard the\n   clock in the hall strike five.\n\n   \"Shortly after I thought I heard some one moving about in No. 1,\n   which I knew to be unoccupied. I listened, and it seemed to me\n   that some one was moving round three sides of the room and then\n   coming back. The movement went on for about three or four\n   minutes and then stopped, but after a pause of some minutes it\n   began again. I tried to make out footsteps, but could not do so.\n   The movement was that of a heavy body going round the room, and\n   the floor seemed to shake slightly, after the way of old\n   flooring when a heavy man moves about. After going on for some\n   time the movement stopped, and again, after a pause, began\n   again. The movement, whatever it was, occurred four times, with\n   three pauses in between. The durations of the movement and\n   pauses were irregular. After the noise ceased I got up and lit\n   the candle. The time was 5.25, and I read for twenty-five\n   minutes, when I felt sleepy and blew out the candle. I did not,\n   however, go to sleep, and I heard six strike. The day was\n   dawning. The rooks I first heard about 5.35, when I was reading.\n\n   \"About ten minutes after the clock struck six I heard a noise\n   like a light-footed person running downstairs, which seemed to\n   adjoin No. 3, where the Colonel was sleeping, and almost\n   immediately after I heard a loud rapping at the door of No. 1.\n   After a short pause this occurred again, and I jumped out of\n   bed. As I opened the door of my room leading into the passage\n   the rapping sounds occurred again, but less loudly. There was\n   no one in the passage, and I went back to bed, not having quite\n   shut my door. No sooner had I done so than there was a knock at\n   my door, which I thought must be the Colonel coming to speak to\n   me about the rapping at No. 1. I called out 'Come in,' but there\n   was no answer, and I accordingly again went to the door, only to\n   find no one.\n\n   \"I heard the servants begin to move about at 6.30 above me, and\n   as seven struck I heard them going through the house.\n\n   \"The Colonel did not hear anything.\n\n   \"There are no stairs coming down to the bedroom storey where I\n   thought I heard footsteps.\n\n   \"The rapping was not in any way an alarming noise.\n\n   \"On Saturday night 'Ouija' had said that I was not to be\n   disturbed that night, so I was 'not expecting.' It also stated\n   that Nos. 3 and 8 were the rooms that 'the Major' occupied.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n   _March 8th, Monday._--Mr. C---- left early. He has promised to\n   write of any experience last night, as he was gone before we\n   were up. Colonel Taylor is still in No. 3; he has heard nothing,\n   but this is perhaps the less evidential, that, although a\n   frequent visitor to haunted houses, he has never had any\n   experience.\n\n   We are still in No. 8, in which we have had a sufficient number\n   of experiences to make us anxious to distribute responsibility\n   by handing it over to another sensitive at the earliest\n   possibility. Miss Langton has hitherto slept in No. 4, in which\n   she was put on her first arrival, except for the three nights\n   she was in No. 2, with companionship in the adjacent rooms.\n   There seems to be no object in the Colonel remaining in No. 3,\n   as he is unlikely to see or hear anything, and as soon as that\n   side of the house is quite emptied she proposes to go into No.\n   1, as we are anxious to discover whether her experience will\n   corroborate that of Miss Moore, myself, Mrs. B. C----, Mr.\n   Garford, and the maids, as to the sound of voices.\n\n   _March 9th, Tuesday._--Mr. C---- writes this morning in regard\n   to Sunday night: \"_March 8th._--... Last night I was not so much\n   disturbed, but I awoke at 3.10, and did not sleep after that. I\n   had exactly the same sensation as on the previous night, that\n   whenever I was going to sleep something woke me. At 5.20 I heard\n   three noises very close together, but they were very distant,\n   and sounded from the direction of your room\" (No. 8).\n\n   _March 10th, Wednesday._--I awoke about 5.30, and lay awake\n   reading. I had drawn the blinds up, but kept the candle in as\n   long as it was required. At intervals between twenty minutes to\n   six o'clock and ten minutes past I heard the sounds\n   characteristic of No. 8., viz., footsteps of a man, and\n   pattering of a dog. Miss Moore awoke, and heard the later\n   sounds. About 6.10 we both heard the thud, which seems to occur\n   generally beyond the wardrobe nearer the door.\n\n   In the afternoon Miss Moore and I called on Mrs. S----.\n\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n\n   _March 11th, Thursday._--Very wet day, no phenomena.\n\n   _March 12th, Friday._--Another wet day. I had had a headache all\n   day, and was unable to join the others in a walk when the rain\n   cleared off, but I went out, alone, about 6.30 to the copse.\n   Standing in my usual place, I saw the nun coming over the hill\n   towards the burn; she stood nearly opposite to me, looking down\n   to the water for a few minutes, and then moved away towards the\n   avenue. I followed as quickly as possible, but when I got to the\n   drive she was still a few yards ahead of me, and I failed to\n   catch her up, though I pursued her down to the lodge, about two\n   hundred yards; she then, passing through the gates, turned to\n   the left, and I lost her in the obscurity of the road, which is\n   there darkened by heavy trees. When I returned to the house I\n   was still in so much pain that I took a sedative draught and\n   went to bed, and to sleep at once.\n\nWith regard to the above it may be remarked that the way she came led\nfrom B---- Cottage, where by the kindness of Mr. S---- some nuns had\nformerly spent their annual holiday, and the road on which she\ndisappeared was a way which would have led back to it.\n\n   _March 13th, Saturday._--At ten o'clock last night Miss Moore\n   woke me to take some food. I was still under the influence of\n   the opiate, and did not really rouse, even when she came to bed\n   half-an-hour later. We did not speak till I was aroused by a\n   loud banging noise, when, in answer to my startled exclamation,\n   Miss Moore suggested that it was probably the servants shutting\n   up downstairs, as we were early, and they had very likely not\n   yet gone to bed. I was much annoyed, as I knew they had been\n   cautioned to keep quiet, and even the maid had not been allowed\n   to enter my room. This morning, when Miss Moore went to see the\n   housekeeper, the butler came in and asked if we had heard any\n   noises last night, about a quarter to eleven o'clock, he\n   thought, after every one had gone up to bed; adding, \"It was two\n   bangs like a fist on a door, and I said, 'If that isn't Miss\n   Moore or Miss Langton, I'll believe in the noises they all talk\n   about,'--it's just like what the gentlemen told me.\"\n\n   His wife had also heard the bangs, but had waited for him to\n   speak to her of them, and the maids on the other side of the\n   house had been roused to come to their door and listen.\n\n   The footman, who sleeps in the basement, and the Colonel, who\n   was in the smoking-room in the wing till 11.30, heard nothing;\n   but Miss Langton, in No. 4, to whom Miss Moore mentioned the\n   servants' story, had heard noises \"between 10.30 and 10.45,\" but\n   had not been disturbed, thinking, as we had done, that they were\n   probably made by the servants.\n\n   On inquiry we found that the cook had gone to bed directly after\n   the servants' supper, the two under maids were up by ten o'clock\n   (Miss Moore heard their voices when she came to my room at ten\n   o'clock), and the upper housemaid had gone up a few minutes\n   after the hall clock struck, following Miss Moore up the stairs.\n   The butler had come up directly after, only waiting to put out\n   the hall lamp, and all were in bed before 10.30. We ourselves\n   noticed the striking of the hall clock _after_ we heard the\n   noise--it had gone wrong, and only struck nine instead of eleven\n   o'clock--so there seems little doubt that we all heard the same\n   sound, and all describe it as coming from below.\n\n   In discussing the occurrence with the butler and his wife, Miss\n   Moore learned that they had lately heard a story [from a local\n   resident] which was new to us. A maid of Mrs. S----, who, though\n   married to the butler, still lived in the house, and performed\n   her duties as usual, was one night coming up the back-stairs\n   with a tray for Mrs. S----, when, on reaching the top, by the\n   door of No. 3, she met the figure of a nun, which so frightened\n   her that she dropped the tray and broke all the plates on it.\n   Mrs. S---- explained it away by saying it was \"only ----\" (they\n   could not remember her name) \"come to pray with her.\" It was\n   Sunday night, but they knew there was no one there who could in\n   the least account for the appearance. The only explanation\n   offered by the narrator of the story was that \"there had been a\n   Miss S----, a nun, who had died.\"\n\n   _March 14th, Sunday._--I called on Mrs. S----, and had a long\n   talk with her.\n\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n\n   _March 15th, Monday._--Miss Moore and I, both awake at the time,\n   heard a loud, vibrating noise about a quarter to six. Miss\n   Langton in No. 4 heard it also. The Colonel, who sleeps\n   downstairs, heard it as from the hall, and said he also felt the\n   vibration. Except for about three nights he has always slept in\n   the wing, where, during our tenancy, there have been no\n   phenomena.\n\n   _March 16th, Tuesday._--Miss Moore, Miss Langton, the Colonel,\n   and I, left B----. Miss Moore, Miss Langton, and I returning on\n   March 20th.\n\n   After leaving B---- Colonel Taylor wrote as follows to Lord\n   Bute:--\n\n   _March 19th, 1897._--\"I arrived in London yesterday, after\n   having spent five weeks at B---- very pleasantly. I feel sure\n   that there _is_ a ghostly influence pervading the house, but I\n   am a little disappointed at the way in which it manifests\n   itself, for, up to the time I left, the nature of the\n   manifestations was such that, though it is satisfactory to me,\n   it would not be so, I think, to those who do not look at such\n   things from so favourable a position as I do.\n\n   \"I hope a change may yet come, and things take place which one\n   might think would justify people in evacuating and forfeiting\n   their money as the H----s did; certainly nothing of this sort\n   happened while I was there.\n\n   \"It is very interesting to note Miss Freer's experiences, but in\n   regard to those of others who have something to relate, it is\n   perhaps difficult to determine how much these statements should\n   be discounted for error of observation and self-suggestion. I\n   heard many noises in the night during my stay at B----, but they\n   were of much the same sort I have been accustomed to hear at a\n   similar time in other houses. I think that some of our witnesses\n   may have given them undue prominence, under the influence of\n   their own expectancy. The clairvoyant visions of 'Ishbel' in the\n   grounds are not of great evidential value for the scientific\n   world in general, and I think that any amount of 'voices' could\n   be read into the noises of the running stream, near where she is\n   seen, by those who 'wished to hear.' Still, there are some\n   objective noises which cannot be easily accounted for in an\n   ordinary way, and the three almost independent visions of the\n   brown cross are important.\n\n   \"I hope things will improve; in any case, you will have added\n   considerably to psychical research when all has been\n   recorded....\"\n\nIt is difficult perhaps to see why Colonel Taylor should regard the\nindependent visions of the crucifix as of more value than the equally\nindependent and far more numerous hallucinations, audible and visual,\nof \"Ishbel.\" We have the statements of the failure of several persons\nwho \"wished to hear\" voices in the sounds of the burn, which was,\nmoreover, frozen and silent when the voices were heard by the first\ntwo non-expectant and quite independent witnesses.\n\n   _March 19th._--A passage in Miss Langton's private journal under\n   this date is as follows:--\n\n   \"_St. Andrews, March 19th._--I looked into a water-bottle\n   to-night to see if I could see anything of what was happening at\n   B----. I distinctly saw room No. 3, and gradually a figure came\n   into view between the two doors (_i.e._ near the foot of the\n   bed), the figure of a tall woman, dressed in a long clinging\n   robe of grey, and who seemed to be holding something in her\n   hand, against the wall at the foot of the bed. This became more\n   distinct, and I saw that it was a cross of dark brown wood, some\n   12 inches long (I should say). The figure did not appear to\n   move. I seemed to be standing at the door of No. 3, which opens\n   on to the landing\" (_cf._ pp. 17, 132, 142).\n\nFor the information of those not accustomed to the phenomena of\ncrystal-gazing, it may be as well to remark that it is quite possible\nthat the image had been subconsciously seen by Miss Langton when\nsleeping in No. 3, as deferred impressions are often externalised for\nthe first time in the crystal. She may equally have received the\nimpression by thought-transference from others. Certainly she had not\nbeen informed of earlier experiences.\n\n   _March 20th, Saturday._--Miss Langton, Miss Moore, and I\n   returned to B---- house. Four guests arrived in time for dinner.\n\n   Rooms for to-night:--\n\n    1. Miss Moore and I.\n    2. Miss Langton.\n    3. Miss \"Duff,\" a lady whose name is familiar to readers of\n       recent records of crystal-gazing and other students of\n       the literature of the Psychical Research Society.\n    4. Mr. MacP----.\n    5. Mr. W----.\n    8. Colonel C----.\n\n   _March 21st, Sunday._--Last night, about 11.15, after Miss Moore\n   and I were in bed in No. 1, we heard a loud sound from the\n   left-hand side of the fireplace (south-west corner). It might be\n   imitated by the \"giving\" of a large tin box (_cf._ pp. 173,\n   179). There was nothing but a footstool and a draped\n   dressing-table there. We called out to Miss Langton, whom we\n   could hear still moving about. She said she had heard the noise,\n   but had made none herself.\n\n   Her account is as follows:--\n\n   \"Last night (Sunday, March 21st) we retired to bed early, as\n   Miss Moore was leaving by an early train next morning, and I was\n   going to get up in order to see her off. It was certainly not\n   later than 10.45, when I went to my room, having gone to No. 1\n   to say good-night to Miss Freer and Miss Moore, who were\n   sleeping that night in that room. Miss 'Duff' was in No. 3, and\n   I was occupying No. 2. I am not at all nervous, and certainly I\n   was not expecting to see anything, as No. 2 is always supposed\n   to be a 'quiet' room. I was some time getting to bed, but I put\n   out my candle at twelve o'clock, and, after noticing that the\n   moon was shining brightly, I got into bed. Contrary to my usual\n   custom I did not fall asleep for some time, and I felt that the\n   room was, in some inexplicable way, not as usual. At last I fell\n   asleep, but not comfortably. I kept waking, and for some time\n   after each awakening I could not get to sleep again. I put this\n   down, however, to the fact that I wanted to waken early the next\n   morning, and was restless in consequence. At last I really fell\n   asleep, but at 4.30 I suddenly awakened with the feeling that I\n   was not alone in the room. I looked round; the room was quite\n   dark; the moon was not shining, but between the bed and the\n   wardrobe there was a figure standing. At first it was very\n   indistinct and misty, but gradually it formed itself into the\n   figure of a woman--a slight, tall woman, with a pale face. She\n   was dressed in long robes, but the upper part was the only part\n   I could see clearly. Round her face and head was a white band,\n   like that worn by a nun, and over her head was what might have\n   been a black hood or small shawl, but in the darkness it was\n   very difficult to distinguish. I could not see what her features\n   were like, but she looked as if she were in trouble, and\n   entreating some one to help her. She stood for some few moments\n   at the foot of my bed looking towards me, and then she made a\n   movement towards the door, but before she reached it she had\n   vanished. I was not at all frightened, as there was nothing at\n   all alarming in her appearance. I cannot write a better\n   description of her, as the vision was so short. The figure was\n   the same as that I had seen at the burn, only very much\n   clearer.\"\n\n   Miss \"Duff\" writes under this date March 21st:--\"On my arrival\n   yesterday I was shown to my room (No. 3), which I had selected,\n   with Miss Freer's permission, as one said to have an evil\n   reputation. Perhaps it was natural that a feeling 'as if I were\n   not alone' should come over me, and needless to say there was no\n   _apparent_ cause for this!\n\n   \"As a rule I am a very sound sleeper, nothing ever disturbs me;\n   but last night I was suddenly wide awake, as if roused by\n   something unusual. I sat up quickly in bed, but suddenly\n   remembering where I was, I waited expectantly. Nothing occurred,\n   although I did not get to sleep again for about two hours.\"\n\n   _March 22nd, Monday._--Mr. MacP---- was awakened between four\n   and five by heavy footsteps overhead. We made many experiments\n   to account for it, and of course made inquiries among the\n   servants, but could find no cause. We are the more interested\n   that hitherto nothing has been heard by our party in his room,\n   No. 4, though there is a tradition of earlier disturbances\n   there.\n\nMr. MacP---- has furnished the following account of his experience:--\n\n\"As usual I went to bed about 12 P.M. I had no desire to be disturbed,\nand so my room was still No. 4, which I had originally selected as\nbeing reputed innocuous, and which, save in one slight instance, I had\nhitherto found to deserve its reputation. My repeated visits had\neliminated any expectancy which may at first have, perhaps, existed.\n\n\"My bed was alongside the south wall of my room, and parallel to the\ncorridor or passage, my head towards No. 5, and my feet towards No. 3.\n\n\"As often happened at B----, I awoke from a sound slumber, not by\ndegrees, but in a moment. There was no transition--no half-awakening,\nbut full and complete consciousness all at once. I struck a light,\nlooked at my watch, found it was 4.30, and went to sleep again\nimmediately. I then wakened slowly and gradually, hearing more and\nmore clearly a noise which appeared to me to be the cause of my\nawakening. The noise was the kind of sound which is produced by a\nperson walking rapidly with one foot longer than the other--_i.e._,\nit was a succession of beats in rapid sequence, each alternate beat\nbeing louder than the one immediately before it.