The Alleged Haunting of B---- House, - [best historical fiction books of all time TXT] 📗

March 13th, Saturday.—At ten o'clock last night Miss Moore woke me to take some food. I was still under the influence of the opiate, and did not really rouse, even when she came to bed half-an-hour later. We did not speak till I was aroused by a loud banging noise, when, in answer to my startled exclamation, Miss Moore suggested that it was probably the servants shutting up downstairs, as we were early, and they had very likely not yet gone to bed. I was much annoyed, as I knew they had been cautioned to keep quiet, and even the maid had not been allowed to enter my room. This morning, when Miss Moore went to see the housekeeper, the butler came in and asked if we had heard any noises last night, about a quarter to eleven o'clock, he thought, after every one had gone up to bed; adding, "It was two bangs like a fist on a door, and I said, 'If that isn't Miss Moore or Miss Langton, I'll believe in the noises they all talk about,'—it's just like what the gentlemen told me."

His wife had also heard the bangs, but had waited for him to speak to her of them, and the maids on the other side of the house had been roused to come to their door and listen.

The footman, who sleeps in the basement, and the Colonel, who was in the smoking-room in the wing till 11.30, heard nothing; but Miss Langton, in No. 4, to whom Miss Moore mentioned the servants' story, had heard noises "between 10.30 and 10.45," but had not been disturbed, thinking, as we had done, that they were probably made by the servants.

On inquiry we found that the cook had gone to bed directly after the servants' supper, the two under maids were up by ten o'clock (Miss Moore heard their voices when she came to my room at ten o'clock), and the upper housemaid had gone up a few minutes after the hall clock struck, following Miss Moore up the stairs. The butler had come up directly after, only waiting to put out the hall lamp, and all were in bed before 10.30. We ourselves noticed the striking of the hall clock after we heard the noise—it had gone wrong, and only struck nine instead of eleven o'clock—so there seems little doubt that we all heard the same sound, and all describe it as coming from below.

In discussing the occurrence with the butler and his wife, Miss Moore learned that they had lately heard a story [from a local resident] which was new to us. A maid of Mrs. S——, who, though married to the butler, still lived in the house, and performed her duties as usual, was one night coming up the back-stairs with a tray for Mrs. S——, when, on reaching the top, by the door of No. 3, she met the figure of a nun, which so frightened her that she dropped the tray and broke all the plates on it. Mrs. S—— explained it away by saying it was "only ——" (they could not remember her name) "come to pray with her." It was Sunday night, but they knew there was no one there who could in the least account for the appearance. The only explanation offered by the narrator of the story was that "there had been a Miss S——, a nun, who had died."

March 14th, Sunday.—I called on Mrs. S——, and had a long talk with her.

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March 15th, Monday.—Miss Moore and I, both awake at the time, heard a loud, vibrating noise about a quarter to six. Miss Langton in No. 4 heard it also. The Colonel, who sleeps downstairs, heard it as from the hall, and said he also felt the vibration. Except for about three nights he has always slept in the wing, where, during our tenancy, there have been no phenomena.

March 16th, Tuesday.—Miss Moore, Miss Langton, the Colonel, and I, left B——. Miss Moore, Miss Langton, and I returning on March 20th.

After leaving B—— Colonel Taylor wrote as follows to Lord Bute:—

March 19th, 1897.—"I arrived in London yesterday, after having spent five weeks at B—— very pleasantly. I feel sure that there is a ghostly influence pervading the house, but I am a little disappointed at the way in which it manifests itself, for, up to the time I left, the nature of the manifestations was such that, though it is satisfactory to me, it would not be so, I think, to those who do not look at such things from so favourable a position as I do.

"I hope a change may yet come, and things take place which one might think would justify people in evacuating and forfeiting their money as the H——s did; certainly nothing of this sort happened while I was there.

"It is very interesting to note Miss Freer's experiences, but in regard to those of others who have something to relate, it is perhaps difficult to determine how much these statements should be discounted for error of observation and self-suggestion. I heard many noises in the night during my stay at B——, but they were of much the same sort I have been accustomed to hear at a similar time in other houses. I think that some of our witnesses may have given them undue prominence, under the influence of their own expectancy. The clairvoyant visions of 'Ishbel' in the grounds are not of great evidential value for the scientific world in general, and I think that any amount of 'voices' could be read into the noises of the running stream, near where she is seen, by those who 'wished to hear.' Still, there are some objective noises which cannot be easily accounted for in an ordinary way, and the three almost independent visions of the brown cross are important.

"I hope things will improve; in any case, you will have added considerably to psychical research when all has been recorded...."

It is difficult perhaps to see why Colonel Taylor should regard the independent visions of the crucifix as of more value than the equally independent and far more numerous hallucinations, audible and visual, of "Ishbel." We have the statements of the failure of several persons who "wished to hear" voices in the sounds of the burn, which was, moreover, frozen and silent when the voices were heard by the first two non-expectant and quite independent witnesses.