TRUE IRISH GHOST STORIES

 COMPILED BY

 ST JOHN D. SEYMOUR, B. D. 

 AUTHOR OF "IRISH WITCHCRAFT AND DEMONOLOGY" ETC. 

 AND

 HARRY L. NELIGAN, D. I. R. I. C. 

 1914

TO THREE LIVELY POLTERGEISTS W----, J----, AND G----, THIS BOOK ISDEDICATED BY THE COMPILERS

FOREWORD

This book had its origin on this wise. In my _Irish Witchcraft andDemonology_, published in October 1913, I inserted a couple of famous17th century ghost stories which described how lawsuits were set on footat the instigation of most importunate spirits. It then occurred to methat as far as I knew there was no such thing in existence as a book ofIrish ghost stories. Books on Irish fairy and folk-lore there were inabundance--some of which could easily be spared--but there was no book ofghosts. And so I determined to supply this sad omission. 

In accordance with the immortal recipe for making hare-soup I had firstto obtain my ghost stories. Where was I to get them from? For myself Iknew none worth publishing, nor had I ever had any strange experiences, while I feared that my friends and acquaintances were in much thesame predicament. Suddenly a brilliant thought struck me. I wrote out aletter, stating exactly what I wanted, and what I did _not_ want, andrequesting the readers of it either to forward me ghost stories, or elseto put me in the way of getting them: this letter was sent to theprincipal Irish newspapers on October 27, and published on October 29, and following days. 

I confess I was a little doubtful as to the result of my experiment, andwondered what response the people of Ireland would make to a letter whichmight place a considerable amount of trouble on their shoulders. My mindwas speedily set at rest. On October 30, the first answers reached me. Within a fortnight I had sufficient material to make a book; within amonth I had so much material that I could pick and choose--and more waspromised. Further on in this preface I give a list of those persons whosecontributions I have made use of, but here I should like to take theopportunity of thanking all those ladies and gentlemen throughout thelength and breadth of Ireland, the majority of whom were utter strangersto me, who went to the trouble of sitting down and writing out page afterpage of stories. I cannot forget their kindness, and I am only sorry thatI could not make use of more of the matter that was sent to me. As onewould expect, this material varied in value and extent. Some personscontributed incidents, of little use by themselves, but which worked inas helpful illustrations, while others forwarded budgets of stories, long and short. To sift the mass of matter, and bring the variousportions of it into proper sequence, would have been a lengthy anddifficult piece of work had I not been ably assisted by Mr. Harry L. Neligan, D. I. ; but I leave it as a pleasant task to the Higher Critic todiscover what portions of the book were done by him, and what should beattributed to me. 

Some of the replies that reached me were sufficiently amusing. Onegentleman, who carefully signed himself "Esquire, " informed me that hewas "after" reading a great book of ghost stories, but several letters ofmine failed to elicit any subsequent information. Another person offeredto _sell_ me ghost stories, while several proffered tales that had beenworked up comically. One lady addressed a card to me as follows:

"THE REVD. ----

(Name and address lost of the clergyman whose letter appeared lately in_Irish Times, re_ "apparitions")

CAPPAWHITE. "

As the number of clergy in the above village who deal in ghost stories isstrictly limited, the Post Office succeeded in delivering it safely. Iwrote at once in reply, and got a story. In a letter bearing the Dublinpostmark a correspondent, veiled in anonymity, sent me a religious tractwith the curt note, "_Re_ ghost stories, will you please read this. " Idid so, but still fail to see the sender's point of view. Another personin a neighbouring parish declared that if I were their rector they wouldforthwith leave my church, and attend service elsewhere. There are many, I fear, who adopt this attitude; but it will soon become out of date. 

Some of my readers may cavil at the expression, "_True_ Ghost Stories. "For myself I cannot guarantee the genuineness of a single incident inthis book--how could I, as none of them are my own personal experience?This at least I _can_ vouch for, that the majority of the stories weresent to me as first or second-hand experiences by ladies and gentlemenwhose statement on an ordinary matter of fact would be accepted withoutquestion. And further, in order to prove the _bona fides_ of this book, Imake the following offer. The original letters and documents are in mycustody at Donohil Rectory, and I am perfectly willing to allow anyresponsible person to examine them, subject to certain restrictions, these latter obviously being that names of people and places must not bedivulged, for I regret to say that in very many instances mycorrespondents have laid this burden upon me. This is to be the moreregretted, because the use of blanks, or fictitious initials, makesa story appear much less convincing than if real names had been employed. 

Just one word. I can imagine some of my readers (to be numbered by thethousand, I hope) saying to themselves: "Oh! Mr. Seymour has left outsome of the best stories. Did he never hear of such-and-such a hauntedhouse, or place?" Or, "I could relate an experience better than anythinghe has got. " If such there be, may I beg of them to send me on theirstories with all imagined speed, as they may be turned to account atsome future date. 

I beg to return thanks to the following for permission to make use ofmatter in their publications: Messrs. Sealy, Bryers, and Walker, proprietors of the _New Ireland Review_; the editor of the _Review ofReviews_; the editor of the _Proceedings_ of the Society for PsychicalResearch; the editor of the _Journal_ of the American S. P. R. ; the editorof the _Occult Review_, and Mr. Elliott O'Donnell; Messrs. Longmans, Green and Co. , and Mrs. Andrew Lang; the editor of the _Wide WorldMagazine_; the representatives of the late Rev. Dr. Craig. 

In accordance with the promise made in my letter, I have now muchpleasure in giving the names of the ladies and gentlemen who havecontributed to, or assisted in, the compilation of this book, and as wellto assure them that Mr. Neligan and I are deeply grateful to them fortheir kindness. 

Mrs. S. Acheson, Drumsna, Co. Roscommon; Mrs. M. Archibald, CliftonvilleRoad, Belfast; J. J. Burke, Esq. , U. D. C. , Rahoon, Galway; Capt. R. Beamish, Passage West, Co. Cork; Mrs. A. Bayly, Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow; R. Blair, Esq. , South Shields; Jas. Byrne, Esq. , Castletownroche, Co. Cork; Mrs. Kearney Brooks, Killarney; H. Buchanan, Esq. , Inishannon, Co. Cork; J. A. Barlow, Esq. , Bray, Co. Wicklow; J. Carton, Esq. , King's Inns Library, Dublin; Miss A. Cooke, Cappagh House, Co. Limerick; J. P. V. Campbell, Esq. _Solicitor_, Dublin; Rev. E. G. S. Crosthwait, M. A. , Littleton, Thurles; J. Crowley, Esq. , Munster andLeinster Bank, Cashel; Miss C. M. Doyle, Ashfield Road, Dublin; J. RalphDagg, Esq. , Baltinglass; Gerald A. Dillon, Esq. , Wicklow; Matthias andMiss Nan Fitzgerald, Cappagh House, Co. Limerick; Lord Walter Fitzgerald, Kilkea Castle; Miss Finch, Rushbrook, Co. Cork; Rev. H. R. B. Gillespie, M. A. , Aghacon Rectory, Roscrea; Miss Grene, Grene Park, Co. Tipperary;L. H. Grubb, Esq. J. P. , D. L. , Ardmayle, Co. Tipperary; H. Keble Gelston, Esq. , Letterkenny; Ven. J. A. Haydn, LL. D. , Archdeacon of Limerick; MissDorothy Hamilton, Portarlington; Richard Hogan, Esq. , Bowman St. , Limerick; Mrs. G. Kelly, Rathgar, Dublin; Miss Keefe, Carnahallia, Doon;Rev. D. B. Knox, Whitehead, Belfast; Rev. J. D. Kidd, M. A. , Castlewellan;E. B. De Lacy, Esq. , Marlboro' Road, Dublin; Miss K. Lloyd, Shinrone, King's Co. ; Canon Lett, M. A. , Aghaderg Rectory; T. MacFadden, Esq. , Carrigart, Co. Donegal; Wm. Mackey, Esq. , Strabane; Canon CourtenayMoore, M. A. , Mitchelstown, Co. Cork; J. McCrossan, Esq. , _Journalist_, Strabane; G. H. Miller, Esq. , J. P. , Edgeworthstown; Mrs. P. C. F. Magee, Dublin; Rev. R. D. Paterson, B. A. , Ardmore Rectory; E. A. Phelps, Esq. , Trinity College Library; Mrs. Pratt, Munster and Leinster Bank, Rathkeale; Miss Pim, Monkstown, Co. Dublin; Miss B. Parker, Passage West, Co. Cork; Henry Reay, Esq. , Harold's Cross, Dublin; M. J. Ryan, Esq. , Taghmon, Co. Wexford; P. Ryan, Esq. , Nicker, Pallasgrean; CanonRoss-Lewin, Kilmurry, Limerick; Miss A. Russell, Elgin Road, Dublin;Lt. -Col. The Hon. F. Shore, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny; Mrs. Seymour, Donohil Rectory; Mrs. E. L. Stritch, North Great Georges St. , Dublin;M. C. R. Stritch, Esq. , Belturbet; Very Rev. The Dean of St. Patrick's. D. D. ; Mrs. Spratt, Thurles; W. S. Thompson, Esq. , Inishannon, Co. Cork;Mrs, Thomas, Sandycove, Dublin; Mrs. Walker, Glenbeigh, Co. Kerry; MissWolfe, Skibbereen, Co. Cork; Mrs. E. Welsh, Nenagh; T. J. Westropp, Esq. , M. A. , M. R. I. A. , Sandymount, Dublin; Mrs. M. A. Wilkins, Rathgar, Dublin;John Ward, Esq. , Ballymote; Mrs. Wrench, Ballybrack, Co. Dublin; MissK. E. Younge, Upper Oldtown, Rathdowney. 

ST. JOHN D. SEYMOUR. 

DONOHIL RECTORY, CAPPAWHITE, TIPPERARY, _February 2_, 1914. 

CONTENTS

CHAP. 

 I. HAUNTED HOUSES IN OR NEAR DUBLIN II. HAUNTED HOUSES IN CONN'S HALF III. HAUNTED HOUSES IN MOGH'S HALF IV. POLTERGEISTS V. HAUNTED PLACES VI. APPARITIONS AT OR AFTER DEATH VII. BANSHEES, AND OTHER DEATH-WARNINGSVIII. MISCELLANEOUS SUPERNORMAL EXPERIENCES IX. LEGENDARY AND ANCESTRAL GHOSTS X. MISTAKEN IDENTITY--CONCLUSION

TRUE IRISH GHOST STORIES

CHAPTER I

HAUNTED HOUSES IN OR NEAR DUBLIN

Of all species of ghostly phenomena, that commonly known as "hauntedhouses" appeals most to the ordinary person. There is something veryeerie in being shut up within the four walls of a house with a ghost. Thepoor human being is placed at such a disadvantage. If we know that agateway, or road, or field has the reputation of being haunted, we can innearly every case make a detour, and so avoid the unpleasant locality. But the presence of a ghost in a house creates a very different state ofaffairs. It appears and disappears at its own sweet will, with a totaldisregard for our feelings: it seems to be as much part and parcel of thedomicile as the staircase or the hall door, and, consequently, nothingshort of leaving the house or of pulling it down (both of these solutionsare not always practicable) will free us absolutely from the unwelcomepresence. 

There is also something so natural, and at the same time so unnatural, inseeing a door open when we know that no human hand rests on the knob, orin hearing the sound of footsteps, light or heavy, and feeling that itcannot be attributed to the feet of mortal man or woman. Or perhaps aform appears in a room, standing, sitting, or walking--in fact, situatedin its three dimensions apparently as an ordinary being of flesh andblood, until it proves its unearthly nature by vanishing before ourastonished eyes. Or perhaps we are asleep in bed. The room is shroudedin darkness, and our recumbent attitude, together with the weight ofbed-clothes, hampers our movements and probably makes us more cowardly. Aman will meet pain or danger boldly if he be standing upright--occupyingthat erect position which is his as Lord of Creation; but his couragedoes not well so high if he be supine. We are awakened suddenly by thefeel that some superhuman Presence is in the room. We are transfixed withterror, we cannot find either the bell-rope or the matches, while we_dare_ not leap out of bed and make a rush for the door lest we shouldencounter we know not what. In an agony of fear, we feel it movingtowards us; it approaches closer, and yet closer, to the bed, and--forwhat may or may not then happen we must refer our readers to the pages ofthis book. 

But the sceptical reader will say: "This is all very well, but--there are_no_ haunted houses. All these alleged strange happenings are due to avivid imagination, or else to rats and mice. " (The question of deliberateand conscious fraud may be rejected in almost every instance. ) Thissimple solution has been put forward so often that it should infalliblyhave solved the problem long ago. But will such a reader explain how itis that the noise made by rats and mice can resemble slow, heavyfootsteps, or else take the form of a human being seen by severalpersons; or how our imagination can cause doors to open and shut, or elsecreate a conglomeration of noises which, physically, would be beyond thepower of ordinary individuals to reproduce? Whatever may be the ultimateexplanation, we feel that there is a great deal in the words quoted byProfessor Barrett: "In spite of all reasonable scepticism, it isdifficult to avoid accepting, at least provisionally, the conclusion thatthere are, in a certain sense, haunted houses, _i. E. _ that there arehouses in which similar quasi-human apparitions have occurred atdifferent times to different inhabitants, under circumstances whichexclude the hypothesis of suggestion or expectation. "

We must now turn to the subject of this chapter. Mrs. G. Kelly, a ladywell known in musical circles in Dublin, sends as her own personalexperience the following tale of a most quiet haunting, in which thespectral charwoman (!) does not seem to have entirely laid aside all hermundane habits. 

"My first encounter with a ghost occurred about twenty years ago. On thatoccasion I was standing in the kitchen of my house in ---- Square, when awoman, whom I was afterwards to see many times, walked down the stairsinto the room. Having heard the footsteps outside, I was not in the leastperturbed, but turned to look who it was, and found myself looking at atall, stout, elderly woman, wearing a bonnet and old-fashioned mantle. She had grey hair, and a benign and amiable expression. We stood gazingat each other while one could count twenty. At first I was not at allfrightened, but gradually as I stood looking at her an uncomfortablefeeling, increasing to terror, came over me. This caused me to retreatfarther and farther back, until I had my back against the wall, and thenthe apparition slowly faded. 

"This feeling of terror, due perhaps to the unexpectedness of herappearance, always overcame me on the subsequent occasions on which Isaw her. These occasions numbered twelve or fifteen, and I have seen herin every room in the house, and at every hour of the day, during a periodof about ten years. The last time she appeared was ten years ago. Myhusband and I had just returned from a concert at which he had beensinging, and we sat for some time over supper, talking about the eventsof the evening. When at last I rose to leave the room, and opened thedining-room door, I found my old lady standing on the mat outside withher head bent towards the door in the attitude of listening. I calledout loudly, and my husband rushed to my side. That was the last time Ihave seen her. "

"One peculiarity of this spectral visitant was a strong objection todisorder or untidyness of any kind, or even to an alteration in thegeneral routine of the house. For instance, she showed her disapproval ofany stranger coming to sleep by turning the chairs face downwards on thefloor in the room they were to occupy. I well remember one of our guests, having gone to his room one evening for something he had forgotten, remarking on coming downstairs again, 'Well, you people have anextraordinary manner of arranging your furniture! I have nearly broken mybones over one of the bedroom chairs which was turned down on the floor. 'As my husband and I had restored that chair twice already to its properposition during the day, we were not much surprised at his remarks, although we did not enlighten him. The whole family have been disturbedby a peculiar knocking which occurred in various rooms in the house, frequently on the door or wall, but sometimes on the furniture, quiteclose to where we had been sitting. This was evidently loud enough to beheard in the next house, for our next-door neighbour once asked myhusband why he selected such curious hours for hanging his pictures. Another strange and fairly frequent occurrence was the following. I hadgot a set of skunk furs which I fancied had an unpleasant odour, as thisfur sometimes has; and at night I used to take it from my wardrobe andlay it on a chair in the drawing-room, which was next my bedroom. Thefirst time that I did this, on going to the drawing-room I found, to mysurprise, my muff in one corner and my stole in another. Not for a momentsuspecting a supernatural agent, I asked my servant about it, and sheassured me that she had not been in the room that morning. Whereupon Idetermined to test the matter, which I did by putting in the furs late atnight, and taking care that I was the first to enter the room in themorning. I invariably found that they had been disturbed. "

The following strange and pathetic incident occurred in a well-knownSquare in the north side of the city. In or about a hundred years ago ayoung officer was ordered to Dublin, and took a house there for himselfand his family. He sent on his wife and two children, intending to jointhem in the course of a few days. When the latter and the nurse arrived, they found only the old charwoman in the house, and she left shortlyafter their arrival. Finding that something was needed, the nurse wentout to purchase it. On her return she asked the mother were the childrenall right, as she had seen two ghostly forms flit past her on thedoor-step! The mother answered that she believed they were, but on goingup to the nursery they found both the children with their throats cut. The murderer was never brought to justice, and no motive was everdiscovered for the crime. The unfortunate mother went mad, and it is saidthat an eerie feeling still clings to the house, while two little headsare sometimes seen at the window of the room where the deed wascommitted. 

A most weird experience fell to the lot of Major Macgregor, and wascontributed by him to _Real Ghost Stories_, the celebrated Christmasnumber of the _Review of Reviews_. He says: "In the end of 1871 I wentover to Ireland to visit a relative living in a Square in the north sideof Dublin. In January 1872 the husband of my relative fell ill. I sat upwith him for several nights, and at last, as he seemed better, I went tobed, and directed the footman to call me if anything went wrong. I soonfell asleep, but some time after was awakened by a push on the leftshoulder. I started up, and said, 'Is there anything wrong?' I got noanswer, but immediately received another push. I got annoyed, and said'Can you not speak, man! and tell me if there is anything wrong. ' Stillno answer, and I had a feeling I was going to get another push when Isuddenly turned round and caught a human hand, warm, plump, and soft. Isaid, 'Who are you?' but I got no answer. I then tried to pull the persontowards me, but could not do so. I then said, 'I _will_ know who youare!' and having the hand tight in my right hand, with my left I felt thewrist and arm, enclosed, as it seemed to me, in a tight-fitting sleeve ofsome winter material with a linen cuff, but when I got to the elbow alltrace of an arm ceased. I was so astounded that I let the hand go, andjust then the clock struck two. Including the mistress of the house, there were five females in the establishment, and I can assert that thehand belonged to none of them. When I reported the adventure, theservants exclaimed, 'Oh, it must have been the master's old Aunt Betty, who lived for many years in the upper part of that house, and had diedover fifty years before at a great age. ' I afterwards heard that the roomin which I felt the hand had been considered haunted, and very curiousnoises and peculiar incidents occurred, such as the bed-clothes torn off, &c. One lady got a slap in the face from some invisible hand, and whenshe lit her candle she saw as if something opaque fell or jumped offthe bed. A general officer, a brother of the lady, slept there twonights, but preferred going to a hotel to remaining the third night. Henever would say what he heard or saw, but always said the room wasuncanny. I slept for months in the room afterwards, and was never in theleast disturbed. "

A truly terrifying sight was witnessed by a clergyman in a school-house agood many years ago. This cleric was curate of a Dublin parish, butresided with his parents some distance out of town in the direction ofMalahide. It not infrequently happened that he had to hold meetings inthe evenings, and on such occasions, as his home was so far away, and asthe modern convenience of tramcars was not then known, he used to sleepin the schoolroom, a large bare room, where the meetings were held. Hehad made a sleeping-apartment for himself by placing a pole across oneend of the room, on which he had rigged up two curtains which, when drawntogether, met in the middle. One night he had been holding some meeting, and when everybody had left he locked up the empty schoolhouse, and wentto bed. It was a bright moonlight night, and every object could be seenperfectly clearly. Scarcely had he got into bed when he became consciousof some invisible presence. Then he saw the curtains agitated at one end, as if hands were grasping them on the outside. In an agony of terror hewatched these hands groping along outside the curtains till they reachedthe middle. The curtains were then drawn a little apart, and a Facepeered in--an awful, evil Face, with an expression of wickedness and hateupon it which no words could describe. It looked at him for a fewmoments, then drew back again, and the curtains closed. The clergymanhad sufficient courage left to leap out of bed and make a thoroughexamination of the room, but, as he expected, he found no one. He dressedhimself as quickly as possible, walked home, and never again slept anight in that schoolroom. 

The following tale, sent by Mr. E. B. De Lacy, contains a mostextraordinary and unsatisfactory element of mystery. He says: "When I wasa boy I lived in the suburbs, and used to come in every morning to schoolin the city. My way lay through a certain street in which stood a verydismal semi-detached house, which, I might say, was closed up regularlyabout every six months. I would see new tenants coming into it, and thenin a few months it would be 'To let' again. This went on for eight ornine years, and I often wondered what was the reason. On inquiring oneday from a friend, I was told that it had the reputation of beinghaunted. 

"A few years later I entered business in a certain office, and one day itfell to my lot to have to call on the lady who at that particular periodwas the tenant of the haunted house. When we had transacted our businessshe informed me that she was about to leave. Knowing the reputation ofthe house, and being desirous of investigating a ghost-story, I asked herif she would give me the history of the house as far as she knew it, which she very kindly did as follows:

"About forty years ago the house was left by will to a gentlemannamed ----. He lived in it for a short time, when he suddenly went mad, and had to be put in an asylum. Upon this his agents let the house to alady. Apparently nothing unusual happened for some time, but a few monthslater, as she went down one morning to a room behind the kitchen, shefound the cook hanging by a rope attached to a hook in the ceiling. Afterthe inquest the lady gave up the house. 

"It was then closed up for some time, but was again advertised 'To let, 'and a caretaker, a woman, was put into it. One night about one o'clock, aconstable going his rounds heard some one calling for help from thehouse, and found the caretaker on the sill of one of the windows holdingon as best she could. He told her to go in and open the hall door and lethim in, but she refused to enter the room again. He forced open the doorand succeeded in dragging the woman back into the room, only to find shehad gone mad. 

"Again the house was shut up, and again it was let, this time to a lady, on a five-years' lease. However, after a few months' residence, shelocked it up, and went away. On her friends asking her why she did so, she replied that she would rather pay the whole five years' rent thanlive in it herself, or allow anyone else to do so, but would give noother reason. 

"'I believe I was the next person to take this house, ' said the lady whonarrated the story to me (_i. E. _ Mr. De Lacy). 'I took it about eighteenmonths ago on a three years' lease in the hopes of making money by takingin boarders, but I am now giving it up because none of them will staymore than a week or two. They do not give any definite reason as to whythey are leaving; they are careful to state that it is not because theyhave any fault to find with me or my domestic arrangements, but theymerely say _they do not like the rooms_! The rooms themselves, as you cansee, are good, spacious, and well lighted. I have had all classes ofprofessional men; one of the last was a barrister, and he said that hehad no fault to find except that _he did not like the rooms_! I myself donot believe in ghosts, and I have never seen anything strange here orelsewhere; and if I had known the house had the reputation of beinghaunted, I would never have rented it. "

Marsh's library, that quaint, old-world repository of ponderous tomes, isreputed to be haunted by the ghost of its founder, Primate NarcissusMarsh. He is said to frequent the inner gallery, which contains what wasformerly his own private library: he moves in and out among the cases, taking down books from the shelves, and occasionally throwing them downon the reader's desk as if in anger. However, he always leaves things inperfect order. The late Mr. ----, who for some years lived in thelibrarian's rooms underneath, was a firm believer in this ghost, and saidhe frequently heard noises which could only be accounted for by thepresence of a nocturnal visitor; the present tenant is more sceptical. The story goes that Marsh's niece eloped from the Palace, and was marriedin a tavern to the curate of Chapelizod. She is reported to have writtena note consenting to the elopement, and to have then placed it in one ofher uncle's books to which her lover had access, and where he found it. As a punishment for his lack of vigilance, the Archbishop is said to becondemned to hunt for the note until he find it--hence the ghost. 

The ghost of a deceased Canon was seen in one of the Dublin cathedralsby several independent witnesses, one of whom, a lady, gives her ownexperience as follows: "Canon ---- was a personal friend of mine, andwe had many times discussed ghosts and spiritualism, in which he was aprofound believer, having had many supernatural experiences himself. It was during the Sunday morning service in the cathedral that I sawmy friend, who had been dead for two years, sitting inside thecommunion-rails. I was so much astonished at the flesh-and bloodappearance of the figure that I took off my glasses and wiped them withmy handkerchief, at the same time looking away from him down the church. On looking back again he was still there, and continued to sit there forabout ten or twelve minutes, after which he faded away. I remarked achange in his personal appearance, which was, that his beard was longerand whiter than when I had known him--in fact, such a change as wouldhave occurred _in life_ in the space of two years. Having told myhusband of the occurrence on our way home, he remembered having heardsome talk of an appearance of this clergyman in the cathedral since hisdeath. He hurried back to the afternoon service, and asked the robestressif anybody had seen Canon ----'s ghost. She informed him that _she_ had, and that he had also been seen by one of the sextons in the cathedral. Imention this because in describing his personal appearance she hadremarked the same change as I had with regard to the beard. "

Some years ago a family had very uncanny experiences in a house inRathgar, and subsequently in another in Rathmines. These werecommunicated by one of the young ladies to Mrs. M. A. Wilkins, whopublished them in the _Journal_ of the American S. P. R. , [1] from whichthey are here taken. The Rathgar house had a basement passage leading toa door into the yard, and along this passage her mother and the childrenused to hear dragging, limping steps, and the latch of the door rattling, but no one could ever be found when search was made. The house-bells wereold and all in a row, and on one occasion they all rang, apparently oftheir own accord. The lady narrator used to sleep in the back drawingroom, and always when the light was put out she heard strange noises, asif some one was going round the room rubbing paper along the wall, whileshe often had the feeling that a person was standing beside her bed. Acousin, who was a nurse, once slept with her, and also noticed thesestrange noises. On one occasion this room was given up to a verymatter-of-fact young man to sleep in, and next morning he said that theroom was very strange, with queer noises in it. 

[Footnote 1: For September 1913. ]

Her mother also had an extraordinary experience in the same house. Oneevening she had just put the baby to bed, when she heard a voice calling"mother. " She left the bedroom, and called to her daughter, who was in alower room, "What do you want?" But the girl replied that she had _not_called her; and then, in her turn, asked her mother if _she_ had been inthe front room, for she had just heard a noise as if some one was tryingto fasten the inside bars of the shutters across. But her mother had beenupstairs, and no one was in the front room. The experiences in theRathmines house were of a similar auditory nature, _i. E. _ the youngladies heard their names called, though it was found that no one in thehouse had done so. 

Occasionally it happens that ghosts inspire a law-suit. In theseventeenth century they were to be found actively urging the adoption oflegal proceedings, but in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries theyplay a more passive part. A case about a haunted house took place inDublin in the year 1885, in which the ghost may be said to have won. AMr. Waldron, a solicitor's clerk, sued his next-door neighbour, oneMr. Kiernan, a mate in the merchant service, to recover £500 for damagesdone to his house. 

Kiernan altogether denied the charges, but asserted that Waldron's housewas notoriously haunted. Witnesses proved that every night, from August1884 to January 1885, stones were thrown at the windows and doors, andextraordinary and inexplicable occurrences constantly took place. 

Mrs. Waldron, wife of the plaintiff, swore that one night she saw one ofthe panes of glass of a certain window cut through with a diamond, and awhite hand inserted through the hole. She at once caught up a bill-hookand aimed a blow at the hand, cutting off one of the fingers. This fingercould not be found, nor were any traces of blood seen. 

A servant of hers was sorely persecuted by noises and the sound offootsteps. Mr. Waldron, with the aid of detectives and policemen, endeavoured to find out the cause, but with no success. The witnessesin the case were closely cross-examined, but without shaking theirtestimony. The facts appeared to be proved, so the jury found forKiernan, the defendant. At least twenty persons had testified on oath tothe fact that the house had been known to have been haunted. [2]

[Footnote 2: See _Sights and Shadows_, p. 42 ff. ]

Before leaving the city and its immediate surroundings, we must relatethe story of an extraordinary ghost, somewhat lacking in good manners, yet not without a certain distorted sense of humour. Absolutelyincredible though the tale may seem, yet it comes on very good authority. It was related to our informant, Mr. D. , by a Mrs. C. , whose daughter hehad employed as governess. Mrs. C. , who is described as "a woman ofrespectable position and good education, " heard it in her turn from herfather and mother. In the story the relationship of the different personsseems a little involved, but it would appear that the initial A belongsto the surname both of Mrs. C. 's father and grandfather. 

This ghost was commonly called "Corney" by the family, and he answered tothis though it was not his proper name. He disclosed this latter to Mr. C. 's mother, who forgot it. Corney made his presence manifest to theA---- family shortly after they had gone to reside in ---- Street in thefollowing manner. Mr. A---- had sprained his knee badly, and had to use acrutch, which at night was left at the head of his bed. One night hiswife heard some one walking on the lobby, thump, thump, thump, as ifimitating Mr. A----. She struck a match to see if the crutch had beenremoved from the head of the bed, but it was still there. 

From that on Corney commenced to talk, and he spoke every day from hisusual habitat, the coal-cellar off the kitchen. His voice sounded as ifit came out of an empty barrel. 

He was very troublesome, and continually played practical jokes on theservants, who, as might be expected, were in terror of their lives ofhim; so much so that Mrs. A---- could hardly induce them to stay withher. They used to sleep in a press-bed in the kitchen, and in order toget away from Corney, they asked for a room at the top of the house, which was given to them. Accordingly the press-bed was moved up there. The first night they went to retire to bed after the change, the doors ofthe press were flung open, and Corney's voice said, "Ha! ha! you devils, I am here before you! I am not confined to any particular part of thishouse. "

Corney was continually tampering with the doors, and straining locksand keys. He only manifested himself in material form to two persons;to ----, who died with the fright, and to Mr. A---- (Mrs. C. 's father)when he was about seven years old. The latter described him to his motheras a naked man, with a curl on his forehead, and a skin like aclothes-horse(!). 

One day a servant was preparing fish for dinner. She laid it on thekitchen table while she went elsewhere for something she wanted. When shereturned the fish had disappeared. She thereupon began to cry, fearingshe would be accused of making away with it. The next thing she heard wasthe voice of Corney from the coal-cellar saying, "There, you blubberingfool, is your fish for you!" and, suiting the action to the word, thefish was thrown out on the kitchen floor. 

