"On the way I was shown the inclosure in the churchyard wherein lie,
in unmarked graves, the late Major S----, his 'housekeeper,' and his
old Indian servant. I would have gone and prayed there, but the place
seemed to me too public.... B---- is a remarkably beautiful place, and
the day was splendid; were it not for the grandeur of the scenery, I
should have called the landscape laughing, or at least smiling. The
house is remarkably bright and cheerful, and indeed luxurious. There
is a really nice set of family pictures from about the time of Charles
II.... The place is a perfect aviary, and the sight of the innumerable
birds, evidently encouraged by long kindness, building their nests was
very pleasant, and has some psychological interest, since animals
sometimes see these things when we do not, and there was evidently
nothing to scare the birds, rabbits, or squirrels.... As her ladyship
and I did not wish to be troubled at night, we took rooms in the wing,
which the late Mr. S---- is said to have built in order to save his
children from the haunting, and which has been but little troubled;
and we slept there quite comfortably. Soon after 6 P.M. I went to the
place near the burn where apparitions have so often appeared, and
which was, I think, first indicated by Ouija. I read aloud the vespers
for the dead, but no phenomenon appeared, nor had I any sensation.
About 7.30 I went to a room which I will call A [No. 1] ... and read
aloud the first Nocturn of the dirge; there was nothing to be seen or
heard, but I felt some physical inconvenience in beginning, like an
impediment in speech, and I had a very strong sensation that there
were persons listening....[G] Soon after 10 P.M. I went and read aloud
the two next Nocturns in room B [8]. As I finished the second, Mr.
MacP---- and I heard two women speaking merrily outside the door, and
I doubt not they were the maids going to bed. During the night,
although we slept well, my servant [who slept in No. 4, next to Mr.
MacP---- in No. 5], like other people in haunted rooms, could not
sleep after five, and he tells me one of the maids saw the bust of a
woman with short hair, as though sitting at the foot of her bed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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