\n\n\"It appeared to me (1) to be produced outside my room; (2) to be on a\nhigher level; and (3) to be moving in the direction of my bed--_i.e._,\ngoing as from No. 5 past No. 4, in which I was, towards No. 3. I at\nonce jumped out of bed, opened my door and looked out. I saw nothing,\nand the noise stopped. I then struck a light, and found that it was\nonly 4.45. I lay awake till I heard the servants obviously moving\nabout, and then went to sleep again. At breakfast I asked, 'Has\nanybody ever heard this kind of noise?' reproducing it as well as I\ncould by a series of thumps on the table. 'Oh yes,' was the answer,\n'that is what we call the 'limping' or 'scuttering' noise. Of course I\nhad heard the phrases used, but thought they referred to two separate\nnoises. I had also formed quite distinct ideas as to the kind of\nnoises these epithets were intended to describe--both entirely\ndifferent from the kind of noise I had heard--and I showed what I\nmeant. 'Oh no,' said Miss Freer, 'what you heard is what we have been\ncalling indiscriminately the _limping_ or _scuttering_ noise, and we\nhave not heard the kinds of noise these words suggested to you.' I\nemphasise this as showing clearly that I cannot have been expecting to\nhear the particular noise in question.\n\n\"The next thing was to account for the noise, if possible, and we\nspent some time experimenting. First of all the servants were\ninterrogated as to whether any of them had been moving about at 4.45.\nAnswer, 'No.' Next we asked who got up first. This was a maid who\nslept in X, and went into Y to call the kitchenmaid, who slept there.\nTo do so she had, of course, to go through the narrow room which was\nover part of my bedroom.\n\n\"This, she said, was a good bit later than 4.45. But we thought it\nwell to make her go from X to Y while I lay down on my bed and\nlistened. We made her walk backwards and forwards, both with her\nslippers on and also in her stocking soles. I and some of the others\nwho came into my room heard her quite distinctly. But (1) the noise of\nher steps was in a different place--near my window, and exactly in\nthe line of her progress; (2) it was an entirely different kind of\nnoise. She walked now fast, and now slowly, but both footsteps seemed\nalways of the same weight; and (3), and this, to my mind, was most\nimportant, we heard her quite distinctly going from X to Y, and back\nagain from Y to X and could tell in which direction she was moving.\nNow, the noise which I had heard only went in the one direction,\n_i.e._, parallel to the maid's outward progress. I did not hear\nanything going in the other direction. I was entirely wakened by the\nnoise which I had heard, and, as I have said, I continued to listen\nintently for some considerable time, and yet I heard nothing.\n\n\"In short, alike from its apparent _locus_, from its quality, and from\nthe direction of its movements, I am convinced that the noise which I\nheard was not caused by any of the servants moving about upstairs.\n\n\"Anybody who knows the house will understand that where the noise\nseemed to me to be was in the neighbourhood of the dome. For all I\nknow, the dome, as somebody suggested, may be a regular\nsounding-board; but even so, that does not help much towards an\nexplanation. Wherever the noise may have been produced, the question\nstill remains, 'What produced it?' and that we have entirely failed to\nanswer.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe gist of this account was communicated by Mr. MacP---- to the Hon.\nE---- F----, who replied as follows on April 19, 1897: \"Do you\nappreciate the fact that your ghost, with the footsteps of alternate\nlowness and softness, is absolutely correct, and corresponds with Miss\nH----'s ghost, as I heard it from Mrs. G---- lately in town. Miss\nH---- slept, I _think_, in No. 4 [this is wrong; _cf._ p. 124], and\nwas wakened by the sound of walking round her bed with a peculiar\nlimp. Much alarmed, she went and called her brother, who came and\nslept on the sofa (is there a sofa in No. 4?), and shortly afterwards\nthey both heard the same noise again.\"\n\nMr. MacP----, as already mentioned, did not know that this noise had\nbeen heard by any one.\n\n   Miss \"Duff\" thus describes her next night: \"Having heard nothing\n   unusual all day, I went to bed quite disappointed. However, I\n   was to be again awakened, and this time by a loud _crash_ at my\n   door, which resounded for some time. I lit a candle, but nothing\n   had fallen in my room to account for the sound.\n\n   \"I began to think I might be mistaken as to the direction of the\n   noise, and that it might have been caused by a large piece of\n   coal falling in the fender. I went to look, but there was no\n   coal at all, only the dying embers in the fire. I soon fell\n   asleep again, only to be again awakened by a similar crash\n   (although not so loud), and this time between the washstand and\n   the window. I kept awake till morning, and heard nothing more.\"\n   [We had carefully concealed from Miss \"Duff\" the nature of the\n   usual phenomena of this room.]\n\n   _March 23rd, Tuesday._--Mr. L---- and his friend Captain B----\n   arrived.\n\nThe proof of this portion of the Journal was submitted to Mr. L----,\nwho returned it with, _inter alia_, the following note:--\n\n\"I do not wish to suppress the fact of my visit to B----, but object\nto the publication of any details about me or any of my writings.\" In\ndeference to Mr. L----'s wish, therefore, his contributions to the\nJournal have been withdrawn, and all further references to him\ndeleted.\n\nCaptain B---- had no experiences, and by his desire some interesting\nsuggestions made by him as to possible normal causes have been\nomitted.\n\n   We are now sleeping as follows:--\n\n    1. Captain B----.\n    2. Miss Langton.\n    3. Miss \"Duff.\"\n    4. Mr. MacP----.\n    5. Myself.\n    6. Mr. L----.\n    7. Colonel C----.\n\n   Miss \"Duff\" writes under this date:--\n\n   \"Last night I sat late by my fire _expecting_, but as nothing\n   seemed to be going to happen I went to bed, and soon to sleep.\n   However, I was to have my most startling experience! I was\n   awakened as if by some one violently shaking my bed (I must\n   mention there was a great wind blowing outside), and at the same\n   time I felt something press heavily upon me. _I struck out!_\n   rather frightened, but remembering again where I was, refrained\n   from striking a light, in order to see the next development of\n   this weird experience. To my disappointment nothing happened,\n   although sleep was successfully banished till daylight.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n   [On March 28th Miss \"Duff\" wrote to me: \"Mr. ---- suggested that\n   I should describe to you more accurately the shaking of my bed,\n   as it was not at all such a vibration as might be caused by a\n   high wind or any ordinary movement occurring in other parts of\n   the House.\n\n   \"The bed seemed to heave in the centre, as if there were some\n   force under it, which raised it in the centre and rocked it\n   violently for a moment and then let it sink again. I should also\n   have added, that on other nights quite as windy this phenomenon\n   did not occur; in fact, no movement I have ever felt has given\n   me quite the same sensation. The highest point on the\n   'Switchback' is the nearest to it in my experience. I was wide\n   awake at the time, so it was no nightmare.\"]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n   Miss \"Duff\" thus continues her account of Tuesday, March 23rd:--\n\n   \"This morning, as I sat in the drawing-room, I heard the low,\n   monotonous voice of some one reading aloud. Knowing that Miss\n   Freer and Miss Langton were writing in the next room, I\n   concluded that Miss Freer must be dictating while Miss Langton\n   wrote for her, although I must say I did not recognise Miss\n   Freer's voice. This went on for about an hour. Soon after Miss\n   Langton came into the drawing-room, and I said, 'Well, you\n   _have_ been busy; I suppose Miss Freer has been dictating to\n   you?' She looked surprised and said, 'No, indeed she hasn't; we\n   have both been writing, and if Miss Freer spoke at all, it was\n   only a few words now and again.'\" This low monotonous sound of a\n   human voice I afterwards heard once or twice in Room 3.\n\n   _March 24th, Wednesday._--Last night I heard a crash as of\n   something falling from the dome into the hall, about twenty\n   minutes to twelve.\n\n   At breakfast Colonel C---- said he had heard a loud thump on his\n   door at an early hour--before six, when wide awake.\n\n   Mr. W---- also had had an experience. He heard sounds outside\n   his room, and went to investigate. On returning he found the\n   kitten in his room, but, sceptic as he is, he acknowledged\n   freely that the kitten, a wee thing, could not have produced the\n   sounds he heard.\n\n   _Copy of letter from_ Mr. W---- _to_ Mr. MacP----.\n\n   \"_March 24th, 1897._-- ... In case it may interest Miss Freer to\n   know what I thought of the noises I heard in No. 1 prior to the\n   kitten incident, the following states my recollections shortly:\n   The first noise was about half-past four, and resembled two\n   small explosions, such as a fire sometimes makes. They followed\n   one another closely, and came from the direction of the\n   fireplace or the south-west corner of the room. I got up and\n   looked at the fire, and it was all but out; but I would not like\n   to swear that the noises did not come from it.\n\n   \"As to the other noise, it occurred about a quarter to six, and\n   was quite loud. It sounded as if one of the large, deer heads on\n   the staircase wall had fallen down and rolled a step or two. I\n   cannot understand how some of the others did not hear the noise,\n   but I heard and saw nothing when I went out of my room to see\n   what it was.\n\n   \"I should add, that in this case, as well as in the former one,\n   I was awake when the noise occurred. If I had heard these noises\n   in any other house I would not have thought of noticing them,\n   but it might be curious to see if they are the same that have\n   been heard in that room already.\"\n\n   After breakfast I heard of a great excitement among the\n   servants, and taking Miss Langton with me, to serve as witness\n   and to take notes, I interviewed separately the three concerned,\n   as well as the cook, to whom they had told the story also. It is\n   worth while to mention that I have several times heard the\n   kitchenmaid complained of as lacking in respect for her\n   betters--in scoffing at their reports of phenomena. Only\n   yesterday Mrs. Robinson told me she had not mentioned several\n   things (bell-ringing, a knock at her door, &c.) because it upset\n   her authority in the kitchen to exhibit interest in such things.\n\n   All the stories were consistent, and no cross-questioning upset\n   the evidence. They were distinctly in earnest.\n\n   The three maids and a temporary servant, M----, belonging to the\n   district, went up to their rooms about 10.30. The two housemaids\n   sleep together [in Z], Lizzie, the kitchenmaid, separately, in a\n   room adjoining [in Y]. Directly after getting into bed all heard\n   knockings, and they called out between the rooms to each other.\n   Lizzie stayed awake, and looking up towards the ceiling had what\n   sounds like a hypna-gogic hallucination, of a cloud which\n   changed rapidly in colour, shape, and size, and alarmed her\n   greatly. Then she felt her clothes pulled off, but thought this\n   might be accidental, and tucked them in. Then she was sure they\n   were pulled off again, and screamed to the other maids. Neither\n   dared go to her, her screams were so terrifying; but they\n   finally opened the door of communication between the rooms, and\n   Carter went to fetch the temporary assistant from the other end\n   of the corridor, \"because she was such a good-living girl\"\n   (particular about fasting in Lent, I gather). The three then\n   returned for the kitchenmaid, and all spent the night in the\n   housemaid's room.\n\n   The upper housemaid went to Miss Langton's room this morning, I\n   hear, much upset and crying, and there can be no doubt of the\n   conviction of all the maids.\n\n   For the future they wish to occupy one room.\n\n   The cook, sleeping on the ground floor below No. 3, heard\n   footsteps and knockings, and awoke her husband, but he heard\n   nothing. She diagnosed it as being \"about the door of Miss\n   'Duff's' room (No. 3 above). She thought it was outside of her\n   door, but was not sure. It was just after midnight.\n\n   Miss \"Duff\" writes on the same day:--\n\n   \"Last night I had just got into bed, when I heard footsteps, so,\n   always on the alert for phenomena, I listened and was relieved\n   (? disappointed would be better!) to hear Mr. ---- cough, so I\n   settled down to sleep. A quarter of an hour or twenty minutes\n   later (about twelve o'clock) I again heard steps, but this time\n   they came from the back-stair and shuffled past my room, and\n   then I heard a loud fall against what seemed to me the door of\n   room No. 1, which is practically next door to mine.[E]\n\n   \"I went to listen, but not a sound was to be heard, and I saw no\n   one. It could not have been the gentleman who was occupying that\n   room [Mr. W----], as I heard him (with others) come up a quarter\n   of an hour later and go into his room. Although the fall seemed\n   _against_ the door of No. 1, I must add that the depth and\n   quality of the noise was as if a large body had fallen far away,\n   of which we only, as it were, heard the echo, but that _quite\n   distinctly on_ the door of No. 1.\"\n\n   [Miss Langton testifies to being disturbed by the same sounds in\n   No. 2, the dressing-room between Miss \"Duff's\" room and Mr.\n   W----'s.]\n\n   Miss \"Duff\" continues:--\n\n   \"_March 25th._--Last night I felt my bed shake, as if some one\n   had taken it in both hands, but as there was a high wind, I did\n   not take much notice of this. I have had my bed shaken\n   violently in that room once before, however, when there was no\n   wind at all.\"\n\n   Mr. MacP---- and Captain B---- left. The only phenomenon to be\n   noted under this date is the following record by Miss Langton:--\n\n   \"I heard a loud thump at the door of communication between Nos.\n   1 and 2 when dressing for dinner, but on going into No. 1 found\n   it quite empty. A curious point about these noises is that the\n   knocks on the door between Nos. 1 and 2 have been audible in\n   this room, No. 2 (in my experience) only when No. 1 is empty,\n   and in No. 1 only when No. 2 is empty.\"\n\n   _March 26th, Friday._\n\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n\n   Miss \"Duff\" writes on the same day:--\n\n   \"As I was talking to Miss Langton at the door of her room (No.\n   2) on my way to dress for dinner, a double bang on the door came\n   from the inside of room No. 1, which was the one Captain B----\n   had occupied, and where he had heard nothing. At the same moment\n   Miss Langton called out that there had been a bang on the door\n   between her room and No. 1. For a moment I hesitated to go in,\n   but a housemaid came down the corridor at that moment to see\n   what the noise was she had heard, and we investigated together,\n   but to no purpose.\"\n\n   Miss Langton writes further under this date:--\n\n   \"I heard three distinct bangs at the lower part of the door of\n   my room leading into the corridor. I described it to myself as a\n   person coming along the corridor towards No. 2, walking in an\n   unsteady way, and as if he could not see where he was going, and\n   then walking straight against the door of my room and banging\n   his foot against it. Miss 'Duff' this morning acted at our\n   request as I have just described, and the noise she made was an\n   exact reproduction of what I heard last night. The bang occurred\n   at three intervals--at 11.35, 11.45, and 11.50.\"\n\n   _March 27th, Saturday._--Mr. ---- and Miss \"Duff\" left. Miss\n   Langton and I are now alone.\n\n   Miss \"Duff\" was undisturbed last night.\n\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n\n   There was very little wind last night, as I happen to know in\n   the following connection. Carter twice over, about 11.30 and\n   again after midnight, heard the sounds of reading, which she\n   imitated to me this morning--like the monotoning of a psalm. She\n   called out to two other maids to listen, and all three heard it.\n   She felt sure it was not the wind or the pipes. Both the\n   gardener and the gamekeeper say it was a very quiet night.\n\n   _March 28th, Sunday._--As it had been suggested that practical\n   joking or malicious mischief were in question, we were a good\n   deal on the _qui vive_ to-night, being alone. I watched from\n   behind the curtain at an open window from 10.30 P.M. till after\n   midnight, and again from 4.30 A.M. to 6 A.M. The night was windy\n   and there was a good deal of noise, but very different in kind\n   from any of our usual phenomena. We found that there were people\n   moving about till after midnight, but we did not attach much\n   importance to this, as the gardeners may have been to the stoves\n   (the night was frosty), and there is a right-of-way through the\n   grounds.\n\n   No phenomena.\n\n   The servants, we find, are alive to the fact that some one\n   prowls about at night. The footman, who sleeps downstairs, says\n   they have tried to frighten him, and things have been thrown at\n   the kitchen windows. I found it out by the fact that I was\n   seized by the butler and footman when I went out \"prowling\" on\n   Sunday night, fancying I had heard footsteps. They were on the\n   same errand, and caught me in the dark!\n\n   _March 29th, Monday._--To-day Miss Langton and I have been very\n   busy writing in the library, both silent and occupied. Again and\n   again have we heard footsteps overhead in No. 8, at intervals\n   between ten A.M. and one, and again in the evening between six\n   and seven. No rooms are in use on that side of the house--6, 7,\n   and 8 are all empty. The rooms below are locked up and\n   shuttered. At 11.30 we both heard some one moving about outside\n   on the gravel, but it was too dark a night to see any one.\n\n   [_Friday, April 2nd_--An unpleasant light has (possibly) been\n   thrown on these movements. We find to-day that some one has\n   killed a sheep in the garden, in a retired spot, taking away the\n   skin and the meat.]