Relatives from the country used to bring presents of vegetables, andthese were often hung up by Corney like Christmas decorations round thekitchen. There was one particular press in the kitchen he would not allowanything into. He would throw it out again. A crock with meat in picklewas put into it, and a fish placed on the cover of the crock. He threwthe fish out. 

Silver teaspoons were missing, and no account of them could be got untilMrs. A---- asked Corney to confess if he had done anything with them. Hesaid, "They are under the ticking in the servants' bed. " He had, so hesaid, a daughter in ---- Street, and sometimes announced that he wasgoing to see her, and would not be here to-night. 

On one occasion he announced that he was going to have "company" thatevening, and if they wanted any water out of the soft-water tank, to takeit before going to bed, as he and his friends would be using it. Subsequently that night five or six distinct voices were heard, and nextmorning the water in the tank was as black as ink, and not alone that, but the bread and butter in the pantry were streaked with the marks ofsooty fingers. 

A clergyman in the locality, having heard of the doings of Corney, calledto investigate the matter. He was advised by Mrs. A---- to keep quiet, and not to reveal his identity, as being the best chance of hearingCorney speak. He waited a long time, and as the capricious Corneyremained silent, he left at length. The servants asked, "Corney, why didyou not speak?" and he replied, "I could not speak while that good manwas in the house. " The servants sometimes used to ask him where he was. He would reply, "The Great God would not permit me to tell you. I was abad man, and I died the death. " He named the room in the house in whichhe died. 

Corney constantly joined in any conversation carried on by the people ofthe house. One could never tell when a voice from the coal-cellar woulderupt into the dialogue. He had his likes and dislikes: he appeared todislike anyone that was not afraid of him, and would not talk to them. Mrs. C. 's mother, however, used to get good of him by coaxing. An uncle, having failed to get him to speak one night, took the kitchen poker, andhammered at the door of the coal-cellar, saying, "I'll make you speak";but Corney wouldn't. Next morning the poker was found broken in two. Thisuncle used to wear spectacles, and Corney used to call him derisively, "Four-eyes. " An uncle named Richard came to sleep one night, andcomplained in the morning that the clothes were pulled off him. Corneytold the servants in great glee, "I slept on Master Richard's feet allnight. "

Finally Mr. A---- made several attempts to dispose of his lease, but withno success, for when intending purchasers were being shown over the houseand arrived at Corney's domain, the spirit would begin to speak andthe would-be purchaser would fly. They asked him if they changed housewould he trouble them. He replied, "No! but if they throw down thishouse, I will trouble the stones. "

At last Mrs. A---- appealed to him to keep quiet, and not to injurepeople who had never injured him. He promised that he would do so, andthen said, "Mrs. A----, you will be all right now, for I see a lady inblack coming up the street to this house, and she will buy it. " Withinhalf an hour a widow called and purchased the house. Possibly Corney isstill there, for our informant looked up the Directory as he was writing, and found the house marked "Vacant. "

Near Blanchardstown, Co. Dublin, is a house, occupied at present, or upto very recently, by a private family; it was formerly a monastery, andthere are said to be secret passages in it. Once a servant ironing in thekitchen saw the figure of a nun approach the kitchen window and look in. Our informant was also told by a friend (now dead), who had it from thelady of the house, that once night falls, no doors can be kept closed. If anyone shuts them, almost immediately they are flung open again withthe greatest violence and apparent anger. If left open there is notrouble or noise, but light footsteps are heard, and there is a vaguefeeling of people passing to and fro. The persons inhabiting the houseare matter-of-fact, unimaginative people, who speak of this as if it werean everyday affair. "So long as we leave the doors unclosed they don'tharm us: why should we be afraid of them?" Mrs. ---- said. Truly a mostphilosophical attitude to adopt!

A haunted house in Kingstown, Co. Dublin, was investigated by ProfessorW. Barrett and Professor Henry Sidgwick. The story is singularly wellattested (as one might expect from its being inserted in the pages of the_Proceedings S. P. R. _[3]), as the apparition was seen on three distinctoccasions, and by three separate persons who were all personally known tothe above gentlemen. The house in which the following occurrences tookplace is described as being a very old one, with unusually thick walls. The lady saw her strange visitant in her bedroom. She says: "Dislikingcross-lights, I had got into the habit of having the blind of the backwindow drawn and the shutters closed at night, and of leaving the blindraised and the shutters opened towards the front, liking to see the treesand sky when I awakened. Opening my eyes now one morning, I saw rightbefore me (this occurred in July 1873) the figure of a woman, stoopingdown and apparently looking at me. Her head and shoulders were wrapped ina common woollen shawl; her arms were folded, and they were also wrapped, as if for warmth, in the shawl. I looked at her in my horror, and darednot cry out lest I might move the awful thing to speech or action. Behindher head I saw the window and the growing dawn, the looking-glass uponthe toilet-table, and the furniture in that part of the room. After whatmay have been only seconds--of the duration of this vision I cannotjudge--she raised herself and went backwards towards the window, stood atthe toilet-table, and gradually vanished. I mean she grew by degreestransparent, and that through the shawl and the grey dress she wore I sawthe white muslin of the table-cover again, and at last saw that only inthe place where she had stood. " The lady lay motionless with terror untilthe servant came to call her. The only other occupants of the house atthe time were her brother and the servant, to neither of whom did shemake any mention of the circumstance, fearing that the former would laughat her, and the latter give notice. 

[Footnote 3: July 1884, p. 141. ]

Exactly a fortnight later, when sitting at breakfast, she noticedthat her brother seemed out of sorts, and did not eat. On askinghim if anything were the matter, he answered, "I have had a horridnightmare--indeed it was no nightmare: I saw it early this morning, justas distinctly as I see you. " "What?" she asked. "A villainous-lookinghag, " he replied, "with her head and arms wrapped in a cloak, stoopingover me, and looking like this--" He got up, folded his arms, and puthimself in the exact posture of the vision. Whereupon she informed him ofwhat she herself had seen a fortnight previously. 

About four years later, in the same month, the lady's married sister andtwo children were alone in the house. The eldest child, a boy of aboutfour or five years, asked for a drink, and his mother went to fetch it, desiring him to remain in the dining-room until her return. Coming backshe met the boy pale and trembling, and on asking him why he left theroom, he replied, "Who is that woman--who is that woman?" "Where?" sheasked. "That old woman who went upstairs, " he replied. So agitated washe, that she took him by the hand and went upstairs to search, but no onewas to be found, though he still maintained that a woman went upstairs. Afriend of the family subsequently told them that a woman had been killedin the house many years previously, and that it was reported to behaunted. 

CHAPTER II

HAUNTED HOUSES IN CONN'S HALF

From a very early period a division of Ireland into two "halves"existed. This was traditionally believed to have been made by Connthe Hundred-fighter and Mogh Nuadat, in A. D. 166. The north was inconsequence known as Conn's Half, the south as Mogh's Half, the line ofdivision being a series of gravel hills extending from Dublin to Galway. This division we have followed, except that we have included the wholeof the counties of West Meath and Galway in the northern portion. We hadhoped originally to have had _four_ chapters on Haunted Houses, one foreach of the four provinces, but, for lack of material from Connaught, wehave been forced to adopt the plan on which Chapters I-III are arranged. 

Mrs. Acheson, of Co. Roscommon, sends the following: "Emo House, Co. Westmeath, a very old mansion since pulled down, was purchased by mygrandfather for his son, my father. The latter had only been living in itfor a few days when knocking commenced at the hall door. Naturally hethought it was someone playing tricks, or endeavouring to frighten himaway. One night he had the lobby window open directly over the door. Theknocking commenced, and he looked out: it was a very bright night, and asthere was no porch he could see the door distinctly; the knockingcontinued, but he did not see the knocker move. Another night he sat upexpecting his brother, but as the latter did not come he went to bed. Finally the knocking became so loud and insistent that he felt sure hisbrother must have arrived. He went downstairs and opened the door, but noone was there. Still convinced that his brother was there and had goneround to the yard to put up his horse, he went out; but scarcely had hegone twenty yards from the door when the knocking recommenced behind hisback. On turning round he could see no one. "

"After this the knocking got very bad, so much so that he could not rest. All this time he did not mention the strange occurrence to anyone. Onemorning he went up through the fields between four and five o'clock. Tohis surprise he found the herd out feeding the cattle. My father askedhim why he was up so early. He replied that he could not sleep. 'Why?'asked my father. 'You know why yourself, sir--the knocking. ' He thenfound that this man had heard it all the time, though he slept at the endof a long house. My father was advised to take no notice of it, for itwould go as it came, though at this time it was continuous and very loud;and so it did. The country people said it was the late resident who couldnot rest. "

"We had another curious and most eerie experience in this house. A formerrector was staying the night with us, and as the evening wore on wecommenced to tell ghost-stories. He related some remarkable experiences, and as we were talking the drawing-room door suddenly opened as wide aspossible, and then slowly closed again. It was a calm night, and at anyrate it was a heavy double door which never flies open however strong thewind may be blowing. Everyone in the house was in bed, as it was after 12o'clock, except the three persons who witnessed this, viz. Myself, mydaughter, and the rector. The effect on the latter was most marked. Hewas a big, strong, jovial man and a good athlete, but when he saw thedoor open he quivered like an aspen leaf. "

A strange story of a haunting, in which nothing was seen, but in whichthe same noises were heard by different people, is sent by one of thepercipients, who does not wish to have her name disclosed. She says:"When staying for a time in a country house in the North of Ireland someyears ago I was awakened on several nights by hearing the tramp, tramp, of horses' hoofs. Sometimes it sounded as if they were walking onpaving-stones, while at other times I had the impression that they weregoing round a large space, and as if someone was using a whip on them. Iheard neighing, and champing of bits, and so formed the impression thatthey were carriage horses. I did not mind it much at first, as I thoughtthe stables must be near that part of the house. After hearing thesenoises several times I began to get curious, so one morning I made a tourof the place. I found that the side of the house I occupied overlooked aneglected garden, which was mostly used for drying clothes. I alsodiscovered that the stables were right at the back of the house, and soit would be impossible for me to hear any noises in that quarter; at anyrate there was only one farm horse left, and this was securely fastenedup every night. Also there were no cobble-stones round the yard. Imentioned what I had heard to the people of the house, but as they wouldgive me no satisfactory reply I passed it over. I did not hear thesenoises every night. "

"One night I was startled out of my sleep by hearing a dreadfuldisturbance in the kitchen. It sounded as if the dish-covers were beingtaken off the wall and dashed violently on the flagged floor. At length Igot up and opened the door of my bedroom, and just as I did so anappalling crash resounded through the house. I waited to see if there wasany light to be seen, or footstep to be heard, but nobody was stirring. There was only one servant in the house, the other persons being my host, his wife, and a baby, who had all retired early. Next morning I describedthe noises in the kitchen to the servant, and she said she had oftenheard them. I then told her about the tramping of horses: she repliedthat she herself had never heard it, but that other persons who hadoccupied my room had had experiences similar to mine. I asked her wasthere any explanation; she said No, except that a story was told of agentleman who had lived there some years ago, and was very much addictedto racing and gambling, and that he was shot one night in that house. Forthe remainder of my visit I was removed to another part of the house, andI heard no more noises. "

A house in the North of Ireland, near that locality which is eternallyfamous as having furnished the material for the last trial for witchcraftin the country, is said to be haunted, the reason being that it is builton the site of a disused and very ancient graveyard. It is said that whensome repairs were being carried out nine human skulls were unearthed. Itwould be interesting to ascertain how many houses in Ireland aretraditionally said to be built on such unpleasant sites, and if they allbear the reputation of being haunted. The present writer knows of one, inthe South, which is so situated (and this is supported, to a certainextent, by documentary evidence from the thirteenth century down) andwhich in consequence has an uncanny reputation. But concerning the abovehouse it has been found almost impossible to get any information. It issaid that strange noises were frequently heard there, which sometimesseemed as if cartloads of stones were being run down one of the gables. On one occasion an inmate of the house lay dying upstairs. A friend wentup to see the sick person, and on proceeding to pass through the bedroomdoor was pressed and jostled as if by some unseen person hurriedlyleaving the room. On entering, it was found that the sick person had justpassed away. 

An account of a most unpleasant haunting is contributed by Mr. W. S. Thompson, who vouches for the substantial accuracy of it, and alsofurnishes the names of two men, still living, who attended the "station. "We give it as it stands, with the comment that some of the details seemto have been grossly exaggerated by local raconteurs. In the year 1869 aghost made its presence manifest in the house of a Mr. M---- in Co. Cavan. In the daytime it resided in the chimney, but at night it left itsquarters and subjected the family to considerable annoyance. During theday they could cook nothing, as showers of soot would be sent down thechimney on top of every pot and pan that was placed on the fire. At nightthe various members of the family would be dragged out of bed by thehair, and pulled around the house. When anyone ventured to light a lampit would immediately be put out, while chairs and tables would be sentdancing round the room. At last matters reached such a pitch that thefamily found it impossible to remain any longer in the house. The nightbefore they left Mrs. M---- was severely handled, and her boots leftfacing the door as a gentle hint for her to be off. Before they departedsome of the neighbours went to the house, saw the ghost, and evendescribed to Mr. Thompson what they had seen. According to one man itappeared in the shape of a human being with a pig's head with long tusks. Another described it as a horse with an elephant's head, and a headlessman seated on its back. Finally a "station" was held at the house byseven priests, at which all the neighbours attended. The stationcommenced after sunset, and everything in the house had to be uncovered, lest the evil spirit should find any resting-place. A free passage wasleft out of the door into the street, where many people were kneeling. About five minutes after the station opened a rumbling noise was heard, and a black barrel rolled out with an unearthly din, though to somecoming up the street it appeared in the shape of a black horse witha bull's head, and a headless man seated thereon. From this time theghost gave no further trouble. 

The same gentleman also sends an account of a haunted shop in whichmembers of his family had some very unpleasant experiences. "In October1882 my father, William Thompson, took over the grocery and spiritbusiness from a Dr. S---- to whom it had been left by will. My sister wasput in charge of the business, and she slept on the premises at night, but she was not there by herself very long until she found things amiss. The third night matters were made so unpleasant for her that she had toget up out of bed more dead than alive, and go across the street to Mrs. M----, the servant at the R. I. C. Barrack, with whom she remained untilthe morning. She stated that as she lay in bed, half awake and halfasleep, she saw a man enter the room, who immediately seized her by thethroat and well-nigh choked her. She had only sufficient strength left togasp 'Lord, save me!' when instantly the man vanished. She also said thatshe heard noises as if every bottle and glass in the shop was smashed toatoms, yet in the morning everything would be found intact. My brotherwas in charge of the shop one day, as my sister had to go to Belturbet todo some Christmas shopping. He expected her to return to the shop thatnight, but as she did not do so he was preparing to go to bed about1 A. M. , when suddenly a terrible noise was heard. The light wasextinguished, and the tables and chairs commenced to dance about thefloor, and some of them struck him on the shins. Upon this he left thehouse, declaring that he had seen the Devil!" Possibly this ghost hadbeen a rabid teetotaller in the flesh, and continued to have a dislike tothe publican's trade after he had become discarnate. At any rate thepresent occupants, who follow a different avocation, do not appear to betroubled. 

Ghosts are no respecters of persons or places, and take up their quarterswhere they are least expected. One can hardly imagine them entering aR. I. C. Barrack, and annoying the stalwart inmates thereof. Yet more thanone tale of a haunted police-barrack has been sent to us--nay, in itsproper place we shall relate the appearance of a deceased member of the"Force, " uniform and all! The following personal experiences arecontributed by an ex-R. I. C. Constable, who requested that all namesshould be suppressed. "The barrack of which I am about to speak has nowdisappeared, owing to the construction of a new railway line. It was athree-storey house, with large airy apartments and splendidaccommodation. This particular night I was on guard. After the constableshad retired to their quarters I took my palliasse downstairs to theday-room, and laid it on two forms alongside two six-foot tables whichwere placed end to end in the centre of the room. "

"As I expected a patrol in at midnight, and as another had to be sent outwhen it arrived, I didn't promise myself a very restful night, so I threwmyself on the bed, intending to read a bit, as there was a large lampon the table. Scarcely had I commenced to read when I felt as if I wasbeing pushed off the bed. At first I thought I must have fallen asleep, so to make sure, I got up, took a few turns around the room, and thendeliberately lay down again and took up my book. Scarcely had I done so, when the same thing happened, and, though I resisted with all mystrength, I was finally landed on the floor. My bed was close to thetable, and the pushing came from that side, so that if anyone was playinga trick on me they could not do so without being under the table: Ilooked, but there was no visible presence there. I felt shaky, butchanged my couch to another part of the room, and had no furtherunpleasant experience. Many times after I was 'guard' in the same room, but I always took care not to place my couch in that particular spot. "

"One night, long afterwards, we were all asleep in the dormitory, when wewere awakened in the small hours of the morning by the guard rushingupstairs, dashing through the room, and jumping into a bed in thefarthest corner behind its occupant. There he lay gasping, unable tospeak for several minutes, and even then we couldn't get a coherentaccount of what befel him. It appears he fell asleep, and suddenly awoketo find himself on the floor, and a body rolling over him. Several menvolunteered to go downstairs with him, but he absolutely refused to leavethe dormitory, and stayed there till morning. Nor would he even remaindownstairs at night without having a comrade with him. It ended in hisapplying for an exchange of stations. "

"Another time I returned off duty at midnight, and after my comrade, amarried Sergeant, had gone outside to his quarters I went to the kitchento change my boots. There was a good fire on, and it looked socomfortable that I remained toasting my toes on the hob, and enjoying mypipe. The lock-up was a lean-to one-storey building off the kitchen, andwas divided into two cells, one opening into the kitchen, the other intothat cell. I was smoking away quietly when I suddenly heard inside thelock-up a dull, heavy thud, just like the noise a drunken man would makeby crashing down on all-fours. I wondered who the prisoner could be, as Ididn't see anyone that night who seemed a likely candidate for freelodgings. However as I heard no other sound I decided I would tell theguard in order that he might look after him. As I took my candle from thetable I happened to glance at the lock-up, and, to my surprise, I sawthat the outer door was open. My curiosity being roused, I looked inside, to find the inner door also open. There was nothing in either cell, except the two empty plank-beds, and these were immovable as they werefirmly fixed to the walls. I betook myself to my bedroom much quickerthan I was in the habit of doing. "

"I mentioned that this barrack was demolished owing to the constructionof a new railway line. It was the last obstacle removed, and in themeantime workmen came from all points of the compass. One day a powerfulnavvy was brought into the barrack a total collapse from drink, andabsolutely helpless. After his neckwear was loosened he was carried tothe lock-up and laid on the plank-bed, the guard being instructed tovisit him periodically, lest he should smother. He was scarcely half anhour there--this was in the early evening--when the most unmercifulscreaming brought all hands to the lock-up, to find the erstwhilehelpless man standing on the plank-bed, and grappling with a, to us, invisible foe. We took him out, and he maintained that a man had tried tochoke him, and was still there when we came to his relief. The strangething was, that he was shivering with fright, and perfectly sober, thoughin the ordinary course of events he would not be in that condition for atleast seven or eight hours. The story spread like wildfire through thetown, but the inhabitants were not in the least surprised, and one oldman told us that many strange things happened in that house long beforeit became a police-barrack. "

A lady, who requests that her name be suppressed, relates a strange sightseen by her sister in Galway. The latter's husband was stationed in thattown about seventeen years ago. One afternoon he was out, and she waslying on a sofa in the drawing-room, when suddenly from behind a screen(where there was no door) came a little old woman, with a small shawlover her head and shoulders, such as the country women used to wear. Shehad a most diabolical expression on her face. She seized the lady by thehand, and said: "I will drag you down to Hell, where I am!" The ladysprang up in terror and shook her off, when the horrible creature againdisappeared behind the screen. The house was an old one, and many storieswere rife amongst the people about it, the one most to the point beingthat the apparition of an old woman, who was supposed to have poisonedsomeone, used to be seen therein. Needless to say, the lady in questionnever again sat by herself in the drawing-room. 

Two stories are told about haunted houses at Drogheda, the one by A. G. Bradley in _Notes on some Irish Superstitions_ (Drogheda, 1894), theother by F. G. Lee in _Sights and Shadows_ (p. 42). As both appear to beplaced at the same date, _i. E. _ 1890, it is quite possible that theyrefer to one and the same haunting, and we have so treated themaccordingly. The reader, if he wishes, can test the matter for himself. 

This house, which was reputed to be haunted, was let to a tailor and hiswife by the owner at an annual rent of £23. They took possession in duecourse, but after a very few days they became aware of the presence of amost unpleasant supernatural lodger. One night, as the tailor and hiswife were preparing to retire, they were terrified at seeing the foot ofsome invisible person kick the candlestick off the table, and so quenchthe candle. Although it was a very dark night, and the shutters wereclosed, the man and his wife could see everything in the room just aswell as if it were the middle of the day. All at once a woman entered theroom, dressed in white, carrying something in her hand, which she threwat the tailor's wife, striking her with some violence, and then vanished. While this was taking place on the first floor, a most frightful noisewas going on overhead in the room where the children and their nurse weresleeping. The father immediately rushed upstairs, and found to his horrorthe floor all torn up, the furniture broken, and, worst of all, thechildren lying senseless and naked on the bed, and having the appearanceof having been severely beaten. As he was leaving the room with thechildren in his arms he suddenly remembered that he had not seen thenurse, so he turned back with the intention of bringing her downstairs, but could find her nowhere. The girl, half-dead with fright, and verymuch bruised, had fled to her mother's house, where she died in a fewdays in agony. 

Because of these occurrences they were legally advised to refuse to payany rent. The landlady, however, declining to release them from theirbargain, at once claimed a quarter's rent; and when this remained forsome time unpaid, sued them for it before Judge Kisby. A Droghedasolicitor appeared for the tenants, who, having given evidence of thefacts concerning the ghost in question, asked leave to support theirsworn testimony by that of several other people. This, however, wasdisallowed by the judge. It was admitted by the landlady that nothing onone side or the other had been said regarding the haunting when the housewas let. A judgment was consequently entered for the landlady, althoughit had been shown indirectly that unquestionably the house had had thereputation of being haunted, and that previous tenants had been muchinconvenienced. 

This chapter may be concluded with two stories dealing with hauntedrectories. The first, and mildest, of these is contributed by the presentDean of St. Patrick's; it is not his own personal experience, but wasrelated to him by a rector in Co. Monaghan, where he used to preach onspecial occasions. The rector and his daughters told the Dean that theyhad often seen in that house the apparition of an old woman dressed in adrab cape, while they frequently heard noises. On one evening the rectorwas in the kitchen together with the cook and the coachman. All threeheard noises in the pantry as if vessels were being moved. Presently theysaw the old woman in the drab cape come out of the pantry and move up thestairs. The rector attempted to follow her, but the two servants held himtightly by the arms, and besought him not to do so. But hearing thechildren, who were in bed, screaming, he broke from the grip of theservants and rushed upstairs. The children said that they had beenfrightened by seeing a strange old woman coming into the room, but shewas now gone. The house had a single roof, and there was no way to orfrom the nursery except by the stairs. The rector stated that he took topraying that the old woman might have rest, and that it was now manyyears since she had been seen. A very old parishioner told him that whenshe was young she remembered having seen an old woman answering to therector's description, who had lived in the house, which at that time wasnot a rectory. 

The second of these, which is decidedly more complex and mystifying, refers to a rectory in Co. Donegal. It is sent as the personal experienceof one of the percipients, who does not wish to have his name disclosed. He says: "My wife, children, and myself will have lived here four yearsnext January (1914). From the first night that we came into the housemost extraordinary noises have been heard. Sometimes they were insidethe house, and seemed as if the furniture was being disturbed, and thefireirons knocked about, or at other times as if a dog was running up anddown stairs. Sometimes they were external, and resembled tin bucketsbeing dashed about the yard, or as if a herd of cattle was galloping upthe drive before the windows. These things would go on for six months, and then everything would be quiet for three months or so, when thenoises would commence again. My dogs--a fox-terrier, a boar-hound, and aspaniel--would make a terrible din, and would bark at something in thehall we could not see, backing away from it all the time. 

"The only thing that was ever _seen_ was as follows: One night mydaughter went down to the kitchen about ten o'clock for some hot water. She saw a tall man, with one arm, carrying a lamp, who walked out of thepantry into the kitchen, and then through the kitchen wall. Anotherdaughter saw the same man walk down one evening from the loft, and gointo the harness-room. She told me, and I went out immediately, but couldsee nobody. Shortly after that my wife, who is very brave, heard a knockat the hall door in the dusk. Naturally thinking it was some friend, sheopened the door, and there saw standing outside the self-same man. Hesimply looked at her, and walked through the wall into the house. She gotsuch a shock that she could not speak for several hours, and was ill forsome days. That is eighteen months ago, and he has not been seen since, and it is six months since we heard any noises. " Our correspondent'sletter was written on 25th November 1913. "An old man nearly ninety diedlast year. He lived all his life within four hundred yards of this house, and used to tell me that seventy years ago the parsons came with bell, book, and candle to drive the ghosts out of the house. " Evidently theywere unsuccessful. In English ghost-stories it is the parson who performsthe exorcism successfully, while in Ireland such work is generallyperformed by the priest. Indeed a tale was sent to us in which a ghostquite ignored the parson's efforts, but succumbed to the priest. 

CHAPTER III

HAUNTED HOUSES IN MOGH'S HALF

The northern half of Ireland has not proved as prolific in stories ofhaunted houses as the southern portion: the possible explanation of thisis, not that the men of the north are less prone to hold, or talk about, such beliefs, but that, as regards the south half, we have had the goodfortune to happen upon some diligent collectors of these and kindredtales, whose eagerness in collecting is only equalled by their kindnessin imparting information to the compilers of this book. 

On a large farm near Portarlington there once lived a Mrs. ----, astrong-minded, capable woman, who managed all her affairs for herself, giving her orders, and taking none from anybody. In due time she died, and the property passed to the next-of-kin. As soon, however, as thefuneral was over, the house was nightly disturbed by strange noises:people downstairs would hear rushings about in the upper rooms, bangingof doors, and the sound of heavy footsteps. The cups and saucers used tofall off the dresser, and all the pots and pans would rattle. 

This went on for some time, till the people could stand it no longer, so they left the house and put in a herd and his family. The latter wasdriven away after he had been in the house a few weeks. This happenedto several people, until at length a man named Mr. B---- took the house. The noises went on as before until some one suggested getting the priestin. Accordingly the priest came, and held a service in the lateMrs. ----'s bedroom. When this was over, the door of the room was locked. After that the noises were not heard till one evening Mr. B---- came homefrom a fair, fortified, no doubt, with a little "Dutch courage, " anddeclared that even if the devil were in it he would go into the lockedroom. In spite of all his family could say or do, he burst open the door, and entered the room, but apparently saw nothing. That night pandemoniumreigned in the house, the chairs were hurled about, the china was broken, and the most weird and uncanny sounds were heard. Next day the priestwas sent for, the room again shut up, and nothing has happened from thatday to this. 

Another strange story comes from the same town. "When I was on a visit toa friend in Portarlington, " writes a lady in the _Journal_ of theAmerican S. P. R. [4] "a rather unpleasant incident occurred to me. At abouttwo o'clock in the morning I woke up suddenly, for apparently no reasonwhatever; however, I quite distinctly heard snoring coming from under orin the bed in which I was lying. It continued for about ten minutes, during which time I was absolutely limp with fright. The door opened, and my friend entered the bedroom, saying, 'I thought you might want me, so I came in. ' Needless to say, I hailed the happy inspiration that senther to me. I then told her what I had heard; she listened to me, and thento comfort (!) me said, 'Oh, never mind; _it is only grandfather_! Hedied in this room, and a snoring is heard every night at two o'clock, thehour at which he passed away. ' Some time previously a German gentlemanwas staying with this family. They asked him in the morning how he hadslept, and he replied that he was disturbed by a snoring in the room, buthe supposed it was the cat. "

[Footnote 4: For September, 1913. ]

A lady, formerly resident in Queen's Co. , but who now lives near Dublin, sends the following clear and concise account of her own personalexperiences in a haunted house: "Some years ago, my father, mother, sister, and myself went to live in a nice but rather small house close tothe town of ---- in Queen's Co. We liked the house, as it wasconveniently and pleasantly situated, and we certainly never had athought of ghosts or haunted houses, nor would my father allowany talk about such things in his presence. But we were not long settledthere when we were disturbed by the opening of the parlour door everynight regularly at the hour of eleven o'clock. My father and mother usedto retire to their room about ten o'clock, while my sister and I used tosit up reading. We always declared that we would retire before the dooropened, but we generally got so interested in our books that we wouldforget until we would hear the handle of the door turn, and see the doorflung open. We tried in every way to account for this, but we could findno explanation, and there was no possibility of any human agent beingat work. 

"Some time after, light was thrown on the subject. We had visitorsstaying with us, and in order to make room for them, my sister was askedto sleep in the parlour. She consented without a thought of ghosts, and went to sleep quite happily; but during the night she was awakened bysome one opening the door, walking across the room, and disturbing thefireirons. She, supposing it to be the servant, called her by name, butgot no answer: then the person seemed to come away from the fireplace, and walk out of the room. There was a fire in the grate, but though sheheard the footsteps, she could see no one. 

"The next thing was, that I was coming downstairs, and as I glancedtowards the hall door I saw standing by it a man in a grey suit. I wentto my father and told him. He asked in surprise who let him in, as theservant was out, and he himself had already locked, bolted, and chainedthe door an hour previously. None of us had let him in, and when myfather went out to the hall the man had disappeared, and the door was ashe had left it. 

"Some little time after, I had a visit from a lady who knew the placewell, and in the course of conversation she said:

"'This is the house poor Mr. ---- used to live in. '

"'Who is Mr. ----?' I asked. 

"'Did you never hear of him?' she replied. 'He was a minister who used tolive in this house quite alone, and was murdered in this very parlour. His landlord used to visit him sometimes, and one night he was seencoming in about eleven o'clock, and was seen again leaving about fiveo'clock in the morning. When Mr. ---- did not come out as usual, the doorwas forced open, and he was found lying dead in this room by the fender, with his head battered in with the poker. '

"We left the house soon after, " adds our informant. 

