"May I ask of your courtesy to insert this in the next issue of your
paper. Seeing myself dragged into publicity in _The Times_ of June 8,
as 'having made admissions under pressure of cross-examination,' I beg
to state that I as well as the rest of my family had not the remotest
idea that our home was let to other than ordinary tenants. In my
intercourse with them I spoke as one lady to another, never imagining
that my private conversations were going to be used for purposes
carefully concealed from me--a deceit which I deeply resent."
It will be observed that Mrs. S---- here leaves no doubt as to the
nature of the information with which she was so good as to favour Miss
Freer, but, notwithstanding this fact, and the language which Mrs.
S---- has considered it right to use--or, at least, to sign--with
regard to Miss Freer, Miss Freer prefers to continue to treat Mrs.
S----'s statements as confidential, and blanks will accordingly be
found in the Journal under the dates on which such conversations
occurred. Miss Freer extends the same regard for a privacy, which the
S---- family have themselves violated, to communications made by other
members. There have, however, been several witnesses unconnected with
them, some of whom are referred to in the Journal. Not only the
villagers and persons in the immediate neighbourhood, but many
accidentally met with in visits to show-places and in excursions for
twenty miles round B----, were ready to pour out traditions and
experiences which are not here quoted, as, though often suggestive,
not always evidential.
The Rev. P. H----, already referred to, quotes a witness who testifies
to processions of monks or nuns having been seen by Mr. S---- from a
window, and of a married couple who, "relating the events of the
night, declared they could not hear each other's voices for the noise
overhead between them and the ceiling," which was especially
interesting to him, as corroborative of his own experience.
A former servant at B---- has voluntarily related, at great length,
the story of the alleged hauntings, which shows that they have
occurred at intervals during the past twenty years. He is of opinion
that as the earlier hauntings were ascribed to the late Major S----,
so their revival may be referred to the late proprietor; but his
reasons, as well as his narrative, are of a nature which might cause
annoyance to the S---- family, and are therefore withheld.
Dr. Menzies, a correspondent of _The Times_, June 10th, who speaks of
himself as an old friend of Major S----, refers to a still earlier
haunting--a tradition current at the time of the Major's succession in
1844.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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