"... [Major] B---- is now in London, and I have seen him twice. He
says (1) the hot-water pipe theory is not his own, but was suggested
by an engineer friend. He should not himself have thought that
hot-water pipes could make so big a noise. Besides, Colonel A----
described the noise as a banging either against the door itself, or
against the door of the wardrobe inside the room.... (2) He, B----,
heard the noise himself several times and bolted out into the passage
at once, but saw nothing. The noise sounded like a very loud banging
at A----'s door.... (3) He confirms the story about A---- being unable
to sleep, and says he used to go to sleep on the moor in consequence."
During Colonel Taylor's tenancy similar noises were heard, both when
the water was totally cut off and when, from some defect in the
apparatus, it never reached a high temperature.
The Colonel A---- referred to, corroborates this account, as follows,
in a letter to Major B----:
"MY DEAR B----, You write asking me about B---- House and its spook.
Well, I never _saw_ anything, and what I heard was what you heard, a
terrific banging at one's bedroom door, generally about from 2 to 3
A.M., about two nights out of three. Of course there were other yarns
of things heard, &c., but I personally never heard or experienced
anything else than this banging at the door, which I never could
account for...."
Before passing from the subject of Colonel A----, it is as well to
mention that after leaving B---- he went to stay at another country
house, and the butler there spoke to him of the haunting of B----,
where he himself was a servant some years before. This butler was
asked for further information, but sent only the following reply:--
"Your note to hand regarding B----. I am afraid what I saw or heard
would be of little value to your book, therefore I would rather say
nothing."
It will be observed that, so far from denying the facts, he admits
that he saw and heard certain things, which he refuses to describe;
but as this evidence is circumstantial rather than direct, it is
inserted here rather than in the place to which, chronologically, it
would, if fuller, properly have belonged.
Mr. and Mrs. "G." were also guests at B---- during the occupation of
the H----s. Mrs. "G." published an account of her experiences in a
magazine article, of course with fictitious names; but she affirms
that she has in no sense "written up" the story, which, indeed, is
entirely corroborated by other evidence:--
"_October 9th, 1896._--Some friends of mine took the place this year
for the shooting, and, relying on the glowing description they had
received, took it on trust, and in July last took possession of it
without having previously seen it. For a few days all went well; the
family established themselves in the old part of the house, leaving a
new wing for their guests. The haunted room (for so I may justly call
it) was inhabited by two or three persons in succession, who were so
alarmed and disturbed by the violent knockings, shrieks, and groans
which they heard every night, and which were also heard by many others
along the same corridor, that they refused to sleep there after the
first few nights. Those who serve under her Majesty's colours are
proverbially brave; they will gladly die for their country, with sword
in hand and face to the foe. For this reason a distinguished officer
[Colonel A----, above quoted] was the next occupant of the haunted
chamber, and was told nothing of its antecedents. The morning after
his arrival he came down refreshed, and keen for the day's sport. I
may here mention, no one is ever disturbed the first night of their
stay. During the succeeding nights, however, he was continually roused
from his slumbers by the most terrific noises, and want of sleep would
cause him to become drowsy when out shooting on the moor, and would
tempt him to make a bed of the purple heather and fragrant myrtle.
"A friend of mine, a man of great nerve and courage, next inhabited
the room, and went through the same experiences. He took every
possible means to discover the cause of the sounds, and failed in
accounting for them in any way. He said the blows on the door were so
violent he often looked, expecting to see it shattered to atoms. Since
he left no one has been put into this room, but the noises continue,
and are heard throughout the house. Even the dogs cannot be coaxed
into this room, and if forced into it, they crouch with marked signs
of fear.
"The disturbances take place between 12 and 4.30, and never at any
other time. A young lady, of by no means timid disposition, and
possessed of great presence of mind, has often heard the swing-door
pushed open and footsteps coming along the corridor, pausing at the
door. She has frequently looked out and seen nothing. The footsteps
she has also heard in her room, and going round her bed. Many persons
have had the same experiences, and many have heard the wild unearthly
shriek which has rung through the house in the stillness of the night.