The following weird incidents occurred, apparently in the Co. Kilkenny, to a Miss K. B. , during two visits paid by her to Ireland in 1880 and1881. The house in which she experienced the following was really an oldbarrack, long disused, very old-fashioned, and surrounded with a highwall: it was said that it had been built during the time of Cromwellas a stronghold for his men. The only inhabitants of this were CaptainC---- (a retired officer in charge of the place), Mrs. C----, threedaughters, and two servants. They occupied the central part of thebuilding, the mess-room being their drawing-room. Miss K. B. 's bedroomwas very lofty, and adjoined two others which were occupied by the threedaughters, E. , G. , and L. 

"The first recollection I have of anything strange, " writes Miss B. , "wasthat each night I was awakened about three o'clock by a tremendous noise, apparently in the next suite of rooms, which was empty, and it sounded asif some huge iron boxes and other heavy things were being thrown aboutwith great force. This continued for about half an hour, when in the roomunderneath (the kitchen) I heard the fire being violently poked and rakedfor several minutes, and this was immediately followed by a most terribleand distressing cough of a man, very loud and violent. It seemed as ifthe exertion had brought on a paroxysm which he could not stop. In largehouses in Co. Kilkenny the fires are not lighted every day, owing to theslow-burning property of the coal, and it is only necessary to rake it upevery night about eleven o'clock, and in the morning it is still brightand clear. Consequently I wondered why it was necessary for CaptainC---- to get up in the middle of the night to stir it so violently. "

A few days later Miss B. Said to E. C. : "I hear such strange noises everynight--are there any people in the adjoining part of the building?" Sheturned very pale, and looking earnestly at Miss B. , said, "Oh K. , I am sosorry you heard. I hoped no one but myself had heard it. I could havegiven worlds to have spoken to you last night, but dared not move orspeak. " K. B. Laughed at her for being so superstitious, but E. Declaredthat the place was haunted, and told her of a number of weird things thathad been seen and heard. 

In the following year, 1881, Miss K. B. Paid another visit to thebarrack. This time there were two other visitors there--a colonel and hiswife. They occupied Miss B. 's former room, while to her was allotted ahuge bedroom on the top of the house, with a long corridor leading to it;opposite to this was another large room, which was occupied by the girls. 

Her strange experiences commenced again. "One morning, about fouro'clock, I was awakened by a very noisy martial footstep ascending thestairs, and then marching quickly up and down the corridor outsidemy room. Then suddenly the most violent coughing took place that I everheard, which continued for some time, while the quick, heavy stepcontinued its march. At last the footsteps faded away in the distance, and I then recalled to mind the same coughing after exertion last year. "In the morning, at breakfast, she asked both Captain C---- and thecolonel had they been walking about, but both denied, and also said theyhad no cough. The family looked very uncomfortable, and afterwards E. Came up with tears in her eyes, and said, "Oh K. , please don't sayanything more about that dreadful coughing; we all hear it often, especially when anything terrible is about to happen. "

Some nights later the C----s gave a dance. When the guests had departed, Miss B. Went to her bedroom. "The moon was shining so beautifully that Iwas able to read my Bible by its light, and had left the Bible open onthe window-sill, which was a very high one, and on which I sat to read, having had to climb the washstand to reach it. I went to bed, and fellasleep, but was not long so when I was suddenly awakened by the strangefeeling that some one was in the room. I opened my eyes, and turnedaround, and saw on the window-sill in the moonlight a long, very thin, very dark figure bending over the Bible, and apparently earnestlyscanning the page. As if my movement disturbed the figure, it suddenlydarted up, jumped off the window-ledge on to the washstand, then to theground, and flitted quietly across the room to the table where myjewellery was. " That was the last she saw of it. She thought it was someone trying to steal her jewellery, so waited till morning, but nothingwas missing. In the morning she described to one of the daughters, G. , what she had seen, and the latter told her that something always happenedwhen that appeared. Miss K. B. Adds that nothing did happen. Later on shewas told that a colonel had cut his throat in that very room. 

Another military station, Charles Fort, near Kinsale, has long had thereputation of being haunted. An account of this was sent to the _WideWorld Magazine_ (Jan. 1908), by Major H. L. Ruck Keene, D. S. O. ; hestates that he took it from a manuscript written by a Captain MarvellHull about the year 1880. Further information on the subject of thehaunting is to be found in Dr. Craig's _Real Pictures of Clerical Life inIreland_. 

Charles Fort was erected in 1667 by the Duke of Ormonde. It is said to behaunted by a ghost known as the "White Lady, " and the traditional accountof the reason for this haunting is briefly as follows: Shortly after theerection of the fort, a Colonel Warrender, a severe disciplinarian, wasappointed its governor. He had a daughter, who bore the quaint Christianname of "Wilful"; she became engaged to a Sir Trevor Ashurst, andsubsequently married him. On the evening of their wedding-day the brideand bridegroom were walking on the battlements, when she espied someflowers growing on the rocks beneath. She expressed a wish for them, anda sentry posted close by volunteered to climb down for them, provided SirTrevor took his place during his absence. He assented, and took thesoldier's coat and musket while he went in search of a rope. Havingobtained one, he commenced his descent; but the task proving longer thanhe expected, Sir Trevor fell asleep. Meantime the governor visited thesentries, as was his custom, and in the course of his rounds came towhere Sir Trevor was asleep. He challenged him, and on receiving noanswer perceived that he was asleep, whereupon he drew a pistol and shothim through the heart. The body was brought in, and it was only then thegovernor realised what had happened. The bride, who appears to have goneindoors before the tragedy occurred, then learned the fate that befellher husband, and in her distraction, rushed from the house and flungherself over the battlements. In despair at the double tragedy, herfather shot himself during the night. 

The above is from Dr. Craig's book already alluded to. In the _Wide WorldMagazine_ the legend differs slightly in details. According to this thegovernor's name was Browne, and it was his own son, not his son-in-law, that he shot; while the incident is said to have occurred about a hundredand fifty years ago. 

The "White Lady" is the ghost of the young bride. Let us see whataccounts there are of her appearance. A good many years ago Fort-MajorBlack, who had served in the Peninsular War, gave his own personalexperience to Dr. Craig. He stated that he had gone to the hall door onesummer evening, and saw a lady entering the door and going up the stairs. At first he thought she was an officer's wife, but as he looked, heobserved she was dressed in white, and in a very old-fashioned style. Impelled by curiosity, he hastened upstairs after her, and followed herclosely into one of the rooms, but on entering it he could not find theslightest trace of anyone there. On another occasion he stated that twosergeants were packing some cast stores. One of them had his littledaughter with him, and the child suddenly exclaimed, "Who is that whitelady who is bending over the banisters, and looking down at us?" The twomen looked up, but could see nothing, but the child insisted that she hadseen a lady in white looking down and smiling at her. 

On another occasion a staff officer, a married man, was residing in the"Governor's House. " One night as the nurse lay awake--she and thechildren were in a room which opened into what was known as the WhiteLady's apartment--she suddenly saw a lady clothed in white glide to thebedside of the youngest child, and after a little place her hand upon itswrist. At this the child started in its sleep, and cried out, "Oh! takethat cold hand from my wrist!" the next moment the lady disappeared. 

One night, about the year 1880, Captain Marvell Hull and LieutenantHartland were going to the rooms occupied by the former officer. As theyreached a small landing they saw distinctly in front of them a woman in awhite dress. As they stood there in awestruck silence she turned andlooked towards them, showing a face beautiful enough, but colourless as acorpse, and then passed on through a locked door. 

But it appears that this presence did not always manifest itself in asharmless a manner. Some years ago Surgeon L---- was quartered at thefort. One day he had been out snipe-shooting, and as he entered the fortthe mess-bugle rang out. He hastened to his rooms to dress, but as hefailed to put in an appearance at mess, one of the officers went insearch of him, and found him lying senseless on the floor. When herecovered consciousness he related his experience. He said he had stoopeddown for the key of his door, which he had placed for safety under themat; when in this position he felt himself violently dragged across thehall, and flung down a flight of steps. With this agrees somewhat theexperience of a Captain Jarves, as related by him to Captain MarvellHull. Attracted by a strange rattling noise in his bedroom, heendeavoured to open the door of it, but found it seemingly locked. Suspecting a hoax, he called out, whereupon a gust of wind passed him, and some unseen power flung him down the stairs, and laid him senselessat the bottom. 

Near a seaside town in the south of Ireland a group of small cottages wasbuilt by an old lady, in one of which she lived, while she let the othersto her relatives. In process of time all the occupants died, the cottagesfell into ruin, and were all pulled down (except the one in which the oldlady had lived), the materials being used by a farmer to build a largehouse which he hoped to let to summer visitors. It was shortly afterwardstaken for three years by a gentleman for his family. It should be notedthat the house had very bare surroundings; there were no trees near, orouthouses where people could be concealed. Soon after the family came tothe house they began to hear raps all over it, on doors, windows, andwalls; these raps varied in nature, sometimes being like a sledgehammer, loud and dying away, and sometimes quick and sharp, two or three or fivein succession; and all heard them. One morning about 4 A. M. , the motherheard very loud knocking on the bedroom door; thinking it was the servantwanting to go to early mass, she said, "Come in, " but the knockingcontinued till the father was awakened by it; he got up, searched thehouse, but could find no one. The servant's door was slightly open, andhe saw that she was sound asleep. That morning a telegram came announcingthe death of a beloved uncle just about the hour of the knocking. Sometime previous to this the mother was in the kitchen, when a loudexplosion took place beside her, startling her very much, but no causefor it could be found, nor were any traces left. This coincided with thedeath of an aunt, wife to the uncle who died later. 

One night the mother went to her bedroom. The blind was drawn, and theshutters closed, when suddenly a great crash came, as if a branch wasthrown at the window, and there was a sound of broken glass. She openedthe shutters with the expectation of finding the window smashed, butthere was not even a crack in it. She entered the room next day at oneo'clock, and the same crash took place, being heard by all in the house:she went in at 10 A. M. On another day, and the same thing happened, after which she refused to enter that room again. 

Another night, after 11 P. M. , the servant was washing up in the kitchen, when heavy footsteps were heard by the father and mother going upstairs, and across a lobby to the servant's room; the father searched the house, but could find no one. After that footsteps used to be heard regularly atthat hour, though no one could ever be seen walking about. 

The two elder sisters slept together, and used to see flames shooting upall over the floor, though there was no smell or heat; this used to beseen two or three nights at a time, chiefly in the one room. The firsttime the girls saw this one of them got up and went to her father inalarm, naturally thinking the room underneath must be on fire. 

The two boys were moved to the haunted room [which one?], where theyslept in one large bed with its head near the chimneypiece. The elderboy, aged about thirteen, put his watch on the mantelpiece, awoke about2 A. M. , and wishing to ascertain the time, put his hand up for his watch;he then felt a deathly cold hand laid on his. For the rest of that nightthe two boys were terrified by noises, apparently caused by two peoplerushing about the room fighting and knocking against the bed. About 6A. M. They went to their father, almost in hysterics from terror, andrefused to sleep there again. The eldest sister, not being nervous, wasthen given that room; she was, however, so disturbed by these noises thatshe begged her father to let her leave it, but having no other room togive her, he persuaded her to stay there, and at length she gotaccustomed to the noise, and could sleep in spite of it. Finally thefamily left the house before their time was up. [5]

[Footnote 5: _Journal of American S. P. R. _ for September 1913. ]

Mr. T. J. Westropp, to whom we are indebted for so much material, sends atale which used to be related by a relative of his, the Rev. ThomasWestropp, concerning experiences in a house not very far from the city ofLimerick. When the latter was appointed to a certain parish he had somedifficulty in finding a suitable house, but finally fixed on one whichhad been untenanted for many years, but had nevertheless been kept airedand in good repair, as a caretaker who lived close by used to come andlook after it every day. The first night that the family settled there, as the clergyman was going upstairs he heard a footstep and the rustle ofa dress, and as he stood aside a lady passed him, entered a door facingthe stairs, and closed it after her. It was only then he realised thather dress was very old-fashioned, and that he had not been able to enterthat particular room. Next day he got assistance from a carpenter, who, with another man, forced open the door. A mat of cobwebs fell as they didso, and the floor and windows were thick with dust. The men went acrossthe room, and as the clergyman followed them he saw a small white birdflying round the ceiling; at his exclamation the men looked back and alsosaw it. It swooped, flew out of the door, and they did not see it again. After that the family were alarmed by hearing noises under the floor ofthat room every night. At length the clergyman had the boards taken up, and the skeleton of a child was found underneath. So old did the remainsappear that the coroner did not deem it necessary to hold an inquest onthem, so the rector buried them in the churchyard. Strange noisescontinued, as if some one were trying to force up the boards fromunderneath. Also a heavy ball was heard rolling down the stairs andstriking against the study door. One night the two girls woke upscreaming, and on the nurse running up to them, the elder said she hadseen a great black dog with fiery eyes resting its paws on her bed. Herfather ordered the servants to sit constantly with them in the evenings, but, notwithstanding the presence of two women in the nursery, the samething occurred. The younger daughter was so scared that she never quiterecovered. The family left the house immediately. 

The same correspondent says: "An old ruined house in the hills of eastCo. Clare enjoyed the reputation of being 'desperately haunted' from, atany rate, 1865 down to its dismantling. I will merely give theexperiences of my own relations, as told by them to me. My mother toldhow one night she and my father heard creaking and grating, as if a doorwere being forced open. The sound came from a passage in which was a doornailed up and clamped with iron bands. A heavy footstep came downthe passage, and stopped at the bedroom door for a moment; no sound washeard, and then the 'thing' came through the room to the foot of the bed. It moved round the bed, they not daring to stir. The horrible unseenvisitant stopped, and they _felt_ it watching them. At last it movedaway, they heard it going up the passage, the door crashed, and all wassilence. Lighting a candle, my father examined the room, and found thedoor locked; he then went along the passage, but not a sound was to beheard anywhere. 

"Strange noises like footsteps, sobbing, whispering, grim laughter, andshrieks were often heard about the house. On one occasion my eldestsister and a girl cousin drove over to see the family and stayed thenight. They and my two younger sisters were all crowded into a huge, old-fashioned bed, and carefully drew and tucked in the curtains allround. My eldest sister awoke feeling a cold wind blowing on her face, and putting out her hand found the curtains drawn back and, as theysubsequently discovered, wedged between the bed and the wall. She reachedfor the match-box, and was about to light the candle when a horriblemocking laugh rang out close to the bed, which awakened the other girls. Being always a plucky woman, though then badly scared, she struck amatch, and searched the room, but nothing was to be seen. The closed roomwas said to have been deserted after a murder, and its floor was supposedto be stained with blood which no human power could wash out. "

Another house in Co. Clare, nearer the estuary of the Shannon, which wasformerly the residence of the D---- family, but is now pulled down, hadsome extraordinary tales told about it in which facts (if we may use theword) were well supplemented by legend. To commence with the former. A lady writes: "My father and old Mr. D---- were first cousins. RichardD---- asked my father would he come and sit up with him one night, inorder to see what might be seen. Both were particularly sober men. Theannoyances in the house were becoming unbearable. Mrs. D----'s work-boxused to be thrown down, the table-cloth would be whisked off the table, the fender and fireirons would be hurled about the room, and othersimilar things would happen. Mr. D---- and my father went up to one ofthe bedrooms, where a big fire was made up. They searched every part ofthe room carefully, but nothing uncanny was to be seen or found. Theythen placed two candles and a brace of pistols on a small table betweenthem, and waited. Nothing happened for some time, till all of a sudden alarge black dog walked out from under the bed. Both men fired, and thedog disappeared. That is all! The family had to leave the house. "

Now to the blending of fact with fiction, of which we have alreadyspoken: the intelligent reader can decide in his own mind which is which. It was said that black magic had been practised in this house at onetime, and that in consequence terrible and weird occurrences were quitethe order of the day there. When being cooked, the hens used to screamand the mutton used to bleat in the pot. Black dogs were seen frequently. The beds used to be lifted up, and the occupants thereof used to bebeaten black and blue, by invisible hands. One particularly ghoulish talewas told. It was said that a monk (!) was in love with one of thedaughters of the house, who was an exceedingly fat girl. She diedunmarried, and was buried in the family vault. Some time later the vaultwas again opened for an interment, and those who entered it found thatMiss D----'s coffin had been disturbed, and the lid loosened. Theythen saw that all the fat around her heart had been scooped away. 

Apropos of ineradicable blood on a floor, which is a not infrequent itemin stories of haunted houses, it is said that a manifestation of thisnature forms the haunting in a farmhouse in Co. Limerick. According toour informants, a light must be kept burning in this house all night; ifby any chance it is forgotten, or becomes quenched, in the morning thefloor is covered with blood. The story is evidently much older than thehouse, but no traditional explanation is given. 

Two stories of haunted schools have been sent to us, both on very goodauthority; these establishments lie within the geographical limits ofthis chapter, but for obvious reasons, we cannot indicate their localitymore precisely, though the names of both are known to us. The first ofthese was told to our correspondent by the boy Brown, who was in theroom, but did _not_ see the ghost. 

When Brown was about fifteen he was sent to ---- School. His brother toldhim not to be frightened at anything he might see or hear, as the boyswere sure to play tricks on all new-comers. He was put to sleep in a roomwith another new arrival, a boy named Smith, from England. In the middleof the night Brown was roused from his sleep by Smith crying out in greatalarm, and asking who was in the room. Brown, who was very angry at beingwaked up, told him not to be a fool--that there was no one there. Thesecond night Smith roused him again, this time in greater alarm than thefirst night. He said he saw a man in cap and gown come into the room witha lamp, and then pass right through the wall. Smith got out of his bed, and fell on his knees beside Brown, beseeching him not to go to sleep. Atfirst Brown thought it was all done to frighten him, but he then saw thatSmith was in a state of abject terror. Next morning they spoke of theoccurrence, and the report reached the ears of the Head Master, who sentfor the two boys. Smith refused to spend another night in the room. Brownsaid he had seen or heard nothing, and was quite willing to sleep thereif another fellow would sleep with him, but he would not care to remainthere alone. The Head Master then asked for volunteers from the class ofelder boys, but not one of them would sleep in the room. It had alwaysbeen looked upon as "haunted, " but the Master thought that by putting innew boys who had not heard the story they would sleep there all right. 

Some years after, Brown revisited the place, and found that anotherattempt had been made to occupy the room. A new Head Master who did notknow its history, thought it a pity to have the room idle, and put ateacher, also new to the school, in possession. When this teacher camedown the first morning, he asked who had come into his room during thenight. He stated that a man in cap and gown, having books under his armand a lamp in his hand, came in, sat down at a table, and began to read. He knew that he was not one of the masters, and did not recognise him asone of the boys. The room had to be abandoned. The tradition is that manyyears ago a master was murdered in that room by one of the students. Thefew boys who ever had the courage to persist in sleeping in the room saidif they stayed more than two or three nights that the furniture wasmoved, and they heard violent noises. 

The second story was sent to us by the percipient herself, and istherefore a firsthand experience. Considering that she was only aschoolgirl at the time, it must be admitted that she made a most pluckyattempt to run the ghost to earth. 

"A good many years ago, when I first went to school, I did not believe inghosts, but I then had an experience which caused me to alter my opinion. I was ordered with two other girls to sleep in a small top room at theback of the house which overlooked a garden which contained ancientapple-trees. 

"Suddenly in the dead of night I was awakened out of my sleep by thesound of heavy footsteps, as of a man wearing big boots unlaced, pacingceaselessly up and down a long corridor which I knew was plainly visiblefrom the landing outside my door, as there was a large window at thefarther end of it, and there was sufficient moonlight to enable one tosee its full length. After listening for about twenty minutes, mycuriosity was aroused, so I got up and stood on the landing. Thefootsteps still continued, but I could see nothing, although the soundsactually reached the foot of the flight of stairs which led from thecorridor to the landing on which I was standing. Suddenly the footfallceased, pausing at my end of the corridor, and I then considered it washigh time for me to retire, which I accordingly did, carefully closingthe door behind me. 

"To my horror the footsteps ascended the stairs, and the bedroom door wasviolently dashed back against a washing-stand, beside which was a bed;the contents of the ewer were spilled over the occupant, and the stepsadvanced a few paces into the room in my direction. A cold perspirationbroke out all over me; I cannot describe the sensation. It was not actualfear--it was more than that--I felt I had come into contact with theUnknown. 

"What was about to happen? All I could do was to speak; I cried out, "Whoare you? What do you want?" Suddenly the footsteps ceased; I feltrelieved, and lay awake till morning, but no further sound reached myears. How or when my ghostly visitant disappeared I never knew; sufficeit to say, my story was no nightmare, but an actual fact, of which therewas found sufficient proof in the morning; the floor was still saturatedwith water, the door, which we always carefully closed at night, was wideopen, and last, but not least, the occupant of the wet bed had heard allthat had happened, but feared to speak, and lay awake till morning. 

"Naturally, we related our weird experience to our schoolmates, and itwas only then I learned from one of the elder girls that this ghost hadmanifested itself for many years in a similar fashion to the inhabitantsof that room. It was supposed to be the spirit of a man who, long yearsbefore, had occupied this apartment (the house was then a privateresidence), and had committed suicide by hanging himself from an oldapple tree opposite the window. Needless to say, the story was hushed up, and we were sharply spoken to, and warned not to mention the occurrenceagain. 

"Some years afterwards a friend, who happened at the time to be a boarderat this very school, came to spend a week-end with me. She related anexactly similar incident which occurred a few nights previous to hervisit. My experience was quite unknown to her. "

The following account of strange happenings at his glebe-house has beensent by the rector of a parish in the diocese of Cashel: "Shortly aftermy wife and I came to live here, some ten years ago, the servantscomplained of hearing strange noises in the top storey of the Rectorywhere they sleep. One girl ran away the day after she arrived, declaringthat the house was haunted, and that nothing would induce her to sleepanother night in it. So often had my wife to change servants on thisaccount that at last I had to speak to the parish priest, as I suspectedthat the idea of 'ghosts' might have been suggested to the maids byneighbours who might have some interest in getting rid of them. Iunderstand that my friend the parish priest spoke very forcibly from thealtar on the subject of spirits, saying that the only spirits he believedever did any harm to anyone were ----, mentioning a well-known brand ofthe wine of the country. Whether this priestly admonition was the causeor not, for some time we heard no more tales of ghostly manifestations. 

"After a while, however, my wife and I began to hear a noise which, whilein no sense alarming, has proved to be both remarkable and inexplicable. If we happen to be sitting in the dining-room after dinner, sometimes wehear what sounds like the noise of a heavy coach rumbling up to the halldoor. We have both heard this noise hundreds of times between eight P. M. And midnight. Sometimes we hear it several times the same night, and thenperhaps we won't hear it again for several months. We hear it best oncalm nights, and as we are nearly a quarter of a mile from the highroad, it is difficult to account for, especially as the noise appears tobe quite close to us--I mean not farther away than the hall-door. I maymention that an Englishman was staying with us a few years ago. As wewere sitting in the dining-room one night after dinner he said, 'Acarriage has just driven up to the door'; but we knew it was only the'phantom coach, ' for we also heard it. Only once do I remember hearing itwhile sitting in the drawing-room. So much for the 'sound' of the'phantom coach, ' but now I must tell you what I _saw_ with my own eyes asclearly as I now see the paper on which I am writing. Some years ago inthe middle of the summer, on a scorching hot day, I was out cuttingsome hay opposite the hall door just by the tennis court. It was betweentwelve and one o'clock. I remember the time distinctly, as my man hadgone to his dinner shortly before. The spot on which I was commandeda view of the avenue from the entrance gate for about four hundred yards. I happened to look up from my occupation--for scything is no easywork--and I saw what I took to be a somewhat high dogcart, in which twopeople were seated, turning in at the avenue gate. As I had my coat andwaistcoat off, and was not in a state to receive visitors, I got behind anewly-made hay-cock and watched the vehicle until it came to a bend inthe avenue where there is a clump of trees which obscured it from myview. As it did not, however, reappear, I concluded that the occupantshad either stopped for some reason or had taken by mistake a cart-wayleading to the back gate into the garden. Hastily putting on my coat, Iwent down to the bend in the avenue, but to my surprise there was nothingto be seen. 

"Returning to the Rectory, I met my housekeeper, who has been with me fornearly twenty years, and I told her what I had seen. She then told methat about a month before, while I was away from home, my man had one daygone with the trap to the station. She saw, just as I did, a trap comingup the avenue until it was lost to sight owing to the intervention of theclump of trees. As it did not come on, she went down to the bend, butthere was no trap to be seen. When the man came in some half-hour after, my housekeeper asked him if he had come half-way up the avenue and turnedback, but he said he had only that minute come straight from the station. My housekeeper said she did not like to tell me about it before, as shethought I 'would have laughed at her. ' Whether the 'spectral gig' which Isaw and the 'phantom coach' which my wife and I have often heard are oneand the same I know not, but I do know that what I saw in the full blazeof the summer sun was not inspired by a dose of the spirits referred toby my friend the parish priest. 

"Some time during the winter of 1912, I was in the motor-house one darkevening at about 6 P. M. I was working at the engine, and as the car was'nose in' first, I was, of course, at the farthest point from the door. I had sent my man down to the village with a message. He was gone aboutten minutes when I heard heavy footsteps enter the yard and come over tothe motor-house. I 'felt' that there was some one in the house quiteclose to me, and I said, 'Hullo, ----, what brought you back so soon, ' asI knew he could not have been to the village and back. As I got no reply, I took up my electric lamp and went to the back of the motor to see whowas there, but there was no one to be seen, and although I searched theyard with my lamp, I could discover no one. About a week later I heardthe footsteps again under almost identical conditions, but I searchedwith the same futile result. 

"Before I stop, I must tell you about a curious 'presentiment' whichhappened with regard to a man I got from the Queen's County. He arrivedon a Saturday evening, and on the following Monday morning I put him tosweep the avenue. He was at his work when I went out in the motor car atabout 10:30 A. M. Shortly after I left he left his wheel-barrow and toolson the avenue (just at the point where I saw the 'spectral gig'disappear) and, coming up to the Rectory, he told my housekeeper in agreat state of agitation that he was quite sure that his brother, withwhom he had always lived, was dead. He said he must return home at once. My housekeeper advised him to wait until I returned, but he changed hisclothes and packed his box, saying he must catch the next train. Justbefore I returned home at 12 o'clock, a telegram came saying his brotherhad died suddenly that morning, and that he was to return at once. On myreturn I found him almost in a state of collapse. He left by the nexttrain, and I never heard of him again. "

K---- Castle is a handsome blending of ancient castle and moderndwelling-house, picturesquely situated among trees, while the steep glenmentioned below runs close beside it. It has the reputation of beinghaunted, but, as usual, it is difficult to get information. Onegentleman, to whom we wrote, stated that he never saw or heard anythingworse than a bat. On the other hand, a lady who resided there a good manyyears ago, gives the following account of her extraordinary experiencestherein:

DEAR MR. SEYMOUR, I enclose some account of our experiences in K---- Castle. It would bebetter not to mention names, as the people occupying it have told me theyare afraid of their servants hearing anything, and consequently givingnotice. They themselves hear voices often, but, like me, they do notmind. When first we went there we heard people talking, but on lookingeverywhere we could find no one. Then on some nights we heard fighting inthe glen beside the house. We could hear voices raised in anger, and theclash of steel: no person would venture there after dusk. 

One night I was sitting talking with my governess, I got up, saidgood-night, and opened the door, which was on the top of the backstaircase. As I did so, I _heard_ some one (a woman) come slowlyupstairs, walk past us to a window at the end of the landing, and thenwith a shriek fall heavily. As she passed it was bitterly cold, and Idrew back into the room, but did not say anything, as it might frightenthe governess. She asked me what was the matter, as I looked so white. Without answering, I pushed her into her room, and then searched thehouse, but with no results. 

Another night I was sleeping with my little girl. I awoke, and saw a girlwith long, fair hair standing at the fireplace, one hand at her side, theother on the chimney-piece. Thinking at first it was my little girl, Ifelt on the pillow to see if she were gone, but she was fast asleep. There was no fire or light of any kind in the room. 

Some time afterwards a friend was sleeping there, and she told me thatshe was pushed out of bed the whole night. Two gentlemen to whom I hadmentioned this came over, thinking they would find out the cause. In themorning when they came down they asked for the carriage to take them tothe next train, but would not tell what they had heard or seen. Another person who came to visit her sister, who was looking after thehouse before we went in, slept in this room, and in the morning said shemust go back that day. She also would give no information. 

On walking down the corridor, I have heard a door open, a footstep crossbefore me, and go into another room, _both_ doors being closed at thetime. An old cook I had told me that when she went into the hall in themorning, a gentleman would come down the front stairs, take a plumed hatoff the stand, and vanish _through_ the hall door. This she saw nearlyevery morning. She also said that a girl often came into her bedroom, andput her hand on her (the cook's) face; and when she would push her awayshe would hear a girl's voice say, "Oh don't!" three times. I have oftenheard voices in the drawing-room, which decidedly sounded as if an oldgentleman and a girl were talking. Noises like furniture being moved werefrequently heard at night, and strangers staying with us have often askedwhy the servants turned out the rooms underneath them at such an unusualhour. The front-door bell sometimes rang, and I have gone down, but foundno one. 

Yours very sincerely, F. T. 

"Kilman" Castle, in the heart of Ireland--the name is obviously apseudonym--has been described as perhaps the worst haunted mansion in theBritish Isles. That it deserves this doubtful recommendation, we cannotsay; but at all events the ordinary reader will be prepared to admit thatit contains sufficient "ghosts" to satisfy the most greedy ghost-hunter. A couple of months ago the present writer paid a visit to this castle, and was shown all over it one morning by the mistress of the house, who, under the _nom de plume_ of "Andrew Merry" has published novels dealingwith Irish life, and has also contributed articles on the ghostlyphenomena of her house to the _Occult Review_ (Dec. 1908 and Jan. 1909). 

