The Alleged Haunting of B---- House | Page 4

of your paper.
Seeing myself dragged into publicity in The Times of June 8, as 'having
made admissions under pressure of cross-examination,' I beg to state
that I as well as the rest of my family had not the remotest idea that our

home was let to other than ordinary tenants. In my intercourse with
them I spoke as one lady to another, never imagining that my private
conversations were going to be used for purposes carefully concealed
from me--a deceit which I deeply resent."
It will be observed that Mrs. S---- here leaves no doubt as to the nature
of the information with which she was so good as to favour Miss Freer,
but, notwithstanding this fact, and the language which Mrs. S---- has
considered it right to use--or, at least, to sign--with regard to Miss Freer,
Miss Freer prefers to continue to treat Mrs. S----'s statements as
confidential, and blanks will accordingly be found in the Journal under
the dates on which such conversations occurred. Miss Freer extends the
same regard for a privacy, which the S---- family have themselves
violated, to communications made by other members. There have,
however, been several witnesses unconnected with them, some of
whom are referred to in the Journal. Not only the villagers and persons
in the immediate neighbourhood, but many accidentally met with in
visits to show-places and in excursions for twenty miles round B----,
were ready to pour out traditions and experiences which are not here
quoted, as, though often suggestive, not always evidential.
The Rev. P. H----, already referred to, quotes a witness who testifies to
processions of monks or nuns having been seen by Mr. S---- from a
window, and of a married couple who, "relating the events of the night,
declared they could not hear each other's voices for the noise overhead
between them and the ceiling," which was especially interesting to him,
as corroborative of his own experience.
A former servant at B---- has voluntarily related, at great length, the
story of the alleged hauntings, which shows that they have occurred at
intervals during the past twenty years. He is of opinion that as the
earlier hauntings were ascribed to the late Major S----, so their revival
may be referred to the late proprietor; but his reasons, as well as his
narrative, are of a nature which might cause annoyance to the S----
family, and are therefore withheld.
Dr. Menzies, a correspondent of The Times, June 10th, who speaks of
himself as an old friend of Major S----, refers to a still earlier

haunting--a tradition current at the time of the Major's succession in
1844.
* * * * *
In August 1896, B---- House, with the shooting attached, was let by
Captain S----, the present proprietor, for a year to a wealthy family of
Spanish origin. Their experience was of such a nature that they
abandoned the house at the end of seven weeks, thus forfeiting the
greater part of their rent, which had been paid in advance. The evidence
of Mr. H---- himself, of his butler, and of several guests, will be found
in due chronological sequence.
* * * * *
When Colonel Taylor, one of the fundamental members of the London
Spiritualist Alliance, a distinguished member of the S.P.R., whose
name is associated both in this country and in America with the
investigation of haunted houses, offered to take a lease of B---- House,
after the lease had been resigned by Mr. H----, the proprietor made no
objection whatever. Indeed, the only allusion made to the haunting was
the expression of a hope on the part of Captain S----'s agents in
Edinburgh, that Colonel Taylor would not make it a subject of
complaint, as had been done by Mr. H----, in reply to which they were
informed that Colonel Taylor was thoroughly well aware of what had
happened during Mr. H----'s tenancy, and would undertake to make no
complaint on the subject. Captain S---- having thus thrown the house
into the open market, and let it to the well-known expert, with no
reference whatever to the subject of haunting, except that it should not
be made a ground of complaint, it is obvious that he deprived himself
of any right to complain as to observations upon the subject of local
hallucination, any more than of observation upon the habits of squirrels
or other local features. Nor had he any more right to complain upon this
ground, as vendor of the lease, than any other vendor of articles
exposed for public sale, such as a hatter, who after selling a hat to Lord
Salisbury, might complain that he had been induced to provide
headgear for a Conservative. At the same time, both Colonel Taylor
and his friends were well aware, from a vexatious experience, that

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