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+Project Gutenberg's The Alleged Haunting of B---- House, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Alleged Haunting of B---- House
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: A. Goodrich-Freer and John, Marquess of Bute
+
+Release Date: August 17, 2005 [EBook #16538]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALLEGED HAUNTING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Clare Boothby, Jeannie Howse and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note: The Author uses lines of spaced periods to mark
+the passing of time, this has been preserved in this edition.]
+
+
+
+THE ALLEGED HAUNTING
+
+OF B---- HOUSE
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ATTICS]
+
+[Illustration: SECOND FLOOR]
+
+[Illustration: GROUND FLOOR L. Lift. A. Iron gate in Area.]
+
+[Illustration: BASEMENT]
+
+
+
+
+  THE ALLEGED HAUNTING
+
+  OF
+
+  B---- HOUSE
+
+  INCLUDING
+
+  A JOURNAL KEPT DURING THE TENANCY OF
+  COLONEL LEMESURIER TAYLOR
+
+
+  EDITED BY
+  A. GOODRICH-FREER (MISS X)
+  AND
+  JOHN, MARQUESS OF BUTE, K.T.
+
+
+  LONDON
+  GEORGE REDWAY
+  1899
+
+
+
+
+   "I visited B---- representing that Society [S.P.R.], ... and
+   decided that there was no such evidence as could justify us in
+   giving the results of the inquiry a place in our
+   _Proceedings_."--_The Times_, June 10, 1897.
+
+  FREDERIC W.H. MYERS,
+  _Hon. Sec. of the Society for Psychical Research_.
+
+_Compare pages 189 et seq._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE ALLEGED HAUNTING OF B---- HOUSE
+
+
+It was in 1892 that Lord Bute first heard of the matter. It was not,
+as stated by _The Times_ correspondent in that journal for June 8,
+1897, in or from London, but at Falkland, in Fifeshire, and in the
+following manner:--
+
+There is no public chapel at Falkland, and the private chapel in the
+house is attended by a variety of priests, who usually come only from
+Saturday to Monday. Lord Bute's diary for the second week in August
+1892 contains the following entries:--
+
+"_Saturday, August 6th._--Father H----, S.J., came.
+
+"_Sunday, August 7th._--In afternoon with Father H---- and John [Lord
+Dumfries] to Palace, and then with him to the Gruoch's Den. He gives
+us a long account of the psychical disturbances at B----; noises
+between his bed and the ceiling, like continuous explosion of petards,
+so that he could not hear himself speak, &c. &c.
+
+"[Mr. Huggins afterwards recommended the use of a phonograph for these
+noises, in order to ascertain absolutely whether they are objective or
+subjective, and I wrote so to S---- of B----.]
+
+"_Monday, August 8th._--Father H---- went away.
+
+"_Tuesday, August 9th._--Mr. Huggins [now Sir William Huggins],
+outgoing President of the British Association, and Mrs. Huggins came.
+
+"_Saturday, August 13th._--Father H---- came.
+
+"_Sunday, August 14th._--In afternoon with the children, &c., to the
+Palace, leaving Mr. Huggins as much as possible alone with Father
+H---- (both being with us), in order to interrogate him about the
+psychical noises he heard recently at B----, when there, to give a
+Retreat to some nuns.
+
+"_Monday, August 15th._--Father H---- went away after luncheon."
+
+Lord Bute recalls that Father H---- told him that he had been at B----
+for the purpose of giving a Retreat [a series of sermons and
+meditations] to some nuns, who were charitably allowed by Mr. S---- to
+take a sort of holiday, at a house called B---- Cottage, which had
+been originally built and occupied by the late Major S----, when he
+first took up his residence at B----, which at the time was let.
+
+Father H---- told Lord Bute that in consequence of the disturbance his
+room had been several times changed, and he expressed surprise that
+the sounds did not appear to be heard by anybody except himself. He
+also said that he had spoken of the matter to Mr. S----, who expressed
+an idea that the disturbances might be caused by his uncle, the late
+Major S----, who was trying to attract attention in order that prayers
+might be offered for the repose of his soul. The sounds occurred
+during full daylight, and in a clear open space between his bed and
+the ceiling. He did not know to what to compare them, but as he said
+they were explosive in sound, Lord Bute suggested that they might be
+compared to the sounds made by petards, which are commonly used in
+Italy for firing _feux de joie_. Father H---- answered, "Yes perhaps,
+if they were continuous enough." He said that the sound which alarmed
+him more than any other was as of a large animal throwing itself
+violently against the bottom of his door, outside. A third noise which
+he had heard was of ordinary raps, of the kind called "spirit-raps."
+He mentioned a fourth sound, the nature of which Lord Bute does not
+remember with the same certainty as the others, but believes it was a
+shriek or scream. Such a sound is described by other witnesses during
+the subsequent occupation of the house by the H---- family. The fact
+that the sounds appear to have been inaudible to every one except
+Father H---- is a strong argument in favour of their subjective, or
+hallucinatory, character. It will be found that this was very often
+the case with the peculiar sounds recorded at B----, and even when
+they were heard by several persons at the same time, there does not
+appear to be any ground for refusing to recognise them as collective
+hallucinations.
+
+Lord Bute's diary and recollections have been here quoted, not as
+differing from, but only as being antecedent to, the following
+account, which has been furnished by Father H---- himself:--
+
+"I went to B---- on Thursday, July 14th, 1892, and I left it on
+Saturday, July 23rd. So I slept at B---- for nine nights, or rather
+one night, because I was disturbed by very queer and extraordinary
+noises every night except the last, which I spent in Mr. S----'s
+dressing-room. At first I occupied the room to the extreme right of
+the landing [No. 8],[A] then my things were removed to another room
+[No. 3] (it seems to me at this distance of time that _this_ room
+faced the principal staircase, or was a little to the left of it). In
+both these rooms I heard the loud and inexplicable noises every night,
+but on two or three nights, in addition to these, another noise
+affrighted me--a sound of somebody or something falling against the
+door outside. It seemed, at the time, as if a calf or big dog would
+make such a noise. Why those particular animals came into my head I
+cannot tell. But in attempting to describe these indescribable
+phenomena, I notice now I always do say it was like a calf or big dog
+falling against the door. Why did I not hear the noises on the ninth
+night? Were there none where I was? These are questions the answers to
+which are not apparent. It may be there _were_ noises, but I slept too
+soundly to hear them. One of the oddest things in my case, in
+connection with the house, is that it appeared to me somehow that (1)
+Somebody was relieved by my departure; (2) that nothing could induce
+me to pass another night there, at all events alone, and in other
+respects I do not think I am a coward."
+
+For the benefit of those who are not aware of the fact, it may be as
+well to state that the class of people known as spiritualists, hold
+that when raps are heard, it is the best thing for the hearer to say
+aloud, "If you are intelligent, will you please to rap three times?"
+and if this is done, to ask the intelligence to rap three times for
+_yes_, once for _no_, and twice for _doubtful_. It is obvious that
+considerable conversation can be carried on by such a code, and where
+it is inadequate, as, for instance, in obtaining proper names, it is
+usual to propose to repeat the alphabet slowly, asking the
+intelligence to rap once when the proper letter is reached. This
+simple method was entirely unknown to Father H----. He had done
+nothing but throw holy water about his rooms, and repeat the prayer
+_Visita quaesumus_, which invokes the Divine protection of a house and
+its inhabitants against all the snares of the Enemy, and which,
+therefore, in no way concerned any person or thing which is not
+associated with the powers of darkness. It was natural that no result
+should be produced.
+
+Sir W. Huggins told Lord Bute, as the result of his examination of
+Father H----, that he felt absolutely certain that what the latter had
+experienced was not the outcome of morbid hallucination, but that it
+was possible that the sounds themselves might be hallucinatory or
+subjective. To ascertain whether this were so, or whether they had any
+physical cause, he suggested the use of a phonograph, as this would at
+least show whether the sounds were accompanied by atmospheric waves.
+Lord Bute happened to know Mr. S---- slightly, having met him
+accidentally while travelling abroad. He accordingly wrote to him, and
+communicated Sir William Huggins's suggestion. Mr. S----, after a
+delay of some days, refused absolutely to allow any scientific
+investigation to be made, a refusal remarkably coincident with the
+recent refusal of his son, the present proprietor, to allow any
+similar investigation with seismographical instruments. It would seem
+a legitimate conclusion that neither father nor son doubted that the
+sounds are of a psychical character. As regards the present
+proprietor, such a conclusion renders it obvious that we must
+understand in some peculiar sense the letter published in _The Times_,
+dated June 10, 1897, in which he says, "As to the stories contained in
+the article [_i.e._ of the anonymous _Times_ correspondent], they are
+without foundation." These words must, however, be, in any case,
+accepted in a special sense, considering the part taken by members of
+his own family, as well as by tenants and agents, in attesting the
+stories in question.
+
+Lord Bute states that Father H---- did not, upon the occasion of his
+visit to Falkland, say anything as to having seen the brown wooden
+crucifix (see pp. 132, 142, 154), but after this apparition had been
+seen by two other persons separately, Lord Bute wrote to Father H----
+to inquire whether he could remember anything of the sort. His reply
+was as follows:--
+
+"When you mention the brown wooden crucifix, you awaken a new memory
+in me. I now seem to live some of those hours over again, and I
+recollect that between waking and sleeping there appeared before my
+eyes--somewhere on the wall--a crucifix, some eighteen inches, I
+should say, long, and, _I think_, of _brown_ wood.
+
+"My own crucifix is of black metal, and just the length of this page
+(seven inches); and though I usually have it with me in my bag, I
+cannot for certain say that it was in my bag at B----."
+
+The following further communication from Father H---- carries the
+record further back:--
+
+"In August 1893 it was that I met, quite by accident, a person who
+knew something about B---- House and its strange noises.
+
+"Though, on my leaving his house, Mr. S---- begged me not 'to give the
+house a bad name,' I did not understand by this that, as a point of
+honour, I should refrain from ever mentioning the subject. I respected
+his request to the extent of not alluding indiscriminately to the
+noises that disturbed my nights there. But I did speak to several
+people about them, and they had so impatiently and incredulously heard
+my statements, that I at last refused to repeat them, even when
+pressingly requested to do so. It was, therefore, quite a surprise to
+find myself talking about B---- House, or rather, listening with rapt
+attention to another talking about the place.
+
+"Miss Y----, I think her name was, kept house for a priest at----. One
+evening, while on a visit there, I found her knitting as I passed the
+kitchen door, and bidding her the time of day, I discovered from a
+remark she made that she had in former days filled more important
+posts. She soon settled down when she found me an attentive listener
+to a somewhat detailed account of by no means a short life.
+
+"'Had she been in Scotland?' 'Yes, sir; and in a very beautiful part
+of Scotland, in P----shire.' 'Indeed!' In short she told me that she
+had been, twelve years ago, governess in the S---- family at B----
+House. (I need not say that I was now intensely interested.) 'Why did
+she leave?' 'Well, sir, so many people complained of queer noises in
+the house, that I got alarmed and left.' I asked her had she seen
+anything? She said No, and the noises were only heard in certain
+rooms, and the servants inhabited quite a different part of the house.
+When I closely questioned her she located the queer noises precisely
+in the two rooms I had successively occupied. She did not learn from
+me that I had ever been there. Pressed for a concrete case of fright
+and abrupt leavetaking (I _think_), she told me two military officers
+had 'left next morning.'
+
+"In conclusion, as against all the above, my own, and this good
+woman's account, I must set it down that, before I left the house, two
+young ladies, relatives of the family, occupied the rooms in
+question, and certainly, to my surprise, did not seem at breakfast as
+if they had spent an unquiet night."
+
+Inquiry shows that Miss Y----'s residence at B---- must have been
+about the years 1878-80.
+
+The earliest witnesses in chronological sequence would be the S----
+family themselves; but though much information has been contributed by
+them to various persons interested in B---- House during the tenancy
+both of Mr. H---- and Colonel Taylor, the present Editors are
+unwilling to make use of it without permission.
+
+A statement in _The Times_ article, of the character of which the
+reader can here judge for himself, elicited the following letter from
+Mrs. S----, which is to be found in the issue of that journal for June
+18, 1897:--
+
+"May I ask of your courtesy to insert this in the next issue of your
+paper. Seeing myself dragged into publicity in _The Times_ of June 8,
+as 'having made admissions under pressure of cross-examination,' I beg
+to state that I as well as the rest of my family had not the remotest
+idea that our home was let to other than ordinary tenants. In my
+intercourse with them I spoke as one lady to another, never imagining
+that my private conversations were going to be used for purposes
+carefully concealed from me--a deceit which I deeply resent."
+
+It will be observed that Mrs. S---- here leaves no doubt as to the
+nature of the information with which she was so good as to favour Miss
+Freer, but, notwithstanding this fact, and the language which Mrs.
+S---- has considered it right to use--or, at least, to sign--with
+regard to Miss Freer, Miss Freer prefers to continue to treat Mrs.
+S----'s statements as confidential, and blanks will accordingly be
+found in the Journal under the dates on which such conversations
+occurred. Miss Freer extends the same regard for a privacy, which the
+S---- family have themselves violated, to communications made by other
+members. There have, however, been several witnesses unconnected with
+them, some of whom are referred to in the Journal. Not only the
+villagers and persons in the immediate neighbourhood, but many
+accidentally met with in visits to show-places and in excursions for
+twenty miles round B----, were ready to pour out traditions and
+experiences which are not here quoted, as, though often suggestive,
+not always evidential.
+
+The Rev. P. H----, already referred to, quotes a witness who testifies
+to processions of monks or nuns having been seen by Mr. S---- from a
+window, and of a married couple who, "relating the events of the
+night, declared they could not hear each other's voices for the noise
+overhead between them and the ceiling," which was especially
+interesting to him, as corroborative of his own experience.
+
+A former servant at B---- has voluntarily related, at great length,
+the story of the alleged hauntings, which shows that they have
+occurred at intervals during the past twenty years. He is of opinion
+that as the earlier hauntings were ascribed to the late Major S----,
+so their revival may be referred to the late proprietor; but his
+reasons, as well as his narrative, are of a nature which might cause
+annoyance to the S---- family, and are therefore withheld.
+
+Dr. Menzies, a correspondent of _The Times_, June 10th, who speaks of
+himself as an old friend of Major S----, refers to a still earlier
+haunting--a tradition current at the time of the Major's succession in
+1844.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In August 1896, B---- House, with the shooting attached, was let by
+Captain S----, the present proprietor, for a year to a wealthy family
+of Spanish origin. Their experience was of such a nature that they
+abandoned the house at the end of seven weeks, thus forfeiting the
+greater part of their rent, which had been paid in advance. The
+evidence of Mr. H---- himself, of his butler, and of several guests,
+will be found in due chronological sequence.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Colonel Taylor, one of the fundamental members of the London
+Spiritualist Alliance, a distinguished member of the S.P.R., whose
+name is associated both in this country and in America with the
+investigation of haunted houses, offered to take a lease of B----
+House, after the lease had been resigned by Mr. H----, the proprietor
+made no objection whatever. Indeed, the only allusion made to the
+haunting was the expression of a hope on the part of Captain S----'s
+agents in Edinburgh, that Colonel Taylor would not make it a subject
+of complaint, as had been done by Mr. H----, in reply to which they
+were informed that Colonel Taylor was thoroughly well aware of what
+had happened during Mr. H----'s tenancy, and would undertake to make
+no complaint on the subject. Captain S---- having thus thrown the
+house into the open market, and let it to the well-known expert, with
+no reference whatever to the subject of haunting, except that it
+should not be made a ground of complaint, it is obvious that he
+deprived himself of any right to complain as to observations upon the
+subject of local hallucination, any more than of observation upon the
+habits of squirrels or other local features. Nor had he any more right
+to complain upon this ground, as vendor of the lease, than any other
+vendor of articles exposed for public sale, such as a hatter, who
+after selling a hat to Lord Salisbury, might complain that he had been
+induced to provide headgear for a Conservative. At the same time, both
+Colonel Taylor and his friends were well aware, from a vexatious
+experience, that phenomena of the kind found at B---- are very often
+associated with private matters, which the members of a family
+concerned might object to see published, just as they might object to
+the publication of the results of an examination of some object--say,
+old medicine-bottles--found in the house let by them to a strange
+tenant.
+
+Acting upon this knowledge, it has been the general rule of the
+Society for Psychical Research to publish the cases investigated by it
+under avowedly false names, as private cases are published in medical
+and other scientific journals. Out of a courteous anxiety that nothing
+should occur which could in any way annoy any member of the S----
+family, no one was admitted to the house for the purpose of observing
+the phenomena, except on the definite understanding that they were to
+regard everything as confidential, and it was always intended that any
+publication on the subject was to be made with all names and
+geographical indications avowedly fictitious.
+
+As certain points of Gaelic orthography were found to be involved, it
+was decided to mention the house as standing in a bi-lingual district
+upon the borders of Wales, and Lord Bute arranged with Sir William
+Lewis to have these linguistic points represented by Welsh instead of
+Gaelic.
+
+The affairs of the inquiry, and of any phenomena which might occur,
+were thus protected, it was believed, by a confidence even more
+absolute than that usually observed in such affairs of a household as
+to which honour dictates that a guest should be silent.
+
+The appreciation with which the S---- family responded to this
+courteous and careful consideration for their possible feelings, was
+made manifest to the world by the tone which they adopted when,
+immediately on the appearance of the anonymous article in _The Times_,
+they rushed into the newspapers, and published everything concerning
+themselves, their family property, predecessors, and tenants, with all
+the proper names at full length. After that outburst it has, of
+course, been rendered impossible to keep the identity of the place and
+people any longer secret.
+
+Out of deference to other members of the family who did not take part
+in this, the matter in the present volume remains in as private a form
+as the newspaper correspondence now leaves possible.
+
+The names given in full are those mostly very indirectly concerned;
+other names, including that of the house, are given under the real
+initials, with the exception of a few of the less prominent, when the
+real initials would create confusion; and in these latter cases they
+are taken from letters of the alphabet not already used, and are
+placed in inverted commas; _e.g._ the real initial of a Mr. S---- is
+changed, in order to avoid confusion with the name of the S---- family
+themselves, the proprietors of B----.
+
+The contents of the book are, except in one respect, arranged upon the
+simple chronological system. They commence with a short sketch of the
+history of the S---- family, based in its earlier part upon Douglas's
+"Baronage of Scotland"; and all information which the writers possess
+as to the phenomena which have occurred since the death of Major S----
+in 1876, except that supplied by the S---- family, is set forth in
+succession.
+
+The family of S---- date from the earlier part of the middle of the
+fifteenth century, and were settled upon the river T---- within that
+century, while they have possessed B---- at least since the earlier
+half of the century following.
+
+A stone, carved with their arms, belonging to the old mansion-house,
+is built into the wall, and dated 1579. The present house is modern,
+and does not even occupy the site of the older one.
+
+The particular proprietor whose arms are so represented, Patrick
+S----, married Elizabeth B----, who survived him and married a second
+time. James S----, his son, in 1586, married Mary C----, and after her
+death, in 1597, Elizabeth R----.
+
+Robert S----, his son by his first marriage, married Margaret C----.
+John S----, son of Robert, was killed by the Cromwellians, leaving no
+issue, and was succeeded by his brother, Patrick S----, who married
+Elizabeth L----.
+
+It is not obvious when they adopted the principles of the Reformation,
+but it is to be remarked that this Patrick stood high in the favour of
+James II. (and VII.).
+
+Charles S----, son of the foregoing, married Anne D----, and was
+succeeded by his third son, another Charles, who married Grizell
+M----, and died in 1764.
+
+Robert S----, his son, married Isabel H----. Charles S----, his eldest
+son, died unmarried in 1783.
+
+H---- S----, second son of R---- S----, married Louisa M----, died in
+1834, and had issue--Robert, two other sons, and six daughters.
+
+Robert S----, born January 1806, in 1825 entered the military service
+of the East India Company, from which he retired with the rank of
+Major in 1850, _i.e._ sixteen years after succeeding to the property.
+He died in April 1876. His two brothers both died unmarried, and of
+his six sisters, three married, and a fourth, Isabella, entered a
+nunnery. She there professed under the name of "Frances Helen" in
+1850, the year of her brother's return from India, and died February
+23, 1880, aged sixty-six.
+
+Major S----, by his will dated June 8, 1853, bequeathed B---- to the
+representatives of his married sister Mary, and on his death was
+accordingly succeeded by her second (but eldest surviving) son, John,
+who on succeeding assumed the name of S----.
+
+Major S---- was a Protestant, but this John was a Roman Catholic, like
+his aunt Isabella. His eldest brother died without issue in 1867, but
+he had a younger brother, married, with issue, and two sisters, Louisa
+and Mary, whom Major S----, by a codicil of December 14, 1868,
+carefully excluded from all benefit under his will.
+
+The register of the parish of L----, in which B---- House is situated,
+mentions under the date July 14, 1873, the death of Sarah N----,
+housekeeper of B---- House (single), aged twenty-seven years, daughter
+of John N----, farmer, and Helen R----. (In Scottish legal documents
+married women are described by their maiden name.) It is said that her
+last illness was very short, lasting only three days. Mrs. S---- had
+the great charity to attend her on her deathbed. It is mentioned in
+the register, that the official intimation of Sarah N----'s death was
+given, not by her parents nor by Major S----, but by her uncle, Neil
+N----.
+
+Major S---- seems to have been somewhat eccentric, and was very fond
+of dogs, of which he kept a considerable number. He had very strong
+views upon psychical subjects. He was a believer in spirit-return, and
+many witnesses have attested that he frequently spoke of his own
+return after death. Among these psychic beliefs were two relating to
+animals; and as they are of a kind not very commonly discussed even
+among spiritualists, and enter, to some extent, into the following
+narrative, it is convenient here to state them at length. It is very
+commonly held that the soul or living personality of man, which will
+survive the change called by us "death," is capable of entering living
+bodies and making use of their organs. The form in which this belief
+is most commonly met with, is that of the alleged inspiration of
+trance mediums by the souls of the dead. Such a case is that of Mrs.
+Piper, said to have been animated by the soul of Dr. Phinuit and other
+personalities now disincarnated. It has naturally been argued that if
+it is possible for the disembodied spirit to occupy and animate the
+body of a human being, it would, _a fortiori_, be easy for it to do
+the same with the body of a beast, where the resistance of will would
+presumably be less.
+
+This idea, coupled with the belief that the soul can be separated from
+the body during life, so producing a kind of temporary death, while
+leaving the body in such a state that it is capable of being again
+inhabited and animated, lies at the bottom of the numerous statements
+as to sorcerers and sorceresses changing themselves into hares,
+wolves, or cats, which are to be found in the records of witch trials.
+
+That this was possible, at least after death, was evidently a strong
+belief upon the part of Major S----. We are informed that he
+frequently intimated his intention of entering the body of a
+particular black spaniel which he possessed, and so strong a belief
+was attached to his words, that after his death all his dogs,
+including the spaniel in question, were shot, apparently in order to
+render impossible any such action upon his part. The policy of the
+measure adopted was short-sighted. If the Major had thoroughly
+succeeded in animating the body of the living spaniel, the physical
+resources at his disposal would have been too limited to have enabled
+him to give much trouble. As it is, a series of witnesses attest
+apparitions of this spaniel, and of at least one other dog, which may
+naturally be regarded as much more disturbing.
+
+The second point is possibly the same as the last, but it appears to
+be more probably based upon the belief held by Major S----, in common
+with a large number of those who have made a serious study of
+apparitions--and certainly a large number of the members of the
+S.P.R.--that such apparitions are really hallucinations or false
+impressions upon the senses, created, so far as originated by any
+external cause, by other minds either in the body or out of the body,
+which are themselves invisible in the ordinary and physical sense of
+the term, and really acting through some means at present very
+imperfectly known. Such an opinion of course reserves the question of
+the possible action of unseen forces upon what is commonly called
+matter involved in 'spirit'-photography, materialisation, levitation,
+the passage of matter through matter, and other forms of _apport_,
+although such a distinction, if logically carried out, becomes
+somewhat tenuous in face of the generally accepted fact that all
+mental processes are accompanied by physical processes in the brain.
+In the following pages will be found instances of the phenomenon of
+the apparent removal of bed-clothing, which raise a question as to the
+propriety of regarding as exhaustive an explanation based solely upon
+the hypothesis of subjective hallucination which otherwise would
+appear to be generally applicable. It would stand to reason that if
+such an intelligence can produce an hallucination of the appearance of
+the human figure, it would be at least equally easy for it to produce
+an hallucination of the appearance of a beast. A belief to this effect
+seems to be the explanation of the fact mentioned in a letter to _The
+Times_ of June 10, 1897, by Dr. Menzies, who refers to Major S---- as
+"an old and dear friend." He writes, "I have no doubt that he created
+much scandal by saying to his gardener that he had better take care to
+keep up the garden properly, for when he was gone his soul would go
+into a mole and haunt the garden and him too."
+
+This theory of the possibility of producing by mental force the
+hallucination audible or visual of a beast, may also be the
+explanation, not only of the apparition of the large dog which has
+been seen, as well as that of a spaniel, but also of the phenomenon,
+attested by several witnesses, of their having heard the sound as of a
+large dog throwing itself from the outside against the lower part of
+their doors.
+
+Major S---- died, as already stated, in 1876, and was buried beside
+Sarah N---- and, it is said, an old Indian manservant. The grave is in
+the middle of the parish churchyard. No monument marks their
+resting-place, but a high enclosure, which surrounds it, is a
+prominent object. The whole of his dogs, fourteen in number, including
+the spaniel already mentioned, were killed after his death.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The S.P.R. some years ago published a census of hallucinations based
+upon the interrogation of seventeen thousand persons, who were not
+only taken casually, but from whom those were excluded whose replies
+were foreseen. From the analysis of these statistics, it appears that
+the great majority of these phantasms are figures of people who were
+living and continue to live, although research seems to point to the
+fact that their bodies are either always, or very often, in a state of
+apparent unconsciousness at the moment of the phenomenon. Among the
+minority, _i.e._ of apparitions of the dead, the frequency seems to be
+in inverse proportion to the time which has elapsed since death. Those
+which appear at the moment of death are very frequent, whereas, on the
+other hand, those of persons who have been very long dead are almost
+unknown; _e.g._ the apparition seen by Lady Galway a few years ago at
+Rufford Abbey, where the form represented a person who must have been
+dead for about three hundred years, belongs to a class of which
+examples are very few.
+
+A haunted house (or any other locality) is merely a place where
+experience shows that hallucinations are more or less localised, and
+the only especially interesting question about it is, why the
+hallucinations should be localised at a particular place, and what
+causes them there.
+
+Such Phantasms of the Living have been discussed in the monumental
+work of Mr. Myers and the late Mr. E. Gurney. They need be no further
+remarked upon here, than to observe that the following pages contain
+at least one example, viz. that of the apparition of the Rev. P.
+H----. (See p. 119.)
+
+It is very difficult to judge of the forces which may act in the
+conditions of what we are accustomed to call "another world," but a
+plausible explanation might be found in the Divine Word, "Where your
+treasure is, there will your heart be also." The thoughts and
+affections appear to dwell for a time where they have been already
+fixed during life, but changes here, including the gradual reunion on
+the other side, of all those who are loved with those who love them,
+the advancing dissociation of the mind with things here, and, no
+doubt, the evolution of a different life under different conditions,
+seem gradually to efface the ties of earthly memory, connecting the
+feelings with particular spots on earth.
+
+Such thoughts not infrequently include repentance, a desire for the
+remedy of acts of injustice, and an eagerness for the compassion and
+sympathetic prayers of those whom we call the living.
+
+It is natural, therefore, to suppose that haunting, such as that met
+with at B----, would be connected with persons who had died within
+some such period as a century at the outside. Now the number of the
+members of the S---- family and others, whose thoughts, memories,
+feelings, and affections may presumably have dwelt largely at B----,
+and who have died within the last hundred years, is very considerable;
+but--saving the tradition referred to by Dr. Menzies (see p. 22), only
+to be dismissed--there seems to have been no idea of the place being
+haunted before the deaths of Sarah N---- and of Major S----, whereas
+since that time the peculiar phenomena have been constantly attested.
+
+John S----, his successor, was, as stated, the second son of Major
+S----'s sister Mary, and assumed the name of S---- upon succeeding to
+the property. He was a Roman Catholic; he was married, and had several
+children, of whom the eldest son is the present proprietor. One of the
+younger sons is a Jesuit, but not yet a priest.
+
+In January 1895 Mr. S---- went to London on family business, and was
+there killed by being run over by a cab in the street. It was stated
+on the authority of three persons, not counting members of his own
+family, that on the morning on which he left B---- for the last time,
+while he was talking to the agent in his business-room, there were
+raps so violent as to interfere with conversation. The earliest
+written notice of this circumstance, so far as can be discovered, is
+the following entry in Lord Bute's journal for January 17, 1896:--
+
+"I hear that the morning the late S---- of B---- left home for the
+last time, spirits came and rapped to him in his room--doubtless to
+warn him--so that his death was really owing to the cruel superstition
+which had prevented him allowing them to be communicated with."
+
+Lord Bute's informant appears to have been the Rev. Sir David Hunter
+Blair, as the journal mentions his arrival at Falkland on that day,
+and none of the other guests in the house were people who were likely
+to have heard anything about it.
+
+Mr. S---- was succeeded by his eldest son, Captain S----, who showed
+no hesitation in throwing the house into the public market, with its
+4400 acres of shooting. The alleged haunting was not mentioned
+beforehand to the first tenant, as it afterwards was to Colonel
+Taylor.
+
+This tenant was Mr. J.R. H---- of K---- Court, C----, in G----shire,
+and the following is the account of experiences during his visit, as
+given by his butler:--
+
+
+ON THE TRAIL OF A GHOST
+
+_To the Editor of "The Times"_
+
+"SIR,--In your issue of the 8th, under the above heading, 'A
+Correspondent' tries at some length to describe what he calls a most
+impudent imposture. I having lived at B---- for three months in the
+autumn of last year as butler to the house, I thought perhaps my
+experience of the ghost of B---- might be of interest to many of your
+readers, and as the story has now become public property, I shall not
+be doing any one an injury by telling what I know of the mystery.
+
+"On July 15, 1896, I was sent by Mr. H----, with two maidservants, to
+take charge of B---- from Mr. S----'s agents. I was there three days
+before the arrival of any one of the family, and during that time I
+heard nothing to disturb me in any way; but on the morning after the
+arrival of two of the family, Master and Miss H----, they came down
+with long faces, giving accounts of ghostly noises they had heard
+during the night, but I tried to dissuade them from such nonsense, as
+I then considered it to be; but on the following two or three nights
+the same kind of noises were heard by them, and also by the
+maidservants, who slept in the rooms above, and they all became
+positively frightened. I heard nothing whatever, though the noises, as
+they described them, would have been enough to wake any one much
+farther away than where I slept, for the noises they heard were made
+immediately over my room. I suggested the hot-water pipes or the twigs
+of ivy knocking against the windows, but no--nothing would persuade
+them but that the house was haunted; but as the noises continued to be
+heard nightly, I suggested that I should sit up alone, and without a
+light, outside their bedroom doors, where the footsteps and other
+rustling noises were heard. I think one other member of the family, or
+two young gentlemen, had arrived at this time, and they had also heard
+the noises. I told them of my intention to sit up alone, for as one
+of them had a revolver I did not want to run the risk of being shot
+for a ghost. However, I took my post on the landing at 11.30 and kept
+watch, I am certain, until half-past one; then I must have fallen
+asleep, for about two o'clock Master H----, hearing the knocking as
+usual, came out of his room to hear if I had seen or heard anything,
+but found me fast asleep on the floor, which gave him a greater fright
+than the knocking, for he supposed for the moment that I had been
+slain by the ghost.
+
+"This kind of thing went on nightly, and for three weeks I heard
+nothing, although nearly every one in the house heard these noises
+except myself; but my turn had yet to come, although I firmly held the
+opinion during that time that it was the hot-water pipes, and I only
+laughed at the others for their absurd nonsense, as I then considered
+it to be; but my first experience was that of being awakened three
+successive nights, or rather mornings, at about 3.30. I heard nothing,
+but seemed to be wide awake in an instant, as though some one had
+touched me. I would stay awake for some little time and then go to
+sleep again; but on the fourth night, on being awakened as before, and
+lying awake for perhaps two minutes, I heard tremendous thumping just
+outside my door. I jumped out of bed quickly, and opened my door, and
+called out in a loud voice, 'Who is there?' but got no answer. I
+ascended the stairs and listened for a few minutes, but heard no
+further knocking. I then went back to my room, but did not sleep again
+that morning.
+
+"I may mention that my room was the one described by 'A Correspondent'
+as the butler's room under No. 3, the room where most noises were
+heard, and the staircase was the service one, and as there is a door
+at the top, if any one had come there to make the noise I should
+certainly have heard them beating a retreat.
+
+"The same thing happened with variations almost nightly for the
+succeeding two months that I was there, and every visitor that came to
+the house was disturbed in the same manner. One gentleman (a colonel)
+told me he was awakened on several occasions with the feeling that
+some one was pulling the bedclothes off him; sometimes heavy
+footsteps were heard, at others like the rustling of a lady's dress;
+and sometimes groans were heard, but nearly always accompanied with
+heavy knocking; sometimes the whole house would be aroused. One night
+I remember five gentlemen meeting at the top of the stairs in their
+night-suits, some with sticks or pokers, one had a revolver, vowing
+vengeance on the disturbers of their sleep. During the two months
+after I first heard the noises I kept watch altogether about twelve
+times in various parts of the house, mostly unknown to others (at the
+time), and have heard the noises in the wing as well as other parts.