The place itself is a grim, grey, bare building. The central portion, inwhich is the entrance-hall, is a square castle of the usual type; it isbuilt on a rock, and a slight batter from base to summit gives an addedappearance of strength and solidity. On either side of the castle aremore modern wings, one of which terminates in what is known as the"Priest's House. "

Now to the ghosts. The top storey of the central tower is a large, well-lighted apartment, called the "Chapel, " having evidently served thatpurpose in times past. At one end is what is said to be an _oubliette_, now almost filled up. Occasionally in the evenings, people walking alongthe roads or in the fields see the windows of this chapel lighted up fora few seconds as if many lamps were suddenly brought into it. This iscertainly _not_ due to servants; from our experience we can testify thatit is the last place on earth that a domestic would enter after dark. Itis also said that a treasure is buried somewhere in or around the castle. The legend runs that an ancestor was about to be taken to Dublin on acharge of rebellion, and, fearing he would never return, made the best ofthe time left to him by burying somewhere a crock full of gold andjewels. Contrary to expectation, he _did_ return; but his longconfinement had turned his brain, and he could never remember the spotwhere he had deposited his treasure years before. Some time ago a lady, aMiss B. , who was decidedly psychic, was invited to Kilman Castle in thehope that she would be able to locate the whereabouts of this treasure. In this respect she failed, unfortunately, but gave, nevertheless, acurious example of her power. As she walked through the hall with herhostess, she suddenly laid her hand upon the bare stone wall, andremarked, "There is something uncanny here, but I don't know what it is. "In that very spot, some time previously, two skeletons had beendiscovered walled up. 

The sequel to this is curious. Some time after, Miss B. Was either tryingautomatic writing, or else was at a séance (we forget which), when amessage came to her from the Unseen, stating that the treasure at KilmanCastle was concealed in the chapel under the tessellated pavement nearthe altar. But this spirit was either a "lying spirit, " or else a mostimpish one, for there is no trace of an altar, and it is impossible tosay, from the style of the room, where it stood; while the tessellatedpavement (if it exists) is so covered with the debris of the formerroof that it would be almost impossible to have it thoroughly cleared. 

There is as well a miscellaneous assortment of ghosts. A monk withtonsure and cowl walks in at one window of the Priest's House, and out atanother. There is also a little old man, dressed in the antique garbof a green cut-away coat, knee breeches, and buckled shoes: he issometimes accompanied by an old lady in similar old-fashioned costume. Another ghost has a penchant for lying on the bed beside its lawful andearthly occupant; nothing is seen, but a great weight is felt, and aconsequent deep impression made on the bedclothes. 

The lady of the house states that she has a number of letters fromfriends, in which they relate the supernatural experiences they had whilestaying at the Castle. In one of these the writer, a gentleman, wasawakened one night by an extraordinary feeling of intense cold at hisheart. He then saw in front of him a tall female figure, clothed fromhead to foot in red, and with its right hand raised menacingly in theair: the light which illuminated the figure was from within. He lit amatch, and sprang out of bed, but the room was empty. He went back tobed, and saw nothing more that night, except that several times the samecold feeling gripped his heart, though to the touch the flesh was quitewarm. 

But of all the ghosts in that well-haunted house the most unpleasant isthat inexplicable thing that is usually called "It. " The lady of thehouse described to the present writer her personal experience of thisphantom. High up round one side of the hall runs a gallery which connectswith some of the bedrooms. One evening she was in this gallery leaning onthe balustrade, and looking down into the hall. Suddenly she felt twohands laid on her shoulders; she turned round sharply, and saw "It"standing close beside her. She described it as being human in shape, andabout four feet high; the eyes were like two black holes in the face, andthe whole figure seemed as if it were made of grey cotton-wool, while itwas accompanied by a most appalling stench, such as would come from adecaying human body. The lady got a shock from which she did not recoverfor a long time. 

CHAPTER IV

POLTERGEISTS

Poltergeist is the term assigned to those apparently meaningless noisesand movements of objects of which we from time to time hear accounts. Theword is, of course, German, and may be translated "boisterous ghost. " Apoltergeist is seldom or never seen, but contents itself by movingfurniture and other objects about in an extraordinary manner, oftencontrary to the laws of gravitation; sometimes footsteps are heard, butnothing is visible, while at other times vigorous rappings will be heardeither on the walls or floor of a room, and in the manner in which theraps are given a poltergeist has often showed itself as having a closeconnection with the physical phenomena of spiritualism, for cases haveoccurred in which a poltergeist has given the exact number of rapsmentally asked for by some person present. Another point that is worthyof note is the fact that the hauntings of a poltergeist are generallyattached to a certain individual in a certain spot, and thus differ fromthe operations of an ordinary ghost. 

The two following incidents related in this chapter are taken from apaper read by Professor Barrett, F. R. S. , before the Society for PsychicalResearch. [6] In the case of the first anecdote he made every possibleinquiry into the facts set forth, short of actually being an eye-witnessof the phenomena. In the case of the second he made personalinvestigation, and himself saw the whole of the incidents related. Thereis therefore very little room to doubt the genuineness of either story. 

[Footnote 6: _Proceedings_, August 1911, pp. 377-95. ]

In the year 1910, in a certain house in Court Street, Enniscorthy, therelived a labouring man named Redmond. His wife took in boarders tosupplement her husband's wages, and at the time to which we refer therewere three men boarding with her, who slept in one room above thekitchen. The house consisted of five rooms--two on the ground-floor, ofwhich one was a shop and the other the kitchen. The two other roomsupstairs were occupied by the Redmonds and their servant respectively. The bedroom in which the boarders slept was large, and contained twobeds, one at each end of the room, two men sleeping in one of them; JohnRandall and George Sinnott were the names of two, but the name of thethird lodger is not known--he seems to have left the Redmonds veryshortly after the disturbances commenced. 

It was on July 4, 1910, that John Randall, who is a carpenter by trade, went to live at Enniscorthy, and took rooms with the Redmonds. In asigned statement, now in possession of Professor Barrett, he tells agraphic tale of what occurred each night during the three weeks he lodgedin the house, and as a result of the poltergeist's attentions he lostthree-quarters of a stone in weight. It was on the night of Thursday, July 7, that the first incident occurred, when the bedclothes were gentlypulled off his bed. Of course he naturally thought it was a joke, andshouted to his companions to stop. As no one could explain what washappening, a match was struck, and the bedclothes were found to be at thewindow, from which the other bed (a large piece of furniture whichordinarily took two people to move) had been rolled just when the clotheshad been taken off Randall's bed. Things were put straight and the lightblown out, "but, " Randall's account goes on to say, "it wasn't long untilwe heard some hammering in the room--tap-tap-tap-like. This lasted for afew minutes, getting quicker and quicker. When it got very quick, theirbed started to move out across the room.... We then struck a match andgot the lamp. We searched the room thoroughly, and could find nobody. Nobody had come in the door. We called the man of the house (Redmond); hecame into the room, saw the bed, and told us to push it back and get intobed (he thought all the time one of us was playing the trick on theother). I said I wouldn't stay in the other bed by myself, so I got inwith the others; we put out the light again, and it had only been acouple of minutes out when the bed ran out on the floor with the three ofus. Richard struck a match again, and this time we all got up and put onour clothes; we had got a terrible fright and couldn't stick it anylonger. We told the man of the house we would sit up in the room tilldaylight. During the time we were sitting in the room we could hearfootsteps leaving the kitchen and coming up the stairs; it would stop onthe landing outside the door, and wouldn't come into the room. Thefootsteps and noises continued through the house until daybreak. "

The next night the footsteps and noises were continued, but theunfortunate men did not experience any other annoyance. On the followingday the men went home, and it is to be hoped they were able to make upfor all the sleep they had lost on the two previous nights. They returnedon the Sunday, and from that night till they finally left the house themen were disturbed practically every night. On Monday, 11th July the bedwas continually running out from the wall with its three occupants. Theykept the lamp alight, and a chair was seen to dance gaily out into themiddle of the floor. On the following Thursday we read of the samehappenings, with the addition that one of the boarders was lifted outof the bed, though he felt no hand near him. It seems strange that theyshould have gone through such a bad night exactly a week from the nightthe poltergeist started its operations. So the account goes on; everynight that they slept in the room the hauntings continued, some nightsbeing worse than others. On Friday, 29th July, "the bed turned up on oneside and threw us out on the floor, and before we were thrown out, thepillow was taken from under my head three times. When the bed rose up, itfell back without making any noise. This bed was so heavy, it took boththe woman and the girl to pull it out from the wall without anybody init, and there were only three castors on it. " The poltergeist must havebeen an insistent fellow, for when the unfortunate men took refuge in theother bed, they had not been long in it before it began to rise, butcould not get out of the recess it was in unless it was taken to pieces. 

"It kept very bad, " we read, "for the next few nights. So Mr. Murphy, from the _Guardian_ office, and another man named Devereux, came andstopped in the room one night. "

The experiences of Murphy and Devereux on this night are contained in afurther statement, signed by Murphy and corroborated by Devereux. Theyseem to have gone to work in a business-like manner, as before takingtheir positions for the night they made a complete investigation of thebedroom and house, so as to eliminate all chance of trickery or fraud. Bythis time, it should be noted, one of Mrs. Redmond's lodgers hadevidently suffered enough from the poltergeist, as only two men arementioned in Murphy's statement, one sleeping in each bed. The twoinvestigators took up their position against the wall midway between thetwo beds, so that they had a full view of the room and the occupants ofthe beds. "The night, " says Murphy, "was a clear, starlight night. Noblind obstructed the view from outside, and one could see the outlines ofthe beds and their occupants clearly. At about 11. 30 a tapping was heardclose at the foot of Randall's bed. My companion remarked that itappeared to be like the noise of a rat eating at timber. 

"Sinnott replied, 'You'll soon see the rat it is. ' The tapping went onslowly at first ... Then the speed gradually increased to about a hundredor a hundred and twenty per minute, the noise growing louder. Thiscontinued for about five minutes, when it stopped suddenly. Randall thenspoke. He said: 'The clothes are slipping off my bed: look at themsliding off. Good God, they are going off me. ' Mr. Devereux immediatelystruck a match, which he had ready in his hand. The bedclothes had partlyleft the boy's bed, having gone diagonally towards the foot, going out atthe left corner, and not alone did they seem to be drawn off the bed, butthey appeared to be actually going back under the bed, much in the sameposition one would expect bedclothes to be if a strong breeze wereblowing through the room at the time. But then everything was perfectlycalm. "

A search was then made for wires or strings, but nothing of the sortcould be found. The bedclothes were put back and the light extinguished. For ten minutes silence reigned, only to be broken by more rapping whichwas followed by shouts from Randall. He was told to hold on to theclothes, which were sliding off again. But this was of little use, for hewas heard to cry, "I'm going, I'm going, I'm gone, " and when a light wasstruck he was seen to slide from the bed and all the bedclothes with him. Randall, who, with Sinnott, had shown considerable strength of mind bystaying in the house under such trying circumstances, had evidently hadenough of ghostly hauntings, for as he lay on the floor, trembling inevery limb and bathed in perspiration, he exclaimed: "Oh, isn't thisdreadful? I can't stand it; I can't stay here any longer. " He waseventually persuaded to get back to bed. Later on more rapping occurredin a different part of the room, but it soon stopped, and the rest of thenight passed away in peace. 

Randall and Sinnott went to their homes the next day, and Mr. Murphyspent from eleven till long past midnight in their vacated room, butheard and saw nothing unusual. He states in conclusion that "Randallcould not reach that part of the floor from which the rapping came on anyoccasion without attracting my attention and that of my comrade. "

The next case related by Professor Barrett occurred in County Fermanagh, at a spot eleven miles from Enniskillen and about two miles from thehamlet of Derrygonelly, where there dwelt a farmer and his family of fourgirls and a boy, of whom the eldest was a girl of about twenty years ofage named Maggie. His cottage consisted of three rooms, the kitchen, ordwelling-room, being in the centre, with a room on each side used asbedrooms. In one of these two rooms Maggie slept with her sisters, and itwas here that the disturbances occurred, generally after they had allgone to bed, when rappings and scratchings were heard which often lastedall night. Rats were first blamed, but when things were moved by someunseen agent, and boots and candles thrown out of the house, it was seenthat something more than the ordinary rat was at work. The old farmer, who was a Methodist, sought advice from his class leader, and by hisdirections laid an open Bible on the bed in the haunted room, placing abig stone on the book. But the stone was lifted off by an unseen hand, the Bible moved out of the room, and seventeen pages torn out of it. Theycould not keep a lamp or candle in the house, so they went to theirneighbours for help, and, to quote the old farmer's words to ProfessorBarrett, "Jack Flanigan came and lent us a lamp, saying the devil himselfwould not steal it, as he had got the priest to sprinkle it with holywater. " "But that, " the old man said, "did us no good either, for thenext day it took away that lamp also. "

Professor Barrett, at the invitation of Mr. Thomas Plunkett ofEnniskillen, went to investigate. He got a full account from the farmerof the freakish tricks which were continually being played in the house, and gives a graphic account of what he himself observed: "After thechildren, except the boy, had gone to bed, Maggie lay down on the bedwithout undressing, so that her hands and feet could be observed. Therest of us sat round the kitchen fire, when faint raps, rapidlyincreasing in loudness, were heard coming apparently from the walls, the ceiling, and various parts of the inner room, the door of which wasopen. On entering the bedroom with a light the noises at first ceased, but recommenced when I put the light on the window-sill in the kitchen. Ihad the boy and his father by my side, and asked Mr. Plunkett to lookround the house outside. Standing in the doorway leading to the bedroom, the noises recommenced, the light was gradually brought nearer, and aftermuch patience I was able to bring the light into the bedroom whilst thedisturbances were still loudly going on. At last I was able to go up tothe side of the bed, with the lighted candle in my hand, and closelyobserved each of the occupants lying on the bed. The younger childrenwere apparently asleep, and Maggie was motionless; nevertheless, knockswere going on everywhere around; on the chairs, the bedstead, the wallsand ceiling. The closest scrutiny failed to detect any movement on thepart of those present that could account for the noises, which wereaccompanied by a scratching or tearing sound. Suddenly a large pebblefell in my presence on to the bed; no one had moved to dislodge it, evenif it had been placed for the purpose. When I replaced the candle on thewindow-sill in the kitchen, the knocks became still louder, like thosemade by a heavy carpenter's hammer driving nails into flooring. "

A couple of days afterwards, the Rev. Maxwell Close, M. A. , a well-knownmember of the S. P. R. , joined Professor Barrett and Mr. Plunkett, andtogether the party of three paid visits on two consecutive nights to thehaunted farm-house, and the noises were repeated. Complete search wasmade, both inside and outside of the house, but no cause could be found. When the party were leaving, the old farmer was much perturbed that theyhad not "laid the ghost. " When questioned he said he thought it wasfairies. He was asked if it had answered to questions by raps and he saidhe had; "but it tells lies as often as truth, and oftener, I think. Wetried it, and it only knocked at L M N when we said the alphabet over. "Professor Barrett then tested it by asking mentally for a certain numberof raps, and immediately the actual number was heard. He repeated thisfour times with a different number each time, and with the same result. 

Perhaps the most interesting part of this particular case is at the endof Professor Barrett's account, when, at the request of the old farmer, Mr. Maxwell Close read some passages from Scripture, followed by theLord's Prayer, to an accompaniment of knockings and scratches, which wereat first so loud that the solemn words could hardly be heard, but whichgradually ceased as they all knelt in prayer. And since that night nofurther disturbance occurred. 

Another similar story comes from the north of Ireland. In the year 1866(as recorded in the _Larne Reporter_ of March 31 in that year), twofamilies residing at Upper Ballygowan, near Larne, suffered a series ofannoyances from having stones thrown into their houses both by night andby day. Their neighbours came in great numbers to sympathise with them intheir affliction, and on one occasion, after a volley of stones had beenpoured into the house through the window, a young man who was presentfired a musket in the direction of the mysterious assailants. The replywas a loud peal of satanic laughter, followed by a volley of stones andturf. On another occasion a heap of potatoes, which was in an innerapartment of one of the houses, was seen to be in commotion, and shortlyafterwards its contents were hurled into the kitchen, where the inmatesof the house, with some of their neighbours, were assembled. 

The explanation given by some people of this mysterious affair was asmysterious as the affair itself. It was said that many years before theoccurrences which we have now related took place, the farmer who thenoccupied the premises in which they happened was greatly annoyed bymischievous tricks which were played upon him by a company of fairies whohad a habit of holding their rendezvous in his house. The consequence wasthat this man had to leave the house, which for a long time stood aroofless ruin. After the lapse of many years, and when the story aboutthe dilapidated fabric having been haunted had probably been forgotten, the people who then occupied the adjoining lands unfortunately took someof the stones of the old deserted mansion to repair their own buildings. At this the fairies, or "good people, " were much incensed; and theyvented their displeasure on the offender in the way we have described. 

A correspondent from County Wexford, who desires to have his namesuppressed, writes as follows: "Less than ten miles from the townof ----, Co. Wexford, lives a small farmer named M----, who by dint ofthrift and industry has reared a large family decently and comfortably. 

"Some twenty years ago Mr. M----, through the death of a relative, fellin for a legacy of about a hundred pounds. As he was already in ratherprosperous circumstances, and as his old thatched dwelling-house was notlarge enough to accommodate his increasing family, he resolved to spendthe money in building a new one. 

"Not long afterwards building operations commenced, and in about a yearhe had a fine slated cottage, or small farm-house, erected and ready foroccupation: so far very well; but it is little our friend M----anticipated the troubles which were still ahead of him. He purchased somenew furniture at the nearest town, and on a certain day he removed allthe furniture which the old house contained into the new one; and in theevening the family found themselves installed in the latter for good, asthey thought. They all retired to rest at their usual hour; scarcely werethey snugly settled in bed when they heard peculiar noises inside thehouse. As time passed the din became terrible--there was shuffling offeet, slamming of doors, pulling about of furniture, and so forth. Theman of the house got up to explore, but could see nothing, neither wasanything disturbed. The door was securely locked as he had left it. Aftera thorough investigation, in which his wife assisted, he had to own hecould find no clue to the cause of the disturbance. The couple went tobed again, and almost immediately the racket recommenced, and continuedmore or less till dawn. 

"The inmates were puzzled and frightened, but determined to try whetherthe noise would be repeated the next night before telling theirneighbours what had happened. But the pandemonium experienced the firstnight of their occupation was as nothing compared with what they hadto endure the second night and for several succeeding nights. Sleep wasimpossible, and finally Mr. M---- and family in terror abandoned theirnew home, and retook possession of their old one. 

"That is the state of things to this day. The old house has been repairedand is tenanted. The new house, a few perches off, facing the publicroad, is used as a storehouse. The writer has seen it scores of times, and its story is well known all over the country-side. Mr. M---- isdisinclined to discuss the matter or to answer questions; but it is saidhe made several subsequent attempts to occupy the house, but alwaysfailed to stand his ground when night came with its usual rowdydisturbances. 

"It is said that when building operations were about to begin, a littleman of bizarre appearance accosted Mr. M---- and exhorted him to build ona different site; otherwise the consequences would be unpleasant for himand his; while the local peasantry allege that the house was built acrossa fairy pathway between two _raths_, and that this was the cause of thetrouble. It is quite true that there are two large _raths_ in thevicinity, and the haunted house is directly in a bee-line between them. For myself I offer no explanation; but I guarantee the substantialaccuracy of what I have stated above. "

Professor Barrett, in the paper to which we have already referred, drawscertain conclusions from his study of this subject; one of the chief ofthese is that "the widespread belief in fairies, pixies, gnomes, brownies, etc. , probably rests on the varied manifestations ofpoltergeists. " The popular explanation of the above story bears out thisconclusion, and it is further emphasized by the following, which comesfrom Portarlington: A man near that town had saved five hundred pounds, and determined to build a house with the money. He fixed on a certainspot, and began to build, very much against the advice of his friends, who said it was on a fairy path, and would bring him ill-luck. Soon thehouse was finished, and the owner moved in; but the very first night histroubles began, for some unseen hand threw the furniture about and brokeit, while the man himself was injured. Being unwilling to lose the valueof his money, he tried to make the best of things. But night after nightthe disturbances continued, and life in the house was impossible; theowner chose the better part of valour and left. No tenant has been foundsince, and the house stands empty, a silent testimony to the power of thepoltergeist. 

Poltergeistic phenomena from their very nature lend themselves tospurious reproduction and imitation, as witness the famous case of CockLane and many other similar stories. At least one well-known caseoccurred in Ireland, and is interesting as showing that where fraud is atwork, close investigation will discover it. It is related that an oldRoyal Irish Constabulary pensioner, who obtained a post as emergency manduring the land troubles, and who in 1892 was in charge of an evictedfarm in the Passage East district, was being continually disturbed byfurniture and crockery being thrown about in a mysterious manner. Reportswere brought to the police, and they investigated the matter; but nothingwas heard or seen beyond knocking on an inside wall of a bedroom in whichone of the sons was sleeping; this knocking ceased when the police werein the bedroom, and no search was made in the boy's bed to see if he hada stick. The police therefore could find no explanation, the noisescontinued night after night, and eventually the family left and went tolive in Waterford. A great furore was raised when it was learnt that thehauntings had followed them, and again investigation was made, but itseems to have been more careful this time: an eye was kept on themovements of the young son, and at least two independent witnesses sawhim throwing things about--fireirons and jam-pots--when he thought hisfather was not looking. It seems to have been a plot between the motherand son owing to the former's dislike to her husband's occupation, whichentailed great unpopularity and considerable personal risk. Fearing forher own and her family's safety, the wife conceived of this plan to forceher husband to give up his post. Her efforts were successful, as the mansoon resigned his position and went to live elsewhere. [7]

[Footnote 7: _Proceedings_, S. P. R. ]

CHAPTER V

HAUNTED PLACES

That houses are haunted and apparitions frequently seen therein arepretty well established facts. The preceding chapters have dealt withthis aspect of the subject, and, in view of the weight of evidence toprove the truth of the stories told in them, it would be hard for anyoneto doubt that there is such a thing as a haunted house, whateverexplanation maybe given of "haunting. " We now turn to another division ofthe subject--the outdoor ghost who haunts the roadways, country lanes, and other places. Sceptics on ghostly phenomena are generally pretty fullof explanations when they are told of a ghost having been seen in aparticular spot, and the teller may be put down as hyper-imaginative, oras having been deluded by moonlight playing through the trees; whilecases are not wanting where a reputation for temperance has been lost bya man telling his experiences of a ghost he happens to have met alongsome country lane; and the fact that there are cases where an imaginativeand nervous person has mistaken for a ghost a white goat or a sheethanging on a bush only strengthens the sceptic's disbelief and makes himblind to the very large weight of evidence that can be arrayed againsthim. Some day, no doubt, psychologists and scientists will be able togive us a complete and satisfactory explanation of these abnormalapparitions, but at present we are very much in the dark, and anyexplanation that may be put forward is necessarily of a tentative nature. 

The following story is sent us by Mr. J. J. Crowley, of the Munster andLeinster Bank, who writes as follows: "The scene is outside Clonmel, onthe main road leading up to a nice old residence on the side of themountains called ---- Lodge. I happened to be visiting my friends, twoother bank men. It was night, about eight o'clock, moonless, andtolerably dark, and when within a quarter of a mile or perhaps less ofa bridge over a small stream near the house I saw a girl, dressed inwhite, wearing a black sash and long flowing hair, walk in the directionfrom me up the culvert of the bridge and disappear down the other side. At the time I saw it I thought it most peculiar that I could distinguisha figure so far away, and thought a light of some sort must be falling onthe girl, or that there were some people about and that some of them hadstruck a match. When I got to the place I looked about, but could find noperson there. 

"I related this story to my friends some time after arriving, and wasthen told that one of them had wakened up in his sleep a few nightspreviously, and had seen an identical figure standing at the foot of hisbed, and rushed in fright from his room, taking refuge for the night withthe other lodger. They told the story to their landlady, and learned fromher that this apparition had frequently been seen about the place, andwas the spirit of one of her daughters who had died years previouslyrather young, and who, previous to her death, had gone about just as wedescribed the figure we had seen. I had heard nothing of this story untilafter I had seen the ghost, and consequently it could not be put down tohallucination or over-imagination on my part. "

The experiences of two constables of the Royal Irish Constabulary whileon despatch duty one winter's night in the early eighties has been sentus by one of the men concerned, and provides interesting reading. It wasa fine moonlight night, with a touch of frost in the air, when these twomen set out to march the five miles to the next barrack. Brisk walkingsoon brought them near their destination. The barrack which they wereapproaching was on the left side of the road, and facing it on the otherside was a whitethorn hedge. The road at this point was wide, and as thetwo constables got within fifty yards of the barrack, they saw apoliceman step out from this hedge and move across the road, lookingtowards the two men as he did so. He was plainly visible to them both. "He was bare-headed" (runs the account), "with his tunic opened down thefront, a stout-built man, black-haired, pale, full face, and shortmutton-chop whiskers. " They thought he was a newly-joined constable whowas doing "guard" and had come out to get some fresh air while waitingfor a patrol to return. As the two men approached, he disappeared intothe shadow of the barrack, and apparently went in by the door; to theiramazement, when they came up they found the door closed and bolted, andit was only after loud knocking that they got a sleepy "All right" fromsome one inside, and after the usual challenging were admitted. Therewas no sign of the strange policeman when they got in, and on inquirythey learnt that no new constable had joined the station. The two menrealised then that they had seen a ghost, but refrained from sayinganything about it to the men at the station--a very sensible precaution, considering the loneliness of the average policeman's life in thiscountry. 

Some years afterwards the narrator of the above story learnt that apoliceman had been lost in a snow-drift near this particular barrack. Whether this be the explanation we leave to others: the facts as statedare well vouched for. There is no evidence to support the theory ofhallucination, for the apparition was so vivid that the idea of its beingother than normal never entered the constables' heads _till they had gotinto the barrack_. When they found the door shut and bolted, theiramazement was caused by indignation against an apparently unsociableor thoughtless comrade, and it was only afterwards, while discussing thewhole thing on their homeward journey, that it occurred to them that itwould have been impossible for any ordinary mortal to shut, bolt, and bara door without making a sound. 

In the winter of 1840-1, in the days when snow and ice and all theirattendant pleasures were more often in evidence than in these degeneratedays, a skating party was enjoying itself on the pond in the grounds ofthe Castle near Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin. Among the skaters was a man whohad with him a very fine curly-coated retriever dog. The pond wasthronged with people enjoying themselves, when suddenly the ice gaveway beneath him, and the man fell into the water; the dog went to hisrescue, and both were drowned. A monument was erected to perpetuate thememory of the dog's heroic self-sacrifice, but only the pedestal nowremains. The ghost of the dog is said to haunt the grounds and the publicroad between the castle gate and the Dodder Bridge. Many people have seenthe phantom dog, and the story is well known locally. 

The ghost of a boy who was murdered by a Romany is said to haunt one ofthe lodge gates of the Castle demesne, and the lodge-keeper states thathe saw it only a short time ago. The Castle, however, is now inpossession of Jesuit Fathers, and the Superior assures us that there hasbeen no sign of a ghost for a long time, his explanation being that theplace is so crowded out with new buildings "that even a ghost would havesome difficulty in finding a comfortable corner. "

It is a fairly general belief amongst students of supernatural phenomenathat animals have the psychic faculty developed to a greater extent thanwe have. There are numerous stories which tell of animals being scaredand frightened by something that is invisible to a human being, and theexplanation given is that the animal has seen a ghost which we cannotsee. A story that is told of a certain spot near the village of G----, inCo. Kilkenny, supports this theory. The account was sent us by theeye-witness of what occurred, and runs as follows: "I was out for a walkone evening near the town of G---- about 8. 45 P. M. , and was crossing thebridge that leads into the S. Carlow district with a small wire-hairedterrier dog. When we were about three-quarters of a mile out, the dogbegan to bark and yelp in a most vicious manner at 'nothing' on theleft-hand side of the roadway and near to a straggling hedge. I felt abit creepy and that something was wrong. The dog kept on barking, but Icould at first see nothing, but on looking closely for a few seconds Ibelieve I saw a small grey-white object vanish gradually and noiselesslyinto the hedge. No sooner had it vanished than the dog ceased barking, wagged his tail, and seemed pleased with his successful efforts. " Thenarrator goes on to say that he made inquiries when he got home, andfound that this spot on the road had a very bad reputation, as people hadfrequently seen a ghost there, while horses had often to be beaten, coaxed, or led past the place. The explanation locally current is that asuicide was buried at the cross-roads near at hand, or that it may be theghost of a man who is known to have been killed at the spot. 

The following story has been sent us by the Rev. H. R. B. Gillespie, towhom it was told by one of the witnesses of the incidents describedtherein. One bright moonlight night some time ago a party consisting of aman, his two daughters, and a friend were driving along a country road inCounty Leitrim. They came to a steep hill, and all except the driver gotdown to walk. One of the two sisters walked on in front, and after hercame the other two, followed closely by the trap. They had not gone far, when those in rear saw a shabbily-dressed man walking beside the girl whowas leading. But she did not seem to be taking any notice of him, and, wondering what he could be, they hastened to overtake her. But just whenthey were catching her up the figure suddenly dashed into the shadow of adisused forge, which stood by the side of the road, and as it did so thehorse, which up to this had been perfectly quiet, reared up and becameunmanageable. The girl beside whom the figure had walked had seen andheard nothing. The road was not bordered by trees or a high hedge, sothat it could not have been some trick of the moonlight. One of the girlsdescribed the appearance of the figure to a local workman, who said, "Itis very like a tinker who was found dead in that forge about six monthsago. "

Here is another story of a haunted spot on a road, where a "ghost" wasseen, not at the witching hour of night, not when evening shadowslengthen, but in broad daylight. It is sent to us by the percipient, a lady, who does not desire to have her name mentioned. She was walkingalong a country road in the vicinity of Cork one afternoon, and passedvarious people. She then saw coming towards her a country-woman dressedin an old-fashioned style. This figure approached her, and when it drewnear, suddenly staggered, as if under the influence of drink, anddisappeared! She hastened to the spot, but searched in vain for any clueto the mystery; the road was bounded by high walls, and there was nogateway or gap through which the figure might slip. Much mystified, shecontinued on her way, and arrived at her destination. She there mentionedwhat had occurred, and was then informed by an old resident in theneighbourhood that that woman had constantly been seen up to twenty yearsbefore, but not since that date. By the country-people the road wasbelieved to be haunted, but the percipient did not know this at the time. 

