Transition to Appearances of the Dead. Obvious Scientific
Difficulties. Purposeless Character of Modern Ghosts. Theory of Dead
Men's Dreams. Illustrated by Sleep-walking House-maid. Purposeful
Character of the Old Ghost Stories. Probable Causes of the Difference
between Old and New Ghost Stories. Only the most Dramatic were
recorded. Or the Tales were embellished or invented. Practical
Reasons for inventing them. The Daemon of Spraiton. Sources of Story
of Sir George Villier's Ghost. Clarendon. Lilly, Douch. Wyndham.
Wyndham's Letter. Sir Henry Wotton. Izaak Walton. Anthony Wood. A
Wotton Dream proved Legendary. The Ghost that appeared to Lord
Lyttleton. His Lordship's Own Ghost.
APPEARANCES OF THE DEAD
We now pass beyond the utmost limits to which a "scientific" theory of
things ghostly can be pushed. Science admits, if asked, that it does
not know everything. It is not _inconceivable_ that living minds may
communicate by some other channel than that of the recognised senses.
Science now admits the fact of hypnotic influence, though, sixty years
ago, Braid was not allowed to read a paper on it before the British
Association. Even now the topic is not welcome. But perhaps only one
eminent man of science declares that hypnotism is _all_ imposture and
malobservation. Thus it is not wholly beyond the scope of fancy to
imagine that some day official science may glance at the evidence for
"telepathy".
But the stories we have been telling deal with living men supposed to
be influencing living men. When the dead are alleged to exercise a
similar power, we have to suppose that some consciousness survives the
grave, and manifests itself by causing hallucinations among the
living. Instances of this have already been given in "The Ghost and
the Portrait," "The Bright Scar" and "Riding Home after Mess". These
were adduced as examples of _veracity_ in hallucinations. Each
appearance gave information to the seer which he did not previously
possess. In the first case, the lady who saw the soldier and the
suppliant did not know of their previous existence and melancholy
adventure. In the second, the brother did not know that his dead
sister's face had been scratched. In the third, the observer did not
know that Lieutenant B. had grown a beard and acquired a bay pony with
black mane and tail. But though the appearances were _veracious_,
they were _purposeless_, and again, as in each case the information
existed in living minds, it _may_ have been wired on from them.
Thus the doctrine of telepathy puts a ghost of the dead in a great
quandary. If he communicates no verifiable information, he may be
explained as a mere empty illusion. If he does yield fresh
information, and if that is known to any living mind, he and his
intelligence may have been wired on from that mind. His only chance
is to communicate facts which are proved to be true, facts which
nobody living knew before. Now it is next to impossible to
demonstrate that the facts communicated were absolutely unknown to
everybody.
Far, however, from conveying unknown intelligence, most ghosts convey
none at all, and appear to have no purpose whatever.
It will be observed that there was no traceable reason why the girl
with a scar should appear to Mr. G., or the soldier and suppliant to
Mrs. M., or Lieutenant B. to General Barker. The appearances came in
a vague, casual, aimless way, just as the living and healthy clergyman
appeared to the diplomatist. On St. Augustine's theory the dead
persons who appeared may have known no more about the matter than did
the living clergyman. It is not even necessary to suppose that the
dead man was dreaming about the living person to whom, or about the
place in which, he appeared. But on the analogy of the tales in which
a dream or thought of the living seems to produce a hallucination of
their presence in the minds of other and distant living people, so a
dream of the dead may (it is urged) have a similar effect if "in that
sleep of death such dreams may come". The idea occurred to
Shakespeare! In any case the ghosts of our stories hitherto have been
so aimless and purposeless as to resemble what we might imagine a dead
man's dream to be.
This view of the case (that a "ghost" may be a reflection of a dead
man's dream) will become less difficult to understand if we ask
ourselves what natural thing most resembles the common idea of a
ghost. You are reading alone at night, let us say, the door opens and
a human figure glides into the room. To you it pays no manner of
attention; it does not answer if you speak; it may trifle with some
object in the chamber and then steal quietly out again.
_It is the House-maid walking in her Sleep_.
