It is quite probable that the majority of those who read the foregoing
account of "The Haunted Farm" will come to the conclusion that it is
entirely the outcome of the writer's imagination. I therefore hasten
to explain that there is not a single detail in the account which has
been imagined by me. Every incident recorded has been supplied to me
by persons who have resided in the farm, and all that I have done has
been to put them in the form in which they now appear.
Most of my informants are still living; indeed, I saw and interviewed
four of them so recently as the last week in March, 1906. One of these
was the old lady, who, as a young woman, was one of the lovers
mentioned in the account; after her marriage she resided in the farm
and is "the farmer's wife" referred to, who witnessed, and stopped the
mysterious rocking-chair. The other individuals, who were much
younger, related to me the story of the strange noises, invisible
footsteps, and uncanny opening and closing of doors, which they
witnessed towards the close of the nineteenth century. They are
persons of the most reputable character, and of social standing, and
they solemnly assure me that the things recorded in the above article
are literally true.
I also visited the farm in the month of April, 1906, and obtained from
the present occupants their experiences, which are also embodied in
the above narrative. The sterility of the "haunted" part of the garden
I saw for myself; and can unhesitatingly testify that, from some cause
or other, the flowers growing on it are quite withered and weak,
whilst similar flowers in other parts of the garden are healthy and
blooming. There is no apparent reason for this fact, inasmuch as the
unfruitful portion of the ground is as advantageously situated as the
rest of the garden.