"There has been nothing capable of being photographed. The sounds are
objective though not impressive.... I have seen nothing to suggest
electricity or magnetism, or any of the ordinary physical agents in
connection with the disturbances; but the noises are so momentary and
infrequent, that they give no real scope for continued examination."
Professor Lodge left on April 21st, and Mr. Myers on April 22nd; but
Miss "K----," with Mr. Campbell, remained alone till the morning of
Monday 26th, and on the afternoon of the same day Lord and Lady Bute
arrived, and stayed till Wednesday 28th. Mr. MacP----, who came with
them, was obliged by previous engagements to leave next morning.
They slept in the wing, and nothing occurred during their visit so far
as they were concerned.
Lord Bute records, however, that he twice read aloud the whole of the
Office for the dead in its five sections (vespers, nocturns, and
lauds) in different places, but neither he nor any one with him saw or
heard anything, unless it were a sound of women talking and laughing
while he was reading the Office about 10.30 P.M. in No. 8, and this he
supposed was simply the maids going to bed, though in fact the room
overhead was unoccupied. He had, however, a most disagreeable
impression, not in the places where he expected it, which were the
glen, No. 3, and No. 8, but in No. 1. The sensation was that of
persons being present, and on the second occasion that of violent
hatred and hostility. He recorded "Went to No. 1 a third time, and
again experienced the sensation of persons being present, but on this
last occasion as though they were only morosely unfriendly."
It is remarkable that this sensation of unseen presences is one which
many other persons experienced in this room, and in this room only;
but it is also remarkable that this was the first indication of the
hostile or irreligious tone which was thenceforth apparent. Until the
sojourn of the party of members of the S.P.R. the tone had been
plaintive and religious.
Mr. MacP----, who is a Presbyterian, made a remark which struck Lord
Bute as interesting, to the effect that the whole of the Office for
the dead, with the frequent occurrence of the words _Requiam eternam_,
&c., might be as irritating to Intelligences which desired to
communicate, as would be the effect of saying merely "keep still," or
"be quiet," to persons who wished to set forth their wrongs. But this
curious hypothesis would be insufficient to account for a sensation of
absolute enmity.
A private letter, written by Lord Bute on April 29th to a
distinguished ecclesiastic, repeats these statements, and adds one or
two additional touches which it is desirable to quote:--
"We returned yesterday after spending forty-eight hours at B----,
where we heard and saw nothing, but as my proceedings were mainly
ecclesiastical, your Grace may like to know what happened.
"On the way I was shown the inclosure in the churchyard wherein lie,
in unmarked graves, the late Major S----, his 'housekeeper,' and his
old Indian servant. I would have gone and prayed there, but the place
seemed to me too public.... B---- is a remarkably beautiful place, and
the day was splendid; were it not for the grandeur of the scenery, I
should have called the landscape laughing, or at least smiling. The
house is remarkably bright and cheerful, and indeed luxurious. There
is a really nice set of family pictures from about the time of Charles
II.... The place is a perfect aviary, and the sight of the innumerable
birds, evidently encouraged by long kindness, building their nests was
very pleasant, and has some psychological interest, since animals
sometimes see these things when we do not, and there was evidently
nothing to scare the birds, rabbits, or squirrels.... As her ladyship
and I did not wish to be troubled at night, we took rooms in the wing,
which the late Mr. S---- is said to have built in order to save his
children from the haunting, and which has been but little troubled;
and we slept there quite comfortably. Soon after 6 P.M. I went to the
place near the burn where apparitions have so often appeared, and
which was, I think, first indicated by Ouija. I read aloud the vespers
for the dead, but no phenomenon appeared, nor had I any sensation.
About 7.30 I went to a room which I will call A [No. 1] ... and read
aloud the first Nocturn of the dirge; there was nothing to be seen or
heard, but I felt some physical inconvenience in beginning, like an
impediment in speech, and I had a very strong sensation that there
were persons listening....[G] Soon after 10 P.M. I went and read aloud
the two next Nocturns in room B [8]. As I finished the second, Mr.
MacP---- and I heard two women speaking merrily outside the door, and
I doubt not they were the maids going to bed. During the night,
although we slept well, my servant [who slept in No. 4, next to Mr.
MacP---- in No. 5], like other people in haunted rooms, could not
sleep after five, and he tells me one of the maids saw the bust of a
woman with short hair, as though sitting at the foot of her bed.
"In the morning I said Lauds in room C [Library]. No phenomena or
sensation. Soon after 5 P.M. said _Placebo_ again in room B [8].
