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diff --git a/36595-h/36595-h.htm b/36595-h/36595-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bb68fd --- /dev/null +++ b/36595-h/36595-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6081 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Stranger Than Fiction, by Mary L. Lewes. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 12em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i18 {display: block; margin-left: 18em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i20 {display: block; margin-left: 20em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i24 {display: block; margin-left: 24em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stranger Than Fiction, by Mary L. Lewes + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Stranger Than Fiction + Being Tales from the Byways of Ghosts and Folk-lore + +Author: Mary L. Lewes + +Release Date: July 4, 2011 [EBook #36595] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRANGER THAN FICTION *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>STRANGER THAN FICTION</h1> + +<h2>BEING TALES FROM THE BYWAYS OF GHOSTS AND FOLK-LORE</h2> + +<h2>BY MARY L. LEWES</h2> + + +<h3>LONDON<br /> +WILLIAM RIDER & SON LTD.<br /> +164 ALDERSGATE STREET, E.C.<br /> +1911</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Printed by<br /> +BALLANTYNE & COMPANY LTD<br /> +AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS<br /> +Tavistock Street Covent Garden<br /> +London</span></h3> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>TO<br /> +MY SISTER</h3> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>I have to thank the Editor of the <i>Occult Review</i> for his kindness in +allowing me to reprint here many stories which have appeared at +different times in his magazine.</p> + +<p>And I am most grateful to the friends who have helped to swell the +contents of this little volume, by permitting me to record their +interesting experiences of the supernatural, or by furnishing me with +details concerning local beliefs and superstitions, which would +otherwise have been difficult to obtain.</p> + +<p>M. L. LEWES</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">Introductory</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">Welsh Ghosts</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">Welsh Ghosts</span> (<i>continued</i>)</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. <span class="smcap">Other Ghosts</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. <span class="smcap">Corpse-Candles and the Toili</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">Corpse-Candles and the Toili</span> (<i>continued</i>)</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. <span class="smcap">Welsh Fairies</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">Wise Men, Witches, and Family Curses</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">Odd Notes</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">Conclusion</span></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>INTRODUCTORY</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before us passed the door of Darkness through,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not one returns to tell us of the Road,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which to discover we must travel too."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>If we may judge by the assertion contained in the above quatrain, Omar +Khayyám was no believer in ghosts. In which respect the Persian poet +must have differed from the general opinion of his times. For until a +very few centuries ago, it was only a small minority of those who +considered themselves wise above their fellows, who ventured to deny the +possibility of the spirit's return to earth. Even amongst the Romans +during the Antonine Age (<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 98-180), when scepticism on religious +matters had become almost universal among the learned, and the worship +of the gods had sunk to mere outward observance of ceremony, Gibbon +says, "I do not pretend to assert that in this irreligious age, the +natural terrors of superstitions, dreams, omens, apparitions, &c., had +lost their efficacy." The younger Pliny, in a letter to his friend Sura, +writes: "I am extremely desirous to know whether you believe in the +existence of ghosts, and that they have a real form, and are a sort of +divinities, or only the visionary impression of a terrified +imagination." He also relates a really exciting tale of a haunted house +at Athens, but it is too long to quote here.</p> + +<p>The ancients believed that every one possessed three distinct ghosts; +the <i>manes</i>, of which the ultimate destination was the lower regions, +the <i>spiritus</i>, which returned to Heaven, and the <i>umbra</i>, that, +unwilling to sever finally its connection with this life, was wont to +haunt the last resting-place of the earthly body. These "shades" were +supposed to "walk" between the hours of midnight and cock-crow, causing +burial-grounds, cemeteries or tombs to be carefully avoided at night. +One reason given as to why very old yew-trees are so often found in +country churchyards is, that originally these trees were planted to +supply the peasants with wood for their bows, for in lawless times it +was soon discovered that the only place where the trees would be safe +from nightly marauders was the churchyard, where not the most hardened +thief dared venture between darkness and dawn. Particularly were the +shades of those who, perishing by crimes of violence without +absolution—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>supposed to be uneasy; haunting sometimes the scene of their end, or, in +other cases, the footsteps of the slayer. If a living person could +summon courage to address one of these haunting spirits (for no ghost +may speak unless spoken to) and discover the cause of its restlessness, +it was thought possible to give it peace or "lay it," by righting the +wrong it suffered from; whether by vengeance on a murderer, atonement +for a crime committed, or by the offices of a priest to give absolution +to an unshrived soul. An old writer tells us: "The mode of addressing a +Ghost is by commanding it in the name of the three Persons of the +Trinity to tell you what it is, and what its business.... During the +narration of its business a Ghost must by no means be interrupted by +questions of any kind; so doing is extremely dangerous...."</p> + +<p>Besides believing in these ghosts of departed human beings, there was +ever present in the minds of our forefathers, the dread of a host of +"evil spirits" who were the agents and assistants of Satan, always ready +to injure innocent souls, and where possible, to cause worldly disaster +also. Magicians and sorcerers<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> were supposed by their arts to have +power in this world of demons, the forfeit being their own souls, lost +beyond redemption. In his delightful "Memoirs," Benvenuto Cellini +(1500-1571) describes with great vividness some experiments he conducted +with a necromancer at Rome, in order to discover the whereabouts of a +girl he loved. The magician was a Sicilian priest, "a man of genius and +well versed in the Latin and Greek authors," who made an appointment +with Cellini for a certain evening, desiring him to bring two +companions. "I invited Vincenzo Romoli ... he brought with him a native +of Pistoja, who cultivated the black art himself." The trio then +repaired to the Colosseum, where the priest "... began to draw circles +upon the ground with the most impressive ceremonies imaginable...." +After this sort of thing and many incantations had lasted an hour and a +half, "there appeared several legions of devils, insomuch that the +amphitheatre was quite filled with them." This terrible phenomenon +sounds dreadful enough to have frightened most people, but obtaining no +result from his inquiries on the first occasion, Cellini was intrepid +enough to arrange for a second experiment, his account of which +absolutely bristles with demons and bad spirits; the strange part being +that he writes as if their appearance at the sorcerer's bidding was the +most natural thing in the world, and quite what he had expected to see. +And this attitude of absolute, matter-of-fact faith in the powers of +darkness, and acceptance of the magician's arts, is very interesting in +the man, of whose famous autobiography John Addington Symonds wrote: +"The Genius of the Renaissance, incarnate in a single personality, leans +forth and speaks to us."</p> + +<p>It is only when we begin to investigate the origin of certain old +customs and superstitions that we gain any real idea of how deeply +rooted in men's minds during the Dark and Middle Ages was the fear of +the supernatural, and particularly of evil spirits. To this day in +Pembrokeshire, the cottagers, after the Saturday morning scrubbing, take +a piece of chalk and draw a rough geometrical pattern round the edge of +the threshold stone. This they do, not knowing that their ancestors +thought it a sure way of keeping the Devil from entering the house. +Another custom, often noticeable in country parishes, is the reluctance +to bury the dead on the north side of the churchyard; this is because +evil spirits were always supposed to lurk on that side of the church +precincts.</p> + +<p>For many centuries Christianity, at all events among the mass of the +people, seemed powerless to raise the dark veil of superstition which +the old pagan beliefs had spread over the world; and indeed in many +countries—sometimes from ignorance, sometimes from motives of +expediency—heathen traditions and practices were preserved, and merely +transferred to a Christian setting. Particularly was this the case among +the Celtic nations, whose Christianity must in the early ages have +merely been grafted on the native Druid beliefs. For the material that +the great Irish and Welsh missionaries had to work with was rough +indeed; and any drastic attempt to impose a new system of religion on a +horde of Celtic tribesmen would doubtless have ended in speedy +disaster. So it is probable that St. Patrick and St. David and their +evangelist successors, instead of bluntly denouncing the most cherished +of the heathen legends, merely took and adapted them to their own +teaching; giving them first a decent Christian garb. Two instances of +evident adaptation are quoted by Mr. Elworthy, in his book "The History +of the Evil Eye," where he remarks: "Here in Britain the goddess of love +was turned into St. Brychan's daughter; and as late as the fourteenth +century lovers are said to have come from all parts to pray at her +shrine in Anglesey. Another similar example is found in the confusion of +St. Bridget and an Irish goddess, whose gifts were poetry, fire and +medicine ... almost all the incidents in her legend can be referred to +the Pagan ritual."</p> + +<p>And though so many long centuries have passed since the days when the +Druid priests offered propitiatory sacrifices to the spirits that dwelt +in the great oak-trees, yet in the minds of the descendants of those old +Celts (in spite of all that civilisation and intermixture with other +races have done) there still lingers a trace of mystery, a readiness of +belief in things outside the realm of the five senses, which perhaps +future ages will never quite obliterate. For this quality, call it what +we will (and too often it has degenerated into mere superstition), is +yet of the "Unknown," and for all we can tell may indeed be a spark, +though dwindled, of the Divine fire. As every one knows, among the +Highlanders this curious mystic vein sometimes produces seers, and their +gift is called "second sight." According to a very interesting book +called "A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland," published in +1703, this power of foretelling the future was in those days a +recognised talent possessed by certain individuals, which apparently +excited but little surprise among the rest of the community. The writer +of the "Description" says: "It is an ordinary thing for them (the seers) +to see a Man who is to come to the house shortly after, and if he is not +of the Seer's acquaintance, yet he gives such a lively description of +his Stature, Complexion, Habit, &c., that upon his arrival he answers +the character given him in all respects. I have been seen thus myself by +Seers of both sexes at some hundred miles' distance—some that saw me in +this manner had never seen me personally." In Wales also, if we may +believe the old writers, there seems to have been a class of persons +somewhat resembling the Highland seers, and called "Awenyddion" +(inspired people). "When consulted upon any doubtful event, they roar +out violently, and become as it were possessed of an evil spirit. They +deliver the answer in sentences that are trifling, and have little +meaning, but are elegantly expressed. In the meantime, he who watches +what is said unriddles the answer from some turn of a word. They are +then roused as from a deep sleep, and by violent shaking compelled to +return to their senses, when they lose all recollection of the answers +they gave."</p> + +<p>And though the day of the Awenyddion is long past, yet something of +their inspiration, and a faint echo of the bards' songs of valour and +enchantments seems still to linger about the mountains of Wales. It is +true that down in the valleys the railways and Council schools have +routed the "Tylwyth Teg" (fairies) from those "sweet green fields" of +which Matthew Arnold wrote; and the young generation has no time to +spare for listening in the winter evenings to the old folks' tales of +haunted "mansions," or of the "canwyll corph," or the awe-inspiring +"Gŵrach" spectre. And there are very few people left now who will +mistake the weird cry of a string of wild geese flying high overhead in +the winter dusk, for the shrieks of tormented souls pursued by the +hounds of hell. Still, though fast disappearing, some of the old tales +and beliefs are not entirely lost in the more remote localities; and it +was with the idea of preserving a few of them from oblivion that this +book was begun. Living, as I have for many years, in a hitherto +little-known part of the Principality, where almost every old country +house has its ghost (sometimes more than one), and where the highest +hill is crowned by the grave of a mighty "caŵr" (or giant)—though +archæologists will tell you that it is merely a British +burial-mound—and where the neighbouring lake is inhabited by fairy +cattle that disappear at the approach of man; it is impossible not to +feel regretful that all these old stories should be forgotten. +Especially will any one feel this who happens to have Celtic blood in +his veins; in which case, and if he inhabits a corner of "fair Cambria," +some of the things he hears will not appear so highly improbable and +far-fetched as they might to the less imaginative Saxon. We all know +Owen Glendower's celebrated assertion:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I can call spirits from the vasty deep,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and his description of the wonders that local tradition told him had +preceded his birth. And we remember Hotspur's aggravating retort to what +he doubtless considered the empty boasting of the great Welshman. But +living amongst a people absolutely steeped in occult and legendary lore, +quite ready to attribute any extraordinary characteristics in their +leaders to supernatural aid, there is little doubt that Glendower's +belief in his wizard powers was as entirely sincere as his courage and +energy were unquestioned. But one rather sympathises, too, with Hotspur, +when he describes afterwards how Glendower had kept him up</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"last night, at least nine hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In reckoning up the several devils' names<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That were his lackeys."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Most people like a good "ghost story." Even the loudest of scoffers does +so really; and he is generally the person who draws his chair nearest +to that of the story-teller, and who, after asserting that the tale is +"all rubbish," will nevertheless proceed to say what he would have done +at that particular point in the narrative when "the candle burnt blue, +and a faint rattling of chains was heard," &c. &c. But, as a fact, there +are few real old-fashioned scoffers left. We have passed through the +phase of extreme incredulity regarding occult happenings which was +inevitable, and was merely the swing of the pendulum from the rank +superstition and ignorance of the Middle Ages. Few people now venture to +declare that "there are no such things as ghosts"; for the mass of +evidence collected and weighed by savants, such as Gurney, Myers, +Hodgson, T. H. Hudson, and Sir Oliver Lodge, is overwhelming as regards +the truth that things <i>have</i> happened, and do still happen, quite +outside the limit of human explanation. But while most intelligent +persons admit this, the time is still far distant when we shall be able +to say how or why these things occur; though, guided by some of the +greatest thinkers of our day, we may at last dare to hope that our feet +are set in the path of knowledge, and that at some future time humanity +may perhaps reach the goal, and lift the dark and impenetrable curtain +that hides the Unseen. Whether the world will be any better off, when, +or if, that happens, concerns us of this generation not at all; in fact, +most of us who have this world's work to do, will find it best to leave +close investigation of supernormal phenomena to those who are able to +approach such subjects with a scientific mind, capable of recognising +and collecting truthful evidence, and of detecting and setting aside +what is false. And how very much the false outweighs the true, when it +comes to a question of evidence in psychic inquiry, only the really +conscientious searcher knows. All sorts of questions rise up in the mind +of the critical inquirer and have to be satisfied before he will admit +the impossibility of accounting by human explanation for the experiences +brought to his notice. And besides the need for this severely critical +attitude of mind, which we do not all of us possess, and in many cases +the lack of leisure necessary for such abstract study, there is another +reason why it is best for the majority of us to refrain from speculating +overmuch on the whys and hows of these glimpses of the "Unknown" that we +are occasionally granted. It is because many people have actually not +the strength of mind necessary to withstand the possible shock +occasioned by occult experiences, and for these, such studies end only +too often in mental disaster. This assertion may sound exaggerated, but +it is not so; and if it serves as a hint of warning to those over-fond +of dabbling in a sea of mystery, fathomless and wide beyond all human +imaginings, so much the better.</p> + +<p>After these remarks, it will be realised that this book has nothing to +do with the scientific aspect of "ghost-hunting," but is merely an +attempt to gather together a number of stories dealing with the +supernatural, and particularly those connected with the old +superstitions and beliefs of Welsh people which have happened to come to +my knowledge. Of course some of these tales are absurd, and interesting +only from their quaintness; yet in many of them there is an element +which, as the French say, "gives to think," and should interest serious +students of the occult in search of fresh material. So, much of the +ghostly gossip in the following chapters belongs to Wales; indeed my +original purpose was to deal with Welsh ghosts and superstitions only. +But in the course of collection, I came across so many interesting +particulars and incidents concerning people and places beyond the +borders of the Principality, that I decided to include them in this +volume, on the chance that they may be new to most of my readers. All +the stories to be narrated are what are known as "true" ones, or have at +least a well-established reputation in tradition; the majority having +either been told me at first-hand, or imparted by people who believed in +their truth, and who, in many cases, had personal knowledge of the +people whose experiences they related, and of the localities they +described.</p> + +<p>Naturally, such tales as follow, in which hear-say must figure +considerably, cannot lay claim to the evidential value possessed by the +carefully sifted records of the Psychical Research Society. But it may +be pointed out that many of the stories contained in Chapters II., III., +and IV. concern the constant <i>repetition</i> of certain definite phenomena, +a feature which strongly supports belief in their foundation on a basis +of truth.</p> + +<p>For instance, it seems to happen continually that a person going to a +house which he does not know is haunted, sees a "ghost," and afterwards +finds, on relating his experience, that the apparition he describes is +exactly what other people have also seen. A good example of this occurs +in Chapter IV., where "Colonel and Mrs. West" saw the ghost of the +headless woman, being previously unaware that they were occupying a +haunted room.</p> + +<p>This agreement in the testimony of people who at different times, and +generally quite unprepared, have seen particular apparitions is an +interesting fact in itself, and surely not to be altogether despised as +evidence of the cumulative order, though the scientific details demanded +by the professional ghost-hunter may be lacking.</p> + +<p>The stories in my later chapters dealing with some ancient Welsh +superstitions need no comment, as, whatever may be thought of them as +supernatural incidents, their interest from the standpoint of folk-lore +is indisputable, and for that reason alone they are worth recording.</p> + +<p>Throughout this book I shall change the real names of people for +fictitious ones or initials, for reasons that will be obvious to every +one. There are a few exceptions; and where they occur they will be +noted. In most cases I shall disguise the names of houses, and sometimes +those of villages and towns; but where the names of counties are +mentioned they are the true ones.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>WELSH GHOSTS</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A kind of old Hobgoblin Hall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now somewhat fallen to decay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With weather-stains upon the wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stairways worn, and crazy doors,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And creaking and uneven floors,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And chimneys huge and tiled and tall."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>In one of the most remote parts of South Wales there stands on a low +cliff that is washed by the waters of a certain bay in St. George's +Channel a very curious old house which we will call Plâsgwyn. Inside one +finds walls many feet in thickness, dark panelled rooms with enormous +cupboards, and a beautiful oak staircase, its shallow, uneven steps +polished by the feet of many generations. Of course there is a ghost +story too, and one possessing an element of picturesqueness, its origin +dating far back to the days when smuggling was considered by quite +respectable people as a useful means of increasing their income in a +gentlemanly manner.</p> + +<p>When one reflects on the lonely situation of Plâsgwyn, and +listens—especially in winter—to the boom of wind and wave advertising +with loud persistence the nearness of the sea, it is not difficult for +the imagination to conjure up those far-away times; to picture the +landing of many an interesting cargo in the little cove hard by when the +nights were dark and stormy and the Revenue men off their guard; and to +conjecture that perhaps many crimes were committed at that period by +villains using the smuggler's cloak to cover misdoing, and that possibly +some such dark deed may have happened in the old house, thus giving a +real foundation to our story.</p> + +<p>It begins with an incident that was told me as having occurred a few +years ago at Plâsgwyn. One day two maid-servants went to do some work in +the largest bedroom, used always as a visitors' room. When they quickly +came downstairs again, with white faces and trembling knees, they had a +strange tale to tell. They declared that in the room, floating in the +air near the bed, they had seen what appeared to be a human hand and +wrist, bleeding as if just severed from an arm, the fingers of the hand +covered with splendid rings. Horribly frightened, the two maids did not +look long at the apparition but fled downstairs as fast as they could. +However, so convinced were they both of the reality of the thing they +saw that neither could ever be induced to enter the room alone as long +as they remained in the house, and one at least was in the service of +the family for some years.</p> + +<p>Now the legend of Plâsgwyn is as follows. Long ago a strange lady of +great wealth once stayed there, and, for reasons now unknown, her hosts +went away leaving her alone one night. Feeling solitary and remembering +with alarm tales she had heard of the lawless doings of smugglers known +to frequent the coast, she went early to her room and tried to sleep. +Well-grounded indeed were her fears, for in the middle of the night she +was aroused by loud knocking at her door and rough voices demanding +admittance. Terrified, the lady tried to hold the door, but in vain. It +soon gave way beneath violent blows, and her arm, thrust forward in +feeble resistance, was seized and held. Unfortunately, she had forgotten +to remove her rings, of which she wore many of great size and +brilliance, and the sight of the jewels so excited the greedy robbers +that they immediately tried to pull them off. They fitted the fingers so +tightly, however, that they would not move; accordingly, the ruffians, +determined to have possession of them, ruthlessly chopped off the poor +woman's hand and wrist, immediately afterwards decamping with their +dreadful booty. Ever since that night, runs the tale, those who have the +"gift" may sometimes see the jewel-covered hand hovering over the bed in +the room once occupied by the ill-fated lady.</p> + +<p>Nor is the spectral hand the only uncanny thing to be seen at Plâsgwyn, +if local rumour be correct; which declares that the spirit of "Old +Brown," a former owner of the property, and from all accounts a person +of much character (whether good or bad matters not), has been seen in a +ball of fire rolling down the staircase into the hall at midnight!</p> + +<p>I have never met anybody who has witnessed this somewhat alarming +phenomenon, but the legend is merely related for what it is worth, and +as it was told me by a very old inhabitant of the neighbourhood. And +whether the "ball of fire" is only an absurdity, originating in some +one's too lively imagination, or really one of those "fire elementals" +of which advanced occultists tell us, must be left to the reader's +judgment to determine. But there are few people of imagination who could +visit this quaint old house without feeling that scarcely any tale of +the marvellous relating to it would sound incredible in such a setting.</p> + +<p>Of quite a different type is another incident connected with the same +place, which, though it certainly lacks sensation, is curious as one of +that class of apparently pointless events so realistic as to seem +commonplace, and which yet leave one in a perfect "cul-de-sac" of +mystification as to why they should have happened at all.</p> + +<p>Many years ago—perhaps thirty or forty—a meet of the hounds took place +at Plâsgwyn. Most of the houses round sent representatives, but the meet +was not a large one. Among those who drove over were a Mrs. A. and her +friend Miss B. When riders and hounds had trotted off to draw the +coverts near the house, the hostess, Mrs. C., suggested that she and +her daughter, with Mrs. A. and her friend, should walk out and watch +the find. The two elder ladies kept on the main road, just outside the +drive gate, while Miss C. and Miss B., more energetic, went through some +fields and climbed a little hill which commanded a good view of the +covert where the hounds were. Just beneath them was the field where all +the riders were grouped, and beyond that was the road, a short stretch +of which was plainly visible from the hill, though at each end of this +open piece it was hidden by the trees.</p> + +<p>After they had been waiting some little time on the hill-side, the two +ladies heard the sound of a horse trotting quietly along the road +beneath the trees, and very soon a rider mounted on a white horse, and +wearing a red coat, emerged in the open part of the road, presently +disappearing again beneath the further trees.</p> + +<p>Miss B. remarked: "That must be Mr. X." (the only gentleman in the +district who usually hunted on a white horse), "how late he is." And she +and Miss C. concluded that Mr. X. was making his way down the road to +where a gate beyond the trees would take him into the field where the +rest of the hunters were gathered. But the minutes passed, and he never +came to join the other riders, though Miss B. and her friend must have +seen him if he had done so. However, they supposed that he was perhaps +waiting in the road after all, hidden by the trees, and so thought no +more of the matter.</p> + +<p>Later on when the ladies were lunching at Plâsgwyn, and were joined by +some of the returned hunters, Miss B. mentioned having seen Mr. X. go +along the road towards the covert. "You must be mistaken," said one of +the party, "he was not out to-day." The two ladies then described the +rider they had seen, and were still more puzzled when told that <i>no one</i> +had appeared with the hounds wearing a red coat and riding a white +horse! Yet Miss B. and her friend knew they had both seen such a +horseman, and that he was as absolutely real to them as the rest of the +"field" close by. The odd thing was, that a good many people were +gathered in the road beneath the trees behind the open stretch referred +to, among them being Mrs. A. and Mrs. C. Now none of these people had +seen any such rider pass them, though he was coming from their direction +when he became visible to Miss B. on the hill, and yet he must have been +a noticeable figure in his red coat on the white horse. He certainly did +not come from the opposite direction and then turn in his tracks before +reaching the foot-people, because in that case he must have been seen +arriving by Miss B. and Miss C. who had been waiting some time on the +hill-side overlooking the road. The mystery was never solved, for when +Miss B. next saw Miss C. the latter said she had made inquiries amongst +other people who were out hunting that day, and no one had seen the man +on the white horse. Neither had he been seen by the country people, +though as is usual in Wales on a hunting day, there were a good many +labourers, &c., round the coverts and in the fields, snatching an hour's +holiday for a taste of sport. When relating the experience to me after +the lapse of many years, Miss B. said she had no theory to offer on the +subject, having always regarded it as a mystery defying ordinary +explanation.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>There does not seem to be any tradition connected with Plâsgwyn which +would throw light on the appearance of this phantom horseman, but a +short time ago, I thought I had really come across his track, in +conversation with a certain friend. This Mr. R. declared that once when +he and others were hunting on the hills, they suddenly saw an "unknown +horseman" riding with the hounds, who, as they approached him, +disappeared, no one knew whither, nobody at the time or since having +been able to "place" him, either as a stranger or inhabitant of the +country. But that the apparition <i>was</i> an apparition, and no horse or +man of flesh and blood, Mr. R. seemed firmly persuaded. Roughly +speaking, the district where this mysterious rider was seen would be +about a dozen miles from Plâsgwyn.</p> + +<p>But there are two phantom hunt legends belonging to Cardiganshire. Of +one I have only gleaned the very vaguest particulars, to the effect that +on a certain farm in the sea-board parish of Penbryn, a ghostly pack of +hounds and hunters have occasionally been seen, all circumstantial +details, or any origin for the tale being wanting.