The Book of Dreams and Ghosts by Andrew Lang (the lemonade war series TXT) 📕

At this point the old lady became conscious that she was telling the story, and no more could be got out of her.  The name of the lady who keeps a secret of 145 years’ standing, is the name of a witness in the trial.  The whole affair is thoroughly characteristic of the Highlanders and of Scottish jurisprudence after Culloden, while the verdict of “Not Guilty” (when “Not Proven” would have been stretching a point) is evidence to the “common-sense” of the eighteenth century. {141}

There are other cases, in Webster, Aubrey and Glanvil of ghosts who tried more successfully to bring their murderers to justice.  But the reports of the trials do not exist, or cannot be found, and Webster lost a letter which he once possessed, which would have been proof that ghostly evidence was given and was received at a trial in Durham (1631 or 1632).  Reports of old men present were collected for Glanvil, but are entirely too vague.

The case of Fisher’s Ghost, which led to evidence being given as to a murder in New South Wales, cannot be wholly omitted.  Fisher was a convict settler, a man of some wealth.  He disappeared from his station, and his manager (also a convict) declared that he had returned to England.  Later, a man returning from market saw Fisher sitting on a rail; at his approach Fisher vanished.  Black trackers were laid on, found human blood on the rail, and finally discovered Fisher’s body.  The manager was tried, was condemned, acknowledged his guilt and was hanged.

The story is told in Household Words, where Sir Frederick Forbes is said to have acted as judge.  No date is given.  In Botany Bay, {142} the legend is narrated by Mr. John Lang, who was in Sydney in 1842.  He gives no date of the occurrence, and clearly embellishes the tale.  In 1835, however, the story is told by Mr. Montgomery Martin in volume iv. of his History of the British Colonies.  He gives the story as a proof of the acuteness of black trackers.  Beyond saying that he himself was in the colony when the events and the trial occurred, he gives no date.  I have conscientiously investigated the facts, by aid of the Sydney newspapers, and the notes of the judge, Sir Frederick Forbes.  Fisher disappeared at the end of June, 1826, from Campbeltown.  Suspicion fell on his manager, Worral.  A reward was offered late in September.  Late in October the constable’s attention was drawn to blood-stains on a rail.  Starting thence, the black trackers found Fisher’s body.  Worral was condemned and hanged, after confession, in February, 1827.  Not a word is said about why the constable went to, and examined, the rail.  But Mr. Rusden, author of a History of Australia, knew the medical attendant D. Farley (who saw Fisher’s ghost, and pointed out the bloody rail), and often discussed it with Farley.  Mr. Souttar, in a work on Colonial traditions, proves the point that Farley told his ghost story before the body of Fisher was found.  But, for fear of prejudicing the jury, the ghost was kept out of the trial, exactly as in the following case.

Perhaps the latest ghost in a court of justice (except in cases about the letting of haunted houses) “appeared” at the Aylesbury Petty Session on 22nd August, 1829.  On 25th October, 1828, William Edden, a market gardener, was found dead, with his ribs broken, in the road between Aylesbury and Thame.  One Sewell, in August, 1829, accused a man named Tyler, and both were examined at the Aylesbury Petty Sessions.  Mrs. Edden gave evidence that she sent five or six times for Tyler “to come and see the corpse. . . .  I had some particular reasons for sending for him which I never did divulge. . . .  I will tell you my reasons, gentlemen, if you ask me, in the face of Tyler, even if my life should be in danger for it.”  The reasons were that on the night of her husband’s murder, “something rushed over me, and I thought my husband came by me.  I looked up, and I thought I heard the voice of my husband come from near my mahogany table. . . .  I thought I saw my husband’s apparition, and the man that had done it, and that man was Tyler. . . .  I ran out and said, ‘O dear God! my husband is murdered, and his ribs are broken’.”

Lord Nugent—“What made you think your husband’s ribs were broken?”

“He held up his hands like this, and I saw a hammer, or something like a hammer, and it came into my mind that his ribs were broken.”  Sewell stated that the murder was accomplished by means of a hammer.

The prisoners were discharged on 13th September.  On 5th March, 1830, they were tried at the Buckingham Lent Assizes, were found guilty and were hanged, protesting their innocence, on 8th March, 1830.

“In the report of Mrs. Edden’s evidence (at the Assizes) no mention is made of the vision.” {144}

Here end our ghosts in courts of justice; the following ghost gave evidence of a murder, or rather, confessed to one, but was beyond the reach of human laws.