The following is sent us by Mr. T. J. Westropp, and has points of its ownwhich are interesting; he states: "On the road from Bray to Windgates, atthe Deerpark of Kilruddy, is a spot which, whatever be the explanation, is distinguished by weird sounds and (some say) sights. I on one occasionwas walking with a friend to catch the train at Bray about eleven o'clockone evening some twenty-five years ago, when we both heard heavy stepsand rustling of bracken in the Deerpark; apparently some one got over thegate, crossed the road with heavy steps and fell from the wall next BrayHead, rustling and slightly groaning. The night was lightsome, thoughwithout actual moonlight, and we could see nothing over the wall where wehad heard the noise. 

"For several years after I dismissed the matter as a delusion; but when Itold the story to some cousins, they said that another relative (now aFellow of Trinity College, Dublin) had heard it too, and that there wasa local belief that it was the ghost of a poacher mortally wounded bygamekeepers, who escaped across the road and died beyond it. " Mr. Westropp afterwards got the relative mentioned above to tell hisexperience, and it corresponded with his own, except that the ghost wasvisible. "The clergyman who was rector of Greystones at that time used tosay that he had heard exactly similar noises though he had seen nothing. "

The following story of an occurrence near Dublin is sent us by a lady whois a very firm believer in ghosts. On a fine night some years ago twosisters were returning home from the theatre. They were walking along avery lonely part of the Kimmage Road about two miles beyond the tramterminus, and were chatting gaily as they went, when suddenly they heardthe "clink, clink" of a chain coming towards them. At first they thoughtit was a goat or a donkey which had got loose, and was dragging its chainalong the ground. But they could see nothing, and could hear no noise butthe clink of the chain, although the road was clear and straight. Nearerand nearer came the noise, gradually getting louder, and as it passedthem closely they distinctly felt a blast or whiff of air. They wereparalysed with an indefinable fear, and were scarcely able to dragthemselves along the remaining quarter of a mile to their house. Theelder of the two was in very bad health, and the other had almost tocarry her. Immediately she entered the house she collapsed, and hadto be revived with brandy. 

An old woman, it seems, had been murdered for her savings by a tramp nearthe spot where this strange occurrence took place, and it is thought thatthere is a connection between the crime and the haunting of this part ofthe Kimmage Road. Whatever the explanation may be, the whole story bearsevery evidence of truth, and it would be hard for anyone to disprove it. 

Churchyards are generally considered to be the hunting-ground of allsorts and conditions of ghosts. People who would on all other occasions, when the necessity arises, prove themselves to be possessed of at anyrate a normal amount of courage, turn pale and shiver at the thought ofhaving to pass through a churchyard at dead of night. It may be someencouragement to such to state that out of a fairly large collection ofaccounts of haunted places, only one relates to a churchyard. The storyis told by Mr. G. H. Millar of Edgeworthstown: "During the winter of1875, " he writes, "I attended a soiree about five miles from here. I wasriding, and on my way home about 11. 30 P. M. I had to pass by the oldruins and burial-ground of Abbeyshrule. The road led round by two sidesof the churchyard. It was a bright moonlight night, and as my girth brokeI was walking the horse quite slowly. As I passed the ruin, I saw what Itook to be a policeman in a long overcoat; he was walking from the centreof the churchyard towards the corner, and, as far as I could see, wouldbe at the corner by the time I would reach it, and we would meet. Quitesuddenly, however, he disappeared, and I could see no trace of him. Soonafter I overtook a man who had left the meeting long before me. Iexpressed wonder that he had not been farther on, and he explained thathe went a 'round-about' way to avoid passing the old abbey, as he did notwant to see 'The Monk. ' On questioning him, he told me that a monk wasoften seen in the churchyard. "

A story told of a ghost which haunts a certain spot on an estate near thecity of Waterford, bears a certain resemblance to the last story for thereason that it was only after the encounter had taken place in both casesthat it was known that anything out of the ordinary had been seen. In theearly eighties of last century ---- Court, near Waterford, was occupiedby Mr. And Mrs. S---- and their family of two young boys and a girl oftwenty-one years of age. Below the house is a marshy glen with a big opendrain cut through it. Late one evening the daughter was out shootingrabbits near this drain and saw, as she thought, her half-brotherstanding by the drain in a sailor suit, which like other small boys hewore. She called to him once or twice, and to her surprise got no reply. She went towards him, and when she got close he suddenly disappeared. Thenext day she asked an old dependent, who had lived many years in theplace, if there was anything curious about the glen. He replied at once:"Oh! you mean the little sailor man. Sure, he won't do you any harm. "This was the first she had heard of anything of the sort, but it was thenfound that none of the country-people would go through the glen afterdusk. 

Some time afterwards two sons of the clergyman of the parish inwhich ---- Court stands were out one evening fishing in the drain, whenone of them suddenly said, "What's that sailor doing there?" The othersaw nothing, and presently the figure vanished. At the time of theappearance neither had heard of Miss S----'s experience, and no one hasbeen able to explain it, as there is apparently no tradition of any"little sailor man" having been there in the flesh. 

Mr. Joseph M'Crossan, a journalist on the staff of the _StrabaneChronicle_, has sent us a cutting from that paper describing a ghostwhich appeared to men working in an engine-house at Strabane railwaystation on two successive nights in October 1913. The article depictsvery graphically the antics of the ghost and the fear of the men who sawit. Mr. M'Crossan interviewed one of these men (Pinkerton by name), andthe story as told in his words is as follows: "Michael Madden, FredOliphant, and I were engaged inside a shed cleaning engines, when, athalf-past twelve (midnight), a knocking came to all the doors, andcontinued without interruption, accompanied by unearthly yells. The threeof us went to one of the doors, and saw--I could swear to it withoutdoubt--the form of a man of heavy build. I thought I was about to faint. My hair stood high on my head. We all squealed for help, when thewatchman and signalman came fast to our aid. Armed with a crowbar, thesignalman made a dash at the 'spirit, ' but was unable to strike down theghost, which hovered about our shed till half-past two. It was moonlight, and we saw it plainly. There was no imagination on our part. We threecleaners climbed up the engine, and hid on the roof of the engine, lyingthere till morning at our wit's end. The next night it came at half-pastone. Oliphant approached the spirit within two yards, but he thencollapsed, the ghost uttering terrible yells. I commenced work, but thespirit 'gazed' into my face, and I fell forward against the engine. Sevenof us saw the ghost this time. Our clothes and everything in the shedwere tossed and thrown about. "

The other engine-cleaners were interviewed and corroborated Pinkerton'saccount. One of them stated that he saw the ghost run up and down aladder leading to a water tank and disappear into it, while the signalmandescribed how he struck at the ghost with a crowbar, but the weaponseemed to go through it. The spirit finally took his departure throughthe window. 

The details of this affair are very much on the lines of the goodold-fashioned ghost yarns. But it is hard to see how so many men couldlabour under the same delusion. The suggestion that the whole thing wasa practical joke may also be dismissed, for if the apparition had fleshand bones the crowbar would have soon proved it. The story goes that aman was murdered near the spot some time ago; whether there is anyconnection between this crime and the apparition it would be hard to say. However, we are not concerned with explanations (for who, as yet, canexplain the supernatural?); the facts as stated have all the appearanceof truth. 

Mr. Patrick Ryan, of P----, Co. Limerick, gives us two stories as heheard them related by Mr. Michael O'Dwyer of the same place. The formeris evidently a very strong believer in supernatural phenomena, but herealises how strong is the unbelief of many, and in support of hisstories he gives names of several persons who will vouch for the truthof them. With a few alterations, we give the story in his own words: "Mr. O'Dwyer has related how one night, after he had carried the mails to thetrain, he went with some fodder for a heifer in a field close to therailway station near to which was a creamery. He discovered the animalgrazing near the creamery although how she came to be there was amystery, as a broad trench separated it from the rest of the field, which is only spanned by a plank used by pedestrians when crossing thefield. 'Perhaps, ' he said in explanation, 'it was that he _should_ gothere to hear. ' It was about a quarter to twelve (midnight), and, havingsearched the field in vain, he was returning home, when, as he crossedthe plank, he espied the heifer browsing peacefully in the aforementionedpart of the field which was near the creamery. He gave her the fodderand--Heavens! was he suffering from delusions? Surely his ears were notdeceiving him--from the creamery funnel there arose a dense volume ofsmoke mingled with the sharp hissing of steam and the rattling of cans, all as if the creamery were working, and it were broad daylight. Hisheifer became startled and bellowed frantically. O'Dwyer, himself a manof nerves, yet possessing all the superstitions of the Celt, was startledand ran without ceasing to his home near by, where he went quickly tobed. 

"O'Dwyer is not the only one who has seen this, as I have been told byseveral of my friends how they heard it. Who knows the mysterysurrounding this affair!"

The second story relates to a certain railway station in the south ofIreland; again we use Mr. Ryan's own words: "A near relative of mine" (hewrites) "once had occasion to go to the mail train to meet a friend. While sitting talking to O'Dwyer, whom he met on the platform, he heardtalking going on in the waiting-room. O'Dwyer heard it also, and theywent to the door, but saw nothing save for the light of a waning moonwhich filtered in through the window. Uncertain, they struck matches, butsaw nothing. Again they sat outside, and again they heard the talking, and this time they did not go to look, for they knew about it. In thememory of the writer a certain unfortunate person committed suicide onthe railway, and was carried to the waiting-room pending an inquest. Helay all night there till the inquest was held next day. 'Let us not lookfurther into the matter, ' said O'Dwyer, and my relative havingacquiesced, he breathed a shuddering prayer for the repose of the dead. "

The following story, which has been sent as a personal experience by Mr. William Mackey of Strabane, is similar in many ways to an extraordinarycase of retro-cognitive vision which occurred some years ago to twoEnglish ladies who were paying a visit to Versailles; and who publishedtheir experiences in a book entitled, _An Adventure_ (London, 1911). Mr. Mackey writes: "It was during the severe winter of the Crimean War, whenindulging in my favourite sport of wild-fowl shooting, that I witnessedthe following strange scene. It was a bitterly cold night towards the endof November or beginning of December; the silvery moon had sunk in thewest shortly before midnight; the sport had been all that could bedesired, when I began to realise that the blood was frozen in my veins, and I was on the point of starting for home, when my attention was drawnto the barking of a dog close by, which was followed in a few seconds bythe loud report of a musket, the echo of which had scarcely died away inthe silent night, when several musket-shots went off in quick succession;this seemed to be the signal for a regular fusillade of musketry, and itwas quite evident from the nature of the firing that there was attack anddefence. 

"For the life of me I could not understand what it all meant; not beingsuperstitious I did not for a moment imagine it was supernatural, notwithstanding that my courageous dog was crouching in abject terrorbetween my legs; beads of perspiration began to trickle down from myforehead, when suddenly there arose a flame as if a house were on fire, but I knew from the position of the blaze (which was only a few hundredyards from where I stood), that there was no house there, or anycombustible that would burn, and what perplexed me most was to see piecesof burning thatch and timber sparks fall hissing into the water at myfeet. When the fire seemed at its height the firing appeared to weaken, and when the clear sound of a bugle floated out on the midnight air, itsuddenly ceased, and I could hear distinctly the sound of cavalry comingat a canter, their accoutrements jingling quite plainly on the frostyair; in a very short time they arrived at the scene of the fight. Ithought it an eternity until they took their departure, which theydid at the walk. 

"It is needless to say that, although the scene of this tumult was on mynearest way home, I did not venture that way, as, although there are manypeople who would say that I never knew what fear was, I must confess onthis occasion I was thoroughly frightened. 

"At breakfast I got a good sound rating from my father for staying out solate. My excuse was that I fell asleep and had a horrible dream, which Irelated. When I finished I was told I had been dreaming with my eyesopen!--that I was not the first person who had witnessed this strangesight. He then told me the following narrative: 'It was towards the endof the seventeenth century that a widow named Sally Mackey and her threesons lived on the outskirts of the little settlement of the Mackeys. Awarrant was issued by the Government against the three sons for hightreason, the warrant being delivered for execution to the officer incommand of the infantry regiment stationed at Lifford. A company was toldoff for the purpose of effecting the arrest, and the troops set out fromLifford at 11 P. M. 

"'The cottage home of the Mackeys was approached by a bridle-path, leading from the main road to Derry, which only permitted the military toapproach in single file; they arrived there at midnight, and the firstintimation the inmates had of danger was the barking, and then theshooting, of the collie dog. Possessing as they did several stand ofarms, they opened fire on the soldiers as they came in view and killedand wounded several; it was the mother, Sally Mackey, who did theshooting, the sons loading the muskets. Whether the cottage went on fireby accident or design was never known; it was only when the firing fromthe cottage ceased and the door was forced open that the officer incommand rushed in and brought out the prostrate form of the lady, who wasseverely wounded and burned. All the sons perished, but the soldierssuffered severely, a good many being killed and wounded. 

"'The firing was heard by the sentries at Lifford, and a troop of cavalrywas despatched to the scene of conflict, but only arrived in time to seethe heroine dragged from the burning cottage. She had not, however, beenfatally wounded, and lived for many years afterwards with a kinsmen. Myfather remembered conversing with old men, when he was a boy, whoremembered her well. She seemed to take a delight in narrating incidentsof the fight to those who came to visit her, and would always finish upby making them feel the pellets between the skin and her ribs. '"

CHAPTER VI

APPARITIONS AT OR AFTER DEATH

It has been said by a very eminent literary man that the accounts of theappearance of people at or shortly after the moment of death make verydull reading as a general rule. This may be; they are certainly not solengthy, or full of detail, as the accounts of haunted houses--nor couldsuch be expected. In our humble opinion, however, they are full ofinterest, and open up problems of telepathy and thought-transference towhich the solutions may not be found for years to come. That people haveseen the image of a friend or relative at the moment of dissolution, sometimes in the ordinary garb of life, sometimes with symbolicalaccompaniments, or that they have been made acquainted in some abnormalmanner with the fact that such a one has passed away, seems to bedemonstrated beyond all reasonable doubt. But we would hasten to add thatsuch appearances are not a proof of existence after death, nor can theybe regarded in the light of special interventions of a mercifulProvidence. Were they either they would surely occur far oftener. Thequestion is, Why do they occur at all? As it is, the majority of themseem to happen for no particular reason, and are often seen by personswho have little or no connection with the deceased, not by their nearestand dearest, as one might expect. It is supposed they are _veridical_hallucinations, _i. E. _ ones which correspond with objective events at adistance, and are caused by a telepathic impact conveyed from the mind ofan absent agent to the mind of the percipient. 

From their nature they fall under different heads. The majority of themoccur at what may most conveniently be described as the time of death, though how closely they approximate in reality to the instant of theGreat Change it is impossible to say. So we have divided this chapterinto three groups:

(1) Appearances at the time of death (as explained above). 

(2) Appearances clearly _after_ the time of death. 

(3) In this third group we hope to give three curious tales ofappearances some time _before_ death. 

GROUP I

We commence this group with stories in which the phenomena connected withthe respective deaths were not perceived as representations of the humanform. In the first only sounds were heard. It is sent as a personalexperience by the Archdeacon of Limerick, Very Rev. J. A. Haydn, LL. D. "In the year 1879 there lived in the picturesque village of Adare, at adistance of about eight or nine miles from my residence, a DistrictInspector named ----, with whom I enjoyed a friendship of the mostintimate and fraternal kind. At the time I write of, Mrs. ---- wasexpecting the arrival of their third child. She was a particularly tinyand fragile woman, and much anxiety was felt as to the result of theimpending event. He and she had very frequently spent pleasant daysat my house, with all the apartments of which they were thoroughlyacquainted--a fact of importance in this narrative. 

"On Wednesday, October 17, 1879, I had a very jubilant letter from myfriend, announcing that the expected event had successfully happened onthe previous day, and that all was progressing satisfactorily. On thenight of the following Wednesday, October 22, I retired to bed at aboutten o'clock. My wife, the children, and two maid-servants were allsleeping upstairs, and I had a small bed in my study, which was on theground floor. The house was shrouded in darkness, and the only sound thatbroke the silence was the ticking of the hall-clock. 

"I was quietly preparing to go to sleep, when I was much surprised athearing, with the most unquestionable distinctness, the sound of light, hurried footsteps, exactly suggestive of those of an active, restlessyoung female, coming in from the hall door and traversing the hall. Theythen, apparently with some hesitation, followed the passage leading tothe study door, on arriving at which they stopped. I then heard the soundof a light, agitated hand apparently searching for the handle of thedoor. By this time, being quite sure that my wife had come down andwanted to speak to me, I sat up in bed, and called to her by name, askingwhat was the matter. As there was no reply, and the sounds had ceased, Istruck a match, lighted a candle, and opened the door. No one was visibleor audible. I went upstairs, found all the doors shut and everyoneasleep. Greatly puzzled, I returned to the study and went to bed, leavingthe candle alight. Immediately the whole performance was circumstantiallyrepeated, but _this_ time the handle of the door was grasped by theinvisible hand, and _partly_ turned, then relinquished. I started out ofbed and renewed my previous search, with equally futile results. Theclock struck eleven, and from that time all disturbances ceased. 

"On Friday morning I received a letter stating that Mrs. ---- had died atabout midnight on the previous Wednesday. I hastened off to Adare and hadan interview with my bereaved friend. With one item of our conversation Iwill close. He told me that his wife sank rapidly on Wednesday, untilwhen night came on she became delirious. She spoke incoherently, as ifrevisiting scenes and places once familiar. 'She thought she was in_your_ house, ' he said, 'and was apparently holding a conversation with_you_, as she used to keep silence at intervals as if listening to yourreplies. ' I asked him if he could possibly remember the hour at whichthe imaginary conversation took place. He replied that, curiously enough, he could tell it accurately, as he had looked at his watch, and found thetime between half-past ten and eleven o'clock--the exact time of themysterious manifestations heard by me. "

A lady sends the following personal experience: "I had a cousin in thecountry who was not very strong, and on one occasion she desired me to goto her, and accompany her to K----. I consented to do so, and arranged aday to go and meet her: this was in the month of February. The eveningbefore I was to go, I was sitting by the fire in my small parlour about5 P. M. There was no light in the room except what proceeded from thefire. Beside the fireplace was an armchair, where my cousin usually satwhen she was with me. Suddenly that chair was illuminated by a lightso intensely bright that it actually seemed to _heave_ under it, thoughthe remainder of the room remained in semi-darkness. I called out inamazement, 'What has happened to the chair?' In a moment the lightvanished, and the chair was as before. In the morning I heard that mycousin had died about the same time that I saw the light. "

We now come to the ordinary type, _i. E. _ where a figure appears. Thefollowing tale illustrates a point we have already alluded to, namely, that the apparition is sometimes seen by a disinterested person, and_not_ by those whom one would naturally expect should see it. A ladywrites as follows: "At Island Magee is the Knowehead Lonan, a long, hilly, narrow road, bordered on either side by high thorn-hedges andfields. Twenty years ago, when I was a young girl, I used to go to thepost-office at the Knowehead on Sunday mornings down the Lonan, takingthe dogs for the run. One Sunday as I had got to the top of the hillon my return journey, I looked back, and saw a man walking rapidly afterme, but still a good way off. I hastened my steps, for the day was muddy, and I did not want him to see me in a bedraggled state. But he seemed tocome on so fast as to be soon close behind me, and I wondered he did notpass me, so on we went, I never turning to look back. About a quarter ofa mile farther on I met A. B. On 'Dick's Brae, ' on her way to church orSunday school, and stopped to speak to her. I wanted to ask who the manwas, but he seemed to be so close that I did not like to do so, andexpected he had passed. When I moved on, I was surprised to find he wasstill following me, while my dogs were lagging behind with downcast headsand drooping tails. 

"I then passed a cottage where C. D. Was out feeding her fowls. I spoketo her, and then feeling that there was no longer anyone behind, lookedback, and saw the man standing with her. I would not have paid anyattention to the matter had not A. B. Been down at our house thatafternoon, and I casually asked her:

"'Who was the man who was just behind me when I met you on Dick's Brae?'

"'What man?' said she; and noting my look of utter astonishment, added, 'I give you my word I never met a soul but yourself from the time I lefthome till I went down to Knowehead Lonan. '

"Next day C. D. Came to work for us, and I asked her who was the man whowas standing beside her after I passed her on Sunday. 

"'Naebody!' she replied, ' I saw naebody but yoursel'. '

"It all seemed very strange, and so they thought too. About three weekslater news came that C. D. 's only brother, a sailor, was washed overboardthat Sunday morning. "

The following story is not a first-hand experience, but is sent by thegentleman to whom it was related by the percipient. The latter said tohim:

"I was sitting in this same chair I am in at present one evening, when Iheard a knock at the front door. I went myself to see who was there, andon opening the door saw my old friend P. Q. Standing outside with his gunin his hand. I was surprised at seeing him, but asked him to come in andhave something. He came inside the porch into the lamplight, and stoodthere for a few moments; then he muttered something about being sorry hehad disturbed me, and that he was on his way to see his brother, ColonelQ. , who lived about a mile farther on. Without any further explanation hewalked away towards the gate into the dusk. 

"I was greatly surprised and perplexed, but as he had gone I sat downagain by the fire. About an hour later another knock came to the door, and I again went out to see who was there. On opening it I found P. Q. 'sgroom holding a horse, and he asked me where he was, as he had missed hisway in the dark, and did not know the locality. I told him, and thenasked him where he was going, and why, and he replied that his master wasdead (at his own house about nine miles away), and that he had been sentto announce the news to Colonel Q. "

Miss Grene, of Grene Park, Co. Tipperary, relates a story which was toldher by the late Miss ----, sister of a former Dean of Cashel. The latter, an old lady, stated that one time she was staying with a friend in ahouse in the suburbs of Dublin. In front of the house was the usual grassplot, divided into two by a short gravel path which led down to a gatewhich opened on to the street. She and her friend were one day engaged inneedlework in one of the front rooms, when they heard the gate opening, and on looking out the window they saw an elderly gentleman of theiracquaintance coming up the path. As he approached the door bothexclaimed: "Oh, how good of him to come and see us!" As he was not showninto the sitting-room, one of them rang the bell, and said to the maidwhen she appeared, "You have not let Mr. So-and-so in; he is at the doorfor some little time. " The maid went to the hall door, and returned tosay that there was no one there. Next day they learnt that he had diedjust at the hour that they had seen him coming up the path. 

The following tale contains a curious point. A good many years ago theRev. Henry Morton, now dead, held a curacy in Ireland. He had to passthrough the graveyard when leaving his house to visit the parishioners. One beautiful moonlight night he was sent for to visit a sick person, andwas accompanied by his brother, a medical man, who was staying with him. After performing the religious duty they returned through the churchyard, and were chatting about various matters when to their astonishment afigure passed them, both seeing it. This figure left the path, and wentin among the gravestones, and then disappeared. They could not understandthis at all, so they went to the spot where the disappearance took place, but, needless to say, could find nobody after the most careful search. Next morning they heard that the person visited had died just after theirdeparture, while the most marvellous thing of all was that the burialtook place at the very spot where they had seen the phantom disappear. 

The Rev. D. B. Knox communicates the following: In a girls'boarding-school several years ago two of the boarders were sleepingin a large double-bedded room with two doors. About two o'clock in themorning the girls were awakened by the entrance of a tall figure inclerical attire, the face of which they did not see. They screamed infright, but the figure moved in a slow and stately manner past theirbeds, and out the other door. It also appeared to one or two of the otherboarders, and seemed to be looking for some one. At length it reached thebed of one who was evidently known to it. The girl woke up and recognisedher father. He did not speak, but gazed for a few moments at hisdaughter, and then vanished. Next morning a telegram was handed to herwhich communicated the sad news that her father had died on the previousevening at the hour when he appeared to her. 

Here is a story of a very old type. It occurred a good many years ago. Agentleman named Miller resided in Co. Wexford, while his friend andformer schoolfellow lived in the North of Ireland. This long friendshipled them to visit at each other's houses from time to time, but for Mr. Miller there was a deep shadow of sorrow over these otherwise happymoments, for, while he enjoyed the most enlightened religious opinions, his friend was an unbeliever. The last time they were together Mr. Scottsaid, "My dear friend, let us solemnly promise that whichever of us shalldie first shall appear to the other after death, if it be possible. " "Letit be so, if God will, " replied Mr. Miller. One morning some time after, about three o'clock, the latter was awakened by a brilliant light in hisbedroom; he imagined that the house must be on fire, when he felt whatseemed to be a hand laid on him, and heard his friend's voice saydistinctly, "There is a God, just but terrible in His judgments, " and allagain was dark. Mr. Miller at once wrote down this remarkable experience. Two days later he received a letter announcing Mr. Scott's death on thenight, and at the hour, that he had seen the light in his room. 

The above leads us on to the famous "Beresford Ghost, " which is generallyregarded as holding the same position relative to Irish ghosts that DameAlice Kyteler used to hold with respect to Irish witches and wizards. Thestory is so well known, and has been published so often, that only abrief allusion is necessary, with the added information that the bestversion is to be found in Andrew Lang's _Dreams and Ghosts_, chapterviii. (Silver Library Edition). Lord Tyrone appeared after death onenight to Lady Beresford at Gill Hall, in accordance with a promise (as inthe last story) made in early life. He assured her that the religion asrevealed by Jesus Christ was the only true one (both he and LadyBeresford had been brought up Deists), told her that she was _enceinte_and would bear a son, and also foretold her second marriage, and the timeof her death. In proof whereof he drew the bed-hangings through an ironhook, wrote his name in her pocket-book, and finally placed a hand coldas marble on her wrist, at which the sinews shrunk up. To the day of herdeath Lady Beresford wore a black ribbon round her wrist; this was takenoff before her burial, and it was found the nerves were withered, and thesinews shrunken, as she had previously described to her children. 

GROUP II

We now come to some stories of apparitions seen some time after the hourof death. Canon Ross-Lewin, of Limerick, furnishes the following incidentin his own family. "My uncle, John Dillon Ross-Lewin, lieutenant in the30th Regiment, was mortally wounded at Inkerman on November 5, 1854, anddied on the morning of the 6th. He appeared that night to his mother, whowas then on a visit in Co. Limerick, intimating his death, and indicatingwhere the wound was. The strangest part of the occurrence is, that whennews came later on of the casualties at Inkerman, the first account as tothe wound did _not_ correspond with what the apparition indicated to hismother, but the final account did. Mrs. Ross-Lewin was devoted to herson, and he was equally attached to her; she, as the widow of a fieldofficer who fought at Waterloo, would be able to comprehend the battlescene, and her mind at the time was centred on the events of the CrimeanWar. "

A clergyman, who desires that all names be suppressed, sends thefollowing: "In my wife's father's house a number of female servants werekept, of whom my wife, before she was married, was in charge. On oneoccasion the cook took ill with appendicitis, and was operated on in theInfirmary, where I attended her as hospital chaplain. She died, however, and was buried by her friends. Some days after the funeral my wife wasstanding at a table in the kitchen which was so placed that any personstanding at it could see into the passage outside the kitchen, if thedoor happened to be open. [The narrator enclosed a rough plan which madethe whole story perfectly clear. ] She was standing one day by herself atthe table, and the door was open. This was in broad daylight, abouteleven o'clock in the morning in the end of February or beginning ofMarch. She was icing a cake, and therefore was hardly thinking of ghosts. Suddenly she looked up from her work, and glanced through the openkitchen door into the passage leading past the servants' parlour into thedairy. She saw quite distinctly the figure of the deceased cook passtowards the dairy; she was dressed in the ordinary costume she used towear in the mornings, and seemed in every respect quite normal. My wifewas not, at the moment, in the least shocked or surprised, but on thecontrary she followed, and searched in the dairy, into which she was justin time to see her skirts disappearing. Needless to say, nothing wasvisible. "

Canon Courtenay Moore, M. A. , Rector of Mitchelstown, contributes apersonal experience. "It was about eighteen years ago--I cannot fix theexact date--that Samuel Penrose returned to this parish from theArgentine. He was getting on so well abroad that he would have remainedthere, but his wife fell ill, and for her sake he returned to Ireland. Hewas a carpenter by trade, and his former employer was glad to take himinto his service again. Sam was a very respectable man of sincerereligious feelings. Soon after his return he met with one or two rathersevere accidents, and had a strong impression that a fatal one wouldhappen him before long; and so it came to pass. A scaffolding gave wayone day, and precipitated him on to a flagged stone floor. He did not dieimmediately, but his injuries proved fatal. He died in a Cork hospitalsoon after his admission: I went to Cork to officiate at his funeral. About noon the next day I was standing at my hall door, and the form ofpoor Sam, the upper half of it, seemed to pass before me. He lookedpeaceful and happy--it was a momentary vision, but perfectly distinct. The truncated appearance puzzled me very much, until some time after Iread a large book by F. W. H. Myers, in which he made a scientific analysisand induction of such phenomena, and said that they were almostuniversally seen in this half-length form. I do not profess to explainwhat I saw: its message, if it had a message, seemed to be that poor Samwas at last at rest and in peace. "

A story somewhat similar to the above was related to us, in which theapparition seems certainly to have been sent with a definite purpose. Twomaiden ladies, whom we shall call Miss A. X. And Miss B. Y. , livedtogether for a good many years. As one would naturally expect, they wereclose friends, and had the most intimate relations with each other, bothbeing extremely religious women. In process of time Miss B. Y. Died, andafter death Miss A. X. Formed the impression, for some unknown reason, that all was not well with her friend--that, in fact, her soul was not atrest. This thought caused her great uneasiness and trouble of mind. Oneday she was sitting in her armchair thinking over this, and cryingbitterly. Suddenly she saw in front of her a brilliant light, in themidst of which was her friend's face, easily recognisable, buttransfigured, and wearing a most beatific expression. She rushed towardsit with her arms outstretched, crying, "Oh! B. , why have you come?" Atthis the apparition faded away, but ever after Miss A. N. Was perfectlytranquil in mind with respect to her friend's salvation. 

This group may be brought to a conclusion by a story sent by Mr. T. MacFadden. It is not a personal experience, but happened to his father, and in an accompanying letter he states that he often heard the latterdescribe the incidents related therein, and that he certainly saw theghost. 