</p> + +<p>The other tradition of a spectral chase is really picturesque, and +located in the neighbourhood of the little town of Lland——l, is +related by Mr. Alfred Rees, in his charming book "Ianto the Fisherman." +Condensed, the story runs that long ago there lived, a few miles from +Lland——l, an old gentleman-farmer, who was well known and liked as a +true sportsman throughout the county. He kept a pack of harriers, and +had hunting rights over a considerable tract of country. His end was +tragic, for one November evening, when returning late with the hounds, +he was shot in the woods above the house by a supposed poacher; though +in spite of the great hue and cry raised by such a foul deed, the +murderer managed to evade justice. But, "the villagers still declare, +that whenever November nights are moonlit and windy, the huntsman's horn +is heard above the wood, and the pack winds down the glade in full +music, till suddenly a shot echoes in the valley, after which there is +silence. They declare that Will the Saddler, a sober deacon, coming home +one night, when he had taken some mended harness to a farmer at the top +of the wood, witnessed plainly a full repetition of the tragedy. The +opening scene appeared so real, that unmindful of religious prejudices, +he actually joined in the chase, till with the flash of the gun he +remembered the story, and presently saw shadowy forms, attended by +hounds and horse, pass by him down the glade with muttered whisperings, +bearing the burden of their dead."</p> + +<p>Another phantom horseman figures in the tradition attached to an old and +well-known Welsh house; which says, that always before a death occurs in +the family, a noise of galloping hoofs is heard coming up the drive +towards the house at dead of night. Nearer and nearer it draws, passing +at length under the windows, then ceases suddenly at the front door, as +if a horse were violently reined in there. A pause succeeds, then loud +hoof-beats again, hurry-scurry past the windows, and so down the drive, +growing ever fainter, till they are lost in distance. If sleepers are +awakened and rush to look out, nothing can be seen. But in the morning, +fresh hoof-marks will be found upon the gravel.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>Mention of these ghostly horses and riders reminds one that +Pembrokeshire—in common with several other districts in Great Britain +and Ireland—possesses a good phantom coach legend, localised in the +southern part of the county, at a place where four roads meet, called +Sampson Cross. In old days, the belated farmer, driving home in his gig +from market, was apt to cast a nervous glance over his shoulder as his +pony slowly climbed the last steep pitch leading up to the Cross. For he +remembered the story connected with that dark bit of road, that told how +every night a certain Lady Z. (who lived in the seventeenth century, and +whose monument is in the church close by) drives over from Tenby, ten +miles distant, in a coach drawn by headless horses, guided by a headless +coachman. She also has no head; and arriving by midnight at Sampson +Cross, the whole equipage is said to disappear in a flame of fire, with +a loud noise of explosion. A clergyman living in the immediate +neighbourhood, who told me the story, said that some people believed the +ghostly traveller had been safely "laid" many years ago, in the waters +of a lake not far distant. He added, however that might be, it was an +odd fact that his sedate and elderly cob, when driven past the Cross +after nightfall, would invariably start as if frightened there, a thing +which never happened by daylight.</p> + +<p>It is not every one who is acquainted with the precise meaning of the +expression "laying a ghost," which Brand in his "Antiquities" advises as +the best remedy for cases of troublesome hauntings. "Sometimes," he +says, "Ghosts appear and disturb a house without deigning to give a +reason for so doing; with these the shortest way is to lay them. For +this purpose there must be two or three clergymen and the ceremony must +be performed in Latin.... A Ghost may be laid for any time less than a +hundred years and in any place or body, as a solid oak, the point of a +sword, or a barrel of beer, or a pipe of wine.... But of all places the +most common and what a ghost least likes is the Red Sea." From another +authority we learn that seven parsons are necessary to this weird +performance. They must all sit in a row, each holding a lighted candle, +and should all seven candles continue to burn steadily, it shows that +not one of the reverend gentlemen is capable of wrestling with the +uneasy spirit. But if one of the lights suddenly goes out, it is a sign +that its holder may read the prayers of exorcism, though in so doing he +must be careful that the ghost (who will mockingly repeat the words) +does not get a line ahead of him. If this happens his labour is lost, +and the ghost will defy his efforts and remain a wanderer. In some parts +of the country it was believed that only a Roman Catholic priest could +lay a ghost successfully.</p> + +<p>But to return to Pembrokeshire. About a mile or so from Sampson Cross, +there is a certain rectory said to be haunted by a mysterious "grey +figure" which sometimes showed itself in the "best bedroom." Two +visitors, on different occasions (having previously known nothing of any +supposed ghost in the house), declared that they had seen a "grey lady" +standing by their bedside. A daughter of the house, who told me about +this apparition, added that though she herself had never <i>seen</i> +anything, yet one night when she chanced to sleep in this room, she had +been awakened by the most horrible and mysterious noises. She described +the sounds as resembling "the groans and cries of a tortured animal," +and they came, not from beneath the window (which looked on a strip of +garden), but apparently from high up in the air above it, and could not +be accounted for in any ordinary way. Nor does there seem to be any +story connected with the house in past times which might afford a clue +to the meaning of these hauntings; or if any event of tragic or dramatic +significance ever took place there, it has been forgotten by the present +generation. Yet it is quite reasonable to suppose that some such event +may have happened at that lonely rectory. There must be few houses, +constantly inhabited for, let us say, fifty years, of which the walls +have not witnessed many varying circumstances of life—circumstances of +joy and woe, and all the shades between. And besides actual events, +think of the developments of human character, the play of different +temperaments, and the range of passions and emotions that any such house +has sheltered! And if, as some psychologists aver, human passions, +thoughts, and emotions have at their greatest height actual dynamic +force, capable of leaving impressions on their environment which may +endure for ages, and even be perceptible to certain people—then does +not this assertion supply us with a reason for many of the unexplained +"ghosts" and hauntings of which one so constantly hears?</p> + +<p>For we can easily believe that these impressions would be most apt to +linger round those earthly scenes best known in life, and where perhaps +only the most ordinary chain of familiar events sufficed to lead up to +the crisis which evoked the elemental passions and emotional force of +some strong personality.</p> + +<p>Certainly the lady who furnished the few particulars about the rectory +ghost must possess the sixth sense necessary for the perception of these +impressions, for she added that she had once seen an apparition in +another Pembrokeshire house, where she happened to be staying. One day +during her visit, as she was coming out of her room in search of a book +she wanted from the bookcase on the landing, she suddenly saw a woman's +figure appear in front of her. "A little thin person," she described, +"dressed in light blue, with sandy hair, much dragged up on top of her +head," presenting altogether such a curious old-fashioned appearance +that Miss L——d looked very hard at her, and wondered who she could be, +and where she had appeared from. But the next moment the figure vanished +from view through the door of another bedroom. Although her curiosity +was rather roused by the odd looks of the woman she had seen, Miss +L——d thought little of the incident, imagining she must have seen one +of the servants in rather strange attire. And it was only when she had +been several days longer in the house that she discovered it possessed +no inmate in the slightest degree resembling the queer apparition of the +landing, which she was forced to conclude was no human being, but most +probably the family ghost! Personally I know this house well, and had +always heard there was supposed to be a ghost there; but though I have +often stayed there, and even slept in the "haunted" room, I never saw +the sandy-haired lady, nor anything else of an uncanny nature.</p> + +<p>In fact, the county of Pembroke is a happy hunting-ground for the +ghost-tracker. Nor is this to be wondered at, considering the +innumerable associations, legendary, historical and romantic connected +with a tract of country which is certainly one of the most interesting +in Great Britain. So that the student of ghost-lore and superstition +will there discover a fine field for research, the only pity being that +in Pembrokeshire as in other parts of Wales, although almost every other +old country house has its ghost, yet the stories and legends connected +with these apparitions and hauntings are very often forgotten, and only +vague details as to "noises," or doubtful reports of spectral +appearances are forthcoming. However, in the case of one house (which we +will call Hill-view), some kind of explanation is given of hauntings +which seem to have continued for a long time, and have been remarked by +various people who have rented the place. I first heard of the Hill-view +ghost many years ago, when it was said to have caused a frightful noise +one night in a room upstairs, which was apparently reserved for +visitors, and at the time that the sound was heard was unoccupied. The +noise was described as exactly like the thud and crash that a large +piece of furniture, such as a wardrobe, would make in falling heavily on +the floor; there seemed no mistaking the sound for anything else. Yet +when with fear and trembling the door was opened, those who looked in +were astonished to find nothing unusual in the empty room, or in the +dressing-room which opened off it. All was in order, darkness, and +silence, and search as they would, nothing that could possibly account +for such a noise could be found, nor was the problem ever solved. That +happened a long while ago, but quite lately, the present occupants of +the house were one day sitting in the room immediately beneath the +bedroom before referred to, when they distinctly saw the door open, +apparently of itself, and heard a sound as of some one entering the +room. On another occasion also, members of the family have heard +mysterious footsteps; but none of them seem to have heeded the ghost +very much until a certain friend came to stay with them. This friend +they put to sleep in the haunted bedroom, and one night spent there +seems to have been quite enough for her. Next morning she complained +that she could get no sleep, owing to the incessant noises—knockings, +rappings, and scrapings—which went on all night.</p> + +<p>That something of a sinister nature may still linger about that room is +not strange, if local report be true; which says that a very long time +ago a little boy—a son of the family who owned the property—was +dreadfully ill-treated by a nurse or governess, and shut up in a +cupboard in the room now haunted, where the poor child was eventually +discovered, dead.</p> + +<p>Not a thousand miles from Hill-view is a house (we will temporarily +christen it Shipton Rise) which possesses a rather interesting little +story connected with a picture that hangs in the dining-room +representing a ship, called the <i>Shipton Rise</i>. The original of this +picture was a vessel commanded once upon a time by one Captain Joseph +Turner, of the East India Company's service. During a long voyage on +this ship, he was one night awakened by a voice, which said, "Joseph +Turner, get up and sound the well." He thought he was dreaming, and +promptly went to sleep again. A second time the same call woke him, and +again he paid no attention, and slept. But once more came the voice, +more insistent than before, "Joseph Turner, Joseph Turner, sound the +well!" This time he was really roused, and felt so impressed that he +determined to do as he was bid. So he went, and sounded the ship's well, +and found a great leak sprung. The pumps were manned, and thanks to the +timely warning, the ship was saved.</p> + +<p>It is extraordinary how very many stories of occult occurrences belong +to what we may call the "warning type"; yet among them we find few +resembling the foregoing instance, in which the message conveyed by +ghostly voice or visitant has been of use in averting misfortune. In +fact these supernormal intimations seem to be generally heralds of the +inevitable, rather than friendly envoys of any special Providence. The +traditional "White Swans of Closeburn"; the mysterious "Drummer-boy" of +the Airlies; the Lytteltons' "White Lady" (all figuring in tales too +well known for repetition), belong to this very large class of +supernatural incident which it seems only impending calamity can evoke.</p> + +<p>In this connection there is a rather curious sequel added to the "family +ghost" story of Mayfield, a very old house in West Wales, dating back to +the year 1600. Among the family portraits there, one is shown the +picture of a young lady in the dress of the eighteenth century. This was +a Mrs. Jones (Jones shall replace the real name of the family) and an +ancestress of the present owner of the house. Tradition says that a +wicked butler murdered this poor lady in a large cupboard—almost a +little room—which opens out of the dining-room. He then fled with the +family plate, but finding it too heavy, he dropped part of his plunder +in a ditch near the house, where it was subsequently found, though +history is silent as regards the fate of the butler. Ever since then, +the ghost of the murdered lady walks out of the cupboard every Christmas +evening (the anniversary of the tragedy), never appearing till the +ladies have left the dinner-table. At least, so runs the tale; and now +for the sequel.</p> + +<p>Early in the last century, Mayfield and the property were owned by a +certain Jones, who had a brother living in India. Whether Mr. Jones was +a bachelor or widower at the time of the following occurrence, one does +not know, but at all events he lived at Mayfield by himself. He used the +dining-room as a sitting-room of an evening, and after his dinner would +turn his chair round to the fire, and sit there reading till it was +bed-time. One night he had sat up later than usual, and as he shut up +his book and bethought him of bed, the clock struck midnight. In the +corner of the room, behind his chair, was the cupboard already referred +to. Now as the last stroke of twelve died away, Mr. Jones heard the +click of the door opening. He turned his head and there, walking out of +the cupboard towards him, he saw the figure of a woman dressed in an +old-fashioned costume. She advanced a few paces, stopped, and said in +loud, clear tones, "Your brother is dead." Then she turned and walked +back into the cupboard, the door of which shut with a loud clang. As +soon as he recovered from his astonishment, Mr. Jones made a thorough +search of the cupboard and room, but could find no trace of any inmate. +Convinced at length that a message from the other world had been brought +to him, he made a careful note of the date and hour of the incident. In +those days letters took a long while to travel from India to this +country, and he had therefore many weeks to wait before the mail brought +him news that his brother had died, the time of death <i>coinciding +exactly</i> with the night and hour in which he was warned by the +apparition at Mayfield.</p> + +<p>Another incident which seems to have fore-shadowed death (though the +warning in this case was not definitely given) recurs to my mind, and +though trivial in a way, it yet possesses a certain impressiveness, +perhaps from its very simplicity and lack of any dramatic element. Or +perhaps it is only because the locality described is so familiar to me +that the following little story seems more weird and realistic than it +really is. The reader must imagine one of the most peaceful and +beautiful spots in Wales, where there stands a large, square house +called Wernafon, backed by hanging oak woods, beneath which flows a +clear river. Higher up the vale the stream loiters through pleasant +meadows, affording the angler many a tempting pool; but as it reaches +Wernafon, it begins to sing and clatter over stone and shingle as if it +already heard the calling of the not far-distant sea, while in +flood-time, heavy water rushes down, deeply covering stepping-stones, +and swamping shallow fords. So, for the convenience of the Wernafon +workmen and labourers, and others who live on the hither side of the +river, it is spanned near the house by a narrow, wooden foot-bridge, +which saves people a considerable walk round.</p> + +<p>Many years ago, there lived on the Wernafon estate, two labourers, whom +we will call Ben and Tom; and these men were great friends. They had +worked together from boyhood, and when at last—both being old—Ben +died, Tom felt sadly lonely and forlorn. One day, soon after his +friend's funeral, he had occasion to cross the river by the little +foot-bridge, and as he trudged heavily along its narrow planks, his head +bent down in melancholy thought, he suddenly came to a full stop, for +there was a man standing in the middle of the bridge. Moreover, as he +looked hard at the man, he somehow became aware that it was Ben who +stood there, and who smiled at Tom as if glad to see him. Entirely +forgetting for the moment that he had seen Ben buried but a few days +before, Tom accosted him, and a short conversation ensued between the +two about ordinary, every-day matters. But suddenly Ben asked his friend +"if he would like to see the inside of Wernafon, for," said he, "I go +there every night, and a strange sight it is to see the people all +asleep while I pass through." He then offered to take Tom through the +house that very night, if he would meet him again on the bridge at +midnight; and without waiting for an answer, he glided along the bridge, +and disappeared. Immediately and with a feeling of horror, it dawned on +Tom that the man he had just talked to had actually been dead for +several days, and he began to think he had seen a vision or had had some +extraordinary dream. Nevertheless, being a courageous old fellow, and at +the same time curious to see if any result would follow, he determined +to keep the strange appointment. So midnight found him waiting on the +little bridge. A bright moon illumined the river and banks, and by its +soft light, the old workman was presently aware of a dark shape +hastening to join him. Greeting the living man, the apparition took his +former comrade by the hand, and led him to the front door of Wernafon, +which, as might be expected, was closely locked and barred. But at a +touch from Tom's escort, the great door opened without a sound, and the +companions passed into the hall of the house. There, the silence of +sleep and complete darkness reigned. Yet without a stumble, Tom found +himself mounting the staircase with his ghostly guide. Arrived on the +landing, the pair stopped before a closed door, which immediately +opened, allowing them to enter. Softly they crept into the room, Tom +remarking that it seemed filled with a faint bluish light, unlike +anything he had ever seen before. They gazed at the occupant of the room +wrapped in deep slumber, and creeping out again, visited all the other +rooms in turn, Tom becoming more and more bewildered by the strangeness +of his experience. At last—how he hardly knew—he found himself +standing again in the moonlight outside the front door; and turning to +speak to his friend, discovered that he was alone. He rubbed his eyes in +astonishment, for an instant before, Ben had been standing by his side. +And now, except the fact of finding himself in such an unusual place at +so late an hour, nothing remained to show that his adventure had been +real and not a dream. He went home, wondering greatly at what had +happened, and it does not appear that he saw the apparition again before +his death, which occurred suddenly, only a few days after his mysterious +experience.</p> + +<p>At a much later period than the date of the above story, but still some +years ago, a curious instance of the "warning" kind occurred at N——e, +which is a hamlet distant a few miles from Wernafon. Though in this case +there is nothing tragic or of an important character to record, yet it +is worth recounting on the ground of coincidence alone, if coincidence +it really was.</p> + +<p>About eight o'clock one summer evening, several neighbours happened to +be at the blacksmith's house, having a quiet smoke and gossip together. +They were sitting in a room at the back of the smithy, which faced the +main road. Suddenly the talkers in this room were startled by the sound +of a tremendous crash. Exclaiming "Some one's cart must have upset on +the road," they all rushed out through the shop, fully expecting to see +some bad accident. To every one's surprise, all was still, the road +empty, and no sign of any vehicle could be seen in either direction. +Much perplexed, they went home, but the next evening, most of them were +again at the smith's, and of course began to discuss the strange +incident of the night before. But as the clock struck eight, again came +the same terrific noise. Once more they ran out, and this time they +found a heavily laden cart upset on the road just outside the forge.</p> + +<p>Nobody seems to have been killed or even hurt by the accident, and one +wonders why, in the case of such an—apparently—unimportant event, such +an impressive and collective warning should have been given.</p> + +<p>Among my notes, I find mention of a little house near this same village +of N——e, which was reputed to be haunted. The note says: "Mr. Z. (an +old gentleman well versed in the antiquities and folk-lore of his +district) told me about a haunted house called Tyhir.... About twenty +years ago, the man who lived there used to see <i>curious, little people</i>, +of the size that could run under a chair, walking about the house. This +man was so nervous of what he heard and saw that he would never, if he +could help it, stay alone in the house. Mr. Z. spoke once to another +man, who had often gone to keep the other company on Sundays, when he +was afraid to sit in the house by himself. This second man told Mr. Z. +that though he himself had seen nothing, yet he had heard noises which +were quite unaccountable. The 'little people' seen were said to exactly +resemble in feature the former dwellers in the house; a little old man +called 'Tom Tyhir,' and his wife."</p> + +<p>Cases of apparitions that have acted as protectors in danger to the +percipient are occasionally heard of, and one of the most interesting +stories of this type was recorded in a well-known Welsh newspaper, about +two years ago, and will quite bear repetition in these pages. To quote +the original words: "A story which appears strange even in these days of +telepathic experiment has appeared recently concerning the Rev. John +Jones,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> of Holywell, in Flintshire, one of the most prominent +preachers of his day. He was once travelling alone on horseback from +Bala to Machynlleth, where the country is wild and desolate. When +emerging from a wood he met a man carrying a sickle. The man had been +seen by the minister at an inn when passing. In answer to a question, +the minister gave information as to the time by his watch, and a short +time after, noticed the man had furtively moved into the field, and was +running alongside the hedge, removing the straw from his sickle as he +ran. Then he noticed the man trying to conceal himself behind the hedge +near the gate through which Mr. Jones would have to pass. Firmly +believing that the man intended to murder him, the minister bent his +head in prayer. As he did so the horse became impatient, and started off +so suddenly that the minister had to clutch the reins, which had fallen +on the neck of the steed. Turning round to see if there was any +available help, the minister was astonished to find close to his side a +horseman in a dark dress, mounted on a white horse. No previous sound +had been given of the stranger's presence. Mr. Jones told him of the +danger he feared, but no reply was vouchsafed, the stranger simply +looking in the direction of the gate. Then the minister saw the reaper +sheathing his sickle and hurrying away. The gate was reached, the +minister hastened to open it for his mysterious companion, and waited +for him. But the guard on the white horse had disappeared as silently +and unobserved as he arrived."</p> + +<p>And now this chapter will conclude with an account of a very frivolous +spirit indeed, for the story of the Riverside ghost must be told. Rarely +does one hear of a "spook" with a sense of humour, but that quality, as +expressed by a taste for practical joking, was evidently possessed by +the intelligence that used to haunt the old house to which we have given +the fictitious name of Riverside. Situated in one of the deep and +beautiful valleys of South Wales, and belonging originally to the +ancient family of Rhys, the house dates back to the time of Henry the +Seventh. The last Rhys died about forty years ago, since when the place +has changed hands several times, though its present tenants have owned +it for a long while, and have apparently been left severely alone by the +ghost.</p> + +<p>Our story goes back fifty years or more, to a time when a certain Mrs. +X. and her infant daughter went to stay at Riverside. One evening after +dinner, Mrs. X. went upstairs to see her child (whom she had left +sleeping in her own room), but what was her astonishment and subsequent +alarm to find the cradle empty. On inquiry and search being made, no +trace of the baby could anywhere be found, and the distracted mother +rushed off to find her host, and acquaint him with her anxiety. Mr. Rhys +received the news with the astonishing remark, "Do not be alarmed; wait +patiently, and the baby will come back." He then went on to say that all +in the house were often annoyed by the tricks of the family ghost. +Frequently books, garments, umbrellas, anything in fact, if left lying +about, would disappear in the most unaccountable way. But if no notice +were taken, the articles were always returned in a short time. Mr. Rhys +added he was convinced that the ghost had taken the infant, and that she +would certainly soon be returned. All this was cold comfort to the poor +mother, who found the ghost theory a hard one to believe, and prepared +to endure a night of suspense as best she could. Left alone at length by +her friend with many exhortations to try and sleep, she could only lie +miserably awake, longing for the next day, when search could be renewed. +But towards morning, a sudden impulse seized her to get up and look once +more at the cradle, when scarcely could she believe her eyes! For there, +sleeping peacefully, lay the missing child, who, it may be added, was +never afterwards any the worse for what sounds like a rather unpleasant +adventure.</p> + +<p>Of the above story I think that "se non è vero, è ben trovato" might +well be said! But it is here recounted for what it is worth, as an old +tale which probably had more or less foundation in facts of an occult +nature.</p> + +<p>Another tale of Riverside dealt with a lady in a green silk dress who +could be heard rustling about the house, and had also the usual +unpleasant ghostly habit of appearing by one's bedside at midnight. But +the details—what there were of them—were too vague in character to be +worth more than a passing allusion. A pity, as I have always thought +there might be interesting possibilities connected with the history of +this daintily robed ghost, whose presence in the old house was known by +that gentle, feminine sound, the soft rustling of silken attire.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>WELSH GHOSTS (<i>continued</i>)</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Rest, rest, perturbèd spirit."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Many stories of haunted houses are told where the disturbing power has +seemed to have a distinct object in view, and this object attained, all +further manifestations have ceased. Such was the case of a very old +farm-house in one of the South Welsh counties. It had long been known +that mysterious tappings were constantly heard there, proceeding always +from a certain spot in the wall of one particular room. At last this +house fell into such bad repair that it had to be partly rebuilt. When +the masons were pulling down the wall from whence the tappings came, +they found, carefully built into this very wall, an old register-book. +It was in a fair state of preservation, and the later entries in it +dated from the time of the Commonwealth. They showed that a mason, who +could neither read nor write, was then appointed vicar of the parish, +and the former incumbent turned out. However, he seems to have remained +among his parishioners, performing the offices of the Church in secret, +and we may suppose that, taking refuge in the farm-house (which very +likely was a place of more importance in those days), the clergyman had +the register-book hidden in the wall, to preserve it from falling into +the hands of the illiterate mason. The old book has been restored, and +is much treasured by its possessor. Since its discovery, the house has +been rebuilt, and is now entirely free from the mysterious tappings.</p> + +<p>A striking instance of what determination on the part of a ghost can do, +comes from Glamorganshire. Mr. Roberts, the owner of a very ancient +house in that county, decided for various reasons to let it for a time, +and was fortunate in finding a tenant who took it for a term of years, +seeming to be delighted with the place. But after he had lived there for +a few months, this gentleman wrote to Mr. Roberts saying he could no +longer stay in the house. When pressed for reasons, he evaded reply for +a while, but at length said "he could not stand the ghost." It appeared +that one day, soon after his arrival, he had been sitting quietly +reading in one of the rooms, when on raising his eyes from his book, he +had been astonished to see "a little old lady" with a "horrible frowning +expression" standing close by him. As he gazed at her, she vanished as +suddenly and noiselessly as she had come, but this appearance was +followed by many others; in fact, the old lady, always with her +sinister, frowning look, haunted him. Whenever he least expected her, he +was sure to look round and find her at his elbow. And at last the +apparition had become too much for his nerves, and he felt he must leave +the place. He added that he was sure the old lady was an ancestress of +Mr. Roberts, who, annoyed at the family home being occupied by a +stranger, evidently resolved to make herself unpleasant until she drove +him away, in which amiable resolution she succeeded.</p> + +<p>As a rule, new bricks and mortar create an environment particularly +uncongenial to a self-respecting ghost. Ivied walls, gabled roots, dim +and musty passages leading to gloomy, oak-panelled rooms, supply the +kind of setting that the spook of convention demands, and nobody passing +a certain little house close to the road, just outside the seaside +village of Aber——n would ever think of its being haunted. Built some +fifteen years ago by a retired seaman named Captain Morgan, this very +ordinary dwelling (of the five-windows-and-door-in-the-middle style of +architecture, absolutely unrelieved by gable, porch or balcony) is +certainly far from suggesting any thoughts of the uncanny. Yet I +remember hearing, soon after it was built and occupied, that it was +supposed to harbour a ghost, though inquiry could elicit little beyond +the fact that Captain Morgan had remarked to a friend: "I don't know +what it is about my house, but we do hear the queerest noises that we +can't account for. We begin to think it is haunted." Then people who +heard about these "noises" remembered rather a curious thing. Soon +after the house was begun, while the workmen were engaged on the +foundations they came across the skeleton of a man, buried in the earth, +and examination revealed that the skull had a hole through the forehead. +Instead of keeping these remains together, and having them interred in +consecrated ground, the finders carelessly left the bones lying about +until they crumbled away and were hopelessly scattered. Whether this +discovery had anything to do with the disturbances of which Captain +Morgan and his family complained one can but conjecture; time has long +since closed the page on which is written the fate which overtook some +unknown individual on that spot perhaps a century or more ago, and there +is no local tradition to help one to frame a reason for any such deed of +violence. However, the inexplicable sounds are no longer heard; and it +is said that their cessation dates from the day of a terrible +thunder-storm when the house was struck by lightning (though not much +damaged), an electric disturbance which seems to have effectually laid, +or at least frightened away, the ghost.