[Illustration] LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO., LTD. THE STONEGROUND GHOST TALES COMPILED FROM THE RECOLLECTIONS OF THE REVEREND ROLAND BATCHEL, VICAR OF THE PARISH. BY E. G. SWAIN CAMBRIDGE: W. HEFFER & SONS LTD. 1912 TO MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES (LITT.D., HON. LITT.D. DUBLIN, HON. LL.D. ST. ANDR., F.B.A., F.S.A., ETC.) PROVOST OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, FOR TWENTY PLEASANT YEARS MR. BATCHEL'S FRIEND, AND THE INDULGENT PARENT OF SUCH TASTES AS THESE PAGES INDICATE. CONTENTS PAGE I.--THE MAN WITH THE ROLLER 1 II.--BONE TO HIS BONE 19 III.--THE RICHPINS 35 IV.--THE EASTERN WINDOW 63 V.--LUBRIETTA 83 VI.--THE ROCKERY 103 VII.--THE INDIAN LAMP SHADE 123 VIII.--THE PLACE OF SAFETY 147 IX.--THE KIRK SPOOK 175 I. THE MAN WITH THE ROLLER. On the edge of that vast tract of East Anglia, which retains its ancient name of the Fens, there may be found, by those who know where to seek it, a certain village called Stoneground. It was once a picturesque village. To-day it is not to be called either a village, or picturesque. Man dwells not in one "house of clay," but in two, and the material of the second is drawn from the earth upon which this and the neighbouring villages stood. The unlovely signs of the industry have changed the place alike in aspect and in population. Many who have seen the fossil skeletons of great saurians brought out of the clay in which they have lain from pre-historic times, have thought that the inhabitants of the place have not since changed for the better. The chief habitations, however, have their foundations not upon clay, but upon a bed of gravel which anciently gave to the place its name, and upon the highest part of this gravel stands, and has stood for many centuries, the Parish Church, dominating the landscape for miles around. Stoneground, however, is no longer the inaccessible village, which in the middle ages stood out above a waste of waters. Occasional floods serve to indicate what was once its ordinary outlook, but in more recent times the construction of roads and railways, and the drainage of the Fens, have given it freedom of communication with the world from which it was formerly isolated. The Vicarage of Stoneground stands hard by the Church, and is renowned for its spacious garden, part of which, and that (as might be expected) the part nearest the house, is of ancient date. To the original plot successive Vicars have added adjacent lands, so that the garden has gradually acquired the state in which it now appears. The Vicars have been many in number. Since Henry de Greville was instituted in the year 1140 there have been 30, all of whom have lived, and most of whom have died, in successive vicarage houses upon the present site.