This perfectly accountable appearance, in its aimlessness, its
unconsciousness, its irresponsiveness, is undeniably just like the
common notion of a ghost. Now, if ordinary ghosts are not of flesh
and blood, like the sleep-walking house-maid, yet are as irresponsive,
as unconscious, and as vaguely wandering as she, then (if the dead are
somewhat) a ghost _may_ be a hallucination produced in the living by
the _unconscious_ action of the mind of the dreaming dead. The
conception is at least conceivable. If adopted, merely for argument's
sake, it would first explain the purposeless behaviour of ghosts, and
secondly, relieve people who see ghosts of the impression that they
see "spirits". In the Scotch phrase the ghost obviously "is not all
there," any more than the sleep walker is intellectually "all there".
This incomplete, incoherent presence is just what might be expected if
a dreaming disembodied mind could affect an embodied mind with a
hallucination.
But the good old-fashioned ghost stories are usually of another type.
The robust and earnest ghosts of our ancestors "had their own purpose
sun-clear before them," as Mr. Carlyle would have said. They knew
what they wanted, asked for it, and saw that they got it.
As a rule their bodies were unburied, and so they demanded sepulture;
or they had committed a wrong, and wished to make restitution; or they
had left debts which they were anxious to pay; or they had advice, or
warnings, or threats to communicate; or they had been murdered, and
were determined to bring their assassins to the gibbet.
Why, we may ask, were the old ghost stories so different from the new?
Well, first they were not all different. Again, probably only the
more dramatic tales were as a rule recorded. Thirdly, many of the
stories may have been either embellished--a fancied purpose being
attributed to a purposeless ghost--or they may even have been invented
to protect witnesses who gave information against murderers. Who
could disobey a ghost?
In any case the old ghost stories are much more dramatic than the new.
To them we turn, beginning with the appearances of Mr. and Mrs. Furze
at Spraiton, in Devonshire, in 1682. Our author is Mr. Richard Bovet,
in his Pandaemonium, or the Devil's Cloister opened (1683). The
motive of the late Mr. Furze was to have some small debts paid; his
wife's spectre was influenced by a jealousy of Mr. Furze's spectre's
relations with another lady.
THE DAEMON OF SPRAITON IN DEVON {111} ANNO 1682
"About the month of November in the year 1682, in the parish of
Spraiton, in the county of Devon, one Francis Fey (servant to Mr.
Philip Furze) being in a field near the dwelling-house of his said
master, there appeared unto him the _resemblance_ of an _aged
gentleman_ like his master's father, with a pole or staff in his hand,
resembling that he was wont to carry when living to kill the moles
withal. The _spectrum_ approached near the young man, whom you may
imagin not a little surprized at the _appearance_ of one that he knew
to be dead, but the _spectrum bid him not be afraid of him, but tell
his master_ (who was his son) that several _legacies which by his
testament he had bequeathed were unpaid, naming ten shillings to one
and ten shillings to another, both which persons he named_ to the
young man, who replyed that the party he last named was dead, and so
it could not be paid to him. The ghost answered _he knew that, but it
must be paid to the next relation_, whom he also named. The spectrum
likewise ordered him to carry twenty shillings to a gentlewoman,
sister to the deceased, living near Totness in the said county, and
promised, if these things were performed, to trouble him no further;
but at the same time the _spectrum_, speaking of his _second wife_
(who was also dead) _called her wicked woman_, though the gentleman
who writ the letter knew her and esteemed her a very good woman. And
(having thus related him his mind) the spectrum left the young man,
who according to the _direction_ of the _spirit_ took care to see the
small legacies satisfied, and carried the twenty shillings that was
appointed to be paid the gentlewoman near Totness, but she utterly
refused to receive it, being sent her (as she said) from the devil.
The same night the young man lodging at her house, the aforesaid
spectrum appeared to him again; whereupon the young man challenged his
_promise not to trouble him any more_, saying he had performed all
according to his appointment, but that the gentlewoman, his sister,
would not receive the money.
"_To which the spectrum replied that was true indeed_; but withal
_directed_ the young man to ride to Totness and buy for her _a ring of
that value, which the spirit said she would accept of_, which being
provided accordingly, she received. Since the performance of which
the ghost or apparition of the old gentleman hath seemed to be at
rest, having never given the young man any further trouble.
