Blackheath.
_Death Warnings in Ancient Families_ (Vol. ix., p. 55.).--A brief notice
of these occurrences, with references to works where farther details may
be met with, would form a very remarkable record of events which tend to
support one's belief in the truth of the remark of Hamlet:
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy."
A drummer is stated to be heard in C---- Castle, the residence of the
Earl and Countess of A., "going about the house playing his drum,
whenever there is a death impending in the family." This warning is
asserted to have been given shortly before the decease of the Earl's
first wife, and preceded the death of the next Countess about five or
six months. Mrs. Crowe, in her _Night Side of Nature_, observes
hereupon:
"I have heard that a paper was found in her (the Countess's)
desk after her death, declaring her conviction that the drum was
for her."
Whenever a little old woman visits a lady of the family of G. of R., at
the time of her confinement, when the nurse is absent, and strokes down
the clothes, the patient (says Mrs. Crowe), "never does any good, and
dies." Another legend is, that a single swan is always seen on a
particular lake close to the mansion of another family before a death.
Then, Lord Littleton's dove is a well-known incident. And the lady above
quoted speaks of many curious warnings of death by the appearance of
birds, as well as of a spectral black dog, which visited a particular
family in Cornwall immediately before the death of any of its members.
Having made this Note of a few more cases of death warnings, I will end
with a Query in the words of Mrs. Crowe, who, after detailing the black
dog apparition, asks: "if this phenomenon is the origin of the French
phrase _bête noire_, to express an annoyance, or an augury of evil?"