"I will now give my own experience. I arrived with my husband and
daughter on September 17, having been duly warned by my friends of the
nocturnal disturbances. We were put in rooms adjoining, at the end of
the new wing. I kept a light in my room, but the first night all was
still. Next night, about 2 A.M., a succession of thundering knocks
came from the end of our passage, re-echoing through the house, where
it was heard by many others. About half-an-hour afterwards my husband
heard a piercing shriek; then all was still, save for the hooting of
the owls in the neighbouring trees. When the grey dawn stole in it was
welcome; so was the cheery sound of the bagpipes, as the kilted piper
took his daily round in the early morning. The next night and
succeeding ones we heard loud single knocks at different doors along
our passage. The last night but one before we left I was roused from
sleep by hearing the clock strike one, and immediately it had ceased
six violent blows shook our own door on its hinges, and came with
frightful rapidity, followed by deep groans. After this sleep was
impossible. The next night, our last in Scotland, my husband and
others watched in our passage all night, and though the sounds were
again heard in different directions, nothing was to be seen. As I
write, at the commencement of October, the house on the lonely
hillside is deserted; the tenants have gone southwards; an old
caretaker (too deaf to hear the weird sounds which nightly awaken the
echoes) is the sole occupant. Even she closes up all before dusk, and
retires into her quarters below; though she hears not, her sight is
unimpaired, and she perhaps dreads to meet the hunchback figure which
is said to glide up the stairs, or the shadowy form of a grey lady who
paces with noiseless footfall the lonely corridor, and has been seen
to pass through the door of one of the rooms. Within the last two
months a man with bronzed complexion and bent figure has been seen by
two gentlemen, friends of mine. They both describe him as having come
through the door and passed through the room in which they were about
three in the morning. I have tried to give a faithful and accurate
account of these strange events. I leave it to each and all to form
their own opinion on the matter."
Some passages in private letters to Miss Freer and Lord Bute written
by Mrs. "G.," should be quoted as bearing upon some points in the
above:--
"_February 9th._--I am going to ask you if you do go there [B----
House] if you would let me know if you see or hear anything. I am
immensely interested in it, as we stayed there in the autumn with some
friends who took it, and anything more horribly haunted could not be.
I never should have believed it if I had not been there."
After the appearance of _The Times_ correspondent's accusation against
the H---- family, Mrs. "G." wrote as follows to Lord Bute:--
"_June 10th._--If the noises complained of by nearly all who have
stayed at B---- were the result of practical jokes perpetrated by the
H----s, how is it that not only were they heard by guests who stayed
there years ago, but are admitted by members of the S---- family to
have been heard by themselves? Miss Freer also has told me, that the
same noises were heard at all hours day and night by herself and her
guests for months after the H---- family and their servants had left
Scotland. This so completely exonerates them from the absurd charge,
that I should hardly have mentioned it, had not Miss Freer seemed
quite under the impression that practical jokes had been played during
the tenancy of the H----s; and as a proof of this, she told me that
the doors, especially of two of the rooms, were marked with nailed
boots, and the panels even split through, and this damage was
attributed by her to the younger members of the H---- family. I am
happy to say I was able to disabuse her mind of this idea, as we were
staying at B---- within a few days of their leaving Scotland, and I
had most carefully examined the doors especially of the two rooms
specified, one of which was our own room. There was not a scratch, nor
the smallest mark or indentation; others can also vouch for this fact.
The H----s had all left B---- for good at that time, except the
eldest son, and Miss Freer agreed with me that whatever damage was
done to the doors, must therefore have been done after the H----s
left, and before her party came in.... The hot-water pipe theory
revived by the writer of the article in _The Times_ is disproved by
Miss Freer, who told me that the hot-water apparatus was not used for
some time, and that the disturbances continued just the same.... The
stories told in connection with B---- were not circulated or started
by the H---- family. They were told _to_ them by persons living around
B----."
In a letter to Miss Freer, dated June 12th, Mrs. "G." writes, in
reference to the charge of practical joking:--
"They are the most unlikely family to do such a thing; and besides, if
further proof were wanted, the young men of the family were away from
B---- when we stayed there ten days, and there was only one night when
we did not hear the noises."
Miss Freer of course entirely accepts Mrs. "G.'s" statement, and that
of Mr. H---- as published in _The Times_. She had been led to her
earlier conclusions as to the marks of a boot-heel on the upper panels
of the doors by the statements of interested persons.
A suggestive point in this connection is the fact, to which Miss "G."
has herself testified, that while Mr. and Mrs. "G." were disturbed to
the utmost degree, their daughter, who slept in a room communicating
with that of her mother, heard nothing whatever; from which it would
appear that the noises heard by them were subjective, and that the
alleged evidence of the boot-heel, even were it credible, would be, in
fact, irrelevant.
The mention of the hallucinatory nature of such phenomena suggests
attention to the intellectual acumen displayed by _The Times_
correspondent in saying that "Lord Bute ought to have employed a
couple of intelligent detectives" for the purpose of catching
subjective hallucinations. On the same principle, he ought to offer to
his learned friend, Sir James Crichton-Browne, well known as an
alienist, some advice as to the best mode of securing morbid
hallucinations in strait-waistcoats. Is he prepared to propose to take
photographs of a dream, to put thoughts under lock and key, or to
advocate the supply of hot and cold water on every floor of a castle
in the air?