"But the next day after having delivered the ring, the young man was
riding home to his master's house, accompanyed by a servant of the
gentlewoman's near Totness, and near about the time of their entrance
(or a little before they came) into the parish of Spraiton aforesaid,
there appeared to be upon the horse behind the young man, the
resemblance of the _second wife_ of the old gentleman spoken of
before.
"This daemon often threw the young man off his horse, and cast him
with such violence to the ground as was great astonishment, not only
to the gentlewoman's servant (with him), but to divers others who were
spectators of the frightful action, the ground resounding with great
noise by reason of the incredible force with which he was cast upon
it. At his coming into his master's yard, the horse which he rid,
though very poor and out of case, leaped at one spring twenty-five
foot, to the amazement of all that saw it. Soon after the she-spectre
shewed herself to divers in the house, viz., the aforesaid young man,
_Mistress Thomasin Gidly, Ann Langdon_, born in that parish, and a
little child, which, by reason of the troublesomeness of the spirit,
they were fain to remove from that house. She appeared sometimes in
her own shape, sometimes in forms very horrid; now and then like a
monstrous dog belching out fire; at another time it flew out at the
window, in the shape of a horse, carrying with it only one pane of
glass and a small piece of iron.
"One time the young man's head was thrust into a very strait place
betwixt a bed's head and a wall, and forced by the strength of divers
men to be removed thence, and that not without being much hurt and
bruised, so that much blood appeared about it: upon this it was
advised he should be bleeded, to prevent any ill accident that might
come of the bruise; after bleeding, the ligature or binder of his arm
was removed from thence and conveyed about his middle, where it was
strained with such violence that the girding had almost stopp'd his
breath and kill'd him, and being cut asunder it made _a strange and
dismal noise_, so that the standers by were affrighted at it. At
divers other times he hath been in danger to be strangled with cravats
and handkerchiefs that he hath worn about his neck, which have been
drawn so close that with the sudden violence he hath near been
choaked, and hardly escaped death.
"The spectre hath shewed great offence at the perriwigs which the
young man used to wear, for they are often torn from his head after a
very strange manner; one that he esteemed above the rest he put in a
small box, and that box he placed in another, which he set against the
wall of his chamber, placing a joint-stool with other weight a top of
it, but in short time the boxes were broken in sunder and the perriwig
rended into many small parts and tatters. Another time, lying in his
master's chamber with his perriwig on his head, to secure it from
danger, within a little time it was torn from him and reduced into
very small fragments. At another time one of his shoe-strings was
observed (without the assistance of any hand) to come of its own
accord out of its shoe and fling itself to the other side of the room;
the other was crawling after it, but a maid espying that, with her
hand drew it out, and it strangely _clasp'd_ and _curl'd_ about her
hand like a living _eel_ or _serpent_; this is testified by a lady of
considerable quality, too great for exception, who was an eye-witness.
The same lady shewed Mr. C. one of the young man's gloves, which was
torn in his pocket while she was by, which is so dexterously tatter'd
and so artificially torn that it is conceived a cutler could not have
contrived an instrument to have laid it abroad so accurately, and all
this was done in the pocket in the compass of one minute. It is
further observable that if the aforesaid young man, or another person
who is a servant maid in the house, do wear their own clothes, they
are certainly torn in pieces on their backs, but if the clothes belong
to any other, they are not injured after that manner.
"Many other strange and fantastical freaks have been done by the said
daemon or spirit in the view of divers persons; a barrel of salt of
considerable quantity hath been observed to march from room to room
without any human assistance.
"An hand-iron hath seemed to lay itself cross over-thwart a pan of
milk that hath been scalding over the fire, and two flitches of bacon
have of their own accord descended from the chimney where they were
hung, and placed themselves upon the hand-iron.