\n\n   _March 30th, Tuesday._--No phenomena, except the sound of steps\n   overhead above the library. For this reason, Miss Langton is\n   going to sleep in No. 8, where the steps occur.\n\n   Mr. and Mrs. M---- came.\n\n   [We were particularly glad to welcome Mrs. M---- for other\n   reasons than the pleasure of her society. She is of Spanish\n   origin, and a Roman Catholic, and according to previous\n   evidence, so were other persons upon whom specially interesting\n   phenomena had been bestowed.]\n\n   Mr. B. S---- and Miss V. S----, brother and sister of the owner,\n   dined with us.\n\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n\n   _March 31st, Wednesday._--Mr. and Mrs M---- were put into No. 1.\n   Both complain of a very sleepless night.\n\n   Miss Langton in No. 8 heard sounds after daylight--footsteps\n   shuffling round the bed, and a knock near the wardrobe. No one\n   is overhead nor in No. 7, the next room.\n\n   Mrs. M---- spent two hours alone in the drawing-room. She asked\n   me just before lunch what guns those were she had heard. I\n   suggested \"The keeper?\" and she said, \"No, it is like the gun\n   you hear at Edinburgh at one o'clock _a long way off_,\" which is\n   a good description of the familiar detonating sound (_cf._ under\n   date, February 8).\n\n   Her own account of the day is as follows:--\n\n  \"B---- HOUSE.\n\n   \"I arrived here last evening, Tuesday, 30th of March, about six\n   o'clock. It was a nice bright evening, but cold. I was received\n   by Miss Freer, who gave me some tea, and then I was taken to my\n   bedroom by Miss Langton, of whom I asked if my room was haunted.\n   She said it had 'a reputation', but somehow or another it did\n   not seem to impress me much. That night Miss S---- and her\n   brother dined here; they were very pleasant, and talked away\n   hard, and we played card games, such as 'Old Maid' and\n   'Muggins.' We went to bed feeling quite happy, saying we had\n   never been in such an unghostly house before. The bed was quite\n   comfortable, and we lay talking quite happily, but could not\n   sleep, and were not in the least bit restless. About two o'clock\n   we dozed off, and a few minutes to four A.M. we were both\n   suddenly awoke by a terrific noise, which sounded to me like the\n   lid of the coal-scuttle having caught in a woman's gown. We then\n   lay awake until about 6.30, and in that interval we heard a few\n   noises, what I cannot exactly describe, as they were very\n   ordinary sounds one might hear in any not very solidly built\n   house. We came down to breakfast feeling we had passed a\n   sleepless night, but otherwise quite happy. After breakfast I\n   went into the smoking-room in the new wing, where my husband was\n   writing letters. I sat there a good time, and he was in and out\n   of the room. All the time I heard tramping up above as if the\n   housemaid was doing the room. Not knowing the geography of the\n   house I took it for No. 8. and thought what very noisy servants\n   these were. I then went into the drawing-room to write my own\n   letters, and Miss Freer came and spoke to me there. While she\n   was with me there, I heard a distant cannon, exactly like the\n   one o'clock gun in Edinburgh, and the whole morning a ceaseless\n   chatter, which I put down to Miss Freer and Miss Langton in the\n   room next door (_cf._ under date, March 23rd).\n\n   _April 1st, Thursday._--This is Mrs. M----'s account of last\n   night. \"Last evening we were late for dinner, as Mr. M---- and I\n   had been out to see the nun by the burn, but had seen nothing.\n   The whole evening I had a sort of half consciously disagreeable\n   feeling, and when I went to my room it was some time before I\n   could make up my mind to get into bed. The servants very much\n   annoyed me; they were making such a needless amount of noise in\n   running about the room overhead. [The room overhead was empty.\n   Since their adventure of March 23rd, the servants had slept on\n   the other side of the house.] At last I got into bed, and I may\n   say I hardly slept a wink the whole night. I simply lay in\n   terror, of what I cannot say, but I had the feeling of some very\n   disagreeable sensation in the air, but we did not hear a sound\n   all night from the time we got into bed until we got up next\n   morning at 8.30.\n\n   \"I spent the whole of the morning in the drawing-room writing\n   letters and reading, and from time to time I went up to No. 1 to\n   get books and different things, and each time was a little\n   surprised to find the room empty, as there had been a ceaseless\n   noise of housemaids, and very noisy ones too. I also heard what\n   I had described before as the cannon. After luncheon Miss Freer\n   and Miss Langton and I went out walking, and just as we were\n   coming in to tea we all three heard the cannon, and then I said\n   that is the noise I heard every morning, and sometimes in the\n   evening, in the drawing-room.\"\n\n   This afternoon we were having tea in the drawing-room at 4.30,\n   Mrs. M----, Miss Langton, and myself. We heard some one walking\n   overhead in No. 1, a sound we have heard often before, when we\n   knew the room to be empty above. Mrs. M---- remarked that it was\n   just the sound she had heard, again and again, when sitting\n   alone in the drawing-room.\n\n   It was so exactly the heavy, heelless steps we had heard before,\n   that Miss L---- ran upstairs softly to see if any one was there,\n   but found no one about. Next we heard a loud bang--not of a\n   door--in the hall, and she went out again to ascertain the\n   cause, and met the butler on the same errand. We could find\n   nothing to account for it. It was like the noise before\n   described, of something dropped heavily into the hall from the\n   gallery above.\n\n   There had been so much trouble of ascertaining whether the\n   noises were caused by doors banging, that since the warmer\n   weather set in, ever since our return on March 20th, in fact, we\n   have had every passage-door opening into the hall and into the\n   gallery upstairs fixed open with wedges.\n\n   We had scarcely settled to our tea again before we again heard\n   the footsteps overhead, and again Miss Langton went up and found\n   the room empty. She walked across the room, and we heard her do\n   so, but the sound was quite different. She did it noisily on\n   purpose, but though she is very big and tall, she didn't sound\n   heavy enough.\n\n   Mrs. M---- remarks, on hearing this read over, that the sound\n   was different in character as well as in volume--that the\n   footsteps she (and we) heard were \"between a run and a walk.\" My\n   phrase was, and has always been, \"as of the quick, heavy steps\n   of a person whose foot-gear didn't match.\" We called it, when we\n   first heard it in No. 8, a \"shuffling step.\"\n\n   After she came down the servants' tea-bell rang, and we at once\n   said, \"Now we shall know where they all are.\" The hall is under\n   the wing, at the other end of the house, and we knew that the\n   room underneath us was empty, and the shutters up, and that all\n   who were in the house were either in the drawing-room or the\n   servants' hall.\n\n   In a few minutes we again heard the pacing footsteps, up and\n   down, up and down; we heard them at intervals during\n   half-an-hour. We also heard voices as of a man and woman\n   talking. I went to the foot of the stairs, just below the door\n   of No. 1, and heard them plain. Mrs. M---- is not quick of\n   hearing, but she heard them distinctly several times. At 5.20 we\n   heard the maids go up the stone staircase, coming away from\n   their tea, and though we listened till after six, the other\n   sounds did not occur again.\n\n   _April 2nd, Friday._\n\n   [Mr. M---- left early, Mrs. M---- remaining till a later train.]\n\n   At 11.15 Miss Langton and I were in the library at two different\n   tables writing. The room was silent. Suddenly we heard a heavy\n   blow struck on a third table, ten feet at least away from either\n   of us. I instantly fetched Mrs. M----, and in her hearing Miss\n   Langton imitated the sound on the same table, by hitting with\n   her fist as heavily as possible. There is a drawer in the table,\n   empty, which added to the vibration, and also pendent brass\n   handles. I tried, but could not make noise enough. We kept watch\n   in the room till lunch, Mrs. M---- keeping guard when we were\n   obliged to leave, but nothing happened till, when we were\n   sitting at luncheon (there is only a single door and a curtain\n   between the two rooms), we heard it again as above described.\n\n   One of the informants, who described the scene which occurred\n   the day the late Mr. S---- left this house for the last time,\n   said \"a very heavy blow like a man's fist came on the table\n   between them.\" This is the same room.\n\n   The same sound occurred again while we were at lunch in the\n   dining-room just now. The first time Miss Langton rushed to the\n   library and found a housemaid there at the stove, so we agreed\n   it should not count. It occurred again in about five minutes,\n   and again she went into the room (which is next the dining-room)\n   and found it empty and no one in the hall.\n\n   Mrs. M----, whom I asked to locate the sound, pointed to just\n   that part of the wall by the table upon which the knock had\n   struck.\n\n     Signed (as correct) by Mrs. M---- and Miss Langton.\n\n   (I have since asked the housemaid if she heard anything, and she\n   says no, she was making too much noise herself. We all heard it\n   distinctly, above the clatter of the fire-irons.)\n\n   On April 9th Mr. M---- sent me the following account of his\n   impressions:--\n\n   \"... You ask me to describe the noises I heard while staying\n   with you at B----. I should say, in the first place, that I am a\n   good, but light, sleeper; I seldom lie awake, am generally\n   asleep five minutes after going to bed, but wake easily, and\n   awake at once to full consciousness. I am not the least nervous,\n   and have often slept in so-called 'haunted' rooms [Mr. M---- has\n   had very exceptional opportunities in this direction]; and while\n   I certainly cannot say that I altogether disbelieve in what are\n   commonly called 'ghosts,' I do believe that in nine cases out of\n   ten, noises, and even appearances, may, if investigated, be\n   traced to perfectly normal causes.\n\n   \"We spent three nights at B----: March 30th and 31st, and April\n   1st. The first two nights room No. 1 was our bedroom, and the\n   third night room No. 8. Room No. 2 was my dressing-room.\n\n   \"When talking to you and Miss Langton at the top of the stairs,\n   just before going to bed, we all of us heard\n   noises--rappings--coming apparently from No. 2. The noises were\n   very undoubted, but as we were talking at the time I cannot\n   define them more accurately.\n\n   \"When first going to bed, both nights in No. 1, we heard\n   footsteps and voices apparently in conversation above us. The\n   sounds seemed to come from a room which was over the bed, but\n   did not extend as far as the fireplace in No. 1, and also from\n   the room which would be above the room next to ours behind the\n   bed.\"\n\nThe rooms overhead were empty. _Cf._ under date April 1st.\n\n   \"These noises I attributed at the time, and still attribute, to\n   the maids going to bed. I am bound to say, however, that they\n   were heard both by Mrs. M---- and her maid, who was in No. 1\n   with her, during the daytime, at an hour when it was said no\n   servants were upstairs. These voices and footsteps did not go on\n   for long into the night. For (I should say) some hours during\n   the night of the 30th, I frequently heard a sound which seemed\n   to come from near the fireplace, and which I can best describe\n   as a gentle tap on a drum--like some one tuning the kettle-drum\n   in an orchestra. I do not think Mrs. M---- heard this noise, for\n   though she slept very badly, she was dozing a good deal during\n   the first half of the night. At 3.55 A.M. I was in a state of\n   semi-consciousness, when both I and Mrs. M---- were fully\n   roused by a noise so loud that I wonder it did not wake people\n   sleeping in other parts of the house. It seemed to come either\n   from the door between No. 1 and 2, or from between that door and\n   the fireplace. To me it sounded like a kind of treble rap on a\n   hollow panel, but far louder than any one could rap with their\n   knuckles. My wife described it as the sound of some one whose\n   gown had caught the lid of a heavy coal-scuttle and let it fall.\n   This noise was not repeated, and by a treble rap I mean the\n   sound was like an arpeggio chord. I feel certain it was not\n   against the false window outside, indeed it had the sound of\n   being in the room. The kettle-drum sounds might easily have been\n   a trick of the wind, though the night was still, but the only\n   natural explanation of this noise that I can give is practical\n   joking, as the noise _might_ have come from my dressing-room.\n   The coal-scuttle was standing between the fireplace and\n   door-post, just where the sound seemed to come from. The second\n   night I moved the scuttle right away to between the head of the\n   bed and the window, and the noise was not repeated. The second\n   night the talking and footsteps were both heard when first we\n   went up; and once, shortly after all was still, early in the\n   night. Nevertheless we again both of us slept very badly\n   indeed--I may say that except from about 6 to 8 A.M. I slept\n   very little either night. I should say that all through both\n   nights I frequently heard the owls hooting--both the tawny owl\n   and another, which I think was the little owl; the former on one\n   occasion was very close to the window, and any one with a vivid\n   imagination or unacquainted with the cry of the owl (and,\n   strange as it may seem, a country-bred girl, staying at L----\n   the other day, did _not_ know the owls' cry when she heard it),\n   might well take it for shrieks.\"\n\n_N.B._--No one ever heard shrieks during Colonel Taylor's tenancy at\nB----.\n\n   \"The third night, as I have said, we were in No. 8, and both of\n   us slept like tops, and heard or saw nothing.\n\n   \"One morning, in the smoking-room in the east wing, I heard\n   voices which _seemed_ to come from above, but which I am\n   convinced were from the kitchen beneath.\n\n   \"As you know, 'Ishbel' was not kind enough to show herself to\n   me....\n\n   \"_P.S._--I wrote the above without reading over my wife's\n   account. I have only to add that I had none of the uncomfortable\n   sensations she talks of. Bodily and mentally I was comfortable\n   all night. Nor was I in the least restless--only wakeful. But\n   for the noises, B---- certainly strikes one as a very unghostly\n   house.\"\n\n   _April 3rd, Saturday._--Miss Langton and I heard footsteps\n   walking up and down overhead at dinner-time last night, in No.\n   7, a room which is not in use. We looked at each other, but did\n   not at first say anything, on account of the presence of the\n   servants. After it had gone on for at least ten minutes, I asked\n   the butler if he had heard them. He at once said, \"Yes, and\n   might he go and see if any one were about?\" We heard him go\n   upstairs and open the door of the room, and walk across it, but\n   his step was quite different from the sound we had heard. He\n   came back saying, \"The housemaid had been in to draw the blind\n   down since we had been at dinner.\" I have questioned her since,\n   and she says she simply went in and out again--was not there\n   half a minute.\n\n   About four o'clock this afternoon, Miss Langton ran in from the\n   garden where we were gathering fir-cones, to fetch a basket out\n   of the library, and heard so much noise going on in the\n   drawing-room that she went in to investigate. It was empty and\n   silent. The noise was a violent hammering on the door between\n   the two rooms on the drawing-room side.\n\n   The two rooms below the library and drawing-room were empty, and\n   shuttered (the smoking-room and billiard-room), No. 1 was\n   disused (over the drawing-room), and Miss Langton found no one\n   in No. 8 (over the library). She came back and told me at once.\n\n   I have now had the following rooms locked up and the keys taken\n   away by the butler:--\n\n   Ground floor: All the wing and drawing-room.\n\n   Above: 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. (I am sleeping in No. 5, Miss Langton\n   in No. 8.)\n\n   Basement: Smoking and billiard rooms.\n\n   Mr. T---- arrived in the afternoon. We were all out till\n   dinner-time. While at dinner, we all three, as well as the\n   butler, heard steps walking overhead in No. 7, as we did last\n   night.\n\n   _April 4th, Sunday._--I was wakened early this morning by the\n   sound of a crash. As it was mixed with my dreams I did not think\n   it worth while to get up and investigate, but looked at my\n   watch. It was twenty minutes to six. Five minutes later I heard\n   another crash under the dome--of the kind so often\n   described--and looked out, but the house was perfectly still. I\n   heard the servants come down about seven o'clock.\n\n   Miss Langton, sleeping in No. 8, describes the same sounds at\n   the same moment.\n\n   Mr. B. S---- and Miss S----, brother and sister of the\n   proprietor, called.\n\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n\n   Mr. T---- writes under this date:--\n\n   \"_April 4th, Sunday._--I heard footsteps overhead last evening\n   while at dinner. Sleeping in No. 1. To bed about 11 P.M. To\n   sleep in about half-an-hour. Meanwhile I heard sounds as of\n   reading aloud in No. 8. Woke at 6.20. Heard voices in No. 8\n   again.\"\n\n   _April 5th, Monday._--Mr. T---- said at breakfast that he had\n   heard sounds as of some one reading in Miss Langton's room, No.\n   8, between 11.0 and 11.30 P.M., and again the sound of voices\n   from the same room in the morning. Miss Langton was alone, nor,\n   as we have proved--(see under date March 2nd)--could any sound\n   of reading or speaking have been heard, had any really existed.\n\n   _April 6th, Tuesday._--Mr. T---- writes under this date:--\n\n   \"To my room last night about 11 P.M. Loud thuds on the floor\n   above me, and a heavy thud against the door dividing my room\n   (No. 1) from the dressing-room beyond (No. 2). I went out and\n   listened at the servants' staircase. They were talking, but not\n   moving about. [I learnt on inquiry that they were all in bed by\n   10.30.--A.G.F.] I went to sleep immediately after I got to bed,\n   but woke up later with a violent start, as if by a loud noise,\n   though I heard nothing. I waited a few minutes and then looked\n   at my watch. It was 12.30. I heard voices talking pretty loud. I\n   was awake over three-quarters of an hour, then slept till\n   5.30.