Part 19

THERE is a certain house in ——— which is really haunted, although few people know it. This house belonged to a lady I used to know. I was very young then, and was able to run about in the pitch darkness with no childish fears whatever; yet, every time I entered this house, I always grew afraid. Of what I do not know; my mother also experienced this awful fear.

This lady had a brother who used to sleep in the attic. One night he awoke, and, to his horror, he beheld an old and ugly woman standing by his bed. I say “standing,” but he could see her only from the waist upwards. She was staring at him with an evil expression on her face. As he looked at her she gradually faded away. He said that the room was dark, but a light seemed to come from her. Her eyes were black and glittering; these were the last to fade. This man confessed that he was terrified and he spent the rest of the night under the bed clothes. He said that noises were heard in the unoccupied rooms, like people fighting.

This house, to the best of my knowledge is unoccupied now.

BARROW-IN-FURNESS

IN the village where I was born, at a point where four crossroads met, stood a house where lived an aged couple. One night the old man was found lying dead on the ground, having fallen from the bedroom window; a short time after, the old lady died.

The house was then rented by an elderly man with his family. These people could not sleep at night because of strange noises which resembled furniture being pushed about. The father declared a ghost entered his bedroom, took money from his pockets, counted it, and laid it on the dressing-table. The family became so frightened they quitted the house, and it was then let to a maiden lady.

One night the friends of this lady, who lived at a farm a mile away, were awakened by her knocking at their door. She was barefooted and in her nightdress. She was in an exhausted condition, and said somebody was in her house moving the furniture about.

She never returned to the house and died shortly after from shock, it was said.

No one could ever account for the ghostly visitor or the noises, and, as long as I remained in the village, the house stood empty and was always said to be “haunted.”

BARNES

ABOUT twenty years ago, I was living with my husband and children in Barnes. My daughter was studying for an examination and frequently sat up till one or two o'clock working. Sometimes we heard her calling out, and she complained of being visited by a middle-aged lady dressed in grey.

One night we had all gone to bed, when I heard her calling in great distress. I made up my mind to go and sleep with her, thinking she was over-wrought by her studies. I had hardly laid down beside her when the door opened and a lady in grey came slowly in. I felt myself shaking, and my daughter called out: “What is the matter, mother? You are trembling.” I was anxious to hide the fact that I saw anything, and remained silent. “Mother, there she goes,” she called out, and I saw the apparition disappear through the wall.

Afterwards, I heard from a woman who had been servant in the house before we bought it, that a lady answering to my description of our visitor had died in that room.

HANDSWORTH

SOME twenty years ago, my mother, sister, brother and self, went to stay with friends at an Essex manor house. In the afternoon our host took the horse and trap to stay the night at an outlying town in order to be ready for the horse fair next day. My brother and I were left in bed with a light. After a time the door opened and a big man stood there and nodded to us. In the dim light, we, thinking by his size he was our host, called out “Goodnight, Mr. B.” He then closed the door. My mother and sister went to bed, bolting their door. During the night my mother heard shuffling in the corridor, extra loud where a tall man would have to stoop. Then her door was tried and, whoever it was, continued into the next bedroom, which was our hostess’s. In the morning my mother's door was open. On recounting our experiences over breakfast, one of our host’s sons blurted out “Why, it's only old R.'s ghost walking again; they are doing his grave up.” Our host had not been home at all that night.

My mother and sister returned home that day, but we stayed on. We were only about nine or ten years old. When we saw the grave it had a tarpaulin cover over it and was being done up. R. had committed suicide. Owing to the noises in the house and the stories told about it, our friends had been able to get the place at a reduced rent. All the above facts can be verified and vouched for.