+
+"When watching I always experienced a peculiar sensation a few minutes
+before hearing any noise. I can only describe it as like suddenly
+entering an ice-house, and a feeling that some one was present and
+about to speak to me. On three different nights I was awakened by my
+bedclothes being pulled off my feet. But the worst night I had at
+B---- was one night about the second week in September, and I shall
+never forget it as long as I live. I had been keeping watch with two
+gentlemen--one a visitor, the other one of the house. We were sitting
+in room No. 2, and heard the noises that I have described about
+half-past two. Both gentlemen were very much alarmed; but we searched
+everywhere, but could not find any trace of the ghost or cause of the
+noises, although they came this time from an unoccupied room. (I may
+mention that the noises were never heard in the daytime, as stated by
+'A Correspondent,' but always between twelve, midnight, and four in
+the morning, generally between two and four o'clock.) After a thorough
+search the two gentlemen went to bed sadder, but not wiser men, for we
+had discovered nothing. I then went to my room, but not to bed, for I
+was not satisfied, and decided to continue the watch alone. So I
+seated myself on the service stairs, close to where the water-pipes
+passed up the wall, so as to decide once and for all if the sounds
+came in any way from the water-pipes.
+
+"I had not long to wait (about twenty minutes) when the knocking
+recommenced from the same direction as before, but much louder than
+before, followed, after a very short interval, by two distinct
+groans, which certainly made me feel very uncomfortable, for it
+sounded like some one being stabbed and then falling to the floor.
+That was enough for me. I went and asked the two gentlemen who had
+just gone to bed if they had heard anything. One said he had heard
+five knocks and two groans, the same as I had; while the other (whose
+room was much nearer to where the sounds came from) said he had heard
+nothing. I then retired to my bed, but not to sleep, for I had not
+been in bed three minutes before I experienced the sensation as
+before, but instead of being followed by knocking, my bedclothes were
+lifted up and let fall again--first at the foot of my bed, but
+gradually coming towards my head. I held the clothes around my neck
+with my hands, but they were gently lifted in spite of my efforts to
+hold them. I then reached around me with my hand, but could feel
+nothing. This was immediately followed by my being fanned as though
+some bird was flying around my head, and I could distinctly hear and
+feel something breathing on me. I then tried to reach some matches
+that were on a chair by my bedside, but my hand was held back as if
+by some invisible power. Then the thing seemed to retire to the foot
+of my bed. Then I suddenly found the foot of my bed lifted up and
+carried around towards the window for about three or four feet, then
+replaced to its former position. All this did not take, I should
+think, more than two or three minutes, although at the time it seemed
+hours to me. Just then the clock struck four, and, being tired out
+with my long night's watching, I fell asleep. This, Mr. Editor, is
+some of my experiences while at B----.
+
+"As to 'A Correspondent's' interviews with local people:--
+
+"As to the old caretaker, she is an old woman, very deaf, and she
+always occupied a room on the ground floor, where, during the three
+months that I was there, nothing whatever was heard, as my two footmen
+slept there, and they did not hear any noises. As to the intelligent
+gardener, if it is the same one that was there when I was there, he,
+surely, has not forgotten the night he spent with me in my room; he
+was nearly frightened out of his wits, and declared he would not
+spend another night in my room for any money--a fact that the factor
+or steward and others well know.
+
+"There are many other incidents in my experience with the mystery of
+B----, but I hope this is sufficient for the purpose I intend
+it--namely, for the truth to be known, for I have no other motive in
+writing this letter; for I have left the service of the house some
+months now. But as to your correspondent's statement that some of the
+house were doing it, it is simply absurd; for in turn they were all
+away from B---- for a week or fortnight, and still these noises were
+heard. Another thing; is it possible for any one to keep up a joke
+like that for three months? or, if any one had been doing it, I should
+certainly have caught them; and I can assure you that the house were
+very much annoyed with it, not only for themselves, but for their
+visitors, for I have sat up all night with some of them, who were
+afraid to go to their beds: and I think that if 'A Correspondent' had
+stayed as long in B---- as I did, and had had some of my experiences,
+he would have a very different tale to tell, although up to my going
+to B---- I would laugh at any one who told me there were such things
+as ghosts; and even now I am not quite convinced; but of one thing I
+am certain--that is, that there is something supernatural in the
+noises and things that I heard and experienced at B----. Thanking you,
+dear sir, in anticipation of your inserting this letter, I remain your
+obedient servant,
+
+  "HAROLD SANDERS.
+  "CHIDCOCK, NEAR BRIDPORT, DORSET."
+
+
+The passage in _The Times_ article is as follows:--
+
+"An intelligent gardener whom I questioned told me that he had kept
+watch in the house on two separate occasions, abstaining from sleep
+until daylight appeared at seven o'clock, but without hearing a sound.
+A caretaker, who had spent months in the house, and who had to keep a
+stove alight all night, never heard a sound, probably because there
+was no one to make any."
+
+The gardener's evidence on this point will be found on p. 218.
+
+Without admitting, for one moment, the theory that a servant's
+evidence may not be of equal value with that of the so-called educated
+classes, it was thought desirable, before admitting that of Sanders,
+to make some inquiries as to his character, intelligence, and capacity
+for observation. His employer spoke well of him, and Colonel Taylor
+had the advantage of a personal interview with him, which he thus
+describes:--
+
+"_July 18th, 1897._--I went to Coventry yesterday, and saw Sanders the
+butler. He is a slight, dark young man, and, as far as I could judge,
+quite honest and serious over the B---- affair. He assured me that he
+had written the letter to _The Times_ without any advice or
+assistance, and that all he wrote was absolutely true. I gathered from
+him, indirectly, that before his B---- experience he knew nothing of
+ghosts, spiritualism, or any occult matter, and does not now. He was
+much astonished when I told him that the feeling which he describes as
+like walking into an ice-house was a common one under the
+circumstances. He said he omitted in his letter many small personal
+matters, such as the following:-- During the manifestation in his
+room, when his bed was shifted, and when he felt as if some one was
+making 'passes' over him, and breathing in his face, he made the sign
+of the Cross, on which the 'influence' receded from him, but
+approached again almost at once. After repeating this a few times with
+the same result, he crossed his arms over his chest, and holding the
+bedclothes close up to his chin, went to sleep. He was at no time
+afraid. He said things were more active during the stay of Father 'I.'
+than at any other time, and that one of the young H----s had seen a
+veiled lady pass through his room."
+
+The following paragraph in the letter of _The Times_ correspondent
+called forth the subjoined letter from Mr. H---- himself, the tenant
+of B----:--
+
+"The only mystery in the matter seems to be the mode in which a
+prosaic and ordinary dwelling was endowed with so evil a reputation. I
+was assured in London that it had had this reputation for twenty or
+thirty years. The family lawyer in P---- asserted most positively
+that there had never been a whisper of such a thing until the house
+was let for last year's shooting season to a family, whom I may call
+the H----s. I was told the same thing in equally positive terms by
+the minister of the parish, a level-headed man from B----shire, who
+has lived in the place for twenty years. He told me that some of the
+younger members of the H---- family had indulged in practical jokes,
+and boasted of them. One of their pranks was to drop or throw a weight
+upon the floor, and to draw it back by means of a string. Another
+seems to have been to thump on bedroom doors with a boot-heel, the
+unmistakable marks of which remain to this day, and were pointed out
+to me by our hostess. If there are really any noises not referable to
+ordinary domestic causes, it is not improbable that these practical
+jokers made a confidant of some one about the estate, who amuses
+himself by occasionally--it is only occasionally that the more
+remarkable noises are said to be heard--repeating their tricks. The
+steward or factor on the estate concurs with the lawyer and the
+minister in denying that the house had any reputation for being
+haunted before the advent of the H---- family. Yet he is a Highlander,
+and not without superstition; for he gave it as his opinion that _if_
+there was anything in these noises, they must be due to Black Art.
+Asked what Black Art might be, he said he could not tell, but he had
+often heard about it, and had been told that when once set going it
+would go on without the assistance of its authors. He was quite clear,
+however that if there is Black Art, it came in with the H---- family."
+
+Mr. H----'s rejoinder, which appeared in _The Times_, was dated June
+10th:--
+
+
+_To the Editor of "The Times"_
+
+"SIR,--I must ask you to be good enough to publish, on behalf of the
+tenant of B----, a few remarks on the article that appeared in your
+paper of the 8th inst. with the heading 'On the Trail of a Ghost.' The
+writer of that article finds a very easy solution to the mystery by
+attacking a private family who happened to be tenants of B---- for a
+short time, and making them a 'scapegoat' for his argument. I do not
+quite understand if your correspondent pretends to assert that the
+place had not the reputation of being haunted previous to my tenancy
+for three months last year; probably he does not charge me with
+originating such reports, as he mentions a story of the visit of a
+Catholic Archbishop to the house to exorcise the ghost. This must have
+happened some time ago, and proves that the house was then supposed to
+be haunted. What your correspondent does state as a fact is, that the
+younger members of my family played practical jokes, which have given
+rise to Lord Bute's investigations. My object in writing to you is to
+deny most emphatically this statement. The principal proof that is
+brought forward to corroborate this slander is, that the doors are
+marked by the blows struck to produce the noises heard. Surely no one
+could be frightened after the cause and reason of the noises were once
+ascertained by the boot-marks! But there were no such marks on the
+doors when we left B----. Some of our guests were with us until very
+shortly before my family left, and can testify to this, for the good
+reason that in the endeavour to localise the extraordinary noises, all
+doors and other parts of the house were constantly examined up to the
+very last. When I went to B---- at the beginning of August, my family
+had already been there a few days, and at once they told me they had
+found out the house was supposed to be haunted, and that they had
+heard most unaccountable noises. I had the greatest difficulty to
+persuade all my people to stay in the place, and after all, we left
+Scotland about the end of September, two months earlier than usual. I
+personally did not give any importance to the rumours that B---- House
+is haunted, and attributed the very remarkable noises heard to the
+hot-water pipes and the peculiar way in which the house is built. In
+fact, I have to confess I cannot believe in ghosts, and, consequently,
+I did my best to persuade everybody that B---- was not haunted, but I
+am afraid I was not always successful. I hope you will forgive me for
+taking up so much valuable space in your paper, but I had to do so in
+self-defence against a false accusation.--Yours faithfully, H----."
+
+It is believed that, in consequence of this letter, Mr. H---- was
+threatened with legal proceedings, which, however, have not yet been
+initiated.
+
+The following is the account given of the same period by Miss "B.," a
+lady of some position in the literary world:--
+
+"... We arrived there on Wednesday the 25th August, the house being
+then tenanted by Mr. J.R. H---- of K---- Court, C----, G----shire. The
+household consisted of Mr. and Mrs. H----, three sons, Miss H----, my
+sister and I, and two other guests, Colonel A---- and Major B----.
+
+"We had rooms in the wing on the ground floor of the house, opening
+off the main hall, divided from the rest of the house by a long
+passage, and shut off by a swing-door. Our rooms opened off each
+other, and the inner room opened off a little sitting-room, which had
+a door with glass panels leading into the passage. The only other
+person who slept in that wing of the house was Mr. Willie H----, whose
+room was exactly opposite the door of our room.
+
+"We heard a great deal of discussion about the 'ghost' when we
+arrived, and so that night my sister made me sleep in the inner room
+with her. We heard nothing that night. The next night I slept in the
+outer room, and neither of us heard anything. The third night, my
+sister being still a little nervous, I slept in the inner room with
+her. The door of the outer room was locked, the door between the rooms
+was locked, and there was a wardrobe placed against the door leading
+into the sitting-room. We both, having taken these precautions, fell
+sound asleep.
+
+"I wakened suddenly in the middle of the night, and noticed how quiet
+the house was. Then I heard the clock strike two, and a few minutes
+later there came a crashing, _vibrating_ batter against the door of
+the outer room. My sister was sleeping very soundly, but she started
+up in a moment at the noise, wide awake.
+
+"'Some one must have done that,' she said; 'such a noise could never
+have been made by a ghost!'
+
+"But neither of us had the courage to go out into the passage! The
+noise lasted, I should say, for only two or three _seconds_, and
+ceased as suddenly as it had begun. We lay awake till the light came
+in, but the house was quite quiet. I may mention, as against the
+'supernatural' origin of the sound, that it came against the outer
+door, did not pass in to the inner one, and avoided the glass-panelled
+door of the sitting-room, which would certainly have been shivered by
+the application of force sufficient to produce such noise. Another
+very curious thing was, that on the nights when it came to our door
+(_we_ only heard it once, but other visitors heard it often) Willie
+H---- heard nothing; whereas on the nights when he was disturbed, we
+heard nothing, yet the rooms were close together.
+
+"The following night my sister and Miss H---- and two of her brothers
+sat up all night in the morning-room, which opened off the main hall.
+We sat with the door open and in the dark, but neither heard or saw
+anything; the house was absolutely still.
+
+"The next night my sister and I stayed in Miss H----'s room, watching
+with her. It was on the third storey of the house, and on a line with
+the specially haunted room, then occupied by Colonel A----. Two of the
+men sat up downstairs.
+
+"After 2.30 Mr. Eustace H---- came and told his sister we need not sit
+up later, as everything was so quiet, and the noises seldom came after
+that hour. He went to his room then, but his door was scarcely closed
+when we all heard a loud knocking at Colonel A----'s door. We ran out,
+without waiting a moment, into the passage, where the lamps were still
+burning brightly, but it was absolutely empty and quiet. We heard it
+several times that night in distant parts of the house, and once we
+heard a scream, which seemed to come from overhead. We stayed six days
+in the house after this, but heard nothing more ourselves, though
+every one else in the house was disturbed nightly."
+
+The Major B---- mentioned in the above statement has been good enough
+to furnish the following note as to his personal impressions:--
+
+"On 22nd August 1896 I arrived at B----, and remained there until the
+2nd September. During this period I slept in the room on the first
+floor, which is at the end of a short corridor running from the top of
+the back stairs to my room [No. 1].
+
+"Colonel A---- occupied the room next to me [No. 3]. It was a double
+room, connected by a door, and was situated just at the top of the
+back stair.
+
+"August 24th, about 3.30 A.M., I heard very loud knocking, apparently
+on Colonel A----'s door, about nine raps in all--three raps quickly,
+one after the other, then three more the same, and three more the
+same. It was as if some one was hitting the door with his fist as hard
+as he could hit. I left my room at once, but could find nothing to
+account for the noise. It was broad daylight at the time. I heard the
+same noises on the 28th and 30th August at about the same hour, viz.
+between 3 and 4 A.M."
+
+The following, which adds somewhat to the above, was contained in a
+private letter written in January 1897 from Major B---- to the Hon.
+E---- F----:--
+
+"Between two and four in the morning there used to be noises on the
+door (of Colonel A----'s room), as if a very strong man were hitting
+the panels as hard as ever he could hit, three times in quick
+succession--a pause, and then three times again in quick succession,
+and perhaps another go. It was so loud that I thought it was on the
+door of his dressing-room, but he said he thought it was on his
+bedroom door. One theory is, that it was the hot water in the pipes
+getting cold, which, I am told, would make a loud throbbing noise. I
+tripped out pretty quick the first time I heard it, but could see
+nothing. Of course it is broad daylight in Scotland then.
+
+"The same banging was, I believe, heard on one of the bedroom doors
+down the passage, in the wing on the ground floor, and on
+investigation I found there were hot-water pipes just outside that
+door as well. There were yarns innumerable while I was there about
+shrieks and footsteps heard, and bedclothes torn off. But I did not
+experience these.... I don't think the noises were done by a
+practical joker, as there were too many people on the alert...."
+
+The Hon. E---- F---- wrote to Miss Freer on March 4th:--
+
+"... [Major] B---- is now in London, and I have seen him twice. He
+says (1) the hot-water pipe theory is not his own, but was suggested
+by an engineer friend. He should not himself have thought that
+hot-water pipes could make so big a noise. Besides, Colonel A----
+described the noise as a banging either against the door itself, or
+against the door of the wardrobe inside the room.... (2) He, B----,
+heard the noise himself several times and bolted out into the passage
+at once, but saw nothing. The noise sounded like a very loud banging
+at A----'s door.... (3) He confirms the story about A---- being unable
+to sleep, and says he used to go to sleep on the moor in consequence."
+
+During Colonel Taylor's tenancy similar noises were heard, both when
+the water was totally cut off and when, from some defect in the
+apparatus, it never reached a high temperature.
+
+The Colonel A---- referred to, corroborates this account, as follows,
+in a letter to Major B----:
+
+"MY DEAR B----, You write asking me about B---- House and its spook.
+Well, I never _saw_ anything, and what I heard was what you heard, a
+terrific banging at one's bedroom door, generally about from 2 to 3
+A.M., about two nights out of three. Of course there were other yarns
+of things heard, &c., but I personally never heard or experienced
+anything else than this banging at the door, which I never could
+account for...."
+
+Before passing from the subject of Colonel A----, it is as well to
+mention that after leaving B---- he went to stay at another country
+house, and the butler there spoke to him of the haunting of B----,
+where he himself was a servant some years before. This butler was
+asked for further information, but sent only the following reply:--
+
+"Your note to hand regarding B----. I am afraid what I saw or heard
+would be of little value to your book, therefore I would rather say
+nothing."
+
+It will be observed that, so far from denying the facts, he admits
+that he saw and heard certain things, which he refuses to describe;
+but as this evidence is circumstantial rather than direct, it is
+inserted here rather than in the place to which, chronologically, it
+would, if fuller, properly have belonged.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. "G." were also guests at B---- during the occupation of
+the H----s. Mrs. "G." published an account of her experiences in a
+magazine article, of course with fictitious names; but she affirms
+that she has in no sense "written up" the story, which, indeed, is
+entirely corroborated by other evidence:--
+
+"_October 9th, 1896._--Some friends of mine took the place this year
+for the shooting, and, relying on the glowing description they had
+received, took it on trust, and in July last took possession of it
+without having previously seen it. For a few days all went well; the
+family established themselves in the old part of the house, leaving a
+new wing for their guests. The haunted room (for so I may justly call
+it) was inhabited by two or three persons in succession, who were so
+alarmed and disturbed by the violent knockings, shrieks, and groans
+which they heard every night, and which were also heard by many others
+along the same corridor, that they refused to sleep there after the
+first few nights. Those who serve under her Majesty's colours are
+proverbially brave; they will gladly die for their country, with sword
+in hand and face to the foe. For this reason a distinguished officer
+[Colonel A----, above quoted] was the next occupant of the haunted
+chamber, and was told nothing of its antecedents. The morning after
+his arrival he came down refreshed, and keen for the day's sport. I
+may here mention, no one is ever disturbed the first night of their
+stay. During the succeeding nights, however, he was continually roused
+from his slumbers by the most terrific noises, and want of sleep would
+cause him to become drowsy when out shooting on the moor, and would
+tempt him to make a bed of the purple heather and fragrant myrtle.
+
+"A friend of mine, a man of great nerve and courage, next inhabited
+the room, and went through the same experiences. He took every
+possible means to discover the cause of the sounds, and failed in
+accounting for them in any way. He said the blows on the door were so
+violent he often looked, expecting to see it shattered to atoms. Since
+he left no one has been put into this room, but the noises continue,
+and are heard throughout the house. Even the dogs cannot be coaxed
+into this room, and if forced into it, they crouch with marked signs
+of fear.
+
+"The disturbances take place between 12 and 4.30, and never at any
+other time. A young lady, of by no means timid disposition, and
+possessed of great presence of mind, has often heard the swing-door
+pushed open and footsteps coming along the corridor, pausing at the
+door. She has frequently looked out and seen nothing. The footsteps
+she has also heard in her room, and going round her bed. Many persons
+have had the same experiences, and many have heard the wild unearthly
+shriek which has rung through the house in the stillness of the night.
+
+"I will now give my own experience. I arrived with my husband and
+daughter on September 17, having been duly warned by my friends of the
+nocturnal disturbances. We were put in rooms adjoining, at the end of
+the new wing. I kept a light in my room, but the first night all was
+still. Next night, about 2 A.M., a succession of thundering knocks
+came from the end of our passage, re-echoing through the house, where
+it was heard by many others. About half-an-hour afterwards my husband
+heard a piercing shriek; then all was still, save for the hooting of
+the owls in the neighbouring trees. When the grey dawn stole in it was
+welcome; so was the cheery sound of the bagpipes, as the kilted piper
+took his daily round in the early morning. The next night and
+succeeding ones we heard loud single knocks at different doors along
+our passage. The last night but one before we left I was roused from
+sleep by hearing the clock strike one, and immediately it had ceased
+six violent blows shook our own door on its hinges, and came with
+frightful rapidity, followed by deep groans. After this sleep was
+impossible. The next night, our last in Scotland, my husband and
+others watched in our passage all night, and though the sounds were
+again heard in different directions, nothing was to be seen. As I
+write, at the commencement of October, the house on the lonely
+hillside is deserted; the tenants have gone southwards; an old
+caretaker (too deaf to hear the weird sounds which nightly awaken the
+echoes) is the sole occupant. Even she closes up all before dusk, and
+retires into her quarters below; though she hears not, her sight is
+unimpaired, and she perhaps dreads to meet the hunchback figure which
+is said to glide up the stairs, or the shadowy form of a grey lady who
+paces with noiseless footfall the lonely corridor, and has been seen
+to pass through the door of one of the rooms. Within the last two
+months a man with bronzed complexion and bent figure has been seen by
+two gentlemen, friends of mine. They both describe him as having come
+through the door and passed through the room in which they were about
+three in the morning. I have tried to give a faithful and accurate
+account of these strange events. I leave it to each and all to form
+their own opinion on the matter."
+
+Some passages in private letters to Miss Freer and Lord Bute written
+by Mrs. "G.," should be quoted as bearing upon some points in the
+above:--
+
+"_February 9th._--I am going to ask you if you do go there [B----
+House] if you would let me know if you see or hear anything. I am
+immensely interested in it, as we stayed there in the autumn with some
+friends who took it, and anything more horribly haunted could not be.
+I never should have believed it if I had not been there."
+
+After the appearance of _The Times_ correspondent's accusation against
+the H---- family, Mrs. "G." wrote as follows to Lord Bute:--
+
+"_June 10th._--If the noises complained of by nearly all who have
+stayed at B---- were the result of practical jokes perpetrated by the
+H----s, how is it that not only were they heard by guests who stayed
+there years ago, but are admitted by members of the S---- family to
+have been heard by themselves? Miss Freer also has told me, that the
+same noises were heard at all hours day and night by herself and her
+guests for months after the H---- family and their servants had left
+Scotland. This so completely exonerates them from the absurd charge,
+that I should hardly have mentioned it, had not Miss Freer seemed
+quite under the impression that practical jokes had been played during
+the tenancy of the H----s; and as a proof of this, she told me that
+the doors, especially of two of the rooms, were marked with nailed
+boots, and the panels even split through, and this damage was
+attributed by her to the younger members of the H---- family. I am
+happy to say I was able to disabuse her mind of this idea, as we were
+staying at B---- within a few days of their leaving Scotland, and I
+had most carefully examined the doors especially of the two rooms
+specified, one of which was our own room. There was not a scratch, nor
+the smallest mark or indentation; others can also vouch for this fact.
+The H----s had all left B---- for good at that time, except the
+eldest son, and Miss Freer agreed with me that whatever damage was
+done to the doors, must therefore have been done after the H----s
+left, and before her party came in.... The hot-water pipe theory
+revived by the writer of the article in _The Times_ is disproved by
+Miss Freer, who told me that the hot-water apparatus was not used for
+some time, and that the disturbances continued just the same.... The
+stories told in connection with B---- were not circulated or started
+by the H---- family. They were told _to_ them by persons living around
+B----."
+
+In a letter to Miss Freer, dated June 12th, Mrs. "G." writes, in
+reference to the charge of practical joking:--
+
+"They are the most unlikely family to do such a thing; and besides, if
+further proof were wanted, the young men of the family were away from
+B---- when we stayed there ten days, and there was only one night when
+we did not hear the noises."
+
+Miss Freer of course entirely accepts Mrs. "G.'s" statement, and that
+of Mr. H---- as published in _The Times_. She had been led to her
+earlier conclusions as to the marks of a boot-heel on the upper panels
+of the doors by the statements of interested persons.
+
+A suggestive point in this connection is the fact, to which Miss "G."
+has herself testified, that while Mr. and Mrs. "G." were disturbed to
+the utmost degree, their daughter, who slept in a room communicating
+with that of her mother, heard nothing whatever; from which it would
+appear that the noises heard by them were subjective, and that the
+alleged evidence of the boot-heel, even were it credible, would be, in
+fact, irrelevant.
+
+The mention of the hallucinatory nature of such phenomena suggests
+attention to the intellectual acumen displayed by _The Times_
+correspondent in saying that "Lord Bute ought to have employed a
+couple of intelligent detectives" for the purpose of catching
+subjective hallucinations. On the same principle, he ought to offer to
+his learned friend, Sir James Crichton-Browne, well known as an
+alienist, some advice as to the best mode of securing morbid
+hallucinations in strait-waistcoats. Is he prepared to propose to take
+photographs of a dream, to put thoughts under lock and key, or to
+advocate the supply of hot and cold water on every floor of a castle
+in the air?
+
+One of the guests at B---- during Colonel Taylor's tenancy wrote after
+his return to London to Miss Freer as follows:--
+
+"_March 24th._--I went to call the other day on the 'G.'s' who chanced
+to be still in town.... I begin chronologically, and give you what I
+was told in all seriousness.... The H----s knew nothing about any
+stories of haunting when they took the place, and Miss H---- and one
+of the sons went up, most innocently, to prepare for the arrival of
+the others. As soon as they entered it the son said to his sister that
+he couldn't explain why, but he had a conviction that the house was
+haunted. That night, however, nothing happened. But the second night
+the bangings began. An old Spanish nurse was in the haunted room, and
+was greatly disturbed by the noise upon her door, which seemed as if
+it were going to be burst open. She didn't seem to be alarmed in the
+least however, and later took steps to secure its remaining shut by
+stuffing a towel under the chink (why this should secure it I rather
+fail to see, still that was her view). Apparently the ghost resented
+this, and one night did actually burst the door open, with such
+violence that the towel was precipitated into the middle of the room.
+The longer they stayed in the house, the worse things got. The noises
+were all over the house more or less, and were by no means confined to
+bangings. Miss H---- slept in room No. 8, where the ghost limped round
+her bed. She was so alarmed that she fetched her brother in, and he
+slept on the sofa. The limping began again, and she asked him if he
+heard anything, and he at once agreed that somebody was walking round
+the bed. In his own room--I forget which--he twice _saw_ the ghost,
+once in the shape of an indeterminate mist, once in the shape of a
+man, who came in by the door and vanished in the wall. Mrs. 'G.'[B]
+now appears on the scene, and slept in No. 1 (I _think_). She heard
+only the bangings, which she declares were indescribably loud. They
+were mostly at the door of the haunted room. Traps were laid to catch
+unwary jesters; the door, or the surrounding floor, I forget which,
+was covered with flour, and wires were stretched across the door; and
+if I had the proper mind of a ghost-story narrator, I should say that
+the bangings were as bad as ever, and the flour and the wires were
+found undisturbed.
+
+"But as a matter of fact she didn't say that, though doubtless she
+intended to, but jumped on to something else. Mr. "G.," who was there
+some weeks after his wife, was put down in the wing--I don't know
+which room--and had visitations. He heard steps approach down the
+passage, followed by a heavy body flinging itself against his door. He
+also heard screams, which seemed to him to recede as though the
+screamer was passing through the walls. (I couldn't quite understand
+this effect, but that was how he described it.) Their chaplain, who
+was put into the haunted room, was also greatly worried, and both he
+and the Spanish nurse and Colonel A---- all had the sensation that
+their bedclothes were being pulled off, and they had to hold on to
+them to prevent their departure. The most interesting part of the
+story is that Mrs. S---- later admitted to Mrs. "G." that it was quite
+true the house was supposed to be haunted, that she had lived there
+for twenty years, and at various times there had been outbreaks of
+this kind of thing of greater or less duration, but that the outbreaks
+had not been often enough for them to think it worth while mentioning
+the fact to incoming tenants. It appears also that the story of the
+bangings on the table in the daylight on the occasion of the last
+interview between the late Mr. S---- and the land-steward, came from
+one of the young S----s. It was also said that one of the young S----s
+used to sleep in the dressing-room between No. 1 and the haunted room,
+and used to complain that somebody kept pulling his bedclothes off.
+
+"I may add that it is quite clear that the people about the
+place--some of whom, on my leaving, I vainly tried to draw--have been
+threatened not to talk about the ghost. There was no mystery about it
+whatever last year, the station officials being exceedingly loquacious
+and full of information...."
+
+The above are the circumstances which _The Times_ correspondent thus
+describes:--
+
+"Lord Bute's confidence has been grossly abused by some one. It was
+represented to him by some one that he was taking the 'most haunted
+house in Scotland,' a house with an old and established reputation for
+mysterious if not supernatural disturbances. What he has got is a
+house with no reputation whatever of that kind, with no history, with
+nothing germane to his purpose beyond a cloud of baseless rumours
+produced during the last twelve-month. Who is responsible for the
+imposture it is not my business to know or to inquire, but that it is
+an imposture of the most shallow and impudent kind there can be no
+manner of doubt. I interviewed in P---- a man who has the district at
+his finger-tips, and was ready to enumerate in order all the shooting
+properties in the valley. He had never heard until the moment I spoke
+to him of B---- possessing any reputation, ancient or modern, for
+being haunted, although he is familiar with the estate, and has slept
+in the house. It has no local reputation of the kind even now beyond
+the parish it stands in. The whole thing has been fudged up in London
+upon the basis of some distorted account of the practical jokes of the
+H----s."
+
+As the writer in question obtained his admission to the house as a
+guest by Sir James Crichton-Browne's solicitation through Sir William
+Huggins and Lord Bute, it might naturally have been supposed that the
+real facts were known to him, at least so far as they were concerned.
+It appears, however, that he cherished a voluntary ignorance upon the
+subject, to judge from the phrase, "it is not my business to know or
+to inquire." Of such a writer, and of such statements, the reader will
+now form his own opinion; but that the correspondent in question
+should continue to cling to his journalistic anonymity, is little to
+be wondered at.
+
+Colonel Taylor served in the Bedfordshire Regiment. He was afterwards
+Professor of Tactics at Sandhurst, and retired in 1894. Possessed of
+means, leisure, and intelligence, he chose to make the study of
+psychic subjects his particular occupation. He is one of the seven
+fundamental members who, in 1895, signed the Articles of Association
+of the London Spiritualist Alliance, holds office in the Society for
+Psychical Research, and has rendered very valuable services in
+investigation of various kinds. Having made the investigation of
+houses alleged to be haunted his special province, he may be fairly
+considered to be somewhat of an expert in this matter. It may, or may
+not, be regarded as a drawback to his usefulness in this direction,
+that he is so peculiarly insensitive to subjective impressions, that a
+man who is colour-blind would be almost as useful a witness as to
+shades of colour as Colonel Taylor upon hallucinations, local or
+otherwise; but, as will be seen, he is fertile in expedients,
+experienced in research, and careful and observant of the phenomena
+experienced by others.
+
+Lord Bute, who takes some interest in scientific matters, has been
+accustomed not infrequently to defray the cost of scientific work
+which he is unable to undertake himself, and he offered to meet the
+expense of the lease of B---- if Colonel Taylor would take the house,
+a proposal which he accepted.
+
+This is what _The Times_ correspondent of June 8, 1897, thought proper
+to describe in the words, "for reasons which are differently stated in
+London and in Perth, where the agent for the proprietor is to be
+found, Lord Bute did not take the house in his own name, but in that
+of Colonel Taylor."
+
+It would have been equally true to say of the Coptic texts, published
+at Lord Bute's expense by Mr. Budge of the British Museum, that Lord
+Bute wrote and published these books under the name of Budge.
+
+Had Colonel Taylor been prevented by circumstances from becoming
+tenant of B---- House, Sir William Crookes, the present President of
+the British Association and of the Society for Psychical Research, or
+Mr. Arthur Smith, Treasurer of the S.P.R., was willing to take the
+lease.
+
+Having thus agreed to Lord Bute's proposal, Colonel Taylor at once
+proceeded to make himself acquainted with the history of B---- House.
+He naturally placed himself in communication with the late tenant,
+assuming that that gentleman would be willing to assist in
+investigating the phenomena by which his family and guests had been
+annoyed. But the only information which Mr. H---- seemed disposed to
+give was an admission that some members of his family had heard
+noises, and that the house was locally reported to be haunted.
+
+However, other sources of information as to the experiences of the
+H---- establishment were fortunately available.
+
+Captain S----'s agents made no scruple about letting the house to the
+well-known expert. The Edinburgh agents, Messrs. Speedy, indeed
+mentioned the haunting, and expressed the hope that Colonel Taylor
+would not make it the subject of complaint, as had been done by the
+H---- family, and they received the assurance that this was not a
+score upon which he would give trouble. In regard to the letters of
+Messrs. R.H. Moncrieff & Co., dated June 12, 1897, which appeared in
+_The Times_, it can only be said that the impression which they were
+likely to convey was, that Colonel Taylor was an imaginary being like
+John Doe or Richard Roe. Their scepticism must have been of recent
+origin, since none was manifested on receiving his rent. Their
+position is in any case unfortunate, since, even if unclouded by doubt
+as to the Colonel's personality, they appear to wish the public to
+believe that they seriously thought that one well known as a
+Spiritualist in England and America, a retired Professor of Military
+Tactics, with a comfortable house at Cheltenham, a member of the
+Junior United Service Club in London, a man who neither shoots nor
+fishes, had been suddenly seized in his mature years with a desire to
+hire an isolated country house in Perthshire, in the depths of winter,
+for the purpose of trying his 'prentice hand upon rabbit-shooting on a
+small scale.