\"\n\n   Mr. B. S---- was out fishing with Mr. T---- in the morning, and\n   came in to lunch and again to dinner. In the evening I had a\n   good deal of talk with him.\n\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n\n   This afternoon Mrs. ----, a lady well acquainted with the\n   neighbourhood, came to tea. She asked me about the hauntings,\n   and said they were matter of common talk in the district. She\n   also told me that in the late Mr. S----'s time it had been\n   alleged that the disturbances were intentional annoyances,\n   though she agreed it was rather a sustained effort.\n\n   I also called to say \"good-bye\" to Mrs. S.----, to whom I\n   remarked that, though I could not doubt the existence of\n   phenomena at B----, we had been most comfortable, and had\n   greatly liked the place.\n\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .\n\n   Early this morning (I am still sleeping in No. 5) I heard the\n   familiar crash under the dome. It was about 2.30. Mr. T---- said\n   at breakfast that he had heard it too.\n\n   _Wednesday 7th._--Mr. T---- writes under this date:--\n\n   \"To bed about eleven. To sleep at once. Awakened at 2.30 by a\n   terrific crash, and the sound of voices. A little later I heard\n   light raps at the foot of my door, as if a dog had wagged his\n   tail against it. Looked out, saw nothing; very disturbed night.\"\n\n   _April 8th, Thursday._--Mr. T---- writes, \"Woke last night at\n   12.30. Heard nothing, but slept very badly. I may mention that I\n   am, as a rule, a very sound sleeper, and as I had taken a lot of\n   exercise every day--fishing, shooting, cycling, and walking,\n   from breakfast-time to dark--there was no reason why I should\n   not sleep.\"\n\nMr. T---- had been out the whole of this day with the keepers--heather\nburning--and was obviously \"dead tired\" when he went to bed. It is\ncurious that even when not disturbed, he should have slept so badly,\nbut sleepless and nameless discomfort has assailed most persons in No.\n1, though the room is large and airy.\n\n   _April 8th, Thursday._--We had planned to leave yesterday, but\n   it was borne in upon me that to-day being the anniversary of the\n   Major's death, it would be a pity--on the hypothesis of there\n   being anything supernormal in these phenomena--that the house\n   should not be under observation to-night.\n\n   In the morning the Land-steward called, having heard from Mrs.\n   S---- that we had heard footsteps about the house at night, and\n   that I had several times observed a disreputable-looking man\n   about the place, whom I knew not to be one of the farm-servants.\n\n   The admissions hitherto made by him, and by ---- and ----, as to\n   some of the phenomena, carry the evidence back for over twenty\n   years.\n\n   I don't know whether we have been specially on the _qui vive_\n   to-day, but we seem to have heard bangs and crashes and\n   footsteps overhead all day, though all the rooms, except Nos. 1,\n   5, and 8 are locked up--Mr. T---- occupies No. 1, Miss Langton\n   No. 8, I No. 5.\n\n   Acting upon the hints given us by ---- and ----, I thought the\n   downstairs smoking-room ought to be specially under observation\n   to-day. I was suffering from acute headache, and was obliged to\n   lie down in my own room from lunch-time to dinner, and this\n   smoking-room, which is known as \"the Major's room,\" was the only\n   sitting-room in use. A few minutes before dinner, I went down\n   and busied myself in putting my camera to rights. It was a\n   delicate piece of work, and when I saw a black dog, which I\n   supposed for the moment to be \"Spooks\" (my Pomeranian), run\n   across the room towards my left, I stopped, fearing that she\n   would shake the little table on which the camera stood. I\n   immediately saw another dog, really Spooks this time, run\n   towards it from my right, with her ears pricked. Miss Langton\n   also observed this, and said, \"What is Spooks after?\" or\n   something of that sort. A piece of furniture prevented my seeing\n   their meeting, and Spooks came back directly, wagging her tail.\n   The other dog was larger than Spooks, though it also had long\n   black hair, and might have been a small spaniel.\n\n   [It was not till after we had left B---- that we learned that\n   the Major's favourite dog was a black spaniel.]\n\n   After dinner we returned to this room. I had intended to try\n   Ouija and the crystal, but was in too much pain to make this\n   possible, and Miss Langton felt she could not do it alone; it\n   was as much as I could do to sit up at all, but, by a strong\n   effort of will, I was able to remain downstairs till after\n   midnight. [I was still occasionally suffering from the results\n   of my accident.] We sat in front of the fire, playing a round\n   game. About nine we all three heard footsteps coming from the\n   south-west corner and going towards the door; I held up my hand\n   for silence, but I could see, from the direction of their eyes,\n   that they heard the sounds as I did--even the dog looked up and\n   watched. The steps were those of a rather heavy person in\n   heelless shoes, who walked to the door, and came back again,\n   passed close behind Mr. T----'s chair, crossed the hearth-rug\n   just in front of me, and stopped at or about the north-east\n   corner, but--it seemed--remained in the room, behind Miss\n   Langton's chair. We heard them again about 10.30; we also heard\n   sounds several times during the evening of the talking of a man\n   and woman. Three times over Miss Langton and Mr. T---- went out\n   to listen, but the house was perfectly quiet, and though we were\n   on the same floor with the servants, there had been, the whole\n   time, three closed doors between us and their quarters in the\n   wing, which also was in the direction opposite that from which\n   the sounds came (the present billiard-room). About 10.45, Miss\n   Langton and I went up to the dining-room in search of\n   refreshment; everything upstairs seemed perfectly still, and the\n   servants had long before gone to bed. Mr. T---- followed us up,\n   and as we went back to the smoking-room, the voices seemed to be\n   in high argument just inside. We could distinguish no words,\n   though the _timbre_ of the voices is perfectly clear in my\n   memory. About 12.20 we went to bed. I had intended to sit up in\n   No. 8, but found I was not equal to it, and Miss Langton would\n   not accept my offer of sleeping there with her. She was\n   therefore there alone, I in No. 5, and Mr. T---- in No. 1. I had\n   not been many minutes in my room when I heard the familiar loud\n   crash as of something falling into the hall, under the dome, and\n   rushed out immediately--the house was perfectly still. We had\n   left a small lamp burning in the corridor. Mr. T---- said, next\n   morning, that he had also came out at the sound, but must have\n   been later than I, as he was just in time to see my door shut.\n   About twenty minutes after, I heard the shuffling footsteps come\n   up the stairs, and pause near my door; I opened it, and saw\n   nothing, but was so definitely conscious of the presence of a\n   personality, that I addressed it in terms which need not be set\n   down here, but of which I may say that they were intended to be\n   of the utmost seriousness, while helpful and encouraging. I may\n   add, that I knew from experience of the acoustic qualities of\n   the house, that I should not be audible to those in Nos. 1 or 8.\n   Absolutely, while I was speaking, the voices we had heard\n   downstairs became audible again, this time it seemed to me\n   outside the door of No. 8; they were certainly the same voices,\n   but seemed to be consciously lowered. (Miss Langton's account\n   will show that she heard voices and footsteps outside her door\n   at about this time.) I was asleep before the clock struck two,\n   but was awakened again about 3.30, and was kept awake for more\n   than an hour by various sounds in the house. Roughly speaking,\n   these were of two kinds: one, those of distant clangs and\n   crashes which we have heard many times in varying intensity,\n   loudest of all on our first night and on this. The other (more\n   human in association), knocks at the door, thuds on the lower\n   panels within, say, two feet of the ground; footsteps, not as\n   before, but rapid and as of many feet, and again the same\n   voices. The night was perfectly still, and I could clearly\n   differentiate the cries of the owl (of two kinds, I think), the\n   kestrel hawk, and even of the rabbits on the lawn. I went to the\n   windows and looked out, but the night was quite dark, and the\n   dawn was grey and misty.\n\n   About 5.45 I fell asleep, and did not wake till my tea came up\n   at 7.30, when I asked the maid if she had been disturbed, and\n   she replied that the servants had been extra busy the day\n   before, had gone to bed early, and had slept soundly.\n\n   Miss Langton and Mr. T---- attest the above as a correct account\n   of our experience, so far as they were concerned.\n\n   The following is from Miss Langton's private diary:--\n\n   \"Miss Freer, Mr. T----, and I all agreed that, as it was the\n   anniversary of the old Major's death, we would sit to-night in\n   his own sitting-room, which we always call 'the downstairs\n   smoking-room.' Just before dinner, Miss Freer, who was sitting\n   between the writing-table and fireplace, suddenly called out,\n   'What is Spooks running after?' and then she said that there\n   were _two_ black dogs in the room, and that the other dog was\n   larger than Spooks she said, 'like a spaniel.'\n\n   \"After dinner we three sat round the fire and played games;\n   suddenly one of us called out, 'Listen to those footsteps,' and\n   then we _distinctly_ heard a heavy man walking round the room,\n   coming apparently from the direction of the safe, in the wall\n   adjoining the billiard room, and then walking towards the door,\n   passing between us and the fireplace in front of which we were\n   sitting. It was a very curious sensation, for the steps came so\n   very close, and yet we saw nothing. Footsteps died away, and we\n   resumed our game. Three times over we distinctly heard outside\n   the door the voices of a man and woman, apparently in anger, for\n   their voices were loud and rough. Each time we jumped up at once\n   and opened the door quietly--there was nothing to be seen; the\n   passage was in total darkness, all the servants having gone to\n   bed (the last time was nearly eleven o'clock). We certified this\n   fact by making an expedition into the kitchen regions. We then\n   returned to the smoking-room, and not long after the footsteps\n   again began in exactly the same direction. This time they lasted\n   a longer time.\n\n   \"I slept in No. 8, and was so tired I slept pretty well, but\n   before going to sleep, just before one o'clock, I heard the\n   sound of a heavy man in slippers come down the corridor and stop\n   near my door, and then the sound as of a long argument in\n   subdued voices, a man and a woman.\"\n\nOn April 9th Miss Freer and Miss Langton left B---- in order to pass\nEaster elsewhere, and Mr. T---- left with them.\n\nDuring Miss Freer's absence the house was occupied for some days by\nthe eminent classical scholar Mr. F.W.H. Myers, late Fellow of Trinity\nCollege, Cambridge, one of her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, and\nHon. Sec. to the S.P.R.\n\nIt is well known that the S.P.R. is very greatly indebted to Mr. Myers\nfor his most valuable services for many years as Hon. Sec., and for\nhis many important contributions to its literature. He has, however,\nof late years somewhat alienated the sympathies of many of its\nmembers, by the extent to which he has introduced into its\n_Proceedings_ the reports of spiritualist phenomena, and the\nlucubrations of mediums. The original rules of the society would\nappear to exclude the employment of hired mediums, and it is difficult\nto distinguish Mrs. Piper, and certain other subjects of experiment,\nfrom this class. The differences, however, between Mr. Myers and some\nof the members do not stop at this point, for his preference for the\nexperiences of female mediums, whether hired or gratuitous, would\nappear to amount to an indifference to spontaneous phenomena, an\nindifference that is distinctly and rapidly progressive.\n\nMr. Myers, however, appeared to take considerable interest in the\nphenomena of B----, and on March 13, 1897, after reading the journal\nfor the first five weeks, the only part of the evidence which has\nbeen submitted to him, or indeed to any member of the Council of the\nS.P.R., he wrote to Miss Freer:--\n\n\"It is plain that the B---- case is of _great_ interest. I hope we may\nhave a discussion of it at S.P.R. general meeting, May 28th, 8.30, and\nperhaps July 2nd, 4 P.M., also. Till then, I would suggest, we will\nnot put forth our experiences to the public, unless you have any other\nview....\n\n\"I should particularly like to get Mr. ['Q.'] to go again in Easter\nweek [_i.e._ during the Myers' tenancy]. I saw him last night, and\nheard his account, and next to yourself he seems the most sensitive of\nthe group. I am very glad that you secured him.... I will send back\nthe two note-books after showing them to the Sidgwicks. I am so very\nglad that you and others have been so well repaid for your trouble....\nYou seem to have worked natural causes well.\"\n\nOn April 12th Mr. Myers arrived at B----, and remained until the 22nd.\nHe was preceded a day or two earlier by Dr. Oliver Lodge, Professor of\nPhysics at Victoria College, Liverpool, Mrs. Lodge, and a Mr.\nCampbell of Trinity College, Cambridge. The party also included a\n\"medium,\" the only person to whom this term could be applied, in the\nordinary sense, who visited B---- during Col. Taylor's tenancy. This\nperson was a Miss C----, but in order to avoid confusion with other\npersons, she is here called Miss \"K.\" Miss \"K.\" is not a professional\nmedium, in the same sense in which a gentleman rider is not a jockey.\nShe is the proprietress of a small nursing establishment in London,\nand at the time of her visit to B---- was described as in weak health\nand partially paralysed. She was accompanied by an attendant who was a\nRoman Catholic, a circumstance which is interesting in view of the\nstrongly sectarian character of the ensuing revelations.\n\nMr. Myers recorded regularly, and transmitted to Lord Bute, the\naccount of the phenomena which occurred during his visit, and which\nwere testified to by four members of his party. He declines, however,\nto allow any use to be made of his notes of what occurred during this\nepisode.\n\nThe regret with which his wish is deferred to is the less, because the\nchief value of the notes in question seems to be that of a warning\nagainst the methods employed; a fact of which Mr. Myers seems later to\nhave himself become aware, as in regard to his journal letters to Lord\nBute he wrote on March 15, 1898, _a year later_, \"I am afraid that I\nmust ask that my B---- letters be in no way used. I greatly doubt\nwhether there was anything supernormal.\"\n\nHowever, while actually staying at B----, Mr. Myers wrote to Miss\nFreer on April 15th, in much the same terms as on March 11th:--\n\n\"What is your idea (I am asking Lord Bute also) _re_ speaking about\nB---- at S.P.R? If this is _not_ desirable on May 28th, should you\nhave second-sight material ready then? If it is desirable, could we\nmeet sometime, ... and discuss what is to be said? As many witnesses\nas possible. Noises have gone on. I am writing bulletins to Lord Bute,\nwhich I dare say he will send on to you.... I am moving into No. 5 to\nbe nearer to the noise. I have heard nothing. Lodge hears mainly\nknocks.\"\n\nOn April 21st he wrote again to Miss Freer:--\n\n\"If you come to S.P.R. meeting, we could talk in a quiet corner after\nit. I dine with S.P.R. council at seven o'clock, so there would\nscarcely be time [_i.e._ to call on you] between, but I would call\nat---- at 9.30 Saturday morning, if that were more convenient to you\nthan going to the meeting.\"\n\nThe interview took place, and July 2nd was finally arranged as the\ndate upon which the evidence was to be presented at a general meeting\nof the S.P.R.\n\nIn the meantime, however, the article of the anonymous _Times_\ncorrespondent appeared in that journal on June 8th--an article which\nwas practically an attack on certain methods of the S.P.R., after\nwhich Mr. Myers published the following letter:--\n\n\n  ON THE TRAIL OF A GHOST.\n\n  _To the Editor of \"The Times.\"_\n\n  \"SIR,--A letter entitled 'On the Trail of a Ghost,' which you\n  publish to-day, appears to suggest throughout that some statement\n  has been made on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research with\n  regard to the house which your correspondent visited. This,\n  however, is not the case; and as a misleading impression may be\n  created, I must ask you to allow me space to state that I visited\n  B----, representing that society, before your correspondent's\n  visit, and decided that there was no such evidence as could\n  justify us in giving the results of the inquiry a place in our\n  _Proceedings_. I had already communicated this judgment to Lord\n  Bute, to the council of the society, and to Professor Sidgwick,\n  the editor of our _Proceedings_, and it had been agreed to act\n  upon it.--I am, Sir, your obedient servant,\n\n     \"FREDERICK W.H. MYERS,\n     _Hon. Sec. of the Society for Psychical Research._\n\n     \"LECKHAMPTON HOUSE, CAMBRIDGE, _June 8_.\"\n\nOne may gather from a comparison of this letter with the foregoing\nrecords that the standard of evidence is a somewhat variable quantity\nin the Society for Psychical Research. In attempting to explain the\nmatter, Mr. Myers wrote to Lord Bute, June 11, 1897:--\n\n\"As to haunted houses recorded at length in _Proceedings_, there have\nbeen several minor ones, and one especially, 'Records of a Haunted\nHouse,' where I was instrumental in getting the account written. The\ngreat point there was the amount of coincidence of visions seen\nindependently.... In the B---- case there is _some_ coincidence of\nvision, but so far as I know, not nearly so much as in the Records of\na Haunted House, which did appear in _Proceedings_. We want to keep\nour level approximately the same throughout.\"\n\nAnother point of view in relation to the same matter, is that taken by\nMiss Freer in an article in the _Nineteenth Century_, August 1897:--\n\n\"That the S.P.R. recognised that haunted houses were among the alleged\nfacts of general interest, was proved by their early appointment of a\nCommittee of Inquiry, on the management of which it is too late to\nreflect. At the end of a few months only, they practically dismissed a\nsubject which, if considered at all, required years of patient\nresearch. They had come across the surprising number of twenty-eight\ncases which they considered worth inquiry; but these were presented to\nthe public on the evidence of only forty witnesses--that is to say, an\naverage of less than one and a half to each! The appearance of figures\nis recorded in twenty-four of these stories, whilst four record noises\nonly. Ten years later the _Proceedings_ take up the subject again, and\ngive us at some length an elaborate story on the evidence of two or\nthree ladies, two servants, a charwoman, and a little boy. ['Records\nof a Haunted House.'] No proper journal was kept, and the Society for\nPsychical Research came upon the scene when all was practically over.