Ghosts I Have Seen, and Other Psychic ExperiencesTweedale, Violet
Religion
Ghosts I Have Seen, and Other Psychic Experiences
Tweedale, Violet
Ghosts; Parapsychology
I had no recurrence of the vision till three months after, then it came
again, with all its attendant horrors, when I was asleep in my own bed
at home. This was succeeded at long intervals by a vision of my
condition of mind as an undiscovered criminal, always evading detection,
but without the vision of my return to the scene of the crime. During
the last thirty years I have had recurrences of the complete and partial
vision, but at long intervals.
A few years ago I happened to be standing with my host in an enormous
stone hall, in one of the greatest houses in England. We were discussing
the house, and its uncomfortable vastness. There were suites of
apartments in outlying parts where whole families might hide for days if
housemaids were careless. To reach the dining and drawing-rooms from the
bedrooms, if one was tired, was a real weariness.
We were looking up at the great gallery, running round the hall. It was
reached by four wide flights of stairs at different corners, and it was
full of all sorts of recesses, and massive pieces of old furniture and
screens. On the spur of the moment I said to my host, "Wouldn't it be
uncanny if we were to see a strange face looking down on us?"
To my surprise, he answered: "Oh! that has often happened. I've often
seen strangers looking down. At one time I took them to be inquisitive
members of my own household, whom I didn't know by sight, and one day I
complained about it, to the housekeeper. She looked very much disturbed
and told me she had seen the same thing herself. The house is opened on
certain days to the public, and she was half inclined to think one of
the visitors had escaped from the crowd, and hidden herself for several
days, as it was not on a public day that the figure was seen."
"Is it always the same figure?" I asked.
"Oh, no," replied my host. "Always a different one, and always some one
quite ordinary and modern looking. The strictest orders are given that
none of the servants' friends are to be allowed in this part of the
house, and the housekeeper has always been with us and is thoroughly
trustworthy. The fact remains an unsolved mystery."
The housekeeper was a very agreeable old woman of the real,
old-fashioned type. Very rustling in the evening, in a rich silk gown,
and wearing some fine piece of jewelry presented to her by one or other
of the crowned heads who had visited the famous house. I had asked her
before I left about these mysterious appearances, and she had no
explanation to offer. She had ascertained beyond a shadow of a doubt,
that they had nothing to do with the household.
"They were always just ordinary looking men and women, such as one meets
in the streets every day. Sometimes they seem to have hats on, sometimes
their heads appear uncovered," she explained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account