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

that I at last refused to repeat them, even when pressingly requested to do so. It was, therefore, quite a surprise to find myself talking about B—— House, or rather, listening with rapt attention to another talking about the place.

"Miss Y——, I think her name was, kept house for a priest at——. One evening, while on a visit there, I found her knitting as I passed the kitchen door, and bidding her the time of day, I discovered from a remark she made that she had in former days filled more important posts. She soon settled down when she found me an attentive listener to a somewhat detailed account of by no means a short life.

"'Had she been in Scotland?' 'Yes, sir; and in a very beautiful part of Scotland, in P——shire.' 'Indeed!' In short she told me that she had been, twelve years ago, governess in the S—— family at B—— House. (I need not say that I was now intensely interested.) 'Why did she leave?' 'Well, sir, so many people complained of queer noises in the house, that I got alarmed and left.' I asked her had she seen anything? She said No, and the noises were only heard in certain rooms, and the servants inhabited quite a different part of the house. When I closely questioned her she located the queer noises precisely in the two rooms I had successively occupied. She did not learn from me that I had ever been there. Pressed for a concrete case of fright and abrupt leavetaking (I think), she told me two military officers had 'left next morning.'

"In conclusion, as against all the above, my own, and this good woman's account, I must set it down that, before I left the house, two young ladies, relatives of the family, occupied the rooms in question, and certainly, to my surprise, did not seem at breakfast as if they had spent an unquiet night."

Inquiry shows that Miss Y——'s residence at B—— must have been about the years 1878-80.

The earliest witnesses in chronological sequence would be the S—— family themselves; but though much information has been contributed by them to various persons interested in B—— House during the tenancy both of Mr. H—— and Colonel Taylor, the present Editors are unwilling to make use of it without permission.

A statement in The Times article, of the character of which the reader can here judge for himself, elicited the following letter from Mrs. S——, which is to be found in the issue of that journal for June 18, 1897:—

"May I ask of your courtesy to insert this in the next issue of your paper. Seeing myself dragged into publicity in The Times of June 8, as 'having made admissions under pressure of cross-examination,' I beg to state that I as well as the rest of my family had not the remotest idea that our home was let to other than ordinary tenants. In my intercourse with them I spoke as one lady to another, never imagining that my private conversations were going to be used for purposes carefully concealed from me—a deceit which I deeply resent."

It will be observed that Mrs. S—— here leaves no doubt as to the nature of the information with which she was so good as to favour Miss Freer, but, notwithstanding this fact, and the language which Mrs. S—— has considered it right to use—or, at least, to sign—with regard to Miss Freer, Miss Freer prefers to continue to treat Mrs. S——'s statements as confidential, and blanks will accordingly be found in the Journal under the dates on which such conversations occurred. Miss Freer extends the same regard for a privacy, which the S—— family have themselves violated, to communications made by other members. There have, however, been several witnesses unconnected with them, some of whom are referred to in the Journal. Not only the villagers and persons in the immediate neighbourhood, but many accidentally met with in visits to show-places and in excursions for twenty miles round B——, were ready to pour out traditions and experiences which are not here quoted, as, though often suggestive, not always evidential.

The Rev. P. H——, already referred to, quotes a witness who testifies to processions of monks or nuns having been seen by Mr. S—— from a window, and of a married couple who, "relating the events of the night, declared they could not hear each other's voices for the noise overhead between them and the ceiling," which was especially interesting to him, as corroborative of his own experience.

A former servant at B—— has voluntarily related, at great length, the story of the alleged hauntings, which shows that they have occurred at intervals during the past twenty years. He is of opinion that as the earlier hauntings were ascribed to the late Major S——, so their revival may be referred to the late proprietor; but his reasons, as well as his narrative, are of a nature which might cause annoyance to the S—— family, and are therefore withheld.

Dr. Menzies, a correspondent of The Times, June 10th, who speaks of himself as an old friend of Major S——, refers to a still earlier haunting—a tradition current at the time of the Major's succession in 1844.

In August 1896, B—— House, with the shooting attached, was let by Captain S——, the present proprietor, for a year to a wealthy family of Spanish origin. Their experience was of such a nature that they abandoned the house at the end of seven weeks, thus forfeiting the greater part of their rent, which had been paid in advance. The evidence of Mr. H—— himself, of his butler, and of several guests, will be found in due chronological sequence.