\"\n\nIn relation to the period of the visit of the Myers party to B----\nHouse, Lord Bute received several journal letters from Professor\nLodge, as well as from Mr. Myers, which, as he has made no request to\nthe contrary, might be quoted here _in extenso_, were it not that\nthey relate in considerable part to the proceedings of the medium, as\nto which the present editors agree with Mr. Myers, that \"they greatly\ndoubt if there was anything supernormal.\"\n\nProfessor Lodge was from the first much interested in the B----\ninquiry, and wrote to Lord Bute on April 14th, two days after arrival:\n\"I have not found anything here as yet at all suitable for physical\nexperiments. I have heard a noise or two, and intelligent raps.\nNothing whatever can be normally seen so far.\"\n\nAnd on April 17th: \"The noises and disturbances have been much quieter\nof late, in fact have almost ceased _pro tem_.... We have not heard\nthe loud bang as yet. Knocks on the wall, a sawing noise, and a\ndroning and a wailing are all we have heard. The droning and the\nwailing, some whistling, and apparent attempts at a whisper, all up in\nthe attic, may have been due either to the wind or birds. They were\nnot distinct enough to be evidential, though they were just audible to\nall of us. The sawing noise was more distinct. I think I will go to\nthe attic about 3 A.M. to-night to see if anything more can be heard.\nMost of the noises occur then, or else at 6 A.M. Mr. Campbell has\nheard a dragging along the floor in his bedroom, No. 3. I have heard,\nlike many others, the knocking on the wall, but for the last two\nnights things have been quiet.\n\n\"_April 20th._--There has been nothing here for me to do as a\nphysicist, and I return home tomorrow, but nevertheless the phenomena,\ntaken as a whole, have been most interesting.... I know that you are\nhearing from Mr. Myers the details of our sittings.... There is\ncertainly an interregnum of noises, the last three nights having been\nundisturbed. [After describing recent seances with Miss 'K----.'] I\nwrite just as if what we have been told were true.[F] The cessation of\nthe noises may of course be merely a temporary lull as before, and\nthey may break out again....\"\n\nOn April 22nd, he wrote to Miss Freer \"The sounds are not very strong,\nand latterly there has been one of your interregna in the noises, but\nstill we heard some of them; only knocks, however, except once a low\ndroning, a sawing noise, and a whistling whisper. Some of the raps\nseemed intelligent, but there was nothing to investigate on the\nphysical side....\"\n\nAnd in another note, undated:--\n\n\"There has been nothing capable of being photographed. The sounds are\nobjective though not impressive.... I have seen nothing to suggest\nelectricity or magnetism, or any of the ordinary physical agents in\nconnection with the disturbances; but the noises are so momentary and\ninfrequent, that they give no real scope for continued examination.\"\n\nProfessor Lodge left on April 21st, and Mr. Myers on April 22nd; but\nMiss \"K----,\" with Mr. Campbell, remained alone till the morning of\nMonday 26th, and on the afternoon of the same day Lord and Lady Bute\narrived, and stayed till Wednesday 28th. Mr. MacP----, who came with\nthem, was obliged by previous engagements to leave next morning.\n\nThey slept in the wing, and nothing occurred during their visit so far\nas they were concerned.\n\nLord Bute records, however, that he twice read aloud the whole of the\nOffice for the dead in its five sections (vespers, nocturns, and\nlauds) in different places, but neither he nor any one with him saw or\nheard anything, unless it were a sound of women talking and laughing\nwhile he was reading the Office about 10.30 P.M. in No. 8, and this he\nsupposed was simply the maids going to bed, though in fact the room\noverhead was unoccupied. He had, however, a most disagreeable\nimpression, not in the places where he expected it, which were the\nglen, No. 3, and No. 8, but in No. 1. The sensation was that of\npersons being present, and on the second occasion that of violent\nhatred and hostility. He recorded \"Went to No. 1 a third time, and\nagain experienced the sensation of persons being present, but on this\nlast occasion as though they were only morosely unfriendly.\"\n\nIt is remarkable that this sensation of unseen presences is one which\nmany other persons experienced in this room, and in this room only;\nbut it is also remarkable that this was the first indication of the\nhostile or irreligious tone which was thenceforth apparent. Until the\nsojourn of the party of members of the S.P.R. the tone had been\nplaintive and religious.\n\nMr. MacP----, who is a Presbyterian, made a remark which struck Lord\nBute as interesting, to the effect that the whole of the Office for\nthe dead, with the frequent occurrence of the words _Requiam eternam_,\n&c., might be as irritating to Intelligences which desired to\ncommunicate, as would be the effect of saying merely \"keep still,\" or\n\"be quiet,\" to persons who wished to set forth their wrongs. But this\ncurious hypothesis would be insufficient to account for a sensation of\nabsolute enmity.\n\nA private letter, written by Lord Bute on April 29th to a\ndistinguished ecclesiastic, repeats these statements, and adds one or\ntwo additional touches which it is desirable to quote:--\n\n\"We returned yesterday after spending forty-eight hours at B----,\nwhere we heard and saw nothing, but as my proceedings were mainly\necclesiastical, your Grace may like to know what happened.\n\n\"On the way I was shown the inclosure in the churchyard wherein lie,\nin unmarked graves, the late Major S----, his 'housekeeper,' and his\nold Indian servant. I would have gone and prayed there, but the place\nseemed to me too public.... B---- is a remarkably beautiful place, and\nthe day was splendid; were it not for the grandeur of the scenery, I\nshould have called the landscape laughing, or at least smiling. The\nhouse is remarkably bright and cheerful, and indeed luxurious. There\nis a really nice set of family pictures from about the time of Charles\nII.... The place is a perfect aviary, and the sight of the innumerable\nbirds, evidently encouraged by long kindness, building their nests was\nvery pleasant, and has some psychological interest, since animals\nsometimes see these things when we do not, and there was evidently\nnothing to scare the birds, rabbits, or squirrels.... As her ladyship\nand I did not wish to be troubled at night, we took rooms in the wing,\nwhich the late Mr. S---- is said to have built in order to save his\nchildren from the haunting, and which has been but little troubled;\nand we slept there quite comfortably. Soon after 6 P.M. I went to the\nplace near the burn where apparitions have so often appeared, and\nwhich was, I think, first indicated by Ouija. I read aloud the vespers\nfor the dead, but no phenomenon appeared, nor had I any sensation.\nAbout 7.30 I went to a room which I will call A [No. 1] ... and read\naloud the first Nocturn of the dirge; there was nothing to be seen or\nheard, but I felt some physical inconvenience in beginning, like an\nimpediment in speech, and I had a very strong sensation that there\nwere persons listening....[G] Soon after 10 P.M. I went and read aloud\nthe two next Nocturns in room B [8]. As I finished the second, Mr.\nMacP---- and I heard two women speaking merrily outside the door, and\nI doubt not they were the maids going to bed. During the night,\nalthough we slept well, my servant [who slept in No. 4, next to Mr.\nMacP---- in No. 5], like other people in haunted rooms, could not\nsleep after five, and he tells me one of the maids saw the bust of a\nwoman with short hair, as though sitting at the foot of her bed.\n\n\"In the morning I said Lauds in room C [Library]. No phenomena or\nsensation. Soon after 5 P.M. said _Placebo_ again in room B [8].\nNothing. Then visited the haunted burn again for some time. Nothing.\nAbout 7.30 read the first two Nocturns again in room D [No. 3].\nNothing. Soon after ten read the third Nocturn in A [1]. Made slips of\npronunciation, and felt the presence of others very strongly, and that\nit was hostile or evil, as though they were kept at arm's-length; a\ndisagreeable sensation continued until I threw some holy water on my\nbed before getting into it, when it suddenly disappeared. Next morning\nI said Lauds in A [1]. I had no difficulty in utterance; the sense of\nother presences was not strong, and I had no feeling of hostility [on\ntheir part], but rather of their having to put up with a slight\nnuisance which would soon be over. These subjective feelings are in no\nway evidential, nor would I mention them were they not confined to one\nplace out of five, and occurred whenever I went there, at three most\nvarying hours.... My servant, the second night, could not sleep\nbetween 4.30 and 6.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMiss Freer returned alone to B---- on April 28th. The Journal is now\nresumed.\n\n   _April 28th._--I returned to B----, arriving at 7 P.M. Slept in\n   No. 8. Quiet night.\n\n   This morning I inquired of the servants as to what occurred in\n   my absence. They have very definite views as to the nature and\n   causes of the phenomena during the visit of Mr. Myers's party\n   ... including much table-tilting at meals, and so on. When\n   questioned as to any experiences of their own, all answered to\n   the same effect, that they shouldn't have taken notice of\n   anything that happened at that time, but that something had\n   occurred after the last two members of the party had left on the\n   day of his Lordship's arrival, \"and that,\" said the cook, \"was\n   quite another matter.\"\n\n   The experience was Carter's, the upper housemaid, and she told\n   it in a manner that it would be difficult to distrust. She was\n   not anxious to talk about it, and seemed annoyed that it had\n   been mentioned at all. I wrote down her story verbatim.\n\n   \"It was about four o'clock, or may be a little later, but it was\n   just getting light; there is no blind to the skylight in my\n   room, and I woke up suddenly and I thought some one had come\n   into the room, and I called out, 'Is that you, Mrs. Robinson?'\n   and when she didn't answer I called out 'Hannah,' but no one\n   spoke, and then I looked up, and at the foot of my bed there was\n   a woman. She was rather old, and dressed in something dark, and\n   she had a little shawl on, and her hair short. It was hanging,\n   but it didn't reach nearly to her shoulders. I was awful\n   frightened, and put my head down again. I couldn't look any\n   more.\"\n\n   I asked about the height of the woman, wondering if it were like\n   the figure seen in the drawing-room, and Carter said, \"I didn't\n   notice, only the top part of her.\" I said, \"Do you mean she had\n   no legs?\" and she said, \"I didn't take notice of any.\" She was\n   genuinely concerned and alarmed.\n\nThis is probably the incident thus described by _The Times_\ncorrespondent. \"One of the maidservants described a sort of dull\nknocking which, according to her, goes on between two and six in the\nmorning, in the lath and plaster partition by the side of her bed,\nwhich shuts off the angular space just inside the eaves of the house.\nShe likened it to the noise of gardeners nailing up ivy outside. She\nseemed honest, but as she had seen the ghost of half a woman sitting\non her fellow-servant's bed, one takes her evidence with a grain or\ntwo of salt. Any noises she has really heard may be due to the cooling\nof the hot-water pipes which pass along behind the partition just\nmentioned to the cistern.\" The hot-water pipe theory has been already\ndiscussed.\n\nBefore proceeding, it had better be again mentioned that, owing to the\nfact that several of the persons interested in B---- were Roman\nCatholics, and the Rev. P---- H---- having been one of the principal\nwitnesses, as well as having himself appeared phantasmally in the\nhouse, it was considered desirable to obtain the assistance of some\nclergy of that communion. Miss Freer accordingly secured the services\nof three members of a famous society; one of those was the Rev. P----\nH---- himself, one a well-known Oxford man who takes much interest in\nsuch questions, and the third a man of great experience at a place\nwhere miracles are said to be frequent. However, their Superior\nrefused to allow them to come, and she then applied to a well-known\nmonastery, but was again refused help. Lastly, she turned to the\nsecular clergy, and obtained the assistance of two priests and a\nbishop. The priests are here designated MacD---- and MacL----. All\nthree were previously well known to her, and she had especial reason\nto consider them not only worthy of her esteem and confidence, but,\nmoreover, as taking an instructed and intelligent interest in the\nsubject.\n\n   _April 29th, Friday._--Rooms for to-night:--\n\n    No. 3. Rev. A. MacD----.\n    \"   4. Rev. A. MacL----.\n    \"   8. Myself.\n\n   The priests arrived late in the evening. I put them in No. 3 and\n   4, though I like to give No. 1 to new-comers. However, I had\n   promised that to Madame Boisseaux, whom we are expecting from\n   Paris, with the dressing-room for her maid.\n\n   _April 30th._--The priests both look very weary. They were not\n   frightened, but the sounds have kept them awake all night.\n\n   Young S---- called to-day; he is going to help me to get up a\n   dance for the servants. His mother is away at S----.\n\n   _May 1st._--I shall have to move the priests. They persist that\n   they are not frightened, but they are both looking shockingly\n   ill and worn, and the Rev. MacD---- is not in a state of health\n   to take liberties with. The Rev. MacL---- seems in the same\n   mental state as was Mr. P----. He sees nothing, but is\n   supernormally sensitive, and without any hint from me, declared\n   that he felt the drawing-room, wing, and No. 7 to be \"innocent.\"\n\n   Poor little \"Spooks\" is the chief sufferer. She sleeps on my bed\n   now, but even so, wakes in the night growling and shivering, and\n   she refuses her food, and is in a dreadfully nervous state.\n   Perhaps I ought not to keep her in No. 8, where we have so often\n   heard the patterings of dogs' feet, and where Miss Moore was\n   once pushed as by a dog, in broad daylight.\n\n   _May 2nd._--Nothing occurred. We perhaps all slept the sounder\n   last night, having been kept up till two o'clock waiting for\n   Madame Boisseaux, who never turned up. She and the M----s and\n   Mrs. \"F.\" arrived to-day.\n\n    Madame Boisseaux arrived, and was put into No. 1.\n    Her maid                           \"       \"   2.\n    Father MacD----                    \"       \"   3.\n    Father MacL----                    \"       \"   4.\n    Mrs. \"F.\"                          \"       \"   5.\n    Mr. and Mrs. M----                 \"       \"   6 and 7.\n    Myself                             \"       \"   8.\n\n   _May 3rd._--The general tone of things is disquieting, and new\n   in our experience. Hitherto, in our first occupation, the\n   phenomena affected one as melancholy, depressing, and\n   perplexing, but now all, quite independently, say the same\n   thing, that the influence is evil and horrible--even poor little\n   Spooks, who was never terrified before, as she has been since\n   our return here. The worn faces at breakfast were really a\n   dismal sight.\n\n   In spite of her long journey, Madame Boisseaux could not sleep.\n   She was so tired, she dropped to sleep at once on going to bed,\n   but was awoke by the sound of a droning voice as if from No. 3,\n   and, at intervals, more distant voices in high argument. She\n   said she dared not go to sleep; she felt as if some\n   evil-disposed persons were in the room, and it would not be safe\n   to lose consciousness. But she saw nothing. She looks so ill\n   that her maid, a very faithful old servant, has been to beg me,\n   \"_pour l'amour de Dieu_,\" to give Madame another room. So\n   to-night I will put her in No. 5.\n\n   Mrs. \"F.\" who was in No. 5, was disturbed by knocks at her door\n   (_cf._ Mrs. W----'s experience in the same room), and to-night\n   is to sleep in my room, No. 8, which last night was also\n   somewhat noisy, but she will not be alone. The Rev. MacD----\n   looks so ill from two nights' sleeplessness that the priests are\n   to go into the wing to-night. They were unwilling to move, and\n   made no complaints, and now do not say they have seen anything,\n   merely that the evil influence about them was painful and\n   disturbing.\n\n   Mrs. M----, who, it will be remembered, was much disturbed\n   during her last visit, begged that she might be quiet, and we\n   gave her No. 7. She is the only person who has had a really good\n   night, except Mr. M----, who had a fancy to sleep in the\n   smoking-room, in the hope of a visit from the Major, but nothing\n   happened. As he had been mountaineering all day, he probably\n   would have slept well under any conditions.\n\n   _May 4th._--I am thankful to say the priests slept well in the\n   wing. Madame Boisseaux, in No. 5, was disturbed by knocks at her\n   door, but as she wisely remarked, they had the advantage of\n   being outside. Mr. M---- had moved into No. 1, and slept fairly\n   well, but said he felt as before, \"not alone,\" but as he _had_\n   felt that before, expectation may count for something.\n\n   Mrs. \"F\" slept with me; I was awoke early by my dog crying, and\n   I saw two black paws resting on the table beside the bed. It\n   gave me a sickening sensation, and I longed to wake Mrs. \"F\" to\n   see if she would see them, but I remembered her bad night of\n   yesterday, and left her in peace.\n\n   The priests spend much time in devotions, and are very decided\n   in their views as to the malignity of the influence. The bishop\n   comes to-day, and we hope he will have Mass said in the house.\n   We shall then have ten Roman Catholics in the household--two\n   visitors, three clergy, two visitors' maids, and three of our\n   own servants. That should have an effect upon the Major! Miss\n   Moore and Scamp arrived.\n\n   _May 5th._--The bishop is in No. 1. He arrived to lunch to-day.