"The island of Inishinny, which is the scene of this story, is one of themost picturesque islands on the Donegal coast. With the islands of Golaand Inismaan it forms a perfectly natural harbour and safe anchorage forships during storms. About Christmas some forty or fifty years ago asmall sailing-ship put into Gola Roads (as this anchorage is called)during a prolonged storm, and the captain and two men had to obtainprovisions from Bunbeg, as, owing to their being detained so long, theirsupply was almost exhausted. They had previously visited the island onseveral occasions, and made themselves at home with the people from themainland who were temporarily resident upon it. 

"The old bar at its best was never very safe for navigation, and thisevening it was in its element, as with every storm it presented oneboiling, seething mass of foam. The inhabitants of the island saw thefrail small boat from the ship securely inside the bar, and prophesiedsome dire calamity should the captain and the two sailors venture toreturn to the ship that night. But the captain and his companions, havingsecured sufficient provisions, decided (as far as I can remember thestory), even in spite of the entreaties of those on shore, to return tothe ship. The storm was increasing, and what with their scanty knowledgeof the intricacies of the channel, and the darkness of the night, certainit was the next morning their craft was found washed ashore on theisland, and the body of the captain was discovered by the first man whomade the round of the shore looking for logs of timber, or other usefularticles washed ashore from wrecks. The bodies of the two sailors werenever recovered, and word was sent immediately to the captain's wife inDerry, who came in a few days and gave directions for the disposal of herhusband's corpse. 

"The island was only temporarily inhabited by a few people who had cattleand horses grazing there for some weeks in the year, and after thiscatastrophe they felt peculiarly lonely, and sought refuge from theirthoughts by all spending the evening together in one house. Thisparticular evening they were all seated round the fire having a chat, when they heard steps approaching the door. Though the approach wasfine, soft sand, yet the steps were audible as if coming on hard ground. They knew there was no one on the island save the few who were sittingquietly round the fire, and so in eager expectation they faced round tothe door. What was their _amazement_ when the door opened, and a tall, broad-shouldered man appeared and filled the whole doorway--and that manthe captain who had been buried several days previously. He wore theidentical suit in which he had often visited the island and even the"cheese-cutter" cap, so common a feature of sea-faring men's apparel, wasnot wanting. All were struck dumb with terror, and a woman who sat in acorner opposite the door, exclaimed in Irish in a low voice to my father:

"'O God! Patrick, there's the captain. '

"My father, recovering from the first shock, when he saw feminine couragefinding expression in words, said in Irish to the apparition:

"'Come in!'

"They were so certain of the appearance that they addressed him in hisown language, as they invariably talked Irish in the district in thosedays. But no sooner had he uttered the invitation than the figure, without the least word or sign, moved back, and disappeared from theirview. They rushed out, but could discover no sign of any livingperson within the confines of the island. Such is the true account of anaccident, by which three men lost their lives, and the ghostly sequel, inwhich one of them appeared to the eyes of four people, two of whom areyet alive, and can vouch for the accuracy of this narrative. "

GROUP III

We now come to the third group of this chapter, in which we shall relatetwo first-hand experiences of tragedies being actually witnessed sometime before they happened, as well as a reliable second-hand story of anapparition being seen two days before the death occurred. The first ofthese is sent by a lady, the percipient, who desires that her name besuppressed; with it was enclosed a letter from a gentleman who statedthat he could testify to the truth of the following facts:

"The morning of May 18, 1902, was one of the worst that ever dawned inKillarney. All through the day a fierce nor'-wester raged, and hugewhite-crested waves, known locally as 'The O'Donoghue's white horses, 'beat on the shores of Lough Leane. Then followed hail-showers such as Ihave never seen before or since. Hailstones quite as large as smallmarbles fell with such rapidity, and seemed so hard that the glass in thewindows of the room in which I stood appeared to be about to break intofragments every moment. I remained at the window, gazing out on theturbulent waters of the lake. Sometimes a regular fog appeared, caused bythe terrible downpour of rain and the fury of the gale. 

"During an occasional lull I could see the islands plainly looming in thedistance. In one of these clear intervals, the time being about 12. 30P. M. , five friends of mine were reading in the room in which I stood. 'Quick! quick!' I cried. 'Is that a boat turned over?' My friends all ranto the windows, but could see nothing. I persisted, however, and said, 'It is on its side, with the keel turned towards us, and it is empty. 'Still none of my friends could see anything. I then ran out, and got oneof the men-servants to go down to a gate, about one hundred yards nearerthe lake than where I stood. He had a powerful telescope, and remainedwith great difficulty in the teeth of the storm with his glass forseveral minutes, but could see nothing. When he returned another man tookhis place, but he also failed to see anything. 

"I seemed so distressed that those around me kept going backwards andforwards to the windows, and then asked me what was the size of the boatI had seen. I gave them the exact size, measuring by landmarks. They thenassured me that I must be absolutely wrong, as it was on rare occasionsthat a 'party' boat, such as the one I described, could venture on thelakes on such a day. Therefore there were seven persons who thought I waswrong in what I had seen. I still contended that I saw the boat, thelength of which I described, as plainly as possible. 

"The day wore on, and evening came. The incident was apparently more orless forgotten by all but me, until at 8 A. M. On the following morning, when the maid brought up tea, her first words were, 'Ah, miss, is it notterrible about the accident!' Naturally I said, 'What accident, Mary?'She replied, 'There were thirteen people drowned yesterday evening out ofa four-oared boat. ' That proved that the boat I had seen at 12. 30 P. M. Was a vision foreshadowing the wreck of the boat off Darby's Garden at5. 30 P. M. The position, shape, and size of the boat seen by me wereidentical with the one that was lost on the evening of May 18, 1902. "

The second story relates how a lady witnessed a vision (shall we call it)of a suicide a week before the terrible deed was committed. This incidentsurely makes it clear that such cannot be looked upon as specialinterventions of Providence, for if the lady had recognised the man, shemight have prevented his rash act. Mrs. MacAlpine says: "In June 1889, Idrove to Castleblaney, in Co. Monaghan, to meet my sister: I expected herat three o'clock, but as she did not come by that train, I put up thehorse and went for a walk in the demesne. At length becoming tired, I satdown on a rock by the edge of a lake. My attention was quite taken upwith the beauty of the scene before me, as it was a glorious summer'sday. Presently I felt a cold chill creep through me, and a curiousstiffness came over my limbs, as if I could not move, though wishing todo so. I felt frightened, yet chained to the spot, and as if impelled tostare at the water straight before me. Gradually a black cloud seemedto rise, and in the midst of it I saw a tall man, in a tweed suit, jumpinto the water, and sink. In a moment the darkness was gone, and I againbecame sensible of the heat and sunshine, but I was awed, and felt eerie. This happened about June 25, and on July 3 a Mr. ----, a bank clerk, committed suicide by drowning himself in the lake. [8]"

[Footnote 8: _Proceedings S. P. R. _, x. 332. ]

The following incident occurred in the United States, but, as it isclosely connected with this country, it will not seem out of place toinsert it here. It is sent by Mr. Richard Hogan as the personalexperience of his sister, Mrs. Mary Murnane, and is given in her ownwords. 

"On the 4th of August 1886, at 10. 30 o'clock in the morning, I left myown house, 21 Montrose St. , Philadelphia, to do some shopping. I had notproceeded more than fifty yards when on turning the corner of the streetI observed my aunt approaching me within five or six yards. I was greatlyastonished, for the last letter I had from home (Limerick) stated thatshe was dying of consumption, but the thought occurred to me that shemight have recovered somewhat, and come out to Philadelphia. This opinionwas quickly changed as we approached each other, for our eyes met, andshe had the colour of one who had risen from the grave. I seemed to feelmy hair stand on end, for just as we were about to pass each other sheturned her face towards me, and I gasped, 'My God, she is dead, and isgoing to speak to me!' but no word was spoken, and she passed on. Afterproceeding a short distance I looked back, and she continued on toWashington Avenue, where she disappeared from me. There was no otherperson near at the time, and being so close, I was well able to note whatshe wore. She held a sunshade over her head, and the clothes, hat, etc. , were those I knew so well before I left Ireland. I wrote home tellingwhat I had seen, and asking if she was dead. I received a reply sayingshe was not dead at the date I saw her, but had been asking if a letterhad come from me for some days before her death. It was just two daysbefore she actually died that I had seen her. "

CHAPTER VII

BANSHEES, AND OTHER DEATH-WARNINGS

Of all Irish ghosts, fairies, or bogles, the Banshee (sometimes calledlocally the "Boh[-e][-e]ntha" or "Bank[-e][-e]ntha") is the best known tothe general public: indeed, cross-Channel visitors would class her withpigs, potatoes, and other fauna and flora of Ireland, and would expecther to make manifest her presence to them as being one of the sights ofthe country. She is a spirit with a lengthy pedigree--how lengthy no mancan say, as its roots go back into the dim, mysterious past. The mostfamous Banshee of ancient times was that attached to the kingly house ofO'Brien, Aibhill, who haunted the rock of Craglea above Killaloe, nearthe old palace of Kincora. In A. D. 1014 was fought the battle ofClontarf, from which the aged king, Brian Boru, knew that he would nevercome away alive, for the previous night Aibhill had appeared to him totell him of his impending fate. The Banshee's method of foretelling deathin olden times differed from that adopted by her at the present day: nowshe wails and wrings her hands, as a general rule, but in the old Irishtales she is to be found washing human heads and limbs, or bloodstainedclothes, till the water is all dyed with human blood--this would takeplace before a battle. So it would seem that in the course of centuriesher attributes and characteristics have changed somewhat. 

Very different descriptions are given of her personal appearance. Sometimes she is young and beautiful, sometimes old and of a fearsomeappearance. One writer describes her as "a tall, thin woman withuncovered head, and long hair that floated round her shoulders, attiredin something which seemed either a loose white cloak, or a sheet thrownhastily around her, uttering piercing cries. " Another person, a coachman, saw her one evening sitting on a stile in the yard; she seemed to be avery small woman, with blue eyes, long light hair, and wearing a redcloak. Other descriptions will be found in this chapter. By the way, itdoes not seem to be true that the Banshee exclusively follows families ofIrish descent, for the last incident had reference to the death of amember of a Co. Galway family English by name and origin. 

One of the oldest and best-known Banshee stories is that related in the_Memoirs_ of Lady Fanshaw. [9] In 1642 her husband, Sir Richard, and shechanced to visit a friend, the head of an Irish sept, who resided in hisancient baronial castle, surrounded with a moat. At midnight she wasawakened by a ghastly and supernatural scream, and looking out of bed, beheld in the moonlight a female face and part of the form hovering atthe window. The distance from the ground, as well as the circumstanceof the moat, excluded the possibility that what she beheld was of thisworld. The face was that of a young and rather handsome woman, but pale, and the hair, which was reddish, was loose and dishevelled. The dress, which Lady Fanshaw's terror did not prevent her remarking accurately, was that of the ancient Irish. This apparition continued to exhibititself for some time, and then vanished with two shrieks similar to thatwhich had first excited Lady Fanshaw's attention. In the morning, withinfinite terror, she communicated to her host what she had witnessed, and found him prepared not only to credit, but to account for thesuperstition. "A near relation of my family, " said he, "expired lastnight in this castle. We disguised our certain expectation of the eventfrom you, lest it should throw a cloud over the cheerful reception whichwas your due. Now, before such an event happens in this family or castle, the female spectre whom you have seen is always visible. She is believedto be the spirit of a woman of inferior rank, whom one of my ancestorsdegraded himself by marrying, and whom afterwards, to expiate thedishonour done to his family, he caused to be drowned in the moat. " Instrictness this woman could hardly be termed a Banshee. The motive forthe haunting is akin to that in the tale of the Scotch "Drummer ofCortachy, " where the spirit of the murdered man haunts the family out ofrevenge, and appears before a death. 

[Footnote 9: Scott's _Lady of the Lake_, notes to Canto III (edition of1811). ]

Mr. T. J. Westropp, M. A. , has furnished the following story: "My maternalgrandmother heard the following tradition from her mother, one of theMiss Ross-Lewins, who witnessed the occurrence. Their father, Mr. Harrison Ross-Lewin, was away in Dublin on law business, and in hisabsence the young people went off to spend the evening with a friend wholived some miles away. The night was fine and lightsome as they werereturning, save at one point where the road ran between trees or highhedges not far to the west of the old church of Kilchrist. The latter, like many similar ruins, was a simple oblong building, with longside-walls and high gables, and at that time it and its graveyard wereunenclosed, and lay in the open fields. As the party passed down the longdark lane they suddenly heard in the distance loud keening and clappingof hands, as the country-people were accustomed to do when lamentingthe dead. The Ross-Lewins hurried on, and came in sight of the church, onthe side wall of which a little gray-haired old woman, clad in a darkcloak, was running to and fro, chanting and wailing, and throwing up herarms. The girls were very frightened, but the young men ran forward andsurrounded the ruin, and two of them went into the church, the apparitionvanishing from the wall as they did so. They searched every nook, andfound no one, nor did anyone pass out. All were now well scared, and gothome as fast as possible. On reaching their home their mother opened thedoor, and at once told them that she was in terror about their father, for, as she sat looking out the window in the moonlight, a huge ravenwith fiery eyes lit on the sill, and tapped three times on the glass. They told her their story, which only added to their anxiety, and as theystood talking, taps came to the nearest window, and they saw thebird again. A few days later news reached them that Mr. Ross-Lewin haddied suddenly in Dublin. This occurred about 1776. "

Mr. Westropp also writes that the sister of a former Roman CatholicBishop told his sisters that when she was a little girl she went out oneevening with some other children for a walk. Going down the road, theypassed the gate of the principal demesne near the town. There was a rock, or large stone, beside the road, on which they saw something. Goingnearer, they perceived it to be a little dark, old woman, who begancrying and clapping her hands. Some of them attempted to speak to her, but got frightened, and all finally ran home as quickly as they could. Next day the news came that the gentleman, near whose gate the Bansheehad cried, was dead, and it was found on inquiry that he had died at thevery hour at which the children had seen the spectre. 

A lady who is a relation of one of the compilers, and a member of a Co. Cork family of English descent, sends the two following experiences of aBanshee in her family. "My mother, when a young girl, was standinglooking out of the window in their house at Blackrock, near Cork. Shesuddenly saw a white figure standing on a bridge which was easily visiblefrom the house. The figure waved her arms towards the house, and mymother heard the bitter wailing of the Banshee. It lasted some seconds, and then the figure disappeared. Next morning my grandfather was walkingas usual into the city of Cork. He accidentally fell, hit his headagainst the curbstone, and never recovered consciousness. 

"In March 1900, my mother was very ill, and one evening the nurse and Iwere with her arranging her bed. We suddenly heard the most extraordinarywailing, which seemed to come in waves round and under her bed. Wenaturally looked everywhere to try and find the cause, but in vain. Thenurse and I looked at one another, but made no remark, as my mother didnot seem to hear it. My sister was downstairs sitting with my father. Sheheard it, and thought some terrible thing had happened to her little boy, who was in bed upstairs. She rushed up, and found him sleeping quietly. My father did not hear it. In the house next door they heard it, and randownstairs, thinking something had happened to the servant; but thelatter at once said to them, 'Did you hear the Banshee? Mrs. P---- mustbe dying. '"

A few years ago (_i. E. _ before 1894) a curious incident occurred in apublic school in connection with the belief in the Banshee. One of theboys, happening to become ill, was at once placed in a room by himself, where he used to sit all day. On one occasion, as he was being visited bythe doctor, he suddenly started up from his seat, and affirmed that heheard somebody crying. The doctor, of course, who could hear or seenothing, came to the conclusion that the illness had slightly affectedhis brain. However, the boy, who appeared quite sensible, still persistedthat he heard someone crying, and furthermore said, "It is the Banshee, as I have heard it before. " The following morning the head-masterreceived a telegram saying that the boy's brother had been accidentallyshot dead. [10]

[Footnote 10: A. G. Bradley, _Notes on some Irish Superstitions_, p. 9. ]

That the Banshee is not confined within the geographical limits ofIreland, but that she can follow the fortunes of a family abroad, andthere foretell their death, is clearly shewn by the following story. Aparty of visitors were gathered together on the deck of a private yachton one of the Italian lakes, and during a lull in the conversation one ofthem, a Colonel, said to the owner, "Count, who's that queer-lookingwoman you have on board?" The Count replied that there was nobody exceptthe ladies present, and the stewardess, but the speaker protested that hewas correct, and suddenly, with a scream of horror, he placed his handsbefore his eyes, and exclaimed, "Oh, my God, what a face!" For sometime he was overcome with terror, and at length reluctantly looked up, and cried:

"Thank Heavens, it's gone!"

"What was it?" asked the Count. 

"Nothing human, " replied the Colonel--"nothing belonging to this world. It was a woman of no earthly type, with a queer-shaped, gleaming face, amass of red hair, and eyes that would have been beautiful but for theirexpression, which was hellish. She had on a green hood, after the fashionof an Irish peasant. "

An American lady present suggested that the description tallied with thatof the Banshee, upon which the Count said:

"I am an O'Neill--at least I am descended from one. My family name is, asyou know, Neilsini, which, little more than a century ago, was O'Neill. My great-grandfather served in the Irish Brigade, and on its dissolutionat the time of the French Revolution had the good fortune to escape thegeneral massacre of officers, and in company with an O'Brien and aMaguire fled across the frontier and settled in Italy. On his death hisson, who had been born in Italy, and was far more Italian than Irish, changed his name to Neilsini, by which name the family has been knownever since. But for all that we are Irish. "

"The Banshee was yours, then!" ejaculated the Colonel. "What exactly doesit mean?"

"It means, " the Count replied solemnly, "the death of some one verynearly associated with me. Pray Heaven it is not my wife or daughter. "

On that score, however, his anxiety was speedily removed, for within twohours he was seized with a violent attack of angina pectoris, and diedbefore morning. [11]

[Footnote 11: _Occult Review_ for September, 1913. ]

Mr. Elliott O'Donnell, to whose article on "Banshees" we are indebted forthe above, adds: "The Banshee never manifests itself to the person whosedeath it is prognosticating. Other people may see or hear it, but thefated one never, so that when everyone present is aware of it but one, the fate of that one may be regarded as pretty well certain. "

We must now pass on from the subject of Banshees to the kindred one of"Headless Coaches, " the belief in which is widespread through thecountry. Apparently these dread vehicles must be distinguished fromthe phantom coaches, of which numerous circumstantial tales are alsotold. The first are harbingers of death, and in this connection are veryoften attached to certain families; the latter appear to be spectralphenomena pure and simple, whose appearance does not necessarily portendevil or death. 

"At a house in Co. Limerick, " writes Mr. T. J. Westropp, "occurred theremarkably-attested apparition of the headless coach in June 1806, whenMr. Ralph Westropp, my great-grandfather, lay dying. The story was toldby his sons, John, William, and Ralph, to their respective children, whotold it to me. They had sent for the doctor, and were awaiting hisarrival in the dusk. As they sat on the steps they suddenly heard a heavyrumbling, and saw a huge dark coach drive into the paved court beforethe door. One of them went down to meet the doctor, but the coach sweptpast him, and drove down the avenue, which went straight between thefences and hedges to a gate. Two of the young men ran after the coach, which they could hear rumbling before them, and suddenly came full tiltagainst the avenue gate. The noise had stopped, and they were surprisedat not finding the carriage. The gate proved to be locked, and when theyat last awoke the lodge-keeper, he showed them the keys underhis pillow; the doctor arrived a little later, but could do nothing, andthe sick man died a few hours afterwards. "

Two other good stories come from Co. Clare. One night in April 1821, twoservants were sitting up to receive a son of the family, CorneliusO'Callaghan, who had travelled in vain for his health, and was returninghome. One of them, Halloran, said that the heavy rumble of a coach rousedthem. The other servant, Burke, stood on the top of the long flight ofsteps with a lamp, and sent Halloran down to open the carriage door. Hereached out his hand to do so, saw a skeleton looking out, gave one yell, and fell in a heap. When the badly-scared Burke picked himself up therewas no sign or sound of any coach. A little later the invalid arrived, soexhausted that he died suddenly in the early morning. 

On the night of December 11, 1876, a servant of the MacNamaras was goinghis rounds at Ennistymon, a beautiful spot in a wooded glen, with a broadstream falling in a series of cascades. In the dark he heard the rumblingof wheels on the back avenue, and, knowing from the hour and place thatno mortal vehicle could be coming, concluded that it was the death coach, and ran on, opening the gates before it. He had just time to open thethird gate, and throw himself on his face beside it, when he heard acoach go clanking past. On the following day Admiral Sir Burton Macnamaradied in London. 

Mr. Westropp informs us that at sight or sound of this coach all gatesshould be thrown open, and then it will not stop at the house to call fora member of the family, but will only foretell the death of some relativeat a distance. We hope our readers will carefully bear in mind thissimple method of averting fate. 

We may conclude this chapter with some account of strange and varieddeath-warnings, which are attached to certain families and foretell thecoming of the King of Terrors. 

In a Co. Wicklow family a death is preceded by the appearance of aspectre; the doors of the sitting-room open and a lady dressed in whitesatin walks across the room and hall. Before any member of a certainQueen's Co. Family died a looking-glass was broken; while in a branch ofthat family the portent was the opening and shutting of the avenue gate. In another Queen's Co. Family approaching death was heralded by the cryof the cuckoo, no matter at what season of the year it might occur. AMrs. F---- and her son lived near Clonaslee. One day, in mid-winter, their servant heard a cuckoo; they went out for a drive, the trap joltedover a stone, throwing Mrs. F---- out, and breaking her neck. The ringingof all the house-bells is another portent which seems to be attached toseveral families. In another the aeolian harp is heard at or beforedeath; an account of this was given to the present writer by a clergyman, who declares that he heard it in the middle of the night when one of hisrelatives passed away. A death-warning in the shape of a white owlfollows the Westropp family. This last appeared, it is said, before adeath in 1909, but, as Mr. T. J. Westropp remarks, it would be moreconvincing if it appeared at places where the white owl does _not_ nestand fly out every night. No doubt this list might be drawn out to muchgreater length. 

A lady correspondent states that her cousin, a Sir Patrick Dun'snurse, was attending a case in the town of Wicklow. Her patient wasa middle-aged woman, the wife of a well-to-do shopkeeper. One evening thenurse was at her tea in the dining-room beneath the sick-room, whensuddenly she heard a tremendous crash overhead. Fearing her patient hadfallen out of bed, she hurried upstairs, to find her dozing quietly, andthere was not the least sign of any disturbance. A member of the family, to whom she related this, told her calmly that that noise was alwaysheard in their house before the death of any of them, and that it was asure sign that the invalid would not recover. Contrary to the nurse'sexpectations, she died the following day. 

Knocking on the door is another species of death-warning. The Rev. D. B. Knox writes: "On the evening before the wife of a clerical friendof mine died, the knocker of the hall-door was loudly rapped. All inthe room heard it. The door was opened, but there was no one there. Again the knocker was heard, but no one was to be seen when the doorwas again opened. A young man, brother of the dying woman, went intothe drawing-room, and looked through one of the drawing-room windows. The full light of the moon fell on the door, and as he looked the knockerwas again lifted and loudly rapped. "

The following portent occurs in a Co. Cork family. At one time the ladyof the house lay ill, and her two daughters were aroused one night byscreams proceeding from their mother's room. They rushed in, and foundher sitting up in bed, staring at some object unseen to them, but which, from the motion of her eyes, appeared to be moving across the floor. Whenshe became calm she told them, what they had not known before, thatmembers of the family were sometimes warned of the death, or approachingdeath, of some other member by the appearance of a ball of fire, whichwould pass slowly through the room; this phenomenon she had justwitnessed. A day or two afterwards the mother heard of the death of herbrother, who lived in the Colonies. 

A strange appearance, known as the "Scanlan Lights, " is connected withthe family of Scanlan of Ballyknockane, Co. Limerick, and is seenfrequently at the death of a member. The traditional origin of the lightsis connected with a well-known Irish legend, which we give here briefly. Scanlan Mor (died A. D. 640), King of Ossory, from whom the family claimdescent, was suspected of disaffection by Aedh mac Ainmire, Ard-Righ ofIreland, who cast him into prison, and loaded him with fetters. When St. Columcille attended the Synod of Drom Ceat, he besought Aedh to free hiscaptive, but the Ard-Righ churlishly refused; whereupon Columcilledeclared that he should be freed, and that that very night he shouldunloose his (the Saint's) brogues. Columcille went away, and that night abright pillar of fire appeared in the air, and hung over the house whereScanlan was imprisoned. A beam of light darted into the room where helay, and a voice called to him, bidding him rise, and shake off hisfetters. In amazement he did so, and was led out past his guards by anangel. He made his way to Columcille, with whom he was to continue thatnight, and as the Saint stooped down to unloose his brogues Scanlananticipated him, as he had prophesied. [12]

[Footnote 12: Canon Carrigan, in his _History of the Diocese of Ossory_(I. 32 intro. ), shows that this legend should rather be connectedwith Scanlan son of Ceannfaeladh. ]

Such appears to be the traditional origin of the "Scanlan lights. " Ourcorrespondent adds: "These are always seen at the demise of a member ofthe family. We have ascertained that by the present head of the family(Scanlan of Ballyknockane) they were seen, first, as a pillar of firewith radiated crown at the top; and secondly, inside the house, by theroom being lighted up brightly in the night. By other members of thefamily now living these lights have been seen in the shape of balls offire of various sizes. " The above was copied from a private manuscriptwritten some few years ago. Our correspondent further states: "I alsohave met with four persons in this county [Limerick] who have seen thelights on Knockfierna near Ballyknockane before the death of a Scanlan, one of the four being the late head of the family and owner, WilliamScanlan, J. P. , who saw the flames on the hill-side on the day of hisaunt's death some years ago. The last occasion was as late as 1913, onthe eve of the death of a Scanlan related to the present owner ofBallyknockane. "

In front of the residence of the G---- family in Co. Galway there is, orformerly was, a round ring of grass surrounded by a low evergreen hedge. The lady who related this story to our informant stated that one eveningdinner was kept waiting for Mr. G----, who was absent in town on somebusiness. She went out on the hall-door steps in order to see if thefamiliar trot of the carriage horses could be heard coming down the road. It was a bright moonlight night, and as she stood there she heard a childcrying with a peculiar whining cry, and distinctly saw a small childlikefigure running round and round the grass ring inside the evergreen hedge, and casting a shadow in the moonlight. Going into the house she casuallymentioned this as a peculiar circumstance to Mrs. G----, upon which, toher great surprise, that lady nearly fainted, and got into a terriblestate of nervousness. Recovering a little, she told her that this cryingand figure were always heard and seen whenever any member met with anaccident, or before a death. A messenger was immediately sent to meet Mr. G----, who was found lying senseless on the road, as the horses had takenfright and bolted, flinging him out, and breaking the carriage-pole. 

But of all the death-warnings in connection with Irish families surelythe strangest is the Gormanstown foxes. The crest of that noble family isa running fox, while the same animal also forms one of the supporters ofthe coat-of-arms. The story is, that when the head of the house is dyingthe foxes--not spectral foxes, but creatures of flesh and blood--leavethe coverts and congregate at Gormanstown Castle. 

Let us see what proof there is of this. When Jenico, the 12th Viscount, was dying in 1860, foxes were seen about the house and moving towards thehouse for some days previously. Just before his death three foxes wereplaying about and making a noise close to the house, and just in front ofthe "cloisters, " which are yew-trees planted and trained in that shape. The Hon. Mrs. Farrell states as regards the same that the foxes came inpairs into the demesne, and sat under the Viscount's bedroom window, andbarked and howled all night. Next morning they were to be found crouchingabout in the grass in front and around the house. They walked throughthe poultry and never touched them. After the funeral they disappeared. 

At the death of Edward, the 13th Viscount, in 1876, the foxes were alsothere. He had been rather better one day, but the foxes appeared, barkingunder the window, and he died that night contrary to expectation. 

On October 28, 1907, Jenico, the 14th Viscount, died in Dublin. About 8o'clock that night the coachman and gardener saw two foxes near thechapel (close to the house), five or six more round the front of thehouse, and several crying in the "cloisters. " Two days later the Hon. Richard Preston, R. F. A. , was watching by his father's body in the abovechapel. About 3 A. M. He became conscious of a slight noise, which seemedto be that of a number of people walking stealthily around the chapel onthe gravel walk. He went to the side door, listened, and heard outsidea continuous and insistent snuffling or sniffing noise, accompanied bywhimperings and scratchings at the door. On opening it he saw afull-grown fox sitting on the path within four feet of him. Just in theshadow was another, while he could hear several more moving close by inthe darkness. He then went to the end door, opposite the altar, and onopening it saw two more foxes, one so close that he could have touched itwith his foot. On shutting the door the noise continued till 5 A. M. , whenit suddenly ceased. [13]

[Footnote 13: _New Ireland Review_ for April 1908, by permission ofthe publishers, Messrs Sealy Bryers, & Walker. ]

CHAPTER VIII

MISCELLANEOUS SUPERNORMAL EXPERIENCES

The matter in this chapter does not seem, strictly speaking, to comeunder the head of any of the preceding ones: it contains no account ofhouses or places permanently haunted, or of warnings of impending death. Rather we have gathered up in it a number of tales relative to theappearance of the "wraiths" of living men, or accounts of visions, strange apparitions, or extraordinary experiences; some few of thesehave a purpose, while the majority are strangely aimless andpurposeless--something is seen or heard, that is all, and no results, good or bad, follow. 

We commence with one which, however, certainly indicates a purpose whichwas fulfilled. It is the experience of Mrs. Seymour, wife to one of thecompilers. When she was a little girl she resided in Dublin; amongst themembers of the family was her paternal grandmother. This old lady was notas kind as she might have been to her grand-daughter, and consequentlythe latter was somewhat afraid of her. In process of time the grandmotherdied. Mrs. Seymour, who was then about eight years of age, had to passthe door of the room where the death occurred in order to reach her ownbedroom, which was a flight higher up. Past this door the child used tofly in terror with all possible speed. On one occasion, however, as shewas preparing to make the usual rush past, she distinctly felt a handplaced on her shoulder, and became conscious of a voice saying, "Don't beafraid, Mary!" From that day on the child never had the least feeling offear, and always walked quietly past the door. 

