Many years ago, when I was a young girl, I stayed in a large country house. This house was rented by my friends, and they knew no legends connected with it. It was symmetrical in design, but one of the windows on one side was blocked up, nor could any door be found by which one could enter the room corresponding to the blocked window. My bedroom was underneath this mysterious chamber. For some nights nothing happened, but one evening just after the clock had struck twelve, a most extraordinary noise took place above my head. I can only compare it to the noise of sacks of coals being emptied. I sat up in bed terrified, too frightened to roam the large house by myself so late, and too terrified even to scream. The noise continued. Every minute I expected the ceiling to open and some spectre to alight on me. After what appeared to me an interminable time, the noise ceased and the clock struck one, so it had really lasted only an hour. Though I stayed on for some time longer, I never heard the sound again. My other experience has a tinge of romance. In the village where I lived there was a picturesque old farmhouse that legend said was a gift to Nell Gwynne by her royal lover. Whether there was any truth in this I cannot say, but it was said that on wet nights Nell haunted the lane passing her old dwelling place, and one could hear her high heels tapping behind one as one passed that way. One evening I was dining with friends, and the son of the house walked home with me. He was a prosaic youth and believed in nothing he could not see. The night was wet and foggy. As we passed the haunted spot we both plainly heard the tap tap of the high heels belonging to the fair and frail lady. He stopped and lit matches but nothing was to be seen and the footsteps stopped. As we went on the pursuing steps began again and continued till the road turned into another lane. AN AWFUL EXPERIENCE SOME years ago some new houses were being built near Durham, and, on completion, one of them was taken by a bachelor gentleman, who, apart from his sister going in daily to do his cooking, etc., lived quite alone. The night in question, I was sleeping in the next house when suddenly I was aroused by a loud hammering as though a bedstead was being taken down. It continued for some minutes, alternately stopping a second, and then going on again. I strained my ears to listen, until it ceased, then I heard the gentleman go downstairs and out into the street, closing the door behind him.