This tale of 1730 is still current in Highland tradition.  It has, however, been improved and made infinitely more picturesque by several generations of narrators.  As we try to be faithful to the best sources, the contemporary manuscript version is here reprinted from The Scottish Standard-Bearer, an organ of the Scotch Episcopalians (October and November, 1894).

Account of an apparition that appeared to William Soutar, {145a} in the Mause, 1730.

[This is a copy from that in the handwriting of Bishop Rattray, preserved at Craighall, and which was found at Meikleour a few years ago, to the proprietor of which, Mr. Mercer, it was probably sent by the Bishop.—W. W. H., 3rd August, 1846.]

“I have sent you an account of an apparition as remarkable, perhaps, as anything you ever heard of, and which, considered in all its circumstances, leaves, I think, no ground of doubt to any man of common-sense.  The person to whom it appeared is one William Soutar, a tenant of Balgowan’s, who lives in Middle Mause, within about half a mile from this place on the other side of the river, and in view from our windows of Craighall House.  He is about thirty-seven years of age, as he says, and has a wife and bairns.

“The following is an account from his own mouth; and because there are some circumstances fit to be taken in as you go along, I have given them with reference at the end, {145b} that I may not interrupt the sense of the account, or add anything to it.  Therefore, it begins:—

“‘In the month of December in the year 1728, about sky-setting, I and my servant, with several others living in the town (farm-steading) heard a scratching (screeching, crying), and I followed the noise, with my servant, a little way from the town (farm-steading throughout).  We both thought we saw what had the appearance to be a fox, and hounded the dogs at it, but they would not pursue it. {146a}

“‘About a month after, as I was coming from Blair {146b} alone, about the same time of the night, a big dog appeared to me, of a dark greyish colour, between the Hilltown and Knockhead {146c} of Mause, on a lea rig a little below the road, and in passing by it touched me sonsily (firmly) on the thigh at my haunch-bane (hip-bone), upon which I pulled my staff from under my arm and let a stroke at it; and I had a notion at the time that I hit it, and my haunch was painful all that night.  However, I had no great thought of its being anything particular or extraordinary, but that it might be a mad dog wandering.  About a year after that, to the best of my memory, in December month, about the same time of the night and in the same place, when I was alone, it appeared to me again as before, and passed by me at some distance; and then I began to think it might be something more than ordinary.

“‘In the month of December, 1730, as I was coming from Perth, from the Claith (cloth) Market a little before sky-setting, it appeared to me again, being alone, at the same place, and passed by me just as before.  I had some suspicion of it then likewise, but I began to think that a neighbour of mine in the Hilltown having an ox lately dead, it might be a dog that had been at the carrion, by which I endeavoured to put the suspicion out of my head.

“‘On the second Monday of December, 1730, as I was coming from Woodhead, a town (farm) in the ground of Drumlochy, it appeared to me again in the same place just about sky-setting; and after it had passed me as it was going out of my sight, it spoke with a low voice so that I distinctly heard it, these words, “Within eight or ten days do or die,” and it thereupon disappeared.  No more passed at that time.  On the morrow I went to my brother, who dwells in the Nether Aird of Drumlochy, and told him of the last and of all the former appearances, which was the first time I ever spoke of it to anybody.  He and I went to see a sister of ours at Glenballow, who was dying, but she was dead before we came.  As we were returning home, I desired my brother, whose name is James Soutar, to go forward with me till we should be passed the place where it used to appear to me; and just as we had come to it, about ten o’clock at night, it appeared to me again just as formerly; and as it was passing over some ice I pointed to it with my finger and asked my brother if he saw it, but he said he did not, nor did his servant, who was with us.  It spoke nothing at that time, but just disappeared as it passed the ice.

“‘On the Saturday after, as I was at my own sheep-cots putting in my sheep, it appeared to me again just after daylight, betwixt day and skylight, and upon saying these words, “Come to the spot of ground within half an hour,” it just disappeared; whereupon I came home to my own house, and took up a staff and also a sword off the head of the bed, and went straight to the place where it used formerly to appear to me; and after I had been there some minutes and had drawn a circle about me with my staff, it appeared to me.  And I spoke to it saying, “In the name of God and Jesus Christ, what are you that troubles me?” and it answered me, “I am David Soutar, George Soutar’s brother. {148a}  I killed a man more than five-and-thirty years ago, when you was new born, at a bush be-east the road, as you go into the Isle.” {148b}  And as I was going away, I stood again and said, “David Soutar was a man, and you appear like a dog,” whereupon it spoke to me again, saying, “I killed him with a dog, and therefore I am made