The Alleged Haunting of B---- House | Page 6

Company, from which he retired with the rank of Major
in 1850, i.e. sixteen years after succeeding to the property. He died in
April 1876. His two brothers both died unmarried, and of his six sisters,
three married, and a fourth, Isabella, entered a nunnery. She there
professed under the name of "Frances Helen" in 1850, the year of her
brother's return from India, and died February 23, 1880, aged sixty-six.
Major S----, by his will dated June 8, 1853, bequeathed B---- to the
representatives of his married sister Mary, and on his death was
accordingly succeeded by her second (but eldest surviving) son, John,
who on succeeding assumed the name of S----.
Major S---- was a Protestant, but this John was a Roman Catholic, like
his aunt Isabella. His eldest brother died without issue in 1867, but he
had a younger brother, married, with issue, and two sisters, Louisa and
Mary, whom Major S----, by a codicil of December 14, 1868, carefully
excluded from all benefit under his will.
The register of the parish of L----, in which B---- House is situated,
mentions under the date July 14, 1873, the death of Sarah N----,
housekeeper of B---- House (single), aged twenty-seven years, daughter

of John N----, farmer, and Helen R----. (In Scottish legal documents
married women are described by their maiden name.) It is said that her
last illness was very short, lasting only three days. Mrs. S---- had the
great charity to attend her on her deathbed. It is mentioned in the
register, that the official intimation of Sarah N----'s death was given,
not by her parents nor by Major S----, but by her uncle, Neil N----.
Major S---- seems to have been somewhat eccentric, and was very fond
of dogs, of which he kept a considerable number. He had very strong
views upon psychical subjects. He was a believer in spirit-return, and
many witnesses have attested that he frequently spoke of his own return
after death. Among these psychic beliefs were two relating to animals;
and as they are of a kind not very commonly discussed even among
spiritualists, and enter, to some extent, into the following narrative, it is
convenient here to state them at length. It is very commonly held that
the soul or living personality of man, which will survive the change
called by us "death," is capable of entering living bodies and making
use of their organs. The form in which this belief is most commonly
met with, is that of the alleged inspiration of trance mediums by the
souls of the dead. Such a case is that of Mrs. Piper, said to have been
animated by the soul of Dr. Phinuit and other personalities now
disincarnated. It has naturally been argued that if it is possible for the
disembodied spirit to occupy and animate the body of a human being, it
would, a fortiori, be easy for it to do the same with the body of a beast,
where the resistance of will would presumably be less.
This idea, coupled with the belief that the soul can be separated from
the body during life, so producing a kind of temporary death, while
leaving the body in such a state that it is capable of being again
inhabited and animated, lies at the bottom of the numerous statements
as to sorcerers and sorceresses changing themselves into hares, wolves,
or cats, which are to be found in the records of witch trials.
That this was possible, at least after death, was evidently a strong belief
upon the part of Major S----. We are informed that he frequently
intimated his intention of entering the body of a particular black spaniel
which he possessed, and so strong a belief was attached to his words,

that after his death all his dogs, including the spaniel in question, were
shot, apparently in order to render impossible any such action upon his
part. The policy of the measure adopted was short-sighted. If the Major
had thoroughly succeeded in animating the body of the living spaniel,
the physical resources at his disposal would have been too limited to
have enabled him to give much trouble. As it is, a series of witnesses
attest apparitions of this spaniel, and of at least one other dog, which
may naturally be regarded as much more disturbing.
The second point is possibly the same as the last, but it appears to be
more probably based upon the belief held by Major S----, in common
with a large number of those who have made a serious study of
apparitions--and certainly a large number of the members of the
S.P.R.--that such apparitions are really hallucinations or false
impressions upon the senses, created, so far as originated by any
external cause, by other minds either in the body or