Section 14 of 26 - Table of Contents
With regard to the above it may be remarked that the way she came led
from B---- Cottage, where by the kindness of Mr. S---- some nuns had
formerly spent their annual holiday, and the road on which she
disappeared was a way which would have led back to it.
_March 13th, Saturday._--At ten o'clock last night Miss Moore
woke me to take some food. I was still under the influence of
the opiate, and did not really rouse, even when she came to bed
half-an-hour later. We did not speak till I was aroused by a
loud banging noise, when, in answer to my startled exclamation,
Miss Moore suggested that it was probably the servants shutting
up downstairs, as we were early, and they had very likely not
yet gone to bed. I was much annoyed, as I knew they had been
cautioned to keep quiet, and even the maid had not been allowed
to enter my room. This morning, when Miss Moore went to see the
housekeeper, the butler came in and asked if we had heard any
noises last night, about a quarter to eleven o'clock, he
thought, after every one had gone up to bed; adding, "It was two
bangs like a fist on a door, and I said, 'If that isn't Miss
Moore or Miss Langton, I'll believe in the noises they all talk
about,'--it's just like what the gentlemen told me."
His wife had also heard the bangs, but had waited for him to
speak to her of them, and the maids on the other side of the
house had been roused to come to their door and listen.
The footman, who sleeps in the basement, and the Colonel, who
was in the smoking-room in the wing till 11.30, heard nothing;
but Miss Langton, in No. 4, to whom Miss Moore mentioned the
servants' story, had heard noises "between 10.30 and 10.45," but
had not been disturbed, thinking, as we had done, that they were
probably made by the servants.
On inquiry we found that the cook had gone to bed directly after
the servants' supper, the two under maids were up by ten o'clock
(Miss Moore heard their voices when she came to my room at ten
o'clock), and the upper housemaid had gone up a few minutes
after the hall clock struck, following Miss Moore up the stairs.
The butler had come up directly after, only waiting to put out
the hall lamp, and all were in bed before 10.30. We ourselves
noticed the striking of the hall clock _after_ we heard the
noise--it had gone wrong, and only struck nine instead of eleven
o'clock--so there seems little doubt that we all heard the same
sound, and all describe it as coming from below.
In discussing the occurrence with the butler and his wife, Miss
Moore learned that they had lately heard a story [from a local
resident] which was new to us. A maid of Mrs. S----, who, though
married to the butler, still lived in the house, and performed
her duties as usual, was one night coming up the back-stairs
with a tray for Mrs. S----, when, on reaching the top, by the
door of No. 3, she met the figure of a nun, which so frightened
her that she dropped the tray and broke all the plates on it.
Mrs. S---- explained it away by saying it was "only ----" (they
could not remember her name) "come to pray with her." It was
Sunday night, but they knew there was no one there who could in
the least account for the appearance. The only explanation
offered by the narrator of the story was that "there had been a
Miss S----, a nun, who had died."
_March 14th, Sunday._--I called on Mrs. S----, and had a long
talk with her.
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
_March 15th, Monday._--Miss Moore and I, both awake at the time,
heard a loud, vibrating noise about a quarter to six. Miss
Langton in No. 4 heard it also. The Colonel, who sleeps
downstairs, heard it as from the hall, and said he also felt the
vibration. Except for about three nights he has always slept in
the wing, where, during our tenancy, there have been no
phenomena.
_March 16th, Tuesday._--Miss Moore, Miss Langton, the Colonel,
and I, left B----. Miss Moore, Miss Langton, and I returning on
March 20th.
After leaving B---- Colonel Taylor wrote as follows to Lord
Bute:--
_March 19th, 1897._--"I arrived in London yesterday, after
having spent five weeks at B---- very pleasantly. I feel sure
that there _is_ a ghostly influence pervading the house, but I
am a little disappointed at the way in which it manifests
itself, for, up to the time I left, the nature of the
manifestations was such that, though it is satisfactory to me,
it would not be so, I think, to those who do not look at such
things from so favourable a position as I do.
"I hope a change may yet come, and things take place which one
might think would justify people in evacuating and forfeiting
their money as the H----s did; certainly nothing of this sort
happened while I was there.
"It is very interesting to note Miss Freer's experiences, but in
regard to those of others who have something to relate, it is
perhaps difficult to determine how much these statements should
be discounted for error of observation and self-suggestion. I
heard many noises in the night during my stay at B----, but they
were of much the same sort I have been accustomed to hear at a
similar time in other houses. I think that some of our witnesses
may have given them undue prominence, under the influence of
their own expectancy. The clairvoyant visions of 'Ishbel' in the
grounds are not of great evidential value for the scientific
world in general, and I think that any amount of 'voices' could
be read into the noises of the running stream, near where she is
seen, by those who 'wished to hear.' Still, there are some
objective noises which cannot be easily accounted for in an
ordinary way, and the three almost independent visions of the
brown cross are important.
