"Lord Bute has asked me to describe a seismographic instrument which I
used during my short visit to B----. The instrument consisted of a
light wooden frame or platform which rested on three billiard-balls.
The balls in their turn rested on a horizontal plate of plate-glass.
Through two wire rings in the centre of the platform already mentioned
a needle stood perpendicularly, resting on its point on the plate of
glass. The centre of the plate of glass (and the area round it and
within in the triangle describable with the balls at its angles) was
smoked. You will see that the parts of such an instrument are held
together by gravitation, and a very little friction, and that a tremor
communicated to the plate will not simultaneously affect the platform.
The needle-point describes on the smoked surface which it moves across
the converse of any movement of the plate which is not simultaneously
a movement of the platform, and the error between this and the
description of the tremor drawn by an absolutely fixed point--say the
earth itself--has been calculated on a replica of this instrument as
equal to the error of a pendulum thirty feet long."
It will be noticed that the phenomena began, so far as Miss Freer was
concerned, upon the night of her arrival in the house, February 3rd,
and ceased (if we except the sound heard by Mr. Etienne), after the
service performed by the Bishop on the morning of May 6th. This period
comprises ninety-two days, but from these must be subtracted the
seventeen days between Miss Freer's leaving B---- on the morning of
April 9th, and that of the departure of Mr. Myers's medium, Miss "K.,"
on the morning of April 26th.
Of the remaining seventy-five days, Miss Freer was absent from the
house for four days, from March 16th to March 20th, and for two nights
after Miss "K.'s" leaving; during this latter interval, however, Lord
Bute was himself on the spot. On the other hand, she remained in the
house for eight days after the service performed by the Bishop, during
which time no phenomena occurred.
Of the sixty-nine days of which a record is kept in the journal, viz.,
from February 3rd to May 14th, exclusive of twenty-three days for the
reasons already indicated, daytime phenomena occurred upon eighteen
days, and night phenomena upon thirty-five nights.
To these must be added the night of April 27th, the occasion of the
vision seen by Carter the housemaid during Lord Bute's visit.
Thirty-four nights, or almost exactly half the period, were entirely
without record of any phenomena whatever. This is without counting the
seven nights of the last week, during which there were observers for
longer or shorter periods in the house, none of whom recorded any
sight or sound of a supernormal kind, unless it were the percussive or
detonating noise heard by Mr. "Etienne."
The term "night" is here understood to cover the period between the
hour of going to rest at night, to that of leaving one's room next
morning, even if the phenomena occurred in the daylight hours of the
early morning. The term "day" is used to cover the hours of active,
waking life, from breakfast to bedtime.
To sum up the character of the phenomena, it may be well to begin with
those that are _visual_.
1. The phantasm of the Rev. P. H----. This was seen once only, and by
Miss Langton, on the night of February 17th. Of the identity no doubt
can be felt, since Miss Moore and Miss Freer afterwards recognised the
accuracy of the description on meeting the Rev. P. H---- for the first
time, in a crowded railway station on May 25th. This is the only one
of the apparitions which is undoubtedly that of a living person, and
like many such apparitions, it occurred at an hour when it is probable
that he was asleep. B---- is a place to which Father H----'s thoughts
were naturally and disagreeably drawn, and to which his attention had
been called anew. On awaking, he would probably have no recollection
of the circumstances, or at the utmost would have an impression of
having dreamt that he was there.
2. The woman once seen by Miss Freer in the drawing-room. She was
older than Sarah N----, who died at the age of twenty-seven, but of
whose haunting of B---- there is some tradition, but assisted by the
parish register of marriages and births it is not difficult to form a
guess at the identity of the phantasm. As there is some uncertainty as
to whether the person in question is still living, though it is
probable that she is dead, the vision is mentioned here before those
as to which there is no reason to doubt that they represent the dead.
There is reason to believe that the same apparition has been seen by
former occupants of the house, and it is alleged to be that of a
member of the S---- family.
3. The phantasm seen by Carter the housemaid, on the night of April
27th, who was described as "rather old," may possibly have been
identical with the above.