Nothing. Then visited the haunted burn again for some time. Nothing.
About 7.30 read the first two Nocturns again in room D [No. 3].
Nothing. Soon after ten read the third Nocturn in A [1]. Made slips of
pronunciation, and felt the presence of others very strongly, and that
it was hostile or evil, as though they were kept at arm's-length; a
disagreeable sensation continued until I threw some holy water on my
bed before getting into it, when it suddenly disappeared. Next morning
I said Lauds in A [1]. I had no difficulty in utterance; the sense of
other presences was not strong, and I had no feeling of hostility [on
their part], but rather of their having to put up with a slight
nuisance which would soon be over. These subjective feelings are in no
way evidential, nor would I mention them were they not confined to one
place out of five, and occurred whenever I went there, at three most
varying hours.... My servant, the second night, could not sleep
between 4.30 and 6."
* * * * *
Miss Freer returned alone to B---- on April 28th. The Journal is now
resumed.
_April 28th._--I returned to B----, arriving at 7 P.M. Slept in
No. 8. Quiet night.
This morning I inquired of the servants as to what occurred in
my absence. They have very definite views as to the nature and
causes of the phenomena during the visit of Mr. Myers's party
... including much table-tilting at meals, and so on. When
questioned as to any experiences of their own, all answered to
the same effect, that they shouldn't have taken notice of
anything that happened at that time, but that something had
occurred after the last two members of the party had left on the
day of his Lordship's arrival, "and that," said the cook, "was
quite another matter."
The experience was Carter's, the upper housemaid, and she told
it in a manner that it would be difficult to distrust. She was
not anxious to talk about it, and seemed annoyed that it had
been mentioned at all. I wrote down her story verbatim.
"It was about four o'clock, or may be a little later, but it was
just getting light; there is no blind to the skylight in my
room, and I woke up suddenly and I thought some one had come
into the room, and I called out, 'Is that you, Mrs. Robinson?'
and when she didn't answer I called out 'Hannah,' but no one
spoke, and then I looked up, and at the foot of my bed there was
a woman. She was rather old, and dressed in something dark, and
she had a little shawl on, and her hair short. It was hanging,
but it didn't reach nearly to her shoulders. I was awful
frightened, and put my head down again. I couldn't look any
more."
I asked about the height of the woman, wondering if it were like
the figure seen in the drawing-room, and Carter said, "I didn't
notice, only the top part of her." I said, "Do you mean she had
no legs?" and she said, "I didn't take notice of any." She was
genuinely concerned and alarmed.
This is probably the incident thus described by _The Times_
correspondent. "One of the maidservants described a sort of dull
knocking which, according to her, goes on between two and six in the
morning, in the lath and plaster partition by the side of her bed,
which shuts off the angular space just inside the eaves of the house.
She likened it to the noise of gardeners nailing up ivy outside. She
seemed honest, but as she had seen the ghost of half a woman sitting
on her fellow-servant's bed, one takes her evidence with a grain or
two of salt. Any noises she has really heard may be due to the cooling
of the hot-water pipes which pass along behind the partition just
mentioned to the cistern." The hot-water pipe theory has been already
discussed.
Before proceeding, it had better be again mentioned that, owing to the
fact that several of the persons interested in B---- were Roman
Catholics, and the Rev. P---- H---- having been one of the principal
witnesses, as well as having himself appeared phantasmally in the
house, it was considered desirable to obtain the assistance of some
clergy of that communion. Miss Freer accordingly secured the services
of three members of a famous society; one of those was the Rev. P----
H---- himself, one a well-known Oxford man who takes much interest in
such questions, and the third a man of great experience at a place
where miracles are said to be frequent. However, their Superior
refused to allow them to come, and she then applied to a well-known
monastery, but was again refused help. Lastly, she turned to the
secular clergy, and obtained the assistance of two priests and a
bishop. The priests are here designated MacD---- and MacL----. All
three were previously well known to her, and she had especial reason
to consider them not only worthy of her esteem and confidence, but,
moreover, as taking an instructed and intelligent interest in the
subject.
_April 29th, Friday._--Rooms for to-night:--
No. 3. Rev. A. MacD----.
" 4. Rev. A. MacL----.
" 8. Myself.
The priests arrived late in the evening. I put them in No. 3 and
4, though I like to give No. 1 to new-comers. However, I had
promised that to Madame Boisseaux, whom we are expecting from
Paris, with the dressing-room for her maid.