The Rev. D. B. Knox sends a curious personal experience, which was sharedby him with three other people. He writes as follows: "Not very long agomy wife and I were preparing to retire for the night. A niece, who was inthe house, was in her bedroom and the door was open. The maid had justgone to her room. All four of us distinctly heard the heavy step of aman walking along the corridor, apparently in the direction of thebathroom. We searched the whole house immediately, but no one wasdiscovered. Nothing untoward happened except the death of the maid'smother about a fortnight later. It was a detached house, so that thenoise could not have been made by the neighbours. "

In the following tale the "double" or "wraith" of a living man was seenby three different people, one of whom, our correspondent, saw it througha telescope. She writes: "In May 1883 the parish of A---- was vacant, soMr. D----, the Diocesan Curate, used to come out to take service onSundays. One day there were two funerals to be taken, the one at agraveyard some distance off, the other at A---- churchyard. My brotherwas at both, the far-off one being taken the first. The house we thenlived in looked down towards A---- churchyard, which was about a quarterof a mile away. From an upper window my sister and I saw _two_ surplicedfigures going out to meet the coffin, and said, 'Why, there are twoclergy!' having supposed that there would be only Mr. D----. I, beingshort-sighted, used a telescope, and saw the two surplices showingbetween the people. But when my brother returned he said, 'A strangething has happened. Mr. D---- and Mr. W----(curate of a neighbouringparish) took the far-off funeral. I saw them both again at A----, butwhen I went into the vestry I only saw Mr. W----. I asked where Mr. D---- was, and he replied that he had left immediately after the firstfuneral, as he had to go to Kilkenny, and that he (Mr. W----) had come on_alone_ to take the funeral at A----. '"

Here is a curious tale from the city of Limerick of a lady's "double"being seen, with no consequent results. It is sent by Mr. Richard Hoganas the personal experience of his sister, Mrs. Mary Murnane. On Saturday, October 25, 1913, at half-past four o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Hoganleft the house in order to purchase some cigarettes. A quarter of an hourafterwards Mrs. Murnane went down the town to do some business. As shewas walking down George Street she saw a group of four persons standingon the pavement engaged in conversation. They were: her brother, a Mr. O'S----, and two ladies, a Miss P. O'D----, and her sister, Miss M. O'D----. She recognised the latter, as her face was partly turned towardsher, and noted that she was dressed in a knitted coat, and light bluehat, while in her left hand she held a bag or purse; the other lady'sback was turned towards her. As Mrs. Murnane was in a hurry to get herbusiness done she determined to pass them by without being noticed, but anumber of people coming in the opposite direction blocked the way, andcompelled her to walk quite close to the group of four; but they were sointent on listening to what one lady was saying that they took no noticeof her. The speaker appeared to be Miss M. O'D----, and, though Mrs. Murnane did not actually hear her _speak_ as she passed her, yet fromtheir attitudes the other three seemed to be listening to what she wassaying, and she heard her _laugh_ when right behind her--not the laugh ofher sister P. --and the laugh was repeated after she had left the group alittle behind. 

So far there is nothing out of the common. When Mrs. Murnane returned toher house about an hour later she found her brother Richard there beforeher. She casually mentioned to him how she had passed him and his threecompanions on the pavement. To which he replied that she was quitecorrect except in one point, namely that there were only _three_ in thegroup, as M. O'D---- _was not present_ as she had not come to Limerick atall that day. She then described to him the exact position each one ofthe four occupied, and the clothes worn by them; to all of which facts heassented, except as to the presence of Miss M. O'D----. Mrs. Murnaneadds, "That is all I can say in the matter, but most certainly the fourthperson was in the group, as I both saw and heard her. She wore the sameclothes I had seen on her previously, with the exception of the hat;but the following Saturday she had on the same coloured hat I had seen onher the previous Saturday. When I told her about it she was as muchmystified as I was and am. My brother stated that there was no laugh fromany of the three present. "

Mrs. G. Kelly sends an experience of a "wraith, " which seems in somemysterious way to have been conjured up in her mind by the descriptionshe had heard, and then externalised. She writes: "About four years ago amusical friend of ours was staying in the house. He and my husbandwere playing and singing Dvorak's _Spectre's Bride_, a work which he hadstudied with the composer himself. This music appealed very much to both, and they were excited and enthusiastic over it. Our friend was givingmany personal reminiscences of Dvorak, and his method of explaining theway he wanted his work done. I was sitting by, an interested listener, for some time. On getting up at last, and going into the drawing-room, I was startled and somewhat frightened to find a man standing there in ashadowy part of the room. I saw him distinctly, and could describe hisappearance accurately. I called out, and the two men ran in, but asthe apparition only lasted for a second, they were too late. I describedthe man whom I had seen, whereupon our friend exclaimed, 'Why, that wasDvorak himself!' At that time I had never seen a picture of Dvorak, butwhen our friend returned to London he sent me one which I recognisedas the likeness of the man whom I had seen in our drawing-room. "

A curious vision, a case of second sight, in which a quite unimportantevent, previously unknown, was revealed, is sent by the percipient, whois a lady well known to both the compilers, and a life-long friend of oneof them. She says: "Last summer I sent a cow to the fair of Limerick, adistance of about thirteen miles, and the men who took her there the daybefore the fair left her in a paddock for the night close to Limerickcity. I awoke up very early next morning, and was fully awake when I saw(not with my ordinary eyesight, but apparently _inside_ my head) a light, an intensely brilliant light, and in it I saw the back gate being openedby a red-haired woman and the cow I had supposed in the fair walkingthrough the gate. I then knew that the cow must be home, and going to theyard later on I was met by the wife of the man who was in charge in agreat state of excitement. 'Oh law! Miss, ' she exclaimed, 'you'll be mad!Didn't Julia [a red-haired woman] find the cow outside the lodge gate asshe was going out at 4 o'clock to the milking!' That's my tale--perfectlytrue, and I would give a good deal to be able to control that light, andsee more if I could. "

Another curious vision was seen by a lady who is also a friend of boththe compilers. One night she was kneeling at her bedside saying herprayers (hers was the only bed in the room), when suddenly she felt adistinct touch on her shoulder. She turned round in the direction of thetouch and saw at the end of the room a bed, with a pale, indistinguishable figure laid therein, and what appeared to be aclergyman standing over it. About a week later she fell into a long anddangerous illness. 

An account of a dream which implied an extraordinary coincidence, ifcoincidence it be and nothing more, was sent as follows by acorrespondent, who requested that no names be published. "That which I amabout to relate has a peculiar interest for me, inasmuch as the centralfigure in it was my own grand-aunt, and moreover the principal witness(if I may use such a term) was my father. At the period during whichthis strange incident occurred my father was living with his aunt andsome other relatives. 

"One morning at the breakfast-table, my grand-aunt announced that she hadhad a most peculiar dream during the previous night. My father, who wasalways very interested in that kind of thing, took down in his notebookall the particulars concerning it. They were as follows. 

"My grand-aunt dreamt that she was in a cemetery, which she recognised asGlasnevin, and as she gazed at the memorials of the dead which lay sothick around, one stood out most conspicuously, and caught her eye, forshe saw clearly cut on the cold white stone _an inscription bearing herown name:_

CLARE S. D--Died 14th of March, 1873Dearly loved and ever mourned. R. I. P. 

while, to add to the peculiarity of it, the date on the stone as givenabove was, from the day of her dream, exactly a year in advance. 

"My grand-aunt was not very nervous, and soon the dream faded from hermind. Months rolled by, and one morning at breakfast it was noticed thatmy grand-aunt had not appeared, but as she was a very religious woman itwas thought that she had gone out to church. However, as she did notappear my father sent someone to her room to see if she were there, andas no answer was given to repeated knocking the door was opened, and mygrand-aunt was found kneeling at her bedside, dead. The day of her deathwas March 14, 1873, corresponding exactly with the date seen in her dreama twelvemonth before. My grand-aunt was buried in Glasnevin, and on hertombstone (a white marble slab) was placed the inscription which she hadread in her dream. " Our correspondent sent us a photograph of the stoneand its inscription. 

The present Archdeacon of Limerick, Ven. J. A. Haydn, LL. D. , sends thefollowing experience: "In the year 1870 I was rector of the little ruralparish of Chapel Russell. One autumn day the rain fell with a quiet, steady, and hopeless persistence from morning to night. Wearied at lengthfrom the gloom, and tired of reading and writing, I determined to walkto the church about half a mile away, and pass a half-hour playing theharmonium, returning for the lamp-light and tea. 

"I wrapped up, put the key of the church in my pocket, and started. Arriving at the church, I walked up the straight avenue, bordered withgraves and tombs on either side, while the soft, steady rain quietlypattered on the trees. When I reached the church door, before puttingthe key in the lock, moved by some indefinable impulse, I stood on thedoorstep, turned round, and looked back upon the path I had just trodden. My amazement may be imagined when I saw, seated on a low, tabulartombstone close to the avenue, a lady with her back towards me. She waswearing a black velvet jacket or short cape, with a narrow border ofvivid white: her head, and luxuriant jet-black hair, were surmounted by ahat of the shape and make that I think used to be called at that timea "turban"; it was also of black velvet, with a snow-white wing orfeather at the right-hand side of it. It may be seen how deliberately andminutely I observed the appearance, when I can thus recall it aftermore than forty years. 

"Actuated by a desire to attract the attention of the lady, and induceher to look towards me, I noisily inserted the key in the door, andsuddenly opened it with a rusty crack. Turning round to see the effect ofmy policy--the lady was gone!--vanished! Not yet daunted, I hurried tothe place, which was not ten paces away, and closely searched the stoneand the space all round it, but utterly in vain; there were absolutely notraces of the late presence of a human being! I may add that nothingparticular or remarkable followed the singular apparition, and that Inever heard anything calculated to throw any light on the mystery. "

Here is a story of a ghost who knew what it wanted--and got it! "In thepart of Co. Wicklow from which my people come, " writes a Miss D----, "there was a family who were not exactly related, but of course of theclan. Many years ago a young daughter, aged about twenty, died. Beforeher death she had directed her parents to bury her in a certaingraveyard. But for some reason they did not do so, and from that hour shegave them no peace. She appeared to them at all hours, especially whenthey went to the well for water. So distracted were they, that at lengththey got permission to exhume the remains and have them reinterred in thedesired graveyard. This they did by torchlight--a weird scene truly! Ican vouch for the truth of this latter portion, at all events, as some ofmy own relatives were present. "

Mr. T. J. Westropp contributes a tale of a ghost of an unusual type, _i. E. _ one which actually did communicate matters of importance to hisfamily. "A lady who related many ghost stories to me, also told me how, after her father's death, the family could not find some papers orreceipts of value. One night she awoke, and heard a sound which she atonce recognised as the footsteps of her father, who was lame. The doorcreaked, and she prayed that she might be able to see him. Her prayer wasgranted: she saw him distinctly holding a yellow parchment book tied withtape. 'F----, child, ' said he, 'this is the book your mother is lookingfor. It is in the third drawer of the cabinet near the cross-door; tellyour mother to be more careful in future about business papers. 'Incontinent he vanished, and she at once awoke her mother, in whose roomshe was sleeping, who was very angry and ridiculed the story, but thegirl's earnestness at length impressed her. She got up, went to the oldcabinet, and at once found the missing book in the third drawer. "

Here is another tale of an equally useful and obliging ghost. "Agentleman, a relative of my own, " writes a lady, "often received warningsfrom his dead father of things that were about to happen. Besides thefarm on which he lived, he had another some miles away which adjoined alarge demesne. Once in a great storm a fir-tree was blown down in thedemesne, and fell into his field. The woodranger came to him and told himhe might as well cut up the tree, and take it away. Accordingly one dayhe set out for this purpose, taking with him two men and a cart. He gotinto the fields by a stile, while his men went on to a gate. As heapproached a gap between two fields he saw, standing in it, his father asplainly as he ever saw him in life, and beckoning him back warningly. Unable to understand this, he still advanced, whereupon his father lookedvery angry, and his gestures became imperious. This induced him to turnaway, so he sent his men home, and left the tree uncut. He subsequentlydiscovered that a plot had been laid by the woodranger, who coveted hisfarm, and who hoped to have him dispossessed by accusing him of stealingthe tree. "

A clergyman in the diocese of Clogher gave a personal experience oftable-turning to the present Dean of St. Patrick's, who kindly sentthe same to the writer. He said: "When I was a young man, I metsome friends one evening, and we decided to amuse ourselves withtable-turning. The local dispensary was vacant at the time, so we saidthat if the table would work we should ask who would be appointed asmedical officer. As we sat round it touching it with our hands it beganto knock. We said:

"'Who are you?'

"The table spelt out the name of a Bishop of the Church of Ireland. Weasked, thinking that the answer was absurd, as we knew him to be aliveand well:

"'Are you dead?'

"The table answered 'Yes. '

"We laughed at this and asked:

"'Who will be appointed to the dispensary?'

"The table spelt out the name of a stranger, who was not one of thecandidates, whereupon we left off, thinking that the whole thing wasnonsense. 

"The next morning I saw in the papers that the Bishop in question haddied that afternoon about two hours before our meeting, and a few daysafterwards I saw the name of the stranger as the new dispensary doctor. Igot such a shock that I determined never to have anything to do withtable-turning again. "

The following extraordinary personal experience is sent by a lady, wellknown to the present writer, but who requests that all names be omitted. Whatever explanation we may give of it, the good faith of the tale isbeyond doubt. 

"Two or three months after my father-in-law's death my husband, myself, and three small sons lived in the west of Ireland. As my husband was ayoung barrister, he had to be absent from home a good deal. My three boysslept in my bedroom, the eldest being about four, the youngest somemonths. A fire was kept up every night, and with a young child to lookafter, I was naturally awake more than once during the night. For manynights I believed I distinctly saw my father-in-law sitting by thefireside. This happened, not once or twice, but many times. He waspassionately fond of his eldest grandson, who lay sleeping calmly in hiscot. Being so much alone probably made me restless and uneasy, though Inever felt _afraid_. I mentioned this strange thing to a friend who hadknown and liked my father-in-law, and she advised me to 'have his soullaid, ' as she termed it. Though I was a Protestant and she was a RomanCatholic (as had also been my father-in-law), yet I fell in with hersuggestion. She told me to give a coin to the next beggar that came tothe house, telling him (or her) to pray for the rest of Mr. So-and-so'ssoul. A few days later a beggar-woman and her children came to the door, to whom I gave a coin and stated my desire. To my great surprise Ilearned from her manner that such requests were not unusual. Well, shewent down on her knees on the steps, and prayed with apparent earnestnessand devotion that his soul might find repose. Once again he appeared, andseemed to say to me, 'Why did you do that, E----? To come and sit herewas the only comfort I had. ' Never again did he appear, and strange tosay, after a lapse of more than thirty years I have felt regret at myselfishness in interfering. 

"After his death, as he lay in the house awaiting burial, and I was in ahouse some ten miles away, I thought that he came and told me that Iwould have a hard life, which turned out only too truly. I was thenyoung, and full of life, with every hope of a prosperous future. "

Of all the strange beliefs to be found in Ireland that in the Black Dogis the most widespread. There is hardly a parish in the country but couldcontribute some tale relative to this spectre, though the majority ofthese are short, and devoid of interest. There is said to be such a dogjust outside the avenue gate of Donohill Rectory, but neither of thecompilers have had the good luck to see it. It may be, as some hold, that this animal was originally a cloud or nature-myth; at all events, ithas now descended to the level of an ordinary haunting. The mostcircumstantial story that we have met with relative to the Black Dog isthat related as follows by a clergyman of the Church of Ireland, whorequests us to refrain from publishing his name. 

"In my childhood I lived in the country. My father, in addition to hisprofessional duties, sometimes did a little farming in an amateurish sortof way. He did not keep a regular staff of labourers, and consequentlywhen anything extra had to be done, such as hay-cutting or harvesting, heused to employ day-labourers to help with the work. At such times I usedto enjoy being in the fields with the men, listening to theirconversation. On one occasion I heard a labourer remark that he had onceseen the devil! Of course I was interested and asked him to give me hisexperience. He said he was walking along a certain road, and when he cameto a point where there was an entrance to a private place (the spot waswell known to me), he saw a black dog sitting on the roadside. At thetime he paid no attention to it, thinking it was an ordinary retriever, but after he had passed on about two or three hundred yards he found thedog was beside him, and then he noticed that its eyes were blood-red. Hestooped down, and picked up some stones in order to frighten it away, butthough he threw the stones at it they did not injure it, nor indeed didthey seem to have any effect. Suddenly, after a few moments, the dogvanished from his sight. 

"Such was the labourer's tale. After some years, during which time I hadforgotten altogether about the man's story, some friends of my own boughtthe place at the entrance to which the apparition had been seen. When myfriends went to reside there I was a constant visitor at their house. Soon after their arrival they began to be troubled by the appearance of ablack dog. Though I never saw it myself, it appeared to many members ofthe family. The avenue leading to the house was a long one, and it wascustomary for the dog to appear and accompany people for the greaterportion of the way. Such an effect had this on my friends that they soongave up the house, and went to live elsewhere. This was a curiouscorroboration of the labourer's tale. "

As we have already stated in Chapter VII, a distinction must be drawnbetween the so-called _Headless_ Coach, which portends death, and the_Phantom_ Coach, which appears to be a harmless sort of vehicle. Withregard to the latter we give two tales below, the first of which was sentby a lady whose father was a clergyman, and a gold medallist of TrinityCollege, Dublin. 

"Some years ago my family lived in Co. Down. Our house was some way outof a fair-sized manufacturing town, and had a short avenue which ended ina gravel sweep in front of the hall door. One winter's evening, when myfather was returning from a sick call, a carriage going at a sharp pacepassed him on the avenue. He hurried on, thinking it was some particularfriends, but when he reached the door no carriage was to be seen, so heconcluded it must have gone round to the stables. The servant whoanswered his ring said that no visitors had been there, and he, feelingcertain that the girl had made some mistake, or that some one else hadanswered the door, came into the drawing-room to make further inquiries. No visitors had come, however, though those sitting in the drawing-roomhad also heard the carriage drive up. 

"My father was most positive as to what he had seen, viz. A closedcarriage with lamps lit; and let me say at once that he was a clergymanwho was known throughout the whole of the north of Ireland as a mostlevel-headed man, and yet to the day of his death he would insist that hemet that carriage on our avenue. 

"One day in July one of our servants was given leave to go home for theday, but was told she must return by a certain train. For some reason shedid not come by it, but by a much later one, and rushed into the kitchenin a most penitent frame of mind. 'I am so sorry to be late, ' she toldthe cook, 'especially as there were visitors. I suppose they stayed tosupper, as they were so late going away, for I met the carriage on theavenue. ' The cook thereupon told her that no one had been at the house, and hinted that she must have seen the ghost-carriage, a statement thatalarmed her very much, as the story was well known in the town, andcar-drivers used to whip up their horses as they passed our gate, whilepedestrians refused to go at all except in numbers. We have often _heard_the carriage, but these are the only two occasions on which I canpositively assert that it was _seen_. "

The following personal experience of the phantom coach was given to thepresent writer by Mr. Matthias Fitzgerald, coachman to Miss Cooke, ofCappagh House, Co. Limerick. He stated that one moonlight night he wasdriving along the road from Askeaton to Limerick when he heard coming upbehind him the roll of wheels, the clatter of horses' hoofs, and thejingling of the bits. He drew over to his own side to let this carriagepass, but nothing passed. He then looked back, but could see nothing, theroad was perfectly bare and empty, though the sounds were perfectlyaudible. This continued for about a quarter of an hour or so, until hecame to a cross-road, down one arm of which he had to turn. As he turnedoff he heard the phantom carriage dash by rapidly along the straightroad. He stated that other persons had had similar experiences on thesame road. 

CHAPTER IX

LEGENDARY AND ANCESTRAL GHOSTS

Whatever explanations may be given of the various stories told in ourprevious chapters, the facts as stated therein are in almost every casevouched for on reliable authority. We now turn to stories of a differentkind, most of which have no evidence of any value in support of the_facts_, but which have been handed down from generation to generation, and deserve our respect, if only for their antiquity. We make no apologyfor giving them here, for, in addition to the interesting reading theyprovide, they also serve a useful purpose as a contrast to authenticatedghost stories. The student of folklore will find parallels to some ofthem in the tales of other nations. 

Lord Walter Fitzgerald sends us the following: "Garrett oge" (or Geraldthe younger) "Fitzgerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, died in London on the16th November 1585; his body was brought back to Ireland and interred inSt. Brigid's Cathedral, in Kildare. He was known as 'the Wizard Earl' onaccount of his practising the black art, whereby he was enabled totransform himself into other shapes, either bird or beast according tohis choice; so notorious was his supernatural power that he became theterror of the countryside. 

"His wife, the Countess, had long wished to see some proof of his skill, and had frequently begged him to transform himself before her, but he hadsteadily refused to do so, as he said if he did and she became afraid, hewould be taken from her, and she would never see him again. Still shepersisted, and at last he said he would do as she wished on conditionthat she should first of all undergo three trials to test her courage; tothis she willingly agreed. In the first trial the river Greese, whichflows past the castle walls, at a sign from the Earl overflowed its banksand flooded the banqueting hall in which the Earl and Countess weresitting. She showed no sign of fear, and at the Earl's command the riverreceded to its normal course. At the second trial a huge eel-like monsterappeared, which entered by one of the windows, crawled about among thefurniture of the banqueting hall, and finally coiled itself round thebody of the Countess. Still she showed no fear, and at a nod from theEarl the animal uncoiled itself and disappeared. In the third test anintimate friend of the Countess, long since dead, entered the room, andpassing slowly by her went out at the other end. She showed not theslightest sign of fear, and the Earl felt satisfied that he could placehis fate in her keeping, but he again warned her of his danger if shelost her presence of mind while he was in another shape. He then turnedhimself into a black bird, flew about the room, and perching on theCountess's shoulder commenced to sing. Suddenly a black cat appeared fromunder a chest, and made a spring at the bird; in an agony of fear for itssafety the Countess threw up her arms to protect it and swooned away. When she came to she was alone, the bird and the cat had disappeared, andshe never saw the Earl again. "

It is said that he and his knights lie in an enchanted sleep, with theirhorses beside them, in a cave under the Rath on the hill of Mullaghmast, which stands, as the crow flies, five miles to the north of KilkeaCastle. Once in seven years they are allowed to issue forth; they gallopround the Curragh, thence across country to Kilkea Castle, where theyre-enter the haunted wing, and then return to the Rath of Mullaghmast. The Earl is easily recognised as he is mounted on a white charger shodwith silver shoes; when these shoes are worn out the enchantment will bebroken, and he will issue forth, drive the foes of Ireland from the land, and reign for a seven times seven number of years over the vast estatesof his ancestors. 

Shortly before '98 he was seen on the Curragh by a blacksmith who wascrossing it in an ass-cart from Athgarvan to Kildare. A fairy blastovertook him, and he had just time to say, "God speed ye Gentlemen"to the invisible "Good People, " when he heard horses galloping up behindhim; pulling to one side of the road he looked back and was terrified atseeing a troop of knights, fully armed, led by one on a white horse. Theleader halted his men, and riding up to the blacksmith asked him toexamine his shoes. Almost helpless from fear he stumbled out of theass-cart and looked at each shoe, which was of silver, and then informedthe knight that all the nails were sound. The knight thanked him, rejoined his troop, and galloped off. The blacksmith in a half-dazedstate hastened on to Kildare, where he entered a public-house, ordered anoggin of whisky, and drank it neat. When he had thoroughly come tohimself he told the men that were present what had happened to him on theCurragh; one old man who had listened to him said: "By the mortial! man, ye are after seeing 'Gerod Earla. '" This fully explained the mystery. Gerod Earla, or Earl Gerald, is the name by which the Wizard Earl isknown by the peasantry. 

One other legend is told in connection with the Wizard Earl of aconsiderably later date. It is said that a farmer was returning from afair in Athy late one evening in the direction of Ballintore, and whenpassing within view of the Rath of Mullaghmast he was astonished to see abright light apparently issuing from it. Dismounting from his car he wentto investigate. On approaching the Rath he noticed that the light wasproceeding from a cave in which were sleeping several men in armour, withtheir horses beside them. He cautiously crept up to the entrance, andseeing that neither man nor beast stirred he grew bolder and entered thechamber; he then examined the saddlery on the horses, and the armour ofthe men, and plucking up courage began slowly to draw a sword from itssheath; as he did so the owner's head began to rise, and he heard a voicein Irish say, "Is the time yet come?" In terror the farmer, as he shovedthe sword back, replied, "It is not, your Honour, " and then fled from theplace. 

It is said that if the farmer had only completely unsheathed the swordthe enchantment would have been broken, and the Earl would have come tohis own again. 

In 1642 Wallstown Castle, the seat of the Wall family, in County Cork, was burnt down by the Cromwellian troops, and Colonel Wall, the head ofthe family, was captured and imprisoned in Cork jail, where he died. One of the defenders during the siege was a man named Henry Bennett, whowas killed while fighting. His ghost was often seen about the place foryears after his death. His dress was of a light colour, and he worea white hat, while in his hand he carried a pole, which he used to placeacross the road near the Castle to stop travellers; on a polite requestto remove the pole he would withdraw it, and laugh heartily. A caretakerin the place named Philip Coughlan used frequently to be visited by thisapparition. He came generally about supper time, and while Coughlan andhis wife were seated at table he would shove the pole through the window;Coughlan would beg him to go away and not interfere with a poorhard-worked man; the pole would then be withdrawn, with a hearty laughfrom the ghost. 

In the Parish Church of Ardtrea, near Cookstown, is a marble monument andinscription in memory of Thomas Meredith, D. D. , who had been a Fellow ofTrinity College, Dublin, and for six years rector of the parish. He died, according to the words of the inscription, on 2nd May 1819, as a resultof "a sudden and awful visitation. " A local legend explains this"visitation, " by stating that a ghost haunted the rectory, the visits ofwhich had caused his family and servants to leave the house. The rectorhad tried to shoot it but failed; then he was told to use a silverbullet; he did so, and next morning was found dead at his hall-door whilea hideous object like a devil made horrid noises out of any windowthe servant man approached. This man was advised by some Roman Catholicneighbours to get the priest, who would "lay" the thing. The priestarrived, and with the help of a jar of whisky the ghost became quitecivil, till the last glass in the jar, which the priest was about toempty out for himself, whereupon the ghost or devil made himself as thinand long as a Lough Neagh eel, and slipped himself into the jar to getthe last drops. But the priest put the cork into its place and hammeredit in, and, making the sign of the Cross on it, he had the evil thingsecured. It was buried in the cellar of the rectory, where on some nightsit can still be heard calling to be let out. 

A story of a phantom rat, which comes from Limerick, is only one of manywhich show the popular Irish belief in hauntings by various animals. Manyyears ago, the legend runs, a young man was making frantic andunacceptable love to a girl. At last, one day when he was following herin the street, she turned on him and, pointing to a rat which some boyshad just killed, said, "I'd as soon marry that rat as you. " He took hercruel words so much to heart that he pined away and died. After his deaththe girl was haunted at night by a rat, and in spite of the constantwatch of her mother and sisters she was more than once bitten. The priestwas called in and could do nothing, so she determined to emigrate. Acoasting vessel was about to start for Queenstown, and her friends, collecting what money they could, managed to get her on board. The shiphad just cast off from the quay, when shouts and screams were heard upthe street. The crowd scattered, and a huge rat with fiery eyes gallopeddown to the quay. It sat upon the edge screaming hate, sprang off, anddid not reappear. After that, we are told, the girl was never againhaunted. 

A legend of the Tirawley family relates how a former Lord Tirawley, whowas a very wild and reckless man, was taken from this world. One evening, it is said, just as the nobleman was preparing for a night's carouse, acarriage drove up to his door, a stranger asked to see him and, after along private conversation, drove away as mysteriously as he had come. Whatever words had passed they had a wonderful effect on the gay lord, for his ways were immediately changed, and he lived the life of areformed man. As time went on the effect of whatever awful warning themysterious visitor had given him wore off, and he began to live a lifeeven more wild and reckless than before. On the anniversary of the visithe was anxious and gloomy, but he tried to make light of it. The daypassed, and at night there was high revelry in the banqueting hall. Outside it was wet and stormy, when just before midnight the sound ofwheels was heard in the courtyard. All the riot stopped; the servantsopened the door in fear and trembling: outside stood a huge dark coachwith four black horses. The "fearful guest" entered and beckoned to LordTirawley, who followed him to a room off the hall. The friends, soberedby fear, saw through the door the stranger drawing a ship on the wall;the piece of wall then detached itself and the ship grew solid, thestranger climbed into it, and Lord Tirawley followed without a struggle. The vessel then sailed away into the night, and neither it nor itsoccupants were ever seen again. 

The above tale is a good example of how a legend will rise superior tothe ordinary humdrum facts of life, for it strikes us at once that thegloomy spectre went to unnecessary trouble in constructing a ship, eventhough the task proved so simple to his gifted hands. But the coach wasat the door, and surely it would have been less troublesome to have usedit. 

A strange legend is told of a house in the Boyne valley. It is said thatthe occupant of the guest chamber was always wakened on the first nightof his visit, then he would see a pale light and the shadow of a skeleton"climbing the wall like a huge spider. " It used to crawl out on to theceiling, and when it reached the middle would materialise into apparentbones, holding on by its hands and feet; it would break in pieces, andfirst the skull and then the other bones would fall on the floor. Oneperson had the courage to get up and try to seize a bone, but his handpassed through to the carpet though the heap was visible for a fewseconds. 

The following story can hardly be called _legendary_, though it maycertainly be termed ancestral. The writer's name is not given, but he isdescribed as a rector and Rural Dean in the late Established Church ofIreland, and a Justice of the Peace for two counties. It has this addedinterest that it was told to Queen Victoria by the Marchioness of Ely. 

"Loftus Hall, in County Wexford, was built on the site of a strongholderected by Raymond, one of Strongbow's followers. His descendantsforfeited it in 1641, and the property subsequently fell into the handsof the Loftus family, one of whom built the house and other buildings. About the middle of the eighteenth century, there lived at Loftus HallCharles Tottenham, a member of the Irish Parliament, known to fame as'Tottenham and his Boots, ' owing to his historic ride to the Irishcapital in order to give the casting vote in a motion which saved £80, 000to the Irish Treasury. 

