One of the last publications issued by Bute (it {224} appeared in 1899) was a book entitled "The Alleged Haunting of B---- House," a curious, if not altogether convincing, account of certain phenomena said to have occurred at a country residence in Perthshire, which Bute had leased for the purpose of psychical investigation. He had always, and more especially in the later years of his life, been attracted by such questions, and was at the time of his death a vice-president of the Society for Psychical Research. He was particularly interested in the subject of second sight, of which he endeavoured to obtain first-hand evidence by instituting inquiries among the Catholic Highlanders of north-west Scotland; but the person whom he commissioned to conduct the inquiry was to a great extent baffled by the insuperable reluctance of the Highlanders to communicate on such matters with a stranger. Bute himself maintained a very open mind as to all such phenomena, although he did not of course dispute their objective possibility. He had a profound distrust of paid and professional mediums, and was fully alive to the physical, moral, and spiritual risks attendant on all such researches unless conducted with due precaution and under proper guidance. One of the chief ornaments of the judicial bench, who knew Bute well, once observed of him that if his vocation had been to the law, he might have reasonably looked to attain the highest honours of that profession: Industry, learning, patience, impartiality, capacity for work, a remarkable power of grasping facts and weighing evidence, clearness of expression, and a single-minded desire for truth--if these, combined with a noble presence and a lofty integrity {225} of character, are qualifications for judicial office, Bute possessed them all, and in a high degree. [Sidenote: 1899, Effect of psychical study]