"When the spectre appears in resemblance of her own person, she seems
to be habited in the same cloaths and dress which the gentlewoman of
the house (her daughter-in-law) hath on at the same time. Divers
times the feet and legs of the young man aforesaid have been so
entangled about his neck that he hath been loosed with great
difficulty; sometimes they have been so twisted about the frames of
chairs and stools that they have hardly been set at liberty. But one
of the most considerable instances of the malice of the spirit against
the young man happened on Easter Eve, when Mrs. C. the relator, was
passing by the door of the house, and it was thus:--
"When the young man was returning from his labour, he was taken up by
the _skirt_ of his _doublet_ by this _female daemon_, and carried a
height into the air. He was soon missed by his Master and some other
servants that had been at labour with him, and after diligent enquiry
no news could be heard of him, until at length (near half an hour
after) he was heard singing and whistling in a bog or quagmire, where
they found him in a kind of trance or _extatick fit_, to which he hath
sometimes been accustomed (but whether before the affliction he met
with from this spirit I am not certain). He was affected much after
such sort, as at the time of those _fits_, so that the people did not
give that _attention_ and _regard_ to what he said as at other times;
but when he returned again to himself (which was about an hour after)
he solemnly protested to them that the daemon had carried him so high
that his master's house seemed to him to be but _as a hay-cock_, and
_that during all that time he was in perfect sense, and prayed to
Almighty God not to suffer the devil to destroy him_; and that he was
suddenly set down in that quagmire.
The workmen found one shoe on one side of his master's house, and the
other on the other side, and in the morning espied his perriwig
hanging on the top of a tree; by which it appears he had been carried
a considerable height, and that what he told them was not a fiction.
"After this it was observed that that part of the young man's body
which had been on the mud in the quagmire was somewhat benummbed and
seemingly deader than the other, whereupon the following _Saturday_,
which was the day before _Low Sunday_, he was carried to _Crediton,
alias Kirton_, to be bleeded, which being done accordingly, and the
company having left him for some little space, at their return they
found him in one of his fits, with his _forehead_ much _bruised_, and
_swoln_ to a _great bigness_, none being able to guess how it
happened, until his recovery from that _fit_, when upon enquiry he
gave them this account of it: _that a bird had with great swiftness
and force flown in at the window with a stone in its beak, which it
had dashed against his forehead, which had occasioned the swelling
which they saw_.
"The people much wondering at the strangeness of the accident,
diligently sought the stone, and under the place where he sat they
found not such a stone as they expected but a weight of brass or
copper, which it seems the daemon had made use of on that occasion to
give the poor young man that hurt in his forehead.
"The persons present were at the trouble to break it to pieces, every
one taking a part and preserving it in memory of so strange an
accident. After this the spirit continued to molest the young man in
a very severe and rugged manner, often handling him with great
extremity, and whether it hath yet left its violences to him, or
whether the young man be yet alive, I can have no certain account."
I leave the reader to consider of the extraordinary strangeness of the
relation.
The reader, considering the exceeding strangeness of the relation,
will observe that we have now reached "great swingeing falsehoods,"
even if that opinion had not hitherto occurred to his mind. But if he
thinks that such stories are no longer told, and even sworn to on
Bible oath, he greatly deceives himself. In the chapter on "Haunted
Houses" he will find statements just as hard narrated of the years
1870 and 1882. In these, however, the ghosts had no purpose but
mischief. {118}
We take another "ghost with a purpose".
SIR GEORGE VILLIERS' GHOST.
The variations in the narratives of Sir George Villiers' appearance to
an old servant of his, or old protege, and the warning communicated by
this man to Villiers' son, the famous Duke of Buckingham, are curious
and instructive. The tale is first told in print by William Lilly,
the astrologer, in the second part of a large tract called Monarchy or
No Monarchy in England (London, 1651), twenty-three years after
Buckingham's murder. But while prior in publication, Lilly's story
was probably written after, though independent of Lord Clarendon's, in
the first book of his History of the Rebellion, begun on 18th March,
1646, that is within eighteen years of the events. Clarendon, of
course, was in a position to know what was talked of at the time.
Next, we have a letter of Mr. Douch to Glanvil, undated, but written
after the Restoration, and, finally, an original manuscript of 1652.
