In October, 1893, I was staying at a town which we shall callRapingham. One night I and some kinsfolk dined with another oldfriend of all of us, a Dr. Ferrier. In the course of dinner he askeda propos de bottes:--"Have you heard of the ghost in Blake Street?" a sunny, pleasantstreet of respectable but uninteresting antiquity in Rapingham.We had none of us heard of the ghost, and begged the doctor toenlighten our ignorance. His story ran thus--I have it in his ownwriting as far as its essence goes:--"The house," he said, "belongs to my friends, the Applebys, who letit, as they live elsewhere. A quiet couple took it and lived in itfor five years, when the husband died, and the widow went away. Theymade no complaint while tenants. The house stood empty for some time,and all I know personally about the matter is that I, my wife, and thechildren were in the dining-room one Sunday when we heard unusualnoises in the drawing-room overhead. We went through the rooms butcould find no cause or explanation of the disturbance, and thought nomore about it."About six or seven years ago I let the house to a Mr. Buckley, who isstill the tenant. He was unmarried, and his family consisted of hismother and sisters. They preceded him to put the place in order, andbefore his arrival came to me in some irritation complaining that Ihad let them _a haunted house_! They insisted that there were strangenoises, as if heavy weights were being dragged about, or heavyfootsteps pacing in the rooms and on the stairs. I said that I knewnothing about the matter. The stairs are of stone, water is onlycarried up to the first floor, there is an unused system of hot airpipes. {177a} Something went wrong with the water-main in the areaonce, but the noises lasted after it was mended."I think Mr. Buckley when he arrived never heard anything unusual.But one evening as he walked upstairs carrying an ink-bottle, he foundhis hand full of some liquid. Thinking that he had spilt the ink, hewent to a window where he found his hand full of water, to account forwhich there was no stain on the ceiling, or anything else that hecould discover. On another occasion one of the young ladies waskneeling by a trunk in an attic, alone, when water was switched overher face, as if from a wet brush. {177b} There was a small pool ofwater on the floor, and the wall beyond her was sprinkled."Time went on, and the disturbances were very rare: in fact ceasedfor two years till the present week, when Mrs. Claughton, a widowaccompanied by two of her children, came to stay with the Buckleys.{177c} She had heard of the disturbances and the theory of hauntings--I don't know if these things interested her or not."Early on Monday, 9th October, Mrs. Claughton came to consult me. Herstory was this: About a quarter past one on Sunday night, or Mondaymorning, she was in bed with one of her children, the other sleepingin the room. She was awakened by footsteps on the stair, and supposedthat a servant was coming to call her to Miss Buckley, who was ill.The steps stopped at the door, then the noise was repeated. Mrs.Claughton lit her bedroom candle, opened the door and listened. Therewas no one there. The clock on the landing pointed to twenty minutespast one. Mrs. Claughton went back to bed, read a book, fell asleep,and woke to find the candle still lit, but low in the socket. Sheheard a sigh, and saw a lady, unknown to her, her head swathed in asoft white shawl, her expression gentle and refined, her features muchemaciated."The Appearance said, 'Follow me,' and Mrs. Claughton, taking thebedroom candle, rose and followed out on to the landing, and so intothe adjacent drawing-room. She cannot remember opening the door,which the housemaid had locked outside, and she owns that this passageis dreamlike in her memory. Seeing that her candle was flickeringout, she substituted for it a pink one taken from a chiffonier. Thefigure walked nearly to the window, turned three-quarters round, said'To-morrow!' and was no more seen. Mrs. Claughton went back to herroom, where her eldest child asked:--"'Who is the lady in white?'"'Only me, mother, go to sleep,' she thinks she answered. After lyingawake for two hours, with gas burning, she fell asleep. The pinkcandle from the drawing-room chiffonier was in her candlestick in themorning."After hearing the lady's narrative I told her to try change of air,which she declined as cowardly. So, as she would stay on at Mr.Buckley's, I suggested that an electric alarm communicating with MissBuckley's room should be rigged up, and this was done."Here the doctor paused, and as the events had happened within theweek, we felt that we were at last on the track of a recent ghost."Next morning, about one, the Buckleys were aroused by a tremendouspeal of the alarm; Mrs. Claughton they found in a faint. Next morning{179} she consulted me as to the whereabouts of a certain place, letme call it 'Meresby'. I suggested the use of a postal directory; wefound Meresby, a place extremely unknown to fame, in an agriculturaldistrict about five hours from London