\n   Last night all was quiet after bedtime, but sitting in the\n   drawing-room about five o'clock, having just come in from a\n   drive, five of us heard the detonating noise, as it were in the\n   empty room overhead. Madame B----, Mrs. \"F,\" Mrs. M----, the\n   Rev. MacL----, and myself. Mrs. \"F\" left this morning.\n\n   The priests went with me to the copse. They saw nothing, but\n   were in too anxious a state to be receptive. I saw Ishbel for\n   one moment. She looked _agonised_, as never before.\n\n   Mr. B. S---- dined with us, and the servants, indoor and out,\n   danced in the hall in the evening. We had pipers, and some\n   supper for them in the billiard-room. The gardener and the\n   butler and cook say there was a great crash in the room just\n   when the parish minister was saying grace, and that many of the\n   people from outside noticed it, and \"they just looked at each\n   other.\" I was myself in the room, but as we had just had a very\n   physical and commonplace disturbance--the arrival of an\n   uninvited and intoxicated guest, of which the other people did\n   not know as I did--I was preoccupied at the moment.\n\n   Mass this morning in the drawing-room.\n\n   _May 6th._--Madame Boisseaux has had to go suddenly; there has\n   been terrible news for her of this Paris fire. She came into my\n   room very early with her telegram (arrived too late for delivery\n   last night). I did not like to worry her with questions,\n   overwhelmed as she was, but she said her room \"resounded with\n   knocks.\"\n\n   There was Mass said in the ground-floor sitting-room this\n   morning, and as I knelt facing the window I saw Ishbel with the\n   grey woman, nearer the house than ever before. She looked\n   pensive, but, as compared with last time, much relieved.\n\nThis is the last time the figures were seen. The following details are\nquoted from a letter written by Miss Freer to Lord Bute on this day:\n\"Mass was said this morning in the downstairs room, the altar arranged\nin front of the window, so that, as we knelt, we faced the garden.\nPoor Madame Boisseaux was dressed for travelling, and in much\nagitation. As the carriage which was to take her to the station was\nexpected at any moment, I suggested that she and I should remain\nupstairs, but she said she should like to be there, if only for a few\nminutes, the more that the 'intention' was to be partly for those who\nhad suffered in the fire, and for their sorrowing friends. She and I,\ntherefore, knelt close to the door, keeping it slightly ajar, so as to\nbe able to obey a summons at any moment.\n\n\"Suddenly she touched my arm, and directed my attention to the window.\nThere I saw a figure standing outside, which--so slow-sighted am I--I\ntook for the moment for Madame's maid, and thought she had come to\ncall our attention through the window--a long 'French' one, opening\nout on to the lawn--as less likely to disturb the service. I was\nstarting up when I perceived that the figure was 'Ishbel'--the black\ngown, like that worn by the maid, had misled me for the moment.\n'Marget' seemed to hover in the background, but she was much less\ndistinct than the other. A minute later we were called away.\n\n\"The room had been selected by the priests themselves, but it is the\none I should myself, for obvious reasons, have chosen for the\npurpose.\"\n\n   When the bustle of Madame's hasty departure was over, and we had\n   breakfasted, the bishop blessed the house from top to bottom,\n   and especially visited rooms Nos. 1, 3, and 8, and also the\n   library. He sprinkled the rooms with holy water, and especially\n   the doorway leading to the drawing-room, where noises have so\n   often been heard. He and the priests had hardly gone when there\n   was a loud bang upon a little table that stands there. It is an\n   old work-table, a box on tall, slender legs, and the sound could\n   easily be imitated by lifting the lid and letting it fall\n   smartly, but I saw no movement--not that I was watching it at\n   the moment. The bishop and priests returned, and the ceremony\n   was repeated, after which the bang again occurred, but much more\n   faintly.\n\n   The three clergy left this afternoon. Miss Moore and I are now\n   alone.\n\nThis bang was the last phenomenon of an abnormal kind during this\ntenancy. Miss Moore and Miss Freer stayed in the house another week\nwithout anything further occurring either to themselves, their guests,\nor the servants.\n\nDuring that time, they received six more guests: Miss C----, Miss\n\"Etienne,\" with her brother, a lawyer, and three other visitors, with\nwhom Miss Freer had no previous acquaintance, but who received an\ninvitation under the following special conditions, not being, as were\nother guests, personal friends, or, in one or two instances,\naccompanying personal friends by whom they were introduced, and at\nwhose request they were invited.\n\nSir William Huggins had some time before written to Lord Bute to beg\nhim to obtain admission to the house for Sir James Crichton Browne,\nwho is, of course, well known as a physician of great eminence, and in\nespecial as an expert in psychology, and whom Sir William stated to be\ndeeply interested in phenomena such as those observed at B----.\n\nLord Bute accordingly wrote to Miss Freer, who wrote to Sir James. He\ndid not immediately reply, which surprised her, after so earnest a\nrequest, and because admission to the house for the purpose of such\nobservations was a mark of confidence, which as a hostess she was very\nchary of giving, and which would never have been extended to him,\nnotwithstanding his scientific eminence, had it not been for the\nintercession of Sir William Huggins and Lord Bute, through whom he had\nsought it.\n\nHe wrote to her after some time, apologising for the delay on the\nscore of illness, begging to know if it were still possible for him\nto be admitted, and whether he might bring with him a scientific\nfriend. Miss Freer consented, and he then wrote announcing his arrival\nand that of a nephew, a student at Oxford, interested in science. He\nthen asked, by telegram, whether a third guest could be admitted, to\nwhich she also consented, and his two friends, one of whom is believed\nto have been the anonymous _Times_ correspondent, accordingly came,\nfour days after the phenomena had, as has been stated, apparently\nceased. The way in which this hospitality was repaid is a matter of\ncommon knowledge. Their hostess knew of no intention to make copy of\ntheir visit, with full names, geographical indications, and repetition\nof private conversations, until the publication of the _Times'_\narticle of June 8th. They remained from Saturday evening till Monday\nmorning, and, like others, saw and heard nothing; and much time was\nspent in repeating the already often repeated experiments as to\npossible sources of the sights and sounds observed at B----. Their\nobservations appeared to be able to penetrate no further than the mark\nof the shoe which Miss Freer pointed out on the door in the wing,\nmade subsequently to the flight of the H---- family, a passage under\nthe roof, with which the household had long been as familiar as with\nthe hall-door, and the suggestion that a certain stream might run\nunder the house, the which stream runs nowhere near the house at all,\nas Miss Freer was already well aware, a fact which she demonstrated\nfor their benefit on a map of the estate.\n\nThis is perhaps a suitable point at which to add a letter from the\nhead-gardener who has been referred to more than once, more especially\nas an important witness to the phenomena of the H----s' tenancy.\n\nHe writes to Miss Freer in reference to a statement by _The Times_\ncorrespondent:--\n\n\"_July 8th, '97._-- ... I might also mention to you, while writing,\nthat 'the intelligent gardener' that was made mention of in _The\nTimes_ was a journeyman, and not myself, as many have supposed. I\nthought it proper to tell you, madam, because I told you and several\nothers that I was in the house and had heard something.\"\n\n_The Times_ correspondent's statement is as follows:--\n\n\"An intelligent gardener whom I questioned told me that he had kept\nwatch in the house on two separate occasions, abstaining from sleep\nuntil daylight appeared at seven o'clock, but without hearing a\nsound.\"\n\nThe under gardener's experience of two nights is as exhaustive of the\nsubject as that of _The Times_ correspondent and his friends, who also\nremained two nights, but do not allege that they \"abstained from\nsleep.\"\n\nMr. \"Etienne\" was the last guest at B----, and arrived the evening\nbefore the house was vacated. He afterwards told Lord Bute that he had\nbrought, without the knowledge of any one in the house, two seismic\ninstruments, but that they recorded nothing, and that during the night\nhe heard a sound as of a gun being fired outside the house. This he\nattributed to some poacher unknown, an explanation which seems hardly\nprobable, as at this time of year there is nothing to shoot except\nrabbits. One never hears of a poacher shooting rabbits, and in any\ncase, he would hardly do so in the immediate neighbourhood of an\ninhabited house, and discharging his gun once only.\n\nMr. \"Etienne's\" experiments are the more interesting because that\namong many suggestions made by Sir J. Crichton Browne, the only one\nwhich had not been already considered, was the use of seismic\ninstruments. This--the house being within the seismic area--seemed so\nreasonable, that Miss Freer at once entered into correspondence with\nthe well-known Professor Milne, with a view to experiment in this\ndirection. The following is from his reply:--\n\n\"_May 15th, 1897._--I was much interested in your note of the 13th,\nand fancy that the sounds with which you have to deal may be of\nseismic origin. Such sounds I have often heard, and the air waves, if\nnot the earth waves, can be mechanically recorded. What you require to\nmake the records is a seismograph with large but exceeding light\nindices, or a Perry tromometer.... The reason I think that the sounds\nare seismic is, first, on account of their character, and secondly,\nbecause you are in one of the most unstable parts of Great Britain,\nwhere between 1852 and 1890, 465 shocks (many with sounds) were\nrecorded. Lady Moncrieff, when living at Comrie House in 1844, often\nheard rumblings and moanings, and such sounds, possibly akin to the\n'barisal guns'[H] of Eastern England, often occur without a shake. The\nmechanism of this production may be due to slight movements on a fault\nface, and they may be heard, especially in rocky districts, in very\nmany countries....\"\n\nMiss Freer's reply was an urgent request that machinery and an\noperator might be at once sent up to B----. Professor Milne replied\nthat delicate instruments, such as he himself employed, could only be\nused by one other person, but suggested that she should hire from a\nwell-known London firm what are known as \"Ewing's-type\" seismometers,\nadding, \"I doubt whether these will record anything but movements to\nwhich you are sensible.\"\n\nMiss Freer's designs, however, were frustrated, for on applying for an\nextension of tenancy for this purpose, Captain S----, the proprietor,\nperemptorily forbade the continuance of scientific observation--a\nremarkable parallel to his father's refusal to permit the use of the\nphonograph when suggested by Sir William Huggins.\n\nIn relation to his experiments at B---- Mr. \"Etienne\" writes:--\n\n\"Lord Bute has asked me to describe a seismographic instrument which I\nused during my short visit to B----. The instrument consisted of a\nlight wooden frame or platform which rested on three billiard-balls.\nThe balls in their turn rested on a horizontal plate of plate-glass.\nThrough two wire rings in the centre of the platform already mentioned\na needle stood perpendicularly, resting on its point on the plate of\nglass. The centre of the plate of glass (and the area round it and\nwithin in the triangle describable with the balls at its angles) was\nsmoked. You will see that the parts of such an instrument are held\ntogether by gravitation, and a very little friction, and that a tremor\ncommunicated to the plate will not simultaneously affect the platform.\nThe needle-point describes on the smoked surface which it moves across\nthe converse of any movement of the plate which is not simultaneously\na movement of the platform, and the error between this and the\ndescription of the tremor drawn by an absolutely fixed point--say the\nearth itself--has been calculated on a replica of this instrument as\nequal to the error of a pendulum thirty feet long.\"\n\nIt will be noticed that the phenomena began, so far as Miss Freer was\nconcerned, upon the night of her arrival in the house, February 3rd,\nand ceased (if we except the sound heard by Mr. Etienne), after the\nservice performed by the Bishop on the morning of May 6th. This period\ncomprises ninety-two days, but from these must be subtracted the\nseventeen days between Miss Freer's leaving B---- on the morning of\nApril 9th, and that of the departure of Mr. Myers's medium, Miss \"K.,\"\non the morning of April 26th.\n\nOf the remaining seventy-five days, Miss Freer was absent from the\nhouse for four days, from March 16th to March 20th, and for two nights\nafter Miss \"K.'s\" leaving; during this latter interval, however, Lord\nBute was himself on the spot. On the other hand, she remained in the\nhouse for eight days after the service performed by the Bishop, during\nwhich time no phenomena occurred.\n\nOf the sixty-nine days of which a record is kept in the journal, viz.,\nfrom February 3rd to May 14th, exclusive of twenty-three days for the\nreasons already indicated, daytime phenomena occurred upon eighteen\ndays, and night phenomena upon thirty-five nights.\n\nTo these must be added the night of April 27th, the occasion of the\nvision seen by Carter the housemaid during Lord Bute's visit.\nThirty-four nights, or almost exactly half the period, were entirely\nwithout record of any phenomena whatever. This is without counting the\nseven nights of the last week, during which there were observers for\nlonger or shorter periods in the house, none of whom recorded any\nsight or sound of a supernormal kind, unless it were the percussive or\ndetonating noise heard by Mr. \"Etienne.\"\n\nThe term \"night\" is here understood to cover the period between the\nhour of going to rest at night, to that of leaving one's room next\nmorning, even if the phenomena occurred in the daylight hours of the\nearly morning. The term \"day\" is used to cover the hours of active,\nwaking life, from breakfast to bedtime.\n\nTo sum up the character of the phenomena, it may be well to begin with\nthose that are _visual_.\n\n1. The phantasm of the Rev. P. H----. This was seen once only, and by\nMiss Langton, on the night of February 17th. Of the identity no doubt\ncan be felt, since Miss Moore and Miss Freer afterwards recognised the\naccuracy of the description on meeting the Rev. P. H---- for the first\ntime, in a crowded railway station on May 25th. This is the only one\nof the apparitions which is undoubtedly that of a living person, and\nlike many such apparitions, it occurred at an hour when it is probable\nthat he was asleep. B---- is a place to which Father H----'s thoughts\nwere naturally and disagreeably drawn, and to which his attention had\nbeen called anew. On awaking, he would probably have no recollection\nof the circumstances, or at the utmost would have an impression of\nhaving dreamt that he was there.\n\n2. The woman once seen by Miss Freer in the drawing-room. She was\nolder than Sarah N----, who died at the age of twenty-seven, but of\nwhose haunting of B---- there is some tradition, but assisted by the\nparish register of marriages and births it is not difficult to form a\nguess at the identity of the phantasm. As there is some uncertainty as\nto whether the person in question is still living, though it is\nprobable that she is dead, the vision is mentioned here before those\nas to which there is no reason to doubt that they represent the dead.\nThere is reason to believe that the same apparition has been seen by\nformer occupants of the house, and it is alleged to be that of a\nmember of the S---- family.\n\n3. The phantasm seen by Carter the housemaid, on the night of April\n27th, who was described as \"rather old,\" may possibly have been\nidentical with the above.\n\n4. The nun to whom was given the name of \"Ishbel.\" This subject has\nbeen already discussed, and the suggestion thrown out that the\nphantasm was an erroneous mental picture of the late Rev. Mother\nFrances Helen, evolved from the imagination of a half-educated person\nwho had never seen the lady in question, and knew little about her.\nThis figure was seen many times by Miss Freer and Miss Langton, twice\nby the Rev. Mr. \"Q.,\" and probably by Madame Boisseaux, who unhappily\ndied suddenly before the editors had an opportunity of asking her for\nexact information. There were also earlier witnesses. She was never\nseen elsewhere than in the glen, except once by Miss Langton, and on\nthe one occasion when a Bishop was saying Mass in the house, and Miss\nFreer saw her outside the window just after the elevation of the\nchalice. It was stated, however, by two separate witnesses, that a\nfigure, probably the same, had been seen inside the house on at least\none occasion, when, some years before Colonel Taylor's tenancy, Mrs.\nS---- was keeping her room, and a maid who was bringing up a tray met\nthe figure on the stairs, and experienced such a start that she\ndropped the tray.\n\n5. The lay-woman dressed in grey to whom was given the name of\n\"Marget,\" and who was sometimes seen in the company of \"Ishbel,\"\nusually as though upbraiding or reproving her. She was seen by Miss\nFreer and Miss Langton, and her voice in conversation with \"Ishbel\"\nwas heard not only by them, but by Mr. C---- and Miss Moore, Mr. \"Q.\"\nand Miss \"Duff\" (_cf._ Mrs. G.'s evidence, p. 68).\n\n6. The appearance of the wooden crucifix seen in No. 3. It was about\neighteen inches long, and the figure was of the same wood as the\ncross. Its earliest appearance is to the Rev. P. H----. It afterwards\nappeared to the Rev. Mr. \"Q.,\" and lastly to Miss Freer, none of the\nwitnesses knowing anything in detail of the experience of the others.\nIt was also seen in the crystal by Miss Langton--possibly by thought\ntransference from others.\n\nWhen the Rev. P. H---- saw it he was always drowsy, but when it\nappeared to Mr. \"Q.\" its appearance was immediately preceded by a\nsensation of acute chill on his part, and its appearance to Miss Freer\nby a similar sensation on the part of \"Endell.\" It is perhaps worth\nwhile to remark, that we are told that among spiritualists the\nsensation of cold is supposed to be an unfavourable indication as to\nthe character of the spirits who are present, and that in the cases of\nboth Mr. \"Q.\" and Mr. \"Endell\" the appearance of the crucifix seemed\nto put an end to the chill.