_April 30th._--The priests both look very weary. They were not
frightened, but the sounds have kept them awake all night.
Young S---- called to-day; he is going to help me to get up a
dance for the servants. His mother is away at S----.
_May 1st._--I shall have to move the priests. They persist that
they are not frightened, but they are both looking shockingly
ill and worn, and the Rev. MacD---- is not in a state of health
to take liberties with. The Rev. MacL---- seems in the same
mental state as was Mr. P----. He sees nothing, but is
supernormally sensitive, and without any hint from me, declared
that he felt the drawing-room, wing, and No. 7 to be "innocent."
Poor little "Spooks" is the chief sufferer. She sleeps on my bed
now, but even so, wakes in the night growling and shivering, and
she refuses her food, and is in a dreadfully nervous state.
Perhaps I ought not to keep her in No. 8, where we have so often
heard the patterings of dogs' feet, and where Miss Moore was
once pushed as by a dog, in broad daylight.
_May 2nd._--Nothing occurred. We perhaps all slept the sounder
last night, having been kept up till two o'clock waiting for
Madame Boisseaux, who never turned up. She and the M----s and
Mrs. "F." arrived to-day.
Madame Boisseaux arrived, and was put into No. 1.
Her maid " " 2.
Father MacD---- " " 3.
Father MacL---- " " 4.
Mrs. "F." " " 5.
Mr. and Mrs. M---- " " 6 and 7.
Myself " " 8.
_May 3rd._--The general tone of things is disquieting, and new
in our experience. Hitherto, in our first occupation, the
phenomena affected one as melancholy, depressing, and
perplexing, but now all, quite independently, say the same
thing, that the influence is evil and horrible--even poor little
Spooks, who was never terrified before, as she has been since
our return here. The worn faces at breakfast were really a
dismal sight.
In spite of her long journey, Madame Boisseaux could not sleep.
She was so tired, she dropped to sleep at once on going to bed,
but was awoke by the sound of a droning voice as if from No. 3,
and, at intervals, more distant voices in high argument. She
said she dared not go to sleep; she felt as if some
evil-disposed persons were in the room, and it would not be safe
to lose consciousness. But she saw nothing. She looks so ill
that her maid, a very faithful old servant, has been to beg me,
"_pour l'amour de Dieu_," to give Madame another room. So
to-night I will put her in No. 5.
Mrs. "F." who was in No. 5, was disturbed by knocks at her door
(_cf._ Mrs. W----'s experience in the same room), and to-night
is to sleep in my room, No. 8, which last night was also
somewhat noisy, but she will not be alone. The Rev. MacD----
looks so ill from two nights' sleeplessness that the priests are
to go into the wing to-night. They were unwilling to move, and
made no complaints, and now do not say they have seen anything,
merely that the evil influence about them was painful and
disturbing.
Mrs. M----, who, it will be remembered, was much disturbed
during her last visit, begged that she might be quiet, and we
gave her No. 7. She is the only person who has had a really good
night, except Mr. M----, who had a fancy to sleep in the
smoking-room, in the hope of a visit from the Major, but nothing
happened. As he had been mountaineering all day, he probably
would have slept well under any conditions.
_May 4th._--I am thankful to say the priests slept well in the
wing. Madame Boisseaux, in No. 5, was disturbed by knocks at her
door, but as she wisely remarked, they had the advantage of
being outside. Mr. M---- had moved into No. 1, and slept fairly
well, but said he felt as before, "not alone," but as he _had_
felt that before, expectation may count for something.
Mrs. "F" slept with me; I was awoke early by my dog crying, and
I saw two black paws resting on the table beside the bed. It
gave me a sickening sensation, and I longed to wake Mrs. "F" to
see if she would see them, but I remembered her bad night of
yesterday, and left her in peace.
The priests spend much time in devotions, and are very decided
in their views as to the malignity of the influence. The bishop
comes to-day, and we hope he will have Mass said in the house.
We shall then have ten Roman Catholics in the household--two
visitors, three clergy, two visitors' maids, and three of our
own servants. That should have an effect upon the Major! Miss
Moore and Scamp arrived.
_May 5th._--The bishop is in No. 1. He arrived to lunch to-day.
Last night all was quiet after bedtime, but sitting in the
drawing-room about five o'clock, having just come in from a
drive, five of us heard the detonating noise, as it were in the
empty room overhead. Madame B----, Mrs. "F," Mrs. M----, the
Rev. MacL----, and myself. Mrs. "F" left this morning.
