_To the Editor of "The Times."_
"SIR,--A letter entitled 'On the Trail of a Ghost,' which you
publish to-day, appears to suggest throughout that some statement
has been made on behalf of the Society for Psychical Research with
regard to the house which your correspondent visited. This,
however, is not the case; and as a misleading impression may be
created, I must ask you to allow me space to state that I visited
B----, representing that society, before your correspondent's
visit, and decided that there was no such evidence as could
justify us in giving the results of the inquiry a place in our
_Proceedings_. I had already communicated this judgment to Lord
Bute, to the council of the society, and to Professor Sidgwick,
the editor of our _Proceedings_, and it had been agreed to act
upon it.--I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
"FREDERICK W.H. MYERS,
_Hon. Sec. of the Society for Psychical Research._
"LECKHAMPTON HOUSE, CAMBRIDGE, _June 8_."
One may gather from a comparison of this letter with the foregoing
records that the standard of evidence is a somewhat variable quantity
in the Society for Psychical Research. In attempting to explain the
matter, Mr. Myers wrote to Lord Bute, June 11, 1897:--
"As to haunted houses recorded at length in _Proceedings_, there have
been several minor ones, and one especially, 'Records of a Haunted
House,' where I was instrumental in getting the account written. The
great point there was the amount of coincidence of visions seen
independently.... In the B---- case there is _some_ coincidence of
vision, but so far as I know, not nearly so much as in the Records of
a Haunted House, which did appear in _Proceedings_. We want to keep
our level approximately the same throughout."
Another point of view in relation to the same matter, is that taken by
Miss Freer in an article in the _Nineteenth Century_, August 1897:--
"That the S.P.R. recognised that haunted houses were among the alleged
facts of general interest, was proved by their early appointment of a
Committee of Inquiry, on the management of which it is too late to
reflect. At the end of a few months only, they practically dismissed a
subject which, if considered at all, required years of patient
research. They had come across the surprising number of twenty-eight
cases which they considered worth inquiry; but these were presented to
the public on the evidence of only forty witnesses--that is to say, an
average of less than one and a half to each! The appearance of figures
is recorded in twenty-four of these stories, whilst four record noises
only. Ten years later the _Proceedings_ take up the subject again, and
give us at some length an elaborate story on the evidence of two or
three ladies, two servants, a charwoman, and a little boy. ['Records
of a Haunted House.'] No proper journal was kept, and the Society for
Psychical Research came upon the scene when all was practically over."
In relation to the period of the visit of the Myers party to B----
House, Lord Bute received several journal letters from Professor
Lodge, as well as from Mr. Myers, which, as he has made no request to
the contrary, might be quoted here _in extenso_, were it not that
they relate in considerable part to the proceedings of the medium, as
to which the present editors agree with Mr. Myers, that "they greatly
doubt if there was anything supernormal."
Professor Lodge was from the first much interested in the B----
inquiry, and wrote to Lord Bute on April 14th, two days after arrival:
"I have not found anything here as yet at all suitable for physical
experiments. I have heard a noise or two, and intelligent raps.
Nothing whatever can be normally seen so far."
And on April 17th: "The noises and disturbances have been much quieter
of late, in fact have almost ceased _pro tem_.... We have not heard
the loud bang as yet. Knocks on the wall, a sawing noise, and a
droning and a wailing are all we have heard. The droning and the
wailing, some whistling, and apparent attempts at a whisper, all up in
the attic, may have been due either to the wind or birds. They were
not distinct enough to be evidential, though they were just audible to
all of us. The sawing noise was more distinct. I think I will go to
the attic about 3 A.M. to-night to see if anything more can be heard.
Most of the noises occur then, or else at 6 A.M. Mr. Campbell has
heard a dragging along the floor in his bedroom, No. 3. I have heard,
like many others, the knocking on the wall, but for the last two
nights things have been quiet.
"_April 20th._--There has been nothing here for me to do as a
physicist, and I return home tomorrow, but nevertheless the phenomena,
taken as a whole, have been most interesting.... I know that you are
hearing from Mr. Myers the details of our sittings.... There is
certainly an interregnum of noises, the last three nights having been
undisturbed. [After describing recent séances with Miss 'K----.'] I
write just as if what we have been told were true.[F] The cessation of
the noises may of course be merely a temporary lull as before, and
they may break out again...."
On April 22nd, he wrote to Miss Freer "The sounds are not very strong,
and latterly there has been one of your interregna in the noises, but
still we heard some of them; only knocks, however, except once a low
droning, a sawing noise, and a whistling whisper. Some of the raps
seemed intelligent, but there was nothing to investigate on the
physical side...."