</p> + +<p>Carmarthenshire abounds in tales of ghosts and ghostly happenings. I +know one house of great antiquity and historic interest in that county +which possesses a spectre of most approved pattern in the person of a +headless lady, who, report says, may be met walking along a certain path +in the garden by an old yew-tree, at the uncomfortable hour of one in +the morning. She is also supposed to account for mysterious footsteps +sometimes heard in an upstairs passage. Two people of my acquaintance +have heard these footfalls, and declare they are produced by no human +agency. A family tradition says that dancing must never take place in +the drawing-room; if it does, the ghost will surely appear among the +company.</p> + +<p>But far more interesting than the vague rumours concerning the "headless +lady" (after all, a most conventional type of ghost) is the story +connected with a maple-tree growing by the roadside, about a mile and a +half from the house just described. "Once upon a time" there was a poor +tramp, who, walking along this road (which is the highway to +Carmarthen), sat down to rest at the very place where the tree now +stands. He carried a staff made of maple-wood, which he plunged into the +ground beside him, and soon, being very tired, he went to sleep. He +never woke again, for while he slept he was foully murdered. His body, +of course, was found and removed, but nobody noticed the maple staff, +stuck in the ground beside him; and left there, it took root, flourished +and became the tree one sees there now. And local belief declares the +spot is haunted. Nothing, say the country people, is ever <i>seen</i>; but +after nightfall, no animal, and especially horses, will willingly pass +the tree, which still marks the scene of an otherwise long-forgotten +tragedy.</p> + +<p>If we continued our way along the road for a few miles beyond the +maple-tree, we should come to a house said to possess a ghost story, for +which, in repeating here, I feel I must apologise, owing to its very +apocryphal character. But I cannot resist the temptation to relate it; +as the tale—even if it is untrue, and perhaps it is not—is such an +excellent example of the kind that sends one to bed with the "creepy +feeling" that all really enjoyable ghost "yarns" should produce. Well, +many years ago, a young widow who was related to her hosts, went to pay +a visit at this house, and was given a room containing a large, +four-post bedstead. The dressing-table was against the wall opposite the +bed. One night, as the widow sat before the glass, combing her plentiful +locks, and murmuring sadly (we may presume in affectionate remembrance +of the departed), "Poor John, poor John," she suddenly saw, reflected in +her mirror, a horrid sight. There was the quaint old "four-poster," and, +hanging from the top rail, was the body of an old man. History is silent +as to the feelings of "poor John's relict" on beholding this terrible +reflection, but as she lived in Early Victorian times, it is safe to +conclude that she immediately "swooned" and probably had hysterics +afterwards. But she subsequently learned that an old miser had once +inhabited that room, and had been strangled in that very bed one night +for the sake of his money.</p> + +<p>It is usually supposed that bodily ills are left behind on our exit from +this mortal world, but the tale of a well-known ghost that used to haunt +another Carmarthenshire house (now rebuilt) rather contradicts this +theory. Owing to the official position of its tenant, a great many +people used formerly to be entertained there, and one day a certain +guest asked his host which of the servants it was who had such a bad +cough. He said that since he arrived, he had constantly heard some one +coughing terribly in the passages and on the staircase, but could never +see the person, although sometimes the sound seemed quite near him.</p> + +<p>The host listened gravely, and then remarked that he was sorry his +friend had been disturbed by the cough, which was no earthly sound, but +was caused by the "ghost," and had been heard by other people at +different times.</p> + +<p>The "coughing" ghost had another idiosyncrasy. At this same house a +certain bedroom and dressing-room, communicating by a door, were once +occupied by a friend of mine and her husband during a couple of days' +visit. Now this door between the rooms was carefully shut and latched +the last thing at night. In the morning, greatly to my friend's +surprise, the door was thrown wide open, although she felt absolutely +certain, and so did her husband, that it was firmly shut the night +before. It was only a slight incident, but the strangeness of it rather +dwelt in Mrs. L——'s mind, until one day after her return home, when +she happened to mention it to a neighbour, who remarked: "You must have +had the haunted room. It has always been known that the dressing-room +door can never be kept shut; no matter how tightly closed the night +before, it is always found open in the morning."</p> + +<p>For many years local legend has used Brynsawdde, the home of a very +ancient Carmarthenshire family, as a setting for various weird +happenings. Of these, perhaps the most interesting, and certainly the +most inexplicable, is a story that I well remember was current at the +time of the late owner's death, who was a well-known character in the +country.</p> + +<p>It was said that on the day he died a small black dog appeared—from +whence no one knew—leapt on the bed, and lay across the dead man's +face. Chased away, it disappeared, but was again found sitting on the +coffin after the lid had been screwed down. And after the funeral, a +whisper went round that "the dog" had jumped into the hearse as the +coffin was put in; and that later it had appeared slinking, like some +evil thing, through the knot of mourners at the graveside and was never +seen again.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>Another story tells how, not many years ago, some people were returning +from a dinner-party in the neighbourhood, and as they passed Brynsawdde, +which they knew to be entirely uninhabited, they were astonished to see +every window of the house brilliantly illuminated, as if for some great +festivity. Nor, on making inquiries, was the slightest explanation of +the lights ever forthcoming.</p> + +<p>Near the Carmarthenshire border lies the little town of St. Govan's, +which, a very few years ago, was much agitated by the pranks of a most +inconsequent and noisy ghost. Selecting the abode of one of the quietest +and most respected families in the place for the scene of its exploits, +it proceeded with demonstrations that not only aroused excitement in the +neighbourhood, but for a few days attracted considerable attention from +the daily press. But in spite of close investigation no real solution of +the mystery was ever arrived at, though the sceptical (and larger) +section of the community at length dismissed the matter as a case of +trickery in some shape or other, an explanation which, in the light of +many reliable witnesses' evidence, was quite inadmissible to thoughtful +minds, compelled eventually to relegate the strange happenings to that +domain which M. Camille Flammarion has so happily called "L'Inconnu." +The first brief report of the occurrences in a local paper ran (slightly +altered) as follows: "Great excitement has been caused at St. Govan's +during the past week, owing to the alleged appearance in the principal +street of a ghost. It has taken up its abode (so the story goes) in the +house of Mr. Moore ... from which in the early hours of Sunday morning +loud metallic clanks were to be heard. Mr. A. B. Rose and others at once +proceeded to investigate, and it was found that a bed in one of the +rooms was rocking violently, and in doing so, came in contact with the +wall, causing the sounds which had been heard. Further investigation +failed to reveal the cause of the rocking. The bed was in contact with +nothing but the floor, and nothing could be found to indicate in any way +that the rocking was caused by anything natural. It is curious that the +phenomenon always takes place at about seven in the morning and at the +same hour in the evening.... This is not the first occasion on which +mysterious occurrences have taken place, and many are inclined to +attribute them to the supernatural....</p> + +<p>"Since Sunday several attempts have been made to solve the mystery, but +up to now nothing has been deduced from the observations made.... The +street opposite the house has been thronged all day, and the aid of the +police has had to be called to remove the crowd of sightseers."</p> + +<p>The "metallic clanking" referred to above was so loud that it could be +heard many yards away from the house, down the street. But though noises +and disturbance continued each morning for several days afterwards they +were never again as loud and insistent as on that Sunday. Various +persons, bent on investigation of a more or less "scientific" order, +soon discovered that by establishing a code of rappings they could +communicate with the disturbing agent, and accordingly each morning, +visitors arriving at the unconventional hour of 6.30 proceeded to the +room containing the mysterious bedstead, and by means of taps held long +conversations with the "ghost." These taps always came from the same +place on one of the walls. Some curious statements were thus obtained, +and in one case when a lady (whom I know personally) was the +interviewer, some assertions made to her were quite extraordinary in +correctness, containing as they did information known to no one else in +the town or district. On the other hand, it does not seem as if anything +new or interesting was imparted to anybody; the answers to questions in +most cases seemed evidently framed to suit preconceived ideas in the +listeners' minds, and however impressive at the moment, the statements +when repeated certainly sounded most vague and unconvincing, <i>except</i> in +the one instance referred to. But that the knocks and rappings were in +themselves absolutely genuine, and produced by some supernormal means, +cannot be doubted. Any one who has ever had any experience of +"table-turning" will realise that this genuineness of manifestation is +quite compatible with the extreme futility of the "information" usually +conveyed in such ways, and will recognise that the noises and rappings +in the house at St. Govan's evidently belonged to the same class of +phenomena. Manifestations of such a vehement and insistent order must +surely have had their origin in some unknown psychic disturbance, some +mysterious jarring sufficient to set quivering the veil between things +seen and unseen. And in this and similar cases it has always seemed to +me that trying, however vainly, to find a reason for these disturbances +is very much more interesting than heeding or dwelling long on the +"messages" which reward the efforts of the investigator. For if indeed +"spirits" are responsible for the replies to our questions they seem +only too often to belong to that "lying" class, with whom it is +certainly best to avoid dealings.</p> + +<p>In regard to the haunted house of St. Govan's its history and +associations may have had something to do with the manifestations, for, +as remarked in the previous chapter, there must be few old houses which +have not known strange happenings within their walls.</p> + +<p>This particular habitation, of most unobtrusive and unghostlike aspect, +is of some antiquity as houses go in St. Govan's. For many years it was +used as a bank, and long before that, it was an inn. And surely a +"ghost" was ever a necessary appurtenance to every respectable inn of +the olden days! But no authentic tale or legend remains to connect those +times with the present, or to furnish a romantic background for the +strange and inexplicable behaviour of the "St. Govan's Ghost."</p> + +<p>And as its noisy demonstrations daily became less, and at length ceased +entirely, so public interest gradually waned; and no definite result +having been obtained by any investigator, the subject—after forming for +several weeks a sort of conversational bone of contention between +sceptics and believers—shared at last the fate of all such abnormal +topics, and died a natural death.</p> + +<p>High up in one of the wildest and loveliest valleys that pierce the +Ellineth mountains, is a house which we will call Nantyrefel. One would +like to linger in description of a place possessing a unique charm, +which must appeal to all who appreciate the enchantment of beautiful +scenery surrounding a house rich in literary and romantic associations. +Such a place without a ghost would be incomplete, and accordingly it has +the reputation of being most respectably haunted, and by more than one +"spook." For reasons of discretion, we cannot here relate the most +interesting of the occult incidents connected with Nantyrefel; but to +pass its gates without mention of any one of its "revenants" would be +impossible, and so the following short tale shall be told.</p> + +<p>Rather more than two years ago, a certain lady went to stay at this +mountain abode, taking her maid "Brown" with her, a person, one is +assured, of average intelligence, and not over-burdened with +imagination.</p> + +<p>One evening, during the visit, about nine o'clock, Brown had occasion to +go up the front staircase, in order to fetch something required by her +mistress. Half-way up the stairs she paused, for, descending towards +her, came an elderly man, with a long grey beard. Standing respectfully +on one side, Brown allowed him to pass, wondering meanwhile who he could +be, as she did not remember having seen such a noticeable figure about +the house before. Continuing his way down, the old gentleman reached the +foot of the staircase, and disappeared round a corner into the hall. He +walked very slowly, and the maid, looking round after he passed her, +saw, to her great surprise, that his clothes were of the most +extraordinary and antiquated cut. Her errand despatched, Brown found her +way back to the housekeeper's room, where she remarked to the butler +that she had just seen such an odd-looking old gentleman coming +downstairs; adding that she supposed he must have arrived by some late +train, and was going down to get some dinner. The butler promptly +replied that no new visitors at all had arrived at Nantyrefel that day; +and when Brown described the long beard and quaint garments of the man +she had seen, she was assured that there was no one in the least +resembling her description in the house. Yet the maid knew she had not +been dreaming, and that she actually had seen the old gentleman, and +that moreover he had brushed past her as she waited at the angle of the +stairs while he went slowly by.</p> + +<p>So it would appear that what Brown really saw was an apparition, one of +those household ghosts with which many an old mansion is peopled, could +we but see them; ghosts harmless and timid, with no mission to terrify, +or grievances to air, but just indulging a little earthly hankering for +an occasional visit to the scenes they loved in life.</p> + +<p>Do many people, I wonder, know the strange, uncanny feeling it gives +one, to return to a sitting-room at night, after the lights have been +out, and the house quiet for an hour or so? One descends to fetch a +forgotten book, and pushing open the door, one wishes the candle gave a +better light that would reach those far dark corners. For surely the +room, so short a time deserted, is nevertheless peopled—and by what? At +least, that is the impression I have had, and very odd it is, and one +cannot help wondering whether, at the</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"very witching time of night,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>the "gentle ghosts" that Shelley writes of, really do creep out of the +Invisible, and return for a little space to that human atmosphere, which +perhaps some of them may have left many a year ago with regret and +sorrow.</p> + +<p>And now, from the rather tame incident just repeated, we will turn to a +real "thriller" in the way of ghostly experience, namely, the story of +Glanwern, in South Wales. Several mysterious tales are told about this +house, but the most interesting one (and undoubtedly authentic as far as +her own experience goes) was related to me by a Miss Travers, who was +asked to stay there a few years ago.</p> + +<p>Although there was nothing remarkable about the appearance of the room +that was given her, it struck her at once with an odd feeling of +nervousness, a feeling that increased so much when she was left alone +for the night, that having no night-light, she determined to keep both +her candles burning. The hours dragged by, Miss Travers finding sleep +out of the question. Suddenly, towards one o'clock, a sound broke the +heavy stillness of the night, exactly as if some one had violently +pushed open her door and rushed into the room. Imagine her alarm! And +the greater, as nothing was to be seen, although the first was followed +by a succession of noises resembling the shuffling of feet about the +floor, and struggles as of people fighting. After a time the sounds +ceased, but poor Miss Travers, too terrified to move, lay quaking, and +how she got through the night she never knew, for in an hour or so the +same thing occurred again: the door was burst open, and the shufflings +and strugglings went on as before. This invisible performance happened +<i>four times</i> during the night, but on the fourth occasion the struggle +seemed to cease very abruptly, and the next sound Miss Travers heard was +distinctly that of a heavy body being dragged across the floor towards +the door. And as this occurred, she felt a horrible and indescribable +sensation of intense cold pass over her like a wave.</p> + +<p>Resolved not to spend another night alone, and under the plea of feeling +nervous, she asked one of the daughters of the house to sleep in her +room for the rest of her stay, but fearing incredulity, said nothing of +her experience to her hosts, especially as after the first lonely night +there was no repetition of the sounds. But when at a neighbouring house +she mentioned where she was staying, her friend remarked, "I wonder if +the ghost ever 'walks' there now." Judicious inquiry from Miss Travers +elicited the story that "once upon a time" two brothers lived at +Glanwern. One night they quarrelled and fought, one killing the other, +and burying the body in a wood near the house. Ever since then the +murderer is said to haunt the room where the tragedy occurred.</p> + +<p>The following tale, which was related as being absolutely true, I have +slightly altered in two or three minor details, to prevent any possible +localisation, as it is connected with a very well-known house and family +in West Wales. Oaklands will be a good name for the house, and in the +sixties and seventies of the last century a certain Colonel Vernon, a +widower, lived there as head of the family.</p> + +<p>At the time of the story he had invited a young man, named Carter, the +son of an old friend, to stay at Oaklands, and besides Carter there was +another guest, a Captain Seaton, who was a frequent visitor there, and +a contemporary and valued friend of Colonel Vernon.</p> + +<p>One night Mr. Carter stayed up reading long after his host and Captain +Seaton had gone to bed, and the lights in the house been put out. +Indeed, it was nearly one o'clock when he lit his bedroom candle, made +his way across the hall, and upstairs on the way to his room. Half-way +up the stair made a turn, and it was when he reached this turn and could +look back into the hall, which of course was quite dark, that Carter was +astonished to see a light coming towards him down a passage which ended +near the foot of the staircase. Wondering who could be about so late, +and thinking it might be one of the servants, he paused on the stairs, +and was somewhat surprised to see the tall figure of a woman emerge from +the passage, and begin swiftly mounting the stairs. She wore a kind of +loose, flowing garment, and as she passed Carter, who had involuntarily +drawn back against the wall, he saw that her face was extraordinarily +beautiful. He also noticed the candlestick she carried: it was of +brilliantly polished silver, and most curiously shaped in the form of a +swan. As the lady (for Carter instantly divined that she was no servant) +glided by without taking the slightest notice of him, his astonishment +became curiosity, and determining to see what became of her, he followed +her up the stairs. Never turning her head, or showing by the slightest +sign that she was aware of Carter's presence, she reached the landing, +where she stopped a moment, then turned down the corridor where the +principal bedrooms were situated. Carter, watching, saw her stop at the +third door and enter the room, the door closing softly behind her. +Rousing himself from his surprise, Carter proceeded to his own room, but +the extraordinary appearance of the lady he had seen, joined to her +apparent unconsciousness of his presence, the unusual hour, and the fact +that he knew of no woman inmate of the house, other than the servants, +produced such bewilderment of mind that he found it impossible to sleep. +Early next morning he was astir, and happening to meet Captain Seaton in +the garden, he could not forbear relating his nocturnal experience to +his fellow-guest.</p> + +<p>When Captain Seaton heard the story he looked very grave and asked, "At +which door in the corridor did the lady stop?" Carter replying that it +was the third door, Captain Seaton would say no more, remarking that +they would discuss the subject again later on, only begging him to say +nothing of what he had seen to their host.</p> + +<p>Soon after breakfast, Captain Seaton asked Carter to come with him to +the pantry, where they found the butler, who had been many years in the +Vernons' service. Chatting with the old servant, Captain Seaton +presently led the conversation round to the subject of the family plate, +remarking how fine it was, and finally asking the butler to show Mr. +Carter some of the most ancient and interesting pieces in the +collection. Much of the old silver was taken out of its wrappings and +displayed, and at length Seaton said, "But where are those queer +candlesticks? You know the ones I mean—made in the shape of a swan." +The butler answered rather reluctantly that the candlesticks mentioned +had been put away for many years, and he feared they must be very +tarnished. However, on being pressed, he fetched down from a high shelf +in the plate cupboard, a baize-covered parcel, and from it drew a silver +candlestick, very old and tarnished, but the shape of which, Carter was +startled to see, exactly resembled the one carried by the lady of his +adventure. Seaton said to the butler: "You are certain you have not had +these candlesticks out lately?" "Oh no, sir," answered the old man, but +noticing Seaton's serious expression, his tone changed to one of alarm, +and he exclaimed, "But what is the matter, sir? <i>Has anything been +seen?</i>"</p> + +<p>Seaton then asked Carter to relate again what he had seen the night +before, and when he heard that the lady had entered the third room in +the corridor, the butler broke into a cry of, "Oh, my poor master! Some +grief is coming to him."</p> + +<p>Captain Seaton then explained that the figure Carter had seen was no +human being, but an apparition, and that her appearance, carrying the +swan-shaped candlestick—always brightly polished—invariably betokened +trouble or misfortune for the Oaklands family.</p> + +<p>"It was Colonel Vernon's door you saw her open," added Seaton; "let us +hope on this occasion her coming has not been for evil," a hope that was +unfulfilled, as before the day was over, Colonel Vernon received news +that his brother had died the night before.</p> + +<p>Most people will agree that there is something particularly unpleasant +in the idea of a ghostly animal, though why it should be so is hard to +explain. But there is no doubt that the majority of us would prefer +encountering a human rather than a four-footed "revenant." The Welsh +have a superstition about "hell-hounds," or <i>cŵn annŵn</i>, as they +are called in the Principality. These fearsome creatures are said to +hunt the souls of the departed, and generally only their mournful cry +can be heard—a sound to make one shudder and tremble. But occasionally +a stray hound is seen by some unlucky individual, to whom the sight is +sure to bring disaster or death—an old Celtic belief, and most +certainly superstition, but it recurs to one's mind in connection with +the following story.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>A few years ago, a certain Mrs. Hudson went to live near the small town +of W——in South Wales. One day, not long after her arrival, she and a +friend went for a walk along the high road near the town. On their way +they had to pass a quarry, which was reached by a gate and path leading +off the road. Just after the two ladies had passed this gate Mrs. Hudson +heard a sound of loud panting behind her. She stopped, and looking back, +saw a large black dog come running out of the quarry down the path +towards the gate. Whereupon she said, "I wonder whose dog that is, and +why it was in the quarry." "What dog?" asked the friend, looking in the +same direction, "I don't see any dog." "But there is a dog," said Mrs. +Hudson impatiently; "can't you see it standing there looking at us?"</p> + +<p>However, the friend could see nothing, so Mrs. Hudson somewhat +impatiently turned and walked on, feeling convinced the dog was there, +and marvelling that her friend neither saw it nor heard its panting +breaths.</p> + +<p>Soon after this, happening to meet her brother-in-law, who was an old +resident in the neighbourhood, she asked him who was the owner of a +particularly large black dog, describing where she had seen it. The +brother-in-law, listening with a rather queer expression, answered, "So +you have seen that dog! Then, according to tradition, either you or your +friend will die before six months are past. That was a ghost-dog you +saw; it has appeared to several other people before now, and always +forebodes death."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hudson did not pay much attention to what she considered a very +superstitious explanation of a trivial occurrence, feeling perfectly +certain that what she had seen was a real animal. But it was an +explanation she recalled with a feeling of horror, when within six +months of the date of that walk, her friend most unexpectedly died. The +curious point in this experience is, of course, that the phantom dog was +visible to only one of the two friends, and that not the one for whom +the warning was intended.</p> + +<p>As I have before remarked, there still lingers in some parts of Wales a +breath of that atmosphere of fairyland and romance which, to anybody +possessing imagination, gives a peculiar value to ideas and beliefs that +in less inspiring surroundings would be classed as unmixed superstition +by people of common sense. So that the explanation given to a certain +Mr. Blair—who was partly of Highland extraction, and therefore +possessed something of the Celtic temperament—of a singular little +adventure that befell him in Wales, did not seem to him at all +far-fetched at the time, but rather the one most appropriate, and quite +characteristic of the country. Business obliged Mr. Blair to live some +years in this particular Welsh valley, and often, after dinner in the +summer, he would cross the river, and walk up the opposite hill to a +house called Wernddhu where some friends lived, and spend the evening +with them. From Wernddhu a narrow, steep road led down to the bottom of +the hill, where it ended; and from this point, a grass lane led up in +the direction of a farm.</p> + +<p>In the twilight of a certain beautiful evening Mr. Blair left Wernddhu, +and started to walk home. He had his dog, a spaniel, with him, and as he +descended the hill and reached the place from which the grass lane +diverged, he noticed his dog, who was running in front, suddenly lie +down and begin to whine. And then he saw that there was another dog, a +big Scotch collie, gambolling and playing round the spaniel, though +where it had come from he could not imagine, as he was sure that no +strange dog had followed him from Wernddhu. But as he walked up to the +two animals, his own still whining and shivering, the other suddenly +darted away and disappeared up the lane that led to the farm, much to +the apparent relief of the spaniel, who immediately seemed to forget his +fright, and became quite lively again. Blair continued his homeward way, +wondering to whom the collie belonged, as he did not remember having +seen it anywhere about before. But the incident, slight though it was, +somehow made a decided impression on his mind, so much so, that he could +not forbear mentioning it next day to his old landlady, remarking that +he supposed they must have got a new dog at Nantgwyn—the farm to which +the grass lane referred to eventually led. Mrs. Morgan asked him what +the dog was like, and when told, she exclaimed, "Why, indeed, Mr. Blair, +you must have seen the Nantgwyn Dog!" She said it was no creature of +flesh and blood, but an apparition which had appeared to other people at +different times. The story went that many years ago, a tramp had been +found lying dead on the very spot where Blair had seen the collie, and +it was always thought that the dog, when living, must have belonged to +him, and with the devotion characteristic of its kind, had continued +faithful, even after death.</p> + +<p>Writing of these wraiths of dogs recalls a story told by a Welsh lady +whom I will name Miss Johnson, and who was staying during the winter of +1874 with some relations at a house in the West of England. One Sunday +evening about six o'clock, when Miss Johnson and the family were sitting +quietly in the drawing-room, a great noise was suddenly heard exactly +like hounds in full cry. It seemed as if the pack swept past the +drawing-room windows, turned the corner of the house, and entered the +yard behind. The kennels of the local hunt were only four miles away, +and on hunting days the hounds often met or ran in the direction of the +house. But to be disturbed by the cry of hounds on a Sunday evening was +such an unheard-of thing that Miss Johnson and her friends were, for the +moment, petrified with amazement. Almost immediately the butler came +running to the room, exclaiming, "The hounds must have got loose! I hear +them all in the back yard."</p> + +<p>"But how could they get in?" asked some one; "the gates cannot be open +at this hour on Sunday." The butler went off looking rather +disconcerted, and not a little scared; and Miss Johnson went into the +hall, where she found her collie-dog—usually a very quiet, gentle +animal—barking and rushing about in a state of frenzy. She opened the +front door, and the collie ran out, barking and growling savagely, made +a great jump in the air as if springing at somebody or something, then +suddenly sank down cowering to the ground, and crept back whimpering to +his mistress's side. An exhaustive search revealed not a sign of a hound +or stray dog about the place, and Miss Johnson and her relations went to +bed that night feeling much puzzled by the strange incident. Next day +came the news that a near relative of Miss Johnson had died suddenly the +evening before at six o'clock!</p> + +<p>Twenty-five years later, Miss Johnson had a similar experience previous +to the death of another relation, on which occasion the hour of the +death, and the time at which she heard the hounds cry, again tallied +exactly. And while meditating on the strangeness of such a coincidence +occurring twice over, Miss Johnson remembered the tales that the country +people about her old home in Wales used to tell concerning the "Cŵn +Teulu" (family hounds) said to haunt the woods round the house, to see +or hear one of which was a sure sign of death.</p> + +<p>Some people have a vague superstition about the ill-luck of a bird +coming into a house, and consider it a sure sign of approaching death +should a bird chance to dash itself against a window-pane, as sometimes +happens in a gale of wind, or through the attraction of a bright light +within the room.</p> + +<p>A curious instance regarding this feeling, which occurred quite +recently, shows what tremendous power such a superstition may have on +certain minds, and how the mind, reacting on the body, may indeed bring +fulfilment of what was regarded as a prophecy. The person concerned was +a Pembrokeshire farmer, well known to the friend who gave me the story, +and whose words I now quote:</p> + +<p>"Mr. A. B. Jones, of S——, who was one of the churchwardens of the +parish for forty years or thereabouts, died unexpectedly and somewhat +suddenly, about three weeks ago. I went the day before yesterday to see +Mrs. Jones, who told me all about it, and mentioned the following +circumstances. On a cold Sunday evening last winter, just as Mr. R——, +the Rector, was going to the pulpit for the sermon, a starling perched +on Mr. Jones's head, and remained there: presently he put out his hand, +gently grasped the bird, and putting it into his coat pocket, took it +home. He turned it loose in the stable, for he felt sorry for it, and +wished to give it a chance of living. Mrs. Jones said she was, as I +know, not superstitious, but was it not odd?