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

"It is plain that the B—— case is of great interest. I hope we may have a discussion of it at S.P.R. general meeting, May 28th, 8.30, and perhaps July 2nd, 4 p.m., also. Till then, I would suggest, we will not put forth our experiences to the public, unless you have any other view....

"I should particularly like to get Mr. ['Q.'] to go again in Easter week [i.e. during the Myers' tenancy]. I saw him last night, and heard his account, and next to yourself he seems the most sensitive of the group. I am very glad that you secured him.... I will send back the two note-books after showing them to the Sidgwicks. I am so very glad that you and others have been so well repaid for your trouble.... You seem to have worked natural causes well."

On April 12th Mr. Myers arrived at B——, and remained until the 22nd. He was preceded a day or two earlier by Dr. Oliver Lodge, Professor of Physics at Victoria College, Liverpool, Mrs. Lodge, and a Mr. Campbell of Trinity College, Cambridge. The party also included a "medium," the only person to whom this term could be applied, in the ordinary sense, who visited B—— during Col. Taylor's tenancy. This person was a Miss C——, but in order to avoid confusion with other persons, she is here called Miss "K." Miss "K." is not a professional medium, in the same sense in which a gentleman rider is not a jockey. She is the proprietress of a small nursing establishment in London, and at the time of her visit to B—— was described as in weak health and partially paralysed. She was accompanied by an attendant who was a Roman Catholic, a circumstance which is interesting in view of the strongly sectarian character of the ensuing revelations.

Mr. Myers recorded regularly, and transmitted to Lord Bute, the account of the phenomena which occurred during his visit, and which were testified to by four members of his party. He declines, however, to allow any use to be made of his notes of what occurred during this episode.

The regret with which his wish is deferred to is the less, because the chief value of the notes in question seems to be that of a warning against the methods employed; a fact of which Mr. Myers seems later to have himself become aware, as in regard to his journal letters to Lord Bute he wrote on March 15, 1898, a year later, "I am afraid that I must ask that my B—— letters be in no way used. I greatly doubt whether there was anything supernormal."

However, while actually staying at B——, Mr. Myers wrote to Miss Freer on April 15th, in much the same terms as on March 11th:—

"What is your idea (I am asking Lord Bute also) re speaking about B—— at S.P.R? If this is not desirable on May 28th, should you have second-sight material ready then? If it is desirable, could we meet sometime, ... and discuss what is to be said? As many witnesses as possible. Noises have gone on. I am writing bulletins to Lord Bute, which I dare say he will send on to you.... I am moving into No. 5 to be nearer to the noise. I have heard nothing. Lodge hears mainly knocks."

On April 21st he wrote again to Miss Freer:—

"If you come to S.P.R. meeting, we could talk in a quiet corner after it. I dine with S.P.R. council at seven o'clock, so there would scarcely be time [i.e. to call on you] between, but I would call at—— at 9.30 Saturday morning, if that were more convenient to you than going to the meeting."

The interview took place, and July 2nd was finally arranged as the date upon which the evidence was to be presented at a general meeting of the S.P.R.

In the meantime, however, the article of the anonymous Times correspondent appeared in that journal on June 8th—an article which was practically an attack on certain methods of the S.P.R., after which Mr. Myers published the following letter:—

ON THE TRAIL OF A GHOST.

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...."

And in another note, undated:—

"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