One of the guests at B---- during Colonel Taylor's tenancy wrote after
his return to London to Miss Freer as follows:--
"_March 24th._--I went to call the other day on the 'G.'s' who chanced
to be still in town.... I begin chronologically, and give you what I
was told in all seriousness.... The H----s knew nothing about any
stories of haunting when they took the place, and Miss H---- and one
of the sons went up, most innocently, to prepare for the arrival of
the others. As soon as they entered it the son said to his sister that
he couldn't explain why, but he had a conviction that the house was
haunted. That night, however, nothing happened. But the second night
the bangings began. An old Spanish nurse was in the haunted room, and
was greatly disturbed by the noise upon her door, which seemed as if
it were going to be burst open. She didn't seem to be alarmed in the
least however, and later took steps to secure its remaining shut by
stuffing a towel under the chink (why this should secure it I rather
fail to see, still that was her view). Apparently the ghost resented
this, and one night did actually burst the door open, with such
violence that the towel was precipitated into the middle of the room.
The longer they stayed in the house, the worse things got. The noises
were all over the house more or less, and were by no means confined to
bangings. Miss H---- slept in room No. 8, where the ghost limped round
her bed. She was so alarmed that she fetched her brother in, and he
slept on the sofa. The limping began again, and she asked him if he
heard anything, and he at once agreed that somebody was walking round
the bed. In his own room--I forget which--he twice _saw_ the ghost,
once in the shape of an indeterminate mist, once in the shape of a
man, who came in by the door and vanished in the wall. Mrs. 'G.'[B]
now appears on the scene, and slept in No. 1 (I _think_). She heard
only the bangings, which she declares were indescribably loud. They
were mostly at the door of the haunted room. Traps were laid to catch
unwary jesters; the door, or the surrounding floor, I forget which,
was covered with flour, and wires were stretched across the door; and
if I had the proper mind of a ghost-story narrator, I should say that
the bangings were as bad as ever, and the flour and the wires were
found undisturbed.
"But as a matter of fact she didn't say that, though doubtless she
intended to, but jumped on to something else. Mr. "G.," who was there
some weeks after his wife, was put down in the wing--I don't know
which room--and had visitations. He heard steps approach down the
passage, followed by a heavy body flinging itself against his door. He
also heard screams, which seemed to him to recede as though the
screamer was passing through the walls. (I couldn't quite understand
this effect, but that was how he described it.) Their chaplain, who
was put into the haunted room, was also greatly worried, and both he
and the Spanish nurse and Colonel A---- all had the sensation that
their bedclothes were being pulled off, and they had to hold on to
them to prevent their departure. The most interesting part of the
story is that Mrs. S---- later admitted to Mrs. "G." that it was quite
true the house was supposed to be haunted, that she had lived there
for twenty years, and at various times there had been outbreaks of
this kind of thing of greater or less duration, but that the outbreaks
had not been often enough for them to think it worth while mentioning
the fact to incoming tenants. It appears also that the story of the
bangings on the table in the daylight on the occasion of the last
interview between the late Mr. S---- and the land-steward, came from
one of the young S----s. It was also said that one of the young S----s
used to sleep in the dressing-room between No. 1 and the haunted room,
and used to complain that somebody kept pulling his bedclothes off.
"I may add that it is quite clear that the people about the
place--some of whom, on my leaving, I vainly tried to draw--have been
threatened not to talk about the ghost. There was no mystery about it
whatever last year, the station officials being exceedingly loquacious
and full of information...."
The above are the circumstances which _The Times_ correspondent thus
describes:--
"Lord Bute's confidence has been grossly abused by some one. It was
represented to him by some one that he was taking the 'most haunted
house in Scotland,' a house with an old and established reputation for
mysterious if not supernatural disturbances. What he has got is a
house with no reputation whatever of that kind, with no history, with
nothing germane to his purpose beyond a cloud of baseless rumours
produced during the last twelve-month. Who is responsible for the
imposture it is not my business to know or to inquire, but that it is
an imposture of the most shallow and impudent kind there can be no
manner of doubt. I interviewed in P---- a man who has the district at
his finger-tips, and was ready to enumerate in order all the shooting
properties in the valley. He had never heard until the moment I spoke
to him of B---- possessing any reputation, ancient or modern, for
being haunted, although he is familiar with the estate, and has slept
in the house. It has no local reputation of the kind even now beyond
the parish it stands in. The whole thing has been fudged up in London
upon the basis of some distorted account of the practical jokes of the
H----s."