</p> + +<p>"It seems that Mr. Jones had had for some months a presentiment that he +was not long for this world; his widow showed me an entry in his diary +to this effect, and told me that he had been giving his son, a lad of +eighteen, all sorts of instructions not long before his death. Whether +he was influenced by the starling incident or not, I cannot say."</p> + +<p>(This account was written in September 1907, some months after Mr. +Jones's death occurred.)</p> + +<p>In a very interesting old work, entitled "Cambrian Superstitions" +(published in 1831), the author, William Howells, refers to the Welsh +belief in death-warnings brought by birds; quoting an instance which he +mentions as being well known in his day.</p> + +<p>"The following remarkable occurrence I cannot refrain from narrating, as +the family in which it occurred, who now reside at Carmarthen, were far +from being superstitious; their seeing this will recall it to memory. As +they were seated in the parlour with an invalid lying very ill on the +sofa, they were much surprised at the appearance of a bird, similar in +size and colour to a blackbird, which hopped into the room, went up to +the female who was unwell, and after pecking on the sofa, strutted out +immediately; what appears very strange, a day or two after this, the +sick person died."</p> + +<p>Having previously been told that the invalid was "very ill," her demise +does not appear in the cold light of print as "strange" as it did to Mr. +Howells, in whose ears the story doubtless sounded more impressive than +it does when read eighty years afterwards. After relating another story +of the same kind, Mr. Howells goes on to say, "I have learnt of several +similar instances occurring in England, and many more are related in +Wales; but this bird has now, I believe, become a 'rara avis in +terris.'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>OTHER GHOSTS</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What beckoning ghost along the moonlight shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?"<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Let us now stray across the Cambrian border, and pursue some of the +"pale ghosts" that one suspects are probably just as numerous in +England, Scotland, and Ireland, as in "superstitious" Wales. And looking +through my notes, the first story I come across seems quite worthy of +repetition, though the incident described was not rounded off by +anything sensational in the way of sequel or discovery.</p> + +<p>A few summers ago, a certain Mrs. Hunt, who is a relation of some +friends of mine, took a house at Blanksea on the south coast for the +summer holidays. The house turned out all that was comfortable and +convenient, and nothing particular happened while the Hunt family were +there. But after they all returned home, Mrs. Hunt noticed that her two +boys were continually talking between themselves of somebody called +"Bobo." At last one day she asked the children who they meant by "Bobo." +They replied, "Oh, she was the little girl who was always about the +house at Blanksea, and used to play with us. She didn't seem to have any +name, so we called her 'Bobo.'"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hunt was extremely puzzled by this piece of information, as she had +never seen any strange child in the house, and at length she concluded +that it was only some nonsense imagined by the two boys. However, she +still could not help thinking a little about the mysterious "Bobo," and +eventually determined to make some inquiries about the house; as to who +had lived there, &c. &c.; and great was her astonishment to learn +through these inquiries that the house was always supposed to be haunted +"by the ghost of a little girl."</p> + +<p>This story reminded me of a very old house near Arundel, in Sussex, said +to be haunted by the ghost of a nun; and it is alleged that the +apparition has been seen by children living there. Inexplicable noises +are also frequently heard, and a window visible from outside is said to +belong to "the nun's room," though the room it really lights is walled +up and cannot be entered.</p> + +<p>The apparition of a child figures in another very curious tale. I was +once told of a certain rectory in one of the English counties, where, +during a summer not very long ago, a Mr. Shadwell, by profession an +artist, went to stay as a paying guest. He was given a sitting-room of +his own, and did not join the family of an evening unless he felt +inclined. One evening after dinner he was sitting reading in this room +by himself, when the door was quietly opened, and in walked a little +girl. The clergyman had several children, with whom Shadwell had already +made friends, but this child he had not seen before, so concluded she +must have been away from home and had probably only just returned. So he +remarked, "Good evening, my dear, I don't think I have seen you before."</p> + +<p>However, the child made no reply, and did not even look at him, but +walking slowly along the side of the room, she paused, laid her hand on +a certain part of the wall, and then turned, and as slowly and +deliberately walked out again. Trifling as the action was, there was +something so curiously impassive about the demeanour of the little girl, +and her absolute indifference to his presence, that it struck Shadwell +as extremely odd, and the more he thought of it the more uncomfortable +he felt, though for the life of him he could not imagine why. Next +morning, when he saw the Rector, he said to him: "I did not know you had +another daughter, the little girl who came into my room last evening. +Why haven't I heard about her before?" He spoke lightly enough, for a +night's sleep had convinced him that life in the country had made him +fanciful, and that the impression made upon him by the silent child was +due to morbid imagination. So what was his astonishment to see the +clergyman appear greatly agitated by his question, and apparently +unable to reply at once. Presently he said to Shadwell: "That was no +living child that entered your room, but an apparition which has been +seen before; and I beg of you not to mention the matter to my wife, for +she always reproaches herself with being partly to blame for the death +of that little girl, who was our eldest-born." He then told the artist +that a few years previously they had had workmen in the house, doing +some plastering and papering. One day, while the work was going on, the +Rector's wife had wished to pay somebody some money, and remembering +that she had just left half a crown on her dressing-table, she told her +eldest girl to run upstairs and bring down this coin. But after rather a +long interval, the child returned saying the money was not there. +Whereupon the mother became annoyed, knowing she had really left the +half-crown on the table, and told the child she must have either stolen +the coin or else be playing a trick for mischief. The little girl +obstinately denied all knowledge of the money, so she was sent to bed in +disgrace, where she presently fell into such a terrible fit of sobbing +and crying that an attack of convulsions came on, and finally she became +unconscious and died. To the parents' grief was added remorse, caused by +the torturing doubt that the poor child might have been after all +unjustly blamed for a fault committed perhaps by one of the strange +workmen, for the missing half-crown was never found.</p> + +<p>Shadwell listened thoughtfully to this sad story, and later, after +thinking over the incident of the evening before, in connection with the +tragic circumstances of the child's death, an idea struck him. He at +once sought the Rector, and asked him whether he had ever thought of +having the wall examined at the spot to which the apparition had +pointed. On hearing that this had not been done, he asked permission to +investigate, and, with the clergyman's help, he opened the wall. And +there, embedded an inch or two in the plaster, exactly where the child's +hand had been placed the night before, was a half-crown!</p> + +<p>Now was this merely a wonderful coincidence? Or may we believe that the +little girl, having hidden the coin in the tempting surface of the wet +plaster—whether for mischief or her own gain one cannot tell—was +afraid to confess her fault? And Death overtaking her, could not give +the spirit rest, till its efforts to reveal the truth had been +recognised and understood.</p> + +<p>But it is certain that since the discovery of the coin in the wall the +apparition of the child has never again been seen.</p> + +<p>Another rectory that possessed the reputation of being haunted is that +of Clifton, in Kent. This is a very old house, dating from the +fourteenth century, and, according to my informant, who knew the house +well (a relation of his having held the living from 1869 to 1880), +mysterious noises had often been heard there by different individuals. +One lady who was paying a visit reported having a "dreadful night," +"with people walking up and down the passage, and muffled voices," but +no one had left their rooms all night. And a youth of sixteen or +seventeen, employed as an outside servant, declared that once when an +errand brought him into the house, he saw "an old gentleman in a grey +dressing-gown walk down the stairs before him, and suddenly disappear." +Whatever it was he saw, the boy was so thoroughly frightened that he +would never enter the house again. My friend's letter continued: "Mrs. +Lowther (whose husband, the late Dr. Lowther, succeeded my relative as +Rector) when 'moving in' elected to stay the night in the rectory by +herself, instead of returning to ... London. The workpeople left, and a +village woman, having prepared Mrs. Lowther's evening meal and made up +fires for her in sitting-room and bedroom, went home. <i>Something</i> is +said to have occurred during the night, and Mrs. Lowther acknowledged +(so the writer has been told) as much, but would never say what it was +that had alarmed her; but it is believed that she <i>did</i> say that nothing +would induce her again to be alone in the house at night."</p> + +<p>I once went to tea with the wife of Canon C——, in the cathedral city +of E——. In the course of conversation the subject of "ghosts" came +up, apropos of which Mrs. C—— remarked: "As you know, these houses are +exceedingly old, being actually part of the ancient Norman monastery +adapted to modern use. Very odd and unaccountable noises were for a long +while heard in the house next door to ours, which of course is all part +of the same old building; and these noises were vaguely ascribed to 'the +ghost,' though nothing was ever seen. But, at last, some structural +alteration of the house became necessary, and in the course of this work +the discovery was made of a human skeleton, which had evidently lain +hidden for centuries, and presumably was that of a Benedictine monk. The +bones were carefully buried, and from that time no more noises have been +heard."</p> + +<p>This story rather resembles the tale of a much more interesting ghost +which inhabited an old manor-house in Somersetshire, and which succeeded +for many years in keeping human beings out of the place. Time after time +the house would be let, people always making light of its haunted +reputation, or else determining to brave its terrors. But they never +stayed more than a few weeks, when they invariably went away, declaring +that one or more members of the household had seen an apparition on the +main staircase. The description—and rather horrible it was—was always +the same. The figure of a woman would come gliding downstairs, carrying +her head under her arm, and on arriving at the foot of the stairs she +invariably vanished.</p> + +<p>At last there came a tenant bolder than his predecessors, and gifted +with an inquiring turn of mind. He said he liked the place and meant to +stay there, and if possible evict the ghost. And he at once began to +investigate. Beginning at the attics he tapped and sounded every wall +and suspicious-looking board in the house, with no result in the way of +discovery till he reached the principal staircase. This, being the +ghost's favourite haunt, received special attention, and working his way +patiently down step by step, he found at length under the old flooring +at the foot of the stairs, a hollow place of considerable size. And in +this hole reposed, <i>headless</i>, a human skeleton (which subsequent +examination proved to be that of a woman) with <i>the severed skull lying +by its side</i>. Then the enterprising tenant hied him to the Vicar of the +parish and told him of the grisly find, and after due consultation it +was decided to collect the poor remains and bury them decently in the +churchyard, a ceremony which seems to have effectually "laid" the ghost, +as report says it has never since been seen.</p> + +<p>But to return for a while to the city of E——. The best ghost story I +heard there concerns the Bishop's Palace, a beautiful Tudor house, said +to be built on the site of the great monastery for which E—— was +famous in Saxon times, and the predecessor of the Norman building, of +which parts still survive in the modern canons' residences.</p> + +<p>I was told that at some time during the sixties or seventies of the past +century, a certain friend of the reigning Bishop was invited to stay a +night at the Palace. He had never been at E—— before, and therefore +knew but little of its history or traditions. There was nothing at all +extraordinary in the appearance of the room assigned to him, and he +slept well enough for the first few hours after going to bed. But +towards morning he woke, and though he knew himself to be wide awake and +not dreaming, yet he had a terrible vision. He was first roused by +sounds which appeared like people scuffling and struggling, and almost +immediately he seemed to be aware in some way of a dreadful scene being +enacted in his room. Although all was dark, yet he saw, as if by some +extra sense, that a man dressed in what looked like very ancient armour +was lying on the floor, while another figure in a monk's habit, knelt +on, and was apparently trying to kill him. The vision—or whatever it +was—lasted but a few moments, then the whole picture faded, and all +became still again. The rest of the night passed undisturbed, though +further sleep was impossible for the visitor, so great was the sense of +horror and absolute reality left in his mind by the scene he had +witnessed, and the sinister sounds he had heard. In the morning he +sought the Bishop, to whom he described his experience, and who +listened gravely; answering that his friend's story was very remarkable +in the light of an old tradition connected with the house, and with the +Saxon monastery which it was believed anciently occupied the site of the +Palace. At the time of the Norman invasion, the community numbered only +forty monks; who, feeling themselves a small and undefended company, and +probably fearing local disturbances and possible pillage, when the +Conqueror's coming should be known, hastened to apply to William for +protection. In reply the grim Norman sent forty of his knights to be +billeted on the monastery, saying that each monk should have a knight to +defend him. Such a claim on their hospitality was probably rather more +than the holy men had bargained for, but the arrangement seems to have +worked well enough, until at last a sad tragedy occurred. One of the +monks having quarrelled (we are not told why) with his foreign guardian, +and quite oblivious of the danger he was thereby bringing on his +companions, rose up in the night and murdered the warrior, taken +unawares in the darkness. What followed history does not relate, but no +doubt William was careful to exact suitable vengeance for his slain +follower.</p> + +<p>There is a curious mediæval painting still to be seen in the Palace, +representing the forty Saxon monks and their knightly protectors.</p> + +<p>Still one more story of a haunted rectory must be told, a story which +when I heard it made a considerable impression on my mind, from the fact +that it was related by a person who, I feel sure, would stoutly deny +that she "believed in ghosts." And so her incredulity regarding matters +pertaining to the world beyond our five senses made her recital all the +more convincing.</p> + +<p>Several years ago this lady, Miss Robinson, chanced to spend a summer +with the rest of her family at a certain country rectory, which her +father had rented for a few months. It should be stated that the +neighbourhood was new to the Robinsons; none of them had ever been in +the county before, and when they first went to the rectory they did not +know any of the residents around.</p> + +<p>It happened one evening when the days were very long, and there was +still plenty of light left, that Miss Robinson was going upstairs about +nine o'clock followed by her little dog, which half-way up passed her +and ran on to the stair-head. There it suddenly stopped short, looking +down a passage which led off the landing, and exhibiting every symptom +of fear, shivering and whining, and its hair bristling. Miss Robinson +thought this behaviour on the animal's part rather odd, but as she +gained the landing and looked down the passage, wondering what had +frightened her dog, she distinctly saw a man cross the end of it and +apparently disappear into the wall. As there was no door at the spot +where the figure vanished, Miss Robinson thought this still more +curious, but as she saw nothing further, and the dog also seemed +immediately reassured, she began to think they had both been victims of +a hallucination, and resolved to keep the matter entirely to herself.</p> + +<p>A short time afterwards she went to tea with some neighbours who had +called on them; and after the usual conventional inquiries as to how +they liked the place, and so forth, Miss Robinson and her sister were +asked, "if anything had been seen by them of the rectory ghost?" +Instantly Miss Robinson's thoughts flew back to that evening on the +staircase, and her dog's terror. However, in reply, she only asked what +form the "ghost" was supposed to take. The answer was that a former +inhabitant of the house had murdered his wife, and that ever since, the +murderer's ghost was said to <i>haunt the end of the passage</i> which led +off the landing. As she listened to these words, Miss Robinson could not +repress a little shudder at the remembrance of the mysterious figure +seen by herself and her dog at the very spot described. But no +repetition of her experience ever occurred, nor was the apparition seen +by any one else in the house during the time the family stayed there.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>There is a curious story told of a country house of some antiquity in +North Devon. This house was once let to a Mr. Barlow, who took up his +abode there, and presently asked a friend to stay with him. This +friend's name was Sharpe, and he was put into a room containing an old +and handsome four-post bed. Next morning, Barlow asked Sharpe what sort +of a night he had had. "Very bad," was the unexpected reply. "I could +not sleep for the talking and whispering going on—I suppose—in the +next room. I hope you will ask the servants not to make so much noise +to-night." Barlow accordingly spoke to the servants, who promptly denied +having been anywhere near the guest's bedroom, or having sat up late at +all. But the following day Sharpe had again the same complaint to make; +he could get no sleep on account of the tiresome "whispering" going on +round him all night. Much mystified Barlow suggested a change of +apartment to his visitor, who refused, saying he would rather wait +another night and try to find out the cause of the disturbance. Barlow +then said he would sit up with Sharpe; and accordingly the two retired +to the room at bed-time, and putting out the light, awaited +developments. Presently, sure enough, a whisper was heard, and very soon +the room seemed full of whispering people. After listening amazed for +some time, Barlow struck a match, when immediately the sounds ceased, +nor, although both men carefully examined walls, chimneys, windows, and +every nook and corner anywhere near the room, could they find a sign of +a human being, or any possible reason for the extraordinary +manifestation. But both noticed with astonishment that, whereas the +curtains had been pulled back off the bed, ready for occupation, they +were now pulled <i>forward</i>, and the ends neatly folded up on the pillows +as a bed is left in the day-time.</p> + +<p>After this Sharpe changed his room for the rest of his stay, but Barlow +made diligent inquiries until he found out all that he could about the +previous history of the house, and particularly of the room containing +the four-poster. He learnt eventually that the big bed had been for many +generations in the house, and had always been used when there was a +death in the family for the lying-in-state of the corpse.</p> + +<p>Another Devonshire house, D——n Hall, the ancestral home of an old and +well-known family, is haunted by a lady who sometimes surprises visitors +unaccustomed to her little ways.</p> + +<p>On one occasion a husband and wife, who happened to be staying at +D——n, were both dressing for dinner on the first evening of their +visit. Suddenly, without any warning, the door of the wife's room was +opened, and in walked a beautifully dressed woman, with grey or powdered +hair turned off her forehead and worn very high. Without appearing to +take the slightest notice of Mrs. Blank the intruder passed through the +room, opened the dressing-room door, went in and shut the door behind +her. Petrified with astonishment, Mrs. Blank stood for a moment staring +after the apparition, then dashing into the dressing-room she exclaimed, +"Where did that lady go?" (There was no other door except the one +communicating with the bedroom.) The husband, who was calmly dressing, +was naturally somewhat surprised at the question; explanations followed; +he had seen nothing and thought his wife must have been dreaming. But +over-flowing with wonder, Mrs. Blank went downstairs, and seeking her +hostess confided to her the singular incident, adding that she supposed +the "lady" was a fellow-guest who had in some way mistaken her room; but +where had she disappeared to when she entered the dressing-room? "Hush," +was the reply. "It was no living person you saw, but the <i>ghost</i>; only +don't breathe a word to any one else here. There is no harm in her; and +she has often been seen before by people staying in the house." And with +this casual explanation Mrs. Blank was fain to be content.</p> + +<p>A story very similar to the above is told by Mr. Henderson in +"Folk-lore of the Northern Counties" about a house in Perthshire, where +the figure of a very beautiful woman was one evening seen on the +staircase by a visitor staying in the house. In this case the hostess +informed her friend that the apparition had frequently been seen before, +but always by strangers, never by any member of the family.</p> + +<p>The following incident is said to have happened quite lately in another +Scotch country house. Two sisters, one quite a young girl, went to stay +at this place, and were given rooms close to one another. One night the +younger sister suddenly woke up. The room was dimly lighted by a bright +moon, and there, close by the bed, the girl saw, apparently rising out +of the floor, a human hand. Thinking she had nightmare she closed her +eyes and vainly tried to sleep, but feeling impelled, in spite of fear, +to look again, there was the hand—nothing else—close by her bedside +still. This time she felt horribly frightened, and hurling herself out +of bed, she rushed to her sister's room, which she insisted on sharing +for the rest of the night. In the morning she told the elder girl what +she had seen, declaring she could not pass another night in that room. +Her sister scolded her a little for what she considered foolish +imagination, and begged her to say nothing of the "bad dream" to their +friends, as people did not like it to be thought that there was anything +ghostly about their houses.</p> + +<p>Later in the day the son of the family was taking the elder sister over +the house, which was old and interesting. Presently he remarked, "We +have a ghost here, too, you know." The visitor pricked up her ears, and +asked what form the ghost was supposed to take. "It is a hand," was the +reply, "nothing else." "Then my sister saw it last night," exclaimed the +girl, whereupon she was much surprised to see her companion turn pale +and seem agitated. But in reply to her questions he would say nothing +further, leaving his listener wondering uncomfortably if the appearance +of the spectral hand was a bad omen; and if so, whether it boded ill to +the owners of the house or to the individual who had had the +disagreeable experience of seeing it.</p> + +<p>Before leaving Scotland we must mention an Aberdeenshire house, +described to us by a friend as inhabited by the ghost of an old lady, +who regularly appears in a certain room once a year. Evidently her +unrest is caused by an uneasy conscience, if tradition be correct; which +says that she was a wicked old person who flourished in the early +seventeenth century. Having a deadly feud with a neighbouring family, +she decoyed them with false promises and an invitation to a feast into +the tower of the house. Then she had the doors locked, and setting fire +to the tower, she got rid of her enemies in one horrible holocaust.</p> + +<p>From Scotland to Northumberland is not a far cry, and on our way South +you must listen to an odd little story connected with a house called +Wickstead Priory in that county. The friend who told me was staying at +Wickstead when the incident happened. I will call her X.; and her room +happened to be on the opposite side of the corridor to a large bedroom +occupied by a married sister of the hostess. One evening, while X. was +dressing for dinner she heard some noise and commotion going on in this +other room, and later in the evening, she asked its occupant what had +been the matter. "Oh," was the reply, "I had such a fright! I am sure +you won't believe me, but as I sat doing my hair before the +looking-glass, a <i>horrid-looking little monk</i> came and peered over my +shoulder. I saw him plainly in the glass, but when I turned round, no +one was there!"</p> + +<p>I have before remarked on the disagreeable habit so common amongst +ghosts of appearing by one's bedside at dead of night. In fact, a large +percentage of the ghost stories one hears contain the words, "He (or +she) looked round, and there was a figure standing by the bed," &c. &c. +And a tale which I heard on excellent authority of a Staffordshire house +concerns a "bedside" spook of the most conventional pattern, which +succeeded in thoroughly astonishing, if not alarming, a Colonel and Mrs. +West, who were paying a visit to Morton Hall. The owner of the house was +a cousin of Colonel West's, whom he had not seen for a long time, and +of whom he knew little, having been soldiering abroad for many years. On +the first night of their visit, towards the small hours, Mrs. West woke +up quite suddenly, and although the room was dark, yet she could somehow +perceive distinctly a figure advancing towards the end of the bed, +seeming to emerge from the opposite wall. Very startled, Mrs. West woke +her husband, who also saw the figure—by this time stationary at the +foot of the bed—and called out to it, "Who are you, and what do you +want?" But at the sound of the voice the figure retreated, and seemed to +fade away. The rest of the night passed undisturbed.</p> + +<p>Next morning Colonel West said to one of the children of the house, "A +nice trick you played us last night." For after much discussion, he and +his wife had come to the conclusion that the only reasonable explanation +of what they had seen was that they had been the victims of a clever +practical joke. The child addressed looked puzzled, and when questioned +said that nobody had played any tricks at all. Later on, their hostess +came to Mrs. West, and said she was extremely sorry to hear from her +little girl that they had been disturbed the night before, adding that +owing to the house being full the Wests had been given the <i>haunted +room</i>. For knowing they were complete strangers to Morton, and probably +knew little of its traditions, it was thought very unlikely they would +be troubled by anything uncanny. They were then asked what they had +seen, and Mrs. West described the mysterious "figure," saying that it +resembled a woman wrapped in flowing garments, and carrying a bundle +under her arm. "That was the ghost," replied the cousin's wife. "Years +ago a woman was murdered in that room, and ever since then she has +occasionally appeared to people, dressed as you describe and carrying +her head under her arm."</p> + +<p>Wherein lies the decided element of creepiness contained in my next +story? Perhaps it may be that it deals with a haunting of a most unusual +and remote character, having its origin in some unknown disturbance of +the very elements themselves. It relates to a very well-known English +house called Ainsley Abbey, where not so very long ago there was a large +party staying for the local hunt ball; among the guests a certain Mrs. +Devereux. Knowing that she would be very late returning from the ball, +this lady told her maid not to wait up for her, but to go to bed at her +usual time. So what was Mrs. Devereux's surprise when she came back in +the early hours of next morning, to find that the maid had disobeyed her +injunctions, and was waiting in her room. When asked why she had not +gone to bed, she told her mistress that she had done so but had been so +disturbed by the "terrible storm"—thunder and great gale—that she +could not rest and grew too frightened to stay in her room. She sought +the house-servants, but to her surprise they had noticed no storm, and +laughed at her when she said there was a high wind raging round the +house. Finally she resolved to wait in her mistress's room, adding that +she was thankful the party had got back safely, as she had felt +concerned at Mrs. Devereux being out in such awful weather. As the night +had been perfectly calm and fine, Mrs. Devereux was much astonished at +this tale, but at last concluded (though she did not say so) that her +maid must really have been asleep and dreamed of the storm. But +happening to mention the matter as a joke to her host next day, she was +surprised to find it treated with the greatest interest, and to be told +it was no case of a dream. That occasionally people who came to stay at +Ainsley <i>could</i> hear sounds that they always described as a +thunder-storm and hurricane of wind blowing round the house. In fact, it +was a species of haunting which had never been accounted for. Like an +echo of Dante's</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Infernal hurricane that never rests,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whirling them round."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Not long ago, I came across a lady who told me of some very interesting +happenings of a ghostly nature connected with a house in a suburb of one +of the great University towns. This house was taken by a Mrs. Drew, in +order that she might be near her son, who was an undergraduate of one of +the colleges. But he lived with his mother, who also took in three +other undergraduates as paying guests. After a time Mrs. Drew discovered +that there was something rather unusual about this house. She heard +noises she could not account for, and frequently had the consciousness +of an invisible presence in the room with her. But at last one day, she +not only <i>felt</i> but <i>saw</i> quite near her, an appearance, as of the head +and shoulders of a very pretty, amiable-looking girl, the head draped in +a kind of veil. After this, she would sometimes become aware that the +same apparition was sitting beside her; on other occasions she would see +it dimly flitting about the rooms; but in time she got so accustomed to +its appearance that she took little notice of it at all.</p> + +<p>Once, when her son went up to the North to play in a cricket match, Mrs. +Drew felt rather worried about him, as he had not been well, and she was +afraid he was not really fit to play. Especially during the night after +the match, she could not help lying awake and thinking about him. +Suddenly she became conscious that the now familiar figure of the +apparition was standing at the foot of the bed, looking at her. And +then, for the first time, it spoke to Mrs. Drew, telling her to feel no +alarm for her son's welfare, "for," it said, "I have been with him all +day. He is quite well, and played very well in the match." Then it +disappeared.