\n\n7. The dogs. These were much more often heard than seen, the sounds\nbeing those of their pattering footsteps, sometimes as of their\nbounding about in play, and sometimes of their throwing themselves\nagainst the lower part of doors. It seemed, however, that they were\nvisible to Miss Freer's living dog at times when they were not visible\nto her, and indeed the abject terror which the Pomeranian displayed in\nNo. 8 was so distressing, that she changed her room from No. 8 to No.\n5 in consequence.\n\nA dog was, moreover, seen by Miss Freer and Miss Langton in the\nsmoking-room on April 8th; Miss Freer and Miss Moore have described\nmore than one occasion when they felt themselves pushed as by a dog;\nand on the night of May 4th, Miss Freer saw the two forepaws only, of\nanother and larger black dog resting on the edge of a table in No. 8.\n\nOther apparitions seen in the house by former occupants were described\nto members of Colonel Taylor's party as well as to earlier tenants,\nbut here, as elsewhere, we have refrained from all quotation from the\nrelatives of the present proprietor.\n\nIt is interesting to remark that one apparition which was constantly\nexpected during Colonel Taylor's tenancy was expected in vain. This\nwas that of the little old gentleman with stooping form and limping\ngait mentioned by earlier witnesses. His peculiar step was heard very\nfrequently, and by a great number and variety of witnesses, alone and\ncollectively; and his appearance, naturally enough, was constantly\nlooked for, but it never occurred.\n\nIn the same way there was one expected sound which never occurred,\nthough frequent in the experience of earlier witnesses--that of the\nrustling of a silk dress, suggesting to the mind of the hearer the\nidea of some one who, either in fact or in thought, had worn such a\ngarment.\n\n_Tactile._ The most important of these were the experiences of Miss\n\"N.\" on the night of March 3rd, and of Miss \"Duff\" on the night of\nMarch 22nd, both in No. 3; and of a maid, Lizzie, on the night of\nMarch 23rd, in the room above No. 3, on the attic storey, who all\ntestified to the sensation of the moving of the bed, or the handling\nof the bed-clothes. These were the only occasions during Colonel\nTaylor's tenancy, but the phenomenon is one often testified to by\nearlier witnesses, both during the H----s' tenancy and that of the\nfamily of the late Mr. S----.\n\nIt presents a peculiar difficulty in the way of the theory that all\nthe phenomena at B---- were subjective hallucinations, and this is\nespecially the case with regard to the evidence of a witness who has\nnot been brought forward in the preceding pages, but whose account of\na similar experience is reported by two first-hand witnesses. On one\noccasion he had the whole of the upper bed-clothes lifted from off him\nand thrown upon the floor, while a pile of wearing apparel, which was\nlaid on a chair beside the bed, was thrown in his face.\n\nIt is of course conceivable that the whole of these experiences,\nincluding the last, were the result of an hallucination; but on the\nother hand, it would be very unwise, in the present state of our\nignorance on the subject, to dogmatise as to the possible action of\nunseen forces upon what is commonly called matter. It is interesting\nto note that this senseless and childish trick coincides with what was\nsaid by Miss A---- as to the presence of mischievous elementals, and\nalso what she says as to _apports_.[I]\n\n1. The sensation of the movement of the bed itself, whether as being\nrocked, as in the experience of Miss \"Duff\" on March 22nd, and of Miss\nLangton on several occasions, and by guests of the H---- family, or of\nbeing lifted up, as in that of the maid Lizzie, is a phenomenon by no\nmeans uncommon, and if objective is of the nature of levitation; but\nwe have unfortunately no evidence from a second person observing the\nphenomenon from outside. Whether it were actually moved it is\nimpossible to say, but the sensation seems to have been more than\nsubjective.\n\n2. The sensation of struggling with something unseen, described by\nMiss \"Duff,\" March 22nd, and of the sensation of an incumbent weight,\nas described by Miss \"Duff\" (same date) and Miss \"N.\" on March 2nd.\nThis coincides with the arrest of his hand experienced by Harold\nSanders. These phenomena adapt themselves to the theory of\nsubjectivity more easily than the foregoing, because they more closely\nresemble those of nightmare (familiar to most persons), although they\noccurred while the witnesses were awake.\n\n3. The sensation of being pushed by a dog was experienced in two\ndifferent rooms by Miss Freer and Miss Moore respectively. If Mr.\n\"Endell\" were touched by Ishbel on the evening of March 1st, as\nappeared to Miss Freer to be the case, he had no independent\nconsciousness of the fact that might not have been referred to\nexpectation, so that this cannot be regarded as evidential.\n\nFor lack of other classification, we mention under this heading of\n\"tactile\" the sensation of chill experienced by Mr. \"Endell\" and Mr.\nQ---- in No. 3, and which appears to be the same as that described by\nHarold Sanders as the sensation of \"entering an ice-house.\"\n\nThe _audile_ phenomena were so frequent and so various, that a\nconspectus of them is given in an appendix. Some of them appeared to\nbe human in origin, such as voices, reading or speaking, footsteps,\nand, according to earlier witnesses, screams and moans. Others might\nhave been caused by dogs, such as pattering footsteps, jumping and\npouncing as in play, the wagging of a dog's tail against the door, and\nthe sound as of a dog throwing itself against the lower panels. Other\nsounds have been differentiated, as the _detonating_ or explosive\nnoise; the _clang_ sound, as of the striking of metal upon wood; the\n_thud_ or heavy fall without resonance; and the _crash_, which was\nnever better described than as if one of the beasts' heads on the\nstaircase wall had fallen into the hall below. It very often, or\nalmost always, seemed to occur under the glass dome which lighted the\nbody of the house, and the falling object seemed to strike others in\nits descent, so that it was not ineffectively imitated by rolling a\nbowl along the stone floor of the hall, and allowing it to strike\nagainst the doors or pillars, when the peculiar echoing quality was\nfairly reproduced by the hollow domed roof and surrounding galleries.\n\nThe editors offer no conclusions. This volume has been put together,\nas the house at B---- was taken, not for the establishment of\ntheories, but for the record of facts.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[C] They consisted of a small part of the evidence already quoted.\n\n[D] We have since ascertained by experiment that no sound short of\nbeating with a hammer on the wall itself is audible between the two\nrooms; also, that the upsetting of a metal candlestick on the bare\nboards in the nearer servants' room (over No. 1) cannot be heard in\nNo. 8.\n\n[E] _Cf._ Mrs. Robinson's account _ante_.\n\n[F] These remarkable disclosures included, among other details, the\nmurder of a Roman Catholic family chaplain, at a period when the S----s\nwere and had long been Presbyterian, the suicide of one of the\nfamily who is still living, and the throwing, by persons in mediaeval\ncostume, of the corpse of an infant, over a bridge, which is quite\nnew, into a stream which until lately ran underground.\n\nProfessor Lodge had not had the same opportunity of acquiring a\ncritical standpoint as to such statements, as those whose knowledge of\nthe place was more intimate.\n\n[G] The words, in uttering which Lord Bute was thus affected, were,\n\"Regem cui omnia vivunt venite adoremus,\" an invitation in which he\nmeant to include all intelligent beings.\n\nMiss Freer, Miss Langton, and a third guest, chatting one night about\n10.30 in this room, were startled by one of the familiar crashes\noutside. Miss Freer treated the matter lightly, fearing lest the lady\nin question, by no means a nervous person, however, should be alarmed;\nand receiving no reply turned to look at her, and observed that her\nlower jaw was convulsed, and that she was painfully struggling to\nrecover speech.\n\n[H] See Appendix II.\n\n[I] See Appendix I.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX I\n\n\nA lady, known to readers of _Proceedings S.P.R._ as Miss A----, who is\nan habitual automatic writer, but whose social position removes her\nfrom the temptations and tendencies of the ordinary so-called medium,\nwas good enough on March 10, 1897, to contribute the following\nautomatic script in reply to a request from Lord Bute:--\n\n\"I do not much care for the influence of this house; it is most\ndecidedly haunted, but not by any particularly good spirits, the\nhaunting being carried on by mischievous elementals, and as far as I\ncan make out there is some one who lives there through all the\nchanges, who supplies a great deal of force, and who is not aware of\nthe power. I think that a great deal more is added to what really\ntakes place, as the hauntings appear to me to consist of disturbing\nnoises, with now and then a case of apport, for the elementary forces\nare not sufficient to produce forms unless a great deal of outside\nforce is given.\n\n\"The forms that would appear would always be different, as each\nmediumistic person would supply his own surroundings. The only one I\nam not sure about is the shadowy figure of an old man whom I have\ntwice seen in rather a dark passage, and from his surrounding light I\nshould say he may often be there.\n\n\"I think the noises would stop of themselves, at least the more\ndisturbing part, if a less attentive attitude were taken towards\nthem.\"\n\nThese statements present certain interesting points as coming from one\nwho had never seen the house, and knew nothing of its phenomena. \"The\nshadowy figure of an old man in a dark passage\" seems to point to the\nfigure, possibly, of the Major, seen by earlier witnesses in the dark\nlobby--the only dark corner in the house--outside the door of the\ndownstairs smoking-room, and whose voice was heard there by Miss\nFreer, Miss Langton, and Mr. T---- during the tenancy of Colonel\nTaylor.\n\nAn occasion upon which the phenomena might be described as those of\n\"mischievous elementals,\" and also of _apports_, is referred to in the\nsumming up of tactile phenomena, though it did not occur during the\ntenancy of Colonel Taylor.\n\nOn the other hand, the phenomena were often more active when least\nlooked for, and some of those most expected never occurred. As there\nwas not even a servant, nor even a dumb animal, common to the\noccupation of the S---- family and the tenancy of the H----s or\nColonel Taylor, we are at a loss to know who the person can be who\nlives at B---- through all the changes, and supplies force during the\npast twenty years.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX II\n\nBARISAL GUNS. (_See page 221._)\n\n\nReaders not acquainted with this phenomenon may be referred to an\ninteresting correspondence in the pages of _Nature_ (Oct. 1895, and\n_Seq._), opened by Professor G.H. Darwin--\n\n\"In the delta of the Ganges,\" he says, \"dull sounds, more or less\nresembling distant artillery, are often heard. These are called\nBarisal guns, but I do not know the meaning of the term.\"\n\nThe same sounds have been recorded by M. Rutot of the Geological\nSurvey along the Belgian coast, and are alleged to be pretty common in\nthe North of France. M. van der Broeck, Conservator of the Museum of\nNatural History of Belgium, says--\n\n\"I have constantly noticed these sounds in the plain of Limburg since\n1880;--more than ten of my personal acquaintances have observed the\nfact. The detonations are dull and distant, and are repeated a dozen\ntimes or more at irregular intervals. They are usually heard in the\ndaytime, when the sky is clear, and especially towards evening after a\nvery hot day. The noise does not at all resemble artillery, blasting\nin mines, or the growling of distant thunder.\"\n\nM. van der Broeck elsewhere refers to \"similar noises heard on\nDartmoor, and in some parts of Scotland.\" Readers of Blackmore's story\nof \"Lorna Doone\" will remember, among other valuable observations of\nout-door life, his accounts of \"the hollow moaning sound\" during the\nintense cold of the winter, of which he gives so graphic an account.\nIt was \"ever present in the air, morning, noon, and night time, and\nespecially at night, whether any wind was stirring or whether it were\na perfect calm\" (Chap. xlvi.).\n\nAnother correspondent in _Nature_ refers to remarkable noises among\nthe hills of Cheshire: \"When the wind is easterly, and nearly calm on\nthe flats, a hollow moaning sound is heard, popularly termed the\nSoughing of the Wind, which Sir Walter Scott, in his glossary to 'Guy\nMannering,' interprets as a hollow blast or whisper.\"\n\nAnother writer quotes experiences in East Anglia, tending to show that\nsuch sounds may be reports arising from the process of \"faulting\"\ngoing on, on a small scale, at a great depth, and not of sufficient\nintensity to produce a perceptible vibration at the earth's surface.\n\nIt would seem that in districts such as Comrie in Perthshire, East\nHadden in Connecticut, Pignerol in Piedmont, Meleda in the Adriatic,\n&c., sounds without shocks are common during intervals, which may last\nfor several years. Remarkable sounds, not apparently accounted for,\nare reported to proceed from Lough Neagh in Ireland.\n\nSee _Nature_, Oct. 1895, and following numbers; articles by M. van der\nBroeck in _Ciel et Terre_ (Belgium), Dec. 1, 1895, and following\nnumbers, also _Geol. Mag._, vol. ix. 1892, pp. 208-18.\n\n\n\n\nCONSPECTUS OF AUDILE PHENOMENA AT B---- HOUSE RECORDED IN JOURNAL\n\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\nRecorded |Heard in Room.| Witness.        |  Description of Sound.        |\nunder    |              |                 |                               |\nDate.    |              |                 |                               |\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\nFeb. 4   | No. I.       |{ Miss Freer     |{ Loud clanging sound, as of   |\n         |              |{ Miss Moore     |{  metal struck with wood      |\n         |              |                 |{ Voices in conversation       |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. III.     | \"Mac,\" the maid |{ Voices, footsteps, things    |\n         |              |                 |{  dragged about               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"   5   | Attics       | Two housemaids  | Continuous reading            |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"   7   | No. VII.     | Miss Moore      |{ Reverberating bang close to  |\n         |              |                 |{     bed                      |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |Drawing-room  | Mac             | Noises and footsteps          |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |   Hall       | Miss Moore      | Clanging sound upstairs       |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"   8   | \"Butler's    |                 |                               |\n         |  room\"       | Mac             | Footsteps and sounds on door  |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. VII.     | Miss Moore      | Reverberating bang            |\n         |              | Miss Moore     }| Noises percussive             |\n         |              | Miss Freer     }|  or explosive                 |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | The Glen     |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |\n         |              |{ Mr. C----     }| Voices in conversation        |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"   9   | No. VII.     |{ Miss Moore    }| Noises percussive             |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|  or explosive                 |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"  10   | No. I.       | Miss Moore      |{ Clangs. Voices in            |\n         |              |                 |{  conversation                |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. V.       | Mr. W----       | Knockings.                    |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. VIII.    | Colonel Taylor  | Footsteps overhead            |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"  13   | No. I.       | Miss Moore      | Clanging noise                |\n         |              | Miss Moore     }|                               |\n         |              | Miss Freer     }| Crash                         |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. V.       | Mrs. W----      | Knockings                     |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"  15   | No. IV.      | Miss Langton    | A loud crash                  |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |\n \"  16   | The Glen     |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |\n         |              |{ Miss Moore    }| Voices in conversation        |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Mrs. W----    }|                               |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |\n \"  17   | Drawing-room |{ Miss Moore    }| Footsteps overhead in disused |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|  room                         |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Col. Taylor   }|                               |\n         | Drawing-room |{ Mrs. W----    }| Clanging noise, four times    |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|  repeated                     |\n         |              |{ Miss Moore    }|                               |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"  18   | No. VIII.    | Miss Freer      | Banging sounds                |\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\n\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\nRecorded |Heard in Room.| Witness.        | Description of Sound.         |\nunder    |              |                 |                               |\nDate.    |              |                 |                               |\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\n         |              |                 |{ Sounds as of an animal's     |\nFeb. 18  | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Moore     |{  movements in the room in    |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer     |{  daylight                    |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | The Glen     |{ Miss Langton  }| Voices in conversation        |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | The Glen     |{ Miss Langton  }| Voices in conversation        |\n         |              |{  (later)      }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"   19  | The Glen     | Miss Langton    |{ Voices in conversation and   |\n         |              |                 |{  footsteps                   |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"   20  | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Moore    }| Sounds of active movement of  |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|  an animal in the room        |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"   21  | No. VIII.    | Miss Moore      |{ Footsteps of an old man      |\n         |              |                 |   shuffling in slippers       |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              | Miss Moore     }|                               |\n         |              | Miss Freer     }| Movements of animal           |\n         |              | Dog            }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              | Miss Moore     }|                               |\n         |              | Miss Freer     }| Bang on wall near No VII.     |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"   25  | Wing         | Mr. \"Endell\"    |{ Clang noise \"like a pavior's |\n         |              |                 |{  hammer dropped\"             |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. I.       | Mr. Garford     |{ Violent banging on door of   |\n         |              |                 |   Nos. I. and II.             |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |                 |{ Groans; \"a greatly magnified |\n         | No. III.     | Mr. \"Q.\"        |{  edition of sounds I have    |\n         |              |                 |{  several times heard in the  |\n         |              |                 |{  drawing-room\"               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |                 |{ Detonating or percussive     |\n \"   26  | No. I.       | Mr. Garford     |{  noise like \"a wheel-barrow  |\n         |              |                 |{  on a hard road\"             |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n March 1 | No. IV.      | Mr. MacP----    |{ Loud clanging sound in the   |\n         |              |                 |   room                        |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"     2 | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Freer    }|{ Movements of animal in the   |\n         |              |{ Miss Moore    }|{  room                        |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              | Miss Freer     }| Heavy fall                    |\n         |              | Miss Moore     }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. III.     | Miss \"N.\"       | Thud, sounding from below     |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"     5 | No. VIII.    | Miss Moore      |{ Movements of animal in the   |\n         |              |                 |{  room                        |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | Attics       | Two maids       | Monotonous reading            |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |                 |{ Monotonous reading (also     |\n         | No. I.       | Mrs. B.C.       |{  mentioned by Mr. Garford as |\n         |              |                 |{  occurring in No. I.)        |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              | Mrs. B.C.       | Bang on door of room          |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | Attics       |{ Mrs. Robinson  |{ Voices in conversation       |\n         |              |{ (cook)         |{ Bangs on the wall of room    |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"     7 | Attics       | Robinson        |{ Heavy body falling in the    |\n         |              |  (butler)       |   room                        |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |                 |{ Movements of heavy body in   |\n         |              |                 |{  the room                    |\n         | No. II.      | Mr. C----       |{ Footsteps as if descending   |\n         |              |                 |{  stairs                      |\n         |              |                 |{ Loud rapping on doors of     |\n         |              |                 |{  Nos. I. and II.             |\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\n\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\nRecorded |Heard in Room.| Witness.        | Description of Sound.         |\nunder    |              |                 |                               |\nDate.    |              |                 |                               |\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\nMarch  8 | No. II.      | Mr. C----       | Noises in No. I. (empty room) |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"   10 | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Moore     | Animal moving in the room     |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer     | Heavy fall                    |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"   13 | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Moore    }| Loud bangs                    |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Robinson,     }|                               |\n         | Attics       |{ and Mrs.      }| Loud bangs                    |\n         |              |{ Robinson      }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. IV.      | Miss Langton    | Loud bangs                    |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"   15 | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Moore    }| Vibrating bang                |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. IV.      | Miss Langton    | Vibrating bang                |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | Wing         | Colonel Taylor  | Vibrating bang                |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n [Miss Freer was absent for four nights, and no Journal was kept.]        |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Miss Moore     |{ Metallic sound in room \"like |\n  \"   20 | No. I.       |{ Miss Freer     |   the 'giving' of a large     |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton   |   tin box\"                    |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"   22 | No. IV.      | Mr. MacP----    | Heavy footsteps overhead      |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. III.     | Miss \"Duff\"     |{ Resounding crash at door     |\n         |              |                 |{ Resounding crash in room     |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |                 |{ Monotonous reading (also     |\n  \"   23 | Drawing-room | Miss \"Duff\"     |{  mentioned as occurring in   |\n         |              |                 |{  No. III.)                   |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"   24 | No. V.       | Miss Freer      |{ Crash of something falling   |\n         |              |                 |{  under dome                  |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. VIII.    | Colonel C----   | Loud thump on door of room    |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |                 |{ Explosive noises             |\n         | No. I.       | Mr. W----       |{ Crash of something falling   |\n         |              |                 |{  under dome                  |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Two housemaids}|                               |\n         | Attics       |{  and          }| Loud knockings                |\n         |              |{  kitchen-maid }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | Butler's room|} Mrs. Robinson  |{ Footsteps and knocking on    |\n         |  on ground   |}                |{  door of No. III.            |\n         |  floor       |}                |                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. III.     | Miss \"Duff\"     |{ Shuffling foot steps         |\n         |              |                 |{  outside room                |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. II.      |{ Miss \"Duff\"   }| Fall against door of No. I.   |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"   25 | No. II.      | Miss Langton    |{ Loud thump on door between   |\n         |              |                 |{  I. and II.                  |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Carter        }|                               |\n         |              |{ (housemaid)   }|                               |\n  \"   27 | Attics       |{ Under-        }| Monotonous reading            |\n         |              |{  housemaid    }|                               |\n         |              |{ Kitchen-maid  }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"   29 | Library      |{ Miss Freer    }|{ Footsteps in locked-up       |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|{  room overhead               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"   30 | Library      |{ Miss Freer    }|{ Footsteps in locked-up       |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|{  room overhead               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Mr. and Mrs.  }|                               |\n         | Corridor     |{  M----        }| Rappings in No. II. (empty).  |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|  (See Mr. M----'s account)    |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\n\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\nRecorded |Heard in Room.| Witness.        | Description of Sound.         |\nunder    |              |                 |                               |\nDate.    |              |                 |                               |\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\nMarch 31 | No. VIII.    | Miss Langton    |{ Shuffling footsteps in the   |\n         |              |                 |{  room                        |\n         |              |                 |{ Knock near the wardrobe      |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |                 |{ Metallic clangs in the room  |\n         |              |                 |{  like \"tuning a kettle-drum\";|\n         |              |{ Mrs. M----     |{  later, \"terrific noise,\"    |\n         | No. I.       |{ Mr. M----      |{  \"like treble rap on a       |\n         |              |                 |{  hollow panel,\"--like \"the   |\n         |              |                 |{  lid of a heavy coal-scuttle |\n         |              |                 |{  let fall\"                   |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |                 |{ Voices in library            |\n         | Drawing-room | Mrs. M----      |{ Detonating noise (like a     |\n         |              |                 |{  distant cannon)             |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n April 1 | No. VIII.    |{ Mr. M----     }| Voices and footsteps in       |\n         |              |{ Mrs. M----    }|  room overhead (empty)        |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | Drawing-room | Mrs. M----      | Voices and footsteps          |\n         |              |                 |  overhead                     |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Mrs. M----    }|                               |\n         | In the garden|{ Miss Freer    }| Detonating noise              |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Mrs. M----    }| Limping footsteps overhead    |\n         | Drawing-room |{ Miss Freer    }| Voices of a man and woman     |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"    2 | Library      |{ Miss Freer    }| Heavy blow on table           |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              | Mrs. M----      | Heavy blow on table (heard    |\n         |              | Miss Freer      |  in dining-room)              |\n         |              | Miss Langton    |                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer    }| Footsteps overhead in         |\n         | Dining-room  |{ Miss Langton  }|  empty room                   |\n         |              |{ Robinson      }|                               |\n         |              |{  (butler)     }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"    3 | Library      | Miss Langton    |{ Violent hammering on door    |\n         |              |                 |{  in daylight                 |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer    }| Footsteps overhead in         |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|  empty room                   |\n         | Dining-room  |{ Mr. T----     }|                               |\n         |              |{ Robinson      }|                               |\n         |              |{  (butler)     }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"    4 | No. V.       |{ Miss Freer    }| Crash under dome              |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"    5 | No. I.       | Mr. T----       | Monotonous reading            |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"    6 | No. I.       | Mr. T----       |{ Thuds on floor above, and    |\n         |              |                 |{  on door of room             |\n         |              |                 |{ Voices in conversation       |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"    7 | No. V.       | Miss Freer      | Crash under dome              |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. I.       | Mr. T----       |{ Crash under dome             |\n         |              |                 |{ Voices in conversation       |\n         |              |                 |{ Raps at foot of door         |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n  \"    8 | Various parts| Household       |{ Crashes and bangs and        |\n         |  of the house|  generally      |{  footsteps heard during      |\n         |              |                 |{  the day                     |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | Smoking-room |{ Miss Freer    }| Shuffling footsteps in the    |\n         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|  room                         |\n         |              |{ Mr. T----     }| Voices outside door           |\n         |              |{ Dog           }|                               |\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\n\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\nRecorded |Heard in Room.| Witness.        | Description of Sound.         |\nunder    |              |                 |                               |\nDate.    |              |                 |                               |\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\nApril 8  | No. IV.      | Miss Freer      | Crash under dome              |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. VIII.    | Miss Langton    | Shuffling footsteps           |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. I.       | Mr. T----       | Voices                        |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |                 |{ Thuds on lowest panels of    |\n         |              |                 |{  door                        |\n         | No. IV.      | Miss Freer      |{ Footsteps of many persons    |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n [No Journal kept between April 8 and April 29. During this period        |\n  Professor Lodge's notes testify to \"knocks on the wall, a sawing noise, |\n  a droning and a wailing, ... some whistling, and apparent attempts at a |\n  whisper, all up in the attic.]                                          |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |                 |{ Monotonous voice from        |\n May 3   | No. I.       | Mme. Boisseaux  |{  No. III.                    |\n         |              |                 |{ Voices in argument           |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | No. V.       | Mrs. \"F.\"       | Knocks at door                |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"   4   | No. V.       | Mme. Boisseaux  | Knocks at door                |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         |              |{ Mme.           |                               |\n         |              |   Boisseaux    }|                               |\n         |              |{ Mrs. \"F.\"     }|{ Detonating noise in empty    |\n \"   5   | Drawing-room |{ Mrs. M----    }|{  room overhead (No. I.) in   |\n         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|{  daylight                    |\n         |              |{ Rev. MacL---- }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | Billiard-room|   Gardener,    }|                               |\n         |              |   butler, cook} | Crash in the room             |\n         |              |   and others  } |                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"   6   | No. V.       | Mme. Boisseaux  |{ \"Room resounded with         |\n         |              |                 |{  knocks\"                     |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n         | Library      |{ Miss Freer    }| Bangs on table                |\n         |              |{ Miss Moore    }|                               |\n         |              |                 |                               |\n \"   13  | No. I.       | Mr. \"Etienne\"   | [?] Detonating noise          |\n---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+\n\n\n\n\nNOTES\n\n[Compare Plan of House.]\n\n\n1. The rooms spoken of in the text as \"the library,\" and the\n\"upstairs,\" or \"wing\" smoking-room, are those marked in the Plan as\nthe \"morning-room,\" and the bedroom to the extreme east in the wing.\n\n2. Most of the maid-servants slept in rooms Y and Z, over 1 and 2,\nuntil the alarm of March 25, when they moved to the rooms on the other\nside the house (X and W), thus leaving those over Nos. 1 and 2 empty.\n\n3. Robinson and Mrs. Robinson (butler and cook) occupied room W till\nMarch 13, when both moved into the butler's room off the hall, which\nduring the first month had been occupied by Mac the maid, who became\nill and returned south.\n\n4. Opinions regarding the noises, and experiments as to their origin,\nwill be found on the under-mentioned pages of the Journal.\n\n_Opinions_, pp. 92, 111, 113, 120, 124, 128, 133, 143, 144, 147, 153,\n154, 159, 162, 166, 168, 173, 179, 187, 198, 201, 207, 215, 219, 234,\n242.\n\n_Experiments_, pp. 109, 129, 140, 160, 175, 180, 218, 220.\n\n  Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.\n  Edinburgh & London","title":"The Alleged Haunting of B\u2014\u2014 House: Including a Journal Kept During the Tenancy of Colonel Lemesurier Taylor","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":54258}