The Alleged Haunting of B---- House by - (read me like a book TXT) π
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When Colonel Taylor, one of the fundamental members of the LondonSpiritualist Alliance, a distinguished member of the S.P.R., whosename is associated both in this country and in America with theinvestigation of haunted houses, offered to take a lease of B----House, after the lease had been resigned by Mr. H----, the proprietormade no objection whatever. Indeed, the only allusion made to thehaunting was the expression of a hope on the part of Captain S----'sagents in Edinburgh, that Colonel Taylor would not make it a subjectof complaint, as had been done by Mr. H----, in reply to which theywere informed that Colonel Taylor was thoroughly well aware of whathad happened during Mr. H----'s tenancy, and would undertake to makeno complaint on the subject. Captain S---- having th
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Tactile. The most important of these were the experiences of Miss "N." on the night of March 3rd, and of Miss "Duff" on the night of March 22nd, both in No. 3; and of a maid, Lizzie, on the night of March 23rd, in the room above No. 3, on the attic storey, who all testified to the sensation of the moving of the bed, or the handling of the bed-clothes. These were the only occasions during Colonel Taylor's tenancy, but the phenomenon is one often testified to by earlier witnesses, both during the Hββs' tenancy and that of the family of the late Mr. Sββ.
It presents a peculiar difficulty in the way of the theory that all the phenomena at Bββ were subjective hallucinations, and this is especially the case with regard to the evidence of a witness who has not been brought forward in the preceding pages, but whose account of a similar experience is reported by two first-hand witnesses. On one occasion he had the whole of the upper bed-clothes lifted from off him and thrown upon the floor, while a pile of wearing apparel, which was laid on a chair beside the bed, was thrown in his face.
It is of course conceivable that the whole of these experiences, including the last, were the result of an hallucination; but on the other hand, it would be very unwise, in the present state of our ignorance on the subject, to dogmatise as to the possible action of unseen forces upon what is commonly called matter. It is interesting to note that this senseless and childish trick coincides with what was said by Miss Aββ as to the presence of mischievous elementals, and also what she says as to apports.[I]
1. The sensation of the movement of the bed itself, whether as being rocked, as in the experience of Miss "Duff" on March 22nd, and of Miss Langton on several occasions, and by guests of the Hββ family, or of being lifted up, as in that of the maid Lizzie, is a phenomenon by no means uncommon, and if objective is of the nature of levitation; but we have unfortunately no evidence from a second person observing the phenomenon from outside. Whether it were actually moved it is impossible to say, but the sensation seems to have been more than subjective.
2. The sensation of struggling with something unseen, described by Miss "Duff," March 22nd, and of the sensation of an incumbent weight, as described by Miss "Duff" (same date) and Miss "N." on March 2nd. This coincides with the arrest of his hand experienced by Harold Sanders. These phenomena adapt themselves to the theory of subjectivity more easily than the foregoing, because they more closely resemble those of nightmare (familiar to most persons), although they occurred while the witnesses were awake.
3. The sensation of being pushed by a dog was experienced in two different rooms by Miss Freer and Miss Moore respectively. If Mr. "Endell" were touched by Ishbel on the evening of March 1st, as appeared to Miss Freer to be the case, he had no independent consciousness of the fact that might not have been referred to expectation, so that this cannot be regarded as evidential.
For lack of other classification, we mention under this heading of "tactile" the sensation of chill experienced by Mr. "Endell" and Mr. Qββ in No. 3, and which appears to be the same as that described by Harold Sanders as the sensation of "entering an ice-house."
The audile phenomena were so frequent and so various, that a conspectus of them is given in an appendix. Some of them appeared to be human in origin, such as voices, reading or speaking, footsteps, and, according to earlier witnesses, screams and moans. Others might have been caused by dogs, such as pattering footsteps, jumping and pouncing as in play, the wagging of a dog's tail against the door, and the sound as of a dog throwing itself against the lower panels. Other sounds have been differentiated, as the detonating or explosive noise; the clang sound, as of the striking of metal upon wood; the thud or heavy fall without resonance; and the crash, which was never better described than as if one of the beasts' heads on the staircase wall had fallen into the hall below. It very often, or almost always, seemed to occur under the glass dome which lighted the body of the house, and the falling object seemed to strike others in its descent, so that it was not ineffectively imitated by rolling a bowl along the stone floor of the hall, and allowing it to strike against the doors or pillars, when the peculiar echoing quality was fairly reproduced by the hollow domed roof and surrounding galleries.
The editors offer no conclusions. This volume has been put together, as the house at Bββ was taken, not for the establishment of theories, but for the record of facts.
[C] They consisted of a small part of the evidence already quoted.
[D] We have since ascertained by experiment that no sound short of beating with a hammer on the wall itself is audible between the two rooms; also, that the upsetting of a metal candlestick on the bare boards in the nearer servants' room (over No. 1) cannot be heard in No. 8.