Douch makes the warning arrive "some few days" before the murder of
Buckingham, and says that the ghost of Sir George, "in his morning
gown," bade one Parker tell Buckingham to abandon the expedition to La
Rochelle or expect to be murdered. On the third time of appearing the
vision pulled a long knife from under his gown, as a sign of the death
awaiting Buckingham. He also communicated a "private token" to
Parker, the "percipient," Sir George's old servant. On each occasion
of the appearance, Parker was reading at midnight. Parker, _after_
the murder, told one Ceeley, who told it to a clergyman, who told
Douch, who told Glanvil.
In Lilly's version the ghost had a habit of walking in Parker's room,
and finally bade him tell Buckingham to abstain from certain company,
"or else he will come to destruction, and that suddenly". Parker,
thinking he had dreamed, did nothing; the ghost reappeared, and
communicated a secret "which he (Buckingham) knows that none in the
world ever knew but myself and he". The duke, on hearing the story
from Parker, backed by the secret, was amazed, but did not alter his
conduct. On the third time the spectre produced the knife, but at
_this_ information the duke only laughed. Six weeks later he was
stabbed. Douch makes the whole affair pass immediately before the
assassination. "And Mr. Parker died soon after," as the ghost had
foretold to him.
Finally, Clarendon makes the appearances set in six months before
Felton slew the duke. The percipient, unnamed, was in bed. The
narrative now develops new features; the token given on the ghost's
third coming obviously concerns Buckingham's mother, the Countess, the
"one person more" who knew the secret communicated. The ghost
produces no knife from under his gown; no warning of Buckingham's
death by violence is mentioned. A note in the MS. avers that
Clarendon himself had papers bearing on the subject, and that he got
his information from Sir Ralph Freeman (who introduced the unnamed
percipient to the duke), and from some of Buckingham's servants, "who
were informed of much of it before the murder of the duke". Clarendon
adds that, in general, "no man looked on relations of that sort with
less reverence and consideration" than he did. This anecdote he
selects out of "many stories scattered abroad at the time" as "upon a
better foundation of credit". The percipient was an officer in the
king's wardrobe at Windsor, "of a good reputation for honesty and
discretion," and aged about fifty. He was bred at a school in Sir
George's parish, and as a boy was kindly treated by Sir George, "whom
afterwards he never saw". On first beholding the spectre in his room,
the seer recognised Sir George's costume, then antiquated. At last
the seer went to Sir Ralph Freeman, who introduced him to the duke on
a hunting morning at Lambeth Bridge. They talked earnestly apart,
observed by Sir Ralph, Clarendon's informant. The duke seemed
abstracted all day; left the field early, sought his mother, and after
a heated conference of which the sounds reached the ante-room, went
forth in visible trouble and anger, a thing never before seen in him
after talk with his mother. She was found "overwhelmed with tears and
in the highest agony imaginable". "It is a notorious truth" that,
when told of his murder, "she seemed not in the least degree
surprised."
The following curious manuscript account of the affair is, after the
prefatory matter, the copy of a letter dated 1652. There is nothing
said of a ghostly knife, the name of the seer is not Parker, and in
its whole effect the story tallies with Clarendon's version, though
the narrator knows nothing of the scene with the Countess of
Buckingham.
CAVALIER VERSION {121}
"1627. Since William Lilly the Rebells Jugler and Mountebank in his
malicious and blaspheamous discourse concerning our late Martyred
Soveraigne of ever blessed memory (amongst other lyes and falsehoods)
imprinted a relation concerning an Aparition which foretold several
Events which should happen to the Duke of Buckingham, wherein he
falsifies boeth the person to whom it appeared and ye circumstances; I
thought it not amis to enter here (that it may be preserved) the true
account of that Aparition as I have receaved it from the hande and
under the hande of Mr. Edmund Wyndham, of Kellefford in the County of
Somersett. I shall sett it downe (ipsissimis verbis) as he delivered
it to me at my request written with his own hande.
