Inferences from Haunted Houses and Haunted Men | Page 4

interesting, and it is a pity it could not
be recognised.[9] It was seen in the mirror by her sisters, with one
exception; but she (Miss Ducane) and the other young ladies all felt the
cold air.
[Footnote 9: Podmore's "Studies," p. 275.]
Miss Freer, who saw the shadows of a figure on the wall first, and then

the figure itself, must have been more scientifically operated on, but an
apparition to several young ladies is harder to bring about. The original
of Miss Freer's visions should be carefully traced--the one in the
drawing-room especially. How many persons would be needed to
produce the rather inchoate phenomena observed by Miss Freer's
garrison is doubtful; three distinct voices, if not four, were heard,[10]
and it seems probable that at least four persons would be necessary to
produce very startling phenomenon--notably conversation.[11]
[Footnote 10: "Alleged Haunting of B---- House," p. 134.]
[Footnote 11: "Haunting of B---- House," p. 121.]
All the ears and eyes (notably one eye, the right) are affected. This
number would be easily got from a body like the Shakers, but it is
probably harder to collect an efficient gang elsewhere. Indeed there is,
the writer believes, evidence that only one such gang exists, and its
members are possibly all British subjects of various colours. It is
strange there have been no informers. The failure of the minor gang at
B---- to fairly beat Miss Freer's party as they had beaten the family who
lived in the house the year before, made them furious, and their attacks
on the weak secular priests and on a French lady of high courage but
weak health, were particularly desperate. How far the latter's health was
undermined, and her death brought about by them, is uncertain. She
had the shock of the fire at the Paris charity bazaar to break her down.
She lost relations there. Miss Freer sometimes writes as if ghosts and
spirits were possible. In her essays, on page 52, she says "naughty girls
or spirits"--the collation is perhaps sufficient to condemn the latter
alternative. But her remark about a lady medium whom she compares
to a gentleman jockey, and who had a maid of the Catholic faith, and
that this fact had an effect on the later proceedings, reads as if she were
not wanting in scepticism. Probably Miss Freer, subject to thought
transference, and yet a thought transferrer, as she is, was interested in
the effect on Miss "K." of the Catholic maid-servant. Nothing more
interesting than the transfer of thought by Miss Freer to a friend, who
therefore saw candles lighted on a lunch table, could be found, but here
again the experience seems simply hypnotic. The chapters in her essays

on visualising,[12] on "how it once came into my head," are very
valuable. Those on hauntings are grave and gay, comments on realities
and errors and superstitious, sometimes charming, beliefs. Miss Freer
says of the visions which she sees of persons in the crystal, or
otherwise, that they are (1) visions of the living--clairvoyant or
telepathic; (2) visions of the departed, having no obvious relation to
time and space; (3) visions which are more or less of the nature of
pictures, from memory or imagination: they are like No. 2, but not of a
person.
[Footnote 12: A. Goodrich Freer's "Essays," p. 126.]
Her most remarkable stories are certainly almost magical. One refers to
her seeing the doings of relations, another to her seeing a friend's
doings.[13] "The figures do not appear" (she says, referring to the B----
apparitions) "before 6.30 at the earliest; there is little light on their
surfaces--they show by their own light--i.e. outlined by a thread of
light."[14]
[Footnote 13: "Haunting of B----House," p. 102.]
[Footnote 14: Ibid., p. 142.]
She does not see things in a flash. Thus when she saw a brown wood
crucifix, she saw a hand holding it, whilst a clergyman who saw the
same crucifix (Father H. also saw it) got just a glimpse of it. It was also
seen by Miss Langton.[15]
[Footnote 15: Ibid., p. 132.]
To turn to another characteristic of the disturbers of the peace at B----,
and to illustrate it by comparison. In Mr. Podmore's book on Psychical
research,[16] in the chapter describing phenomena of the Poltergeist
order--the Poltergeist in one case was a girl of about twelve, Alice. She,
Mrs. B. and Miss B., and Miss K. were seated at a table; it moved
sharply and struck Miss K. on the arm. Miss K. was an inmate of the
house, and no doubt Alice preferred hitting her to hitting her mother
and sister.

[Footnote 16: "Studies," p. 153.]
Similarly the disturbers at B---- House showed great respect for the
press. When a leading Edinburgh editor's son was there all was quiet;
and although they