To the two other ghost stories relating to the township of
Godley--namely, the stories of "The Haunted Farm" and "The Spectre
Hound"--I have thought it necessary to append a note of explanation. I
now adopt the same course with regard to the story of "The Boggart of
Godley Green." I wish to repeat in this instance that nothing in the
story must be credited to the imagination of the writer. All the
details have been given to me by persons still living (May, 1906), who
have resided in the house at one time or another, and who solemnly
assert that they have seen the boggart, under the circumstances
related in the above account. Their statements were given to me in the
presence of witnesses, and it is impossible to doubt the earnestness
and honesty of my informants.
I do not wish to cast any harsh doubt upon their statements, nor do I,
on the other hand, desire to give it forth that I am a convert to the
belief in ghosts and boggarts. I merely record the stories as told to
me by people whose honesty I know to be above suspicion, and who
firmly believe that they have seen the things they describe.
The houses and the fields and lanes mentioned in the three stories, as
haunts of the ghosts, are all well known to me. I have walked over
them alone, at all times of the night and day, and in all seasons. And
with the house and grounds mentioned in the story of "The Boggart of
Godley Green" I am especially familiar. The land behind the house dips
down to a secluded valley; and the gate mentioned by the narrators as
a favourite haunt of the ghost is half-way up the slope. It is
overshadowed by tall trees, and in certain lights the darkness cast by
these trees is peculiar, and almost palpable. Beyond the gate is a
meadow, from which at certain times the mists rise thick and white.
When seen through the trees the mist sometimes takes strange forms. My
first experience of it was rather startling. I had been in the orchard
alone one night, and when slowly walking up the rise I chanced to look
towards the gate, and there in the gap between the trees appeared a
white form, like the veiled and draped figure of a female. It seemed
to be moving, and for the moment I received a shock. On proceeding
towards the gate, however, I found it was nothing but a moving column
of mist, framed by the thick foliage of the trees. Even then, by an
abnormal imagination, it might have been taken for a spectre.
But although the mist might in some degree explain away the appearance
of "The Boggart" at the gate, I must candidly admit that it does not
account for the spectre hound, or the strange noises, movings of
furniture, and openings of doors, recorded in the two first stories.
These things are as much a mystery as ever.