in the opposite direction fromRapingham. To this place Mrs. Claughton said she must go, in theinterest and by the order of certain ghosts, whom she saw on Mondaynight, and whose injunctions she had taken down in a note-book. Shehas left Rapingham for London, and there," said the doctor, "my storyends for the present."We expected it to end for good and all, but in the course of the weekcame a communication to the doctor in writing from Mrs. Claughton'sgoverness. This lady, on Mrs. Claughton's arrival at her London house(Friday, 13th October), passed a night perturbed by sounds of weeping,"loud moans," and "a very odd noise overhead, like some electricbattery gone wrong," in fact, much like the "warning" of a jackrunning down, which Old Jeffrey used to give at the Wesley's house inEpworth. There were also heavy footsteps and thuds, as of movingweighty bodies. So far the governess.This curious communication I read at Rapingham on Saturday, 14thOctober, or Sunday, 15th October. On Monday I went to town. In thecourse of the week I received a letter from my kinsman in Rapingham,saying that Mrs. Claughton had written to Dr. Ferrier, telling himthat she had gone to Meresby on Saturday; had accomplished the biddingof the ghosts, and had lodged with one Joseph Wright, the parishclerk. Her duty had been to examine the Meresby parish registers, andto compare certain entries with information given by the ghosts andwritten by her in her note-book. If the entries in the parishregister tallied with her notes, she was to pass the time between oneo'clock and half-past one, alone, in Meresby Church, and receive acommunication from the spectres. All this she said that she had done,and in evidence of her journey enclosed her half ticket to Meresby,which a dream had warned her would not be taken on her arrival. Shealso sent a white rose from a grave to Dr. Ferrier, a gentleman in nosympathy with the Jacobite cause, which, indeed, has no connectionwhatever with the matter in hand.On hearing of this letter from Mrs. Claughton, I confess that, notknowing the lady, I remained purely sceptical. The railway company,however, vouched for the ticket. The rector of Meresby, beingappealed to, knew nothing of the matter. He therefore sent for hiscurate and parish clerk."Did a lady pass part of Sunday night in the church?"The clerk and the curate admitted that this unusual event _had_occurred. A lady had arrived from London on Saturday evening; hadlodged with Wright, the parish clerk; had asked for the parishregisters; had compared them with her note-book after morning serviceon Sunday, and had begged leave to pass part of the night in thechurch. The curate in vain tried to dissuade her, and finally,washing his hands of it, had left her to Wright the clerk. To him shedescribed a Mr. George Howard, deceased (one of the ghosts). Herecognised the description, and he accompanied her to the church on adark night, starting at one o'clock. She stayed alone, without alight, in the locked-up church from 1.20 to 1.45, when he let her out.There now remained no doubt that Mrs. Claughton had really gone toMeresby, a long and disagreeable journey, and had been locked up inthe church alone at a witching hour.Beyond this point we have only the statements of Mrs. Claughton, madeto Lord Bute, Mr. Myers and others, and published by the Society forPsychical Research. She says that after arranging the alarm bell onMonday night (October 9-10) she fell asleep reading in her dressing-gown, lying outside her bed. She wakened, and found the lady of thewhite shawl bending over her. Mrs. Claughton said: "Am I dreaming,or is it true?" The figure gave, as testimony to character, a pieceof information. Next Mrs. Claughton saw a male ghost, "tall, dark,healthy, sixty years old," who named himself as George Howard, buriedin Meresby churchyard, Meresby being a place of which Mrs. Claughton,like most people, now heard for the first time. He gave the dates ofhis marriage and death, which are correct, and have been seen by Mr.Myers in Mrs. Claughton's note-book. He bade her verify these datesat Meresby, and wait at 1.15 in the morning at the grave of RichardHarte (a person, like all of them, unknown to Mrs. Claughton) at thesouth-west corner of the south aisle in Meresby Church. This Mr.Harte died on 15th May, 1745, and missed many events of interest bydoing so. Mr. Howard also named and described Joseph Wright, ofMeresby, as a man who would help her, and he gave minute localinformation. Next came a phantom of a man whose name Mrs. Claughtonis not free to give; {182} he seemed to be in great trouble, at firstcovering his face with his hands, but later removing them. Thesethree spectres were to meet Mrs. Claughton in Meresby Church and giveher information of importance on a matter concerning, apparently, thethird and only unhappy appearance. After these promises andinjunctions the phantoms left, and Mrs. Claughton went to the door tolook at the clock. Feeling faint, she rang the alarum, when herfriends came and found her in a swoon on the floor. The hour was