+
+Colonel Taylor, who is a widower without a daughter, was at this time
+much occupied by the illness and death of a near relative, and was
+unable for the moment to take up residence at B---- House. Lord Bute
+accordingly expressed a hope that Miss Freer would undertake to
+conduct the investigation. Mr. Myers also wrote urgently to her,
+saying, "If you don't get phenomena, probably no one will." She was
+abroad at the time, but at considerable personal inconvenience
+consented to return, and on December 26th she wrote to Lord Bute,
+stating that she could reach Ballechin on February 2nd, and adding--
+
+"I have been reflecting further on the question of the personality of
+investigators. I think the names you suggest, and some others which
+occur to me, divide naturally into three classes (assuming, and I
+think you agree with me, that it does not follow that every one can
+discover a ghost because it is there, nor that their failure to
+discover it is any proof that it is not there). (1) Those who have
+personal experience of phenomena, and may be expected to be
+susceptible to psychic influences; (2) those who have no personal
+powers in that line, but are open-minded and sympathetic; and (3)
+those who are passively open to conviction. A fourth class, those who
+come to look for evidence against the phenomena, but will accept none
+for it, should, I think, be left until we have some demonstrable
+evidence to show.... Mr. Myers proposes himself for April 14-21.... I
+should suggest the keeping of a diary, in which every one willing to
+do so should make entries, negative or affirmative."
+
+The _Times_ Correspondent further criticised the method of inquiry
+employed at B----.
+
+"Lord Bute's original idea was a good one, but it was never properly
+carried out. Observing that the S.P.R. had made many investigations in
+a perfunctory and absurd manner by sending somebody to a haunted house
+for a couple of nights and then writing an utterly worthless report,
+he desired in this case a continuous investigation extending over a
+considerable period. He ought, therefore, to have employed a couple of
+intelligent detectives for the whole term, and thus secured real
+continuity. As things are, the only continuity is to be found in the
+presence--itself not entirely continuous--of the lady just mentioned.
+But simply because she is a lady, and because she had her duties as
+hostess to attend to, she is unfit to carry out the actual work of
+investigating the phenomena in question. Some of her assistants sat up
+all night, with loaded guns, in a condition of abject fright; others,
+there is reason to suspect, manufactured phenomena for themselves; and
+nearly all seem to have begun by assuming supernatural interference,
+instead of leaving it for the final explanation of whatever might be
+clearly proved to be otherwise inexplicable."
+
+It is hardly necessary to repudiate such a condition of mind on the
+part of the guests at B----, but it may be well to remark that the
+writer of this sapient paragraph seems to be under the impression that
+every result of certain forces at present imperfectly understood is
+supernatural. The assertion that any one who was in the house during
+Colonel Taylor's tenancy believed in the possibility of the existence
+of anything supernatural is, so far as the present editors are aware,
+a pure fabrication, having no foundation whatever. In their own belief
+all things which exist, or can exist, are, _ipso facto_, natural,
+although their nature may not belong to the plane of being in which we
+are normally accustomed to move.
+
+In this connection may be usefully quoted the following passages from
+Miss Freer's article in _The Nineteenth Century_, August 1897:--
+
+"Some of my friends asked me how I proposed to organise a haunted
+house research, to which I could only reply that I didn't propose to
+do anything of the sort. It seemed to me that among several things to
+be avoided was self-consciousness of any kind, that the natural thing
+to do was to settle down to a country-house life, make it as pleasant
+as possible, and await events.... The subject of the 'haunting' was
+never accentuated, and we always tried to prevent talking it over with
+new-comers.... As to the guests, for the most part they came on no
+special principle of selection.... Several of our visitors had more or
+less special interest in the inquiry, but others merely came for a
+country-house visit or for sport, and some knew nothing whatever till
+after their arrival of any special interest alleged to attach to the
+house.... Analysing our list of guests, I find that there were eleven
+ladies, twenty-one gentlemen, and _The Times_ Correspondent. Of the
+gentlemen, three were soldiers, three lawyers, two were men of
+letters, one an artist, two were in business, four were clergy, one a
+physician, ... and five, men of leisure."
+
+It would be unnecessary to quote all the preliminary correspondence;
+but the following passages from Lord Bute's letters to Miss Freer help
+to explain the situation, and the relation of those concerned:--
+
+"_December 20th.--_ ... I am afraid I shall encroach even further upon
+your kindness. Myers has all the papers, but I fancy you would rather
+know as little as possible, so as not to be influenced by expectation.
+It is no case of roughing it. B---- House is, I believe, a luxurious
+country house, ample, though not too large, in a beautiful
+neighbourhood...."
+
+A letter of December 22nd refers to a suggestion that the phenomena
+were produced by trickery, a fact which is mentioned to show that the
+possibility was kept in view from the first.
+
+On January 23rd, "Not a day should be lost in beginning the
+observation, which ought to be continuous. Such a chance has never
+occurred before, and may never occur again. Orders have been given to
+get the house ready for immediate occupation."
+
+Miss Freer, accompanied by her friend Miss Constance Moore (a daughter
+of the late Rev. Daniel Moore, Prebendary of St. Paul's and Chaplain,
+to the Queen), arrived at B---- House on February 3, 1897.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[A] Here and in all references to rooms by their numbers, see
+Frontispiece.
+
+[B] See her own account, p. 64. The account here given, as will be
+seen, is not quite accurate as to the precise rooms. Mrs. "G." slept
+in the wing.
+
+
+
+
+JOURNAL KEPT DURING A VISIT TO B---- HOUSE
+
+
+
+
+JOURNAL KEPT DURING A VISIT TO B---- HOUSE
+
+
+   _February 3rd, Wednesday._--Constance Moore and I arrived from
+   Edinburgh, with Mac., the maid, a little after 10 P.M., having
+   sent on beforehand the following servants:--Robinson and Mrs.
+   Robinson, butler and cook; Carter and Hannah, two housemaids.
+
+   I had engaged them on behalf of Colonel Taylor in Edinburgh last
+   evening. They had all good characters, and were well
+   recommended. We told them nothing, of course, of the reputation
+   of the house, and were careful to choose persons of mature age,
+   and not excitable girls.
+
+   I had seen no plans nor photographs of the house, and merely
+   desired that any rooms should be prepared for us that were near
+   together--_i.e._ bedroom, dressing-room, and maid's room. Mr.
+   C---- [who met us in Edinburgh, and is a lawyer, mentioned
+   hereafter], who had seen plans, asked what orders we had given,
+   and remarked that, as far as he knew, we should secure one quiet
+   night, as the "haunted" part contained, apparently, no
+   dressing-rooms.
+
+   The house looked very gloomy. It was not cold out of doors,
+   though thick snow lay on the ground. Inside it felt like a
+   vault, having been empty for months. None of the stores ordered
+   had arrived. We had no linen, knives, plate, wine, food, and
+   very little fuel or oil. Candles and bread and milk and a tin of
+   meat had been got for us in the village. We ate and went to bed.
+   The room was so cold that we had to cover our faces, and we had
+   no bed-linen. We had been very busy all day in Edinburgh, and
+   soon fell asleep.
+
+   _February 4th, Thursday._--I awoke suddenly, just before 3 A.M.
+   Miss Moore, who had been lying awake over two hours, said, "I
+   want you to stay awake and listen." Almost immediately I was
+   startled by a loud clanging sound, which seemed to resound
+   through the house. The mental image it brought to my mind was as
+   of a long metal bar, such as I have seen near iron-foundries,
+   being struck at intervals with a wooden mallet. The noise was
+   distinctly as of metal struck with wood; it seemed to come
+   diagonally across the house. It sounded so loud, though distant,
+   that the idea that any inmate of the house should not hear it
+   seems ludicrous. It was repeated with varying degrees of
+   intensity at frequent intervals during the next two hours,
+   sometimes in single blows, sometimes double, sometimes treble,
+   latterly continuous. We did not get up, though not alarmed. We
+   had been very seriously cautioned as to the possibilities of
+   practical joking; and as we were alone on that floor in a large
+   house, of which we did not even know the geography, we thought
+   it wiser to await developments. We knew the servants' staircase
+   was distant, though not exactly where.
+
+   About 4.30 we heard voices, apparently in the maid's room,
+   undoubtedly on the same floor. We had for some time heard the
+   housemaids overhead coughing, occasionally speaking, and we
+   thought they had got up and had come down to her room.
+
+   After five o'clock the noises seemed to have ceased, and Miss
+   Moore fell asleep. About 5.30 I heard them again, apparently
+   more distant. I continued awake, but heard no more.
+
+   About 8 A.M. the maid brought us some tea. She said she had
+   slept very badly, had worried over our apparent restlessness, as
+   she had heard voices and footsteps and the sound of things
+   dragged about, but that the maids had not been downstairs. We
+   had never risen, and had spoken seldom, and in low tones, and an
+   empty room (the dressing-room) intervened between Mac.'s room
+   and ours.
+
+   In order, as we supposed, to follow up the noises we, later, in
+   the day moved our rooms to the other side of the house,
+   especially choosing those from which the sounds seemed to
+   proceed--Nos. 6 and 7--leaving Mac., the maid, in No. 3.
+
+   The whole day has been occupied with exploring the house,
+   sending for food and supplies, trying to thaw the rooms, moving
+   furniture to make things homelike, and trying to arrive at a
+   little comfort.
+
+   The house will soon be very pleasant, and only needs living in,
+   but it feels like a vault. It is very roomy and very light.
+   Nothing less like the conventional "haunted" house could be
+   conceived. The main body of the house was built in 1806, the
+   wing about 1883, with the apparent object of providing the
+   children of the family with rooms outside the "haunted" area. It
+   is cheerful, sunny, convenient, healthy, and built on a very
+   simple plan, which admits of no dark corners or mysteries of any
+   kind. A pleasanter house to live in I would not desire, but it
+   is constructed for summer rather than for winter use. It has
+   been added to at least twice, and there is much waste space. The
+   original mansion, which was, I understand, upon a different
+   site, was dated 1579; the new wing was built about fourteen
+   years ago, and consists of four rooms and offices, adapted for
+   schoolroom or nursery use. But the older walls are of great
+   thickness.
+
+   After dusk we sat down to rest, and for the first time read the
+   papers relating to the house,[C] breaking open the envelope in
+   which Mr. Myers had given them to me. I had done this for my own
+   satisfaction, as I wanted, if only for a few hours, to have as
+   unprejudiced a presentation of the place as was possible under
+   the circumstances. Miss Moore had heard some of the rumours
+   about the house in Edinburgh from Mr. MacP---- and Mr. C----,
+   but I had avoided all information as far as I could.
+
+   We now learnt, to our chagrin, that we had done the wrong thing,
+   and had left rooms alleged to be haunted, and taken two
+   apparently innocent. We, however, consoled ourselves by the
+   reflection that we can offer the others to our guests, and that
+   we are at all events _next_ to No. 8, which has an evil
+   reputation.
+
+It is the room in which Sarah N---- died, and in which Miss H----
+heard the limping footsteps walking round her bed.
+
+   As we had been told that the avenue is shunned by the whole
+   neighbourhood after dark, we went out for a stroll up and down
+   about six o'clock. We saw nothing, but our dog Scamp growled at
+   the fir plantation beside the road.
+
+   Mr. L. F---- [eminent as an electrical engineer], arrived about
+   10 P.M. We thought it polite to give him a quiet night after so
+   long a journey, and he is sleeping in No. 5.
+
+   _February 5th, Friday._--Miss Moore and I slept well. We were
+   both desperately tired.
+
+   Mr. L. F---- awoke suddenly at 2.30. No phenomena. He has an
+   excellent little apparatus, an electric flashlight, which he is
+   able to keep under his pillow and turn on at a second's notice,
+   very convenient for "ghost" hunting--no delay, and no
+   possibility of blowing it out.
+
+   The maids tell mine that they heard the sounds below them of
+   continuous speaking or reading, and "supposed the young ladies
+   were reading to one another."
+
+This is the first occasion on which there has been mention of the
+sound of continuous reading aloud, which afterwards became extremely
+familiar. The sound was always that well known to Roman Catholics as
+that of a priest "saying his office." It may be as well to remind the
+reader that Clerks in Holy Orders of that Church are, like those of
+the Anglican, strictly bound to read through the whole of the Daily
+Service every day, and it is not permitted to do this merely by the
+eye, the lips must utter the words. In practice some are accustomed
+to move the lips with hardly any sound, and such, we have ascertained,
+is the custom of the Rev. P---- H----; others read it absolutely
+aloud, and will retire to their own rooms or other places, where they
+may be alone for the purpose. This, we heard, was the invariable
+practice of the Rev. Mr. "I.," the chaplain of Mr. and Mrs. "G."
+
+   As a matter of fact, we were sleeping on the other side of the
+   house, and the rooms under the maids' rooms were empty.... In
+   the evening, about six o'clock, we strolled down the avenue
+   again, and Scamp, who never does bark except under strong
+   excitement, again barked and growled at the copse.
+
+   The Hon. E. F----, a fellow-member of an S.P.R. committee,
+   arrives to-night. Hospitality constrains us to put him in No. 4,
+   which is "not haunted."
+
+   I asked after the success of the new kitchenmaid, a local
+   importation, who arrived yesterday. I was told she had already
+   gone. The cook told me "she talked all sorts of nonsense about
+   the house, and the things that had happened in it, and had been
+   seen in it, all day; and then at night refused to sleep here,
+   and the butler had to walk home with her at eleven o'clock."
+
+   The Factor [_anglice_: bailiff] came this morning, and I fancied
+   a special intention in his manner. He was much annoyed about the
+   kitchenmaid, said such talk was "all havers" [_anglice_:
+   "drivel"], begged me not to employ her again, and undertook to
+   get another, lending me a girl in his own service meanwhile.
+
+   I went with him into the wing to get him to see to things there.
+   We have been too busy in getting the rest of the house into
+   order to look after it yet; but I find the pipes are out of
+   order, the cisterns frozen, and the "set-basins" in the three
+   bedrooms and bath-room out of working order. He promised
+   attention, but discouraged the use of the wing. "Had we not room
+   enough without?" and so on. I suggested that, any way, for the
+   sake of the rest of the house it must be aired and thawed, and
+   he insisted that the kitchen fire below did that sufficiently.
+
+   I cannot help remembering that this is the scene of the
+   phenomena recorded by Miss "B----," as Duncan R----, the factor,
+   is well aware. Also, he was persistent about "keeping out the
+   natives," and their chatter, if I wanted to keep the servants,
+   but did not specify the nature of the chatter, and I asked no
+   questions.
+
+   _February 6th, Saturday._--No phenomena last night. The house
+   perfectly still.
+
+During Colonel Taylor's tenancy a good many experiments of different
+kinds were made in hypnotism, crystal gazing, and automatic writing.
+These, however, belong to a class of matter quite different from that
+of spontaneous phenomena, and are therefore not referred to, with the
+exception of a single instance of crystal gazing, which, though
+relating to B----, was made elsewhere, and one or two occasions of
+automatic writing. This latter method of inquiry displayed all the
+weakness to which it is usually, and apparently, inherently liable,
+and is only mentioned here as explaining other matters. Its chief
+interest was that it supplied a name marked by a certain peculiarity
+which afterwards became familiar, and that it led to a hypothesis as
+to at least one of the personalities by whom certain phenomena were
+professedly caused.
+
+In the afternoon an experiment was made with the apparatus known as a
+_Ouija_ board, and this, as is very often the case, resolved itself,
+after a time, into automatic writing. There is in the library a
+portrait of a very handsome woman, to which no name is attached, but
+which shows the costume of the last century. Her name was asked, and
+the word _Ishbel_ was given several times. It is not certain whether
+this word was meant as an answer to the question, or whether, as often
+happens in such cases, it was intended merely as an announcement of
+the name of the informant supposed to communicate.
+
+The word, as given, possesses the following peculiarity. In the
+Gaelic language the vowels _e_ and _i_ have the effect of aspirating
+an _s_ immediately preceding them, in the same way in which they
+effect the _c_ in Italian, or the _g_ in Spanish, so that, as in
+Italian _ce_ and _ci_ are pronounced _chay_ and _chee_, so in Gaelic
+_se_ and _si_ are pronounced _shay_ and _shee_. The name Isabel is
+written in Gaelic _Iseabal_, but the _e_ is absorbed in its effect
+upon the _s_ (like the _i_ in the Italian _cio_) and the first _a_ is
+so slurred as to be almost inaudible, so that the word is pronounced
+"Ish-bel."
+
+It was obvious, therefore, that the intelligence from which the
+writing proceeded (if such existed) could write in English, and was
+familiar with the colloquial Gaelic pronunciation of the name, but was
+unacquainted with the Gaelic orthography. On this occasion also the
+name "Margaret" was given in its Gaelic form of Marghearad (somewhat
+similarly misspelt as _Marget_), without any special connection either
+with the questions asked, or, so far as could be discovered, with
+anything in the mind of any present, none of whom had interested
+themselves at that time in the S---- ancestry.
+
+In reply to questions as to what could be done that was of use or
+interest, the writers were told to go at dusk, and in silence, to the
+glen in the avenue, and this, rightly or wrongly, some of those
+present identified with what had been called Scamp's Copse. They were,
+however, perplexed by being told to go "up by the burn," for though
+Miss Freer and Miss Moore had twice explored the spot, they had not
+observed the presence of water. The journal continues--
+
+   We decided to walk in the avenue, and to explore "Scamp's Copse"
+   before dinner, in spite of the fact that we were expecting Mr.
+   MacP---- [a barrister], Mr. C---- [a solicitor], and Mr. W----
+   [an accountant] just about the time that we should be absent.
+   Miss Moore took the dog off in the opposite direction, and we
+   walked in silence to the plantation, Mr. L. F----, Mr. F----,
+   and I. It was quite dark, but the snow gleamed so white, that we
+   could see our way to the plantation. We went up among the trees,
+   young firs; the snow was deep and untrodden; and when we got
+   well off the road, we found that a burn comes down the brae
+   side. It is frozen hard, and we found it out only by the shining
+   of the ice.
+
+   We walked on in silence to the left of the burn, up the little
+   valley, along a small opening between the trees and the railing
+   which encloses them, Mr. L. F---- first, then I, then Mr.
+   F----.
+
+   In a few minutes I saw what made me stop. The men stopped too,
+   and we all stood leaning over the railings, and looking in
+   silence across the burn to the steep bank opposite. This was
+   white with snow, except to the left, where the boughs of a large
+   oak-tree had protected the ground.
+
+   Against the snow I saw a slight black figure, a woman, moving
+   slowly up the glen. She stopped, and turned and looked at me.
+   She was dressed as a nun. Her face looked pale. I saw her hand
+   in the folds of her habit. Then she moved on, as it seemed, on a
+   slope too steep for walking. When she came under the tree she
+   disappeared--perhaps because there was no snow to show her
+   outline. Beyond the tree she reappeared for a moment, where
+   there was again a white background, close by the burn. Then I
+   saw no more. I waited, and then, still in silence, we returned
+   to the avenue.
+
+   I described what I had seen. The others saw nothing. (This did
+   not surprise me, for though both have been for many years
+   concerned in psychical investigation, and have had unusual
+   opportunities, neither has ever had any "experience," so that
+   one may conclude that they are not by temperament likely to
+   experience either subjective phenomena or even
+   thought-transference.) It was proposed that we should ascend the
+   glen in her track on the other side of the burn. It was very
+   difficult walking, the snow very deep, and after two or three
+   efforts to descend the side of the bank we gave it up, and
+   followed to nearly her point of disappearance, keeping above the
+   tree, not below as she had done. We saw no more, and returned to
+   the house, agreeing not to describe what had occurred, merely to
+   say that as the factor (who looks about eighteen stone) is said
+   not to like the avenue at dark, we had been setting him and
+   others a good example.
+
+In a letter to Lord Bute under date February 25th, Miss Freer
+describes this figure with some detail:--
+
+"As you know, these figures do not appear before 6.30 at earliest,
+therefore there is little light upon their surface. Like other
+phantasms seen at dark, they show 'by their own light,' _i.e._ they
+appear to be outlined by a thread of light. It is therefore only when
+the face appears in profile that one can describe the features, and
+this is somewhat prevented by the nun's veil. 'Ishbel' appears to me
+to be slight, and of fair height. I am unable, of course, to see the
+colour of her hair, but I should describe her as dark. There is an
+intensity in her gaze which is rare in light-coloured eyes. The face,
+as I see it, is in mental pain, so that it is perhaps hardly fair to
+say that it seems lacking in that repose and gentleness that one looks
+for in the religious life. Her dress presents no peculiarities. The
+habit is black, with the usual white about the face, and I have
+thought that when walking she showed a lighter under-dress. She speaks
+upon rather a high note, with a quality of youth in her voice. Her
+weeping seemed to me passionate and unrestrained."
+
+The appearance of a nun was entirely unexpected, as the name "Ishbel"
+had been associated rather with the portrait of the beautiful woman in
+an eighteenth-century dress in the library, and it was she whom the
+witnesses, had they expected anything at all, would have expected to
+see. Miss Freer, moreover, the first witness, had regarded the
+statements of "Ouija" with her habitual scepticism as to induced
+phenomena, more particularly those of automatic writing, in which, as
+in dreams, it is almost always difficult to disentangle the operations
+of the normal from those of the subconscious personality.
+
+If the name "Ishbel" were really intended to apply to the nun, it
+becomes a very curious question who is the person meant. A Robert
+S---- of B---- married, as has been already mentioned, Isabella H----,
+who died in 1784, but we know of no reason for supposing that she
+ever became a nun.
+
+The portrait may possibly have represented her, but it shows a much
+older woman than the phantom so often seen; on the other hand, the
+dates are not inconsistent, and a considerable distance of time is
+suggested by certain phrases which occurred in the automatic writing.
+
+The person to whom the mind more naturally reverts is Miss Isabella
+S----, the sister, and apparently the favourite sister, of Major
+S----. As already mentioned, she professed as a nun under the name of
+Frances Helen in 1850, and died in 1880, aged sixty-six. She did not,
+therefore, enter her convent till the age of thirty-five, an age much
+greater than that shown by the phantom.
+
+It is, moreover, interesting to note that this lady's name was
+Isabella _Margaret_, so that both names, as given automatically, may
+have really referred to her. In the seventh edition of "Burke's Landed
+Gentry," 1886, there appears for the first time this entry--
+
+"_IV. Isabella Margaret, a nun, regular Canoness of the Order of the
+Holy Sepulchre, d. 23 Feb. 1880._"
+
+The editors have obtained from the Nunnery, where she lived and died,
+a photograph, representing the dress of the Community, and a
+description of herself, which is as follows:--
+
+"She died 23rd February 1880, quickly, of an attack of pneumonia or
+acute bronchitis. She died a most edifying death, in perfect
+consciousness, assisted by the Confessor ... and the Community around
+her, and having received the last Sacraments only a few hours before
+she expired. As to her appearance, she was short, rather fair, not at
+all stout, but not extraordinarily thin.
+
+"She entered the Community in April 1848, was clothed in May 1849, and
+professed May 1850. We do not know whether she could speak Gaelic. She
+was very fond of Scotland, and very particular about the pronunciation
+of Scotch names. She was a most entertaining companion, being full of
+natural wit."
+
+The dress, which is dignified, is very peculiar and striking, and not
+the least like the very ordinary nun's attire in which the phantom
+appeared, while it would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast
+than that between the merry old lady of the description and the
+weeping girl so often seen.
+
+There was, however, at least one very peculiar reason, which will be
+noticed presently, for supposing that this phantom was really intended
+to represent the late Rev. Mother Frances Helen, and that its
+inaccuracy was owing to the stupid, and rather melodramatic
+misconception in the mind which originally imagined it and transferred
+it to the witnesses at B----.
+
+   This is our arrangement for to-night:--
+
+    Room 1 (where we heard noises). Mr. F----.
+      "  2. Dressing-room communicating with Nos. 1 and 3; doors
+            opened between.
+      "  3. Mr. L. F---- (specially "haunted").
+      "  4. Mr. MacP----.
+      "  5. Mr. W----.
+      "  6. Dressing-room, Miss Moore.
+      "  7. Myself.
+      "  8. Mr. C----. (Sounds alleged, see evidence.)
+    _N.B._--Nothing is alleged against 4 and 5.
+
+   _February 7th, Sunday._--Miss Moore was awakened this morning
+   soon after one o'clock by a loud reverberating bang, which
+   seemed close to her bed. She lay awake for a long time
+   afterwards, but the sound was not repeated. The men heard
+   nothing. They report that they went to bed soon after eleven,
+   and very quietly.
+
+   My maid, who has had to give up her room, slept downstairs last
+   night. She was kept awake nearly all night by noises and
+   footsteps. The wing is not yet fit for use, as all the pipes are
+   frozen, and the only downstairs bedroom was insufficiently
+   aired; so I told her to use that for dressing, and make herself
+   up a bed on one of the sitting-room sofas, and she slept (or
+   rather, lay awake) in the drawing-room. She was not frightened,
+   as she thought all the noises were made by the gentlemen; but
+   they declare they made no noise.
+
+   I asked her as to the other servants. She says the maids are
+   still very nervous. I spoke to them for the first time about the
+   noises to-day. The butler's wife has heard sounds, but her
+   husband only scoffs. The upper housemaid thinks ghosts the
+   proper thing, and tolerates them along with the high families to
+   which she is accustomed. The under housemaid is very shy, is
+   Highland, and knows little English, and won't talk, but owns to
+   discomfort, and is scoffed at by the other servants, who think
+   it all part of her having been only a "general" till she came
+   here. The kitchenmaid goes home to sleep, but I believe some one
+   fetches her.
+
+   I have had a girl out of the village to make up the linen, and
+   she, we notice, is careful to go home before dark.
+
+   This morning we all went to churches of various sorts. When the
+   men came in to tea they reported that they had had a
+   conversation with an outdoor servant, who proved to have been
+   in the service of [Mr. F----'s father] Lord D----, and was
+   consequently the more communicative. I know him, and have found
+   him extremely intelligent.
+
+   He says that having heard from the H----s' butler (who slept on
+   the dining-room floor, in the room my maid is to occupy
+   to-night) that it was impossible to sleep in a room so noisy, he
+   induced him to allow him to share his room, that they heard
+   much, but they dared not show a light for fear of his admission
+   being discovered (the H----s being much on the alert), and they
+   saw nothing [_cf._ p. 40 for evidence of the H----s' butler].
+
+   We did not like to send for him on a Sunday, but decided to have
+   him in on Monday, and test him as to the intensity of the noise.
+
+   In the evening, while we were all chatting in the drawing-room,
+   Miss Moore came out into the hall, where she had been looking
+   after the dog. In spite of the noise we were all making, she
+   distinctly heard the clang noise upstairs. She had said the same
+   thing, though with less certainty, once before, and we agreed
+   that one night some one must sit up in the hall. (This was
+   afterwards done without result.)
+
+   _February 8th, Monday._--Last night my maid heard footsteps and
+   the sound of hands fumbling on her door; this she told us when
+   she came in with our early tea.
+
+   Miss Moore in the early morning, between one and two, heard
+   again the sharp, reverberating bang as before. We speculated at
+   breakfast as to whether the sound could have been made by the
+   men after we had gone upstairs, though they were all sure of
+   having been quite still before midnight. We made them rehearse
+   every sound they had in fact made, but nothing was in the least
+   like it, either in quality or quantity.
+
+   I had been disturbed about 5.30 A.M. by the sound (which we had
+   not heard hitherto) described by former witnesses as
+   "explosive." I know of nothing quite like it. I have heard the
+   Portsmouth guns when at a place eight miles away; the sound was
+   like that, but did not convey the same impression of distance. I
+   heard it, at intervals, during half-an-hour. Miss Moore is a
+   very light sleeper, but she did not awake. At six I got up and
+   went through my room to the dressing-room door (No. 6), after a
+   sound that seemed especially near. It was so near, that though I
+   thought it quite unlikely under the circumstances, I wanted to
+   satisfy myself that no one was playing jokes on Mr. C----, whose
+   room was close by. The house was deadly still. I could hear the
+   clocks ticking on the stairs. As I stood, the sound came again.
+   It might have been caused by a very heavy fall of snow from a
+   high roof--not sliding, but percussive. Miss Moore had wakened
+   up and heard it too.
+
+   (_N.B._--We afterwards found that, as the roof is flat, the snow
+   is cleared away daily.)
+
+   Mr. W----, an utter sceptic, he declares, left early; then we
+   all went for a walk. We spent the whole afternoon making
+   experiments. Miss Moore or my maid or I, as having heard the
+   noises, shut ourselves up in the room whence they were heard, or
+   stood in the right places on hall or staircase.
+
+   The experimental noises made were as follows:--
+
+   1. Banging with poker or shovel as hard as possible on every
+   part of the big iron stove in the hall; kicking it, hitting it
+   with sticks (as Miss Moore and I persisted that the first noise
+   was as of metal on wood, or _vice versa_).
+
+   2. Trampling and banging in every part of the house, obvious and
+   obscure, in cupboards and cistern holes.
+
+   3. (On the hypothesis of tricks from outside.) Beating on
+   outside doors with shovels and pokers and wooden things, on the
+   walls and windows accessible; banging and clattering in outside
+   coal-cellars and in the sunk area round the house.
+   (_N.B._--Beating on the front door handle with a wooden racket,
+   was right in kind, but not nearly enough in degree.)
+
+   Miss Moore, who was familiar with the noise, did it rather well
+   by going into a coal-cellar (always locked at night, however)
+   outside and throwing big lumps of coal, from a distance, into a
+   big pail, but _it wasn't nearly loud enough_.
+
+   4. Finally the men climbed on to the roof, outside, while Miss
+   Moore and I shut ourselves into the proper places. They
+   clattered and walked and stamped and kicked and struck the
+   slates, but _they couldn't make noise enough_.
+
+   Then we had in the gardener they saw yesterday, and put him in
+   the butler's room, and the four men made hideous rows as before.
+   He was grateful and respectful, but contemptuous. _They couldn't
+   make noise enough._
+
+   We went out at dusk, having sent Mr. MacP---- and Mr. C---- to
+   pay a visit (as they had not been told of the brook scene),
+   intending that the same trio as before should go to the copse.
+   Mr. L---- F---- couldn't come, and as Mr. F---- and I went on
+   alone, we met Mr. MacP---- and Mr. C---- returning before they
+   were expected. On the spur of the moment I asked Mr. C---- to
+   come with me, leaving Mr. F---- and Mr. MacP---- in the avenue.
+   The snow had gone, and I saw less distinctly; but I saw the nun
+   again, and an older woman in grey, who talked earnestly with
+   her, she answering at intervals. I could hear no words; the ice
+   was giving, and the burn had begun to murmur. (I tried to
+   persuade myself that the murmur accounted for the voices, but
+   the sounds were entirely distinct, and different in quality and
+   amount.)
+
+This older woman in grey afterwards became familiar. The name "Marget"
+was given to her at first half in fun and simply because this was one
+of the two names given by Ouija (_cf._ p. 98). She is apparently the
+grey woman referred to in the paper published by Mrs. G---- (_cf._ p.
+64).
+
+The fact of voices being heard by two persons, while one alone saw the
+figures, seems a clear proof that the figures were hallucinatory. It
+seems probable that the sounds also were hallucinatory, but were what
+is called in the vocabulary of the S.P.R. the "collective"
+hallucination of two persons. This seems to render it highly probable
+that in the case of each the hallucination had a cause external to
+both, although common to both; moreover, hallucinations are often
+contagious. _The Times_ correspondent states, that "the lady admitted
+that the apparition was purely subjective, but in regard to other
+matters was not willing to suppose that she might be the victim of
+hallucinations of hearing as well as of sight." On the contrary, as
+all readers of Miss Freer's published works are aware, she is entirely
+of opinion that such sights and sounds are pure sense-hallucinations,
+whatever may be their ultimate origin.
+
+   We rejoined the others in silence. Then Mr. MacP---- said to Mr.
+   C----, "Did you see anything?" "Nothing; I only heard voices."
+   "What sort of voices?" "Two women. The older voice talked most,
+   almost continuously. I heard a younger voice, a higher one, now
+   and then."
+
+     _Note by Mr. MacP----._
+
+   "I knew previously, though Mr. C---- did not, that Miss Freer
+   had seen something up the burn; and when waiting for her and Mr.
+   C----, Mr. F---- told me the whole story."
+
+   _February 9th, Tuesday._--Last night we--Miss Moore and I--heard
+   the "explosive" noises about 11.30 P.M., and speculated as to
+   the possibility of their being caused by the wind in the
+   chimney. There was a little wind last night--very little. It is
+   worth mentioning, that ever since we have been here the air has
+   been phenomenally still. One can go outside, as we do
+   frequently, to feed the birds and squirrels without hats and not
+   feel a hair stirred. Even when the snow was on the ground we
+   never felt the cold, owing to the absence of wind, and the thaw
+   has been imperceptible. Snow is still on the hills. I have
+   several times thrown open my bedroom window about dawn for an
+   hour to familiarise myself with the outside noises. There is
+   nothing human within a quarter of a mile. (_N.B._--The others,
+   who are much more likely to be accurate as to distance than I,
+   say the lodges are farther off.) The servants' houses are in a
+   group of buildings on the hill above the house, but are, I
+   believe, all empty. We found, and adopted, a deserted cat, whose
+   condition certainly testified to the nakedness of the land.
+   There are two inhabited lodges far out of hearing. A gardener
+   comes round to the houses about 10 or 10.30 P.M., but we have
+   watched him, and know exactly what sounds he creates.
+
+   _February 10th, Wednesday._--Mrs. W---- arrived this morning
+   from London; also Miss Langton, who is "sensitive," but wholly
+   inexperienced. In the evening, at 6 P.M., Colonel Taylor
+   arrived. He is in No. 8.