"I hope things will improve; in any case, you will have added
considerably to psychical research when all has been
recorded...."
It is difficult perhaps to see why Colonel Taylor should regard the
independent visions of the crucifix as of more value than the equally
independent and far more numerous hallucinations, audible and visual,
of "Ishbel." We have the statements of the failure of several persons
who "wished to hear" voices in the sounds of the burn, which was,
moreover, frozen and silent when the voices were heard by the first
two non-expectant and quite independent witnesses.
_March 19th._--A passage in Miss Langton's private journal under
this date is as follows:--
"_St. Andrews, March 19th._--I looked into a water-bottle
to-night to see if I could see anything of what was happening at
B----. I distinctly saw room No. 3, and gradually a figure came
into view between the two doors (_i.e._ near the foot of the
bed), the figure of a tall woman, dressed in a long clinging
robe of grey, and who seemed to be holding something in her
hand, against the wall at the foot of the bed. This became more
distinct, and I saw that it was a cross of dark brown wood, some
12 inches long (I should say). The figure did not appear to
move. I seemed to be standing at the door of No. 3, which opens
on to the landing" (_cf._ pp. 17, 132, 142).
For the information of those not accustomed to the phenomena of
crystal-gazing, it may be as well to remark that it is quite possible
that the image had been subconsciously seen by Miss Langton when
sleeping in No. 3, as deferred impressions are often externalised for
the first time in the crystal. She may equally have received the
impression by thought-transference from others. Certainly she had not
been informed of earlier experiences.
_March 20th, Saturday._--Miss Langton, Miss Moore, and I
returned to B---- house. Four guests arrived in time for dinner.
Rooms for to-night:--
1. Miss Moore and I.
2. Miss Langton.
3. Miss "Duff," a lady whose name is familiar to readers of
recent records of crystal-gazing and other students of
the literature of the Psychical Research Society.
4. Mr. MacP----.
5. Mr. W----.
8. Colonel C----.
_March 21st, Sunday._--Last night, about 11.15, after Miss Moore
and I were in bed in No. 1, we heard a loud sound from the
left-hand side of the fireplace (south-west corner). It might be
imitated by the "giving" of a large tin box (_cf._ pp. 173,
179). There was nothing but a footstool and a draped
dressing-table there. We called out to Miss Langton, whom we
could hear still moving about. She said she had heard the noise,
but had made none herself.
Her account is as follows:--
"Last night (Sunday, March 21st) we retired to bed early, as
Miss Moore was leaving by an early train next morning, and I was
going to get up in order to see her off. It was certainly not
later than 10.45, when I went to my room, having gone to No. 1
to say good-night to Miss Freer and Miss Moore, who were
sleeping that night in that room. Miss 'Duff' was in No. 3, and
I was occupying No. 2. I am not at all nervous, and certainly I
was not expecting to see anything, as No. 2 is always supposed
to be a 'quiet' room. I was some time getting to bed, but I put
out my candle at twelve o'clock, and, after noticing that the
moon was shining brightly, I got into bed. Contrary to my usual
custom I did not fall asleep for some time, and I felt that the
room was, in some inexplicable way, not as usual. At last I fell
asleep, but not comfortably. I kept waking, and for some time
after each awakening I could not get to sleep again. I put this
down, however, to the fact that I wanted to waken early the next
morning, and was restless in consequence. At last I really fell
asleep, but at 4.30 I suddenly awakened with the feeling that I
was not alone in the room. I looked round; the room was quite
dark; the moon was not shining, but between the bed and the
wardrobe there was a figure standing. At first it was very
indistinct and misty, but gradually it formed itself into the
figure of a woman--a slight, tall woman, with a pale face. She
was dressed in long robes, but the upper part was the only part
I could see clearly. Round her face and head was a white band,
like that worn by a nun, and over her head was what might have
been a black hood or small shawl, but in the darkness it was
very difficult to distinguish. I could not see what her features
were like, but she looked as if she were in trouble, and
entreating some one to help her. She stood for some few moments
at the foot of my bed looking towards me, and then she made a
movement towards the door, but before she reached it she had
vanished. I was not at all frightened, as there was nothing at
all alarming in her appearance. I cannot write a better
description of her, as the vision was so short. The figure was
the same as that I had seen at the burn, only very much
clearer."