4. The nun to whom was given the name of "Ishbel." This subject has
been already discussed, and the suggestion thrown out that the
phantasm was an erroneous mental picture of the late Rev. Mother
Frances Helen, evolved from the imagination of a half-educated person
who had never seen the lady in question, and knew little about her.
This figure was seen many times by Miss Freer and Miss Langton, twice
by the Rev. Mr. "Q.," and probably by Madame Boisseaux, who unhappily
died suddenly before the editors had an opportunity of asking her for
exact information. There were also earlier witnesses. She was never
seen elsewhere than in the glen, except once by Miss Langton, and on
the one occasion when a Bishop was saying Mass in the house, and Miss
Freer saw her outside the window just after the elevation of the
chalice. It was stated, however, by two separate witnesses, that a
figure, probably the same, had been seen inside the house on at least
one occasion, when, some years before Colonel Taylor's tenancy, Mrs.
S---- was keeping her room, and a maid who was bringing up a tray met
the figure on the stairs, and experienced such a start that she
dropped the tray.
5. The lay-woman dressed in grey to whom was given the name of
"Marget," and who was sometimes seen in the company of "Ishbel,"
usually as though upbraiding or reproving her. She was seen by Miss
Freer and Miss Langton, and her voice in conversation with "Ishbel"
was heard not only by them, but by Mr. C---- and Miss Moore, Mr. "Q."
and Miss "Duff" (_cf._ Mrs. G.'s evidence, p. 68).
6. The appearance of the wooden crucifix seen in No. 3. It was about
eighteen inches long, and the figure was of the same wood as the
cross. Its earliest appearance is to the Rev. P. H----. It afterwards
appeared to the Rev. Mr. "Q.," and lastly to Miss Freer, none of the
witnesses knowing anything in detail of the experience of the others.
It was also seen in the crystal by Miss Langton--possibly by thought
transference from others.
When the Rev. P. H---- saw it he was always drowsy, but when it
appeared to Mr. "Q." its appearance was immediately preceded by a
sensation of acute chill on his part, and its appearance to Miss Freer
by a similar sensation on the part of "Endell." It is perhaps worth
while to remark, that we are told that among spiritualists the
sensation of cold is supposed to be an unfavourable indication as to
the character of the spirits who are present, and that in the cases of
both Mr. "Q." and Mr. "Endell" the appearance of the crucifix seemed
to put an end to the chill.
7. The dogs. These were much more often heard than seen, the sounds
being those of their pattering footsteps, sometimes as of their
bounding about in play, and sometimes of their throwing themselves
against the lower part of doors. It seemed, however, that they were
visible to Miss Freer's living dog at times when they were not visible
to her, and indeed the abject terror which the Pomeranian displayed in
No. 8 was so distressing, that she changed her room from No. 8 to No.
5 in consequence.
A dog was, moreover, seen by Miss Freer and Miss Langton in the
smoking-room on April 8th; Miss Freer and Miss Moore have described
more than one occasion when they felt themselves pushed as by a dog;
and on the night of May 4th, Miss Freer saw the two forepaws only, of
another and larger black dog resting on the edge of a table in No. 8.
Other apparitions seen in the house by former occupants were described
to members of Colonel Taylor's party as well as to earlier tenants,
but here, as elsewhere, we have refrained from all quotation from the
relatives of the present proprietor.
It is interesting to remark that one apparition which was constantly
expected during Colonel Taylor's tenancy was expected in vain. This
was that of the little old gentleman with stooping form and limping
gait mentioned by earlier witnesses. His peculiar step was heard very
frequently, and by a great number and variety of witnesses, alone and
collectively; and his appearance, naturally enough, was constantly
looked for, but it never occurred.
In the same way there was one expected sound which never occurred,
though frequent in the experience of earlier witnesses--that of the
rustling of a silk dress, suggesting to the mind of the hearer the
idea of some one who, either in fact or in thought, had worn such a
garment.