As the writer in question obtained his admission to the house as a
guest by Sir James Crichton-Browne's solicitation through Sir William
Huggins and Lord Bute, it might naturally have been supposed that the
real facts were known to him, at least so far as they were concerned.
It appears, however, that he cherished a voluntary ignorance upon the
subject, to judge from the phrase, "it is not my business to know or
to inquire." Of such a writer, and of such statements, the reader will
now form his own opinion; but that the correspondent in question
should continue to cling to his journalistic anonymity, is little to
be wondered at.
Colonel Taylor served in the Bedfordshire Regiment. He was afterwards
Professor of Tactics at Sandhurst, and retired in 1894. Possessed of
means, leisure, and intelligence, he chose to make the study of
psychic subjects his particular occupation. He is one of the seven
fundamental members who, in 1895, signed the Articles of Association
of the London Spiritualist Alliance, holds office in the Society for
Psychical Research, and has rendered very valuable services in
investigation of various kinds. Having made the investigation of
houses alleged to be haunted his special province, he may be fairly
considered to be somewhat of an expert in this matter. It may, or may
not, be regarded as a drawback to his usefulness in this direction,
that he is so peculiarly insensitive to subjective impressions, that a
man who is colour-blind would be almost as useful a witness as to
shades of colour as Colonel Taylor upon hallucinations, local or
otherwise; but, as will be seen, he is fertile in expedients,
experienced in research, and careful and observant of the phenomena
experienced by others.
Lord Bute, who takes some interest in scientific matters, has been
accustomed not infrequently to defray the cost of scientific work
which he is unable to undertake himself, and he offered to meet the
expense of the lease of B---- if Colonel Taylor would take the house,
a proposal which he accepted.
This is what _The Times_ correspondent of June 8, 1897, thought proper
to describe in the words, "for reasons which are differently stated in
London and in Perth, where the agent for the proprietor is to be
found, Lord Bute did not take the house in his own name, but in that
of Colonel Taylor."
It would have been equally true to say of the Coptic texts, published
at Lord Bute's expense by Mr. Budge of the British Museum, that Lord
Bute wrote and published these books under the name of Budge.
Had Colonel Taylor been prevented by circumstances from becoming
tenant of B---- House, Sir William Crookes, the present President of
the British Association and of the Society for Psychical Research, or
Mr. Arthur Smith, Treasurer of the S.P.R., was willing to take the
lease.
Having thus agreed to Lord Bute's proposal, Colonel Taylor at once
proceeded to make himself acquainted with the history of B---- House.
He naturally placed himself in communication with the late tenant,
assuming that that gentleman would be willing to assist in
investigating the phenomena by which his family and guests had been
annoyed. But the only information which Mr. H---- seemed disposed to
give was an admission that some members of his family had heard
noises, and that the house was locally reported to be haunted.
However, other sources of information as to the experiences of the
H---- establishment were fortunately available.
Captain S----'s agents made no scruple about letting the house to the
well-known expert. The Edinburgh agents, Messrs. Speedy, indeed
mentioned the haunting, and expressed the hope that Colonel Taylor
would not make it the subject of complaint, as had been done by the
H---- family, and they received the assurance that this was not a
score upon which he would give trouble. In regard to the letters of
Messrs. R.H. Moncrieff & Co., dated June 12, 1897, which appeared in
_The Times_, it can only be said that the impression which they were
likely to convey was, that Colonel Taylor was an imaginary being like
John Doe or Richard Roe. Their scepticism must have been of recent
origin, since none was manifested on receiving his rent. Their
position is in any case unfortunate, since, even if unclouded by doubt
as to the Colonel's personality, they appear to wish the public to
believe that they seriously thought that one well known as a
Spiritualist in England and America, a retired Professor of Military
Tactics, with a comfortable house at Cheltenham, a member of the
Junior United Service Club in London, a man who neither shoots nor
fishes, had been suddenly seized in his mature years with a desire to
hire an isolated country house in Perthshire, in the depths of winter,
for the purpose of trying his 'prentice hand upon rabbit-shooting on a
small scale.
