I AM not interested in ghosts as a rule, but I was rather struck by
the story of the brown lady of Raynham Hall. While reading of it, this
incident came to my mind and it is just as true as uncanny.
When I was eleven years old we lived in Yorkshire and I was one of a
large family. We had occasion to remove to a more convenient house.
And as houses were very bad to get at that time, we thought we were
very fortunate in securing a nice convenient place, without much
trouble.
Strange to say, we had not lived in the house many weeks when, on
returning home from school one day, I was amazed to find my mother
quite prostrate on the couch. After I had attended to mother, she
requested me to go upstairs and have a look round the rooms as she
thought something had fallen out of place. Thinking nothing of it, I
immediately went and examined all the rooms, but everything was in
order. I was at a loss to understand mother's nervous breakdown.
When father and the rest of the family came in from business, mother
told us that, after dinner, she had just got on the couch for a rest
when she heard a terrific crash just as though the roof had fallen
in. When she had recovered from the shock, she went out into the
garden to look and make sure the roof had not collapsed. All was in
order. A neighbour, seeing mother was ill, came to her assistance. We
came to the conclusion that mother's nerves were weak and we tried to
soothe her. But, strange to say, we were all sitting round the fire
after supper, before going to bed, when we were all startled by an
awful crashing noise. We were all speechless for a few minutes, the
shock was so great. Then my father and brothers went and searched the
place. After that the knockings and noises were so frequent that
mother’s health broke down and we had to move.
Some weeks after, my father came in touch with the lady who had
previously lived in the house, and this is the story she told:
The lady's husband worked night duty. One night her little girl,
two-and-a-half years old, woke her up and said: “Look, mum! there is
a man coming in our bedroom.” There, on the landing, the mother saw an
old man coming towards the bedroom door. She was unable to move for
some time, but, after a while, got up and lit the gas. Then, there was
nothing to be seen. But the apparition appeared again later, and the
noises were so unnerving that they had to leave the house. The story
of the haunting was noised about so much that the house was rebuilt,
and the landlord went to live there. Strange to say, he soon left the
place. After all, one is bound to admit there must be something
behind all this. Even to this day I shudder when I think of this
incident.