"The second son, Charles Tottenham, had two daughters, Elizabeth andAnne, to the latter of whom our story relates. He came to live at LoftusHall, the old baronial residence of the family, with his second wife andthe two above-mentioned daughters of his first wife. Loftus Hall was anold rambling mansion, with no pretence to beauty: passages that lednowhere, large dreary rooms, small closets, various unnecessary nooks andcorners, panelled or wainscotted walls, and a _tapestry chamber_. Hereresided at the time my story commences Charles Tottenham, his second wifeand his daughter Anne: Elizabeth, his second daughter, having beenmarried. The father was a cold austere man; the stepmother such as thatunamiable relation is generally represented to be. What and how greatthe state of lonely solitude and depression of mind of poor Anne musthave been in such a place, without neighbours or any home sympathy, mayeasily be imagined. 

"One wet and stormy night, as they sat in the large drawing-room, theywere startled by a loud knocking at the outer gate, a most surprisingand unusual occurrence. Presently the servant announced that a younggentleman on horseback was there requesting lodging and shelter. He hadlost his way, his horse was knocked up, and he had been guided by theonly light which he had seen. The stranger was admitted and refreshed, and proved himself to be an agreeable companion and a finishedgentleman--far too agreeable for the lone scion of the House ofTottenham, for a sad and mournful tale follows, and one whose strangeresults continued almost to the present day. 

"Much mystery has involved the story at the present point, and in truththe matter was left in such silence and obscurity, that, but for the actsof her who was the chief sufferer in it through several generations, nothing would now be known. The fact, I believe, was--which was notunnatural under the circumstances--that this lonely girl formed a strongattachment to this gallant youth chance had brought to her door, whichwas warmly returned. The father, as was his stern nature, was obdurate, and the wife no solace to her as she was a step-mother. It is only aninstance of the refrain of the old ballad, 'He loved, and he rode away';he had youth and friends, and stirring scenes, and soon forgot hispassing attachment. Poor Anne's reason gave way. 

"The fact is but too true, she became a confirmed maniac, and had to beconfined for the rest of her life in the tapestried chamber beforementioned, and in which she died. A strange legend was at once inventedto account for this calamity: it tells how the horseman proved such anagreeable acquisition that he was invited to remain some days, and madehimself quite at home, and as they were now four in number whist wasproposed in the evenings. The stranger, however, with Anne as hispartner, invariably won every point; the old couple never had thesmallest success. One night, when poor Anne was in great delight atwinning so constantly, she dropped a ring on the floor, and, suddenlydiving under the table to recover it, was terrified to see that heragreeable partner had an unmistakably cloven foot. Her screams made himaware of her discovery, and he at once vanished in a thunder-clap leavinga brimstone smell behind him. The poor girl never recovered from theshock, lapsed from one fit into another, and was carried to the tapestryroom from which she never came forth alive. 

"This story of his Satanic majesty got abroad, and many tales are told ofhow he continued to visit and disturb the house. The noises, theapparitions, and disturbances were innumerable, and greatly distressedold Charles Tottenham, his wife, and servants. It is said that theyfinally determined to call in the services of their parish priest, aFather Broders, who, armed with all the exorcisms of the Church, succeeded in confining the operations of the evil spirit to one room--thetapestry room. 

"Here, then, we have traced from the date of the unhappy girl'smisfortune that the house was disturbed by something supernatural, and that the family sought the aid of the parish priest to abate it, andfurther that the tapestry room was the scene of this visitation. 

"But the matter was kept dark, all reference to poor Anne was avoided, and the belief was allowed to go abroad that it was Satan himself whodisturbed the peace of the family. Her parents were ready to turn asidethe keen edge of observation from her fate, preferring rather that itshould be believed that they were haunted by the Devil, so that the storyof her wrongs should sink into oblivion, and be classed as an old wives'tale of horns and hoofs. The harsh father and stepmother have long goneto the place appointed for all living. The Loftus branch of the familyare in possession of the Hall. Yet poor Anne has kept her tapestriedchamber by nearly the same means which compelled her parents to call inthe aid of the parish priest so long ago. 

"But to my tale: About the end of the last century my father was invitedby Mrs. Tottenham to meet a large party at the Hall. He rode, as was thenthe custom in Ireland, with his pistols in his holsters. On arriving hefound the house full, and Mrs. Tottenham apologised to him for beingobliged to assign to him the tapestry chamber for the night, which, however, he gladly accepted, never having heard any of the storiesconnected with it. 

"However, he had scarcely covered himself in the bed when suddenlysomething heavy leaped upon it, growling like a dog. The curtains weretorn back, and the clothes stripped from the bed. Supposing that some ofhis companions were playing tricks, he called out that he would shootthem, and seizing a pistol he fired up the chimney, lest he should woundone of them. He then struck a light and searched the room diligently, butfound no sign or mark of anyone, and the door locked as he had left it onretiring to rest. Next day he informed his hosts how he had been annoyed, but they could only say that they would not have put him in that room ifthey had had any other to offer him. 

"Years passed on, when the Marquis of Ely went to the Hall to spend sometime there. His valet was put to sleep in the tapestry chamber. In themiddle of the night the whole family was aroused by his dreadful roarsand screams, and he was found lying in another room in mortal terror. After some time he told them that, soon after he had lain himself down inbed, he was startled by the rattling of the curtains as they were tornback, and looking up he saw a tall lady by the bedside dressed in stiffbrocaded silk; whereupon he rushed out of the room screaming with terror. 

"Years afterwards I was brought by my father with the rest of the familyto the Hall for the summer bathing. Attracted by the quaint look of thetapestry room, I at once chose it for my bedroom, being utterly ignorantof the stories connected with it. For some little time nothing out of theway happened. One night, however, I sat up much later than usual tofinish an article in a magazine I was reading. The full moon was shiningclearly in through two large windows, making all as clear as day. I wasjust about to get into bed, and, happening to glance towards the door, tomy great surprise I saw it open quickly and noiselessly, and as quicklyand noiselessly shut again, while the tall figure of a lady in a stiffdress passed slowly through the room to one of the curious closetsalready mentioned, which was in the opposite corner. I rubbed my eyes. Every possible explanation but the true one occurred to my mind, for theidea of a ghost did not for a moment enter my head. I quickly reasonedmyself into a sound sleep and forgot the matter. 

"The next night I again sat up late in my bedroom, preparing a gun andammunition to go and shoot sea-birds early next morning, when the dooragain opened and shut in the same noiseless manner, and the same talllady proceeded to cross the room quietly and deliberately as beforetowards the closet. I instantly rushed at her, and threw my right armaround her, exclaiming 'Ha! I have you now!' To my utter astonishment myarm passed through her and came with a thud against the bedpost, at whichspot she then was. The figure quickened its pace, and as it passed theskirt of its dress lapped against the curtain and I marked distinctly thepattern of her gown--a stiff brocaded silk. 

"The ghostly solution of the problem did not yet enter my mind. However, I told the story at breakfast next morning. My father, who had himselfsuffered from the lady's visit so long before, never said a word, and itpassed as some folly of mine. So slight was the impression it made on meat the time that, though I slept many a night after in the room, I neverthought of watching or looking out for anything. 

"Years later I was again a guest at the Hall. The Marquis of Ely and hisfamily, with a large retinue of servants, filled the house tooverflowing. As I passed the housekeeper's room I heard the valet say:'What! I to sleep in the tapestry chamber? Never! I will leave my lord'sservice before I sleep there!' At once my former experience in that roomflashed upon my mind. I had never thought of it during the interval, andwas still utterly ignorant of Anne Tottenham: so when the housekeeper wasgone I spoke to the valet and said, 'Tell me why you will not sleep inthe tapestry room, as I have a particular reason for asking. ' He said, 'Is it possible that you do not know that Miss Tottenham passes throughthat room every night, and, dressed in a stiff flowered silk dress, enters the closet in the corner?' I replied that I had never heard a wordof her till now, but that I had, a few years before, twice seen a figureexactly like what he had described, and passed my arm through her body. 'Yes, ' said he, 'that was Miss Tottenham, and, as is well known, she wasconfined--mad--in that room, and died there, and, they say, was buried inthat closet. '

"Time wore on and another generation arose, another owner possessed theproperty--the grandson of my friend. In the year 185--, he being then achild came with his mother, the Marchioness of Ely, and his tutor, theRev. Charles Dale, to the Hall for the bathing season. Mr. Dale was noimaginative person--a solid, steady, highly educated English clergyman, who had never even heard the name of Miss Tottenham. The tapestry roomwas his bed-chamber. One day in the late autumn of that year I received aletter from the uncle of the Marquis, saying, 'Do tell me what it was yousaw long ago in the tapestry chamber, for something strange must havehappened to the Rev. Charles Dale, as he came to breakfast quitemystified. Something very strange must have occurred, but he will nottell us, seems quite nervous, and, in short, is determined to give up histutorship and return to England. Every year something mysterious hashappened to any person who slept in that room, but they always kept itclose. Mr. D----, a Wexford gentleman, slept there a short while ago. He had a splendid dressing-case, fitted with gold and silver articles, which he left carefully locked on his table at night; in the morning hefound the whole of its contents scattered about the room. '

"Upon hearing this I determined to write to the Rev. Charles Dale, thenIncumbent of a parish near Dover, telling him what had occurred to myselfin the room, and that the evidence of supernatural appearances there wereso strong and continued for several generations, that I was anxious toput them together, and I would consider it a great favour if he wouldtell me if anything had happened to him in the room, and of what nature. He then for the first time mentioned the matter, and from his letter nowbefore me I make the following extracts:

"'For three weeks I experienced no inconvenience from the lady, but onenight, just before we were about to leave, I had sat up very late. It wasjust one o'clock when I retired to my bedroom, a very beautiful moonlightnight. I locked my door, and saw that the shutters were properlyfastened, as I did every night. I had not lain myself down more thanabout five minutes before something jumped on the bed making a growlingnoise; the bed-clothes were pulled off though I strongly resisted thepull. I immediately sprang out of bed, lighted my candle, looked into thecloset and under the bed, but saw nothing. '

"Mr. Dale goes on to say that he endeavoured to account for it in somesuch way as I had formerly done, having never up to that time heard oneword of the lady and her doings in that room. He adds, 'I did not see thelady or hear any noise but the growling. '

"Here then is the written testimony of a beneficed English clergyman, occupying the responsible position of tutor to the young Marquis of Ely, a most sober-minded and unimpressionable man. He repeats in 1867 almostthe very words of my father when detailing his experience in that room in1790--a man of whose existence he had never been cognisant, and thereforeutterly ignorant of Miss Tottenham's doings in that room nearly eightyyears before. 

"In the autumn of 1868 I was again in the locality, at Dunmore, on theopposite side of the Waterford Estuary. I went across to see the oldplace and what alterations Miss Tottenham had forced the proprietors tomake in the tapestry chamber. I found that the closet into which the poorlady had always vanished was taken away, the room enlarged, and twoadditional windows put in: the old tapestry had gone and a billiard-tableoccupied the site of poor Anne's bed. I took the old housekeeper aside, and asked her to tell me how Miss Tottenham bore these changes in herapartment. She looked quite frightened and most anxious to avoid thequestion, but at length hurriedly replied, 'Oh, Master George! don't talkabout her: last night she made a horrid noise knocking the billiard-ballsabout!'

"I have thus traced with strict accuracy this most real and truetale, from the days of 'Tottenham and his Boots' to those of hisgreat-great-grandson. Loftus Hall has since been wholly rebuilt, butI have not heard whether poor Anne Tottenham has condescended to visitit, or is wholly banished at last. "

CHAPTER X

MISTAKEN IDENTITY--CONCLUSION

We have given various instances of ghostly phenomena wherein thewitnesses have failed at first to realise that what they saw partookin any way of the abnormal. There are also many cases where a so-calledghost has turned out to be something very ordinary. Though more oftenthan not such incidents are of a very trivial or self-explanatorynature (_e. G. _ where a sheep in a churchyard almost paralysed a midnightwayfarer till he summoned up courage to investigate), there are manywhich have an interest of their own and which often throw into prominencethe extraordinary superstitions and beliefs which exist in a country. 

Our first story, which is sent us by Mr. De Lacy of Dublin, deals with anincident that occurred in the early part of last century. An epidemicwhich was then rife in the city was each day taking its toll of theunhappy citizens. The wife of a man living in Merrion Square was strickendown and hastily buried in a churchyard in Donnybrook which is nowclosed. On the night after the funeral one of the city police, or"Charlies" as they were then called, passed through the churchyard on hisrounds. When nearing the centre he was alarmed to hear a sound comingfrom a grave close at hand, and turning, saw a white apparition sit upand address him. This was all he waited for; with a shriek he dropped hislantern and staff and made off as fast as his legs would carry him. Theapparition thereupon took up the lamp and staff, and walked to MerrionSquare to the house of mourning, was admitted by the servants, and to thejoy of the whole household was found to be the object of their griefreturned, Alcestis-like, from the grave. It seems that the epidemic wasso bad that the bodies of the victims were interred hastily and withoutmuch care: the unfortunate lady had really been in a state of coma ortrance, and as the grave was lightly covered, when she came to she wasable to force her way up, and seeing the "Charlie" passing, she calledfor assistance. 

An occurrence which at first had all the appearance of partaking of thesupernormal, and which was afterwards found to have a curiousexplanation, is related by Dean Ovenden of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. "At Dunluce Rectory, Co. Antrim, " he writes, "I had a strangeexperience. There was a force-pump attached to the back wall of thehouse, and many people drew water from it, as it was better than anyobtained at that time in Bushmills. We used to notice, when going to bed, the sound of someone working the pump. All the servants denied that theyever used the pump between 11 P. M. And 12 midnight. I often looked outof the back window when I heard the pump going, but could not see anyone. I tied threads to the handle, but although they were found unbroken inthe morning the pumping continued, sometimes only for three or four movesof the handle. On many nights no pumping was heard. The man-servant satup with a gun and the dog, but he neither saw nor heard anything. We gaveit up as a bad job, and still the pumping went on. After about two yearsof this experience, I was one night alone in the house. It was a calm andfrosty night and I went to bed about 11. 30 P. M. And lay awake; suddenlythe pump began to work with great clearness, and mechanically I countedthe strokes: they were exactly twelve. I exclaimed, 'The dining-roomclock!' I sprang from bed and went down, and found that the clock wasfast, as it showed two minutes past twelve o'clock. I set back the handsto 11. 55 and lay in bed again, and soon the pumper began as usual. Theexplanation was that the vibration of the rising and falling hammer wascarried up to the bedroom by the wall, but the sound of the bell wasnever heard. I found afterwards that the nights when there was no pumpingwere always windy. "

A man was walking along a country lane at night and as he was cominground a bend he saw a coffin on the road in front of him. At first hethought it was a warning to him that he was soon to leave this world; butafter some hesitation, he finally summoned up courage to give the thing apoke with his stick, when he found that the coffin was merely an outlineof sea-weed which some passer-by had made. Whereupon he went on his waymuch relieved. 

The unbeliever will state that rats or mice are more often than not thecause of so-called ghostly noises in a house. That, at any rate, instances have happened where one or other of these rodents has givenrise to fear and trepidation in the inmates of a house or bedroom isproved by the following story from a Dublin lady. She tells how she wasawakened by a most mysterious noise for which she could give noexplanation. Overcome by fear, she was quite unable to get out of bed, and lay awake the rest of the night. When light came she got up: therewas a big bath in the room, and in it she found a mouse which had beendrowned in its efforts to get out. So her haunting was caused by what wemay perhaps call a ghost in the making. 

The devil is very real to the average countryman in Ireland. He has givenhis name to many spots which for some reason or other have gained someill-repute--the Devil's Elbow, a very nasty bit of road down in Kerry, isan instance in point. The following story shows how prevalent the idea isthat the devil is an active agent in the affairs of this world. 

A family living at Ardee, Co. Louth, were one night sitting reading inthe parlour. The two maids were amusing themselves at some card game inthe kitchen. Suddenly there was a great commotion and the two girls--bothfrom the country--burst into the sitting-room, pale with fright, andalmost speechless. When they had recovered a certain amount, they wereasked what was the matter; the cook immediately exclaimed, "Oh, sir! thedevil, the devil, he knocked three times at the window and frightened usdreadfully, and we had just time to throw the cards into the fire and runin here before he got us. " One of the family, on hearing this, immediately went out to see what had caused all this trepidation, andfound a swallow with a broken neck lying on the kitchen window-sill. Thepoor bird had evidently seen the light in the room, and in its efforts toget near it had broken its neck against the glass of the window. 

An amusing account of a pseudo-haunting comes from County Tipperary, andshows how extraordinarily strong is the countryman's belief insupernatural phenomena. The incidents related occurred only a very shorttime ago. A farmer in the vicinity of Thurles died leaving behind him ayoung widow. The latter lived alone after her husband's death, and aboutthree months after the funeral she was startled one night by loudknocking at the door. On opening the door she was shocked at seeing theoutline of a man dressed in a shroud. In a solemn voice he asked her didshe know who he was: on receiving a reply in the negative, he said thathe was her late husband and that he wanted £10 to get into heaven. Theterrified woman said she had not got the money, but promised to have itready if he would call again the next night. The "apparition" agreed, then withdrew, and the distracted woman went to bed wondering how she wasto raise the money. When morning came she did not take long in tellingher friends of her experience, in the hope that they would be able tohelp her. Their advice, however, was that she should tell the police, and she did so. That night the "apparition" returned at the promisedhour, and asked for his money. The amount was handed to him, and in a lowsepulchral voice he said, "Now I leave this earth and go to heaven. "Unfortunately, as he was leaving, a sergeant and a constable of theR. I. Constabulary stopped him, questioned him, and hauled him off to thebarracks to spend the remainder of the night in the cell, where no doubthe decided that the haunting game has its trials. [14]

[Footnote 14: _Evening Telegraph_ for Dec. 10, 1913. ]

An occurrence of very much the same description took place in CountyClare about three years ago. Again the departed husband returns to hissorrowing wife, sits by the fire with her, chatting no doubt of oldtimes, and before he leaves for the other world is regaled with pig'shead and plenty of whisky. The visit is repeated the next night, and arequest made for money to play cards with down below: the wife willinglygives him the money. Again he comes, and again he borrows on the pleathat he had lost the night before, but hoped to get better luck nexttime. On the woman telling a neighbour a watch was kept for the deadman's return, but he never came near the place again. 

An account of a police-court trial which appeared in the _Irish Times_ of31st December 1913 emphasizes in a very marked degree the extraordinarygrip that superstition has over some of the country people. A young womanwas on her trial for stealing £300 from the brother of her employer, Patrick McFaul of Armagh. District Inspector Lowndes, in opening the casefor the Crown, told the bench that the money had been taken out of thebank by McFaul to buy a holding, for the purchase of which negotiationswere going on. The money was carelessly thrown into a drawer in abedroom, and left there till it would be wanted. A short time afterwardsa fire broke out in the room, and a heap of ashes was all that was foundin the drawer, though little else in the room besides a few clothes wasinjured. "The McFauls appeared to accept their loss with a complacency, which could only be accounted for by the idea they entertained that themoney was destroyed through spiritual intervention--that there wereghosts in the question, and that the destruction of the money was to betaken as a warning directed against a matrimonial arrangement, into whichMichael McFaul was about to enter. " The accused girl was servant tothe McFauls, who discharged her a few days after the fire: but beforethis she had been into Derry and spent a night there; during her stay shetried to change three £20 notes with the help of a friend. But change wasrefused, and she had to abandon the attempt. "If some of the money wasburned, some of it was certainly in existence three days later, to theamount of £60. One thing was manifest, and that was that an incredibleamount of superstition appeared to prevail amongst families in thatneighbourhood when the loss of such a sum as this could be attributed toanything but larceny, and it could for a moment be suggested that it wasdue to spiritual intervention to indicate that a certain course shouldbe abandoned. "

CONCLUSION

The foregoing tales have been inserted, not in order that they may throwridicule on the rest of the book, but that they may act as a wholesomecorrective. If _all_ ghost stories could be subjected to such rigidexamination it is probable that the mystery in many of them would becapable of equally simple solution--yet a remnant would be left. 

And here, though it may seem somewhat belated, we must offer an apologyfor the use of the terms "ghost" and "ghost story. " The book includessuch different items as hauntings, death-warnings, visions, andhallucinations, some of which obviously can no more be attributed todiscarnate spirits than can the present writer's power of guiding his penalong the lines of a page; whether others of these must be laid to thecredit of such unseen influences is just the question. But in truth therewas no other expression than "ghost stories" which we could have used, orwhich could have conveyed to our readers, within reasonable verballimits, as they glanced at its cover, or at an advertisement of it, ageneral idea of the contents of this book. The day will certainly comewhen, before the steady advance of scientific investigation, and theconsequent influencing of public opinion, the word "ghost" will berelegated to limbo, and its place taken by a number of expressionscorresponding to the results obtained from the analysis of phenomenahitherto grouped under this collective title. That day is approaching. And so, though we have used the term throughout the pages of this book, it must not therefore be assumed that we necessarily believe in "ghosts, "or that we are bound to the theory that all, or any, of the unusualhappenings therein recorded are due to the action of visitants from theOtherworld. 

We may now anticipate one or two possible points of criticism. It mightbe alleged that the publication of such a book as this would tend to showthat the Irish nation was enslaved in superstition. Without stopping toreview the question as to what should, or should not, be classed as"superstition, " we would rejoin by gleefully pointing to a leadingarticle in the _Irish Times_ of Jan. 27, 1914, which gives a shortaccount of a lecture by Mr. Lovett on the folklore of London. Folklore inLondon! in the metropolis of the stolid Englishman! The fact is that theIrish people are not one whit more superstitious than their cross-channelneighbours, while they are surely on a far higher level in this respectthan many of the Continental nations. They _seem_ to be moresuperstitious because (we speak without wishing to give any offence) the_popular_ religion of the majority has incorporated certain elementswhich may be traced back to pre-Christian times; but that they _are_actually more superstitious we beg leave to doubt. 

Another and more important series of objections is stated by one of ourcorrespondents as follows. "I must confess that I can never reconcilewith my conception of an All-Wise Creator the type of 'ghost' you are atpresent interested in; it seems to me incredible that the spirits of thedeparted should be permitted to return and indulge in the ghostlyrepertoire of jangling chains, gurgling, etc. , apparently for the solepurpose of scaring housemaids and other timid or hysterical people. " Thefirst and most obvious remark on this is, that our correspondent hasnever read or heard a ghost story, save of the Christmas magazine type, else he would be aware that the above theatrical display is _not_ anintegral part of the "ghostly repertoire"; and also that persons, who are_not_ housemaids, and who can _not_ be classed as timid or hysterical, but who, on the other hand, are exceedingly sober-minded, courageous, andlevel-headed, have had experiences (and been frightened by them too!)which cannot be explained on ordinary grounds. But on the main point ourcorrespondent is begging the question, or at least assuming as fullyproved a conclusion which is very far from being so. Is he quite surethat the only explanation of these strange sights and weird noisesis that they are brought about by the action of departed spirits (wenaturally exclude cases of deliberate fraud, which in reality are veryunusual)? And if so, what meaning would he put upon the word "spirits"?And even if it be granted that the phenomena are caused by theinhabitants of another world, why should it be impossible to accept sucha theory, because of its _apparent_ incompatibility with any conceptionof an All-Wise Creator, of whose workings we are so profoundly ignorant?Are there not many things in the material world which _to the limitedhuman mind_ of our correspondent must seem puzzling, meaningless, useless, and even harmful? He does not therefore condemn these offhand;he is content to suspend judgment, is he not? Why cannot he adopt thesame attitude with respect to psychic phenomena? Our correspondent mighthere make the obvious retort that it is _we_ who are begging thequestion, not he, because such happenings as are described in this bookhave no existence apart from the imaginative or inventive faculties ofcertain persons. This would be equivalent to saying bluntly that aconsiderable number of people in Ireland are either liars or fools, orboth. This point we shall deal with later on. Our correspondent belongsto a type which knows nothing at all about psychical research, and is notaware that some of the cleverest scientists and deepest thinkers of theday have interested themselves in such problems. They have not found theanswer to many of them--goodness knows if they ever will this side of thegrave--but at least they have helped to broaden and deepen our knowledgeof ourselves, our surroundings, and our God. They have revealed to usprofundities in human personality hitherto unsuspected, they havesuggested means of communication between mind and mind almost incredible, and (in the writer's opinion at least) these points have a very importantbearing on our conceptions of the final state of mankind in the world tocome, and so they are preparing the way for that finer and more ethicalconception of God and His Creation which will be the heritage ofgenerations yet unborn. The materialist's day is far spent, and its sunnears the horizon. 

Another objection to the study of the subjects dealt with in this bookis that we are designedly left in ignorance of the unseen world by aWise Creator, and therefore that it is grossly presumptuous, not to sayimpious, on the part of man to make any attempt to probe into questionswhich he has not been intended to study. Which is equivalent to sayingthat it is impious to ride a bicycle, because man was obviously createda pedestrian. This might be true if we were confined within aself-contained world which had, and could have, no connection withanything external to itself. But the very essence of our existence hereis that the material and spiritual worlds interpenetrate, or rather thatour little planet forms part of a boundless universe teeming with lifeand intelligence, yet lying in the hollow of God's hand. He alone is"Supernatural, " and therefore Transcendent and Unknowable; all things inthe universe are "natural, " though very often they are beyond our normalexperience, and as such are legitimate objects for man's research. Surelythe potential energy in the human intellect will not allow it to remainat its present stage, but will continually urge it onwards and upwards. What limits God in His Providence has seen fit to put upon us we cannottell, for every moment the horizon is receding, and our outlook becominglarger, though some still find it difficult to bring their eyesight tothe focus consequently required. The marvellous of to-day is thecommonplace of to-morrow: "our notion of what is natural grows with ourgreater knowledge. "

Throughout the pages of this book we have, in general, avoided offeringexplanations of, or theories to account for, the different stories. Heresomething may be said on this point. As we have already pointed out, theexpression "ghost stories" covers a multitude of different phenomena. Many of these may be explained as "hallucinations, " which does not implythat they are simply the effect of imagination and nothing more. "Themind receives the hallucination as if it came through the channels ofsense, and accordingly externalises the impression, seeking its source inthe world outside itself, whereas in all hallucinations the source iswithin the mind, and is not derived from an impression received throughthe recognised organ of sense. [15]"

[Footnote 15: Prof. Sir W. Barren, _Psychical Research_, p. 111. ]

Many of these hallucinations are termed "_veridical_", or truth-telling, because they coincide with real events occurring to another person. Illustrations of this will be found in Chapter VI, from which it wouldappear that a dying person (though the power is not necessarily confinedto such) occasionally has the faculty of telepathically communicatingwith another; the latter receives the impression, and externalises it, and so "sees a ghost, " to use the popular expression. Some hallucinationsare _auditory i. E. _ sounds are heard which apparently do not correspondto any objective reality. Incomprehensible though it may appear, it maybe possible for sounds, and very loud ones too, to be heard by one ormore persons, the said sounds being purely hallucinatory, and not causingany disturbance in the atmosphere. 

Some of the incidents may be explained as due to telepathy, thatmysterious power by which mind can communicate with mind, though whattelepathy is, or through what medium it is propagated, no one can tell asyet. Belief in this force is increasing, because, as Professor Sir W. Barrett remarks: "Hostility to a new idea arises largely from its beingunrelated to existing knowledge, " and, as telepathy seems to the ordinaryperson to be analogous to wireless telegraphy, it is therefore accepted, or at least not laughed at, though how far the analogy really holds goodis not at all certain. 

Again there is the question of haunted houses and places, to accounts ofwhich the first five chapters of this book are devoted. The actualevidence for many of these may not come up to the rigorous standard setby the S. P. R. , but it is beyond all doubt that persons who are neitherfools, liars, nor drunkards firmly believe that they have seen and heardthe things related in these chapters (not to speak of Chapters VI-VIII), or that they have been told such by those in whose statements they placeimplicit confidence; while so certain are they that they are telling thetruth that they have not only written down the stories for the compilers, but have given their names and addresses as well, though not always forpublication. Can we contemptuously fling aside such a weight of evidenceas unworthy of even a cursory examination? This would hardly be arational attitude to adopt. Various theories to account for these strangehauntings have been formulated, which may be found on pp. 199-200 of SirWilliam Barrett's _Psychical Research_, and so need not be given here. 

Yet, when all is said and done, the very formulating of theories, so farfrom solving problems, only raises further and more complex ones, perhapsthe greatest of which is, Have the spirits of the departed anything todo with the matter? As we have shown, we hope with success, in thepreceding paragraphs, many "ghosts" have no necessary connection with thedenizens of the unseen world, but may be explained as being due to lawsof nature which at present are very obscure. Does this hold good of all"ghosts, " or are some of them to be placed to the credit of those whohave passed beyond the veil, or perhaps to spirits, good or evil, whichhave never been incarnate? That is the problem for the future, for inthe present state of our knowledge it would be premature to give a directanswer, either positive or negative. 

This book was written with a twofold purpose: first, that of entertainingour readers, in which we trust we have been successful; secondly, tostimulate thought. For, strange though it may seem, authenticated "ghoststories" have a certain educative value. Taking them at their lowest theysuggest inquiry into the strange workings of the human mind: at theirhighest how many strange lines of inquiry do they not suggest? For it isobvious that we have now arrived at one of those interesting periods inthe history of human thought which might be described as the return ofthe pendulum. We are in the process of emerging from a very materialisticage, when men either refused to believe anything that was contrary totheir normal experience, or else leavened their spiritual doctrines andbeliefs with the leaven of materialism. The pendulum has swung to itshighest point in this respect, and is now commencing to return, soperhaps the intellectual danger of the future will be that men, insteadof believing too little, will believe too much. Now is the time forlaying a careful foundation. Psychical research, spiritualism, and thelike, are not ends in themselves, they are only means to an end. At thepresent state of thought, the transition from the old to the new, fromthe lower to the higher, it is inevitable that there must be confusionand doubt, and the earnest thinker must be prepared to suspend judgmenton many points; but at a later stage, when all absurdity, error, andfraud, now so closely connected with psychical research in its variousbranches, will have been swept away, Truth will emerge and lift the humanrace to a purer and loftier conception of God and His universe.