Colonel Taylor, who is a widower without a daughter, was at this time
much occupied by the illness and death of a near relative, and was
unable for the moment to take up residence at B---- House. Lord Bute
accordingly expressed a hope that Miss Freer would undertake to
conduct the investigation. Mr. Myers also wrote urgently to her,
saying, "If you don't get phenomena, probably no one will." She was
abroad at the time, but at considerable personal inconvenience
consented to return, and on December 26th she wrote to Lord Bute,
stating that she could reach Ballechin on February 2nd, and adding--
"I have been reflecting further on the question of the personality of
investigators. I think the names you suggest, and some others which
occur to me, divide naturally into three classes (assuming, and I
think you agree with me, that it does not follow that every one can
discover a ghost because it is there, nor that their failure to
discover it is any proof that it is not there). (1) Those who have
personal experience of phenomena, and may be expected to be
susceptible to psychic influences; (2) those who have no personal
powers in that line, but are open-minded and sympathetic; and (3)
those who are passively open to conviction. A fourth class, those who
come to look for evidence against the phenomena, but will accept none
for it, should, I think, be left until we have some demonstrable
evidence to show.... Mr. Myers proposes himself for April 14-21.... I
should suggest the keeping of a diary, in which every one willing to
do so should make entries, negative or affirmative."
The _Times_ Correspondent further criticised the method of inquiry
employed at B----.
"Lord Bute's original idea was a good one, but it was never properly
carried out. Observing that the S.P.R. had made many investigations in
a perfunctory and absurd manner by sending somebody to a haunted house
for a couple of nights and then writing an utterly worthless report,
he desired in this case a continuous investigation extending over a
considerable period. He ought, therefore, to have employed a couple of
intelligent detectives for the whole term, and thus secured real
continuity. As things are, the only continuity is to be found in the
presence--itself not entirely continuous--of the lady just mentioned.
But simply because she is a lady, and because she had her duties as
hostess to attend to, she is unfit to carry out the actual work of
investigating the phenomena in question. Some of her assistants sat up
all night, with loaded guns, in a condition of abject fright; others,
there is reason to suspect, manufactured phenomena for themselves; and
nearly all seem to have begun by assuming supernatural interference,
instead of leaving it for the final explanation of whatever might be
clearly proved to be otherwise inexplicable."
It is hardly necessary to repudiate such a condition of mind on the
part of the guests at B----, but it may be well to remark that the
writer of this sapient paragraph seems to be under the impression that
every result of certain forces at present imperfectly understood is
supernatural. The assertion that any one who was in the house during
Colonel Taylor's tenancy believed in the possibility of the existence
of anything supernatural is, so far as the present editors are aware,
a pure fabrication, having no foundation whatever. In their own belief
all things which exist, or can exist, are, _ipso facto_, natural,
although their nature may not belong to the plane of being in which we
are normally accustomed to move.
In this connection may be usefully quoted the following passages from
Miss Freer's article in _The Nineteenth Century_, August 1897:--
"Some of my friends asked me how I proposed to organise a haunted
house research, to which I could only reply that I didn't propose to
do anything of the sort. It seemed to me that among several things to
be avoided was self-consciousness of any kind, that the natural thing
to do was to settle down to a country-house life, make it as pleasant
as possible, and await events.... The subject of the 'haunting' was
never accentuated, and we always tried to prevent talking it over with
new-comers.... As to the guests, for the most part they came on no
special principle of selection.... Several of our visitors had more or
less special interest in the inquiry, but others merely came for a
country-house visit or for sport, and some knew nothing whatever till
after their arrival of any special interest alleged to attach to the
house.... Analysing our list of guests, I find that there were eleven
ladies, twenty-one gentlemen, and _The Times_ Correspondent. Of the
gentlemen, three were soldiers, three lawyers, two were men of
letters, one an artist, two were in business, four were clergy, one a
physician, ... and five, men of leisure."
It would be unnecessary to quote all the preliminary correspondence;
but the following passages from Lord Bute's letters to Miss Freer help
to explain the situation, and the relation of those concerned:--
"_December 20th.--_ ... I am afraid I shall encroach even further upon
your kindness. Myers has all the papers, but I fancy you would rather
know as little as possible, so as not to be influenced by expectation.
It is no case of roughing it. B---- House is, I believe, a luxurious
country house, ample, though not too large, in a beautiful
neighbourhood...."
A letter of December 22nd refers to a suggestion that the phenomena
were produced by trickery, a fact which is mentioned to show that the
possibility was kept in view from the first.
On January 23rd, "Not a day should be lost in beginning the
observation, which ought to be continuous. Such a chance has never
occurred before, and may never occur again. Orders have been given to
get the house ready for immediate occupation."
Miss Freer, accompanied by her friend Miss Constance Moore (a daughter
of the late Rev. Daniel Moore, Prebendary of St. Paul's and Chaplain,
to the Queen), arrived at B---- House on February 3, 1897.