</p> + +<p>On another occasion, young Drew and one of his friends were reading at +night in the study, when they were startled by the sound of a terrific +crash in the next room. They rushed in, expecting they knew not what, +but the room was empty, quiet and dark.</p> + +<p>One summer Mrs. Drew tried to let the house for a while. A lady came to +see and appeared on the point of taking it; but while discussing the +subject with Mrs. Drew in the drawing-room, and making final +arrangements, she quite suddenly got up and went away, saying she would +write. When her letter came, it merely said the house did not suit her; +but later, when pressed for an explanation of such a sudden change of +mind, she admitted that while talking to Mrs. Drew in the drawing-room +she had observed a beautiful young girl come and seat herself on the +sofa close by them. No one else seemed to see the girl or to be in the +least conscious of her presence; yet somehow her appearance produced +such an uncanny feeling in the visitor's mind that she felt she could +not stay another moment in the room or in the house. And so she broke +off the negotiation.</p> + +<p>At last, her son's time at the University being finished, Mrs. Drew gave +up the house, and was succeeded in it by some people who opened a shop. +And while making the alterations necessary for the purpose, the +workpeople discovered hidden under a floor the skeleton of a young +woman! But who she was, and why her bones were there, no one had been +able to find out at the time when I heard the story—about two years +ago—though imagination promptly offers us a choice of sinister theories +to account for the buried skeleton and its restless <i>umbra</i>. "Requiescat +in pace" for the future!</p> + +<p>Why the foregoing tale should remind me of a ghost that was seen in a +Northamptonshire house, I do not know; but, in spite of the irrelevance, +here is the story. Some years ago, a large party was assembled there for +shooting, and one of the guests was given a rather out-of-the-way room, +which was usually allotted to a stray bachelor, when, as happened on +this occasion, the house was very full. However, it was a very +comfortable room, and the visitor slept there soundly enough on the +first night, until at what seemed to be a very early hour, a knock on +his door woke him up. Mechanically saying "Come in," he opened his eyes, +and saw a little elderly man, dressed in rather tight-fitting, +pepper-and-salt clothes, such as grooms wear, who walked into the room +with an assured step, pulled up the blind, and went out again. Mr. Blank +imagined that the man had come to call him, though wondering why he came +so early and had brought no hot water; especially as a footman called +him later at the usual hour. When asked next morning if he had slept +well, he mentioned the fact of his being awakened so early, saying he +supposed that the man must have made some mistake. "What was he like?" +asked the host, and when his friend described the man as elderly, and +looking like a groom, his friend replied, "What you say is rather odd, +because only a fortnight ago, a groom, who was an old family servant +here, died. Of late years he had done little work, but almost until the +end, one of his duties, which he would never relinquish, was <i>to call +any one who chanced to occupy that room</i>."</p> + +<p>My next tale has always seemed to me one of the most interesting psychic +experiences that I have ever heard related.</p> + +<p>Some few years ago, a young officer, whom we will call Lestrange, went +to stay at a country house in the Midlands. It may be said that he was a +good type of the average British subaltern, whose tastes, far from +inclining towards abstract study or metaphysical speculation, lay +chiefly in the direction of polo, hunting, and sport generally. In fact, +the last person in the world one would have said likely to "see a +ghost." One afternoon during his visit, Lestrange borrowed a dog-cart +from his friend, and set out to drive to the neighbouring town. About +half-way there he saw walking along the road in front of him a very poor +and ragged-looking man, who, as he passed him, looked so ill and +miserable that Lestrange, being a kind-hearted person, took pity on him +and, pulling up, called out, "Look here, if you are going to C——, get +up behind me and I will give you a lift." The man said nothing but +proceeded to climb up on the cart, and as he did so, Lestrange noticed +that he wore a rather peculiar handkerchief round his neck, of bright +red, spotted with green. He took his seat and Lestrange drove on and +reaching C—— stopped at the door of the principal hotel. When the +ostler came forward to take the horse, Lestrange, without looking round, +said to him: "Just give that man on the back seat a good hot meal and +I'll pay. He looks as if he wanted it, poor chap." The ostler looked +puzzled and said: "Yes, sir; but what man do you mean?"</p> + +<p>Lestrange turned his head and saw that the back seat was empty, which +rather astonished him and he exclaimed: "Well! I hope he didn't fall +off. But I never heard him get down. At all events, if he turns up here, +feed him. He is a ragged, miserable-looking fellow, and you will know +him by the handkerchief he had round his neck, bright red and green." As +these last words were uttered a waiter who had been standing in the +doorway and heard the conversation came forward and said to Lestrange, +"Would you mind stepping inside for a moment, sir?"</p> + +<p>Lestrange followed him, noticing that he looked very grave, and the +waiter stopped at a closed door, behind the bar, saying: "I heard you +describe that tramp you met, sir, and I want you to see what is in +here." He then led the way into a small bedroom, and there, lying on the +bed, was the corpse of a man, ragged and poor, <i>wearing round his neck a +red handkerchief spotted with green</i>. Lestrange made a startled +exclamation. "Why, that is the very man I took up on the road just now. +How did he get here?"</p> + +<p>He was then told that the body he saw had been found by the roadside at +four o'clock the preceding afternoon, and that it had been taken to the +hotel to await the inquest. Comparisons showed that Lestrange had picked +up his tramp at the spot where the body had been discovered on the +previous day; and the hour, four o'clock, was also found to tally +exactly.</p> + +<p>Now was this, as the ancients would have told us, the <i>umbra</i> of the +poor tramp, loth to quit entirely a world of which it knew at least the +worst ills, to "fly to others that it knew not of"? Or was it rather +what Mr. C. W. Leadbeater has described in his book, "The Other Side of +Death," as a <i>thought-form</i>, caused by the thoughts of the dead man +returning with honor to the scene of his lonely and miserable end, and +thereby producing psychic vibrations strong enough to construct an +actual representation of his physical body, visible to any "sensitive" +who happened that way? We must leave our readers to decide for +themselves what theory will best fit as an explanation of this strange +and true story.</p> + +<p>And now for the curious experiences of a professor of a well-known +theological institution, which he related most unwillingly and under +great pressure to a small gathering of friends, amongst whom a friend +of mine was present, who afterwards, knowing my interest in ghostly +lore, told me the stories.</p> + +<p>This professor, whom we will call Mr. Bliss, was a graduate of one of +the newer Universities. Some years after he had taken his degree, he had +occasion to return to his University, and resolved to put up at his +former lodgings, as he would have to make some little stay. So leaving +his luggage at the station, he walked to the house, but before going in, +he took a turn or two up and down the pavement to finish a cigarette he +was smoking. While he was doing this, he saw a man, whom he recognised +at once as the son of the landlady, run up the steps and enter the +house, shutting the door behind him. His cigarette finished, Bliss +followed the man, and knocking at the door was warmly welcomed by his +old landlady, who told him she would certainly take him in, adding, "You +can have my son's room." "But your son is at home," said Bliss. "Oh no, +he is abroad," was the reply, and as Mrs. X. spoke, Bliss saw a shadow +come over her expression. "But that is impossible. I have just seen your +son go into this house," and he told the mother how he had been smoking, +and had seen the man whom he recognised as her son enter the house a few +moments before himself. Nor could Mrs. X.'s continued assertions, that +her son, far from being in the house was not even in England, shake the +conviction of Bliss that he had seen the man in question only a few +minutes before. However, seeing that the subject was distressing to Mrs. +X. he said no more. When night came, the landlady told him that she had +decided to give him her own room, taking herself the one formerly used +by her son. Bliss went to bed, and at first slept well, but very early +next morning he was roused by a sound as of some one creeping softly +into the room. He struck a light, and to his intense surprise saw Mrs. +X.'s son walking stealthily across the room to a corner where there +stood an old closed bureau. The man apparently took not the smallest +notice of Bliss, who, watching him, saw him take a key from his pocket, +and unlocking the bureau, fumble in its recesses until he drew out what +appeared to be a bag of money. This was too much for Bliss, who, +convinced that he was witnessing an act of robbery, whether by young X. +or somebody cleverly impersonating him he had no time to consider, +jumped out of bed and rushed at the intruder, on whose shoulder he +brought his arm down with some violence. But imagine the horror of +Bliss, when instead of being checked by a human body, the blow +encountered—nothing! And even as he stood there, the apparition—for +such it surely was—vanished utterly.</p> + +<p>Next day Bliss felt impelled to tell Mrs. X. of his astonishing +experience, and (passing over the painful excitement and emotion aroused +by his recital) he heard the following story, which seemed to afford a +possible if somewhat far-fetched explanation of an extraordinary +happening. It appeared that young X. was far from being an exemplary +character, and that he ended his various escapades by robbing his +mother. He had entered her room in the night and by means of a false key +opened her bureau, where he knew she kept money, and removed all that +was there. After which he had left the country, and was living abroad, +never, of course, having been home since.</p> + +<p>So much for one experience; the other is more dramatic, and happened on +the same occasion of Bliss's visit to his old University. One afternoon, +he went for a long walk into the country, and it was quite dark when he +returned homewards. As he proceeded along a deep lane, so overhung with +trees that the gloom on either hand seemed almost impenetrable, he +became aware of a dim light approaching him, and presently he saw that +it came from the head of a figure who was walking towards him and who, +as it drew nearer, seemed to be dressed like a Sister of Mercy, in a +blue dress and large white cap, while always the strange, pale light +seemed to radiate from her head. She walked straight and swiftly towards +him, and Bliss saw that unless he moved they would collide; so, thinking +that the person did not see him in spite of the light she carried about +her, he quickly stepped aside to let her pass. As he did so, he stumbled +over what seemed to be a large bundle on the road, and, stooping down to +see what it was, he discovered that the bundle was really a man, lying +huddled up and inanimate, but whether drunk or otherwise unconscious it +was impossible for the moment to tell, for utter darkness had again +fallen, the woman with the light having absolutely disappeared. But +Bliss could now hear the sound of wheels and a horse being driven very +fast; indeed, had he not loudly shouted, he and the unconscious man must +have been run over. And what about this man, if he had not happened to +find him lying there? And again, how <i>would</i> he have found him if the +figure with the light had not come by, and caused Bliss to step aside. +Such thoughts came to his mind, as he helped the driver to lift the man +into the trap, and gave directions for him to be taken to the nearest +hospital; while further reflection during his walk home convinced him +that any ordinary explanation of such an incident was quite inadequate, +and that perhaps it was just one of those "things" that, as Hamlet +reminded his friend, are undreamed of "in our philosophy."</p> + +<p>This chapter shall conclude with a tale told me lately by a friend who +had herself heard it on excellent authority. It concerns a Mrs. Borrow +who, two years ago, happened to be staying at Fontainebleau. One evening +she thought she would go for a walk, and accordingly setting out, soon +found herself free of the town, and in a deep country lane. Suddenly, at +some distance ahead of her, but still quite near enough to see plainly, +she saw the oddest figure of a man jump down from the hedge into the +road. He wore a curious kind of cap, red, with a tassel hanging down, +and his costume altogether appeared more like a fancy dress than the +garb of the present day. He stood in the middle of the road, and then +Mrs. Borrow noticed that a deer, which had wandered from the forest into +the lane, evidently saw the man too, for it stood quite still, gazing +fixedly at him. Mrs. Borrow hurried on, wishing to get a closer look at +such a strange person, but to her great bewilderment, as she drew near +he seemed to vanish away, causing her to wonder if she and the deer had +both been the victims of an optical delusion. At all events, she saw no +more of the mysterious figure that evening, though, as may be imagined, +her mind was full of the occurrence, and as soon as she returned to +Fontainebleau she sought out some friends who were residents there, and +described what she had seen. They instantly exclaimed: "Oh, you have +seen 'le Grand Veneur.' How unlucky for you. He always presages +misfortune to those who meet him in the forest." They then explained +that "le Grand Veneur" was really a ghost, and told Mrs. Borrow the +legend relating to him.</p> + +<p>It must be added that so far, happily, the omen has not worked in Mrs. +Borrow's case, as no particular misfortune had befallen her when my +friend heard the story, only a few months ago. So perhaps the powers of +"le Grand Veneur" for "ill-wishing" those who see him have lapsed with +time.</p> + +<p>Mr. Henderson mentions this apparition in "Folk-lore of the Northern +Counties": "Near Fontainebleau, Hugh Capet is believed to ride...." And +again: "I have said that the Wild Huntsman rides in the woods of +Fontainebleau. He is known to have blown his horn loudly and rushed over +the palace with all his hounds, before the assassination of Henry the +Fourth." Henderson, it will be noted, describes the huntsman as mounted, +while Mrs. Borrow's apparition was on foot; as, however, her description +seems to have been immediately recognised as "le Grand Veneur," a +well-known ghost, it is probable that Henderson refers to the same +tradition.</p> + +<p>In a note to his version of the German ballad of "The Chase," Sir Walter +Scott relates the legend of the "Wild Jäger," or Wild Huntsman of +Germany, adding: "The French had a similar tradition concerning an +aerial hunter who infested the forest of Fontainebleau." Also in +"Quentin Durward" he mentions "le Grand Veneur," to meet whom in the +forest was a bad omen; and again in "Woodstock" he writes of a similar +apparition, said to haunt the woods of Woodstock: "Anon it is a solitary +huntsman, who asks you if you can tell him which way the chase has gone. +He is always dressed in green, but the fashion of his clothes is some +five hundred years old."</p> + +<p>In a former chapter I have mentioned the alleged appearances in quite +modern times of two phantom hunters in Wales. The fact seems to be that +the "Wild Huntsman" legend is one of great antiquity and wide +distribution, its details in different places being merely altered to +suit local circumstances.</p> + +<p>But that is a fact that does not in the least detract from the interest +of Mrs. Borrow's strange little adventure in the lane near +Fontainebleau.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>CORPSE-CANDLES AND THE TOILI</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A vague presentiment of his pending doom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like ghostly footsteps in a vacant room<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Haunted him day and night."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>When St. David of blessed memory lay dying his soul was greatly troubled +by the thought of his people, who would soon be bereft of his pious care +and exhortations. He remembered the Celtic character, apt to be lifted +to heights of enthusiastic piety by any passing influence of oratory, +and, alas! prone to sink to depths of indifference, or even scepticism, +when that influence was removed. So the Saint prayed very earnestly for +his flock that some special sign of divine assistance might be granted +them. Tradition says that his prayer was heard, and a promise given that +henceforth no one in the good Archbishop's diocese should die without +receiving previous intimation of his end, and so might be prepared. The +warning was to be a light proceeding from the person's dwelling to the +place where he should be buried, following exactly the road which the +funeral would afterwards take. This light, visible a few days before +death, is the <i>canwyll corph</i> (corpse-candle).</p> + +<p>Such is the legend generally supposed to be the foundation of a very +ancient belief, though a less common version is given by Howells in his +"Cambrian Superstitions" (1831), where he says: "The reason of their +(the candles) appearing is generally attributed to a Bishop of St. +David's, a martyr, who in olden days, while burning, prayed that they +might be seen in Wales (some say in his diocese only) before a person's +death, that they might testify that he had died a martyr...." The Bishop +alluded to here was Ferrars, who was burnt at Carmarthen under the +persecutions in Queen Mary's reign.</p> + +<p>But whatever the origin of the <i>canwyll</i> belief, it was once almost +universal in some parts of Wales, and even in these sceptical days one +sometimes comes across it in out-of-the-way corners of the Principality.</p> + +<p>In Brand's "Antiquities" we read: "Corpse Candles, says Grose, are very +common appearances in the counties of Cardigan, Carmarthen, and +Pembroke, and also in some other parts of Wales; they are called candles +from their resemblance, not to the body of a candle, but the fire, +because that fire, says the honest Welshman, Mr. Davies, in a letter to +Mr. Baxter, doth as much resemble material candle-light as eggs do eggs; +saving that in their journey these candles are sometimes visible and +sometimes disappear, especially if any one comes near them or in the +way to meet them. On these occasions they vanish, but presently reappear +behind the observer and <i>hold their Corpse</i> (<i>sic</i>). If a little candle +is seen, of a pale bluish colour, then follows the Corpse of some +Infant, if a larger one, then the Corpse of some one come to age.... If +two Candles come from different places and meet, two Corpses will do the +same, and if any of these Candles be seen to turn aside through some +bypath leading to the church the following Corpses will be found to take +exactly the same way. Sometimes these Candles point out the place where +people will sicken and die...."</p> + +<p>The "honest Welshman" above quoted by Grose was the Rev. J. Davies of +Geneurglyn, and the whole of his letter, which Richard Baxter published +in his "World of Spirits" (1656), is most interesting to read. He +continues: "Now let us fall to evidence. Being about the age of fifteen, +dwelling at Llanylar, late at night, some neighbours saw one of these +candles hovering up and down along the river-bank, until they were weary +of beholding it; at last they left it so, and went to bed. A few weeks +after came a proper damsel from Montgomeryshire to see her friends, who +dwelt on the other side of the river Istwith, and thought to ford the +river at that very place where the light was seen, being dissuaded by +some lookers-on (some, it is most likely, of those who saw the light) to +adventure on the water, which was high by reason of a flood; she walked +up and down the river-bank, even where, and ever as the aforesaid candle +did, waiting for the falling of the water, which at last she took, but +too soon for her, for she was drowned therein.... Some thirty or forty +years since, my wife's sister being nurse to Baronet Rudd's three eldest +children, and (the Lady mistress being dead) the Lady-comptroller of the +house going late into the chamber where the maid-servants lay, saw no +less than five of these lights together. It happened a while after this, +that the chamber being newly plastered and a grate of coal-fire therein +kindled to hasten the drying of the plaster, that five of the +maid-servants went to bed as they were wont, but as it fell out, too +soon, for in the morning they were all dead, being suffocated in their +sleep by the steam of the newly tempered lime and coal. This was at +Llangathen in Carmarthenshire."</p> + +<p>I have always been much interested in this story, as the house where the +accident happened two hundred and fifty years ago is very well known to +me in these days. And indeed the tradition of the five smothered maids +is still extant; for the tale, substantially as related by Mr. Davies, +was told me only a few years ago by an old woman living in Llangathen +village, who had been many years in service in the house referred to by +Baxter's reverend correspondent, though the Rudd family has long +disappeared, and the place changed owners many times since. As to +"Llanylar" on the river "Istwith" it is a village not so far from my own +home in Cardiganshire; and quite lately a clergyman, born and brought up +in that district, informed me that when he was a boy—and he is not +old—stories of "corpse-candles" abounded there, and belief in them was +very common.</p> + +<p>To return to "Cambrian Superstitions" again, its author relates what he +seems to think a well-authenticated instance of a <i>canwyll's</i> +appearance, as follows. "Some years ago (he was writing in 1831), when +the coach which runs from Llandilo to Carmarthen was passing by Golden +Grove (the property of the noble Earl Cawdor), three corpse-candles were +observed on the surface of the water, gliding down the stream which runs +near the road; all the passengers beheld them, and it is related that a +few days after, some men were crossing the river near there in a +coracle, but one of them expressed his fear at venturing, as the river +was flooded, and remained behind; the other three possessing less +discernment, ventured, and when about the middle of the river, +lamentable to relate, their frail conveyance sank through the weight +that was in it, and they were drowned."</p> + +<p>Writing in 1888 of Pembrokeshire, Mr. Edward Laws, in "Little England +beyond Wales," says: "It would be by no means difficult to find a score +of persons who are fully persuaded that they themselves have been +favoured with a vision of the mysterious lights," adding, "St. Daniel's +cemetery, Pembroke, is a likely place for 'fetch-candles.'"</p> + +<p>Although the weird privilege was supposed to belong entirely to St. +David's diocese, yet some writers mention the belief as well known in +North Wales. George Borrow, in "Wild Wales," describes in Chapter XI. a +conversation he had on the subject with a woman who lived near +Llangollen, and had herself seen a <i>canwyll corph</i>. And in our days, Sir +John Rees writes in "Celtic Folk-lore": "It is hard to guess why it was +assumed that the <i>canwyll corph</i> was unknown in other parts of Wales.... +I have myself heard of them being seen in Anglesey." But earlier authors +nearly always assign South Wales as the real home of the tradition. +Meyrick, in his "History of Cardiganshire" (1810), speaks of St. David +obtaining the privilege for his diocese, adding: "The <i>canwyll corph</i> is +bright or pale according to the age of the person, and if the candle is +seen to turn out of the path that leads to the church, the corpse will +do so likewise."</p> + +<p>Scientifically approached, the corpse-candle is merely the well-known +<i>ignis fatuus</i> (will-o'-the-wisp or marsh light) occasionally seen to +quiver and flicker at night over the surface of bog and swamp. Shelley +writes:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"As a fen-fire's beam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On a sluggish stream<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Gleams dimly."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Often appearing in the distance like a carried lantern, these lights +have been known to lure unwary travellers from a safe path to insecurity +and danger. Scott's name for the will-o'-the-wisp is Friar Rush's +lantern:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Better we had through mire and bush<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Been lantern-led by Friar Rush."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the same connection, Milton in "L'Allegro" also mentions the "friar's +lantern."</p> + +<p>But though one may have an open mind on the subject of the <i>canwyll +corph</i>, yet it does not seem as if the <i>ignis fatuus</i> explanation covers +quite all the ground suggested in the various instances of the +<i>canwyll's</i> appearance described in the following notes.</p> + +<p>All authorities agree that the most characteristic feature of the +corpse-candle's appearance is, that it invariably follows the exact line +that will be taken by the funeral procession. This is well illustrated +by an instance that occurred some years ago at a house in Cardiganshire. +Instead of going straight along the drive, the light was seen to flicker +down some steps and round the garden pond; and when the death occurred +the drive was partly broken up under repair, and the coffin had to be +taken the way indicated by the corpse-candle. At another place in the +same county, tradition says that before a death takes place there, a +corpse-light is always seen to emerge from the neighbouring churchyard, +and pass quivering up the drive towards the house. Another story from +Carmarthenshire relates how shortly before a death in the family owning +a certain house, the woman living at the lodge saw a pale light come +down the drive one evening. It pursued its way as far as the lodge, +where it hovered a few moments, then through the gates, and out on the +road, where it stopped again for several minutes under some trees. On +the day of the funeral the hearse, for an unexpected reason, was pulled +up for some time at the exact spot where the <i>canwyll</i> had halted.</p> + +<p>The following story, which was related by a lady of cultured mind and +much common sense, has always seemed to me one of the most interesting +of its kind that I have ever heard. Whether it was a case of <i>canwyll +corph</i> or not must be left to my readers to determine, but it is +certainly hard to account for the incident in any ordinary way:</p> + +<p>My friend, Miss Morris, lived when she was a young girl in Wales, and +her father's house stood on a steep hill-side, with the village church +just below, a short walk from the lodge gates. One Sunday evening, in +winter, Miss Morris, her sister, and two maids walked down to the church +to attend the six o'clock service. As they came out from the drive on to +the road, they saw flickering down the hill in front of them, a pale +bluish light, which, in the darkness, Miss Morris and her sister took to +be a lantern carried by some church-goer like themselves, although they +could see no figure of man or woman. The light stopped at the +churchyard gate, and turned in, but Miss Morris observed that the person +carrying it did not enter the church, but went on towards a grave with a +tombstone. Now this grave happened to be the only one in the +burying-ground, for the church had only lately been built, and the +churchyard but newly consecrated. Arrived at the solitary tombstone, the +light suddenly disappeared. The two girls went round to the same place, +as their curiosity was roused by the light's disappearance, but there +was nobody by the grave. Rather puzzled, they went into the church, +where they had to wait some time for the service to begin, as the Vicar +was very late. Afterwards he told Miss Morris that he had been detained +at a cottage by a dying woman, who had begged him to stay with her till +the end. When they returned home, the sisters told their mother of the +light they had seen, and were promptly advised by her to speak to no one +else on the subject, and to dismiss it from their minds as soon as +possible. However, next day, as Miss Morris was passing the churchyard +gate, she saw a brother of the deceased woman standing there with the +Vicar, to whom he said: "My sister wished to be buried by the side of +her friend, Sarah Jones." And the man then walked through the +churchyard, <i>straight to the exact place by the tombstone</i> where Miss +Morris and her sister had seen the light disappear on the evening +before.</p> + +<p>Not long ago I was talking about the <i>canwyll corph</i> and kindred +subjects with the postmistress of a Cardiganshire village, who remarked +that she had only known one person who had ever seen a "corpse-light." +This was a woman—now dead—called Mary Jones, and to use the words of +the postmistress "a very religious and respectable person." At one time +in her life she lived in a village called Pennant (its real name), a +place well known to me, where the church is rather a landmark, being set +on top of a hill. Mary Jones invariably and solemnly declared that +whenever a death occurred among her neighbours, she would always +previously see a corpse-candle wend its way up the hill from the village +to the churchyard. And at the same place she once saw the Toili (a +phantom funeral). This last experience was in broad daylight, and was +shared with several other people who were haymaking at the time, and who +all saw clearly the spectral procession appear along a road and +mysteriously vanish when it reached a certain point. But we will speak +of the Toili presently.</p> + +<p>Another belief relating to the <i>canwyll</i> was that it not only boded +future troubles, but that it was positively dangerous for anybody who +saw one to get in its way. I had never heard locally of this +disagreeable attribute of the corpse-light until I talked to the +postmistress already quoted. This woman said that long ago she and other +children were always frightened from straying far from home by tales of +"Jacky Lantern," a mysterious light, which, encountered on the road, +would infallibly burn them up! George Borrow ("Wild Wales," Chapter +LXXXVIII.) mentions meeting with the same belief when talking to a +shepherd who acted as his guide from the Devil's Bridge over Plinlimmon. +Borrow said: "They (corpse-candles) foreshadow deaths, don't they?" To +which the shepherd replied: "They do, sir; but that's not all the harm +they do. They are very dangerous for anybody to meet with. If they come +bump up against you when you are walking carelessly, its generally all +over with you in this world." Then followed the story of how a man, well +known to the shepherd, had actually met his death in that weird manner. +Howells also mentions the same idea in "Cambrian Superstitions," where, +writing of corpse-lights, he says: "When any one observes their +approach, if they do not move aside they will be struck down by their +force, as I was informed by a person living, whose father coming in +contact with one was thrown off his horse."</p> + +<p>This certainly adds to the fear inspired by the sight of the <i>canwyll</i>, +but the more general belief seems to have been that these lights were +quite harmless in themselves, and when seen were regarded with awe only +as sure harbingers of future woe.</p> + +<p>If we may believe the Rev. Mr. Davies, whose letter, published in +Baxter's "World of Spirits," has been already quoted, there is yet +another kind of fire apparition peculiar to Wales, called the Tanwe, or +Tanwed. "This appeareth to our seeming, in the lower region of the air, +straight and long ... but far more slowly than falling stars. It +lighteneth all the air and ground where it passeth, lasteth three or +four miles or more for ought is known, and when it falls to the ground +it sparkleth and lighteth all about. These commonly announce the +death ... of freeholders, by falling on their lands, and you shall +scarcely bury any such with us, be he but a lord of a house and garden, +but you shall find some one at his burial that hath seen this fire fall +on some part of his lands." Sometimes these appearances have been seen +by the persons whose deaths they foretold, two instances of which Mr. +Davies records as having happened in his own family.