_Tactile._ The most important of these were the experiences of Miss
"N." on the night of March 3rd, and of Miss "Duff" on the night of
March 22nd, both in No. 3; and of a maid, Lizzie, on the night of
March 23rd, in the room above No. 3, on the attic storey, who all
testified to the sensation of the moving of the bed, or the handling
of the bed-clothes. These were the only occasions during Colonel
Taylor's tenancy, but the phenomenon is one often testified to by
earlier witnesses, both during the H----s' tenancy and that of the
family of the late Mr. S----.
It presents a peculiar difficulty in the way of the theory that all
the phenomena at B---- were subjective hallucinations, and this is
especially the case with regard to the evidence of a witness who has
not been brought forward in the preceding pages, but whose account of
a similar experience is reported by two first-hand witnesses. On one
occasion he had the whole of the upper bed-clothes lifted from off him
and thrown upon the floor, while a pile of wearing apparel, which was
laid on a chair beside the bed, was thrown in his face.
It is of course conceivable that the whole of these experiences,
including the last, were the result of an hallucination; but on the
other hand, it would be very unwise, in the present state of our
ignorance on the subject, to dogmatise as to the possible action of
unseen forces upon what is commonly called matter. It is interesting
to note that this senseless and childish trick coincides with what was
said by Miss A---- as to the presence of mischievous elementals, and
also what she says as to _apports_.[I]
1. The sensation of the movement of the bed itself, whether as being
rocked, as in the experience of Miss "Duff" on March 22nd, and of Miss
Langton on several occasions, and by guests of the H---- family, or of
being lifted up, as in that of the maid Lizzie, is a phenomenon by no
means uncommon, and if objective is of the nature of levitation; but
we have unfortunately no evidence from a second person observing the
phenomenon from outside. Whether it were actually moved it is
impossible to say, but the sensation seems to have been more than
subjective.
2. The sensation of struggling with something unseen, described by
Miss "Duff," March 22nd, and of the sensation of an incumbent weight,
as described by Miss "Duff" (same date) and Miss "N." on March 2nd.
This coincides with the arrest of his hand experienced by Harold
Sanders. These phenomena adapt themselves to the theory of
subjectivity more easily than the foregoing, because they more closely
resemble those of nightmare (familiar to most persons), although they
occurred while the witnesses were awake.
3. The sensation of being pushed by a dog was experienced in two
different rooms by Miss Freer and Miss Moore respectively. If Mr.
"Endell" were touched by Ishbel on the evening of March 1st, as
appeared to Miss Freer to be the case, he had no independent
consciousness of the fact that might not have been referred to
expectation, so that this cannot be regarded as evidential.
For lack of other classification, we mention under this heading of
"tactile" the sensation of chill experienced by Mr. "Endell" and Mr.
Q---- in No. 3, and which appears to be the same as that described by
Harold Sanders as the sensation of "entering an ice-house."
The _audile_ phenomena were so frequent and so various, that a
conspectus of them is given in an appendix. Some of them appeared to
be human in origin, such as voices, reading or speaking, footsteps,
and, according to earlier witnesses, screams and moans. Others might
have been caused by dogs, such as pattering footsteps, jumping and
pouncing as in play, the wagging of a dog's tail against the door, and
the sound as of a dog throwing itself against the lower panels. Other
sounds have been differentiated, as the _detonating_ or explosive
noise; the _clang_ sound, as of the striking of metal upon wood; the
_thud_ or heavy fall without resonance; and the _crash_, which was
never better described than as if one of the beasts' heads on the
staircase wall had fallen into the hall below. It very often, or
almost always, seemed to occur under the glass dome which lighted the
body of the house, and the falling object seemed to strike others in
its descent, so that it was not ineffectively imitated by rolling a
bowl along the stone floor of the hall, and allowing it to strike
against the doors or pillars, when the peculiar echoing quality was
fairly reproduced by the hollow domed roof and surrounding galleries.
The editors offer no conclusions. This volume has been put together,
as the house at B---- was taken, not for the establishment of
theories, but for the record of facts.