All this did not take, I should
think, more than two or three minutes, although at the time it seemed
hours to me. Just then the clock struck four, and, being tired out
with my long night's watching, I fell asleep. This, Mr. Editor, is
some of my experiences while at B----.
"As to 'A Correspondent's' interviews with local people:--
"As to the old caretaker, she is an old woman, very deaf, and she
always occupied a room on the ground floor, where, during the three
months that I was there, nothing whatever was heard, as my two footmen
slept there, and they did not hear any noises. As to the intelligent
gardener, if it is the same one that was there when I was there, he,
surely, has not forgotten the night he spent with me in my room; he
was nearly frightened out of his wits, and declared he would not
spend another night in my room for any money--a fact that the factor
or steward and others well know.
"There are many other incidents in my experience with the mystery of
B----, but I hope this is sufficient for the purpose I intend
it--namely, for the truth to be known, for I have no other motive in
writing this letter; for I have left the service of the house some
months now. But as to your correspondent's statement that some of the
house were doing it, it is simply absurd; for in turn they were all
away from B---- for a week or fortnight, and still these noises were
heard. Another thing; is it possible for any one to keep up a joke
like that for three months? or, if any one had been doing it, I should
certainly have caught them; and I can assure you that the house were
very much annoyed with it, not only for themselves, but for their
visitors, for I have sat up all night with some of them, who were
afraid to go to their beds: and I think that if 'A Correspondent' had
stayed as long in B---- as I did, and had had some of my experiences,
he would have a very different tale to tell, although up to my going
to B---- I would laugh at any one who told me there were such things
as ghosts; and even now I am not quite convinced; but of one thing I
am certain--that is, that there is something supernatural in the
noises and things that I heard and experienced at B----. Thanking you,
dear sir, in anticipation of your inserting this letter, I remain your
obedient servant,
"HAROLD SANDERS.
"CHIDCOCK, NEAR BRIDPORT, DORSET."
The passage in _The Times_ article is as follows:--
"An intelligent gardener whom I questioned told me that he had kept
watch in the house on two separate occasions, abstaining from sleep
until daylight appeared at seven o'clock, but without hearing a sound.
A caretaker, who had spent months in the house, and who had to keep a
stove alight all night, never heard a sound, probably because there
was no one to make any."
The gardener's evidence on this point will be found on p. 218.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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