+
+   Miss Moore and I moved back into No. 1, and moved Mr. F---- into
+   No. 3, the room reported (by the H----s) as specially haunted,
+   where Colonel A---- and Major B---- had slept, and in our time
+   Mr. L---- F----, who left last night.
+
+   The wing is now ready for habitation, except that the pipes are
+   out of order, and the "set-basins" useless, also the bath.
+   (_N.B._--The fact that the pipes are all out of working order,
+   and not a drop of hot water is to be had except in the kitchen,
+   does away with a theory, which has been rather emphatically put
+   forward, that "it is all the hot-water pipes.")
+
+   We are anxious to test the wing. Only one story, Miss "B----'s,"
+   is connected with it, and if there has been any practical joking
+   anywhere, I personally incline to think that was the occasion.
+   The wing is new, built, they say, in 1883, and the "ghost"
+   showed human intelligence in selection of doors and victims.
+   (After my return to London I had a conversation with Mrs. G----,
+   which convinced me that I was mistaken in supposing that tricks
+   had been played upon Miss "B----." See p. 71.)
+
+   An old woman in the village asked Miss Moore to-day with
+   interest, "Hoo'll ye be liking B----?" She spoke of the
+   hauntings, and her husband insisted (the Highlander always
+   begins that way) that there were not any, and so on, and the old
+   woman explained that it was just the young gentlemen last year
+   that was having a lark. Later she admitted, "There's nae ghaists
+   at B----, but the old Major" (who died about twenty years ago);
+   "he'd just be saying to Gracie if she didn't do as she was told,
+   that he'd be coming back and belay the decks" (_cf._ p. 136).
+
+   _P.S._--_Monday 15th._--In the kirkyard to-day at L---- we were
+   shown the Major's grave. It is one of three, inclosed by a rough
+   stone wall. They have no headstones, and seem quite uncared for.
+   One is, we are informed, that of his housekeeper, Sarah N----.
+   The other is said to be that of a black man-servant.
+
+   Last night we slept as follows:--
+
+    Room 1 and 2. Myself and Miss Moore.
+      "        3. Mr. F----.
+      "        4. Miss Langton.
+      "        5. Mrs. W----.
+      "  6 and 7. Empty.
+      "        8. Colonel Taylor.
+
+   Miss Moore lay awake nearly the whole night. She heard, though
+   in less degree, the old noises; and in the early morning
+   (compare our first night) heard the sound of women's voices
+   talking. When I awoke, about 6 A.M., she told me she had been
+   disturbed, and said she feared that the others had also, as she
+   had heard Mrs. W---- talking in Miss Langton's room.
+
+   At breakfast Mrs. W---- reported that she had been awakened by
+   knockings, but had never moved. Miss Langton had heard nothing.
+
+   The Colonel reported that about, or just before, six he had
+   heard footsteps over his head. There is no room over No. 8,
+   which is mostly a built-out bow, and the servants had not moved
+   before 6.30. (If they moved then, it was contrary to their
+   habits!) We heard later that Hannah had gone, about 6.30, "in
+   her stocking-feet, only without her stockings," to ask the time
+   at the cook's door.
+
+   The Colonel (before our inquiries) had imitated the noise by
+   stamping heavily with striding steps across the library.
+
+   _February 11th, Thursday._--The Colonel moved down into "Miss
+   B----'s room" in the wing, and Mr. F---- into the room next to
+   him.
+
+   _February 12th, Friday._--No phenomena. The great business
+   to-day, which we had specially reserved for the Colonel's
+   arrival, was the making of sketches and measurements for the
+   plan of the house. We found no mysteries. The walls are
+   immensely thick, but all the space is accounted for.
+
+   _February 13th, Saturday._--Miss Moore slept very badly again
+   last night. She heard the noises at intervals between three and
+   five; she was awake before and after. They were loudest and most
+   frequent after four. At 5.30 I was awakened by a loud crash as
+   of something falling very heavily on the floor above. The maids
+   sleep there, but can give no account of any fall. Miss Moore, of
+   course, heard it as, and when, I did.
+
+   Mrs. W---- reports having heard loud raps. She thinks the noise
+   may have wakened her, but after she was awake enough to get a
+   light and look at her watch (3.40) she heard what she describes
+   as "a double knock."
+
+   _February 14th, Sunday._--Our first wet day. The weather so far
+   has been perfect. We all got very wet coming from church.
+
+   In the evening we did various experiments--thought-transference,
+   crystal gazing, &c.--but nothing came of it in regard to the
+   house.
+
+   _February 15th, Monday._--Mr. F---- left early.
+
+   We all walked to the Parish Church, and had some talk with the
+   sexton, and I had to listen to long yarns about the Major (see
+   under date February 9th). I was tired, and could not go to the
+   copse.
+
+   In the evening we played games, and were very lively. Miss
+   Langton came into my room for a few minutes, and was certainly
+   not in any nervous condition, nor did we speak of the hauntings.
+   But this morning (Tuesday) at breakfast she reported having
+   heard a loud crash almost directly after getting to her room. We
+   considered possible causes, but could not discover that any one
+   was moving in the house. The servants had gone to bed some time
+   earlier, and we had put out the lights ourselves in the hall and
+   on the stairs.
+
+   _February 16th, Tuesday._--I had an experience this morning
+   which may have been purely subjective, but which should be
+   recorded. About 10 A.M. I was writing in the library, face to
+   light, back to fire. Mrs. W---- was in the room, and addressed
+   me once or twice; but I was aware of not being responsive, as I
+   was much occupied. I wrote on, and presently felt a distinct,
+   but gentle, push against my chair. I thought it was the dog and
+   looked down, but he was not there. I went on writing, and in a
+   few minutes felt a push, firm and decided, against myself which
+   moved me on my chair. I thought it was Mrs. W----, who, having
+   spoken and obtained no answer, was reminding me of her presence.
+   I looked backward with an exclamation--the room was empty. She
+   came in directly, and called my attention to the dog, who was
+   gazing intently from the hearthrug at the place where I had
+   expected (before) to see him.
+
+   As the day began with the above, and I had had a quiet rest, I
+   went to the copse at dusk. The moon was bright, and the twilight
+   lingered. We waited about in the avenue to let it get darker,
+   but it was still far from dark when we made our way up the
+   glen--Miss Moore, Miss Langton, and myself.
+
+   I saw "Ishbel" and "Marget" in the old spot across the burn.
+   "Ishbel" was on her knees in the attitude of weeping, "Marget"
+   apparently reasoning with her in a low voice, to which "Ishbel"
+   replied very occasionally. I could not hear what was said for
+   the noise of the burn. We waited for perhaps ten or fifteen
+   minutes. They had appeared when I had been there perhaps three
+   or four.
+
+   When we regained the avenue (in silence) Miss Moore asked Miss
+   Langton, "What did you see?" (She had been told nothing, except
+   that the Colonel, who did not know details then, had said in
+   her presence something about "a couple of nuns".) She said, "I
+   saw nothing, but I heard a low talking." Questioned further, she
+   said it seemed close behind. The glen is so narrow, that this
+   might be quite consistent with what I saw and heard. Miss Moore
+   heard a murmuring voice, and is quite certain it was not the
+   burn. She is less suggestible than almost any one I know.
+
+   The dog ran up while we were there, pointed, and ran straight
+   for the two women. He afterwards left us, and we found him
+   barking in the glen. He is a dog who hardly ever barks. We went
+   up among the trees where he was, and could find no cause.
+
+   Miss Moore and I moved into No. 8 (dressing-room No. 6). It is a
+   "suspect" room, which I had not tried, and Miss Moore had
+   scarcely slept all the week in No. 1, and was looking so worn
+   out, that I decided to move.
+
+   _February 17th, Wednesday._--A most glorious day, still, bright,
+   and sunny.
+
+   Nothing happened till evening. The Colonel, Mrs. W----, Miss
+   Langton, Miss Moore, and I were in the drawing-room after
+   dinner. Some of us, certainly the last four, heard footsteps
+   overhead in No. 1, which is just now disused. I was lying on the
+   sofa, and could not get up quickly: but Mrs. W---- and Miss
+   Langton ran up at once, and found it empty and dark, and no one
+   about.
+
+   Later, about 10.30, we all five heard the clang noise with which
+   some of us are so familiar. The servants had gone to bed--or so
+   we presumed, as all lights were out, except on the upper floor.
+   It occurred four times. It is of course conceivable they may
+   have made it, but we do not hear it when we know them to be
+   about, and we do hear it when we know them not to be about.
+
+   The following quotation is from Miss Langton's private diary:--
+
+   "On the night of Wednesday, February 17th, I had a curious dream
+   or vision. I seemed to be standing outside the door of No. 4,
+   looking up the corridor to No. 2, when suddenly I saw a figure
+   with his back to the door of No. 2, and quite close to the door
+   which leads to No. 3. His face was quite distinct, and what
+   struck me most was the curious way in which his hair grew on his
+   temples. His eyes were very dark, keen, and deep-set; his face
+   was pale, and with a drawn, haggard expression. He looked about
+   thirty-nine years of age. His hair was dark and thick, and waved
+   back from his forehead, where it was slightly grey. It was a
+   most interesting and clever face, and one that would always, I
+   should think, attract attention. He was dressed in a long black
+   gown like a cassock, only with a short cape, barely reaching to
+   the elbows."
+
+   A further reference to this vision, which at the time seemed
+   irrelevant, will be found on page 225.
+
+   _February 18th, Thursday._--This morning's phenomenon is the
+   most incomprehensible I have yet known. I heard the banging
+   sounds after we were in bed last night. Early this morning,
+   about 5.30, I was awakened by them. They continued for nearly an
+   hour. Then another sound began _in_ the room. It might have been
+   made by a very lively kitten jumping and pouncing, or even by a
+   very large bird; there was a fluttering noise too. It was close,
+   exactly opposite the bed. Miss Moore woke up, and we heard it
+   going on till nearly eight o'clock. I drew up the blinds and
+   opened the window wide. I sought all over the room, looking
+   into cupboards and under furniture. We cannot guess at any
+   possible explanation.
+
+Further experience of these curious hallucinatory sounds, combined
+with visual hallucination in the same room, taking also into
+consideration the interest which our own dogs always displayed in
+these phenomena, led us to the conclusion that our first deductions
+had been wrong, and that the sounds were those of a dog gambolling.
+
+   (The Rev.) Mr. "Q." (an English vicar), arrived. In the evening,
+   at 6.30, Miss Langton and I took him down to the glen. It was a
+   very light evening. I saw the figure of Ishbel, not very
+   distinctly, in conversation with the second figure, which was
+   barely defined. We remained in perfect silence as usual. On
+   regaining the avenue Miss L---- said she had heard voices, and
+   thought she had seen what might be the white parts of the nun's
+   dress. Mr. "Q." said he had seen a light under the big tree. The
+   figures were nearer the tree than usual. Miss Langton went up a
+   second time with the Colonel, and again heard voices.
+
+It is worth remarking that Mr. "Q." has, doubtless from some
+idiosyncrasy, since developed a faculty of seeing lights where other
+people see phantasms.
+
+   _February 19th, Friday._--No phenomena last night. We have spent
+   the day in A----, the neighbouring town, where I had a fall and
+   hurt my foot, so that I was obliged to drive home, and could not
+   go to the glen. Miss Langton and Mr. "Q." went down about seven
+   o'clock. Mr. "Q." saw the outline of a figure of which he has
+   written the description. Miss Langton heard the usual voices on
+   the other side of the burn; they seemed to her to be interrupted
+   by a third voice, in deeper tones; and she also heard the
+   footsteps of a man passing behind her, a heavy tread, "not like
+   a gentleman."
+
+The following, the account referred to, was contained in a private
+letter from Mr. "Q." to Lord Bute. The description of Ishbel in the
+Journal of February 26th, was, it will be observed, of later date,
+although before Miss Freer had seen the following:--
+
+"_February 19th and 20th, 1897._--I had heard only that Miss Freer had
+seen two figures by the burn, one of which was that of a nun, the
+other a woman, before whom, on one occasion, the nun appeared to be
+kneeling. I had always pictured the nun as standing or kneeling with
+her back to the spectator.
+
+"On February 19th, at about 6.45 P.M., I visited the burn with Miss
+Langton (_and not Miss Freer_). After looking a little I saw (_a_);
+the white was very plain, and the head clearly outlined, but the
+vision was for the fraction of a second. I was conscious of it
+indistinctly for a few minutes, and there seemed a good deal of
+movement. Suddenly I was again conscious of the figure as shown in
+(_b_), full-face, as though gazing at me; again the white part was
+very distinct, but I could distinguish no features."
+
+[Illustration: a]
+
+[Illustration: b]
+
+  _February 20th, Saturday._--This morning we went down to ---- and
+  had a little talk with the old servant who told us stories the
+  other day about the Major, and she repeated the story of his
+  threatened return. The same story was repeated independently this
+  afternoon by [a local tradesman], who opened conversation by
+  inquiring whether we had "seen the Major yet."
+
+   Miss Moore and I again this morning heard noises in No. 8, more
+   especially those of the pattering footsteps, just after
+   daylight, and a violent jump and scramble, which we thought was
+   our dog, until we found that he was sleeping peacefully as usual
+   on his rug at our feet.
+
+In a letter to Lord Bute, dated February 21, 1897, Mr "Q." gives the
+following account:--
+
+"On February 20th, at about 6.45 P.M., I visited the burn with Miss
+Freer and Miss Langton. I was very briefly conscious of the figure
+(_a_) on the bank of the burn, but saw no more till Miss Freer pointed
+to the hollow of a large tree, when I again saw (_b_). On each
+occasion of seeing (_b_) a curious sensation was noticeable, and I
+felt I was being looked at. On speaking afterwards to Miss Freer, I
+found her vision of the nun _under the tree_ to be the same as mine at
+(_b_), _i.e._ full face, as indeed Miss Freer had seen it on previous
+occasions. This is the second sketch I have drawn of the full face
+(_b_). The first I showed to Miss Freer, remarking to her, 'I have
+made the figure _too broad_' (being unaccustomed to drawing). 'Yes,'
+said Miss Freer, 'for the nun is very slight.'"
+
+It was seen at the same moment also by Miss Freer and Miss Langton.
+
+   _February 21st, Sunday._--Again this morning we heard noises of
+   pattering in No. 8, and Scamp got up and sat apparently watching
+   something invisible to us, turning his head slowly as if
+   following the movements of some person or thing across the room
+   from west to east. During the night Miss Moore had heard
+   footsteps crossing the room, as of an old or invalid man
+   shuffling in slippers. We both heard a bang at the side of the
+   room about 6.20, some time before any sounds of moving were
+   heard from the servants above. The noise was muffled in quality,
+   and had no resonance, and seemed to come from behind a small
+   wardrobe on the east wall. The room (No. 7) on that side was
+   unoccupied. [This bang was heard at other times in the same
+   spot. Experiment showed that no noise made in No. 7 was audible
+   in No. 8, not even hammering with a poker on the wall, which is
+   curved at this point.]
+
+   This morning, on coming out of church, I received a letter from
+   Mr. F----, in which was the following passage:--
+
+   "... Miss H----, who slept, I believe, in the room occupied by
+   you when I left, heard sounds of footsteps going round her room,
+   footsteps with the most unmistakable limp in them. Shortly after
+   she heard stories connected with the former owner, who used to
+   go by the name of B----, an aged man [the Major]. She asked if
+   he could be described. 'No,' said her informant; 'the only thing
+   he could remember about him was that he had a most peculiar
+   limp,' and he forthwith gave an exhibition, which tallied
+   exactly with the limp around the bed."
+
+   In discussing this, Miss Moore and I agreed that, had Miss H----
+   slept in No. 8 instead of in No. 1, as Mr. F---- supposed, we
+   should have considered these limping sounds as probably
+   identical with those we ourselves had heard. After I had closed
+   my reply to Mr. F----, Miss Moore discovered Miss "B----'s" plan
+   of the house (in the packet of evidence of the H----s' tenancy,
+   see p. 96), which showed that in fact No. 8 _was_ the room
+   referred to. Hence it appears that the room in which Miss H----
+   heard the footsteps was the same as that in which _we_ heard
+   them. We had been misled by Mr. F---- speaking of "the room you
+   occupied when I left," a mistake on his part, as, though the
+   change had been spoken of, we had not left No. 1.
+
+   This afternoon Miss Langton experimented with Ouija at Mr.
+   "Q.'s" request.
+
+Lord Bute had suggested various test-questions in relation to the
+phantasm of the nun, to be asked the next time the Ouija board was in
+operation, and answers to these were attempted at various times, with
+the usual result of showing the influence, conscious or sub-conscious,
+of the sitters, almost all statements as to matters not actually known
+to them being worthless. On this occasion, however, in reply to the
+question, "How old was Ishbel when she died?" answers were spelt out
+to the effect that she was still living, and that her age was
+fifty-nine.
+
+This may perhaps be taken as throwing light upon the intended
+personality of Ishbel, and supplying a possible clue to the identity
+of the mind of which she seems to be an imaginary creation.
+
+Fifty-nine was the age of the late Rev. Mother Frances Helen in the
+year 1873, when Sarah N---- died. They are not people who are at all
+likely to have met each other upon "the other side" any more than upon
+this.
+
+It is a generally recognised fact that the conditions which we call
+"time and space" exist on in the world beyond in a form so very
+different from those in which they are conceived of by us, that from
+our point of view they can hardly be said to exist at all. It is
+natural, therefore, to seek the utterer of this remarkable statement
+in some person connected with B---- who did not know the late Mother
+Frances Helen (supposing her to be the person for whom Ishbel was
+intended), but had heard of her.
+
+   _February 22nd, Monday._--Mr. "Z----" _came_.
+
+The whole matter of the inquiry had been made known to Mr. "Z----,"
+the proprietor of a prominent Scottish newspaper, of course in the
+strictest confidence, which was carefully made a condition of the
+admission of any one to the house, a confidence which he most
+honourably observed. It was arranged that if anything occurred within
+the observation of himself or his son, the scientific value of which
+rendered it, in their judgment, desirable to publish a notice of it in
+_The ----_, the notice should be published under avowedly false names
+and geographical indications. Mr. "Z----" was unable to come himself,
+but his son arrived this day.
+
+   Mr. "Endell" (a Member of the S.P.R.) arrived while we were out,
+   and made a tour of inspection alone of the outside of the house
+   and the ground-floor rooms. He intuitively fixed on the window
+   of No. 3 as that of a "haunted" room, and has since, equally by
+   intuition, diagnosed the drawing-room and library as "creepy,"
+   and the dining-room as definitely cheerful. (This coincides with
+   our experience.)
+
+   My own experiences to-day were confined to ejection from a high
+   waggonette, while waiting at the station for Mr. "Z----," the
+   horse having bolted at the appearance of the train.
+
+   No phenomena. We are putting Mr. "Z----", at his own request, in
+   No. 3, the "ghost-room."
+
+   _February 23rd, Tuesday._--Pouring wet. No phenomena. Visit to
+   glen impossible.
+
+   Mr. and Mrs. R---- (local residents) came to lunch. Though in
+   great pain I was able to see them for a few minutes, and both
+   inquired whether we had had any experience of the reported
+   hauntings, of which, however, they could give us no details.
+
+   _February 24th, Wednesday._--Mr. "Z----" left early. (_N.B._--No
+   phenomena reported by any one during his visit; he himself slept
+   soundly in the "haunted" room, but does it the justice to
+   acknowledge that he "could sleep through an earthquake.")
+
+   Miss "N." (the daughter of a landowner of the district) arrived.
+
+   Mr. Garford (an old friend and excellent observer) came from
+   London. We sleep to-night as follows:--
+
+   In the wing, in the two rooms alleged by guests of the H----s
+   to be haunted, the Colonel and Mr. "Endell."
+
+    No. 1. Mr. Garford.
+     "  3. Mr. "Q." ("ghost-room"; he has just asked to be
+           removed from his former room in the wing).
+     "  4. Miss Langton.
+     "  5. Mrs. W----.
+     "  7. Miss "N."
+     "  8. Miss Moore, myself, and dog.
+
+   _February 25th, Thursday._--Mr. "Endell" reported this morning
+   having heard a sound he could in no way account for, which seems
+   to us to correspond with the "clanging" noise. We asked how he
+   would imitate it as to volume and quality, and he said that a
+   large iron kettle, about the size of the dinner-table (we are
+   dining eight), boiling violently, so that the lid was constantly
+   "wobbling," might produce it.
+
+   (_N.B._--Mr. "Endell's" opinion later is that a pavior's crowbar
+   heavily dropped, so as to produce a prolonged reverberation, is
+   a better illustration.)
+
+   Mr. Garford, who was not told that any sounds might be expected
+   in No. 1, says he was awakened by a violent banging at the door
+   of communication between Nos. 1 and 2 (No. 2 is empty). Mr.
+   "Endell," Mr. "Q.," and Miss Moore went up later in the day to
+   experiment on the door, and found that it would _open_ with the
+   slightest push. Mr. Garford had closed it on going to bed, and
+   found it closed in the morning. He had not been alarmed, and had
+   almost called out to his supposed visitors, before he remembered
+   supernormal possibilities. He described the sound as a muffled
+   bang, and in order to reproduce it to his satisfaction one of
+   the party held a thick rug on the inner side while another
+   hammered on the panels without.
+
+   Mr. "Q.'s" experiences in No. 3 will be reported by himself. The
+   groans which he heard coming from No. 2 some of our party
+   suggested might have been made in sleep by the occupant of No.
+   1, but on trying experiments it was found that no sounds of the
+   kind which he could make in his room were audible in No. 3.
+
+   Mr. "Q." left.
+
+   Miss Langton went up the glen with Mr. Garford, and was
+   perplexed by seeing the grey figure when looking for the nun;
+   she saw it but dimly, but later in the evening recovered it in
+   the crystal, more clearly and in greater detail.
+
+The following is Mr. "Q.'s" account of his experience, written on
+February 24th and March 4th, in private letters to Lord Bute, but, in
+order to avoid the possibility of suggestion to others, not
+contributed at the time to this journal. The Editors have been
+permitted also to read another account written by Mr. "Q." of this and
+of his subsequent experience, written immediately after the occasion,
+which agrees with his letters to Lord Bute in every particular.
+
+"_February 24th, 1897._--I slept in room No. 3. I knew it had a 'bad'
+reputation, also I had heard through Ouija of probable appearances and
+noises at 3 A.M. and 4.30 A.M. I noted the time of retiring in passing
+the clock on the staircase, _i.e._ 12.10.
+
+"Before going to bed I sat in a chair with my back to a small mahogany
+cupboard, placed against the wall of the dressing-room, into which my
+room (No. 3) opens. About 1 A.M. I was much startled at hearing behind
+me very distinctly a loud groan, coming, apparently, from the
+dressing-room, in the direction of the mahogany cupboard. The sound
+was very distinct, and but for the fact of there being no one visible,
+I should have estimated its origin as _in_ the room, its distinctness
+being such that, coming from the next room, with the door closed, it
+would have sounded slightly muffled. So distinct was it that I heard
+what I can only describe as the throat vibration in the tone.
+
+"I tried to ascribe it to the bubbling of the hot-water pipe of a
+washing basin fixed in the dressing-room, as I supposed, against the
+wall of the bedroom, but saw next day that the basin in question was
+fixed against the opposite wall of the dressing-room.
+
+[Illustration: A, Cupboard. B, Chair. C, Washing-stand (fixed).]
+
+"The sound was a greatly magnified and humanised edition of what I
+have several times heard in the drawing-room below the dressing-room,
+and which has been heard by several of the party together."
+
+And in a letter dated March 4.--"I went upstairs at 12.10. On shutting
+the door of my room I experienced a curiously cold sensation. I stood
+by the fire, which was burning brightly, and shivered to an extent
+that was quite phenomenal; the fire did not in the least remove the
+cold shudderings which ran from head to feet.
+
+"I threw the feeling off as best I could, but not entirely. I read a
+little and then prayed. I read the office of compline and my private
+prayers, and praying according to my custom for all faithful departed,
+and especially for those who had previously lived in the house or been
+connected with it. After this I looked at my watch; it was just upon
+one o'clock, and I sat for a few minutes in the chair by the fire,
+when I heard the noise described, behind me.
+
+"I changed my position and placed the chair with its back to a table
+and facing the door, the candle on the table, and took a book and
+read; my shuddering sensations had been worse than ever. Suddenly I
+looked up, and above the bed, _apparently_ on the wall, I got just a
+glimpse (like a flash) of a brown wood crucifix: the wall was quite
+bare, not a picture, nothing to make it explainable by imperfect light
+or reflection. From that time the sensation of cold and shuddering
+went away: I don't say immediately, but I was quite conscious of being
+reassured.
+
+"About half-an-hour afterwards all feeling of distress of any sort had
+gone. I went to bed and to sleep. My own idea now is, that the sound I
+heard was an inarticulate cry for help, probably by means of prayer.
+The influence I feel was _bad_, but something overcame it."
+
+It is desirable to add, as a question of evidence, for comparison of
+the dates of this and Miss Freer's subsequent account of the same
+phenomenon, that a letter from Mr. "Q." in Lord Bute's possession,
+dated March 16th, begins, "I have no objection to Miss Freer seeing my
+letter on the subject of the crucifix...."
+
+Mr. "Q." also states that his delay in writing to Lord Bute about the
+crucifix was, that he thought it might be a mental reproduction of one
+which he sometimes sees in his own home, but that he found on
+examining the latter that it has a white figure, whereas that of the
+apparition has the figure of the same brown wood as the cross. In the
+private account above referred to Mr. "Q" writes, "I found that the
+crucifix at home _in no way_ resembles what I saw at B----". It will
+be remarked that this peculiar apparition was seen in the same room by
+the Rev. P. H---- in August 1892 (see p. 17), and it was again seen on
+March 6th by Miss Freer, who had not heard at all of his experiences,
+and only a bare mention, without detail or description, of that of Mr.
+"Q." A fourth vision in this connection--that of Miss Langton, who had
+heard of none of the other three, is described under date March 19.
+
+   _February 26th, Friday._--Nothing happened till I was in the
+   drawing-room in the evening, when I was, as usual since my
+   accident, taking my meal alone. A screen stood between my sofa
+   and the door, so that it was impossible to see who entered. I
+   saw the shadow of a woman on the wall, and supposed it to be a
+   maid come to see after the fire. Next, the figure of an old
+   woman emerged from behind the screen; she was of average height,
+   and stout; she wore a woollen cap, and her dress was that of a
+   superior servant indoors. Supposing her to be some servant's
+   visitor come to have a look at the drawing-room while the party
+   were at dinner, I moved to attract her attention, with no
+   result. She walked a few steps towards the middle of the room,
+   then disappeared. Her countenance was not pleasing, but
+   expressed no personal malevolence; her face may have been
+   coarsely handsome. Her dress was dark, and made in the fashion
+   which was worn in my childhood. When the dog came in later he
+   seemed to sight something from behind the screen and followed it
+   across the room, when he lay down under my couch, instead of on
+   the hearth as usual. He had done the same thing yesterday
+   morning, looking much frightened, and had then taken refuge
+   under Miss Langton's chair.
+
+In connection with this it will be seen elsewhere that footsteps were
+constantly heard in the drawing-room, both at night and in daylight.
+
+   Mr. Garford, in No. 1, heard last night what seemed like the
+   detonating noise, which he describes as like a wheelbarrow on a
+   hard road, "a sharp, rapidly repeated knocking," at a distance.
+
+   _February 27th, Saturday._--Colonel C---- and Mr. MacP----
+   arrived.
+
+   To-night we sleep as follows:--
+
+    No. 1. Mr. Garford.
+    No. 2. Miss Langton.
+    No. 3. Colonel C---- (I had planned for him to go in the
+           wing, but the butler, an old soldier with two medals,
+           seemed to think it due to such a distinguished
+           officer to put him in the haunted room).
+    No. 4. Mr. MacP----.
+    Nos. 5, 7, and 8 as before.
+    The Colonel and Mr. "Endell" unchanged.
+
+   The glen was visited by Colonel C---- and Mr. MacP----, escorted
+   by Miss Langton.
+
+   _February 28th, Sunday._--All slept well. I assisted Miss
+   Langton with some Ouija experiments in the presence of, first,
+   Mr. "Endell," then Mr. MacP----, then of Colonel C---- and Miss
+   "N."
+
+   _March 1st, Monday._--Mr. MacP---- reported at breakfast that he
+   had awakened at 5.45, and almost immediately heard a loud
+   clanging sound in the north-west corner of his room; he was
+   fully awake, struck a light, saw nothing, and looked at his
+   watch. We tried later to reproduce this noise, which he
+   described as resembling a loud blow upon a washhand basin. I
+   shut myself into No. 1, and found this a fair, but too faint,
+   imitation of the sounds Miss Moore and I had heard there.
+
+   Colonel C---- and Mr. MacP---- left.
+
+   Miss M---- and the Colonel have to-day had some talk with ----
+   [who had an intimate knowledge of the S---- family. See under
+   dates Feb. 9th and 20th]. She repeated her former story of the
+   Major's promised "return," especially a statement made to an old
+   woman who worked in the garden, who had told him that at least
+   "he'd no get in there, she'd keep the gate locked," that he
+   "would come in below the deck" (_cf._ p. 114). He was described
+   as a short, broad man, with white hair and beard, "a'ful fond o'
+   dogs (of which he had many), and so noisy with them in the
+   morning, that when he and his housekeeper-body let them out, his
+   voice could be heard on the hill." She also said that on Major
+   S----'s return from India to assume the property he found a
+   tenant in possession, and had built himself a small house beyond
+   the grounds, which he afterwards let with the shooting. In the
+   late Mr. S----'s time this house was used as a retreat during
+   the summer for nuns (a statement which interests us greatly, as
+   affording a possible clue to the apparition).
+
+   The Major was greatly attached to the place, and had a great
+   dislike to the presence of strangers in it, or to its going out
+   of the old name. The estate, we hear, was much encumbered when
+   he succeeded to it, but he cleared off all debts in a few years,
+   and appears to have lived a somewhat eccentric and recluse life,
+   in the society of his dogs and dependants.
+
+
+This is the first mention of the fact that nuns had ever lived at
+B----. Miss Freer had not been aware that the object of the Rev. P.
+H----'s visit in 1892 had been to give what is called a Spiritual
+Retreat to those who had been occupying the cottage. It is only fair
+to suggest that the phantasmal nun, to whom the name Ishbel had been
+given, may really have been the phantasm of one of these visitors, and
+that the dress of at least some of them was identical with or closely
+resembled hers, while it was totally unlike that worn by the community
+to which the late Mother Frances Helen belonged. At the same time,
+Ishbel's dress was of a kind so very common among nuns, that it would
+have been that with which she would, most naturally, have been clothed
+by the imagination of any one unacquainted with the very rare Order
+to which Mother Frances Helen belonged. To make further investigation
+into the history of all the Sisters who ever stayed at B---- through
+the kindness of the late Mr. S---- would have been a task impossible
+for its vastness, and almost certainly futile through the natural
+reticence of their communities with regard to any matters likely to
+occasion haunting.
+
+   _March 1st (continued), Monday._--I went up the burn for the
+   first time since my accident on Saturday, February 20th. We had
+   had a promise from Ouija on Sunday that if Mr. "Endell" were to
+   visit the copse with me after 6.30 he would be touched on the
+   left shoulder. He was told to go to the farther side of the
+   burn, and to stand under the sapling, which is at some little
+   distance from the spot where the phantasm usually appears. This
+   we accordingly did. I was barely able in the dusk to distinguish
+   the figure from my post on the west bank, but the phantasm
+   appeared very near him, as I could distinguish the white
+   pocket-handkerchief in his breast pocket. I saw her hand
+   approach this, but could not positively say that it touched him.
+   Mr. "Endell" saw nothing, and could not positively say that he
+   felt a touch, though conscious of a sense of sudden chill, and
+   agreed with me that had he certainly felt one, he would probably
+   have considered it the effect of expectation. We stood there for
+   perhaps ten minutes, and he was for a short time conscious of
+   the subjective sensations which he commonly feels in the
+   presence of phenomena. We returned simultaneously to the avenue,
+   where we discussed the occurrence and the possibilities of
+   making it evidential. The only thing we could think of was to
+   send for Miss Langton, and without telling her anything of what
+   we had seen or expected, ascertain whether she saw the phantasm
+   in its usual position (high up on the bank), or a good deal
+   farther to the left, and nearer the burn, as I had done. By the
+   time she arrived it was much darker, but she saw the figure
+   under the tree by the brook, and described it as "kneeling." She
+   has better sight than I, and believed it to be behind Mr.
+   "Endell." I should have judged her to be crouching or stooping
+   in front of him, but judging from comparison of our normal
+   sight, she is much more likely to be accurate than I.
+
+Mr. "Endell's" separately recorded account, dated March 5, exactly
+agrees with this, but adds some additional touches to the latter part.
+
+"At Miss Freer's suggestion, I fetched Miss Langton, telling her
+nothing of what had occurred, but merely that we were trying an
+experiment, and she was to report what she saw.
+
+"I stood again under the sapling. This time I began to shudder almost
+immediately. It was so dark they told me that they could only see my
+collar though I was only ten yards from them.
+
+"Miss Langton said that thirty seconds after I had taken up my
+position, the figure appeared behind me a little to my left, and
+seemed to raise its arm. Miss Freer said it was waiting for me, and
+touched me as before.
+
+"I felt no touch throughout, only shiverings that seemed to coincide
+with appearances."
+
+   To-night Miss "N." wishes to sleep in No. 3, and Miss Langton
+   will remain in No. 2; the door of communication can be opened
+   between them.
