At a little Distance from Sir RORGER's House, among the Ruins of an
old Abbey, there is a long Walk of aged Elms; which are shot up so
very high, that when one passes under them, the Rooks and Crows that
rest upon the Tops of them seem to be Cawing in another Region. I am
very much delighted with this Sort of Noise, which I consider as a
kind of a natural Prayer to that Being who supplies the Wants of his
whole Creation, and who, in the beautiful language of the _Psalms_,
feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him. I like this Retirement
the better, because of an ill Report it lies under of being _haunted_;
for which Reason (as I have been told in the Family) no living
Creature ever walks in it besides the Chaplain. My good Friend the
Butler desired me with a very grave Face not to venture myself in it
after Sun-set, for that one of the Footmen had been almost frighted
out of his Wits by a Spirit that appeared to him in the Shape of a
black Horse without an Head; to which he added, that about a month ago
one of the Maids coming home late that Way with a Pail of Milk upon
her Head, heard such a Rustling among the Bushes that she let it fall.
I was taking a Walk in this Place last Night between the Hours of Nine
and Ten, and could not but fancy it one of the most proper Scenes in
the World for a Ghost to appear in. The Ruins of the Abbey are
scattered up and down on every Side, and half covered with Ivy and
Elder-Bushes, the Harbours of several solitary Birds which seldom make
their Appearance till the Dusk of the Evening. The Place was formerly
a Church-yard, and has still several Marks in it of Graves and
Burying-Places. There is such an Eccho among the old Ruins and Vaults,
that if you stamp but a little louder than ordinary you hear the Sound
repeated. At the same Time the Walk of Elms, with the Croaking of the
Ravens which from time to time are heard from the Tops of them, looks
exceeding solemn and venerable. These Objects naturally raise
Seriousness and Attention; and when Night heightens the Awfulness of
the Place, and pours out her supernumerary Horrours upon every thing
in it, I do not at all wonder that weak Minds fill it with Spectres
and Apparitions.
Mr. _Locke_, in his Chapter of the Association of Ideas, has very
curious Remarks to shew how by the Prejudice of Education one Idea
often introduces into the Mind a whole Set that bear no Resemblance to
one another in the Nature of things. Among several Examples of this
Kind, he produces the following Instance. _The Ideas of Goblins and
Sprights have really no more to do with Darkness than Light: Yet let
but a foolish Maid inculcate these often on the Mind of a Child, and
raise them there together, possibly he shall never be able to separate
them again so long as he lives; but Darkness shall ever afterwards
bring with it those frightful Ideas, and they shall be so joyned, that
he can no more bear the one than the other._
As I was walking in this Solitude, where the Dusk of the Evening
conspired with so many other Occasions of Terrour, I observed a Cow
grazing not far from me, which an Imagination that was apt to
_startle_ might easily have construed into a black Horse without an
Head: and I dare say the poor Footman lost his Wits upon some such
trivial Occasion.
My Friend Sir Roger has often told me with a good deal of Mirth, that
at his first coming to his Estate he found three Parts of his House
altogether useless; that the best Room in it had the Reputation of
being haunted, and by that Means was locked up; that Noises had been
heard in his long Gallery, so that he could not get a Servant to enter
it after eight a Clock at Night; that the Door of one of his Chambers
was nailed up, because there went a Story in the Family that a Butler
had formerly hanged himself in it; and that his Mother, who lived to a
great Age, had shut up half the Rooms in the House, in which either
her Husband, a Son, or Daughter had died. The Knight seeing his
Habitation reduced to so small a Compass, and himself in a Manner shut
out of his own House, upon the Death of his Mother ordered all the
Apartments to be flung open, and _exorcised_ by his Chaplain who lay
in every Room one after another, and by that Means dissipated the
Fears which had so long reigned in the Family.
I should not have been thus particular upon these ridiculous Horrours,
did not I find them so very much prevail in all Parts of the Country.
At the same Time I think a Person who is thus terrify'd with the
Imagination of Ghosts and Spectres much more reasonable, than one who
contrary to the Reports of all Historians sacred and prophane, ancient
and modern, and to the Traditions of all Nations, thinks the
Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless: Could not I give my
self up to this general Testimony of Mankind, I should to the
relations of particular Persons who are now living, and whom I cannot
distrust in other Matters of Fact. I might here add, that not only the
Historians, to whom we may joyn the Poets, but likewise the
Philosophers of Antiquity have favoured this Opinion. _Lucretius_
himself, though by the Course of his Philosophy he was obliged to
maintain that the Soul did not exist separate from the Body, makes no
Doubt of the Reality of Apparitions, and that Men have often appeared
after their Death. This I think very remarkable; he was so pressed
with the Matter of Fact which he could not have the Confidence to
deny, that he was forced to account for it by one of the most absurd
unphilosophical Notions that was ever started. He tells us, That the
Surfaces of all Bodies are perpetually flying off from their
respective Bodies, one after another; and that these Surfaces or thin
Cases that included each other whilst they were joined in the Body
like the Coats of an Onion, are sometimes seen entire when they are
separated from it; by which Means we often behold the Shapes and
Shadows of Persons who are either dead or absent.
_Addison._