WYNDHAM'S LETTER
"Sr. According to your desire and my promise I have written down what
I remember (divers things being slipt out of my memory) of the
relation made me by Mr. Nicholas Towse concerning the Aparition wch
visited him. About ye yeare 1627, {122} I and my wife upon an
occasion being in London lay att my Brother Pyne's house without
Bishopsgate, wch. was ye next house unto Mr. Nicholas Towse's, who was
my Kinsman and familiar acquaintance, in consideration of whose
Society and friendship he tooke a house in that place, ye said Towse
being a very fine Musician and very good company, and for ought I ever
saw or heard, a Vurtuous, religious and wel disposed Gentleman. About
that time ye said Mr. Towse tould me that one night, being in Bed and
perfectly waking, and a Candle burning by him (as he usually had)
there came into his Chamber and stood by his bed side an Olde
Gentleman in such an habitt as was in fashion in Q: Elizebeth's tyme,
at whose first appearance Mr. Towse was very much troubled, but after
a little tyme, recollecting himselfe, he demanded of him in ye Name of
God what he was, whether he were a Man. And ye Aparition replyed No.
Then he asked him if he were a Divell. And ye answer was No. Then
Mr. Towse said 'in ye Name of God, what art thou then?' And as I
remember Mr. Towse told me that ye Apparition answered him that he was
ye Ghost of Sir George Villiers, Father to ye then Duke of Buckingham,
whom he might very well remember, synce he went to schoole at such a
place in Leicestershire (naming ye place which I have forgotten). And
Mr. Towse tould me that ye Apparition had perfectly ye resemblance of
ye said Sr George Villiers in all respects and in ye same habitt that
he had often seene him weare in his lifetime.
"The said Apparition then tould Mr. Towse that he could not but
remember ye much kindness that he, ye said Sr George Villiers, had
expressed to him whilst he was a Schollar in Leicestershire, as
aforesaid, and that as out of that consideration he believed that he
loved him and that therefore he made choyce of him, ye sayde Mr.
Towse, to deliver a message to his sonne, ye Duke of Buckingham;
thereby to prevent such mischiefe as would otherwise befall ye said
Duke whereby he would be inevitably ruined. And then (as I remember)
Mr. Towse tould me that ye Apparition instructed him what message he
should deliver unto ye Duke. Vnto wch. Mr. Towse replyed that he
should be very unwilling to goe to ye Duke of Buckingham upon such an
errand, whereby he should gaine nothing but reproach and contempt, and
to be esteemed a Madman, and therefore desired to be exscused from ye
employment, but ye Apparition pressd him wth. much earnestness to
undertake it, telling him that ye Circumstances and secret Discoveries
which he should be able to make to ye Duke of such passages in ye
course of his life which were known to none but himselfe, would make
it appeare that ye message was not ye fancy of a Distempered Brayne,
but a reality, and so ye Apparition tooke his leave of him for that
night and telling him that he would give him leave to consider till
the next night, and then he would come to receave his answer wheather
he would undertake to deliver his message or no.
"Mr. Towse past that day wth. much trouble and perplexity, debating
and reasoning wth. himselfe wether he should deliver his message or
not to ye Duke but, in ye conclusion, he resolved to doe it, and ye
next night when ye Apparition came he gave his answer accordingly, and
then receaved his full instruction. After which Mr. Towse went and
founde out Sr. Thomas Bludder and Sr. Ralph Freeman, by whom he was
brought to ye Duke of Buckingham, and had sevarall private and lone
audiences of him, I my selfe, by ye favoure of a freinde (Sr. Edward
Savage) was once admitted to see him in private conference with ye
Duke, where (although I heard not there discourses) I observed much
earnestnessse in their actions and gestures. After wch. conference
Mr. Towse tould me that ye Duke would not follow ye advice that was
given him, which was (as I remember) that he intimated ye casting of,
and ye rejecting of some Men who had great interest in him, which was,
and as I take it he named, Bp. Laud and that ye Duke was to doe some
popular Acts in ye ensuing Parliament, of which Parliament ye Duke
would have had Mr. Towse to have been a Burgesse, but he refused it,
alleadging that unlesse ye Duke followed his directions, he must doe
him hurt if he were of ye Parliament. Mr. Towse then toalde that ye
Duke of Buckingham confessed that he had toalde him those things wch.
no Creature knew but himself, and that none but God or ye Divell could
reveale to him. Ye Duke offered Mr. Towse to have ye King knight him,
and to have given him preferment (as he tould me), but that he refused
it, saying that vnless he would follow his advice he would receave
nothing from him.