+
+   _March 2nd, Tuesday._--This morning I was reading in bed by
+   candlelight from 5.30 to 6 o'clock, and again heard the
+   pattering sound which has become familiar to us in No. 8. Miss
+   Moore was asleep, but happened to awake while the sound was
+   specially distinct, and without speaking signified that she was
+   giving it her attention. Shortly after six we heard the sound of
+   a violent fall about the middle of the west wall, between the
+   fireplace and window. Our first thought was that one of the
+   maids upstairs must have fallen, till we remembered that there
+   was no room above us. We have since inquired, and find that none
+   of them moved till nearly seven o'clock, nor was anything heard
+   either by them or by Mr. Garford, whose room (No. 1) joins our
+   west wall.[D]
+
+   Miss "N." passed a very disturbed night. She went to bed about
+   twelve o'clock; she is habitually an exceptionally good sleeper,
+   and, moreover, has slept in many rooms alleged to be haunted
+   without the slightest inconvenience, and has never had an
+   "experience" of any sort. She lay awake in discomfort till 3
+   A.M., and then sought refuge with Miss Langton.
+
+   Miss "N." left. The following is the record of her
+   impressions:--
+
+   "_March 4th._--You ask me to write exactly what I felt in No. 3
+   when I slept there on March 1st. Well, it is rather difficult to
+   describe! I never felt frightened out of my wits at nothing
+   before, if it _was_ nothing. I certainly saw no shadows or
+   figures, and the only noise I heard was the thud twice, which
+   sounded as if it came from the storey below. If I shut my eyes
+   for a minute I felt as if I was struggling with something
+   invisible (not indigestion, as I never have it!). I was so
+   paralysed that I _dare_ not call out to Miss Langton, and lay
+   awake from twelve to three without moving! In the morning, of
+   course, I felt I had been a fool to be so silly, and I would go
+   and sleep there again to-night if I had the chance."
+
+   Mrs. B. C---- came. She is an Associate S.P.R., is a Highlander,
+   has been all her life interested in psychical matters, but has
+   had no "experience."
+
+   Mr. "Endell," Miss Moore, and I sat up in No. 3 till about 2.30
+   in the dark, except for the firelight, and in silence, except
+   when any one wished to draw the attention of the rest to sounds
+   or sensations. There were no sounds for which, on reflection, we
+   found it impossible to account. Mr. "Endell" suffered, as on
+   previous occasions, from the sensation known as "cold-air," and
+   very visibly shivered, though clearly not in the least nervous.
+   He is keenly interested in psychical inquiry, but has never had
+   any "experience" other than subjective sympathy with the psychic
+   impressions of others, or a consciousness, such as he described
+   on his arrival here, of an atmosphere other than normal. (This
+   last has been of frequent occurrence, and seems to have been
+   always veridical.)
+
+   The sole experience of any kind on this occasion was my own. Mr.
+   "Endell," by way of reproducing the conditions of former
+   occupants of the room, threw himself on the bed about twenty
+   minutes to 2 A.M. Soon after he was seized by audible and
+   visible shivers. We did not speak till he uttered some forcible
+   ejaculation of complaint, when, looking towards him, I saw a
+   hand holding a brown (probably wooden) crucifix, as by a person
+   standing at the foot of the bed. He immediately said, "Now I'm
+   better," or words to that effect.
+
+   We persisted in silence till perhaps 2.30, when we agreed to
+   separate, and while we were having some refreshment over the
+   fire, I told Miss Moore and Mr. "Endell" what I had seen. (_Cf._
+   under date February 25, p. 132.)
+
+   _March 3rd, Wednesday._--Mrs. W---- left.
+
+   This afternoon we had a call from Mrs. S---- and her daughter.
+   The Colonel, Miss Moore, and I were in the room.
+
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+
+
+   _March 4th, Thursday._--Mr. "Endell" left.
+
+   Heavy snowstorm.
+
+   _March 5th, Friday._--Last night I was in bed and asleep before
+   Miss Moore came in from her dressing-room. She did not light the
+   candle for fear of waking me, but, while sitting by the fire
+   reading, she heard the pattering noise just behind her, in the
+   same place where we have heard it and the fall before, though
+   never till then at night. It only lasted a few minutes, but
+   there was apparently nothing to account for it, though of course
+   she took every possible means to discover its cause.
+
+   Mrs. B. C---- left to-day. Miss Moore happened to mention at
+   breakfast that the upper housemaid had told her that the maids
+   had twice again on the last two nights heard the sound of
+   monotonous reading, once as late as 2 A.M.
+
+The theoretical hour for Mattins is midnight, which, however, is only
+observed in practice in certain very rigid monasteries; in others it
+begins at two. But it is easily conceivable that a priest, if wakeful
+at that time, would select it in preference to another.
+
+   Mrs. B. C---- at once said that she also had heard precisely
+   that sound each night, and had spoken of it to her maid, and,
+   like the servants, had concluded that Miss Moore was reading to
+   me, although it was as late as twelve o'clock. She had also
+   heard a bang on a door close to her own, but had supposed it was
+   a late comer, possibly one of the gentlemen from the
+   smoking-room, and had not been disturbed. She had been sleeping
+   in No. 1, her maid in No. 2, and none of the gentlemen are on
+   the same floor. Mr. Garford, who is now in the wing, remarked
+   that he too had heard voices as of speaking or reading several
+   times when sleeping in No. 1, but had assumed that they were
+   normal. As a matter of fact, Miss Moore goes straight to her
+   dressing-room on going upstairs, and I am always too tired to
+   read or speak. No two persons sleep in any other room.
+
+   We tested this by getting Colonel Taylor to shut himself into
+   No. 1 while I, in No. 8, read aloud at the top of my voice, Miss
+   Langton remaining in the room with me. The Colonel could hear no
+   sound less than direct banging on the wall with a poker.
+
+   The cook has been talking to-day of the various noises heard at
+   night; she is not nervous, nor are the maids, but all speak of
+   voices and bangs for which they cannot account; except the
+   butler, who has heard nothing, but is obviously impressed with
+   his wife's experience last night. Her story is that, not feeling
+   well, she went up to bed early, before the servants' supper, the
+   rest of the household being as usual in the drawing-room. While
+   in bed, before ten o'clock, she distinctly heard the sound of
+   voices talking, apparently below, but not far distant (her room
+   is over No. 7, at present empty). She "wondered if it could be
+   the servants in the servants' hall at supper"--an obvious
+   impossibility, as their room is _not_ underneath, is two storeys
+   away, and has no connection with the upper part of the house.
+   She also heard bangs on the wall, behind her bed and to the
+   side; there was no furniture there to crack, and it was mostly
+   on the _outside_ wall, so she finally became uncomfortable, and
+   buried her head in the clothes to deaden the sound. She "doesn't
+   believe in ghosts," but thinks the house "very queer," and says
+   that far and wide in the country round it is spoken of as
+   "haunted," though no one seems to know of any story, as to the
+   cause, except that, very improbable, about the murder of a
+   priest by the wife of a former proprietor. It appears that a
+   maid engaged in the village refused to sleep in the house,
+   because when in service here once before she had been frightened
+   by bangs at the door of her bedroom (in a room over No. 1); she
+   had also heard the sounds of a rustling silk dress on the
+   back-stairs, and had seen the bedroom door pushed open and a
+   lady come in.... A maid, who came after this one had left, told
+   the cook that she believed there was a story of a "priest
+   murdered somewhere at the Reformation"; she had once been told
+   it by Mrs. S---- in explanation of the noises, but had not heard
+   whether the said murder was in the house or the grounds, and
+   thought Mrs. S---- particularly did not wish the spot known.
+   This maid has only been an occasional help in the house, but has
+   lived for years in the district, and knows the place well by
+   reputation.
+
+   To-day as we passed through the churchyard, [a resident in the
+   neighbourhood] pointed out the desolate grave of the Major, with
+   the remark that one could hardly be surprised at a man being
+   said to "walk" who was expected to rest in such a place as that.
+   He said that there had been a great deal of talk all over the
+   neighbourhood as to the excitement during the H----s' stay at
+   B----, and seemed to believe that practical joking might account
+   in part for what had occurred. He did not, however, deny that
+   stories had been told long before their coming to the place.
+
+This resident is the one as to whom the _Times_ correspondent
+dogmatically stated, that having lived in the place for twenty years
+he asserted that there had never been a whisper of the haunting of
+B---- until the tenancy of the H----s.
+
+   _March 6th, Saturday_.--Mr. Garford left.
+
+   The Colonel is to sleep to-night in No. 3, which has not been
+   occupied since Miss "N." left.
+
+   Mr. C---- arrived. He sleeps, by his own choice, in No. 2. He
+   has had a conversation with the butler, whom he had been
+   instrumental in engaging for us, which began by his asking how
+   he liked his situation? He expressed himself satisfied with
+   everything, but added, "But there's something very queer about
+   the house," and then proceeded to tell his wife's experience.
+
+   _March 7th, Sunday_.--Mr. C---- has written an account of his
+   experiences last night.
+
+   Robinson has this morning told him of his first experience! He
+   was awakened by the noise of a heavy body falling in the middle
+   of the room; he awoke his wife, struck a match, and looked at
+   his watch--it was 3.30; no one else had been disturbed. Mr.
+   C----'s account follows:--
+
+   "_March 7th, 1897._--It was arranged that Colonel Taylor should
+   occupy No. 3, and that I should sleep in No. 2. I went to bed
+   about twelve, but did not go to sleep at once.
+
+   "I awoke suddenly with the distinct impression that there was
+   some one in the room. I lay still, and tried to realise what was
+   in the room, but could not do so. There was no idea of movement
+   in my mind, but still I felt convinced that some one was there.
+   The impression seemed gradually to fade out of my mind after
+   about seven or ten minutes, and then I got up and looked at my
+   watch--the time was 4.40 A.M.
+
+   "I then went back to bed, but did not go to sleep. I heard the
+   clock in the hall strike five.
+
+   "Shortly after I thought I heard some one moving about in No. 1,
+   which I knew to be unoccupied. I listened, and it seemed to me
+   that some one was moving round three sides of the room and then
+   coming back. The movement went on for about three or four
+   minutes and then stopped, but after a pause of some minutes it
+   began again. I tried to make out footsteps, but could not do so.
+   The movement was that of a heavy body going round the room, and
+   the floor seemed to shake slightly, after the way of old
+   flooring when a heavy man moves about. After going on for some
+   time the movement stopped, and again, after a pause, began
+   again. The movement, whatever it was, occurred four times, with
+   three pauses in between. The durations of the movement and
+   pauses were irregular. After the noise ceased I got up and lit
+   the candle. The time was 5.25, and I read for twenty-five
+   minutes, when I felt sleepy and blew out the candle. I did not,
+   however, go to sleep, and I heard six strike. The day was
+   dawning. The rooks I first heard about 5.35, when I was reading.
+
+   "About ten minutes after the clock struck six I heard a noise
+   like a light-footed person running downstairs, which seemed to
+   adjoin No. 3, where the Colonel was sleeping, and almost
+   immediately after I heard a loud rapping at the door of No. 1.
+   After a short pause this occurred again, and I jumped out of
+   bed. As I opened the door of my room leading into the passage
+   the rapping sounds occurred again, but less loudly. There was
+   no one in the passage, and I went back to bed, not having quite
+   shut my door. No sooner had I done so than there was a knock at
+   my door, which I thought must be the Colonel coming to speak to
+   me about the rapping at No. 1. I called out 'Come in,' but there
+   was no answer, and I accordingly again went to the door, only to
+   find no one.
+
+   "I heard the servants begin to move about at 6.30 above me, and
+   as seven struck I heard them going through the house.
+
+   "The Colonel did not hear anything.
+
+   "There are no stairs coming down to the bedroom storey where I
+   thought I heard footsteps.
+
+   "The rapping was not in any way an alarming noise.
+
+   "On Saturday night 'Ouija' had said that I was not to be
+   disturbed that night, so I was 'not expecting.' It also stated
+   that Nos. 3 and 8 were the rooms that 'the Major' occupied."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _March 8th, Monday._--Mr. C---- left early. He has promised to
+   write of any experience last night, as he was gone before we
+   were up. Colonel Taylor is still in No. 3; he has heard nothing,
+   but this is perhaps the less evidential, that, although a
+   frequent visitor to haunted houses, he has never had any
+   experience.
+
+   We are still in No. 8, in which we have had a sufficient number
+   of experiences to make us anxious to distribute responsibility
+   by handing it over to another sensitive at the earliest
+   possibility. Miss Langton has hitherto slept in No. 4, in which
+   she was put on her first arrival, except for the three nights
+   she was in No. 2, with companionship in the adjacent rooms.
+   There seems to be no object in the Colonel remaining in No. 3,
+   as he is unlikely to see or hear anything, and as soon as that
+   side of the house is quite emptied she proposes to go into No.
+   1, as we are anxious to discover whether her experience will
+   corroborate that of Miss Moore, myself, Mrs. B. C----, Mr.
+   Garford, and the maids, as to the sound of voices.
+
+   _March 9th, Tuesday._--Mr. C---- writes this morning in regard
+   to Sunday night: "_March 8th._--... Last night I was not so much
+   disturbed, but I awoke at 3.10, and did not sleep after that. I
+   had exactly the same sensation as on the previous night, that
+   whenever I was going to sleep something woke me. At 5.20 I heard
+   three noises very close together, but they were very distant,
+   and sounded from the direction of your room" (No. 8).
+
+   _March 10th, Wednesday._--I awoke about 5.30, and lay awake
+   reading. I had drawn the blinds up, but kept the candle in as
+   long as it was required. At intervals between twenty minutes to
+   six o'clock and ten minutes past I heard the sounds
+   characteristic of No. 8., viz., footsteps of a man, and
+   pattering of a dog. Miss Moore awoke, and heard the later
+   sounds. About 6.10 we both heard the thud, which seems to occur
+   generally beyond the wardrobe nearer the door.
+
+   In the afternoon Miss Moore and I called on Mrs. S----.
+
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+
+   _March 11th, Thursday._--Very wet day, no phenomena.
+
+   _March 12th, Friday._--Another wet day. I had had a headache all
+   day, and was unable to join the others in a walk when the rain
+   cleared off, but I went out, alone, about 6.30 to the copse.
+   Standing in my usual place, I saw the nun coming over the hill
+   towards the burn; she stood nearly opposite to me, looking down
+   to the water for a few minutes, and then moved away towards the
+   avenue. I followed as quickly as possible, but when I got to the
+   drive she was still a few yards ahead of me, and I failed to
+   catch her up, though I pursued her down to the lodge, about two
+   hundred yards; she then, passing through the gates, turned to
+   the left, and I lost her in the obscurity of the road, which is
+   there darkened by heavy trees. When I returned to the house I
+   was still in so much pain that I took a sedative draught and
+   went to bed, and to sleep at once.
+
+With regard to the above it may be remarked that the way she came led
+from B---- Cottage, where by the kindness of Mr. S---- some nuns had
+formerly spent their annual holiday, and the road on which she
+disappeared was a way which would have led back to it.
+
+   _March 13th, Saturday._--At ten o'clock last night Miss Moore
+   woke me to take some food. I was still under the influence of
+   the opiate, and did not really rouse, even when she came to bed
+   half-an-hour later. We did not speak till I was aroused by a
+   loud banging noise, when, in answer to my startled exclamation,
+   Miss Moore suggested that it was probably the servants shutting
+   up downstairs, as we were early, and they had very likely not
+   yet gone to bed. I was much annoyed, as I knew they had been
+   cautioned to keep quiet, and even the maid had not been allowed
+   to enter my room. This morning, when Miss Moore went to see the
+   housekeeper, the butler came in and asked if we had heard any
+   noises last night, about a quarter to eleven o'clock, he
+   thought, after every one had gone up to bed; adding, "It was two
+   bangs like a fist on a door, and I said, 'If that isn't Miss
+   Moore or Miss Langton, I'll believe in the noises they all talk
+   about,'--it's just like what the gentlemen told me."
+
+   His wife had also heard the bangs, but had waited for him to
+   speak to her of them, and the maids on the other side of the
+   house had been roused to come to their door and listen.
+
+   The footman, who sleeps in the basement, and the Colonel, who
+   was in the smoking-room in the wing till 11.30, heard nothing;
+   but Miss Langton, in No. 4, to whom Miss Moore mentioned the
+   servants' story, had heard noises "between 10.30 and 10.45," but
+   had not been disturbed, thinking, as we had done, that they were
+   probably made by the servants.
+
+   On inquiry we found that the cook had gone to bed directly after
+   the servants' supper, the two under maids were up by ten o'clock
+   (Miss Moore heard their voices when she came to my room at ten
+   o'clock), and the upper housemaid had gone up a few minutes
+   after the hall clock struck, following Miss Moore up the stairs.
+   The butler had come up directly after, only waiting to put out
+   the hall lamp, and all were in bed before 10.30. We ourselves
+   noticed the striking of the hall clock _after_ we heard the
+   noise--it had gone wrong, and only struck nine instead of eleven
+   o'clock--so there seems little doubt that we all heard the same
+   sound, and all describe it as coming from below.
+
+   In discussing the occurrence with the butler and his wife, Miss
+   Moore learned that they had lately heard a story [from a local
+   resident] which was new to us. A maid of Mrs. S----, who, though
+   married to the butler, still lived in the house, and performed
+   her duties as usual, was one night coming up the back-stairs
+   with a tray for Mrs. S----, when, on reaching the top, by the
+   door of No. 3, she met the figure of a nun, which so frightened
+   her that she dropped the tray and broke all the plates on it.
+   Mrs. S---- explained it away by saying it was "only ----" (they
+   could not remember her name) "come to pray with her." It was
+   Sunday night, but they knew there was no one there who could in
+   the least account for the appearance. The only explanation
+   offered by the narrator of the story was that "there had been a
+   Miss S----, a nun, who had died."
+
+   _March 14th, Sunday._--I called on Mrs. S----, and had a long
+   talk with her.
+
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+
+   _March 15th, Monday._--Miss Moore and I, both awake at the time,
+   heard a loud, vibrating noise about a quarter to six. Miss
+   Langton in No. 4 heard it also. The Colonel, who sleeps
+   downstairs, heard it as from the hall, and said he also felt the
+   vibration. Except for about three nights he has always slept in
+   the wing, where, during our tenancy, there have been no
+   phenomena.
+
+   _March 16th, Tuesday._--Miss Moore, Miss Langton, the Colonel,
+   and I, left B----. Miss Moore, Miss Langton, and I returning on
+   March 20th.
+
+   After leaving B---- Colonel Taylor wrote as follows to Lord
+   Bute:--
+
+   _March 19th, 1897._--"I arrived in London yesterday, after
+   having spent five weeks at B---- very pleasantly. I feel sure
+   that there _is_ a ghostly influence pervading the house, but I
+   am a little disappointed at the way in which it manifests
+   itself, for, up to the time I left, the nature of the
+   manifestations was such that, though it is satisfactory to me,
+   it would not be so, I think, to those who do not look at such
+   things from so favourable a position as I do.
+
+   "I hope a change may yet come, and things take place which one
+   might think would justify people in evacuating and forfeiting
+   their money as the H----s did; certainly nothing of this sort
+   happened while I was there.
+
+   "It is very interesting to note Miss Freer's experiences, but in
+   regard to those of others who have something to relate, it is
+   perhaps difficult to determine how much these statements should
+   be discounted for error of observation and self-suggestion. I
+   heard many noises in the night during my stay at B----, but they
+   were of much the same sort I have been accustomed to hear at a
+   similar time in other houses. I think that some of our witnesses
+   may have given them undue prominence, under the influence of
+   their own expectancy. The clairvoyant visions of 'Ishbel' in the
+   grounds are not of great evidential value for the scientific
+   world in general, and I think that any amount of 'voices' could
+   be read into the noises of the running stream, near where she is
+   seen, by those who 'wished to hear.' Still, there are some
+   objective noises which cannot be easily accounted for in an
+   ordinary way, and the three almost independent visions of the
+   brown cross are important.
+
+   "I hope things will improve; in any case, you will have added
+   considerably to psychical research when all has been
+   recorded...."
+
+It is difficult perhaps to see why Colonel Taylor should regard the
+independent visions of the crucifix as of more value than the equally
+independent and far more numerous hallucinations, audible and visual,
+of "Ishbel." We have the statements of the failure of several persons
+who "wished to hear" voices in the sounds of the burn, which was,
+moreover, frozen and silent when the voices were heard by the first
+two non-expectant and quite independent witnesses.
+
+   _March 19th._--A passage in Miss Langton's private journal under
+   this date is as follows:--
+
+   "_St. Andrews, March 19th._--I looked into a water-bottle
+   to-night to see if I could see anything of what was happening at
+   B----. I distinctly saw room No. 3, and gradually a figure came
+   into view between the two doors (_i.e._ near the foot of the
+   bed), the figure of a tall woman, dressed in a long clinging
+   robe of grey, and who seemed to be holding something in her
+   hand, against the wall at the foot of the bed. This became more
+   distinct, and I saw that it was a cross of dark brown wood, some
+   12 inches long (I should say). The figure did not appear to
+   move. I seemed to be standing at the door of No. 3, which opens
+   on to the landing" (_cf._ pp. 17, 132, 142).
+
+For the information of those not accustomed to the phenomena of
+crystal-gazing, it may be as well to remark that it is quite possible
+that the image had been subconsciously seen by Miss Langton when
+sleeping in No. 3, as deferred impressions are often externalised for
+the first time in the crystal. She may equally have received the
+impression by thought-transference from others. Certainly she had not
+been informed of earlier experiences.
+
+   _March 20th, Saturday._--Miss Langton, Miss Moore, and I
+   returned to B---- house. Four guests arrived in time for dinner.
+
+   Rooms for to-night:--
+
+    1. Miss Moore and I.
+    2. Miss Langton.
+    3. Miss "Duff," a lady whose name is familiar to readers of
+       recent records of crystal-gazing and other students of
+       the literature of the Psychical Research Society.
+    4. Mr. MacP----.
+    5. Mr. W----.
+    8. Colonel C----.
+
+   _March 21st, Sunday._--Last night, about 11.15, after Miss Moore
+   and I were in bed in No. 1, we heard a loud sound from the
+   left-hand side of the fireplace (south-west corner). It might be
+   imitated by the "giving" of a large tin box (_cf._ pp. 173,
+   179). There was nothing but a footstool and a draped
+   dressing-table there. We called out to Miss Langton, whom we
+   could hear still moving about. She said she had heard the noise,
+   but had made none herself.
+
+   Her account is as follows:--
+
+   "Last night (Sunday, March 21st) we retired to bed early, as
+   Miss Moore was leaving by an early train next morning, and I was
+   going to get up in order to see her off. It was certainly not
+   later than 10.45, when I went to my room, having gone to No. 1
+   to say good-night to Miss Freer and Miss Moore, who were
+   sleeping that night in that room. Miss 'Duff' was in No. 3, and
+   I was occupying No. 2. I am not at all nervous, and certainly I
+   was not expecting to see anything, as No. 2 is always supposed
+   to be a 'quiet' room. I was some time getting to bed, but I put
+   out my candle at twelve o'clock, and, after noticing that the
+   moon was shining brightly, I got into bed. Contrary to my usual
+   custom I did not fall asleep for some time, and I felt that the
+   room was, in some inexplicable way, not as usual. At last I fell
+   asleep, but not comfortably. I kept waking, and for some time
+   after each awakening I could not get to sleep again. I put this
+   down, however, to the fact that I wanted to waken early the next
+   morning, and was restless in consequence. At last I really fell
+   asleep, but at 4.30 I suddenly awakened with the feeling that I
+   was not alone in the room. I looked round; the room was quite
+   dark; the moon was not shining, but between the bed and the
+   wardrobe there was a figure standing. At first it was very
+   indistinct and misty, but gradually it formed itself into the
+   figure of a woman--a slight, tall woman, with a pale face. She
+   was dressed in long robes, but the upper part was the only part
+   I could see clearly. Round her face and head was a white band,
+   like that worn by a nun, and over her head was what might have
+   been a black hood or small shawl, but in the darkness it was
+   very difficult to distinguish. I could not see what her features
+   were like, but she looked as if she were in trouble, and
+   entreating some one to help her. She stood for some few moments
+   at the foot of my bed looking towards me, and then she made a
+   movement towards the door, but before she reached it she had
+   vanished. I was not at all frightened, as there was nothing at
+   all alarming in her appearance. I cannot write a better
+   description of her, as the vision was so short. The figure was
+   the same as that I had seen at the burn, only very much
+   clearer."
+
+   Miss "Duff" writes under this date March 21st:--"On my arrival
+   yesterday I was shown to my room (No. 3), which I had selected,
+   with Miss Freer's permission, as one said to have an evil
+   reputation. Perhaps it was natural that a feeling 'as if I were
+   not alone' should come over me, and needless to say there was no
+   _apparent_ cause for this!
+
+   "As a rule I am a very sound sleeper, nothing ever disturbs me;
+   but last night I was suddenly wide awake, as if roused by
+   something unusual. I sat up quickly in bed, but suddenly
+   remembering where I was, I waited expectantly. Nothing occurred,
+   although I did not get to sleep again for about two hours."
+
+   _March 22nd, Monday._--Mr. MacP---- was awakened between four
+   and five by heavy footsteps overhead. We made many experiments
+   to account for it, and of course made inquiries among the
+   servants, but could find no cause. We are the more interested
+   that hitherto nothing has been heard by our party in his room,
+   No. 4, though there is a tradition of earlier disturbances
+   there.
+
+Mr. MacP---- has furnished the following account of his experience:--
+
+"As usual I went to bed about 12 P.M. I had no desire to be disturbed,
+and so my room was still No. 4, which I had originally selected as
+being reputed innocuous, and which, save in one slight instance, I had
+hitherto found to deserve its reputation. My repeated visits had
+eliminated any expectancy which may at first have, perhaps, existed.
+
+"My bed was alongside the south wall of my room, and parallel to the
+corridor or passage, my head towards No. 5, and my feet towards No. 3.
+
+"As often happened at B----, I awoke from a sound slumber, not by
+degrees, but in a moment. There was no transition--no half-awakening,
+but full and complete consciousness all at once. I struck a light,
+looked at my watch, found it was 4.30, and went to sleep again
+immediately. I then wakened slowly and gradually, hearing more and
+more clearly a noise which appeared to me to be the cause of my
+awakening. The noise was the kind of sound which is produced by a
+person walking rapidly with one foot longer than the other--_i.e._,
+it was a succession of beats in rapid sequence, each alternate beat
+being louder than the one immediately before it.
+
+"It appeared to me (1) to be produced outside my room; (2) to be on a
+higher level; and (3) to be moving in the direction of my bed--_i.e._,
+going as from No. 5 past No. 4, in which I was, towards No. 3. I at
+once jumped out of bed, opened my door and looked out. I saw nothing,
+and the noise stopped. I then struck a light, and found that it was
+only 4.45. I lay awake till I heard the servants obviously moving
+about, and then went to sleep again. At breakfast I asked, 'Has
+anybody ever heard this kind of noise?' reproducing it as well as I
+could by a series of thumps on the table. 'Oh yes,' was the answer,
+'that is what we call the 'limping' or 'scuttering' noise. Of course I
+had heard the phrases used, but thought they referred to two separate
+noises. I had also formed quite distinct ideas as to the kind of
+noises these epithets were intended to describe--both entirely
+different from the kind of noise I had heard--and I showed what I
+meant. 'Oh no,' said Miss Freer, 'what you heard is what we have been
+calling indiscriminately the _limping_ or _scuttering_ noise, and we
+have not heard the kinds of noise these words suggested to you.' I
+emphasise this as showing clearly that I cannot have been expecting to
+hear the particular noise in question.
+
+"The next thing was to account for the noise, if possible, and we
+spent some time experimenting. First of all the servants were
+interrogated as to whether any of them had been moving about at 4.45.
+Answer, 'No.' Next we asked who got up first. This was a maid who
+slept in X, and went into Y to call the kitchenmaid, who slept there.
+To do so she had, of course, to go through the narrow room which was
+over part of my bedroom.
+
+"This, she said, was a good bit later than 4.45. But we thought it
+well to make her go from X to Y while I lay down on my bed and
+listened. We made her walk backwards and forwards, both with her
+slippers on and also in her stocking soles. I and some of the others
+who came into my room heard her quite distinctly. But (1) the noise of
+her steps was in a different place--near my window, and exactly in
+the line of her progress; (2) it was an entirely different kind of
+noise. She walked now fast, and now slowly, but both footsteps seemed
+always of the same weight; and (3), and this, to my mind, was most
+important, we heard her quite distinctly going from X to Y, and back
+again from Y to X and could tell in which direction she was moving.
+Now, the noise which I had heard only went in the one direction,
+_i.e._, parallel to the maid's outward progress. I did not hear
+anything going in the other direction. I was entirely wakened by the
+noise which I had heard, and, as I have said, I continued to listen
+intently for some considerable time, and yet I heard nothing.
+
+"In short, alike from its apparent _locus_, from its quality, and from
+the direction of its movements, I am convinced that the noise which I
+heard was not caused by any of the servants moving about upstairs.
+
+"Anybody who knows the house will understand that where the noise
+seemed to me to be was in the neighbourhood of the dome. For all I
+know, the dome, as somebody suggested, may be a regular
+sounding-board; but even so, that does not help much towards an
+explanation. Wherever the noise may have been produced, the question
+still remains, 'What produced it?' and that we have entirely failed to
+answer."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The gist of this account was communicated by Mr. MacP---- to the Hon.
+E---- F----, who replied as follows on April 19, 1897: "Do you
+appreciate the fact that your ghost, with the footsteps of alternate
+lowness and softness, is absolutely correct, and corresponds with Miss
+H----'s ghost, as I heard it from Mrs. G---- lately in town. Miss
+H---- slept, I _think_, in No. 4 [this is wrong; _cf._ p. 124], and
+was wakened by the sound of walking round her bed with a peculiar
+limp. Much alarmed, she went and called her brother, who came and
+slept on the sofa (is there a sofa in No. 4?), and shortly afterwards
+they both heard the same noise again."
+
+Mr. MacP----, as already mentioned, did not know that this noise had
+been heard by any one.
+
+   Miss "Duff" thus describes her next night: "Having heard nothing
+   unusual all day, I went to bed quite disappointed. However, I
+   was to be again awakened, and this time by a loud _crash_ at my
+   door, which resounded for some time. I lit a candle, but nothing
+   had fallen in my room to account for the sound.
+
+   "I began to think I might be mistaken as to the direction of the
+   noise, and that it might have been caused by a large piece of
+   coal falling in the fender. I went to look, but there was no
+   coal at all, only the dying embers in the fire. I soon fell
+   asleep again, only to be again awakened by a similar crash
+   (although not so loud), and this time between the washstand and
+   the window. I kept awake till morning, and heard nothing more."
+   [We had carefully concealed from Miss "Duff" the nature of the
+   usual phenomena of this room.]
+
+   _March 23rd, Tuesday._--Mr. L---- and his friend Captain B----
+   arrived.
+
+The proof of this portion of the Journal was submitted to Mr. L----,
+who returned it with, _inter alia_, the following note:--
+
+"I do not wish to suppress the fact of my visit to B----, but object
+to the publication of any details about me or any of my writings." In
+deference to Mr. L----'s wish, therefore, his contributions to the
+Journal have been withdrawn, and all further references to him
+deleted.
+
+Captain B---- had no experiences, and by his desire some interesting
+suggestions made by him as to possible normal causes have been
+omitted.
+
+   We are now sleeping as follows:--
+
+    1. Captain B----.
+    2. Miss Langton.
+    3. Miss "Duff."
+    4. Mr. MacP----.
+    5. Myself.
+    6. Mr. L----.
+    7. Colonel C----.
+
+   Miss "Duff" writes under this date:--
+
+   "Last night I sat late by my fire _expecting_, but as nothing
+   seemed to be going to happen I went to bed, and soon to sleep.
+   However, I was to have my most startling experience! I was
+   awakened as if by some one violently shaking my bed (I must
+   mention there was a great wind blowing outside), and at the same
+   time I felt something press heavily upon me. _I struck out!_
+   rather frightened, but remembering again where I was, refrained
+   from striking a light, in order to see the next development of
+   this weird experience. To my disappointment nothing happened,
+   although sleep was successfully banished till daylight."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   [On March 28th Miss "Duff" wrote to me: "Mr. ---- suggested that
+   I should describe to you more accurately the shaking of my bed,
+   as it was not at all such a vibration as might be caused by a
+   high wind or any ordinary movement occurring in other parts of
+   the House.
+
+   "The bed seemed to heave in the centre, as if there were some
+   force under it, which raised it in the centre and rocked it
+   violently for a moment and then let it sink again. I should also
+   have added, that on other nights quite as windy this phenomenon
+   did not occur; in fact, no movement I have ever felt has given
+   me quite the same sensation. The highest point on the
+   'Switchback' is the nearest to it in my experience. I was wide
+   awake at the time, so it was no nightmare."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Miss "Duff" thus continues her account of Tuesday, March 23rd:--
+
+   "This morning, as I sat in the drawing-room, I heard the low,
+   monotonous voice of some one reading aloud. Knowing that Miss
+   Freer and Miss Langton were writing in the next room, I
+   concluded that Miss Freer must be dictating while Miss Langton
+   wrote for her, although I must say I did not recognise Miss
+   Freer's voice. This went on for about an hour. Soon after Miss
+   Langton came into the drawing-room, and I said, 'Well, you
+   _have_ been busy; I suppose Miss Freer has been dictating to
+   you?' She looked surprised and said, 'No, indeed she hasn't; we
+   have both been writing, and if Miss Freer spoke at all, it was
+   only a few words now and again.'" This low monotonous sound of a
+   human voice I afterwards heard once or twice in Room 3.
+
+   _March 24th, Wednesday._--Last night I heard a crash as of
+   something falling from the dome into the hall, about twenty
+   minutes to twelve.
+
+   At breakfast Colonel C---- said he had heard a loud thump on his
+   door at an early hour--before six, when wide awake.
