Chapter 2

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----:--