Miss "Duff" writes under this date March 21st:--"On my arrival
yesterday I was shown to my room (No. 3), which I had selected,
with Miss Freer's permission, as one said to have an evil
reputation. Perhaps it was natural that a feeling 'as if I were
not alone' should come over me, and needless to say there was no
_apparent_ cause for this!
"As a rule I am a very sound sleeper, nothing ever disturbs me;
but last night I was suddenly wide awake, as if roused by
something unusual. I sat up quickly in bed, but suddenly
remembering where I was, I waited expectantly. Nothing occurred,
although I did not get to sleep again for about two hours."
_March 22nd, Monday._--Mr. MacP---- was awakened between four
and five by heavy footsteps overhead. We made many experiments
to account for it, and of course made inquiries among the
servants, but could find no cause. We are the more interested
that hitherto nothing has been heard by our party in his room,
No. 4, though there is a tradition of earlier disturbances
there.
Mr. MacP---- has furnished the following account of his experience:--
"As usual I went to bed about 12 P.M. I had no desire to be disturbed,
and so my room was still No. 4, which I had originally selected as
being reputed innocuous, and which, save in one slight instance, I had
hitherto found to deserve its reputation. My repeated visits had
eliminated any expectancy which may at first have, perhaps, existed.
"My bed was alongside the south wall of my room, and parallel to the
corridor or passage, my head towards No. 5, and my feet towards No. 3.
"As often happened at B----, I awoke from a sound slumber, not by
degrees, but in a moment. There was no transition--no half-awakening,
but full and complete consciousness all at once. I struck a light,
looked at my watch, found it was 4.30, and went to sleep again
immediately. I then wakened slowly and gradually, hearing more and
more clearly a noise which appeared to me to be the cause of my
awakening. The noise was the kind of sound which is produced by a
person walking rapidly with one foot longer than the other--_i.e._,
it was a succession of beats in rapid sequence, each alternate beat
being louder than the one immediately before it.
"It appeared to me (1) to be produced outside my room; (2) to be on a
higher level; and (3) to be moving in the direction of my bed--_i.e._,
going as from No. 5 past No. 4, in which I was, towards No. 3. I at
once jumped out of bed, opened my door and looked out. I saw nothing,
and the noise stopped. I then struck a light, and found that it was
only 4.45. I lay awake till I heard the servants obviously moving
about, and then went to sleep again. At breakfast I asked, 'Has
anybody ever heard this kind of noise?' reproducing it as well as I
could by a series of thumps on the table. 'Oh yes,' was the answer,
'that is what we call the 'limping' or 'scuttering' noise. Of course I
had heard the phrases used, but thought they referred to two separate
noises. I had also formed quite distinct ideas as to the kind of
noises these epithets were intended to describe--both entirely
different from the kind of noise I had heard--and I showed what I
meant. 'Oh no,' said Miss Freer, 'what you heard is what we have been
calling indiscriminately the _limping_ or _scuttering_ noise, and we
have not heard the kinds of noise these words suggested to you.' I
emphasise this as showing clearly that I cannot have been expecting to
hear the particular noise in question.
"The next thing was to account for the noise, if possible, and we
spent some time experimenting. First of all the servants were
interrogated as to whether any of them had been moving about at 4.45.
Answer, 'No.' Next we asked who got up first. This was a maid who
slept in X, and went into Y to call the kitchenmaid, who slept there.
To do so she had, of course, to go through the narrow room which was
over part of my bedroom.
"This, she said, was a good bit later than 4.45. But we thought it
well to make her go from X to Y while I lay down on my bed and
listened. We made her walk backwards and forwards, both with her
slippers on and also in her stocking soles. I and some of the others
who came into my room heard her quite distinctly. But (1) the noise of
her steps was in a different place--near my window, and exactly in
the line of her progress; (2) it was an entirely different kind of
noise. She walked now fast, and now slowly, but both footsteps seemed
always of the same weight; and (3), and this, to my mind, was most
important, we heard her quite distinctly going from X to Y, and back
again from Y to X and could tell in which direction she was moving.
Now, the noise which I had heard only went in the one direction,
_i.e._, parallel to the maid's outward progress. I did not hear
anything going in the other direction. I was entirely wakened by the
noise which I had heard, and, as I have said, I continued to listen
intently for some considerable time, and yet I heard nothing.
"In short, alike from its apparent _locus_, from its quality, and from
the direction of its movements, I am convinced that the noise which I
heard was not caused by any of the servants moving about upstairs.
"Anybody who knows the house will understand that where the noise
seemed to me to be was in the neighbourhood of the dome. For all I
know, the dome, as somebody suggested, may be a regular
sounding-board; but even so, that does not help much towards an
explanation. Wherever the noise may have been produced, the question
still remains, 'What produced it?' and that we have entirely failed to
answer."
* * * * *
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