+
+   Mr. W---- also had had an experience. He heard sounds outside
+   his room, and went to investigate. On returning he found the
+   kitten in his room, but, sceptic as he is, he acknowledged
+   freely that the kitten, a wee thing, could not have produced the
+   sounds he heard.
+
+   _Copy of letter from_ Mr. W---- _to_ Mr. MacP----.
+
+   "_March 24th, 1897._-- ... In case it may interest Miss Freer to
+   know what I thought of the noises I heard in No. 1 prior to the
+   kitten incident, the following states my recollections shortly:
+   The first noise was about half-past four, and resembled two
+   small explosions, such as a fire sometimes makes. They followed
+   one another closely, and came from the direction of the
+   fireplace or the south-west corner of the room. I got up and
+   looked at the fire, and it was all but out; but I would not like
+   to swear that the noises did not come from it.
+
+   "As to the other noise, it occurred about a quarter to six, and
+   was quite loud. It sounded as if one of the large, deer heads on
+   the staircase wall had fallen down and rolled a step or two. I
+   cannot understand how some of the others did not hear the noise,
+   but I heard and saw nothing when I went out of my room to see
+   what it was.
+
+   "I should add, that in this case, as well as in the former one,
+   I was awake when the noise occurred. If I had heard these noises
+   in any other house I would not have thought of noticing them,
+   but it might be curious to see if they are the same that have
+   been heard in that room already."
+
+   After breakfast I heard of a great excitement among the
+   servants, and taking Miss Langton with me, to serve as witness
+   and to take notes, I interviewed separately the three concerned,
+   as well as the cook, to whom they had told the story also. It is
+   worth while to mention that I have several times heard the
+   kitchenmaid complained of as lacking in respect for her
+   betters--in scoffing at their reports of phenomena. Only
+   yesterday Mrs. Robinson told me she had not mentioned several
+   things (bell-ringing, a knock at her door, &c.) because it upset
+   her authority in the kitchen to exhibit interest in such things.
+
+   All the stories were consistent, and no cross-questioning upset
+   the evidence. They were distinctly in earnest.
+
+   The three maids and a temporary servant, M----, belonging to the
+   district, went up to their rooms about 10.30. The two housemaids
+   sleep together [in Z], Lizzie, the kitchenmaid, separately, in a
+   room adjoining [in Y]. Directly after getting into bed all heard
+   knockings, and they called out between the rooms to each other.
+   Lizzie stayed awake, and looking up towards the ceiling had what
+   sounds like a hypna-gogic hallucination, of a cloud which
+   changed rapidly in colour, shape, and size, and alarmed her
+   greatly. Then she felt her clothes pulled off, but thought this
+   might be accidental, and tucked them in. Then she was sure they
+   were pulled off again, and screamed to the other maids. Neither
+   dared go to her, her screams were so terrifying; but they
+   finally opened the door of communication between the rooms, and
+   Carter went to fetch the temporary assistant from the other end
+   of the corridor, "because she was such a good-living girl"
+   (particular about fasting in Lent, I gather). The three then
+   returned for the kitchenmaid, and all spent the night in the
+   housemaid's room.
+
+   The upper housemaid went to Miss Langton's room this morning, I
+   hear, much upset and crying, and there can be no doubt of the
+   conviction of all the maids.
+
+   For the future they wish to occupy one room.
+
+   The cook, sleeping on the ground floor below No. 3, heard
+   footsteps and knockings, and awoke her husband, but he heard
+   nothing. She diagnosed it as being "about the door of Miss
+   'Duff's' room (No. 3 above). She thought it was outside of her
+   door, but was not sure. It was just after midnight.
+
+   Miss "Duff" writes on the same day:--
+
+   "Last night I had just got into bed, when I heard footsteps, so,
+   always on the alert for phenomena, I listened and was relieved
+   (? disappointed would be better!) to hear Mr. ---- cough, so I
+   settled down to sleep. A quarter of an hour or twenty minutes
+   later (about twelve o'clock) I again heard steps, but this time
+   they came from the back-stair and shuffled past my room, and
+   then I heard a loud fall against what seemed to me the door of
+   room No. 1, which is practically next door to mine.[E]
+
+   "I went to listen, but not a sound was to be heard, and I saw no
+   one. It could not have been the gentleman who was occupying that
+   room [Mr. W----], as I heard him (with others) come up a quarter
+   of an hour later and go into his room. Although the fall seemed
+   _against_ the door of No. 1, I must add that the depth and
+   quality of the noise was as if a large body had fallen far away,
+   of which we only, as it were, heard the echo, but that _quite
+   distinctly on_ the door of No. 1."
+
+   [Miss Langton testifies to being disturbed by the same sounds in
+   No. 2, the dressing-room between Miss "Duff's" room and Mr.
+   W----'s.]
+
+   Miss "Duff" continues:--
+
+   "_March 25th._--Last night I felt my bed shake, as if some one
+   had taken it in both hands, but as there was a high wind, I did
+   not take much notice of this. I have had my bed shaken
+   violently in that room once before, however, when there was no
+   wind at all."
+
+   Mr. MacP---- and Captain B---- left. The only phenomenon to be
+   noted under this date is the following record by Miss Langton:--
+
+   "I heard a loud thump at the door of communication between Nos.
+   1 and 2 when dressing for dinner, but on going into No. 1 found
+   it quite empty. A curious point about these noises is that the
+   knocks on the door between Nos. 1 and 2 have been audible in
+   this room, No. 2 (in my experience) only when No. 1 is empty,
+   and in No. 1 only when No. 2 is empty."
+
+   _March 26th, Friday._
+
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+
+   Miss "Duff" writes on the same day:--
+
+   "As I was talking to Miss Langton at the door of her room (No.
+   2) on my way to dress for dinner, a double bang on the door came
+   from the inside of room No. 1, which was the one Captain B----
+   had occupied, and where he had heard nothing. At the same moment
+   Miss Langton called out that there had been a bang on the door
+   between her room and No. 1. For a moment I hesitated to go in,
+   but a housemaid came down the corridor at that moment to see
+   what the noise was she had heard, and we investigated together,
+   but to no purpose."
+
+   Miss Langton writes further under this date:--
+
+   "I heard three distinct bangs at the lower part of the door of
+   my room leading into the corridor. I described it to myself as a
+   person coming along the corridor towards No. 2, walking in an
+   unsteady way, and as if he could not see where he was going, and
+   then walking straight against the door of my room and banging
+   his foot against it. Miss 'Duff' this morning acted at our
+   request as I have just described, and the noise she made was an
+   exact reproduction of what I heard last night. The bang occurred
+   at three intervals--at 11.35, 11.45, and 11.50."
+
+   _March 27th, Saturday._--Mr. ---- and Miss "Duff" left. Miss
+   Langton and I are now alone.
+
+   Miss "Duff" was undisturbed last night.
+
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+
+   There was very little wind last night, as I happen to know in
+   the following connection. Carter twice over, about 11.30 and
+   again after midnight, heard the sounds of reading, which she
+   imitated to me this morning--like the monotoning of a psalm. She
+   called out to two other maids to listen, and all three heard it.
+   She felt sure it was not the wind or the pipes. Both the
+   gardener and the gamekeeper say it was a very quiet night.
+
+   _March 28th, Sunday._--As it had been suggested that practical
+   joking or malicious mischief were in question, we were a good
+   deal on the _qui vive_ to-night, being alone. I watched from
+   behind the curtain at an open window from 10.30 P.M. till after
+   midnight, and again from 4.30 A.M. to 6 A.M. The night was windy
+   and there was a good deal of noise, but very different in kind
+   from any of our usual phenomena. We found that there were people
+   moving about till after midnight, but we did not attach much
+   importance to this, as the gardeners may have been to the stoves
+   (the night was frosty), and there is a right-of-way through the
+   grounds.
+
+   No phenomena.
+
+   The servants, we find, are alive to the fact that some one
+   prowls about at night. The footman, who sleeps downstairs, says
+   they have tried to frighten him, and things have been thrown at
+   the kitchen windows. I found it out by the fact that I was
+   seized by the butler and footman when I went out "prowling" on
+   Sunday night, fancying I had heard footsteps. They were on the
+   same errand, and caught me in the dark!
+
+   _March 29th, Monday._--To-day Miss Langton and I have been very
+   busy writing in the library, both silent and occupied. Again and
+   again have we heard footsteps overhead in No. 8, at intervals
+   between ten A.M. and one, and again in the evening between six
+   and seven. No rooms are in use on that side of the house--6, 7,
+   and 8 are all empty. The rooms below are locked up and
+   shuttered. At 11.30 we both heard some one moving about outside
+   on the gravel, but it was too dark a night to see any one.
+
+   [_Friday, April 2nd_--An unpleasant light has (possibly) been
+   thrown on these movements. We find to-day that some one has
+   killed a sheep in the garden, in a retired spot, taking away the
+   skin and the meat.]
+
+   _March 30th, Tuesday._--No phenomena, except the sound of steps
+   overhead above the library. For this reason, Miss Langton is
+   going to sleep in No. 8, where the steps occur.
+
+   Mr. and Mrs. M---- came.
+
+   [We were particularly glad to welcome Mrs. M---- for other
+   reasons than the pleasure of her society. She is of Spanish
+   origin, and a Roman Catholic, and according to previous
+   evidence, so were other persons upon whom specially interesting
+   phenomena had been bestowed.]
+
+   Mr. B. S---- and Miss V. S----, brother and sister of the owner,
+   dined with us.
+
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+
+   _March 31st, Wednesday._--Mr. and Mrs M---- were put into No. 1.
+   Both complain of a very sleepless night.
+
+   Miss Langton in No. 8 heard sounds after daylight--footsteps
+   shuffling round the bed, and a knock near the wardrobe. No one
+   is overhead nor in No. 7, the next room.
+
+   Mrs. M---- spent two hours alone in the drawing-room. She asked
+   me just before lunch what guns those were she had heard. I
+   suggested "The keeper?" and she said, "No, it is like the gun
+   you hear at Edinburgh at one o'clock _a long way off_," which is
+   a good description of the familiar detonating sound (_cf._ under
+   date, February 8).
+
+   Her own account of the day is as follows:--
+
+  "B---- HOUSE.
+
+   "I arrived here last evening, Tuesday, 30th of March, about six
+   o'clock. It was a nice bright evening, but cold. I was received
+   by Miss Freer, who gave me some tea, and then I was taken to my
+   bedroom by Miss Langton, of whom I asked if my room was haunted.
+   She said it had 'a reputation', but somehow or another it did
+   not seem to impress me much. That night Miss S---- and her
+   brother dined here; they were very pleasant, and talked away
+   hard, and we played card games, such as 'Old Maid' and
+   'Muggins.' We went to bed feeling quite happy, saying we had
+   never been in such an unghostly house before. The bed was quite
+   comfortable, and we lay talking quite happily, but could not
+   sleep, and were not in the least bit restless. About two o'clock
+   we dozed off, and a few minutes to four A.M. we were both
+   suddenly awoke by a terrific noise, which sounded to me like the
+   lid of the coal-scuttle having caught in a woman's gown. We then
+   lay awake until about 6.30, and in that interval we heard a few
+   noises, what I cannot exactly describe, as they were very
+   ordinary sounds one might hear in any not very solidly built
+   house. We came down to breakfast feeling we had passed a
+   sleepless night, but otherwise quite happy. After breakfast I
+   went into the smoking-room in the new wing, where my husband was
+   writing letters. I sat there a good time, and he was in and out
+   of the room. All the time I heard tramping up above as if the
+   housemaid was doing the room. Not knowing the geography of the
+   house I took it for No. 8. and thought what very noisy servants
+   these were. I then went into the drawing-room to write my own
+   letters, and Miss Freer came and spoke to me there. While she
+   was with me there, I heard a distant cannon, exactly like the
+   one o'clock gun in Edinburgh, and the whole morning a ceaseless
+   chatter, which I put down to Miss Freer and Miss Langton in the
+   room next door (_cf._ under date, March 23rd).
+
+   _April 1st, Thursday._--This is Mrs. M----'s account of last
+   night. "Last evening we were late for dinner, as Mr. M---- and I
+   had been out to see the nun by the burn, but had seen nothing.
+   The whole evening I had a sort of half consciously disagreeable
+   feeling, and when I went to my room it was some time before I
+   could make up my mind to get into bed. The servants very much
+   annoyed me; they were making such a needless amount of noise in
+   running about the room overhead. [The room overhead was empty.
+   Since their adventure of March 23rd, the servants had slept on
+   the other side of the house.] At last I got into bed, and I may
+   say I hardly slept a wink the whole night. I simply lay in
+   terror, of what I cannot say, but I had the feeling of some very
+   disagreeable sensation in the air, but we did not hear a sound
+   all night from the time we got into bed until we got up next
+   morning at 8.30.
+
+   "I spent the whole of the morning in the drawing-room writing
+   letters and reading, and from time to time I went up to No. 1 to
+   get books and different things, and each time was a little
+   surprised to find the room empty, as there had been a ceaseless
+   noise of housemaids, and very noisy ones too. I also heard what
+   I had described before as the cannon. After luncheon Miss Freer
+   and Miss Langton and I went out walking, and just as we were
+   coming in to tea we all three heard the cannon, and then I said
+   that is the noise I heard every morning, and sometimes in the
+   evening, in the drawing-room."
+
+   This afternoon we were having tea in the drawing-room at 4.30,
+   Mrs. M----, Miss Langton, and myself. We heard some one walking
+   overhead in No. 1, a sound we have heard often before, when we
+   knew the room to be empty above. Mrs. M---- remarked that it was
+   just the sound she had heard, again and again, when sitting
+   alone in the drawing-room.
+
+   It was so exactly the heavy, heelless steps we had heard before,
+   that Miss L---- ran upstairs softly to see if any one was there,
+   but found no one about. Next we heard a loud bang--not of a
+   door--in the hall, and she went out again to ascertain the
+   cause, and met the butler on the same errand. We could find
+   nothing to account for it. It was like the noise before
+   described, of something dropped heavily into the hall from the
+   gallery above.
+
+   There had been so much trouble of ascertaining whether the
+   noises were caused by doors banging, that since the warmer
+   weather set in, ever since our return on March 20th, in fact, we
+   have had every passage-door opening into the hall and into the
+   gallery upstairs fixed open with wedges.
+
+   We had scarcely settled to our tea again before we again heard
+   the footsteps overhead, and again Miss Langton went up and found
+   the room empty. She walked across the room, and we heard her do
+   so, but the sound was quite different. She did it noisily on
+   purpose, but though she is very big and tall, she didn't sound
+   heavy enough.
+
+   Mrs. M---- remarks, on hearing this read over, that the sound
+   was different in character as well as in volume--that the
+   footsteps she (and we) heard were "between a run and a walk." My
+   phrase was, and has always been, "as of the quick, heavy steps
+   of a person whose foot-gear didn't match." We called it, when we
+   first heard it in No. 8, a "shuffling step."
+
+   After she came down the servants' tea-bell rang, and we at once
+   said, "Now we shall know where they all are." The hall is under
+   the wing, at the other end of the house, and we knew that the
+   room underneath us was empty, and the shutters up, and that all
+   who were in the house were either in the drawing-room or the
+   servants' hall.
+
+   In a few minutes we again heard the pacing footsteps, up and
+   down, up and down; we heard them at intervals during
+   half-an-hour. We also heard voices as of a man and woman
+   talking. I went to the foot of the stairs, just below the door
+   of No. 1, and heard them plain. Mrs. M---- is not quick of
+   hearing, but she heard them distinctly several times. At 5.20 we
+   heard the maids go up the stone staircase, coming away from
+   their tea, and though we listened till after six, the other
+   sounds did not occur again.
+
+   _April 2nd, Friday._
+
+   [Mr. M---- left early, Mrs. M---- remaining till a later train.]
+
+   At 11.15 Miss Langton and I were in the library at two different
+   tables writing. The room was silent. Suddenly we heard a heavy
+   blow struck on a third table, ten feet at least away from either
+   of us. I instantly fetched Mrs. M----, and in her hearing Miss
+   Langton imitated the sound on the same table, by hitting with
+   her fist as heavily as possible. There is a drawer in the table,
+   empty, which added to the vibration, and also pendent brass
+   handles. I tried, but could not make noise enough. We kept watch
+   in the room till lunch, Mrs. M---- keeping guard when we were
+   obliged to leave, but nothing happened till, when we were
+   sitting at luncheon (there is only a single door and a curtain
+   between the two rooms), we heard it again as above described.
+
+   One of the informants, who described the scene which occurred
+   the day the late Mr. S---- left this house for the last time,
+   said "a very heavy blow like a man's fist came on the table
+   between them." This is the same room.
+
+   The same sound occurred again while we were at lunch in the
+   dining-room just now. The first time Miss Langton rushed to the
+   library and found a housemaid there at the stove, so we agreed
+   it should not count. It occurred again in about five minutes,
+   and again she went into the room (which is next the dining-room)
+   and found it empty and no one in the hall.
+
+   Mrs. M----, whom I asked to locate the sound, pointed to just
+   that part of the wall by the table upon which the knock had
+   struck.
+
+     Signed (as correct) by Mrs. M---- and Miss Langton.
+
+   (I have since asked the housemaid if she heard anything, and she
+   says no, she was making too much noise herself. We all heard it
+   distinctly, above the clatter of the fire-irons.)
+
+   On April 9th Mr. M---- sent me the following account of his
+   impressions:--
+
+   "... You ask me to describe the noises I heard while staying
+   with you at B----. I should say, in the first place, that I am a
+   good, but light, sleeper; I seldom lie awake, am generally
+   asleep five minutes after going to bed, but wake easily, and
+   awake at once to full consciousness. I am not the least nervous,
+   and have often slept in so-called 'haunted' rooms [Mr. M---- has
+   had very exceptional opportunities in this direction]; and while
+   I certainly cannot say that I altogether disbelieve in what are
+   commonly called 'ghosts,' I do believe that in nine cases out of
+   ten, noises, and even appearances, may, if investigated, be
+   traced to perfectly normal causes.
+
+   "We spent three nights at B----: March 30th and 31st, and April
+   1st. The first two nights room No. 1 was our bedroom, and the
+   third night room No. 8. Room No. 2 was my dressing-room.
+
+   "When talking to you and Miss Langton at the top of the stairs,
+   just before going to bed, we all of us heard
+   noises--rappings--coming apparently from No. 2. The noises were
+   very undoubted, but as we were talking at the time I cannot
+   define them more accurately.
+
+   "When first going to bed, both nights in No. 1, we heard
+   footsteps and voices apparently in conversation above us. The
+   sounds seemed to come from a room which was over the bed, but
+   did not extend as far as the fireplace in No. 1, and also from
+   the room which would be above the room next to ours behind the
+   bed."
+
+The rooms overhead were empty. _Cf._ under date April 1st.
+
+   "These noises I attributed at the time, and still attribute, to
+   the maids going to bed. I am bound to say, however, that they
+   were heard both by Mrs. M---- and her maid, who was in No. 1
+   with her, during the daytime, at an hour when it was said no
+   servants were upstairs. These voices and footsteps did not go on
+   for long into the night. For (I should say) some hours during
+   the night of the 30th, I frequently heard a sound which seemed
+   to come from near the fireplace, and which I can best describe
+   as a gentle tap on a drum--like some one tuning the kettle-drum
+   in an orchestra. I do not think Mrs. M---- heard this noise, for
+   though she slept very badly, she was dozing a good deal during
+   the first half of the night. At 3.55 A.M. I was in a state of
+   semi-consciousness, when both I and Mrs. M---- were fully
+   roused by a noise so loud that I wonder it did not wake people
+   sleeping in other parts of the house. It seemed to come either
+   from the door between No. 1 and 2, or from between that door and
+   the fireplace. To me it sounded like a kind of treble rap on a
+   hollow panel, but far louder than any one could rap with their
+   knuckles. My wife described it as the sound of some one whose
+   gown had caught the lid of a heavy coal-scuttle and let it fall.
+   This noise was not repeated, and by a treble rap I mean the
+   sound was like an arpeggio chord. I feel certain it was not
+   against the false window outside, indeed it had the sound of
+   being in the room. The kettle-drum sounds might easily have been
+   a trick of the wind, though the night was still, but the only
+   natural explanation of this noise that I can give is practical
+   joking, as the noise _might_ have come from my dressing-room.
+   The coal-scuttle was standing between the fireplace and
+   door-post, just where the sound seemed to come from. The second
+   night I moved the scuttle right away to between the head of the
+   bed and the window, and the noise was not repeated. The second
+   night the talking and footsteps were both heard when first we
+   went up; and once, shortly after all was still, early in the
+   night. Nevertheless we again both of us slept very badly
+   indeed--I may say that except from about 6 to 8 A.M. I slept
+   very little either night. I should say that all through both
+   nights I frequently heard the owls hooting--both the tawny owl
+   and another, which I think was the little owl; the former on one
+   occasion was very close to the window, and any one with a vivid
+   imagination or unacquainted with the cry of the owl (and,
+   strange as it may seem, a country-bred girl, staying at L----
+   the other day, did _not_ know the owls' cry when she heard it),
+   might well take it for shrieks."
+
+_N.B._--No one ever heard shrieks during Colonel Taylor's tenancy at
+B----.
+
+   "The third night, as I have said, we were in No. 8, and both of
+   us slept like tops, and heard or saw nothing.
+
+   "One morning, in the smoking-room in the east wing, I heard
+   voices which _seemed_ to come from above, but which I am
+   convinced were from the kitchen beneath.
+
+   "As you know, 'Ishbel' was not kind enough to show herself to
+   me....
+
+   "_P.S._--I wrote the above without reading over my wife's
+   account. I have only to add that I had none of the uncomfortable
+   sensations she talks of. Bodily and mentally I was comfortable
+   all night. Nor was I in the least restless--only wakeful. But
+   for the noises, B---- certainly strikes one as a very unghostly
+   house."
+
+   _April 3rd, Saturday._--Miss Langton and I heard footsteps
+   walking up and down overhead at dinner-time last night, in No.
+   7, a room which is not in use. We looked at each other, but did
+   not at first say anything, on account of the presence of the
+   servants. After it had gone on for at least ten minutes, I asked
+   the butler if he had heard them. He at once said, "Yes, and
+   might he go and see if any one were about?" We heard him go
+   upstairs and open the door of the room, and walk across it, but
+   his step was quite different from the sound we had heard. He
+   came back saying, "The housemaid had been in to draw the blind
+   down since we had been at dinner." I have questioned her since,
+   and she says she simply went in and out again--was not there
+   half a minute.
+
+   About four o'clock this afternoon, Miss Langton ran in from the
+   garden where we were gathering fir-cones, to fetch a basket out
+   of the library, and heard so much noise going on in the
+   drawing-room that she went in to investigate. It was empty and
+   silent. The noise was a violent hammering on the door between
+   the two rooms on the drawing-room side.
+
+   The two rooms below the library and drawing-room were empty, and
+   shuttered (the smoking-room and billiard-room), No. 1 was
+   disused (over the drawing-room), and Miss Langton found no one
+   in No. 8 (over the library). She came back and told me at once.
+
+   I have now had the following rooms locked up and the keys taken
+   away by the butler:--
+
+   Ground floor: All the wing and drawing-room.
+
+   Above: 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. (I am sleeping in No. 5, Miss Langton
+   in No. 8.)
+
+   Basement: Smoking and billiard rooms.
+
+   Mr. T---- arrived in the afternoon. We were all out till
+   dinner-time. While at dinner, we all three, as well as the
+   butler, heard steps walking overhead in No. 7, as we did last
+   night.
+
+   _April 4th, Sunday._--I was wakened early this morning by the
+   sound of a crash. As it was mixed with my dreams I did not think
+   it worth while to get up and investigate, but looked at my
+   watch. It was twenty minutes to six. Five minutes later I heard
+   another crash under the dome--of the kind so often
+   described--and looked out, but the house was perfectly still. I
+   heard the servants come down about seven o'clock.
+
+   Miss Langton, sleeping in No. 8, describes the same sounds at
+   the same moment.
+
+   Mr. B. S---- and Miss S----, brother and sister of the
+   proprietor, called.
+
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+
+   Mr. T---- writes under this date:--
+
+   "_April 4th, Sunday._--I heard footsteps overhead last evening
+   while at dinner. Sleeping in No. 1. To bed about 11 P.M. To
+   sleep in about half-an-hour. Meanwhile I heard sounds as of
+   reading aloud in No. 8. Woke at 6.20. Heard voices in No. 8
+   again."
+
+   _April 5th, Monday._--Mr. T---- said at breakfast that he had
+   heard sounds as of some one reading in Miss Langton's room, No.
+   8, between 11.0 and 11.30 P.M., and again the sound of voices
+   from the same room in the morning. Miss Langton was alone, nor,
+   as we have proved--(see under date March 2nd)--could any sound
+   of reading or speaking have been heard, had any really existed.
+
+   _April 6th, Tuesday._--Mr. T---- writes under this date:--
+
+   "To my room last night about 11 P.M. Loud thuds on the floor
+   above me, and a heavy thud against the door dividing my room
+   (No. 1) from the dressing-room beyond (No. 2). I went out and
+   listened at the servants' staircase. They were talking, but not
+   moving about. [I learnt on inquiry that they were all in bed by
+   10.30.--A.G.F.] I went to sleep immediately after I got to bed,
+   but woke up later with a violent start, as if by a loud noise,
+   though I heard nothing. I waited a few minutes and then looked
+   at my watch. It was 12.30. I heard voices talking pretty loud. I
+   was awake over three-quarters of an hour, then slept till
+   5.30."
+
+   Mr. B. S---- was out fishing with Mr. T---- in the morning, and
+   came in to lunch and again to dinner. In the evening I had a
+   good deal of talk with him.
+
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+
+   This afternoon Mrs. ----, a lady well acquainted with the
+   neighbourhood, came to tea. She asked me about the hauntings,
+   and said they were matter of common talk in the district. She
+   also told me that in the late Mr. S----'s time it had been
+   alleged that the disturbances were intentional annoyances,
+   though she agreed it was rather a sustained effort.
+
+   I also called to say "good-bye" to Mrs. S.----, to whom I
+   remarked that, though I could not doubt the existence of
+   phenomena at B----, we had been most comfortable, and had
+   greatly liked the place.
+
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+     .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .
+
+   Early this morning (I am still sleeping in No. 5) I heard the
+   familiar crash under the dome. It was about 2.30. Mr. T---- said
+   at breakfast that he had heard it too.
+
+   _Wednesday 7th._--Mr. T---- writes under this date:--
+
+   "To bed about eleven. To sleep at once. Awakened at 2.30 by a
+   terrific crash, and the sound of voices. A little later I heard
+   light raps at the foot of my door, as if a dog had wagged his
+   tail against it. Looked out, saw nothing; very disturbed night."
+
+   _April 8th, Thursday._--Mr. T---- writes, "Woke last night at
+   12.30. Heard nothing, but slept very badly. I may mention that I
+   am, as a rule, a very sound sleeper, and as I had taken a lot of
+   exercise every day--fishing, shooting, cycling, and walking,
+   from breakfast-time to dark--there was no reason why I should
+   not sleep."
+
+Mr. T---- had been out the whole of this day with the keepers--heather
+burning--and was obviously "dead tired" when he went to bed. It is
+curious that even when not disturbed, he should have slept so badly,
+but sleepless and nameless discomfort has assailed most persons in No.
+1, though the room is large and airy.
+
+   _April 8th, Thursday._--We had planned to leave yesterday, but
+   it was borne in upon me that to-day being the anniversary of the
+   Major's death, it would be a pity--on the hypothesis of there
+   being anything supernormal in these phenomena--that the house
+   should not be under observation to-night.
+
+   In the morning the Land-steward called, having heard from Mrs.
+   S---- that we had heard footsteps about the house at night, and
+   that I had several times observed a disreputable-looking man
+   about the place, whom I knew not to be one of the farm-servants.
+
+   The admissions hitherto made by him, and by ---- and ----, as to
+   some of the phenomena, carry the evidence back for over twenty
+   years.
+
+   I don't know whether we have been specially on the _qui vive_
+   to-day, but we seem to have heard bangs and crashes and
+   footsteps overhead all day, though all the rooms, except Nos. 1,
+   5, and 8 are locked up--Mr. T---- occupies No. 1, Miss Langton
+   No. 8, I No. 5.
+
+   Acting upon the hints given us by ---- and ----, I thought the
+   downstairs smoking-room ought to be specially under observation
+   to-day. I was suffering from acute headache, and was obliged to
+   lie down in my own room from lunch-time to dinner, and this
+   smoking-room, which is known as "the Major's room," was the only
+   sitting-room in use. A few minutes before dinner, I went down
+   and busied myself in putting my camera to rights. It was a
+   delicate piece of work, and when I saw a black dog, which I
+   supposed for the moment to be "Spooks" (my Pomeranian), run
+   across the room towards my left, I stopped, fearing that she
+   would shake the little table on which the camera stood. I
+   immediately saw another dog, really Spooks this time, run
+   towards it from my right, with her ears pricked. Miss Langton
+   also observed this, and said, "What is Spooks after?" or
+   something of that sort. A piece of furniture prevented my seeing
+   their meeting, and Spooks came back directly, wagging her tail.
+   The other dog was larger than Spooks, though it also had long
+   black hair, and might have been a small spaniel.
+
+   [It was not till after we had left B---- that we learned that
+   the Major's favourite dog was a black spaniel.]
+
+   After dinner we returned to this room. I had intended to try
+   Ouija and the crystal, but was in too much pain to make this
+   possible, and Miss Langton felt she could not do it alone; it
+   was as much as I could do to sit up at all, but, by a strong
+   effort of will, I was able to remain downstairs till after
+   midnight. [I was still occasionally suffering from the results
+   of my accident.] We sat in front of the fire, playing a round
+   game. About nine we all three heard footsteps coming from the
+   south-west corner and going towards the door; I held up my hand
+   for silence, but I could see, from the direction of their eyes,
+   that they heard the sounds as I did--even the dog looked up and
+   watched. The steps were those of a rather heavy person in
+   heelless shoes, who walked to the door, and came back again,
+   passed close behind Mr. T----'s chair, crossed the hearth-rug
+   just in front of me, and stopped at or about the north-east
+   corner, but--it seemed--remained in the room, behind Miss
+   Langton's chair. We heard them again about 10.30; we also heard
+   sounds several times during the evening of the talking of a man
+   and woman. Three times over Miss Langton and Mr. T---- went out
+   to listen, but the house was perfectly quiet, and though we were
+   on the same floor with the servants, there had been, the whole
+   time, three closed doors between us and their quarters in the
+   wing, which also was in the direction opposite that from which
+   the sounds came (the present billiard-room). About 10.45, Miss
+   Langton and I went up to the dining-room in search of
+   refreshment; everything upstairs seemed perfectly still, and the
+   servants had long before gone to bed. Mr. T---- followed us up,
+   and as we went back to the smoking-room, the voices seemed to be
+   in high argument just inside. We could distinguish no words,
+   though the _timbre_ of the voices is perfectly clear in my
+   memory. About 12.20 we went to bed. I had intended to sit up in
+   No. 8, but found I was not equal to it, and Miss Langton would
+   not accept my offer of sleeping there with her. She was
+   therefore there alone, I in No. 5, and Mr. T---- in No. 1. I had
+   not been many minutes in my room when I heard the familiar loud
+   crash as of something falling into the hall, under the dome, and
+   rushed out immediately--the house was perfectly still. We had
+   left a small lamp burning in the corridor. Mr. T---- said, next
+   morning, that he had also came out at the sound, but must have
+   been later than I, as he was just in time to see my door shut.
+   About twenty minutes after, I heard the shuffling footsteps come
+   up the stairs, and pause near my door; I opened it, and saw
+   nothing, but was so definitely conscious of the presence of a
+   personality, that I addressed it in terms which need not be set
+   down here, but of which I may say that they were intended to be
+   of the utmost seriousness, while helpful and encouraging. I may
+   add, that I knew from experience of the acoustic qualities of
+   the house, that I should not be audible to those in Nos. 1 or 8.
+   Absolutely, while I was speaking, the voices we had heard
+   downstairs became audible again, this time it seemed to me
+   outside the door of No. 8; they were certainly the same voices,
+   but seemed to be consciously lowered. (Miss Langton's account
+   will show that she heard voices and footsteps outside her door
+   at about this time.) I was asleep before the clock struck two,
+   but was awakened again about 3.30, and was kept awake for more
+   than an hour by various sounds in the house. Roughly speaking,
+   these were of two kinds: one, those of distant clangs and
+   crashes which we have heard many times in varying intensity,
+   loudest of all on our first night and on this. The other (more
+   human in association), knocks at the door, thuds on the lower
+   panels within, say, two feet of the ground; footsteps, not as
+   before, but rapid and as of many feet, and again the same
+   voices. The night was perfectly still, and I could clearly
+   differentiate the cries of the owl (of two kinds, I think), the
+   kestrel hawk, and even of the rabbits on the lawn. I went to the
+   windows and looked out, but the night was quite dark, and the
+   dawn was grey and misty.
+
+   About 5.45 I fell asleep, and did not wake till my tea came up
+   at 7.30, when I asked the maid if she had been disturbed, and
+   she replied that the servants had been extra busy the day
+   before, had gone to bed early, and had slept soundly.
+
+   Miss Langton and Mr. T---- attest the above as a correct account
+   of our experience, so far as they were concerned.
+
+   The following is from Miss Langton's private diary:--
+
+   "Miss Freer, Mr. T----, and I all agreed that, as it was the
+   anniversary of the old Major's death, we would sit to-night in
+   his own sitting-room, which we always call 'the downstairs
+   smoking-room.' Just before dinner, Miss Freer, who was sitting
+   between the writing-table and fireplace, suddenly called out,
+   'What is Spooks running after?' and then she said that there
+   were _two_ black dogs in the room, and that the other dog was
+   larger than Spooks she said, 'like a spaniel.'