The priests went with me to the copse. They saw nothing, but
were in too anxious a state to be receptive. I saw Ishbel for
one moment. She looked _agonised_, as never before.
Mr. B. S---- dined with us, and the servants, indoor and out,
danced in the hall in the evening. We had pipers, and some
supper for them in the billiard-room. The gardener and the
butler and cook say there was a great crash in the room just
when the parish minister was saying grace, and that many of the
people from outside noticed it, and "they just looked at each
other." I was myself in the room, but as we had just had a very
physical and commonplace disturbance--the arrival of an
uninvited and intoxicated guest, of which the other people did
not know as I did--I was preoccupied at the moment.
Mass this morning in the drawing-room.
_May 6th._--Madame Boisseaux has had to go suddenly; there has
been terrible news for her of this Paris fire. She came into my
room very early with her telegram (arrived too late for delivery
last night). I did not like to worry her with questions,
overwhelmed as she was, but she said her room "resounded with
knocks."
There was Mass said in the ground-floor sitting-room this
morning, and as I knelt facing the window I saw Ishbel with the
grey woman, nearer the house than ever before. She looked
pensive, but, as compared with last time, much relieved.
This is the last time the figures were seen. The following details are
quoted from a letter written by Miss Freer to Lord Bute on this day:
"Mass was said this morning in the downstairs room, the altar arranged
in front of the window, so that, as we knelt, we faced the garden.
Poor Madame Boisseaux was dressed for travelling, and in much
agitation. As the carriage which was to take her to the station was
expected at any moment, I suggested that she and I should remain
upstairs, but she said she should like to be there, if only for a few
minutes, the more that the 'intention' was to be partly for those who
had suffered in the fire, and for their sorrowing friends. She and I,
therefore, knelt close to the door, keeping it slightly ajar, so as to
be able to obey a summons at any moment.
"Suddenly she touched my arm, and directed my attention to the window.
There I saw a figure standing outside, which--so slow-sighted am I--I
took for the moment for Madame's maid, and thought she had come to
call our attention through the window--a long 'French' one, opening
out on to the lawn--as less likely to disturb the service. I was
starting up when I perceived that the figure was 'Ishbel'--the black
gown, like that worn by the maid, had misled me for the moment.
'Marget' seemed to hover in the background, but she was much less
distinct than the other. A minute later we were called away.
"The room had been selected by the priests themselves, but it is the
one I should myself, for obvious reasons, have chosen for the
purpose."
When the bustle of Madame's hasty departure was over, and we had
breakfasted, the bishop blessed the house from top to bottom,
and especially visited rooms Nos. 1, 3, and 8, and also the
library. He sprinkled the rooms with holy water, and especially
the doorway leading to the drawing-room, where noises have so
often been heard. He and the priests had hardly gone when there
was a loud bang upon a little table that stands there. It is an
old work-table, a box on tall, slender legs, and the sound could
easily be imitated by lifting the lid and letting it fall
smartly, but I saw no movement--not that I was watching it at
the moment. The bishop and priests returned, and the ceremony
was repeated, after which the bang again occurred, but much more
faintly.
The three clergy left this afternoon. Miss Moore and I are now
alone.
This bang was the last phenomenon of an abnormal kind during this
tenancy. Miss Moore and Miss Freer stayed in the house another week
without anything further occurring either to themselves, their guests,
or the servants.
During that time, they received six more guests: Miss C----, Miss
"Etienne," with her brother, a lawyer, and three other visitors, with
whom Miss Freer had no previous acquaintance, but who received an
invitation under the following special conditions, not being, as were
other guests, personal friends, or, in one or two instances,
accompanying personal friends by whom they were introduced, and at
whose request they were invited.
Sir William Huggins had some time before written to Lord Bute to beg
him to obtain admission to the house for Sir James Crichton Browne,
who is, of course, well known as a physician of great eminence, and in
especial as an expert in psychology, and whom Sir William stated to be
deeply interested in phenomena such as those observed at B----.
Lord Bute accordingly wrote to Miss Freer, who wrote to Sir James. He
did not immediately reply, which surprised her, after so earnest a
request, and because admission to the house for the purpose of such
observations was a mark of confidence, which as a hostess she was very
chary of giving, and which would never have been extended to him,
notwithstanding his scientific eminence, had it not been for the
intercession of Sir William Huggins and Lord Bute, through whom he had
sought it.