</p> + +<p>When reading the above description of the "Tanwe"—of which I had +previously never heard—there came to my mind a story told me by an old +Welsh lady of an extraordinary phenomenon, which she solemnly declared +had preceded the death of her brother-in-law—a gentleman well known and +respected in Cardiganshire. Shortly before his last and fatal illness +his wife, returning home one evening, was amazed to see the most curious +lights, apparently falling from the sky immediately over their house. +From the account given by my friend, her sister seems to have at once +recognised the supernatural character and sinister import of the +mysterious lights; their appearance being recalled with melancholy +interest by her and her sisters after the sad event which so soon +followed. Can this incident be explained as a survival of the old +"Tanwe" idea, of which our authority, the then Vicar of Geneurglyn, +wrote in the seventeenth century? It seems as if it might be so, and +that belief in the Tanwe was probably an old <i>local</i> superstition, +peculiar to that district; considering the fact that the parish of which +Mr. Davies was Vicar is in the same county and not more than a dozen +miles from the house where the fiery death-signals are supposed to have +been seen twelve or fifteen years ago. For so far I have neither heard +nor read of the Tanwe being known in any other part of Wales.</p> + +<p>Belief in the Toili used to be very widely spread in Cardiganshire, +especially, it is said, in the northern part of the county. Meyrick, the +historian of Cardiganshire, tells us: "The Toili ... is a phantasmagoric +representation of a funeral, and the peasants affirm that when they meet +with this, unless they move out of the road, they must inevitably be +knocked down by the pressure of the crowd. They add that they know the +persons whose spirits they behold, and hear them distinctly singing +hymns." But the Toili was not always visible; sometimes the presence of +the ghostly <i>cortège</i> would be known merely by the sudden feeling of +encountering a crowd of people and hearing a dim wailing like the sound +of a distant funeral dirge.</p> + +<p>Those of us who have lived in the country, and know how characteristic +of a Welsh burial is this singing of funeral hymns—one or two of which +are of a poignant sadness impossible to describe—can imagine how +significant and suggestive such a ghostly sound would be to peasant +ears. An old woman, whom I knew well years ago, used always to declare +that she heard this hymn singing before the death of any friend or +neighbour. She would invariably say, if one commented on any death that +occurred: "Yes, indeed, but I knew some one was going; I heard the Toili +last week."</p> + +<p>I have heard of two cases of people being involved in invisible funeral +processions, which must truly be a most disagreeable experience. One +story relates to a Mrs. D——, who lived in the parish of Llandewi +Brefi, in Cardiganshire. Her husband was ill, and one day as she was +going upstairs to his room, she had a feeling as of being in a vision, +though she could <i>see</i> nothing. But the staircase seemed suddenly +crowded with people, and by their shuffling, irregular footsteps, low +exclamations, and heavy breathings she knew they were carrying a heavy +burden downstairs. So realistic was the impression, that when she had +struggled to the top of the stairs she felt actually faint and weak +from the pressure of the crowd. A few days later her husband died, and +on the day of the funeral, when the house was full of people, and the +coffin carried with difficulty down the narrow stairs, she realised that +her curious experience had been a warning of sorrow to come.</p> + +<p>The other instance was told me by the Rev. G. Eyre Evans of Aberystwith +(who kindly allows his real name to be given), a minister and writer on +archæological subjects of considerable local fame. In his own words: "As +to the Toili, well, if ever a man met one and got mixed in it, I +certainly did when crossing Trychrug<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> one night. I seemed to feel the +brush of people, to buffet against them, and to be in the way; perhaps +the feeling lasted a couple of minutes. It was an eerie, weird feeling, +quite inexplicable to me, but there was the experience, say what you +will."</p> + +<p>Quite lately a friend writes from South Cardiganshire telling me of "a +ghostly hearse and followers, seen recently by a neighbour, the man +recognising the driver of the hearse and the chief mourner ... and +little thinking it was a ghostly procession he was looking at, he +whipped up his horse to get closer.... The animal reared and trembled, +refusing to go nearer or move even in the direction taken by the hearse. +Terror then also seized the man, and he turned and fled the longest way +home to avoid the ghostly burial-ground."</p> + +<p>Another story of the Toili comes from St. David's, and this we will also +give in the words of the correspondent who, knowing my weakness for +"ghosteses," was kind enough to send it.</p> + +<p>"An old lady, one Miss Black, who is still living, resided some time ago +in the house formerly belonging to the Archdeacon of St. David's, with +one servant-maid, whom on a certain evening she sent on an errand, +telling her to return at once. This she did not do, and in consequence +was found fault with. The girl stated, in explanation, that she had been +greatly frightened by coming across a phantom funeral descending the +steps below the entrance gateway towers (of the Cathedral) and that it +turned to the right in the direction of the Lady Chapel. The old lady +was incredulous, and said, moreover, that funerals never entered the +Cathedral yard (this was, of course, before the yard was closed for +burials) that way, which was the fact; they used to pass down the road +running parallel with the yard, and enter by the big gate below the +Deanery.</p> + +<p>"But actually not long after a real funeral did come by the way the girl +said, and went in the direction she described; the road referred to +being for the time impassable, having been dug across for the laying of +some pipes."</p> + +<p>The next very good example of this strange second sight also comes from +St. David's, and it is through the courtesy of the Editor of the +<i>Western Mail</i> that I am able to relate it here: "The following anecdote +was related by the late Mr. Pavin Phillips, the Haverfordwest antiquary, +of a friend of his, a clergyman resident at St. David's. One of his +parishioners was notorious as a seer of phantom funerals. When the +clergyman used to go out to his Sunday duties, the old woman would +frequently accost him with, 'Ay, ay, Mr. —— <i>fach</i>,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> you'll be here +of a weekday soon, for I saw a funeral last night.'</p> + +<p>"On one occasion he asked her, 'Well, Molly, have you seen a funeral +lately?' 'Ay, ay, Mr. —— <i>fach</i>,' was the reply; 'I saw one a night or +two ago, and I saw you as plainly as I see you now, but you did what I +never saw you do before.' 'What was that?' 'Why,' replied the old woman, +'as you came out of the church to meet the funeral, you stooped down and +appeared to pick something off the ground.' 'Well,' thought the +clergyman to himself, 'I'll try, Molly, if I can't make a liar of you +for once.' Some time afterwards the good man was summoned to a funeral +on horseback. Dismounting he donned his surplice, and moved forward to +meet the procession. The surplice became entangled in his spur, and as +he stooped to disengage it he suddenly thought of the old woman and her +vision. Molly was right, after all."</p> + +<p>Our next story, recounting a most curious incident which happened a +comparatively short time ago in my own neighbourhood, certainly sounds +incredible. Yet I have reason to believe in the truthfulness of the +clergyman whose experience is narrated, and should judge him incapable +of even wishing to invent any such extraordinary adventure as befell him +one night only a few years ago.</p> + +<p>Mr. Harris is the Vicar of Llangaredig (which I substitute for the real +name), a pretty country church with a comfortable vicarage just across +the road from the churchyard. At the time of our story the Vicar's pony +was sick, and feeling very anxious about the animal, he determined to +sit up one night, in order to see how it got on. About midnight he +thought he would go out and have a look at the pony, which was in a +stable exactly opposite the churchyard, with the road between. As the +Vicar emerged from the stable into the road he was surprised to hear the +sound as of many footsteps, while he immediately had a queer feeling of +people pressing round him. In a minute or two he heard wheels as of +traps and carriages driving up to the churchyard gate and stopping +there, and especially the sound of a heavy vehicle like a hearse. Then, +after a pause, came the unmistakable, hollow sound of the hearse door, +as it was slammed to on an empty interior.</p> + +<p>Then followed the heavy tread of men, bearing a burden into the church. +But all this time Mr. Harris <i>saw</i> nothing. Rooted to the spot with +amazement, he waited a while at the stable-door till the night's +stillness was again broken by the sound of many people coming out of +church. Past him they brushed invisibly, then came the roll and rattle +of wheels, as traps and gigs drove away. Then as the crowd seemed slowly +to move off, the Vicar <i>distinctly heard talking</i>, and though he could +not distinguish the words spoken, yet he plainly recognised the voices +of two or three of his parishioners. When all at last was still, Mr. +Harris returned to the house, much mystified by his inexplicable +experience, which he was presently forced to regard as a prophecy. For +next day came a telegram, informing him that a relation <i>of the people +whose voices he had recognised</i> had died, and requesting him to arrange +for the burial of the deceased in Llangaredig churchyard.</p> + +<p>Much resembling these accounts of the Toili in Wales is the experience +of certain persons possessing second sight, of whom Martin writes, in +his "Description of the Western Islands of Scotland": "Some find +themselves as it were in a crowd of people, having a Corpse which they +carry along with them, and after such Visions the Seers come in sweating +and describe the People that appeared; if there be any of their +Acquaintances among them, they give an account of their Names, also of +the Bearers, but they know nothing concerning the Corpse."</p> + +<p>So that in ancient times belief in the Toili may have been common to +several of the Celtic tribes, and its origin is possibly of great +antiquity. Corpse-candles, too, seem to have been known in Scotland, +judging by Scott's allusion, in his ballad of "Glenfinlas"—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I see the death-damps chill thy brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hear thy warning spirit cry;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The corpse-lights dance—they're gone, and now ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more is given to gifted eye."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>—though the "lights" here mentioned more probably refer to the vivid +blue flames which seers declared to be visible hovering over a dying +person. Such a "superstition" is possibly supposed to be extinct; yet +this phenomenon has been witnessed by a friend of mine (need I say of +Celtic race?) who described the tiny flames as "dancing," using exactly +the same word as Sir Walter Scott does.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> It seemed impossible to +disbelieve my friend's statement, which was made with the utmost +solemnity and carried conviction at the moment; yet what can we think as +to the absolute truth of it and the many alleged appearances of the +Canwyll Corph and the Toili? It is difficult indeed to say. No doubt +large "grains of salt" must be taken with some of the stories, while on +the other hand one cannot entirely discredit the testimony of sane and +sober individuals, such as Mr. Harris, or Mary Jones, the "very +respectable and religious" friend of the postmistress. Personally I have +no wish to be too sceptical; partly on the principle that all these +ancient beliefs and legends help to add interest and lend a glamour to a +world ever becoming more matter-of-fact and material. And also to quote +the words of the great French scientist M. Camille Flammarion, because +"Ce que nous pouvons penser ... c'est que tout en faisant la part des +superstitions, des erreurs, des illusions, des farces, des malices, des +mensonges, des fourberies, il reste des faits psychiques véritables, +digne de l'attention des chercheurs."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>CORPSE-CANDLES AND THE TOILI<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> (<i>continued</i>)</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O that's a meteor sent us, a message dumb, portentous,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An undeciphered solemn signal of help or hurt."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>The stories and experiences contained in this chapter consist of +material relating to the "Canwyll Corph," the "Toili," and other +beliefs, which were collected by the late Lledrod Davies, an inhabitant +of the village of Swyddffynon, near Ystrad Meurig, in Cardiganshire.</p> + +<p>He was a young man of delicate constitution, but gifted with that +intelligence and zest for knowledge which distinguish so many of our +Welsh people, and which, when joined to ambition and steadiness of +character, are apt to carry them far in worldly progress. And this love +of knowledge, and a native shrewdness untrammelled by any smattering of +modern education, combined to form many a delightful character amongst +our old-fashioned peasants, a few of whom still survive, though the type +is fast dying out. If we may believe the descriptions in "Wild Wales," +George Borrow met many such people in his travels through the +Principality, but that was nearly sixty years ago, before the flower of +our rural population had begun to migrate to "the Works"—as they call +the mines and iron foundries of Glamorganshire.</p> + +<p>However, we are digressing from Lledrod Davies, who it seems had +intended to enter the Church, but died before he could be ordained. +Apparently he was always much interested in the legendary lore and +superstitions of his native county, and for a long time had made a point +of collecting all the curious tales and experiences he could glean on +these subjects; and as the district to which he belonged happens to be +remarkable for all kinds of uncanny occurrences in the way of +"corpse-candles," fairy legends and the like, he had no doubt a wide +field for research. His object in collecting all this information seems +to have been exactly the same as my own in a similar pursuit; namely, +that he thought it too quaint and interesting to be allowed to die with +the old generation, to whom a firm belief in these occult happenings was +a matter of course. Also, in the spirit of the true folklorist, he had +intended if he had lived to endeavour to trace a connection between +these old Welsh beliefs and the folk-legends of other countries. But he +died before he could accomplish this object, and after his death (which +took place in 1890, at the age of thirty-three) his MSS. relating to +these subjects were collected by friends, and published locally in a +little pamphlet entitled "Ystraeon y Gwyll"—in English, "Stories of the +Dark." This pamphlet, now out of print, was lent to me a short time ago, +and partly because its contents concerned my own county and several +districts that I know, it interested me so much that I asked and +obtained permission to translate and republish the tales contained +therein. As folk-lore these are really valuable, for they were noted +down exactly as Mr. Davies heard them from the lips of the country +people, free from all self-consciousness, and with no idea that they +were relating anything but what were fairly common experiences amongst +themselves and their friends.</p> + +<p>In my translation I have occasionally made use of abbreviation, and I +have sometimes slightly paraphrased the original text, here and there +rather weighted by repetition, a trait which, however quaint and +characteristic in the vernacular, is apt to sound tedious in our more +precise and reserved English language. But with these small limitations, +I have kept as nearly as possible to Mr. Davies' narrative, which, he +tells us, he wrote down as well as he could in the words used by his +informants. I will pass over his general description of +"corpse-candles," because most of it would only be a recapitulation of +what I have already told in the last chapter. But he mentions an +interesting item connected with the superstition of which I had never +heard before; to the effect that people who saw the candles were able +to judge how soon the death which they prognosticated would occur. If +the light were seen in the evening, death would follow quickly; if in +the depths of night, the fatal event would be delayed a while. And it is +said that there was scarcely ever a mistake made in this calculation of +time.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I will now proceed in Mr. Davies' words, heading each incident with the +title given it in the collection, and the first is called</p> + + +<h4>THE OLD WOMAN WHO SAW HER OWN CORPSE-LIGHT</h4> + +<p>In the quiet village of S—— there dwelt an old woman, poor, of +miserable appearance and very ragged in clothing.</p> + +<p>The only light that entered her cottage came through the door; in a +word, the whole business of the house took place at the door. Even the +smoke generally escaped by it, although it is true there was a chimney. +In such a place had the old woman chosen to pass the rest of her life. +She spent many of the long summer days on her door-step, knitting in +hand, exchanging the gossip of the season with her friends; while in +winter she would be found sitting by the hearth, near a wretched heap of +ashes or a bit of turf fire.</p> + +<p>One very cold winter evening, as she sat in her accustomed place, +knitting her stocking, and humming an old hymn-tune or ballad, she saw +something like a spark fall from her bosom into the ashes of the fire +before her, where it glittered very brightly. Thinking to find out what +the spark was, she seized the tongs, and searched about with them in the +ashes. She drew the tongs backwards and forwards through the ashes, and +while so doing, she perceived the spark jump up again from the hearth, +and go out through the door, and she herself got up and went to the door +to see what direction it took. She looked out, and there before her was +the little spark become a great light; so bright that it lit the whole +place. She took courage to look well at it, she said, in order to make +sure what it was. She saw it go out of the house rather slowly, onward +along the road towards the burial-ground, to which it was probable that +in the course of nature she would ere long be carried. Then, overcome by +fear, she went back into the house, and afterwards fell very ill, +because she felt quite sure that it was her own corpse-light she had +seen, and no other. She related what had happened to her friends, and in +truth it was not long before her body followed its light to the +burial-ground, there to be reunited. This old woman was noted for seeing +and hearing spirits, corpse-candles, and the Toili. Whenever she said to +her friends, "There will soon be a burial at such and such a house," +they were quite certain the prediction would come to pass.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The next story tells of possible danger connected with seeing a +corpse-light.</p> + + +<h4>THE OLD WOMAN WHO WAS BLINDED FOR A MONTH BY A CORPSE-LIGHT</h4> + +<p>This time it was one of the most wonderful things I have heard in +connection with a corpse-light. An old woman, considered one of the best +nurses in the country, was made blind by the light. She was always +remarkably fortunate in her cases, and chiefly for the reason that she +was a seventh daughter. Because it is considered very lucky to have as +your doctor or nurse a seventh son or daughter. So because she was +lucky, she was universally in request by all the good-wives far and +near.</p> + +<p>On a certain night the farmer's wife at G—— was taken ill, and Elli +the nurse must be sent for, and they despatched the servant-man at once +to fetch her. She lived not far from G——, but the road was very rough. +The servant mounted a horse and away he rode with much diligence. And +very quickly he reached the nurse's dwelling. He told his errand, and it +was not long before both set out on the way back. It was a beautiful +starlight night, but there was no moon at that season. The old woman +went on horseback, and the servant behind her. They were going along as +fast as they could, when the woman asked the man, "Dost thou see a +light, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"I don't see one; where do you see it?"</p> + +<p>"I tell thee it is coming along the road, down from Bont Bren Garreg."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see it now," said Tom.</p> + +<p>The old woman knew it at once for a corpse-light. They went on talking +about the light, and Tom said in his opinion it was perhaps the light +from that house or the other. Now there was a cross-road<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> on the road +along which the light was coming. On they went until they came to the +main road, in which place there was a turn, and as they approached the +turn, Tom the servant said, "Well, if there was no light before, +good-wife, here is one now." And there it was in their midst, on the +road and bushes, every corner of the compass was illuminated. They had +now stopped at the house. The old woman went in and fell fainting, and +when she came to herself, she was quite blind, and could see nothing. +They put her to bed and when the morrow brought daylight, she went home. +And a month passed before she saw again as usual. After the old nurse +went home the servant had to go out again to fetch the mistress's +mother. Now he was obliged to go along the road where the light had +been, and past the churchyard. Away he went and very quickly came in +sight of the burial-ground, where, to his fright and agitation, he saw +the light again! For as he came opposite the graveyard, he plainly saw +the light inside, and carefully noticed the exact spot at which it +lingered.</p> + +<p>The old woman declared that some one would most surely soon be brought +along that road to be buried, which came to pass very quickly after the +light's appearance, this showing that it was indeed a corpse-candle. She +also told Tom where the grave of this person would be in the churchyard, +which he remembered, and found to be at the exact spot she described. +Although this old woman in her day had seen scores of corpse-candles +after nightfall, yet this was the most wonderful she ever saw, because +of its direct connection with what followed. For its effect could be +seen, and Tom the servant, who was an eye-witness of it all, bore +testimony of the circumstances from the beginning to the end.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The two following incidents show how the identity of the doomed +individual was known.</p> + + +<h4>HOW TO KNOW WHOSE LIGHT IT WAS</h4> + +<p>In old times I have heard numbers of elderly people assert that they +could tell one whose was the "light" passing by, and could relate how +this was possible; and with my own ears I have heard one man say how his +fear of the thing decreased as he came to know its mystery. One way was +to mind and be near running water, or any pond that happened to be +conveniently near the road along which the light was coming.</p> + +<p>As soon as the light was to be seen approaching, one should stop near +the water or the running brook that the candle had to cross, and therein +would be seen a reflection of the person whose light it was. Apparently +the illumination of the light showed it in the water. There was always a +mysterious light on the breast of the doomed individual. One man told me +how he had seen the corpse-light after hearing a sound like a great +report, whereupon running to some water he found out the person who was +to be buried. Though he had seen other corpse-lights from time to time, +yet he had never happened to be near water until a certain night. He had +been very late, he said, at the smithy, having a ploughshare sharpened, +and had a middling long way to return home from the forge. As he was +going along the road, he saw a light in the far distance, coming towards +him. He did not suspect any harm at the moment, and hastened along, +keeping his eye on the light, until he got to the bottom of a slope, up +which he had to go. He had a big old cape over him, and for convenience, +he folded the skirts of it round his middle. As he straightened himself +after doing this, he perceived the light just at his side, and +realising that it was a corpse-candle, he determined to see whether the +saying was false or true that one could see whose light it was. Now +there happened to be a little brook crossing the road at that place. As +the light went by he looked carefully into the water, and saw therein a +woman he knew very well. He went home much frightened. A little time +after, that woman was stricken with illness, and when she subsequently +died it happened that her body was carried along that very road for +burial. Afterwards he saw a man's light, and that time again it was near +water. He resolved to try and know whose it was. He saw the light +reflected in the water, and knew the person at once as the gamekeeper in +that neighbourhood. Though the keeper was in good health at the time, +yet very soon afterwards he fell ill and died, and his funeral too +followed the course the "candle" had taken.</p> + + +<h4>THE SMITH OF LLANFIHANGEL AND THE CORPSE-LIGHT</h4> + +<p>There was yet another way of knowing whose corpse-candle was seen. This +way of finding out required more nerve than the other, for the reason +that one must go to the churchyard, through the graves, and inside the +church door, and there wait until the corpse-candle came in. And there, +as if he were going in his body to church, would be seen the doomed +person. This required great determination and bravery as may easily be +seen, and for this reason there were but few found to do such a thing. +As a rule it was better for the children of men to have but a +half-knowledge about the corpse-candle than to dare this thing, as few +knew whether they could bear such a sight. But according to universal +rule, "Every country nourishes brave men," and so it was in quiet +Llanfihangel. A blacksmith of unusual stature and strength lived there, +and his bravery and prowess had become a proverb throughout the country, +and of his daring many things were spoken by the fireside. This smith +took it into his head to go to the church porch every time a +corpse-light was seen going towards the burial-ground. Through the +advantage given him by his daring and courage, he was thus able to say +beforehand who would be buried next, which appeared amazing to the +people, because he invariably foretold the truth. At last was discovered +what had been a mystery to the neighbours, and they knew that he was in +the habit of going to the porch every time the corpse-light was seen, +and that he there found out whose light it was.</p> + +<p>On a certain night, as there were, according to custom, many men and +boys in the smithy, their conversation turned to corpse-candles, and +from talking to disputing hotly whether it was possible to know +beforehand whose light it was. At last they asked the smith for his +opinion on the point, asking him if it was true that he himself had +acquired the knowledge, to which he replied that it was perfectly true. +Just then a neighbour entered breathless and perspiring, having had a +great fright. When he recovered himself a little, he said he had seen a +corpse-candle making towards the churchyard, and if they went out they +could all see it. Out they all went, and there they saw the light +approaching in the direction of the burial-ground. "Now then," said they +to the smith, "go you to the porch this evening." He answered that he +was quite at leisure and ready to go, and proud to be of use. As the +blacksmith's house and shop were at the side of the churchyard, he had +but a few steps to take before finding himself amongst the quiet +inhabitants of the churchyard; so leaving his work as it was, away he +went without any hesitation to the church porch, so that he might be +there ready before the light came. He was seen to enter the church, and +very soon the corpse-candle was seen coming along the path, and then it, +too, went into the porch.</p> + +<p>After a little while the smith returned, looking most unusually upset +and frightened. When he was more collected, he related to the gathering +what had happened. He said he had gone to the church porch, and after a +short wait, he saw the corpse-candle coming through the churchyard and +then to the church. There, standing as usual in the porch, was to be +seen the person who would be buried. As the light shone upon him, the +smith recognised him as the Nanteos keeper. But as the corpse passed him +by to enter the church, it turned towards him and exposed its grinning +teeth in the most horrible and ghastly manner. He felt so alarmed that +he was near to falling down dead, and indeed would so have fallen if he +had not been a giant for strength. He said it was the last time he +should go and see the corpse-light, to know who was going to die.</p> + +<p>Some little time after this, the keeper was stricken by death in some +form or other, and his body was brought to Llanfihangel to be buried, as +the old smith had truly said. So the neighbours were assured that it was +possible to identify the person whose light was seen, but that it was a +great risk to life to seek to find out.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The next story gives a particularly unpleasant experience.</p> + + +<h4>FOLLOWING HIS OWN CANDLE</h4> + +<p>It happened once that a young man of the neighbourhood of Ll——i went +to visit a friend of his in the neighbouring district. After passing an +amusing day, he had a mind to return, and of course his friend must go +with him, to "send" his crony home.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> As they walked along talking of +each other's affairs, they saw far off in front of them, a light. And +one said to the other about it: "I tell you, that is a corpse-light, +let's follow it and see whose light it is. Because they say you can see +that, if you mind to get to the churchyard gate before the light goes +through."</p> + +<p>So away they went, and it was not long before they got to within +measurable distance of the light. But as they followed, a great fear +fell on the visitor, and he told his friend he could not go a step +farther in pursuit. The other laughed in his face; and so they +separated. The friend went home, and left the man he had been visiting +to follow the spirit of the light. He went on till he came to the +churchyard entrance. There he plainly saw whose light it was. He went +home dreadfully frightened, and took to his bed, from which he never +rose again. He confessed to his family that he had seen <i>his own light</i> +at the churchyard gate. But he never said a word as to its appearance, +though it was supposed that the Thing had given him a ghastly look and +nothing more. And very soon his funeral took place in the very +churchyard where he had seen the light.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Mr. Davies now goes on to relate some</p> + + +<h4>STORIES OF THE TOILI</h4> + +<p>Before passing on to stories of the Toili, a word of explanation +regarding them may not be out of place, in case it happens that these +lines travel to a region where there is no Toili, or fall into the hands +of those not privileged to see it. The Toili was a spirit burial or +funeral. It was also an apparition or "double"; and very often in days +gone by one heard that So-and-so had seen his own apparition. In some +parts the Cyheuraeth<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> was seen. The people of Glamorganshire always +saw the Cyheuraeth; and the folks of Teify-side used to see, and still +do see, the Toili. All the movement and action of a real funeral were to +be perceived in the Toili. In this way the whole business of the real +funeral could be known beforehand by the person who happened to witness +the spectral one, and a few of his friends to whom he would speak about +it. There was the crowd collected round a certain house, then came the +corpse carried out to the bier or hearse, the reading, the prayers, the +singing, and if any particularly penetrating voice were heard at the +funeral in the crying of the deceased's relatives, that was sure to have +been noticed beforehand in the Toili. In this way it came to be known +very often which of a family was to go. In the movement of the +procession the sound of the coach-wheels was loudly heard. And on it +went, just like the real funeral, to the churchyard; there again it +could be observed where the real body should be buried. The voice of the +minister was clearly to be heard going through the burial service. As +was the Toili, so was the funeral. But we have never heard of the church +bell tolling for the Toili; that is the one difference between the +vision and the reality.