Produced by David Clarke, Louise Pattison and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) BORDER GHOST STORIES _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ _Tales of Northumbria_ _Magnus Sinclair_ _The Lord Wardens of the Marches_, _etc._ BORDER GHOST STORIES BY HOWARD PEASE AUTHOR OF 'TALES OF NORTHUMBRIA,' 'MAGNUS SINCLAIR' 'THE LORD WARDENS OF THE MARCHES OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND,' ETC. ERSKINE MACDONALD LTD. LONDON, W.C. 1 _First published 1919_ TO THE MEMORY OF SIR WALTER SCOTT THE TUTELARY GENIUS OF THE BORDERLAND THESE TALES ARE INSCRIBED BY A LATTER DAY BORDERER PREFACE Certain places, said Stevenson, cry out for a story, and Scott, in any new surroundings, straightway invented an appropriate tale, if there were not already a story or tradition in existence. One might even believe that the place itself tells its own tale to the sympathetic imagination. Thus Mr. Bligh Bond in his book, _The Gate of Remembrance_, implies that the whisperings of the _genius loci_ enabled him to make his astonishing discovery of the lost Edgar Chapel at Glastonbury Abbey. 'Multa modis simulacra videt volitantia miris, Et varias audit voces, fruiturque Deorum Colloquio, atque imis Acheronta affatur Avernis.' The scene of the following ghost stories usually becomes manifest in the text, but it might be mentioned that 'Castle Ichabod' stands for Seaton Delaval, that the 'Lord Warden's Tomb' is a reminiscence of Kirkby Stephen, and that 'The Cry of the Peacock' is a suggestion from the Vale of Mallerstang. If the ghost is not always visible in the tale, it is at least born of it. Thus if there be no actual ghost in 'Ill-Steekit Ephraim' or in 'The Blackfriars Wynd' there are at least sufficiently 'ghostly' occurrences. Again, in 'Apud Corstopitum' Penchrysa is held to haunt the Roman Wall beside the limestone crags; Tynemouth Priory is thought to be revisited by Prior Olaf whenever the wind stays long in the eastern airt, and the 'outbye' moors beside 'The Bower' may now be haunted by the spirit of 'Muckle-Mouthed Meg.'