+
+   "After dinner we three sat round the fire and played games;
+   suddenly one of us called out, 'Listen to those footsteps,' and
+   then we _distinctly_ heard a heavy man walking round the room,
+   coming apparently from the direction of the safe, in the wall
+   adjoining the billiard room, and then walking towards the door,
+   passing between us and the fireplace in front of which we were
+   sitting. It was a very curious sensation, for the steps came so
+   very close, and yet we saw nothing. Footsteps died away, and we
+   resumed our game. Three times over we distinctly heard outside
+   the door the voices of a man and woman, apparently in anger, for
+   their voices were loud and rough. Each time we jumped up at once
+   and opened the door quietly--there was nothing to be seen; the
+   passage was in total darkness, all the servants having gone to
+   bed (the last time was nearly eleven o'clock). We certified this
+   fact by making an expedition into the kitchen regions. We then
+   returned to the smoking-room, and not long after the footsteps
+   again began in exactly the same direction. This time they lasted
+   a longer time.
+
+   "I slept in No. 8, and was so tired I slept pretty well, but
+   before going to sleep, just before one o'clock, I heard the
+   sound of a heavy man in slippers come down the corridor and stop
+   near my door, and then the sound as of a long argument in
+   subdued voices, a man and a woman."
+
+On April 9th Miss Freer and Miss Langton left B---- in order to pass
+Easter elsewhere, and Mr. T---- left with them.
+
+During Miss Freer's absence the house was occupied for some days by
+the eminent classical scholar Mr. F.W.H. Myers, late Fellow of Trinity
+College, Cambridge, one of her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, and
+Hon. Sec. to the S.P.R.
+
+It is well known that the S.P.R. is very greatly indebted to Mr. Myers
+for his most valuable services for many years as Hon. Sec., and for
+his many important contributions to its literature. He has, however,
+of late years somewhat alienated the sympathies of many of its
+members, by the extent to which he has introduced into its
+_Proceedings_ the reports of spiritualist phenomena, and the
+lucubrations of mediums. The original rules of the society would
+appear to exclude the employment of hired mediums, and it is difficult
+to distinguish Mrs. Piper, and certain other subjects of experiment,
+from this class. The differences, however, between Mr. Myers and some
+of the members do not stop at this point, for his preference for the
+experiences of female mediums, whether hired or gratuitous, would
+appear to amount to an indifference to spontaneous phenomena, an
+indifference that is distinctly and rapidly progressive.
+
+Mr. Myers, however, appeared to take considerable interest in the
+phenomena of B----, and on March 13, 1897, after reading the journal
+for the first five weeks, the only part of the evidence which has
+been submitted to him, or indeed to any member of the Council of the
+S.P.R., he wrote to Miss Freer:--
+
+"It is plain that the B---- case is of _great_ interest. I hope we may
+have a discussion of it at S.P.R. general meeting, May 28th, 8.30, and
+perhaps July 2nd, 4 P.M., also. Till then, I would suggest, we will
+not put forth our experiences to the public, unless you have any other
+view....
+
+"I should particularly like to get Mr. ['Q.'] to go again in Easter
+week [_i.e._ during the Myers' tenancy]. I saw him last night, and
+heard his account, and next to yourself he seems the most sensitive of
+the group. I am very glad that you secured him.... I will send back
+the two note-books after showing them to the Sidgwicks. I am so very
+glad that you and others have been so well repaid for your trouble....
+You seem to have worked natural causes well."
+
+On April 12th Mr. Myers arrived at B----, and remained until the 22nd.
+He was preceded a day or two earlier by Dr. Oliver Lodge, Professor of
+Physics at Victoria College, Liverpool, Mrs. Lodge, and a Mr.
+Campbell of Trinity College, Cambridge. The party also included a
+"medium," the only person to whom this term could be applied, in the
+ordinary sense, who visited B---- during Col. Taylor's tenancy. This
+person was a Miss C----, but in order to avoid confusion with other
+persons, she is here called Miss "K." Miss "K." is not a professional
+medium, in the same sense in which a gentleman rider is not a jockey.
+She is the proprietress of a small nursing establishment in London,
+and at the time of her visit to B---- was described as in weak health
+and partially paralysed. She was accompanied by an attendant who was a
+Roman Catholic, a circumstance which is interesting in view of the
+strongly sectarian character of the ensuing revelations.
+
+Mr. Myers recorded regularly, and transmitted to Lord Bute, the
+account of the phenomena which occurred during his visit, and which
+were testified to by four members of his party. He declines, however,
+to allow any use to be made of his notes of what occurred during this
+episode.
+
+The regret with which his wish is deferred to is the less, because the
+chief value of the notes in question seems to be that of a warning
+against the methods employed; a fact of which Mr. Myers seems later to
+have himself become aware, as in regard to his journal letters to Lord
+Bute he wrote on March 15, 1898, _a year later_, "I am afraid that I
+must ask that my B---- letters be in no way used. I greatly doubt
+whether there was anything supernormal."
+
+However, while actually staying at B----, Mr. Myers wrote to Miss
+Freer on April 15th, in much the same terms as on March 11th:--
+
+"What is your idea (I am asking Lord Bute also) _re_ speaking about
+B---- at S.P.R? If this is _not_ desirable on May 28th, should you
+have second-sight material ready then? If it is desirable, could we
+meet sometime, ... and discuss what is to be said? As many witnesses
+as possible. Noises have gone on. I am writing bulletins to Lord Bute,
+which I dare say he will send on to you.... I am moving into No. 5 to
+be nearer to the noise. I have heard nothing. Lodge hears mainly
+knocks."
+
+On April 21st he wrote again to Miss Freer:--
+
+"If you come to S.P.R. meeting, we could talk in a quiet corner after
+it. I dine with S.P.R. council at seven o'clock, so there would
+scarcely be time [_i.e._ to call on you] between, but I would call
+at---- at 9.30 Saturday morning, if that were more convenient to you
+than going to the meeting."
+
+The interview took place, and July 2nd was finally arranged as the
+date upon which the evidence was to be presented at a general meeting
+of the S.P.R.
+
+In the meantime, however, the article of the anonymous _Times_
+correspondent appeared in that journal on June 8th--an article which
+was practically an attack on certain methods of the S.P.R., after
+which Mr. Myers published the following letter:--
+
+
+  ON THE TRAIL OF A GHOST.
+
+  _To the Editor of "The Times."_
+
+  "SIR,--A letter entitled 'On the Trail of a Ghost,' which you
+  publish to-day, appears to suggest throughout that some statement
+  has been made on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research with
+  regard to the house which your correspondent visited. This,
+  however, is not the case; and as a misleading impression may be
+  created, I must ask you to allow me space to state that I visited
+  B----, representing that society, before your correspondent's
+  visit, and decided that there was no such evidence as could
+  justify us in giving the results of the inquiry a place in our
+  _Proceedings_. I had already communicated this judgment to Lord
+  Bute, to the council of the society, and to Professor Sidgwick,
+  the editor of our _Proceedings_, and it had been agreed to act
+  upon it.--I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
+
+     "FREDERICK W.H. MYERS,
+     _Hon. Sec. of the Society for Psychical Research._
+
+     "LECKHAMPTON HOUSE, CAMBRIDGE, _June 8_."
+
+One may gather from a comparison of this letter with the foregoing
+records that the standard of evidence is a somewhat variable quantity
+in the Society for Psychical Research. In attempting to explain the
+matter, Mr. Myers wrote to Lord Bute, June 11, 1897:--
+
+"As to haunted houses recorded at length in _Proceedings_, there have
+been several minor ones, and one especially, 'Records of a Haunted
+House,' where I was instrumental in getting the account written. The
+great point there was the amount of coincidence of visions seen
+independently.... In the B---- case there is _some_ coincidence of
+vision, but so far as I know, not nearly so much as in the Records of
+a Haunted House, which did appear in _Proceedings_. We want to keep
+our level approximately the same throughout."
+
+Another point of view in relation to the same matter, is that taken by
+Miss Freer in an article in the _Nineteenth Century_, August 1897:--
+
+"That the S.P.R. recognised that haunted houses were among the alleged
+facts of general interest, was proved by their early appointment of a
+Committee of Inquiry, on the management of which it is too late to
+reflect. At the end of a few months only, they practically dismissed a
+subject which, if considered at all, required years of patient
+research. They had come across the surprising number of twenty-eight
+cases which they considered worth inquiry; but these were presented to
+the public on the evidence of only forty witnesses--that is to say, an
+average of less than one and a half to each! The appearance of figures
+is recorded in twenty-four of these stories, whilst four record noises
+only. Ten years later the _Proceedings_ take up the subject again, and
+give us at some length an elaborate story on the evidence of two or
+three ladies, two servants, a charwoman, and a little boy. ['Records
+of a Haunted House.'] No proper journal was kept, and the Society for
+Psychical Research came upon the scene when all was practically over."
+
+In relation to the period of the visit of the Myers party to B----
+House, Lord Bute received several journal letters from Professor
+Lodge, as well as from Mr. Myers, which, as he has made no request to
+the contrary, might be quoted here _in extenso_, were it not that
+they relate in considerable part to the proceedings of the medium, as
+to which the present editors agree with Mr. Myers, that "they greatly
+doubt if there was anything supernormal."
+
+Professor Lodge was from the first much interested in the B----
+inquiry, and wrote to Lord Bute on April 14th, two days after arrival:
+"I have not found anything here as yet at all suitable for physical
+experiments. I have heard a noise or two, and intelligent raps.
+Nothing whatever can be normally seen so far."
+
+And on April 17th: "The noises and disturbances have been much quieter
+of late, in fact have almost ceased _pro tem_.... We have not heard
+the loud bang as yet. Knocks on the wall, a sawing noise, and a
+droning and a wailing are all we have heard. The droning and the
+wailing, some whistling, and apparent attempts at a whisper, all up in
+the attic, may have been due either to the wind or birds. They were
+not distinct enough to be evidential, though they were just audible to
+all of us. The sawing noise was more distinct. I think I will go to
+the attic about 3 A.M. to-night to see if anything more can be heard.
+Most of the noises occur then, or else at 6 A.M. Mr. Campbell has
+heard a dragging along the floor in his bedroom, No. 3. I have heard,
+like many others, the knocking on the wall, but for the last two
+nights things have been quiet.
+
+"_April 20th._--There has been nothing here for me to do as a
+physicist, and I return home tomorrow, but nevertheless the phenomena,
+taken as a whole, have been most interesting.... I know that you are
+hearing from Mr. Myers the details of our sittings.... There is
+certainly an interregnum of noises, the last three nights having been
+undisturbed. [After describing recent seances with Miss 'K----.'] I
+write just as if what we have been told were true.[F] The cessation of
+the noises may of course be merely a temporary lull as before, and
+they may break out again...."
+
+On April 22nd, he wrote to Miss Freer "The sounds are not very strong,
+and latterly there has been one of your interregna in the noises, but
+still we heard some of them; only knocks, however, except once a low
+droning, a sawing noise, and a whistling whisper. Some of the raps
+seemed intelligent, but there was nothing to investigate on the
+physical side...."
+
+And in another note, undated:--
+
+"There has been nothing capable of being photographed. The sounds are
+objective though not impressive.... I have seen nothing to suggest
+electricity or magnetism, or any of the ordinary physical agents in
+connection with the disturbances; but the noises are so momentary and
+infrequent, that they give no real scope for continued examination."
+
+Professor Lodge left on April 21st, and Mr. Myers on April 22nd; but
+Miss "K----," with Mr. Campbell, remained alone till the morning of
+Monday 26th, and on the afternoon of the same day Lord and Lady Bute
+arrived, and stayed till Wednesday 28th. Mr. MacP----, who came with
+them, was obliged by previous engagements to leave next morning.
+
+They slept in the wing, and nothing occurred during their visit so far
+as they were concerned.
+
+Lord Bute records, however, that he twice read aloud the whole of the
+Office for the dead in its five sections (vespers, nocturns, and
+lauds) in different places, but neither he nor any one with him saw or
+heard anything, unless it were a sound of women talking and laughing
+while he was reading the Office about 10.30 P.M. in No. 8, and this he
+supposed was simply the maids going to bed, though in fact the room
+overhead was unoccupied. He had, however, a most disagreeable
+impression, not in the places where he expected it, which were the
+glen, No. 3, and No. 8, but in No. 1. The sensation was that of
+persons being present, and on the second occasion that of violent
+hatred and hostility. He recorded "Went to No. 1 a third time, and
+again experienced the sensation of persons being present, but on this
+last occasion as though they were only morosely unfriendly."
+
+It is remarkable that this sensation of unseen presences is one which
+many other persons experienced in this room, and in this room only;
+but it is also remarkable that this was the first indication of the
+hostile or irreligious tone which was thenceforth apparent. Until the
+sojourn of the party of members of the S.P.R. the tone had been
+plaintive and religious.
+
+Mr. MacP----, who is a Presbyterian, made a remark which struck Lord
+Bute as interesting, to the effect that the whole of the Office for
+the dead, with the frequent occurrence of the words _Requiam eternam_,
+&c., might be as irritating to Intelligences which desired to
+communicate, as would be the effect of saying merely "keep still," or
+"be quiet," to persons who wished to set forth their wrongs. But this
+curious hypothesis would be insufficient to account for a sensation of
+absolute enmity.
+
+A private letter, written by Lord Bute on April 29th to a
+distinguished ecclesiastic, repeats these statements, and adds one or
+two additional touches which it is desirable to quote:--
+
+"We returned yesterday after spending forty-eight hours at B----,
+where we heard and saw nothing, but as my proceedings were mainly
+ecclesiastical, your Grace may like to know what happened.
+
+"On the way I was shown the inclosure in the churchyard wherein lie,
+in unmarked graves, the late Major S----, his 'housekeeper,' and his
+old Indian servant. I would have gone and prayed there, but the place
+seemed to me too public.... B---- is a remarkably beautiful place, and
+the day was splendid; were it not for the grandeur of the scenery, I
+should have called the landscape laughing, or at least smiling. The
+house is remarkably bright and cheerful, and indeed luxurious. There
+is a really nice set of family pictures from about the time of Charles
+II.... The place is a perfect aviary, and the sight of the innumerable
+birds, evidently encouraged by long kindness, building their nests was
+very pleasant, and has some psychological interest, since animals
+sometimes see these things when we do not, and there was evidently
+nothing to scare the birds, rabbits, or squirrels.... As her ladyship
+and I did not wish to be troubled at night, we took rooms in the wing,
+which the late Mr. S---- is said to have built in order to save his
+children from the haunting, and which has been but little troubled;
+and we slept there quite comfortably. Soon after 6 P.M. I went to the
+place near the burn where apparitions have so often appeared, and
+which was, I think, first indicated by Ouija. I read aloud the vespers
+for the dead, but no phenomenon appeared, nor had I any sensation.
+About 7.30 I went to a room which I will call A [No. 1] ... and read
+aloud the first Nocturn of the dirge; there was nothing to be seen or
+heard, but I felt some physical inconvenience in beginning, like an
+impediment in speech, and I had a very strong sensation that there
+were persons listening....[G] Soon after 10 P.M. I went and read aloud
+the two next Nocturns in room B [8]. As I finished the second, Mr.
+MacP---- and I heard two women speaking merrily outside the door, and
+I doubt not they were the maids going to bed. During the night,
+although we slept well, my servant [who slept in No. 4, next to Mr.
+MacP---- in No. 5], like other people in haunted rooms, could not
+sleep after five, and he tells me one of the maids saw the bust of a
+woman with short hair, as though sitting at the foot of her bed.
+
+"In the morning I said Lauds in room C [Library]. No phenomena or
+sensation. Soon after 5 P.M. said _Placebo_ again in room B [8].
+Nothing. Then visited the haunted burn again for some time. Nothing.
+About 7.30 read the first two Nocturns again in room D [No. 3].
+Nothing. Soon after ten read the third Nocturn in A [1]. Made slips of
+pronunciation, and felt the presence of others very strongly, and that
+it was hostile or evil, as though they were kept at arm's-length; a
+disagreeable sensation continued until I threw some holy water on my
+bed before getting into it, when it suddenly disappeared. Next morning
+I said Lauds in A [1]. I had no difficulty in utterance; the sense of
+other presences was not strong, and I had no feeling of hostility [on
+their part], but rather of their having to put up with a slight
+nuisance which would soon be over. These subjective feelings are in no
+way evidential, nor would I mention them were they not confined to one
+place out of five, and occurred whenever I went there, at three most
+varying hours.... My servant, the second night, could not sleep
+between 4.30 and 6."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Freer returned alone to B---- on April 28th. The Journal is now
+resumed.
+
+   _April 28th._--I returned to B----, arriving at 7 P.M. Slept in
+   No. 8. Quiet night.
+
+   This morning I inquired of the servants as to what occurred in
+   my absence. They have very definite views as to the nature and
+   causes of the phenomena during the visit of Mr. Myers's party
+   ... including much table-tilting at meals, and so on. When
+   questioned as to any experiences of their own, all answered to
+   the same effect, that they shouldn't have taken notice of
+   anything that happened at that time, but that something had
+   occurred after the last two members of the party had left on the
+   day of his Lordship's arrival, "and that," said the cook, "was
+   quite another matter."
+
+   The experience was Carter's, the upper housemaid, and she told
+   it in a manner that it would be difficult to distrust. She was
+   not anxious to talk about it, and seemed annoyed that it had
+   been mentioned at all. I wrote down her story verbatim.
+
+   "It was about four o'clock, or may be a little later, but it was
+   just getting light; there is no blind to the skylight in my
+   room, and I woke up suddenly and I thought some one had come
+   into the room, and I called out, 'Is that you, Mrs. Robinson?'
+   and when she didn't answer I called out 'Hannah,' but no one
+   spoke, and then I looked up, and at the foot of my bed there was
+   a woman. She was rather old, and dressed in something dark, and
+   she had a little shawl on, and her hair short. It was hanging,
+   but it didn't reach nearly to her shoulders. I was awful
+   frightened, and put my head down again. I couldn't look any
+   more."
+
+   I asked about the height of the woman, wondering if it were like
+   the figure seen in the drawing-room, and Carter said, "I didn't
+   notice, only the top part of her." I said, "Do you mean she had
+   no legs?" and she said, "I didn't take notice of any." She was
+   genuinely concerned and alarmed.
+
+This is probably the incident thus described by _The Times_
+correspondent. "One of the maidservants described a sort of dull
+knocking which, according to her, goes on between two and six in the
+morning, in the lath and plaster partition by the side of her bed,
+which shuts off the angular space just inside the eaves of the house.
+She likened it to the noise of gardeners nailing up ivy outside. She
+seemed honest, but as she had seen the ghost of half a woman sitting
+on her fellow-servant's bed, one takes her evidence with a grain or
+two of salt. Any noises she has really heard may be due to the cooling
+of the hot-water pipes which pass along behind the partition just
+mentioned to the cistern." The hot-water pipe theory has been already
+discussed.
+
+Before proceeding, it had better be again mentioned that, owing to the
+fact that several of the persons interested in B---- were Roman
+Catholics, and the Rev. P---- H---- having been one of the principal
+witnesses, as well as having himself appeared phantasmally in the
+house, it was considered desirable to obtain the assistance of some
+clergy of that communion. Miss Freer accordingly secured the services
+of three members of a famous society; one of those was the Rev. P----
+H---- himself, one a well-known Oxford man who takes much interest in
+such questions, and the third a man of great experience at a place
+where miracles are said to be frequent. However, their Superior
+refused to allow them to come, and she then applied to a well-known
+monastery, but was again refused help. Lastly, she turned to the
+secular clergy, and obtained the assistance of two priests and a
+bishop. The priests are here designated MacD---- and MacL----. All
+three were previously well known to her, and she had especial reason
+to consider them not only worthy of her esteem and confidence, but,
+moreover, as taking an instructed and intelligent interest in the
+subject.
+
+   _April 29th, Friday._--Rooms for to-night:--
+
+    No. 3. Rev. A. MacD----.
+    "   4. Rev. A. MacL----.
+    "   8. Myself.
+
+   The priests arrived late in the evening. I put them in No. 3 and
+   4, though I like to give No. 1 to new-comers. However, I had
+   promised that to Madame Boisseaux, whom we are expecting from
+   Paris, with the dressing-room for her maid.
+
+   _April 30th._--The priests both look very weary. They were not
+   frightened, but the sounds have kept them awake all night.
+
+   Young S---- called to-day; he is going to help me to get up a
+   dance for the servants. His mother is away at S----.
+
+   _May 1st._--I shall have to move the priests. They persist that
+   they are not frightened, but they are both looking shockingly
+   ill and worn, and the Rev. MacD---- is not in a state of health
+   to take liberties with. The Rev. MacL---- seems in the same
+   mental state as was Mr. P----. He sees nothing, but is
+   supernormally sensitive, and without any hint from me, declared
+   that he felt the drawing-room, wing, and No. 7 to be "innocent."
+
+   Poor little "Spooks" is the chief sufferer. She sleeps on my bed
+   now, but even so, wakes in the night growling and shivering, and
+   she refuses her food, and is in a dreadfully nervous state.
+   Perhaps I ought not to keep her in No. 8, where we have so often
+   heard the patterings of dogs' feet, and where Miss Moore was
+   once pushed as by a dog, in broad daylight.
+
+   _May 2nd._--Nothing occurred. We perhaps all slept the sounder
+   last night, having been kept up till two o'clock waiting for
+   Madame Boisseaux, who never turned up. She and the M----s and
+   Mrs. "F." arrived to-day.
+
+    Madame Boisseaux arrived, and was put into No. 1.
+    Her maid                           "       "   2.
+    Father MacD----                    "       "   3.
+    Father MacL----                    "       "   4.
+    Mrs. "F."                          "       "   5.
+    Mr. and Mrs. M----                 "       "   6 and 7.
+    Myself                             "       "   8.
+
+   _May 3rd._--The general tone of things is disquieting, and new
+   in our experience. Hitherto, in our first occupation, the
+   phenomena affected one as melancholy, depressing, and
+   perplexing, but now all, quite independently, say the same
+   thing, that the influence is evil and horrible--even poor little
+   Spooks, who was never terrified before, as she has been since
+   our return here. The worn faces at breakfast were really a
+   dismal sight.
+
+   In spite of her long journey, Madame Boisseaux could not sleep.
+   She was so tired, she dropped to sleep at once on going to bed,
+   but was awoke by the sound of a droning voice as if from No. 3,
+   and, at intervals, more distant voices in high argument. She
+   said she dared not go to sleep; she felt as if some
+   evil-disposed persons were in the room, and it would not be safe
+   to lose consciousness. But she saw nothing. She looks so ill
+   that her maid, a very faithful old servant, has been to beg me,
+   "_pour l'amour de Dieu_," to give Madame another room. So
+   to-night I will put her in No. 5.
+
+   Mrs. "F." who was in No. 5, was disturbed by knocks at her door
+   (_cf._ Mrs. W----'s experience in the same room), and to-night
+   is to sleep in my room, No. 8, which last night was also
+   somewhat noisy, but she will not be alone. The Rev. MacD----
+   looks so ill from two nights' sleeplessness that the priests are
+   to go into the wing to-night. They were unwilling to move, and
+   made no complaints, and now do not say they have seen anything,
+   merely that the evil influence about them was painful and
+   disturbing.
+
+   Mrs. M----, who, it will be remembered, was much disturbed
+   during her last visit, begged that she might be quiet, and we
+   gave her No. 7. She is the only person who has had a really good
+   night, except Mr. M----, who had a fancy to sleep in the
+   smoking-room, in the hope of a visit from the Major, but nothing
+   happened. As he had been mountaineering all day, he probably
+   would have slept well under any conditions.
+
+   _May 4th._--I am thankful to say the priests slept well in the
+   wing. Madame Boisseaux, in No. 5, was disturbed by knocks at her
+   door, but as she wisely remarked, they had the advantage of
+   being outside. Mr. M---- had moved into No. 1, and slept fairly
+   well, but said he felt as before, "not alone," but as he _had_
+   felt that before, expectation may count for something.
+
+   Mrs. "F" slept with me; I was awoke early by my dog crying, and
+   I saw two black paws resting on the table beside the bed. It
+   gave me a sickening sensation, and I longed to wake Mrs. "F" to
+   see if she would see them, but I remembered her bad night of
+   yesterday, and left her in peace.
+
+   The priests spend much time in devotions, and are very decided
+   in their views as to the malignity of the influence. The bishop
+   comes to-day, and we hope he will have Mass said in the house.
+   We shall then have ten Roman Catholics in the household--two
+   visitors, three clergy, two visitors' maids, and three of our
+   own servants. That should have an effect upon the Major! Miss
+   Moore and Scamp arrived.
+
+   _May 5th._--The bishop is in No. 1. He arrived to lunch to-day.
+   Last night all was quiet after bedtime, but sitting in the
+   drawing-room about five o'clock, having just come in from a
+   drive, five of us heard the detonating noise, as it were in the
+   empty room overhead. Madame B----, Mrs. "F," Mrs. M----, the
+   Rev. MacL----, and myself. Mrs. "F" left this morning.
+
+   The priests went with me to the copse. They saw nothing, but
+   were in too anxious a state to be receptive. I saw Ishbel for
+   one moment. She looked _agonised_, as never before.
+
+   Mr. B. S---- dined with us, and the servants, indoor and out,
+   danced in the hall in the evening. We had pipers, and some
+   supper for them in the billiard-room. The gardener and the
+   butler and cook say there was a great crash in the room just
+   when the parish minister was saying grace, and that many of the
+   people from outside noticed it, and "they just looked at each
+   other." I was myself in the room, but as we had just had a very
+   physical and commonplace disturbance--the arrival of an
+   uninvited and intoxicated guest, of which the other people did
+   not know as I did--I was preoccupied at the moment.
+
+   Mass this morning in the drawing-room.
+
+   _May 6th._--Madame Boisseaux has had to go suddenly; there has
+   been terrible news for her of this Paris fire. She came into my
+   room very early with her telegram (arrived too late for delivery
+   last night). I did not like to worry her with questions,
+   overwhelmed as she was, but she said her room "resounded with
+   knocks."
+
+   There was Mass said in the ground-floor sitting-room this
+   morning, and as I knelt facing the window I saw Ishbel with the
+   grey woman, nearer the house than ever before. She looked
+   pensive, but, as compared with last time, much relieved.
+
+This is the last time the figures were seen. The following details are
+quoted from a letter written by Miss Freer to Lord Bute on this day:
+"Mass was said this morning in the downstairs room, the altar arranged
+in front of the window, so that, as we knelt, we faced the garden.
+Poor Madame Boisseaux was dressed for travelling, and in much
+agitation. As the carriage which was to take her to the station was
+expected at any moment, I suggested that she and I should remain
+upstairs, but she said she should like to be there, if only for a few
+minutes, the more that the 'intention' was to be partly for those who
+had suffered in the fire, and for their sorrowing friends. She and I,
+therefore, knelt close to the door, keeping it slightly ajar, so as to
+be able to obey a summons at any moment.
+
+"Suddenly she touched my arm, and directed my attention to the window.
+There I saw a figure standing outside, which--so slow-sighted am I--I
+took for the moment for Madame's maid, and thought she had come to
+call our attention through the window--a long 'French' one, opening
+out on to the lawn--as less likely to disturb the service. I was
+starting up when I perceived that the figure was 'Ishbel'--the black
+gown, like that worn by the maid, had misled me for the moment.
+'Marget' seemed to hover in the background, but she was much less
+distinct than the other. A minute later we were called away.
+
+"The room had been selected by the priests themselves, but it is the
+one I should myself, for obvious reasons, have chosen for the
+purpose."
+
+   When the bustle of Madame's hasty departure was over, and we had
+   breakfasted, the bishop blessed the house from top to bottom,
+   and especially visited rooms Nos. 1, 3, and 8, and also the
+   library. He sprinkled the rooms with holy water, and especially
+   the doorway leading to the drawing-room, where noises have so
+   often been heard. He and the priests had hardly gone when there
+   was a loud bang upon a little table that stands there. It is an
+   old work-table, a box on tall, slender legs, and the sound could
+   easily be imitated by lifting the lid and letting it fall
+   smartly, but I saw no movement--not that I was watching it at
+   the moment. The bishop and priests returned, and the ceremony
+   was repeated, after which the bang again occurred, but much more
+   faintly.
+
+   The three clergy left this afternoon. Miss Moore and I are now
+   alone.
+
+This bang was the last phenomenon of an abnormal kind during this
+tenancy. Miss Moore and Miss Freer stayed in the house another week
+without anything further occurring either to themselves, their guests,
+or the servants.
+
+During that time, they received six more guests: Miss C----, Miss
+"Etienne," with her brother, a lawyer, and three other visitors, with
+whom Miss Freer had no previous acquaintance, but who received an
+invitation under the following special conditions, not being, as were
+other guests, personal friends, or, in one or two instances,
+accompanying personal friends by whom they were introduced, and at
+whose request they were invited.
+
+Sir William Huggins had some time before written to Lord Bute to beg
+him to obtain admission to the house for Sir James Crichton Browne,
+who is, of course, well known as a physician of great eminence, and in
+especial as an expert in psychology, and whom Sir William stated to be
+deeply interested in phenomena such as those observed at B----.
+
+Lord Bute accordingly wrote to Miss Freer, who wrote to Sir James. He
+did not immediately reply, which surprised her, after so earnest a
+request, and because admission to the house for the purpose of such
+observations was a mark of confidence, which as a hostess she was very
+chary of giving, and which would never have been extended to him,
+notwithstanding his scientific eminence, had it not been for the
+intercession of Sir William Huggins and Lord Bute, through whom he had
+sought it.
+
+He wrote to her after some time, apologising for the delay on the
+score of illness, begging to know if it were still possible for him
+to be admitted, and whether he might bring with him a scientific
+friend. Miss Freer consented, and he then wrote announcing his arrival
+and that of a nephew, a student at Oxford, interested in science. He
+then asked, by telegram, whether a third guest could be admitted, to
+which she also consented, and his two friends, one of whom is believed
+to have been the anonymous _Times_ correspondent, accordingly came,
+four days after the phenomena had, as has been stated, apparently
+ceased. The way in which this hospitality was repaid is a matter of
+common knowledge. Their hostess knew of no intention to make copy of
+their visit, with full names, geographical indications, and repetition
+of private conversations, until the publication of the _Times'_
+article of June 8th. They remained from Saturday evening till Monday
+morning, and, like others, saw and heard nothing; and much time was
+spent in repeating the already often repeated experiments as to
+possible sources of the sights and sounds observed at B----. Their
+observations appeared to be able to penetrate no further than the mark
+of the shoe which Miss Freer pointed out on the door in the wing,
+made subsequently to the flight of the H---- family, a passage under
+the roof, with which the household had long been as familiar as with
+the hall-door, and the suggestion that a certain stream might run
+under the house, the which stream runs nowhere near the house at all,
+as Miss Freer was already well aware, a fact which she demonstrated
+for their benefit on a map of the estate.
+
+This is perhaps a suitable point at which to add a letter from the
+head-gardener who has been referred to more than once, more especially
+as an important witness to the phenomena of the H----s' tenancy.
+
+He writes to Miss Freer in reference to a statement by _The Times_
+correspondent:--
+
+"_July 8th, '97._-- ... I might also mention to you, while writing,
+that 'the intelligent gardener' that was made mention of in _The
+Times_ was a journeyman, and not myself, as many have supposed. I
+thought it proper to tell you, madam, because I told you and several
+others that I was in the house and had heard something."
+
+_The Times_ correspondent's statement is as follows:--
+
+"An intelligent gardener whom I questioned told me that he had kept
+watch in the house on two separate occasions, abstaining from sleep
+until daylight appeared at seven o'clock, but without hearing a
+sound."
+
+The under gardener's experience of two nights is as exhaustive of the
+subject as that of _The Times_ correspondent and his friends, who also
+remained two nights, but do not allege that they "abstained from
+sleep."
+
+Mr. "Etienne" was the last guest at B----, and arrived the evening
+before the house was vacated. He afterwards told Lord Bute that he had
+brought, without the knowledge of any one in the house, two seismic
+instruments, but that they recorded nothing, and that during the night
+he heard a sound as of a gun being fired outside the house. This he
+attributed to some poacher unknown, an explanation which seems hardly
+probable, as at this time of year there is nothing to shoot except
+rabbits. One never hears of a poacher shooting rabbits, and in any
+case, he would hardly do so in the immediate neighbourhood of an
+inhabited house, and discharging his gun once only.
+
+Mr. "Etienne's" experiments are the more interesting because that
+among many suggestions made by Sir J. Crichton Browne, the only one
+which had not been already considered, was the use of seismic
+instruments. This--the house being within the seismic area--seemed so
+reasonable, that Miss Freer at once entered into correspondence with
+the well-known Professor Milne, with a view to experiment in this
+direction. The following is from his reply:--
+
+"_May 15th, 1897._--I was much interested in your note of the 13th,
+and fancy that the sounds with which you have to deal may be of
+seismic origin. Such sounds I have often heard, and the air waves, if
+not the earth waves, can be mechanically recorded. What you require to
+make the records is a seismograph with large but exceeding light
+indices, or a Perry tromometer.... The reason I think that the sounds
+are seismic is, first, on account of their character, and secondly,
+because you are in one of the most unstable parts of Great Britain,
+where between 1852 and 1890, 465 shocks (many with sounds) were
+recorded. Lady Moncrieff, when living at Comrie House in 1844, often
+heard rumblings and moanings, and such sounds, possibly akin to the
+'barisal guns'[H] of Eastern England, often occur without a shake. The
+mechanism of this production may be due to slight movements on a fault
+face, and they may be heard, especially in rocky districts, in very
+many countries...."