"Mr. Towse, when he made me this relation, he tolde me that ye Duke
would inevitably be destroyed before such a time (wch. he then named)
and accordingly ye Duke's death happened before that time. He
likewise tolde that he had written downe all ye severall discourses
that he had had wth. ye Apparition, and that at last his coming was so
familiar that he was as litle troubled with it as if it had beene a
friende or acquayntance that had come to visitt him. Mr. Towse told
me further that ye Archbishop of Canterbury, then Bishop of London,
Dr. Laud, should by his Councells be ye authoure of very great
troubles to ye Kingdome, by which it should be reduced to ye extremity
of disorder and confusion, and that it should seeme to be past all
hope of recovery without a miracle, but when all people were in
dispayre of seeing happy days agayne, ye Kingdome should suddenly be
reduced and resettled agayne in a most happy condition.
"At this tyme my father Pyne was in trouble and comitted to ye
Gatehouse by ye Lords of ye Councell about a Quarrel betweene him and
ye Lord Powlett, upon which one night I saide to my Cosin Towse, by
way of jest, 'I pray aske your Appairition what shall become of my
father Pyne's business,' which he promised to doe, and ye next day he
tolde me that my father Pyne's enemyes were ashamed of their malicious
prosecution, and that he would be at liberty within a week or some few
days, which happened according.
"Mr. Towse, his wife, since his death tolde me that her husband and
she living at Windsor Castle, where he had an office that Sumer that
ye Duke of Buckingham was killed, tolde her that very day that the
Duke was sett upon by ye mutinous Mariners att Portesmouth, saying
then that ye next attempt agaynst him would be his Death, which
accordingly happened. And att ye instant ye Duke was killed (as she
vnderstood by ye relation afterwards) Mr. Towse was sitting in his
chayre, out of which he suddenly started vp and sayd, 'Wyfe, ye Duke
of Buckingham is slayne!'
"Mr. Towse lived not long after that himselfe, but tolde his wife ye
tyme of his Death before itt happened. I never saw him after I had
seen some effects of his discourse, which before I valued not, and
therefore was not curious to enquire after more than he voluntaryly
tolde me, which I then entertayned not wth. these serious thoughts
which I have synce reflected on in his discourse. This is as much as
I can remember on this business which, according to youre desire, is
written by
"Sr. Yor., &c.,
"EDMUND WINDHAM.
"BOULOGNE, 5th August, 1652."
* * * * *
This version has, over all others, the merit of being written by an
acquaintance of the seer, who was with him while the appearances were
going on. The narrator was also present at an interview between the
seer and Buckingham. His mention of Sir Ralph Freeman tallies with
Clarendon's, who had the story from Freeman. The ghost predicts the
Restoration, and this is recorded before that happy event. Of course
Mr. Towse may have been interested in Buckingham's career and may have
invented the ghost (after discovering the secret token) {127} as an
excuse for warning him.
The reader can now take his choice among versions of Sir George
Villiers' ghost. He must remember that, in 1642, Sir Henry Wotton
"spent some inquiry whether the duke had any ominous presagement
before his end," but found no evidence. Sir Henry told Izaak Walton a
story of a dream of an ancestor of his own, whereby some robbers of
the University chest at Oxford were brought to justice. Anthony Wood
consulted the records of the year mentioned, and found no trace of any
such robbery. We now approach a yet more famous ghost than Sir
George's. This is Lord Lyttelton's. The ghost had a purpose, to warn
that bad man of his death, but nobody knows whose ghost she was!
LORD LYTTELTON'S GHOST
"Sir," said Dr. Johnson, "it is the most extraordinary thing that has
happened in my day." The doctor's day included the rising of 1745 and
of the Wesleyans, the seizure of Canada, the Seven Years' War, the
American Rebellion, the Cock Lane ghost, and other singular
occurrences, but "the most extraordinary thing" was--Lord Lyttelton's
ghost! Famous as is that spectre, nobody knows what it was, nor even
whether there was any spectre at all.