</p> + +<p>They were able to predict the date of the burial from the time of night +when the Toili appeared. If it were seen at the beginning of the night, +the funeral would be soon; if very late at night, it would not happen +quickly. Every one had his Toili, but it could not always be seen, and +not by everybody. Those people born on Sunday could not see it, nor any +other kind of spirit either.</p> + +<p>As a rule we readily observed that whenever the Toili was heard or seen, +a funeral did inevitably follow. And we only knew it fail once, thus +showing there is no rule without exception.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It is interesting to read of this exception to an ordinarily fatal rule +in the story called</p> + + +<h4>THE TOILI WITHOUT A FUNERAL</h4> + +<p>Just as the Toili itself upsets the usual order of things, so we will +reverse the general rule of writers by relating, first, the story of the +Toili without a funeral. This case happened at a farm not very far from +Tregaron, inhabited by a quiet and respectable old couple. The +dwelling-house was very old, and like other old things had become very +fragile, but because the old man had been born and brought up in it, he +had determined to end his days there also, on the old hearth so dear to +him. But very suddenly he was taken ill with a high fever, which took +hold of his system so powerfully that his improvement became very +uncertain, and unless his constitution proved the stronger, there was +little hope that he could pull through. One night, when the fever was at +its highest point, those who watched him were alarmed by a sudden and +terrifying noise. They were two in number, sitting by the fireside; and +a little before midnight, after everybody else had gone to sleep, and +when even the sick man seemed to be slumbering quietly, they heard this +noise in the inner room where the patient was; something like a great +stove or furnace being raked out, they said.</p> + +<p>At first they thought the invalid was awake, and had got out of bed in a +state of unconsciousness and was knocking things about; and they ran in, +but everything was as usual, not a sign of anything having taken place +there, so they came back. Whereupon they felt as if the door was open, +and a multitude of people pushing in, and before they had time to speak, +they found themselves in the midst of a crowd of men, without being able +to move a step. <i>Yet nothing was to be seen.</i> Neither said a word to +the other, perhaps overcome with fright, but both made the best of their +way to the hearth and there sat down as close in the corner as they +could. They could not hear a single word clearly, but only a sort of +whispering all through the place, and felt perfectly sure they heard +breathings. Presently it seemed that the place got clearer, and they +heard men going out through the door, which in reality was shut and +locked. At last they thought they heard a coffin closed in the next +room. Therefore they knew that it was the Toili; and presently the +coffin was taken up with great bustle and shaking—for the old man who +was ill was very heavy—and then it was carried from the inner room, +through the kitchen, knocking against the dresser as it went, for they +distinctly heard the sound. Then it was taken outside, and there again +they thought they heard the house door creak as the weight was forced +against it. Then the coffin was put on the bier, and they heard the feet +of those in the Toili moving away from the house.</p> + +<p>Now there was no disputing that it really was the Toili, and so every +one supposed there was no hope of recovery for the old man. But the +wonderful thing is, that he got better! Then the point was, who was +going to die? Weeks went by without a sign that Death had singled out +any one of the family. Weeks ran into months, and years passed by +without a single funeral from the place. Here was a mystery; the Toili +followed by a burial was entirely natural, but a Toili without a +funeral!! The best guess failed to solve the problem. However, the old +house becoming at last in danger from the roof, it was necessary to +build a new one, and the other fell to ruin, so that no burial ever +could take place from there, and therefore quite naturally this unusual +case of the Toili was explained.</p> + +<p>I confess the explanation is hard to follow. It seems to suggest that +apparently even destiny may be cheated on occasion, or perhaps the Toili +in this case was an auto-suggestion.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The three stories that follow are very typical instances of the strange +old belief.</p> + + +<h4>THE UNBELIEVER AND THE TOILI</h4> + +<p>We were never very fond of that class of person who denies everything he +cannot see through himself, and thinks it is impossible for anything to +take place outside his own experience.... Such think themselves too wise +to put trust in those foolish stories relating to spirits, +corpse-candles, and such-like. They consider themselves too clever to +listen to those kind of tales; but some even of that class are +occasionally obliged to confess that there is a mystery about such +coincidences which is beyond their understanding to comprehend. Of this +class was the young man who heard this Toili. He had publicly denied +the authenticity of spirits, and when he heard any one relating a story +of having seen one, he would laugh in his face for superstition, and +contradict him in the most contemptuous manner. Whether it was conceit, +or whether he did really consider himself wiser than the common people, +we do not know. But one cold winter's night his head was brought low and +belief forced on him, in spite of his displeasure....</p> + +<p>In that part of the country—Teify-side—they used to be very fond of +"courting" of an evening, and on "courting" nights the boys would gather +and go off together to the different houses where their friends amongst +the maidens lived. On such a journey was the young man when he heard the +Toili. He had a friend who was going to visit his sweetheart some little +way off, and our hero must needs go with him for company. It was a +frosty night, and a thin covering of snow had fallen. They had to cross +Gors Goch on their way, and as the bog was frozen, they got across with +comparative ease. When they reached the farm, the young man left his +friend to go in and visit his beloved, while he himself turned his steps +back across the Gors towards home. But on the way there lived another +friend, and to save the trouble of calling up his own family to let him +in, he determined to stay with this friend instead. Now this man lived +in a cottage, in a place where there were two or three other workmen's +houses. One of these was under the same roof as the friend's house, and +in order to call on him, our young man had to pass the door of the upper +house.... He hastened along as fast as his feet would carry him, for +night was now rather far advanced, and very soon he came to the +cottages. The next thing we know about him is, that he called up his +friend, who let him in, and made a splendid fire to warm him. Then we +find the friend observing that he trembled either from fear or cold, and +looked terrified, which caused the question: "What has come to thee! Art +thou frightened?"</p> + +<p>At first he denied, and it was long before he let the cat out of the +bag. But at last, hard pressed, he confessed that he <i>had</i> heard +something he could not explain. "What didst thou hear? Was it a spirit +or the Toili?" was immediately demanded. Now our friend did not know +what to do, because he had always publicly scoffed at all such things, +but here was his belief in himself collapsed without resistance. On the +other hand, to keep silence might cause pain and trouble to his friend's +family, who might fear he had heard something concerning them. At last +he made an unequivocal confession of all that he had heard.... He said +that all had gone well until he drew near the door of the cottage +adjoining his friend's, and when opposite that house he thought he heard +the sound of a man's voice speaking. Approaching nearer, he recognised +the voice at once as that of the minister, the Rev. T. R., of D——. He +heard him take a certain text—afterwards he remembered exactly what the +text was—and after the reading of the text, waited to hear the +beginning of the address. At first he thought he was strong enough to +stop and listen to the sermon, but fear suddenly overcame him, and he +left the door and took refuge in the next house with his friend. +Besides, he felt almost too weak to stand on his feet, or even shout to +his friend, so greatly had terror seized him. That was all he had heard, +but he had received proof enough of the possibility of seeing and +hearing the Toili, and would deny it no longer.</p> + +<p>In the house we have mentioned there lived an old man and woman and +their daughter, all at that time in good health, considering the age of +the old people. But soon afterwards the wife was taken ill with +jaundice, and though every remedy was tried, she grew weaker, and at +last died of the complaint. The day of the funeral came, but no preacher +could be found to read and pray by the door when the corpse was carried +out. All the ministers in the neighbourhood had gone off to the end of +the county to attend some monthly meeting that was being held that week. +Our young man, his friend and family, waited with great interest to see +if the real funeral would take place like the Toili, though it is true +they were much puzzled as to how it could happen, seeing that Mr. T. +R., the minister, was at the meeting. But on the morning of the day, as +the young man was himself on the way to the funeral, he met the reverend +pastor returning from his journey, and although it took much persuasion, +he finally induced him to come to the funeral and do the service. After +reading, praying, and hymn-singing, the minister chose his text from the +very same chapter and verse as the young man had heard in the Toili, and +immediately began his address in the same words as the ghostly sermon, +well remembered by the terrified listener, and which now corroborated +his account!</p> + +<p>We have no hesitation in setting down this old story as true, for we +have not the least doubt of the truthfulness of those who told it to +us—namely, the friend and family of the young man himself. We do not +know how it will appear to the wise and learned, but we do know that it +is not an easy task to gainsay the facts of the case.</p> + + +<h4>THE TOILI AT LLANBADARN ODWYN CHURCHYARD</h4> + +<p>What we are about to chronicle happened some years ago, during the time +of September harvest, and there are a number of people living who were +eye-witnesses of the circumstance. Consequently it cannot have been +imagination, or anything of that kind, of which solitary individuals are +sometimes accused when they see these inexplicable visions. There could +have been no deception, as it happened in broad daylight, and on high +and open ground, the season, as we have already observed, being +harvest-time.</p> + +<p>The cemetery and church of Llanbadarn Odwyn are situated on a high and +healthy hill overlooking the beautiful little Vale of Aeron. Over +against the church, on an equally salubrious spot, stands the farm +called Birch Hill, more to the south than the church, but in sight of, +and quite near it. One day in harvest there happened to be a strong +reaping party at Birch Hill, and they were reaping a field which +overlooked the churchyard. Just before noon, one of the men chanced to +look that way, and perceived a funeral procession. He remarked this to +his fellow-labourers, and looking in the direction of the church, they +one and all saw the funeral too. It appeared to be rather different to +the common run of burials, more "stylish," like that of a well-to-do +person. They particularly noticed a pall over the coffin, which was a +very unusual thing with them. The whole ceremony seemed to be taking +place in perfect order. Now the great question was, whose burial could +it be? They asked one another, but no one knew of any death within the +district. And at dinner-time they told the farmer's wife what they had +seen, asking her if she knew what funeral it could be. But neither +could she tell. However, those were not the sort of people to be +hindered from finding out exactly what they wanted to know. So they +decided that the head-servant should go to the sexton, and ask him whose +burial they had seen, and let them know on the morrow. And at the proper +time away went the servant to the grave-digger to get the information. +But when he got there and asked, not a sound or syllable of a funeral +could he hear of. The sexton was quite certain that nobody had been +buried that day, and said they must have seen something else than a +funeral. The servant could not believe the sexton, who, on the other +hand, disbelieved the servant when he asserted that he had seen a +funeral that day. And each one was so sure of his own facts as to leave +the matter a mystery impossible to explain. The servant went home, and +when he said there had been no burial that day at Llanbadarn it was +concluded that they must have seen the Toili, with which conclusion the +reapers also agreed on the morrow. Then came the excitement of watching +to see whose funeral would follow. Some days later, as the minister's +family was returning home from London for a stay in the country, it +happened that his wife was taken ill, and it was not long before her +soul left the body to join the world of spirits. The family burial-place +was at Llanbadarn Odwyn, and no time was lost in making arrangements for +burying her there. Every one was informed of the sad event, so that on +the day of the funeral quite a crowd of relations and family connections +were gathered together to go and meet the corpse. And towards the time +at which the Toili was seen, there was the real funeral in the cemetery, +exactly in the same way as the phantom one was seen. Everything was the +same, even to the white pall thrown over the coffin. So the reapers of +Birch Hill were quite satisfied that it was the Toili of this funeral +they saw, and no other. Here was an example of the Toili seen by a crowd +of people in the broad light of noonday, each individual seeing it +exactly in the same form in which the real funeral presently took place. +Their eyes did not deceive them, because so many eyes perceived the same +occurrence at the same moment, and moreover, the testimony of the sexton +was certain proof that there was no burial in the churchyard that day. +Let the wise explain that vision as they will.</p> + + +<h4>THE TOILI OF RHOSMEHERIN</h4> + +<p>As already stated, night was the time when the Toili was commonly seen +and heard. It was then one might expect to meet it, and men and women +are to be found who have been carried along with it even to the +churchyard gate. But the vision has been seen at midday and at the hour +of dusk, and it was at this latter time that appeared the Toili of +Rhosmeherin.</p> + +<p>On a beautiful spring evening it happened that a farmer, after a hard +day's work, lingered outside his house for a while, enjoying the soft +breeze that blew through wood and orchard, and listening to the anthem +of the winged choir. Presently he chanced to look in the direction of +Bryn Meherin, where lived Vicar Hughes, a well-known and industrious man +in his day; and the farmer was amazed to perceive every appearance of a +funeral there. He knew very well that it could not be a funeral either, +for nobody was dead, and besides the time of day was contrary to the +usual hour for burials, so he concluded that what he saw must be the +Toili. He called his family from the house to look lest he should be +mistaken. But there, seen by all of them, was a complete funeral, and +from its appointments a very respectable one. In front, preceding the +crowd, was a man on horseback; then, according to the custom of those +parts, there followed the men on foot, then the body. Over the coffin +was a black cloth. Then came the women on foot, and last of all the +coaches. As the procession moved slowly along a man on a white horse +from the crowd behind moved from his place right up to the man on +horseback at its head.</p> + +<p>Not a doubt remained with the spectators that they had seen the Toili, +and it was not long before the vision was fulfilled. The clergyman died +soon afterwards, and on the day of the funeral the farmer and family +observed carefully to see if it resembled the Toili.</p> + +<p>The clergyman had always been greatly respected; he was liked by all +ranks and classes, and beloved by the poor; so that at the funeral there +was a larger number of people than had ever been seen before. And there +in their midst was a man on a white horse, who turned out to be one of +the clergy, and who, anxious to be ready to take his part in the burial +service, was seen to push forward from the back of the procession and +move up to the front—exactly what had happened in the Toili.</p> + +<p>We have heard that several other people also saw this Toili, and +observed that the incidents of the real funeral were similar to those of +the spectral one.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Really grisly was the belief in corpse-dogs, of which our author relates +the following stories:</p> + + +<h4>CORPSE-DOGS</h4> + +<p>Our "wrestlings with the spirits" have led us from corpse-candles to the +Toili, and in natural order we now come to the subject of "corpse-dogs," +not the least important of death omens. It is true that I have failed to +get the knowledge of their appearance that I wanted, and can therefore +not give a very good description of them. There are those I know that +have seen corpse-candles, a spirit, and the Toili. But of the many tales +concerning hell-hounds I have heard of but one person who actually saw +one, and his free description must therefore suffice us. "Hell-hounds" +is another name for these apparitions.</p> + +<p>This particular corpse-dog was seen at a place called Llwyn Beudy Isaf +by a member of the family who happened to be living there then, and that +was about a hundred and fifty-two years ago. An inmate of the house was +taken very ill one day, and at night the farm dog began to howl in a +very unusual and disturbing manner. On the following night, as one of +the sons of the family went out to look after the animals before going +to bed, he heard a sound which he thought was made by a sheep or a pig +coming towards him, with a curious noise of chains; he could hear a +chain clanking quite plainly. As it came nearer him he saw the thing +clearly, namely, a little dog in appearance, of a sort of reddish grey +colour, dragging a chain. It ran past him with the speed of lightning, +and he saw no sign of it again. He supposed some one had been leading +it, but could see no one about. Directly afterwards their own dog began +to howl in the most dismal and extraordinary way, and when this sound +was heard all hope of recovery for the sick person was given up, and +indeed it was not long before he drew his last breath.</p> + +<p>The tradition about corpse-dogs is, that they are sent from hell to the +country of the Earth to fetch corpses, and as a rule Death follows +wherever they appear. And when they approach a dwelling where Death is +coming they are seen by the dog of the house, and cause the animal such +terror that it foams at the mouth, and utters dismal howlings as long as +the hell-hounds continue near.</p> + +<p>That is the reason why a dog howls before a death; when you hear that +mournful sound you may be quite sure that a corpse-dog is in the +neighbourhood, and if you observe which way the dog's head is turned, in +that same direction is the demon animal. Some dogs are daring enough to +go to the door of the sick person's house, where the corpse-dog +watches—yes, and howl beneath the window of the room where Death awaits +his prey. Although corpse-dogs are as a rule invisible, yet of their +existence nobody has a doubt. That one has been actually seen by an +individual is as good a proof as if a hundred or more had seen them. +Dogs are reliable witnesses of their presence in any place where they +come. They strike terror in any religious family, especially if any +member of it be ill, and no small anxiety is felt until the foul +creatures leave the neighbourhood, and the house-dogs cease to howl and +foam....</p> + +<p>The hour of their visitation to a locality is generally towards the edge +of night, just before cock-crow. Usually at that hour the dogs will +begin howling in heart-rending fashion, as if pitying him who will soon +be seized by the teeth of the hounds of hell, and find themselves +gripped in the claws of the King of Terrors. As every reader must have +heard many a dog howl, it would be idle to describe the sound which has +often caused the remark, "We shall be sure to hear of a death very +soon," and it is but rarely that it happens otherwise.</p> + +<p>It is well known that dogs and horses are creatures gifted with very +keen senses of scent and sight, especially after the shades of night +have fallen on the face of Nature, and particularly as regards sight or +smell of anything beyond the usual limits of this world, such as +spirits, corpse-candles, Toili, hell-hounds and the like. But there is a +great difference in the powers of individual dogs and horses in this +respect. It is just the same with mankind; some have been endued with +powers to behold the Unseen, while others again are found blind to every +vision of the kind. That is the reason why it is useless to heed every +dog that howls, but only certain ones in cases where it has been found +that a death always follows their howling.... Such a one was old "Brins" +of Tymawr, of respected memory. Shaggy and red-eyed, he was not a +particularly good sheep-dog, but he was very faithful to his owners and +full of doggish common sense. The voice of Brins always struck terror +into the community, for well was it known that some one was sure to die +if Brins opened his mouth to howl at night. People would go out and +look to see in what direction his head was pointed, so as to know +whereabouts the death would be.</p> + +<p>There was an old butcher who had exceeded the allotted span of human +days by ten years. At last his time came; he was taken ill, and from the +hour when he began to keep to his bed, the old dog Brins began to howl. +As night after night went by, John Hughes growing weaker and weaker, so +did the dog continue his howlings. At first he gave tongue near his own +home, but as the old man's end drew near, Brins went over to his house, +the two places not being far apart. At last, such was his boldness that +he crept right under the window of the room where the dying man lay, and +howled steadily until the end came. After this his voice was not heard +again at night, until just before another death occurred.</p> + +<p>It was indeed bold of the old dog to go and howl beneath the sick man's +window; because the wise who know say that as Death approaches, the +Cŵn Annŵn (hell-hounds) draw round the house, and on the last +night they enter the room and stay by the bedside, so as to be near when +the breath leaves the body.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>WELSH FAIRIES</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Heaven defend me from that Welsh fairy."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>Readers must not turn up their noses when they read the title of this +short chapter. Of course nobody believes in fairies nowadays, but in the +olden time most Welsh people did, and in other things more remarkable +even than "y Tylwyth Teg,"<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> such as giants and dragons. I could +relate a most interesting story of a giant who once lived (rather long +ago!) only about three miles from my own home; and there is a +respectable tradition of a terrible dragon having been seen—history +omits the date—flying over the town of Newcastle Emlyn. And I feel this +volume would be incomplete without a passing reference to one of the +most picturesque and romantic of the ancient Welsh beliefs. Sir John +Rhys, the great Celtic scholar, has said almost the last word on the +subject of Welsh fairy-lore, and there are indeed few crumbs of +information that he neglected to gather about the Fair Folk. But I do +not think he gleaned the two or three genuine fairy-tales which I found +in Mr. Lledrod Davies' little pamphlet, and which I have translated, and +will repeat here. For as folk-lore it is material far too valuable to be +lost in a publication already out of print, and in any case inaccessible +to people not conversant with the Welsh language. Personally I have only +come across two people who had anything to say about the Tylwyth Teg, +and they were not of the peasantry, but persons of antiquarian tastes, +who had noted the instances they referred to as curiosities of local +belief. So, though I have heard numbers of tales relating to +superstitions such as corpse-candles, the Toili, &c., yet I have never +myself heard a single <i>first-hand</i> story about fairies, and I fancy +their disappearance from their old haunts dates very nearly from the +time that Board Schools were established in Wales. Education then +became—and very properly so—a practical and rather material business; +children were told that fairies were "silly," in fact, non-existent, and +so they learnt to despise the wonderful tales their parents and +grandparents knew, and would listen no more to them. So the old stories, +handed down by word of mouth through centuries, and always greedily +heard, and willingly remembered, were gradually forgotten; and as the +elder folk died out, were nearly all lost. A pity, for trivial and even +childish as they would sound to us who live in a world of scientific +wonders that those old people could never dream of, and no longer +require to feed our imagination with the marvellous and supernatural, +still all those ancient beliefs, legends and superstitions always seem +to me like the romance of life crystallised, and, as such, a very +precious thing. For Romance and Glamour grow rare as the world grows +older, though most of us have had a glimpse—even though a momentary +one—of what those two names mean. And the power to express them grows +less; I think most people will agree about that. But these old fairy +beliefs and curious traditions seem to transmit the true, romantic +atmosphere throughout the ages, bringing to our knowledge what our +forefathers thought and felt in that set of ideas not immediately +affected by their material necessities and circumstances. So that is why +I think almost any of these old tales are interesting and worth +preserving.</p> + +<p>W. Howells, who wrote that entertaining old book, "Cambrian +Superstitions," to which I have often referred, has a great deal to say +about Fair Folk, or Ellyllyn, or Bendith eu Mammau, for by these +different names were the fairies known in different districts. This is +what he tells us of their origin: "The following is the account related +in Wales of the origin of the fairies, and was told me by an individual +from Anglesey. In our Saviour's time there lived a woman whose fortune +it was to be possessed of near a score of children ... and as she saw +our blessed Lord approach her dwelling, being ashamed of being so +prolific, and that He might not see them all, she concealed about half +of them closely, and after His departure, when she went in search of +them, to her surprise found they were all gone. They never afterwards +could be discovered, for it was supposed that as a punishment from +heaven, for hiding what God had given her, she was deprived of them; +and, it is said, these her offspring have generated the race of beings +called fairies."</p> + +<p>Howells also mentions the interesting belief formerly prevailing in +Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire concerning mysterious islands, +inhabited by fairies, who "attended regularly the markets at Milford +Haven and Laugharne, bought in silence their meat and other necessaries, +and leaving the money (generally silver pennies) departed, as if knowing +what they would have been charged. They were sometimes visible and at +other times invisible. The islands, which appeared to be beautifully and +tastefully arranged, were seen at a distance from land, and supposed to +be numerously peopled by an unknown race of beings. It was also imagined +that they had a subterraneous passage from these islands to the towns."</p> + +<p>Our author tells us that both Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire were +specially favoured by the Tylwyth Teg; he heard of them on the banks of +the Gwili (a tributary of the Towy), where "they made excursions to the +neighbouring farms to inspect the dairies, hearths, barn-floors, and +the 'ystafell,'<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> to reward the meritorious housemaid, and to punish +the slut and sluggard. It is said they were not partial at all to the +Gospel, and that they left Monmouthshire on account of there being so +much preaching, praying to, and praising God, which were averse to their +dispositions."</p> + +<p>It seems that there was a well-known tradition in Carmarthenshire about +one Iago ap Dewi, a man, Howells tells us, of considerable talent, who +translated the "Pilgrim's Progress" into Welsh. He lived in the parish +of Llanllawddog, and "was considered a wonderful man and of great +learning, as he spent the whole of his time in study and meditation; +that he was absent from the neighbourhood for a long period, and the +universal belief among the peasantry was, that Iago got out of bed one +night to gaze on the starry sky, as he was accustomed (astrology being +one of his favourite studies), and whilst thus occupied the fairies, who +were accustomed to resort to the neighbouring wood, passing by, carried +him away, and he dwelt with them seven years. Upon his return he was +questioned by many as to where he had been, but he always avoided giving +them a reply." Howells afterwards goes on to say that others with whom +he conversed related that "their parents credited the above story, and +that they had no question of the existence of fairies and their +wonderful exploits; but one Mary Shon Crydd said that when a child she +knew the daughter of Iago ap Dewi, and that she thought it very probable +that he had been from home with some learned characters, but the +superstition of the people led them to attribute his learning, &c., to +the interference of the fairies." Although it disposes of the fairy +idea, "Mary Shon Crydd's" explanation of Iago's absence, though prosaic, +was, I should think, the true one! But it is interesting to read of such +a tradition being extant in days so comparatively near our own.</p> + +<p>All dwellers in the country are familiar with the appearance of "fairy +rings," those curious and inexplicable circles that occur in the grass +of meadows and lawns. No amount of mowing obliterates them, and probably +nothing short of digging up or ploughing would get rid of them. In Wales +these odd patches seem to have ever been regarded with a mixture of fear +and interest, as the undoubted haunts of the Tylwyth Teg, and were +carefully shunned in consequence, especially after nightfall. Howells +says, regarding these rings, that "no beasts will eat of them, although +some persons suppose that sheep will greedily devour the grass." He adds +that he had a friend who told him that when he was a child he was always +warned by his mother never to approach, much less enter, the rings, for +they were enchanted ground, and anybody going near them was liable to be +carried off by the Fair Folk. In connection with the fairies' practice +of kidnapping human beings, there are many stories in "Cambrian +Superstitions," most of which have one feature in common, namely, that +when the people thus carried off returned to this upper world—in the +cases where they did return, but that did not always happen—they always +supposed they had been but a few moments absent, though the period had +often run into years, as in Iago ap Dewi's case.