BURTON LATIMER

AS a young married woman, I went from a large town to live in a small village in Buckinghamshire where my husband had got work. We thought we were very lucky to get a nice old-fashioned house that stood by itself in a lane. It seems that the house had been empty some time. I made many friends, but none ever told me the house had a bad name, or anything about it. Did I believe in ghosts? Certainly not! But, after six months in that uncanny house, I would believe anything. The first signs in this peculiar house began when we had been there about a month. Chairs were scraped across the floor in the small kitchen (always in the evening), sounds of crockery smashing, bumps overhead, and doors banging. My two small children were mysteriously moved from one bed to another nightly for about a fortnight. At first we were not alarmed and tried hard to find out who was playing a game with us. None of the villagers would come near the house because they said it was haunted. I never saw anything, but my husband did, and it so got on his nerves that he would not stay in the house by himself.

The house was supposed to be haunted by a tall lady in rustling silk. I certainly heard the rustle and the moaning, but I never saw the lady. Anyhow, she certainly made us as restless as she was herself. Later on, my husband got work away, only coming home for week-ends, for we were very anxious to get away from the house and to be peaceful again. I understand that no one would take the old house after we left it, and it was pulled down and rebuilt. I wonder if that laid the ghost? I could never understand what caused the trouble there, but after that experience, do I believe in ghosts? Yes, I think so!

A MILITARY MAN

SOME years ago I was nursing an old lady and went with her to stay at her brother's—an old country manor house. One night the maids forgot to bring the milk my patient always had, so, about 2:00 a.m., I set out for the larder to fetch it. Our room opened into a long corridor which had several large windows. It was a moonlight night. I knew everyone had long since gone to bed so was very surprised to see someone coming to meet me. But my surprise turned to horror when I saw that it was no member of the household, but the figure of a very tall dark man in the military uniform of over a century ago. He seemed to glide, not walk. I waited until the figure was within a few feet of me and then I fled back to my patient. She begged me to say nothing of what I had seen, as the family already found it difficult to keep maids, owing to the frequent occurrence of strange noises as if the house was being ransacked and all the china smashed. A few years after my experience the property was sold as the owners could stand no more of the ghostly racket, and it has constantly changed tenants since.

“YOU ARE IN MY BED”

THIS may interest your readers. It happened to me in London in the year 1887. On going to live in London, not far from Kilburn, with people who were quite strangers to me, I had the following strange experience during my first night. I retired just after ten and was soon sound asleep, when a voice beside the bed said, "You are in my bed," and repeated it several times. I looked both sides of the bed, but could see nothing, but, over by the dressing table, I saw a young man of about twenty-six. He was wearing a white shirt, braces and grey striped trousers and his black hair showed plainly against a very white face.

Next morning I told of what I had seen and was informed that a young man such as I described was the previous occupier of the room and had died there only a few weeks earlier.

THE WOMAN IN BROWN

ABOUT twenty-five years ago Mr. and Mrs. D. took up their residence in a house in a small Oxfordshire village. Previous to their arrival Mrs. D. had not seen the house nor had she heard anything to suggest that the house was haunted.

On the evening of their arrival Mr. D. went to the village whilst Mrs. D. arranged small articles of furniture. It was twilight but she could see distinctly and, entering the house by the back door, was astonished to notice a woman standing in the kitchen. She, naturally, uttered an exclamation of surprise, and the figure faded away. An examination of all rooms, which she immediately undertook, showed that no person was concealed in them. Mrs. D. had no feelings of fear, but the personal appearance and costume of the figure impressed her vividly and became fixed in her memory. The figure was that of a tall woman, dressed entirely in brown. She had grey hair and a rather thin face on which melancholy was expressed.

Later, the D's learned it was rumoured that their new residence was haunted, one villager assuring them he would not care to live there. Mrs. D. gained some significant information regarding a married couple who had occupied the house previous to the tenants whom the D's succeeded. The wife had died there, having been badly treated, according to all accounts, by the husband. Mrs. D. asked for a description of the dead woman. This tallied with the apparition which she had seen! The apparition did not appear again, but Mrs. D. said she often felt the presence of another woman in the house when alone.