The term "night" is here understood to cover the period between the
hour of going to rest at night, to that of leaving one's room next
morning, even if the phenomena occurred in the daylight hours of the
early morning. The term "day" is used to cover the hours of active,
waking life, from breakfast to bedtime.
To sum up the character of the phenomena, it may be well to begin with
those that are _visual_.
1. The phantasm of the Rev. P. H----. This was seen once only, and by
Miss Langton, on the night of February 17th. Of the identity no doubt
can be felt, since Miss Moore and Miss Freer afterwards recognised the
accuracy of the description on meeting the Rev. P. H---- for the first
time, in a crowded railway station on May 25th. This is the only one
of the apparitions which is undoubtedly that of a living person, and
like many such apparitions, it occurred at an hour when it is probable
that he was asleep. B---- is a place to which Father H----'s thoughts
were naturally and disagreeably drawn, and to which his attention had
been called anew. On awaking, he would probably have no recollection
of the circumstances, or at the utmost would have an impression of
having dreamt that he was there.
2. The woman once seen by Miss Freer in the drawing-room. She was
older than Sarah N----, who died at the age of twenty-seven, but of
whose haunting of B---- there is some tradition, but assisted by the
parish register of marriages and births it is not difficult to form a
guess at the identity of the phantasm. As there is some uncertainty as
to whether the person in question is still living, though it is
probable that she is dead, the vision is mentioned here before those
as to which there is no reason to doubt that they represent the dead.
There is reason to believe that the same apparition has been seen by
former occupants of the house, and it is alleged to be that of a
member of the S---- family.
3. The phantasm seen by Carter the housemaid, on the night of April
27th, who was described as "rather old," may possibly have been
identical with the above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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