Thomas, Lord Lyttelton, was born in 1744. In 1768 he entered the
House of Commons. In 1769 he was unseated for bribery. He then
vanishes from public view, probably he was playing the prodigal at
home and abroad, till February, 1772, when he returned to his father's
house, and married. He then went abroad (with a barmaid) till 1773,
when his father died. In January, 1774, he took his seat in the House
of Lords. In November, 1779, Lyttelton went into Opposition. On
Thursday, 25th November, he denounced Government in a magnificent
speech. As to a sinecure which he held, he said, "Perhaps I shall not
keep it long!"
_Something had Happened_!
On the night before his speech, that of Wednesday, 24th November,
Lyttelton had seen the ghost, and had been told that he would die in
three days. He mentioned this to Rowan Hamilton on the Friday. {129a}
On the same day, or on Friday, he mentioned it to Captain Ascough, who
told a lady, who told Mrs. Thrale. {129b} On the Friday he went to
Epsom with friends, and mentioned the ghost to them, among others to
Mr. Fortescue. {129c} About midnight on 28th November, Lord Lyttelton
died suddenly in bed, his valet having left him for a moment to fetch
a spoon for stirring his medicine. The cause of death was not stated;
there was no inquest.
This, literally, is all that is _known_ about Lord Lyttelton's ghost.
It is variously described as: (1) "a young woman and a robin" (Horace
Walpole); (2) "a spirit" (Captain Ascough); (3) a bird in a dream,
"which changed into a woman in white" (Lord Westcote's narrative of
13th February, 1780, collected from Lord Lyttelton's guests and
servants); (4) "a bird turning into a woman" (Mrs. Delany, 9th
December, 1779); (5) a dream of a bird, followed by a woman, Mrs.
Amphlett, in white (Pitt Place archives after 1789); (6) "a fluttering
noise, as of a bird, followed by the apparition of a woman who had
committed suicide after being seduced by Lyttelton" (Lady Lyttelton,
1828); (7) a bird "which vanished when a female spirit in white
raiment presented herself" (Scots Magazine, November-December, 1779).
Out of seven versions, a bird, or a fluttering noise as of a bird (a
common feature in ghost stories), {130a} with a woman following or
accompanying, occurs in six. The phenomena are almost equally
ascribed to dreaming and to waking hallucination, but the common-sense
of the eighteenth century called all ghosts "dreams". In the Westcote
narrative (1780) Lyttelton explains the dream by his having lately
been in a room with a lady, Mrs. Dawson, when a robin flew in. Yet,
in the same narrative, Lyttelton says on Saturday morning "that he was
very well, and believed he should bilk the _ghost_". He was certainly
in bed at the time of the experience, and probably could not be sure
whether he was awake or asleep. {130b}
Considering the remoteness of time, the story is very well recorded.
It is chronicled by Mrs. Thrale before the news of Lyttelton's death
reached her, and by Lady Mary Coke two days later, by Walpole on the
day after the peer's decease, of which he had heard. Lord Lyttelton's
health had for some time been bad; he had made his will a few weeks
before, and his nights were horror-haunted. A little boy, his nephew,
to whom he was kind, used to find the wicked lord sitting by his bed
at night, because he dared not be alone. So Lockhart writes to his
daughter, Mrs. Hope Scott. {131} He had strange dreams of being in
hell with the cruel murderess, Mrs. Brownrigg, who "whipped three
female 'prentices to death and hid them in the coal-hole". Such a man
might have strange fancies, and a belief in approaching death might
bring its own fulfilment. The hypothesis of a premeditated suicide,
with the story of the ghost as a last practical joke, has no
corroboration. It occurred to Horace Walpole at once, but he laid no
stress on it.
Such is a plain, dry, statistical account of the most extraordinary
event that happened in Dr. Johnson's day.
However, the story does not end here. On the fatal night, 27th
November, 1779, Mr. Andrews, M.P., a friend of Lyttelton's was
awakened by finding Lord Lyttelton drawing his curtains. Suspecting a
practical joke, he hunted for his lordship both in his house and in
the garden. Of course he never found him. The event was promptly
recorded in the next number of the Scots Magazine, December, 1779.
{132}