+
+Miss Freer's reply was an urgent request that machinery and an
+operator might be at once sent up to B----. Professor Milne replied
+that delicate instruments, such as he himself employed, could only be
+used by one other person, but suggested that she should hire from a
+well-known London firm what are known as "Ewing's-type" seismometers,
+adding, "I doubt whether these will record anything but movements to
+which you are sensible."
+
+Miss Freer's designs, however, were frustrated, for on applying for an
+extension of tenancy for this purpose, Captain S----, the proprietor,
+peremptorily forbade the continuance of scientific observation--a
+remarkable parallel to his father's refusal to permit the use of the
+phonograph when suggested by Sir William Huggins.
+
+In relation to his experiments at B---- Mr. "Etienne" writes:--
+
+"Lord Bute has asked me to describe a seismographic instrument which I
+used during my short visit to B----. The instrument consisted of a
+light wooden frame or platform which rested on three billiard-balls.
+The balls in their turn rested on a horizontal plate of plate-glass.
+Through two wire rings in the centre of the platform already mentioned
+a needle stood perpendicularly, resting on its point on the plate of
+glass. The centre of the plate of glass (and the area round it and
+within in the triangle describable with the balls at its angles) was
+smoked. You will see that the parts of such an instrument are held
+together by gravitation, and a very little friction, and that a tremor
+communicated to the plate will not simultaneously affect the platform.
+The needle-point describes on the smoked surface which it moves across
+the converse of any movement of the plate which is not simultaneously
+a movement of the platform, and the error between this and the
+description of the tremor drawn by an absolutely fixed point--say the
+earth itself--has been calculated on a replica of this instrument as
+equal to the error of a pendulum thirty feet long."
+
+It will be noticed that the phenomena began, so far as Miss Freer was
+concerned, upon the night of her arrival in the house, February 3rd,
+and ceased (if we except the sound heard by Mr. Etienne), after the
+service performed by the Bishop on the morning of May 6th. This period
+comprises ninety-two days, but from these must be subtracted the
+seventeen days between Miss Freer's leaving B---- on the morning of
+April 9th, and that of the departure of Mr. Myers's medium, Miss "K.,"
+on the morning of April 26th.
+
+Of the remaining seventy-five days, Miss Freer was absent from the
+house for four days, from March 16th to March 20th, and for two nights
+after Miss "K.'s" leaving; during this latter interval, however, Lord
+Bute was himself on the spot. On the other hand, she remained in the
+house for eight days after the service performed by the Bishop, during
+which time no phenomena occurred.
+
+Of the sixty-nine days of which a record is kept in the journal, viz.,
+from February 3rd to May 14th, exclusive of twenty-three days for the
+reasons already indicated, daytime phenomena occurred upon eighteen
+days, and night phenomena upon thirty-five nights.
+
+To these must be added the night of April 27th, the occasion of the
+vision seen by Carter the housemaid during Lord Bute's visit.
+Thirty-four nights, or almost exactly half the period, were entirely
+without record of any phenomena whatever. This is without counting the
+seven nights of the last week, during which there were observers for
+longer or shorter periods in the house, none of whom recorded any
+sight or sound of a supernormal kind, unless it were the percussive or
+detonating noise heard by Mr. "Etienne."
+
+The term "night" is here understood to cover the period between the
+hour of going to rest at night, to that of leaving one's room next
+morning, even if the phenomena occurred in the daylight hours of the
+early morning. The term "day" is used to cover the hours of active,
+waking life, from breakfast to bedtime.
+
+To sum up the character of the phenomena, it may be well to begin with
+those that are _visual_.
+
+1. The phantasm of the Rev. P. H----. This was seen once only, and by
+Miss Langton, on the night of February 17th. Of the identity no doubt
+can be felt, since Miss Moore and Miss Freer afterwards recognised the
+accuracy of the description on meeting the Rev. P. H---- for the first
+time, in a crowded railway station on May 25th. This is the only one
+of the apparitions which is undoubtedly that of a living person, and
+like many such apparitions, it occurred at an hour when it is probable
+that he was asleep. B---- is a place to which Father H----'s thoughts
+were naturally and disagreeably drawn, and to which his attention had
+been called anew. On awaking, he would probably have no recollection
+of the circumstances, or at the utmost would have an impression of
+having dreamt that he was there.
+
+2. The woman once seen by Miss Freer in the drawing-room. She was
+older than Sarah N----, who died at the age of twenty-seven, but of
+whose haunting of B---- there is some tradition, but assisted by the
+parish register of marriages and births it is not difficult to form a
+guess at the identity of the phantasm. As there is some uncertainty as
+to whether the person in question is still living, though it is
+probable that she is dead, the vision is mentioned here before those
+as to which there is no reason to doubt that they represent the dead.
+There is reason to believe that the same apparition has been seen by
+former occupants of the house, and it is alleged to be that of a
+member of the S---- family.
+
+3. The phantasm seen by Carter the housemaid, on the night of April
+27th, who was described as "rather old," may possibly have been
+identical with the above.
+
+4. The nun to whom was given the name of "Ishbel." This subject has
+been already discussed, and the suggestion thrown out that the
+phantasm was an erroneous mental picture of the late Rev. Mother
+Frances Helen, evolved from the imagination of a half-educated person
+who had never seen the lady in question, and knew little about her.
+This figure was seen many times by Miss Freer and Miss Langton, twice
+by the Rev. Mr. "Q.," and probably by Madame Boisseaux, who unhappily
+died suddenly before the editors had an opportunity of asking her for
+exact information. There were also earlier witnesses. She was never
+seen elsewhere than in the glen, except once by Miss Langton, and on
+the one occasion when a Bishop was saying Mass in the house, and Miss
+Freer saw her outside the window just after the elevation of the
+chalice. It was stated, however, by two separate witnesses, that a
+figure, probably the same, had been seen inside the house on at least
+one occasion, when, some years before Colonel Taylor's tenancy, Mrs.
+S---- was keeping her room, and a maid who was bringing up a tray met
+the figure on the stairs, and experienced such a start that she
+dropped the tray.
+
+5. The lay-woman dressed in grey to whom was given the name of
+"Marget," and who was sometimes seen in the company of "Ishbel,"
+usually as though upbraiding or reproving her. She was seen by Miss
+Freer and Miss Langton, and her voice in conversation with "Ishbel"
+was heard not only by them, but by Mr. C---- and Miss Moore, Mr. "Q."
+and Miss "Duff" (_cf._ Mrs. G.'s evidence, p. 68).
+
+6. The appearance of the wooden crucifix seen in No. 3. It was about
+eighteen inches long, and the figure was of the same wood as the
+cross. Its earliest appearance is to the Rev. P. H----. It afterwards
+appeared to the Rev. Mr. "Q.," and lastly to Miss Freer, none of the
+witnesses knowing anything in detail of the experience of the others.
+It was also seen in the crystal by Miss Langton--possibly by thought
+transference from others.
+
+When the Rev. P. H---- saw it he was always drowsy, but when it
+appeared to Mr. "Q." its appearance was immediately preceded by a
+sensation of acute chill on his part, and its appearance to Miss Freer
+by a similar sensation on the part of "Endell." It is perhaps worth
+while to remark, that we are told that among spiritualists the
+sensation of cold is supposed to be an unfavourable indication as to
+the character of the spirits who are present, and that in the cases of
+both Mr. "Q." and Mr. "Endell" the appearance of the crucifix seemed
+to put an end to the chill.
+
+7. The dogs. These were much more often heard than seen, the sounds
+being those of their pattering footsteps, sometimes as of their
+bounding about in play, and sometimes of their throwing themselves
+against the lower part of doors. It seemed, however, that they were
+visible to Miss Freer's living dog at times when they were not visible
+to her, and indeed the abject terror which the Pomeranian displayed in
+No. 8 was so distressing, that she changed her room from No. 8 to No.
+5 in consequence.
+
+A dog was, moreover, seen by Miss Freer and Miss Langton in the
+smoking-room on April 8th; Miss Freer and Miss Moore have described
+more than one occasion when they felt themselves pushed as by a dog;
+and on the night of May 4th, Miss Freer saw the two forepaws only, of
+another and larger black dog resting on the edge of a table in No. 8.
+
+Other apparitions seen in the house by former occupants were described
+to members of Colonel Taylor's party as well as to earlier tenants,
+but here, as elsewhere, we have refrained from all quotation from the
+relatives of the present proprietor.
+
+It is interesting to remark that one apparition which was constantly
+expected during Colonel Taylor's tenancy was expected in vain. This
+was that of the little old gentleman with stooping form and limping
+gait mentioned by earlier witnesses. His peculiar step was heard very
+frequently, and by a great number and variety of witnesses, alone and
+collectively; and his appearance, naturally enough, was constantly
+looked for, but it never occurred.
+
+In the same way there was one expected sound which never occurred,
+though frequent in the experience of earlier witnesses--that of the
+rustling of a silk dress, suggesting to the mind of the hearer the
+idea of some one who, either in fact or in thought, had worn such a
+garment.
+
+_Tactile._ The most important of these were the experiences of Miss
+"N." on the night of March 3rd, and of Miss "Duff" on the night of
+March 22nd, both in No. 3; and of a maid, Lizzie, on the night of
+March 23rd, in the room above No. 3, on the attic storey, who all
+testified to the sensation of the moving of the bed, or the handling
+of the bed-clothes. These were the only occasions during Colonel
+Taylor's tenancy, but the phenomenon is one often testified to by
+earlier witnesses, both during the H----s' tenancy and that of the
+family of the late Mr. S----.
+
+It presents a peculiar difficulty in the way of the theory that all
+the phenomena at B---- were subjective hallucinations, and this is
+especially the case with regard to the evidence of a witness who has
+not been brought forward in the preceding pages, but whose account of
+a similar experience is reported by two first-hand witnesses. On one
+occasion he had the whole of the upper bed-clothes lifted from off him
+and thrown upon the floor, while a pile of wearing apparel, which was
+laid on a chair beside the bed, was thrown in his face.
+
+It is of course conceivable that the whole of these experiences,
+including the last, were the result of an hallucination; but on the
+other hand, it would be very unwise, in the present state of our
+ignorance on the subject, to dogmatise as to the possible action of
+unseen forces upon what is commonly called matter. It is interesting
+to note that this senseless and childish trick coincides with what was
+said by Miss A---- as to the presence of mischievous elementals, and
+also what she says as to _apports_.[I]
+
+1. The sensation of the movement of the bed itself, whether as being
+rocked, as in the experience of Miss "Duff" on March 22nd, and of Miss
+Langton on several occasions, and by guests of the H---- family, or of
+being lifted up, as in that of the maid Lizzie, is a phenomenon by no
+means uncommon, and if objective is of the nature of levitation; but
+we have unfortunately no evidence from a second person observing the
+phenomenon from outside. Whether it were actually moved it is
+impossible to say, but the sensation seems to have been more than
+subjective.
+
+2. The sensation of struggling with something unseen, described by
+Miss "Duff," March 22nd, and of the sensation of an incumbent weight,
+as described by Miss "Duff" (same date) and Miss "N." on March 2nd.
+This coincides with the arrest of his hand experienced by Harold
+Sanders. These phenomena adapt themselves to the theory of
+subjectivity more easily than the foregoing, because they more closely
+resemble those of nightmare (familiar to most persons), although they
+occurred while the witnesses were awake.
+
+3. The sensation of being pushed by a dog was experienced in two
+different rooms by Miss Freer and Miss Moore respectively. If Mr.
+"Endell" were touched by Ishbel on the evening of March 1st, as
+appeared to Miss Freer to be the case, he had no independent
+consciousness of the fact that might not have been referred to
+expectation, so that this cannot be regarded as evidential.
+
+For lack of other classification, we mention under this heading of
+"tactile" the sensation of chill experienced by Mr. "Endell" and Mr.
+Q---- in No. 3, and which appears to be the same as that described by
+Harold Sanders as the sensation of "entering an ice-house."
+
+The _audile_ phenomena were so frequent and so various, that a
+conspectus of them is given in an appendix. Some of them appeared to
+be human in origin, such as voices, reading or speaking, footsteps,
+and, according to earlier witnesses, screams and moans. Others might
+have been caused by dogs, such as pattering footsteps, jumping and
+pouncing as in play, the wagging of a dog's tail against the door, and
+the sound as of a dog throwing itself against the lower panels. Other
+sounds have been differentiated, as the _detonating_ or explosive
+noise; the _clang_ sound, as of the striking of metal upon wood; the
+_thud_ or heavy fall without resonance; and the _crash_, which was
+never better described than as if one of the beasts' heads on the
+staircase wall had fallen into the hall below. It very often, or
+almost always, seemed to occur under the glass dome which lighted the
+body of the house, and the falling object seemed to strike others in
+its descent, so that it was not ineffectively imitated by rolling a
+bowl along the stone floor of the hall, and allowing it to strike
+against the doors or pillars, when the peculiar echoing quality was
+fairly reproduced by the hollow domed roof and surrounding galleries.
+
+The editors offer no conclusions. This volume has been put together,
+as the house at B---- was taken, not for the establishment of
+theories, but for the record of facts.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[C] They consisted of a small part of the evidence already quoted.
+
+[D] We have since ascertained by experiment that no sound short of
+beating with a hammer on the wall itself is audible between the two
+rooms; also, that the upsetting of a metal candlestick on the bare
+boards in the nearer servants' room (over No. 1) cannot be heard in
+No. 8.
+
+[E] _Cf._ Mrs. Robinson's account _ante_.
+
+[F] These remarkable disclosures included, among other details, the
+murder of a Roman Catholic family chaplain, at a period when the S----s
+were and had long been Presbyterian, the suicide of one of the
+family who is still living, and the throwing, by persons in mediaeval
+costume, of the corpse of an infant, over a bridge, which is quite
+new, into a stream which until lately ran underground.
+
+Professor Lodge had not had the same opportunity of acquiring a
+critical standpoint as to such statements, as those whose knowledge of
+the place was more intimate.
+
+[G] The words, in uttering which Lord Bute was thus affected, were,
+"Regem cui omnia vivunt venite adoremus," an invitation in which he
+meant to include all intelligent beings.
+
+Miss Freer, Miss Langton, and a third guest, chatting one night about
+10.30 in this room, were startled by one of the familiar crashes
+outside. Miss Freer treated the matter lightly, fearing lest the lady
+in question, by no means a nervous person, however, should be alarmed;
+and receiving no reply turned to look at her, and observed that her
+lower jaw was convulsed, and that she was painfully struggling to
+recover speech.
+
+[H] See Appendix II.
+
+[I] See Appendix I.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I
+
+
+A lady, known to readers of _Proceedings S.P.R._ as Miss A----, who is
+an habitual automatic writer, but whose social position removes her
+from the temptations and tendencies of the ordinary so-called medium,
+was good enough on March 10, 1897, to contribute the following
+automatic script in reply to a request from Lord Bute:--
+
+"I do not much care for the influence of this house; it is most
+decidedly haunted, but not by any particularly good spirits, the
+haunting being carried on by mischievous elementals, and as far as I
+can make out there is some one who lives there through all the
+changes, who supplies a great deal of force, and who is not aware of
+the power. I think that a great deal more is added to what really
+takes place, as the hauntings appear to me to consist of disturbing
+noises, with now and then a case of apport, for the elementary forces
+are not sufficient to produce forms unless a great deal of outside
+force is given.
+
+"The forms that would appear would always be different, as each
+mediumistic person would supply his own surroundings. The only one I
+am not sure about is the shadowy figure of an old man whom I have
+twice seen in rather a dark passage, and from his surrounding light I
+should say he may often be there.
+
+"I think the noises would stop of themselves, at least the more
+disturbing part, if a less attentive attitude were taken towards
+them."
+
+These statements present certain interesting points as coming from one
+who had never seen the house, and knew nothing of its phenomena. "The
+shadowy figure of an old man in a dark passage" seems to point to the
+figure, possibly, of the Major, seen by earlier witnesses in the dark
+lobby--the only dark corner in the house--outside the door of the
+downstairs smoking-room, and whose voice was heard there by Miss
+Freer, Miss Langton, and Mr. T---- during the tenancy of Colonel
+Taylor.
+
+An occasion upon which the phenomena might be described as those of
+"mischievous elementals," and also of _apports_, is referred to in the
+summing up of tactile phenomena, though it did not occur during the
+tenancy of Colonel Taylor.
+
+On the other hand, the phenomena were often more active when least
+looked for, and some of those most expected never occurred. As there
+was not even a servant, nor even a dumb animal, common to the
+occupation of the S---- family and the tenancy of the H----s or
+Colonel Taylor, we are at a loss to know who the person can be who
+lives at B---- through all the changes, and supplies force during the
+past twenty years.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II
+
+BARISAL GUNS. (_See page 221._)
+
+
+Readers not acquainted with this phenomenon may be referred to an
+interesting correspondence in the pages of _Nature_ (Oct. 1895, and
+_Seq._), opened by Professor G.H. Darwin--
+
+"In the delta of the Ganges," he says, "dull sounds, more or less
+resembling distant artillery, are often heard. These are called
+Barisal guns, but I do not know the meaning of the term."
+
+The same sounds have been recorded by M. Rutot of the Geological
+Survey along the Belgian coast, and are alleged to be pretty common in
+the North of France. M. van der Broeck, Conservator of the Museum of
+Natural History of Belgium, says--
+
+"I have constantly noticed these sounds in the plain of Limburg since
+1880;--more than ten of my personal acquaintances have observed the
+fact. The detonations are dull and distant, and are repeated a dozen
+times or more at irregular intervals. They are usually heard in the
+daytime, when the sky is clear, and especially towards evening after a
+very hot day. The noise does not at all resemble artillery, blasting
+in mines, or the growling of distant thunder."
+
+M. van der Broeck elsewhere refers to "similar noises heard on
+Dartmoor, and in some parts of Scotland." Readers of Blackmore's story
+of "Lorna Doone" will remember, among other valuable observations of
+out-door life, his accounts of "the hollow moaning sound" during the
+intense cold of the winter, of which he gives so graphic an account.
+It was "ever present in the air, morning, noon, and night time, and
+especially at night, whether any wind was stirring or whether it were
+a perfect calm" (Chap. xlvi.).
+
+Another correspondent in _Nature_ refers to remarkable noises among
+the hills of Cheshire: "When the wind is easterly, and nearly calm on
+the flats, a hollow moaning sound is heard, popularly termed the
+Soughing of the Wind, which Sir Walter Scott, in his glossary to 'Guy
+Mannering,' interprets as a hollow blast or whisper."
+
+Another writer quotes experiences in East Anglia, tending to show that
+such sounds may be reports arising from the process of "faulting"
+going on, on a small scale, at a great depth, and not of sufficient
+intensity to produce a perceptible vibration at the earth's surface.
+
+It would seem that in districts such as Comrie in Perthshire, East
+Hadden in Connecticut, Pignerol in Piedmont, Meleda in the Adriatic,
+&c., sounds without shocks are common during intervals, which may last
+for several years. Remarkable sounds, not apparently accounted for,
+are reported to proceed from Lough Neagh in Ireland.
+
+See _Nature_, Oct. 1895, and following numbers; articles by M. van der
+Broeck in _Ciel et Terre_ (Belgium), Dec. 1, 1895, and following
+numbers, also _Geol. Mag._, vol. ix. 1892, pp. 208-18.
+
+
+
+
+CONSPECTUS OF AUDILE PHENOMENA AT B---- HOUSE RECORDED IN JOURNAL
+
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+Recorded |Heard in Room.| Witness.        |  Description of Sound.        |
+under    |              |                 |                               |
+Date.    |              |                 |                               |
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+Feb. 4   | No. I.       |{ Miss Freer     |{ Loud clanging sound, as of   |
+         |              |{ Miss Moore     |{  metal struck with wood      |
+         |              |                 |{ Voices in conversation       |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. III.     | "Mac," the maid |{ Voices, footsteps, things    |
+         |              |                 |{  dragged about               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "   5   | Attics       | Two housemaids  | Continuous reading            |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "   7   | No. VII.     | Miss Moore      |{ Reverberating bang close to  |
+         |              |                 |{     bed                      |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |Drawing-room  | Mac             | Noises and footsteps          |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |   Hall       | Miss Moore      | Clanging sound upstairs       |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "   8   | "Butler's    |                 |                               |
+         |  room"       | Mac             | Footsteps and sounds on door  |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. VII.     | Miss Moore      | Reverberating bang            |
+         |              | Miss Moore     }| Noises percussive             |
+         |              | Miss Freer     }|  or explosive                 |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | The Glen     |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |
+         |              |{ Mr. C----     }| Voices in conversation        |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "   9   | No. VII.     |{ Miss Moore    }| Noises percussive             |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|  or explosive                 |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "  10   | No. I.       | Miss Moore      |{ Clangs. Voices in            |
+         |              |                 |{  conversation                |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. V.       | Mr. W----       | Knockings.                    |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. VIII.    | Colonel Taylor  | Footsteps overhead            |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "  13   | No. I.       | Miss Moore      | Clanging noise                |
+         |              | Miss Moore     }|                               |
+         |              | Miss Freer     }| Crash                         |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. V.       | Mrs. W----      | Knockings                     |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "  15   | No. IV.      | Miss Langton    | A loud crash                  |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |
+ "  16   | The Glen     |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |
+         |              |{ Miss Moore    }| Voices in conversation        |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Mrs. W----    }|                               |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |
+ "  17   | Drawing-room |{ Miss Moore    }| Footsteps overhead in disused |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|  room                         |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Col. Taylor   }|                               |
+         | Drawing-room |{ Mrs. W----    }| Clanging noise, four times    |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|  repeated                     |
+         |              |{ Miss Moore    }|                               |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "  18   | No. VIII.    | Miss Freer      | Banging sounds                |
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+Recorded |Heard in Room.| Witness.        | Description of Sound.         |
+under    |              |                 |                               |
+Date.    |              |                 |                               |
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+         |              |                 |{ Sounds as of an animal's     |
+Feb. 18  | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Moore     |{  movements in the room in    |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer     |{  daylight                    |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | The Glen     |{ Miss Langton  }| Voices in conversation        |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | The Glen     |{ Miss Langton  }| Voices in conversation        |
+         |              |{  (later)      }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "   19  | The Glen     | Miss Langton    |{ Voices in conversation and   |
+         |              |                 |{  footsteps                   |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "   20  | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Moore    }| Sounds of active movement of  |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|  an animal in the room        |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "   21  | No. VIII.    | Miss Moore      |{ Footsteps of an old man      |
+         |              |                 |   shuffling in slippers       |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              | Miss Moore     }|                               |
+         |              | Miss Freer     }| Movements of animal           |
+         |              | Dog            }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              | Miss Moore     }|                               |
+         |              | Miss Freer     }| Bang on wall near No VII.     |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "   25  | Wing         | Mr. "Endell"    |{ Clang noise "like a pavior's |
+         |              |                 |{  hammer dropped"             |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. I.       | Mr. Garford     |{ Violent banging on door of   |
+         |              |                 |   Nos. I. and II.             |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |                 |{ Groans; "a greatly magnified |
+         | No. III.     | Mr. "Q."        |{  edition of sounds I have    |
+         |              |                 |{  several times heard in the  |
+         |              |                 |{  drawing-room"               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |                 |{ Detonating or percussive     |
+ "   26  | No. I.       | Mr. Garford     |{  noise like "a wheel-barrow  |
+         |              |                 |{  on a hard road"             |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ March 1 | No. IV.      | Mr. MacP----    |{ Loud clanging sound in the   |
+         |              |                 |   room                        |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "     2 | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Freer    }|{ Movements of animal in the   |
+         |              |{ Miss Moore    }|{  room                        |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              | Miss Freer     }| Heavy fall                    |
+         |              | Miss Moore     }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. III.     | Miss "N."       | Thud, sounding from below     |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "     5 | No. VIII.    | Miss Moore      |{ Movements of animal in the   |
+         |              |                 |{  room                        |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | Attics       | Two maids       | Monotonous reading            |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |                 |{ Monotonous reading (also     |
+         | No. I.       | Mrs. B.C.       |{  mentioned by Mr. Garford as |
+         |              |                 |{  occurring in No. I.)        |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              | Mrs. B.C.       | Bang on door of room          |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | Attics       |{ Mrs. Robinson  |{ Voices in conversation       |
+         |              |{ (cook)         |{ Bangs on the wall of room    |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "     7 | Attics       | Robinson        |{ Heavy body falling in the    |
+         |              |  (butler)       |   room                        |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |                 |{ Movements of heavy body in   |
+         |              |                 |{  the room                    |
+         | No. II.      | Mr. C----       |{ Footsteps as if descending   |
+         |              |                 |{  stairs                      |
+         |              |                 |{ Loud rapping on doors of     |
+         |              |                 |{  Nos. I. and II.             |
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+Recorded |Heard in Room.| Witness.        | Description of Sound.         |
+under    |              |                 |                               |
+Date.    |              |                 |                               |
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+March  8 | No. II.      | Mr. C----       | Noises in No. I. (empty room) |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "   10 | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Moore     | Animal moving in the room     |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer     | Heavy fall                    |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "   13 | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Moore    }| Loud bangs                    |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Robinson,     }|                               |
+         | Attics       |{ and Mrs.      }| Loud bangs                    |
+         |              |{ Robinson      }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. IV.      | Miss Langton    | Loud bangs                    |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "   15 | No. VIII.    |{ Miss Moore    }| Vibrating bang                |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. IV.      | Miss Langton    | Vibrating bang                |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | Wing         | Colonel Taylor  | Vibrating bang                |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ [Miss Freer was absent for four nights, and no Journal was kept.]        |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Miss Moore     |{ Metallic sound in room "like |
+  "   20 | No. I.       |{ Miss Freer     |   the 'giving' of a large     |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton   |   tin box"                    |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "   22 | No. IV.      | Mr. MacP----    | Heavy footsteps overhead      |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. III.     | Miss "Duff"     |{ Resounding crash at door     |
+         |              |                 |{ Resounding crash in room     |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |                 |{ Monotonous reading (also     |
+  "   23 | Drawing-room | Miss "Duff"     |{  mentioned as occurring in   |
+         |              |                 |{  No. III.)                   |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "   24 | No. V.       | Miss Freer      |{ Crash of something falling   |
+         |              |                 |{  under dome                  |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. VIII.    | Colonel C----   | Loud thump on door of room    |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |                 |{ Explosive noises             |
+         | No. I.       | Mr. W----       |{ Crash of something falling   |
+         |              |                 |{  under dome                  |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Two housemaids}|                               |
+         | Attics       |{  and          }| Loud knockings                |
+         |              |{  kitchen-maid }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | Butler's room|} Mrs. Robinson  |{ Footsteps and knocking on    |
+         |  on ground   |}                |{  door of No. III.            |
+         |  floor       |}                |                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. III.     | Miss "Duff"     |{ Shuffling foot steps         |
+         |              |                 |{  outside room                |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. II.      |{ Miss "Duff"   }| Fall against door of No. I.   |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "   25 | No. II.      | Miss Langton    |{ Loud thump on door between   |
+         |              |                 |{  I. and II.                  |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Carter        }|                               |
+         |              |{ (housemaid)   }|                               |
+  "   27 | Attics       |{ Under-        }| Monotonous reading            |
+         |              |{  housemaid    }|                               |
+         |              |{ Kitchen-maid  }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "   29 | Library      |{ Miss Freer    }|{ Footsteps in locked-up       |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|{  room overhead               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "   30 | Library      |{ Miss Freer    }|{ Footsteps in locked-up       |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|{  room overhead               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Mr. and Mrs.  }|                               |
+         | Corridor     |{  M----        }| Rappings in No. II. (empty).  |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|  (See Mr. M----'s account)    |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|                               |
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+Recorded |Heard in Room.| Witness.        | Description of Sound.         |
+under    |              |                 |                               |
+Date.    |              |                 |                               |
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+March 31 | No. VIII.    | Miss Langton    |{ Shuffling footsteps in the   |
+         |              |                 |{  room                        |
+         |              |                 |{ Knock near the wardrobe      |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |                 |{ Metallic clangs in the room  |
+         |              |                 |{  like "tuning a kettle-drum";|
+         |              |{ Mrs. M----     |{  later, "terrific noise,"    |
+         | No. I.       |{ Mr. M----      |{  "like treble rap on a       |
+         |              |                 |{  hollow panel,"--like "the   |
+         |              |                 |{  lid of a heavy coal-scuttle |
+         |              |                 |{  let fall"                   |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |                 |{ Voices in library            |
+         | Drawing-room | Mrs. M----      |{ Detonating noise (like a     |
+         |              |                 |{  distant cannon)             |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ April 1 | No. VIII.    |{ Mr. M----     }| Voices and footsteps in       |
+         |              |{ Mrs. M----    }|  room overhead (empty)        |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | Drawing-room | Mrs. M----      | Voices and footsteps          |
+         |              |                 |  overhead                     |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Mrs. M----    }|                               |
+         | In the garden|{ Miss Freer    }| Detonating noise              |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Mrs. M----    }| Limping footsteps overhead    |
+         | Drawing-room |{ Miss Freer    }| Voices of a man and woman     |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "    2 | Library      |{ Miss Freer    }| Heavy blow on table           |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              | Mrs. M----      | Heavy blow on table (heard    |
+         |              | Miss Freer      |  in dining-room)              |
+         |              | Miss Langton    |                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer    }| Footsteps overhead in         |
+         | Dining-room  |{ Miss Langton  }|  empty room                   |
+         |              |{ Robinson      }|                               |
+         |              |{  (butler)     }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "    3 | Library      | Miss Langton    |{ Violent hammering on door    |
+         |              |                 |{  in daylight                 |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer    }| Footsteps overhead in         |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|  empty room                   |
+         | Dining-room  |{ Mr. T----     }|                               |
+         |              |{ Robinson      }|                               |
+         |              |{  (butler)     }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "    4 | No. V.       |{ Miss Freer    }| Crash under dome              |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "    5 | No. I.       | Mr. T----       | Monotonous reading            |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "    6 | No. I.       | Mr. T----       |{ Thuds on floor above, and    |
+         |              |                 |{  on door of room             |
+         |              |                 |{ Voices in conversation       |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "    7 | No. V.       | Miss Freer      | Crash under dome              |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. I.       | Mr. T----       |{ Crash under dome             |
+         |              |                 |{ Voices in conversation       |
+         |              |                 |{ Raps at foot of door         |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+  "    8 | Various parts| Household       |{ Crashes and bangs and        |
+         |  of the house|  generally      |{  footsteps heard during      |
+         |              |                 |{  the day                     |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | Smoking-room |{ Miss Freer    }| Shuffling footsteps in the    |
+         |              |{ Miss Langton  }|  room                         |
+         |              |{ Mr. T----     }| Voices outside door           |
+         |              |{ Dog           }|                               |
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+Recorded |Heard in Room.| Witness.        | Description of Sound.         |
+under    |              |                 |                               |
+Date.    |              |                 |                               |
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+April 8  | No. IV.      | Miss Freer      | Crash under dome              |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. VIII.    | Miss Langton    | Shuffling footsteps           |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. I.       | Mr. T----       | Voices                        |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |                 |{ Thuds on lowest panels of    |
+         |              |                 |{  door                        |
+         | No. IV.      | Miss Freer      |{ Footsteps of many persons    |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ [No Journal kept between April 8 and April 29. During this period        |
+  Professor Lodge's notes testify to "knocks on the wall, a sawing noise, |
+  a droning and a wailing, ... some whistling, and apparent attempts at a |
+  whisper, all up in the attic.]                                          |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |                 |{ Monotonous voice from        |
+ May 3   | No. I.       | Mme. Boisseaux  |{  No. III.                    |
+         |              |                 |{ Voices in argument           |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | No. V.       | Mrs. "F."       | Knocks at door                |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "   4   | No. V.       | Mme. Boisseaux  | Knocks at door                |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         |              |{ Mme.           |                               |
+         |              |   Boisseaux    }|                               |
+         |              |{ Mrs. "F."     }|{ Detonating noise in empty    |
+ "   5   | Drawing-room |{ Mrs. M----    }|{  room overhead (No. I.) in   |
+         |              |{ Miss Freer    }|{  daylight                    |
+         |              |{ Rev. MacL---- }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | Billiard-room|   Gardener,    }|                               |
+         |              |   butler, cook} | Crash in the room             |
+         |              |   and others  } |                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "   6   | No. V.       | Mme. Boisseaux  |{ "Room resounded with         |
+         |              |                 |{  knocks"                     |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+         | Library      |{ Miss Freer    }| Bangs on table                |
+         |              |{ Miss Moore    }|                               |
+         |              |                 |                               |
+ "   13  | No. I.       | Mr. "Etienne"   | [?] Detonating noise          |
+---------+--------------+-----------------+-------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+[Compare Plan of House.]
+
+
+1. The rooms spoken of in the text as "the library," and the
+"upstairs," or "wing" smoking-room, are those marked in the Plan as
+the "morning-room," and the bedroom to the extreme east in the wing.
+
+2. Most of the maid-servants slept in rooms Y and Z, over 1 and 2,
+until the alarm of March 25, when they moved to the rooms on the other
+side the house (X and W), thus leaving those over Nos. 1 and 2 empty.
+
+3. Robinson and Mrs. Robinson (butler and cook) occupied room W till
+March 13, when both moved into the butler's room off the hall, which
+during the first month had been occupied by Mac the maid, who became
+ill and returned south.
+
+4. Opinions regarding the noises, and experiments as to their origin,
+will be found on the under-mentioned pages of the Journal.
+
+_Opinions_, pp. 92, 111, 113, 120, 124, 128, 133, 143, 144, 147, 153,
+154, 159, 162, 166, 168, 173, 179, 187, 198, 201, 207, 215, 219, 234,
+242.
+
+_Experiments_, pp. 109, 129, 140, 160, 175, 180, 218, 220.
+
+  Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+  Edinburgh & London
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Alleged Haunting of B---- House, by Various
+
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