When Colonel Taylor, one of the fundamental members of the London Spiritualist Alliance, a distinguished member of the S.P.R., whose name is associated both in this country and in America with the investigation of haunted houses, offered to take a lease of B—— House, after the lease had been resigned by Mr. H——, the proprietor made no objection whatever. Indeed, the only allusion made to the haunting was the expression of a hope on the part of Captain S——'s agents in Edinburgh, that Colonel Taylor would not make it a subject of complaint, as had been done by Mr. H——, in reply to which they were informed that Colonel Taylor was thoroughly well aware of what had happened during Mr. H——'s tenancy, and would undertake to make no complaint on the subject. Captain S—— having thus thrown the house into the open market, and let it to the well-known expert, with no reference whatever to the subject of haunting, except that it should not be made a ground of complaint, it is obvious that he deprived himself of any right to complain as to observations upon the subject of local hallucination, any more than of observation upon the habits of squirrels or other local features. Nor had he any more right to complain upon this ground, as vendor of the lease, than any other vendor of articles exposed for public sale, such as a hatter, who after selling a hat to Lord Salisbury, might complain that he had been induced to provide headgear for a Conservative. At the same time, both Colonel Taylor and his friends were well aware, from a vexatious experience, that phenomena of the kind found at B—— are very often associated with private matters, which the members of a family concerned might object to see published, just as they might object to the publication of the results of an examination of some object—say, old medicine-bottles—found in the house let by them to a strange tenant.

Acting upon this knowledge, it has been the general rule of the Society for Psychical Research to publish the cases investigated by it under avowedly false names, as private cases are published in medical and other scientific journals. Out of a courteous anxiety that nothing should occur which could in any way annoy any member of the S—— family, no one was admitted to the house for the purpose of observing the phenomena, except on the definite understanding that they were to regard everything as confidential, and it was always intended that any publication on the subject was to be made with all names and geographical indications avowedly fictitious.

As certain points of Gaelic orthography were found to be involved, it was decided to mention the house as standing in a bi-lingual district upon the borders of Wales, and Lord Bute arranged with Sir William Lewis to have these linguistic points represented by Welsh instead of Gaelic.

The affairs of the inquiry, and of any phenomena which might occur, were thus protected, it was believed, by a confidence even more absolute than that usually observed in such affairs of a household as to which honour dictates that a guest should be silent.

The appreciation with which the S—— family responded to this courteous and careful consideration for their possible feelings, was made manifest to the world by the tone which they adopted when, immediately on the appearance of the anonymous article in The Times, they rushed into the newspapers, and published everything concerning themselves, their family property, predecessors, and tenants, with all the proper names at full length. After that outburst it has, of course, been rendered impossible to keep the identity of the place and people any longer secret.

Out of deference to other members of the family who did not take part in this, the matter in the present volume remains in as private a form as the newspaper correspondence now leaves possible.

The names given in full are those mostly very indirectly concerned; other names, including that of the house, are given under the real initials, with the exception of a few of the less prominent, when the real initials would create confusion; and in these latter cases they are taken from letters of the alphabet not already used, and are placed in inverted commas; e.g. the real initial of a Mr. S—— is changed, in order to avoid confusion with the name of the S—— family themselves, the proprietors of B——.

The contents of the book are, except in one respect, arranged upon the simple chronological system. They commence with a short sketch of the history of the S—— family, based in its earlier part upon Douglas's "Baronage of Scotland"; and all information which the writers possess as to the phenomena which have occurred since the death of Major S—— in 1876, except that supplied by the S—— family, is set forth in succession.

The family of S—— date from the earlier part of the middle of the fifteenth century, and were settled upon the river T—— within that century, while they have possessed B—— at least since the earlier half of the century following.

A stone, carved with their arms, belonging to the old mansion-house, is built into the wall, and dated 1579. The present house is modern, and does not even occupy the site of the older one.

The particular proprietor whose arms are so represented, Patrick S——, married Elizabeth B——, who survived him and married a second time. James S——, his son, in 1586, married Mary C——, and after her death, in 1597, Elizabeth R——.

Robert S——, his son by his first marriage, married Margaret C——. John S——, son of Robert, was killed by the Cromwellians, leaving no issue, and was succeeded by his brother, Patrick S——, who married Elizabeth L——.

It is not obvious when they adopted the principles of the Reformation, but it is to be remarked that this Patrick stood high in the favour of James II. (and VII.).