[E] Cf. Mrs. Robinson's account ante.
[F] These remarkable disclosures included, among other details, the murder of a Roman Catholic family chaplain, at a period when the Sββs were and had long been Presbyterian, the suicide of one of the family who is still living, and the throwing, by persons in mediΓ¦val costume, of the corpse of an infant, over a bridge, which is quite new, into a stream which until lately ran underground.
Professor Lodge had not had the same opportunity of acquiring a critical standpoint as to such statements, as those whose knowledge of the place was more intimate.
[G] The words, in uttering which Lord Bute was thus affected, were, "Regem cui omnia vivunt venite adoremus," an invitation in which he meant to include all intelligent beings.
Miss Freer, Miss Langton, and a third guest, chatting one night about 10.30 in this room, were startled by one of the familiar crashes outside. Miss Freer treated the matter lightly, fearing lest the lady in question, by no means a nervous person, however, should be alarmed; and receiving no reply turned to look at her, and observed that her lower jaw was convulsed, and that she was painfully struggling to recover speech.
[H] See Appendix II.
[I] See Appendix I.
APPENDIX APPENDIX IA lady, known to readers of Proceedings S.P.R. as Miss Aββ, who is an habitual automatic writer, but whose social position removes her from the temptations and tendencies of the ordinary so-called medium, was good enough on March 10, 1897, to contribute the following automatic script in reply to a request from Lord Bute:β
"I do not much care for the influence of this house; it is most decidedly haunted, but not by any particularly good spirits, the haunting being carried on by mischievous elementals, and as far as I can make out there is some one who lives there through all the changes, who supplies a great deal of force, and who is not aware of the power. I think that a great deal more is added to what really takes place, as the hauntings appear to me to consist of disturbing noises, with now and then a case of apport, for the elementary forces are not sufficient to produce forms unless a great deal of outside force is given.
"The forms that would appear would always be different, as each mediumistic person would supply his own surroundings. The only one I am not sure about is the shadowy figure of an old man whom I have twice seen in rather a dark passage, and from his surrounding light I should say he may often be there.
"I think the noises would stop of themselves, at least the more disturbing part, if a less attentive attitude were taken towards them."
These statements present certain interesting points as coming from one who had never seen the house, and knew nothing of its phenomena. "The shadowy figure of an old man in a dark passage" seems to point to the figure, possibly, of the Major, seen by earlier witnesses in the dark lobbyβthe only dark corner in the houseβoutside the door of the downstairs smoking-room, and whose voice was heard there by Miss Freer, Miss Langton, and Mr. Tββ during the tenancy of Colonel Taylor.
An occasion upon which the phenomena might be described as those of "mischievous elementals," and also of apports, is referred to in the summing up of tactile phenomena, though it did not occur during the tenancy of Colonel Taylor.
On the other hand, the phenomena were often more active when least looked for, and some of those most expected never occurred. As there was not even a servant, nor even a dumb animal, common to the occupation of the Sββ family and the tenancy of the Hββs or Colonel Taylor, we are at a loss to know who the person can be who lives at Bββ through all the changes, and supplies force during the past twenty years.
Readers not acquainted with this phenomenon may be referred to an interesting correspondence in the pages of Nature (Oct. 1895, and Seq.), opened by Professor G.H. Darwinβ
"In the delta of the Ganges," he says, "dull sounds, more or less resembling distant artillery, are often heard. These are called Barisal guns, but I do not know the meaning of the term."
The same sounds have been recorded by M. Rutot of the Geological Survey along the Belgian coast, and are alleged to be pretty common in the North of France. M. van der Broeck, Conservator of the Museum of Natural History of Belgium, saysβ
"I have constantly noticed these sounds in the plain of Limburg since 1880;βmore than ten of my personal acquaintances have observed the fact. The detonations are dull and distant, and are repeated a dozen times or more at irregular intervals. They are usually heard in the daytime, when the sky is clear, and especially towards evening after a very hot day. The noise does not at all resemble artillery, blasting in mines, or the growling of distant thunder."
M. van der Broeck elsewhere refers to "similar noises heard on Dartmoor, and in some parts of Scotland." Readers of Blackmore's story of "Lorna Doone" will remember, among other valuable observations of out-door life, his accounts of "the hollow moaning sound" during the intense cold of the winter, of which he gives so graphic an account. It was "ever present in the air, morning, noon, and night time, and especially at night, whether any wind was stirring or whether it were a perfect calm" (Chap. xlvi.).
Another correspondent in Nature refers to remarkable noises among the hills of Cheshire: "When the wind is easterly, and nearly calm on the flats, a hollow moaning sound is heard, popularly termed the Soughing of the Wind, which Sir Walter Scott, in his glossary to 'Guy Mannering,' interprets as a hollow blast or whisper."
Another writer quotes experiences in East Anglia, tending to show that such sounds may be reports arising from the process of "faulting" going on, on a small scale, at a great depth, and not of sufficient
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