The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-SeersCrowe, Catherine
Religion
The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers
Crowe, Catherine
Ghosts; Parapsychology
The legend connected with “the drummer” is, that either himself, or some
officer whose emissary he was, had become an object of jealousy to a
former Lord A——, and that he was put to death by being thrust into his
own drum and flung from the window of the tower in which Miss D——’s
room was situated. It is said that he threatened to haunt them if they
took his life; and he seems to have been as good as his word, having
been heard several times in the memory of persons yet living.
There is a curious legend attached to the family of G——, of R——, to
the effect that, when a lady is confined in that house, a little old
woman enters the room when the nurse is absent, and strokes down the
bed-clothes; after which the patient, according to the technical phrase,
“never does any good,” and dies. Whether the old lady has paid her
visits or not I do not know, but it is remarkable that the results
attending several late confinements there have been fatal.
There was a legend, in a certain family, that a single swan was seen on
a particular lake before a death. A member of this family told me that
on one occasion, the father, being a widower, was about to enter into a
second marriage. On the wedding-day, his son appeared so exceedingly
distressed, that the bridegroom was offended, and, expostulating with
him, was told by the young man that his low spirits were caused by his
having seen the swan. He (the son) died that night quite unexpectedly.
Besides Lord Littleton’s dove, there are a great many very curious
stories recorded in which birds have been seen in a room when a death
was impending; but the most extraordinary prognostic I know is that of
“the black dog,” which seems to be attached to some families:—
A young lady of the name of P——, not long since was sitting at work,
well and cheerful, when she saw, to her great surprise, a large black
dog close to her. As both door and window were closed, she could not
understand how he had got in; but when she started up to put him out,
she could no longer see him.
Quite puzzled, and thinking it must be some strange illusion, she sat
down again and went on with her work, when, presently, he was there
again. Much alarmed, she now ran out and told her mother, who said she
must have fancied it, or be ill. She declared neither was the case; and,
to oblige her, the mother agreed to wait outside the door, and if she
saw it again, she was to call her. Miss P—— re-entered the room, and
presently there was the dog again; but when she called her mother, he
disappeared. Immediately afterward, the mother was taken ill and died.
Before she expired, she said to her daughter, “Remember the black dog!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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