He wrote to her after some time, apologising for the delay on the
score of illness, begging to know if it were still possible for him
to be admitted, and whether he might bring with him a scientific
friend. Miss Freer consented, and he then wrote announcing his arrival
and that of a nephew, a student at Oxford, interested in science. He
then asked, by telegram, whether a third guest could be admitted, to
which she also consented, and his two friends, one of whom is believed
to have been the anonymous _Times_ correspondent, accordingly came,
four days after the phenomena had, as has been stated, apparently
ceased. The way in which this hospitality was repaid is a matter of
common knowledge. Their hostess knew of no intention to make copy of
their visit, with full names, geographical indications, and repetition
of private conversations, until the publication of the _Times'_
article of June 8th. They remained from Saturday evening till Monday
morning, and, like others, saw and heard nothing; and much time was
spent in repeating the already often repeated experiments as to
possible sources of the sights and sounds observed at B----. Their
observations appeared to be able to penetrate no further than the mark
of the shoe which Miss Freer pointed out on the door in the wing,
made subsequently to the flight of the H---- family, a passage under
the roof, with which the household had long been as familiar as with
the hall-door, and the suggestion that a certain stream might run
under the house, the which stream runs nowhere near the house at all,
as Miss Freer was already well aware, a fact which she demonstrated
for their benefit on a map of the estate.
This is perhaps a suitable point at which to add a letter from the
head-gardener who has been referred to more than once, more especially
as an important witness to the phenomena of the H----s' tenancy.
He writes to Miss Freer in reference to a statement by _The Times_
correspondent:--
"_July 8th, '97._-- ... I might also mention to you, while writing,
that 'the intelligent gardener' that was made mention of in _The
Times_ was a journeyman, and not myself, as many have supposed. I
thought it proper to tell you, madam, because I told you and several
others that I was in the house and had heard something."
_The Times_ correspondent's statement is as follows:--
"An intelligent gardener whom I questioned told me that he had kept
watch in the house on two separate occasions, abstaining from sleep
until daylight appeared at seven o'clock, but without hearing a
sound."
The under gardener's experience of two nights is as exhaustive of the
subject as that of _The Times_ correspondent and his friends, who also
remained two nights, but do not allege that they "abstained from
sleep."
Mr. "Etienne" was the last guest at B----, and arrived the evening
before the house was vacated. He afterwards told Lord Bute that he had
brought, without the knowledge of any one in the house, two seismic
instruments, but that they recorded nothing, and that during the night
he heard a sound as of a gun being fired outside the house. This he
attributed to some poacher unknown, an explanation which seems hardly
probable, as at this time of year there is nothing to shoot except
rabbits. One never hears of a poacher shooting rabbits, and in any
case, he would hardly do so in the immediate neighbourhood of an
inhabited house, and discharging his gun once only.
Mr. "Etienne's" experiments are the more interesting because that
among many suggestions made by Sir J. Crichton Browne, the only one
which had not been already considered, was the use of seismic
instruments. This--the house being within the seismic area--seemed so
reasonable, that Miss Freer at once entered into correspondence with
the well-known Professor Milne, with a view to experiment in this
direction. The following is from his reply:--
"_May 15th, 1897._--I was much interested in your note of the 13th,
and fancy that the sounds with which you have to deal may be of
seismic origin. Such sounds I have often heard, and the air waves, if
not the earth waves, can be mechanically recorded. What you require to
make the records is a seismograph with large but exceeding light
indices, or a Perry tromometer.... The reason I think that the sounds
are seismic is, first, on account of their character, and secondly,
because you are in one of the most unstable parts of Great Britain,
where between 1852 and 1890, 465 shocks (many with sounds) were
recorded. Lady Moncrieff, when living at Comrie House in 1844, often
heard rumblings and moanings, and such sounds, possibly akin to the
'barisal guns'[H] of Eastern England, often occur without a shake. The
mechanism of this production may be due to slight movements on a fault
face, and they may be heard, especially in rocky districts, in very
many countries...."
Miss Freer's reply was an urgent request that machinery and an
operator might be at once sent up to B----. Professor Milne replied
that delicate instruments, such as he himself employed, could only be
used by one other person, but suggested that she should hire from a
well-known London firm what are known as "Ewing's-type" seismometers,
adding, "I doubt whether these will record anything but movements to
which you are sensible."
Miss Freer's designs, however, were frustrated, for on applying for an
extension of tenancy for this purpose, Captain S----, the proprietor,
peremptorily forbade the continuance of scientific observation--a
remarkable parallel to his father's refusal to permit the use of the
phonograph when suggested by Sir William Huggins.