Section 2 of 26 - Table of Contents
In August 1896, B---- House, with the shooting attached, was let by
Captain S----, the present proprietor, for a year to a wealthy family
of Spanish origin. Their experience was of such a nature that they
abandoned the house at the end of seven weeks, thus forfeiting the
greater part of their rent, which had been paid in advance. The
evidence of Mr. H---- himself, of his butler, and of several guests,
will be found in due chronological sequence.
* * * * *
When Colonel Taylor, one of the fundamental members of the London
Spiritualist Alliance, a distinguished member of the S.P.R., whose
name is associated both in this country and in America with the
investigation of haunted houses, offered to take a lease of B----
House, after the lease had been resigned by Mr. H----, the proprietor
made no objection whatever. Indeed, the only allusion made to the
haunting was the expression of a hope on the part of Captain S----'s
agents in Edinburgh, that Colonel Taylor would not make it a subject
of complaint, as had been done by Mr. H----, in reply to which they
were informed that Colonel Taylor was thoroughly well aware of what
had happened during Mr. H----'s tenancy, and would undertake to make
no complaint on the subject. Captain S---- having thus thrown the
house into the open market, and let it to the well-known expert, with
no reference whatever to the subject of haunting, except that it
should not be made a ground of complaint, it is obvious that he
deprived himself of any right to complain as to observations upon the
subject of local hallucination, any more than of observation upon the
habits of squirrels or other local features. Nor had he any more right
to complain upon this ground, as vendor of the lease, than any other
vendor of articles exposed for public sale, such as a hatter, who
after selling a hat to Lord Salisbury, might complain that he had been
induced to provide headgear for a Conservative. At the same time, both
Colonel Taylor and his friends were well aware, from a vexatious
experience, that phenomena of the kind found at B---- are very often
associated with private matters, which the members of a family
concerned might object to see published, just as they might object to
the publication of the results of an examination of some object--say,
old medicine-bottles--found in the house let by them to a strange
tenant.
Acting upon this knowledge, it has been the general rule of the
Society for Psychical Research to publish the cases investigated by it
under avowedly false names, as private cases are published in medical
and other scientific journals. Out of a courteous anxiety that nothing
should occur which could in any way annoy any member of the S----
family, no one was admitted to the house for the purpose of observing
the phenomena, except on the definite understanding that they were to
regard everything as confidential, and it was always intended that any
publication on the subject was to be made with all names and
geographical indications avowedly fictitious.
As certain points of Gaelic orthography were found to be involved, it
was decided to mention the house as standing in a bi-lingual district
upon the borders of Wales, and Lord Bute arranged with Sir William
Lewis to have these linguistic points represented by Welsh instead of
Gaelic.
The affairs of the inquiry, and of any phenomena which might occur,
were thus protected, it was believed, by a confidence even more
absolute than that usually observed in such affairs of a household as
to which honour dictates that a guest should be silent.
The appreciation with which the S---- family responded to this
courteous and careful consideration for their possible feelings, was
made manifest to the world by the tone which they adopted when,
immediately on the appearance of the anonymous article in _The Times_,
they rushed into the newspapers, and published everything concerning
themselves, their family property, predecessors, and tenants, with all
the proper names at full length. After that outburst it has, of
course, been rendered impossible to keep the identity of the place and
people any longer secret.
Out of deference to other members of the family who did not take part
in this, the matter in the present volume remains in as private a form
as the newspaper correspondence now leaves possible.
The names given in full are those mostly very indirectly concerned;
other names, including that of the house, are given under the real
initials, with the exception of a few of the less prominent, when the
real initials would create confusion; and in these latter cases they
are taken from letters of the alphabet not already used, and are
placed in inverted commas; _e.g._ the real initial of a Mr. S---- is
changed, in order to avoid confusion with the name of the S---- family
themselves, the proprietors of B----.
The contents of the book are, except in one respect, arranged upon the
simple chronological system. They commence with a short sketch of the
history of the S---- family, based in its earlier part upon Douglas's
"Baronage of Scotland"; and all information which the writers possess
as to the phenomena which have occurred since the death of Major S----
in 1876, except that supplied by the S---- family, is set forth in
succession.
The family of S---- date from the earlier part of the middle of the
fifteenth century, and were settled upon the river T---- within that
century, while they have possessed B---- at least since the earlier
half of the century following.
A stone, carved with their arms, belonging to the old mansion-house,
is built into the wall, and dated 1579. The present house is modern,
and does not even occupy the site of the older one.
The particular proprietor whose arms are so represented, Patrick
S----, married Elizabeth B----, who survived him and married a second
time. James S----, his son, in 1586, married Mary C----, and after her
death, in 1597, Elizabeth R----.
Robert S----, his son by his first marriage, married Margaret C----.
John S----, son of Robert, was killed by the Cromwellians, leaving no
issue, and was succeeded by his brother, Patrick S----, who married
Elizabeth L----.
It is not obvious when they adopted the principles of the Reformation,
but it is to be remarked that this Patrick stood high in the favour of
James II. (and VII.).
Charles S----, son of the foregoing, married Anne D----, and was
succeeded by his third son, another Charles, who married Grizell
M----, and died in 1764.
Robert S----, his son, married Isabel H----. Charles S----, his eldest
son, died unmarried in 1783.
H---- S----, second son of R---- S----, married Louisa M----, died in
1834, and had issue--Robert, two other sons, and six daughters.
Robert S----, born January 1806, in 1825 entered the military service
of the East India Company, from which he retired with the rank of
Major in 1850, _i.e._ sixteen years after succeeding to the property.
He died in April 1876. His two brothers both died unmarried, and of
his six sisters, three married, and a fourth, Isabella, entered a
nunnery. She there professed under the name of "Frances Helen" in
1850, the year of her brother's return from India, and died February
23, 1880, aged sixty-six.
Major S----, by his will dated June 8, 1853, bequeathed B---- to the
representatives of his married sister Mary, and on his death was
accordingly succeeded by her second (but eldest surviving) son, John,
who on succeeding assumed the name of S----.
Major S---- was a Protestant, but this John was a Roman Catholic, like
his aunt Isabella. His eldest brother died without issue in 1867, but
he had a younger brother, married, with issue, and two sisters, Louisa
and Mary, whom Major S----, by a codicil of December 14, 1868,
carefully excluded from all benefit under his will.
The register of the parish of L----, in which B---- House is situated,
mentions under the date July 14, 1873, the death of Sarah N----,
housekeeper of B---- House (single), aged twenty-seven years, daughter
of John N----, farmer, and Helen R----. (In Scottish legal documents
married women are described by their maiden name.) It is said that her
last illness was very short, lasting only three days. Mrs. S---- had
the great charity to attend her on her deathbed. It is mentioned in
the register, that the official intimation of Sarah N----'s death was
given, not by her parents nor by Major S----, but by her uncle, Neil
N----.
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