</p> + +<p>Giraldus Cambrensis, in his "Itinerary through Wales," in the twelfth +century, heard many marvels, and not the least of these was the tale of +one Elidorus, a priest, who in his youth had been carried off by the +fairies, and by them held in captivity for many years. According to +Giraldus, he made some use of his time amongst them by learning their +language, which he is said to have told the Bishop of St. David's much +resembled the Greek idiom!</p> + +<p>I will now proceed with Mr. Lledrod Davies' account of the Tylwyth Teg, +as he heard of them in Cardiganshire, not so very many years ago.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"In collecting and noting down these few tales from an older generation, +it is useless to try and trace their source in the history of the old +times before ours. It is enough for readers to know now that there were +always 'little people' of that kind in Wales, and that our ancestors +were very sociable and friendly with them. I take the following tales +from some I heard by word of mouth in the country of Teify-side.</p> + +<p>"Small of stature were the Tylwyth Teg, towards two feet in height, and +their horses of the size of hares. Fair of aspect were they, and very +fine their clothing; their clothes were generally white, but on certain +occasions they are said to have been seen dressed in green; their gait +was lively, and ardent and loving was their glance. Very mischievous if +thwarted, kind and good-natured otherwise. And—speaking from the human +point of view—they were thieves by inclination, and therefore it was +considered rather dangerous to have them coming round houses, as they +regarded all property as shared in common....</p> + +<p>"They were peaceful and kindly amongst themselves, diverting in their +tricks, and charming in their walk and dancing. They were good-natured +to good-natured people, and hateful to those who hated them. They were +subterranean people, therefore in the earth was their home. There were +their country, their cities, and their castles, and there lived their +King. And from thence they made their incursions into the Earth-country, +in some way that nobody can guess or know, nor is there any hope of any +one ever knowing."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Our author goes on to information about the fairy rings, and has two +stories to relate of people who disappeared in them.</p> + + +<h4>THE FAIRY RINGS</h4> + +<p>A number of these rings are shown by the old people all through the +country; I myself remember many of them. They were of various +appearance; sometimes the circle was but small, again others were seen +as large as a mill-wheel.... These rings were the places where the +Tylwyth Teg came to dance on fine, bright nights. The circles were only +to be seen on marshy meadow-ground, and sometimes on hay land. On a +moonlight night was the time to see these rings, because then the fairy +folk came out of their hiding-places to whirl and dance about; and so +they may be seen until the Son of the Dawn<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> opens his eyes and causes +them to disappear. On the following morning the keen-eyed may see the +mark of their feet on the meadow. The grass that surrounds the rings is +thicker than the rest, because no animal will feed on the spot where the +fairies have been. So these circles remained by day as the Tylwyth Teg +had shaped them; and they were considered places it was best to keep +away from, except in broad daylight while the owner of cattle was always +alarmed if he saw his animals go near them. There was great danger in +approaching the rings when the Fair Folk were dancing; for there was +such magic in their melody, such allurement in their appearance, and +such an attraction in their whirling, that it was impossible for any +one who came near to resist their charm. If within their enchanted +circle they could entice a handsome youth, or a pure maiden, nevermore +would they be seen in this world. In some cases people have been +kidnapped accidentally and against their will.</p> + +<p>Such a one, and who lived with them for a year, was the servant of Allt +Ddu. This farm stood half-way along the road between Pontrhydyfendigaid +and Tregaron. It is said that this servant and another one left the +house at dusk to look for some cattle—yearlings and two-year-olds—that +had strayed that morning.... So, as was natural to do in such a case, +one servant took one road and his companion the other, so as to be sure +of coming across them. But after hours spent in searching, one of the +men returned; how he found the cattle is not related, but at least they +came back in safety. And as it was very late—indeed nearly morning—he +felt anxious about the safety of his fellow-servant, as he was afraid +some accident had befallen him in one of the bog-holes of Gors Goch. +Morning came but no servant, and not a sound of his footsteps returning. +Then inquiries were made, but no sign or syllable could be heard of him. +Days and weeks passed by, and now, doubt arose about his fate amongst +his relations, for they began to suspect that his fellow-servant was the +cause of his disappearance, and had murdered him and concealed his +body. So the other labourers, night after night, accused the poor man of +the crime; and though the young fellow protested his innocence in the +most emphatic manner, yet appearances were against him; he could not +satisfy their doubts, and a black mark stood against his name. At last, +whatever happened, he determined to go to a "wise man" (a person of +uncommon importance in those days) and ask him point-blank if he could +tell what had happened. So he went, and laid the case before the "wise +man," who told him that his companion was alive, but that a year and a +day must elapse before they would see him again, and that then they must +seek him at the very hour when he was lost.</p> + +<p>So, after weary waiting, a year and a day passed by, and the +long-expected hour arrived. And then the missing man's family, with the +servant at their head, betook themselves to the appointed glade; and +there, to their amazement, whom should they see in the midst of a fairy +ring, dancing as gaily and happily as any one, but the lost youth. Then, +according as the wise man had directed, his fellow-servant seized him by +his coat collar and dragged him away, saying to him, "Where hast thou +been, lad?"</p> + +<p>The other replied, "Hast thou got the cattle?" He thought he had been at +that spot only two or three minutes. When it was explained to him that +he had been in the fairy ring, and how he had been stolen by them, he +said they had been such good company that he never supposed he had been +more than a few minutes with them. And great was the joy at recovering +the lost one.</p> + + +<h4>THE MAIDEN WHO WAS LOST IN A FAIRY RING</h4> + +<p>I will only tax the reader's patience with two of the tales about these +fairy rings, because we come across such tales in various forms all +through the country. But the extraordinary case of the disappearance of +the maiden in this story is excuse enough, I think, for introducing it +into this book of memories.</p> + +<p>In an old farm on Teify-side there lived a very respectable family; and +in order to carry on the work of the farm briskly they kept both men and +maid servants. On a certain evening a servant man and maid went out to +fetch the cattle home for milking, and all of a sudden the man lost +sight of the maid, and, although he searched and called, no sign of her +or sound of her voice reached him. He went back with the cows, and told +the family of the mysterious disappearance of the girl. From the evil +reputation that the Tylwyth Teg had in those parts, it was decided to +consult a "wise man" at once. Away they went to him, and after answering +the usual inquiries he said the girl had been snatched into the fairies' +ring and that she was with them now. If they were careful they might get +her back after a year and a day, if they would go to the appointed place +at the proper time.</p> + +<p>All was done as the wise man directed, and great was their astonishment +to perceive the maiden dancing away in the midst of the Fair Folk, and, +as they were instructed, they seized and drew her out of the magic +circle, happy and in good health.</p> + +<p>Her master was told by the wise man to be careful never to touch her +with iron after she was rescued. At first he was very particular about +this, but as time went on they all got careless, and at last one day, +just as she had dressed to go on an errand, he accidentally touched her +with a horse's bridle; when, as suddenly as pulling a cat out of the +fire, he entirely lost sight of the maid. He rushed off at once to the +wise man for help, but was told that the girl was gone never to return. +We may observe further, in this connection, that it was formerly +supposed that the Tylwyth Teg always hovered round about dwelling-houses +watching people, especially at night. And in all likelihood, according +to this story, they had kept an eye on the maiden ever since she was +taken away from them.</p> + + +<h4>THE TIME OF THEIR DANCING</h4> + +<p>The fairies' dancing took place when spring began, and continued +throughout the summer. But spring, as a rule, was the season of their +merriment, and at that time children would be lost, yes, and people of +full age too. Readers will surely have heard these tales of children +being stolen and returning again after some years; of the frequent +visitation by the Tylwyth Teg of families in a neighbourhood, of their +boldness as winter began, and their anger if every family were not +careful to put money, food, and such things in convenient places near +the hearth, so that when the fairies came they could take what they +wanted without difficulty. They required great cleanliness of every +woman and girl they met with. If care was not taken in these respects, +their curse was sure to fall on the family, in years to come. Night was +the time when they visited the earth, and from midnight till morning +they enjoyed themselves frolicking about hay-fields and marsh-lands.</p> + +<p>They were very sociable beings. So much so that it was with difficulty +they were got rid of once they got their heads into the houses of any +neighbourhood. The only way to get rid of them was to throw rusty iron +at them. To do this was like spitting in the face of God, the greatest +insult you could hurl at them. Away they went at once, never to return +except for deeds of vengeance....</p> + +<p>It may be observed, amongst their other characteristics, that they only +inhabited certain parts of the country. The neighbourhood of Swydd +Ffynon was especially distinguished by them. All around there would be +seen the "rings" on every fine morning in spring and summer, while other +parts of Wales were entirely ignorant of these fairy circles, and never +a sign or sight of them was to be had.</p> + + +<h4>THE FAIRY OINTMENT</h4> + +<p>In the quiet village of Swydd Ffynon there lived an old woman who died +about twenty years ago, when drawing near her hundredth year. She was +very fond of old stories; in a word, she simply lived on them. She was +in her element when relating ancient tales of the adventures of the +Welsh folk, and according to her they were full of adventures in those +days. And amongst others, she told the following story about her +grandmother: This grandmother when young, seems to have been a pious and +thoughtful person, very fond of the society of invisible beings, and the +inhabitants of the spirit-world. Also, by some means or other, she got +into communication with the Fair Folk, and became great friends with +them; her hearth became a kind of rendezvous for them; and so faithful +was she to them that she thoroughly gained their favour and confidence, +such a thing as seldom happens to human beings. So fond of her were they +that they invited her to go with them to one of their palaces under the +earth, to which she heartily consented. When she got there she found +herself in the most beautiful and stately house her eyes had ever seen; +in truth, never had she imagined such a place was possible. How she went +there she did not know; all she knew was that she had left the Earth +country, and was now an inhabitant of a region she had not dreamed could +exist; but she went there and returned in some way entirely unknown to +herself.</p> + +<p>At last one day she found herself summoned to the fairy country on an +errand as nurse to the wife of one of their princes, who lived in a +palace magnificent to a degree that exceeds earthly language to express. +There were splendid ornaments, costly pearls, a golden pavement, +partitions hung with silks of varying hue, and the garments of the +people all changing white and blue. Indeed the old woman was puzzled to +describe the splendours of the house, clothes and so on. There was +installed the nurse, and her charge, the fairy infant, slept on a bed of +down, with coverings of the finest lawn. Everything she wanted was +complete and at hand. The nurse was amazed at such perfection, and +astonished that a person like herself should have been summoned by such +princely people. While tending the baby night and morning, she had to +anoint him with a certain ointment. When this ointment was given her, +she was told to be careful not to let it touch the eyes, as it was +injurious and even destructive to the sight. At first her fear of the +ointment caused her to be very careful in using it, but as time went by +she grew forgetful. So in a little while, as she was anointing the +infant one day, something accidentally tickled her eye, and at once her +hand, faithful to its owner, went up to the eye and rubbed it gently. +Immediately it was as if a veil fell from her eyes, and she began to see +things a thousand times more wonderful than before. In the course of the +day she saw many a marvellous and splendid vision. She saw the Fair Folk +quite plainly, little men and women, going and coming through the +palace, and carrying presents of every kind to her lady. No lack of +dainties was brought her, the purest kindness and affection were +displayed. Later on, when undressing the child, she remarked to the +princess on the number of visitors she had had that day.</p> + +<p>"How do you know that?" asked the princess, "have you anointed your eyes +with the ointment?" And in the flash of an eyelid she leapt from her +couch, and striking one hand with the other, she blew on the nurse's +eyes, which immediately lost sight of the enchanted surroundings, and +though she tried hard in future days, nevermore did she see the +princess, or any of the fair family or their doings.</p> + +<p>And so, without knowing how, she found herself by her own fireside at +home, just as usual, and that was the last of her stories about the +Tylwyth Teg. And I also leave them here, for though I could add other +stories to these I have noted, I have written enough about them now. I +knew the old woman who told this story, and she always insisted she was +the grandchild of the fairies' nurse, and, moreover, was very proud of +the fact, and not without cause either.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I should have mentioned earlier that in translating Mr. Lledrod Davies' +tales, I have left the names of places exactly as he had them. Where +they are filled in they are the real ones, several of them places I +know. It will be noticed that he often makes use of the expression +"Teify-side." Now that name we generally apply to the district of the +lower Teify, lying more or less between the towns of Llandyssil and +Cardigan. But from what Mr. Davies says, he evidently includes in this +term all the upper valley of the Teify too, which rises in the hills not +many miles away from his native village, and most of his stories are +located more or less in that neighbourhood. It is, or was until late +years, a remote and lonely district, backed by the wild moors of the +Ellineth Mountains, that to this day look as if they might be the last +refuge of all the fairies, ghosts, and goblins of Wales. With these +mountain wastes behind, and the gloomy stretch of the great Tregaron +bog before them, is it any wonder that the imaginative Celtic +inhabitants of Pontrhydyfendigaid and the surrounding hamlets saw, and +wished to see, evidences of the supernatural in almost every unimportant +coincidence? To them it came natural to believe in those</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">"Faery elves,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sits arbitress."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>George Borrow tells us that when he was walking through Cardiganshire, +he came one evening to a large sheet of water not far from Tregaron. He +must needs find out the name of this little lake, and therefore knocked +at the door of a cottage that happened to be close by, in order to ask +the information. A woman opened the door, of whom Borrow seems to have +asked a great many tiresome questions, after his usual habit; but this +time he elicited the curious information from his victim that a fairy +cow was supposed to live in the lake, a "water-cow, that used to come +out at night, and eat people's clover in the fields." That odd tradition +was living only sixty years ago, which is interesting to think of.</p> + +<p>Now I have told the little I have been able to gather about the Tylwyth +Teg and their ways, and so we will bid them farewell, and turn to more +serious subjects.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>WISE MEN, WITCHES, AND FAMILY CURSES</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Wizards that peep and that mutter."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>When reading a provincial daily paper a few days ago, I came across the +following paragraph:</p> + +<p>"Although the school-master has been abroad in Wales for quite a long +time, the belief in witchcraft still lingers here and there, and cropped +up yesterday in an assault case at Aberavon, where one woman accused +another of 'marking her house with a criss-cross to bewitch her.'"</p> + +<p>It seems curious to read these words in the twentieth century, and it is +hard to realise that a very few generations ago the woman who had put +the "criss-cross" on her neighbour's house would have stood a very good +chance of losing her life by being ducked by the mob for a witch, if +indeed legal proceedings had not been taken against her.</p> + +<p>As late as the year 1664 the great judge, Sir Matthew Hale, presided at +the trial which resulted in the condemnation and hanging of two poor +women as witches, and the last execution of the kind took place in 1682 +when three other wretched women were executed at Exeter for the same +offence, on their own confession. And the statute against witchcraft +passed under James the First was not repealed until the reign of George +the Second, though by that time it was indeed practically a dead letter. +Mental progress and education have since done their part in abolishing +that panic fear of witchcraft which, supported by a bad law, caused the +persecution and death of so many innocent persons for more than a +century; but that belief—genuine if surreptitious—in the powers of +"wise" men and women still lingers in the minds of the people in the +West Country, one need only live in Wales for a few years to find out.</p> + +<p>Nor must one feel too scornful of such "superstition" when one +recollects how palmists, clairvoyants, and crystal-gazers flourish in +London and every other city on the payments of hundreds of well-educated +and enlightened people. "Oh, a pack of silly women with more money than +sense," you may exclaim. To which I reply, "Not at all," if the +testimony of a most respectable fortune-teller who was once well known +to me can be believed. According to her, quite a number of her clients +belonged to the sterner (and we presume) more sensible sex, and my own +observation has also led me to conclude that men on the whole are quite +as much tempted to peer into futurity as women are, only naturally they +think it their duty to pretend indifference on such matters! Still, +however that may be, the Bond Street fortune-teller, with whom one makes +a solemn appointment, and who never "looks at a hand" under a guinea, is +nevertheless but a witch, belonging to the same ancient guild as the +unkempt old woman who lives in a hovel on the sea-shore near a certain +little town in Cardiganshire. This particular old woman has quite a +local reputation as a witch—even attaining to the fame of having her +portrait on a postcard—and is much resorted to by summer visitors who +wish to have their fortunes told.</p> + +<p>But Cardiganshire, especially the Northern part, has always been a +stronghold of belief in witches and wise men, and their supposed powers +of putting a "curse" on the persons or property of those who annoyed +them. There is a story told of an old woman who had the reputation of +being a witch in a lonely district of the wild hills of North +Cardiganshire. She was on the road one day, when the doctor came riding +along in great haste, whom she tried to detain. But he, either not +understanding what she wanted, or unwilling to stop, urged his horse +forward, somewhat roughly bidding the old crone begone. Shrieking after +him, she told him to beware, "as she would lay a curse upon his horse," +which threat he soon forgot, and after visiting his patient returned +home in safety. That night, however, Dr. G. was roused from his sleep by +the groom, who asked him to come out at once to the horse, as it seemed +to be very ill. To make the story short, the poor animal died in a few +hours' time, nor could its owner ever determine the nature of its +extraordinary attack, as it was apparently perfectly well when stabled +for the night. But the coincidence between the horse's death and the +witch's words was certainly striking.</p> + +<p>I am reminded of another and quite modern instance of a Welsh witch's +curse, though to avoid localisation I will not say exactly where she +lived in the Principality. Her father was cowman at a house called +Fairview, inhabited by a family called Trower. Mr. Trower possessed a +rather savage bull, which one day broke loose, charged all who tried to +catch him, and finally, sad to relate, gored and killed the poor cowman. +He had lived in a cottage on the estate, and nothing could exceed the +kindness and sympathy shown by the Trower family to his daughter in her +bereavement. We will call her Patty Jones. After a decent interval had +elapsed, Mr. Trower gave the woman notice to quit, as the cottage was +wanted for somebody else. Although every indulgence regarding the notice +was given, and continual consideration shown, Patty, being a woman of +violent and ungrateful temper, took the matter very badly. She refused +to go, and was eventually evicted, and her goods sold. It is said that +meeting Mr. Trower on the road one day, she took the occasion to call +down the wrath of Heaven upon him and his family, and made no secret +afterwards of having "put a curse" upon her benefactors, for such +indeed the Trowers had shown themselves. Whether it is ever really given +to any human being so to blast the lives of fellow-creatures or not, one +cannot tell. But it is certain that this particular family thereafter +appeared for some years to be singled out by fate for more than their +fair share of ill-luck, though, to avoid recognition, further details +must not be given here.</p> + +<p>At the sale of her goods a man named Morgan happened to buy Patty +Jones's cow. Whereupon she told him she would "put a curse" on the +animal, so that "he would never get any good from her." Sure enough, +soon afterwards the cow sickened with a mysterious complaint, which +defied the skill of the local "cow-doctor." So Morgan, advised by his +neighbours, went to seek counsel of a "white witch," who gave him a +charm which she said would cure the cow. "And now," she added, "wouldn't +you like me to put a curse on that woman? Because I can if you wish it." +But Morgan magnanimously replied, "Oh, no. <i>I do not wish</i> her any harm +whatever," and departed with his charm and cured his cow. It would be +interesting to know the nature of this "charm," whether it was a written +form of incantation, or something of the nature of a medicine. Mr. +Henderson, whose interesting book on folk-lore I have already quoted, +tells us of a piece of silver at Lockerby in Dumfries-shire, called the +Lockerby Penny, which was used against madness in cattle. It was put +into a cleft stick, and the water of a well stirred round with it, after +which the water was bottled off and given to any animal so afflicted. In +other districts certain pebbles and stones are supposed to have the same +magic property.</p> + +<p>Some Welsh witches are said to treat their patients with sulphur, a +remedy which I think savours more of "black magic" than "white."</p> + +<p>It seems that a favourite trick of North Cardiganshire witches was to +"put a spell" on the pigs of any neighbour who annoyed them, making the +poor animals <i>pranking</i> mad (as my informant expressed it). And nothing +would cure this madness till the witch had been fetched, and (doubtless +for a consideration) consented to remove the spell.</p> + +<p>However, belief in the powers of "wise" men and women is now chiefly +confined to their abilities as healers, and in this capacity they are +still resorted to in the more remote districts of Cardiganshire. The +cure—whatever the malady—appears to be always the same, and is called +"measuring the wool." The witch takes two pieces of yarn—scarlet for +choice—of exactly the same length. One of these is bound round the +wrist or leg of the patient; the other is worn in the same way by the +healer. The patient goes home, and after a few days the witch measures +her own piece of yarn. If it has shrunk from the original length, well +and good; the yarn continues to grow shorter (so it is said) and the +patient recovers. But if on the contrary the yarn grows perceptibly +slacker, the patient gets worse and will surely die. The person who told +me about the bewitched pigs had also much to say regarding this practice +of "measuring the yarn." She declared that quite lately a friend of +hers, a young man, who was very ill with "decline" and for whom ordinary +doctors could do nothing, went at last to consult a "wise woman" in the +parish of Eglwysfach<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> in North Cardiganshire. She measured the yarn +for him, and he immediately began to recover and is now well and working +at the business which ill-health had forced him to leave. In this case +faith must have been a strong factor towards recovery. But</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I cannot tell how the truth may be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I say the tale as 'twas said to me."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Only a year ago, in my own district, I heard of a young girl being taken +to the local "wise man" to have "her wool measured," but in her case the +charm does not seem to have worked well, as though she did not die, she +is still ailing. Another wizard, who died only last year, was an old man +who lived at Trawscoed in Cardiganshire. He also worked cures with +scarlet worsted, and enjoyed a great local reputation.</p> + +<p>The use of scarlet wool as a charm is of great antiquity, and is +supposed to be originally derived from the practices of the magicians of +Babylon. And according to Theocritus, the Greek maidens used it as a +charm to bring back faithless lovers. Mr. Elworthy, in his book on the +"Evil Eye," refers to the ancient use made of coloured yarn in +incantations, quoting from Petronius: "She then took from her bosom a +web of twisted threads of various colours, and bound it on my neck."</p> + +<p>In South Wales, as in many other districts, witches were supposed to +have the power of transforming themselves into hares. Especially, as I +have said before, was this superstition rife in North Cardiganshire, and +there to this day, any hare that has white about it is called "a witch +hare," and it is held very unlucky to kill it, while until quite lately +incidents such as the following were freely repeated and firmly believed +among the shepherds, small farmers, and miners who composed the scanty +population of those lonely hills.</p> + +<p>One day, the story goes, a funeral party was proceeding from the +deceased's house towards the churchyard, when suddenly a hare was seen +running just ahead of the procession. Nobody took much notice of it at +first, thinking it had merely been disturbed from its form, and would +probably soon disappear on one side of the road or the other. There was +neither hedge nor fence to prevent its doing so, for the road was only a +mountain track, which the hare might have left at any moment to seek +cover among the heather and fern of the hill-side. But this it did not +do; to the astonishment of all, the animal, apparently not a whit +frightened by the people behind, held steadily on its way. Sometimes, of +course, owing to its swiftness, it would be lost to view for a few +moments, but always a turn of the way would bring it in sight again, and +so it led the procession to the burial-ground. Then on a sudden it +vanished as mysteriously as it had appeared. For no man could say what +direction it took; only that at one moment it was there in plain view of +all, and at the next it was gone. And after that, nobody present doubted +that the creature was no hare, but a witch in that shape, who, scenting +the approach of Death, had added her noisome presence to the crowd of +mourners, until their arrival on consecrated ground had forced her to +fly.</p> + +<p>There is a tale belonging to the same district—roughly speaking—of +which I have unfortunately only heard the vague outlines, but the +incident is worth relating even without details, as it seems +extraordinary in whatever way it is explained.</p> + +<p>On a certain day, not very many years ago, a hare was hunted somewhere +in the hill-country bordering the shires of Montgomery and Cardigan. +From all accounts, never was better sport seen; the animal was game to +the last, and by many a twist and turn managed to cheat its pursuers. At +last, however, it appeared exhausted; the hounds closed in, and the +hunters, immediately behind, saw them hurl themselves upon their quarry. +The huntsman hastened forward, and every one pressed round to see the +gallant animal which had given such a splendid run. But where was the +hare? Whimpers and yelps of disappointment from the hounds proclaimed +that their prey had escaped, but the question was, how? No hare that +ever lived could have eluded the hounds as they fairly threw themselves +upon her, but still the fact remained, "Puss" had disappeared, vanishing +somehow in the very onslaught of tearing, eager hounds, and before the +eyes of several spectators. Of course the story in the country has ever +been that a "witch hare" was hunted that day, and "every one knows" that +nothing but a silver bullet can destroy a witch.</p> + +<p>The belief that only a silver bullet can harm a witch is illustrated in +my next story. It was related to me by the Rector of a certain parish in +Pembrokeshire, who said that though the people it concerned had been +dead some years, the incident was still repeated with conviction by the +country-folk of the district.</p> + +<p>There was an old woman living in the village of Llaw——n who was +supposed to be a witch and to have the power of changing herself into a +hare. It was asserted that she had often been seen in this guise, and +several persons tried on various occasions to shoot the uncanny beast. +But no shot would touch it. However, "John the Smith" was a cunning man, +and one day he loaded his gun with a silver sixpence in lieu of shot, +and went out to look for the "witch hare." Presently he came across it +in a field, and then—Bang! went his gun. Instantly the poor animal made +off, but the sixpence had evidently found its mark, for as the hare ran +it trailed a hind leg behind it. Still, lame as it was, it managed to +elude the smith, and, turning in the direction of the village, +disappeared. But that evening John went to the house of 'Liza the Witch, +and, knocking at the door, cried, "How be'st thou, 'Liza?"</p> + +<p>"John, John, thou very well knowest how I be," was the reply. Nor would +she allow him to enter. Then John the Smith went home well satisfied +that he had done what no one else had been able to do, and had wounded +the "witch hare."</p> + +<p>Apropos of this belief in a witch's powers of self-transformation, a +rather curious incident came under my notice in my own neighbourhood +some few months ago. Two gentlemen were partridge-shooting, and in the +course of their walk the path they followed should have led them through +the garden of a somewhat lonely cottage inhabited by an old woman. This +woman was known to be very unpopular with her neighbours, in +consequence, it was supposed, of a quarrelsome disposition. When the +shooters reached this cottage, they found, to their surprise, that the +gate by which they usually passed through the premises was fastened with +a padlock. A shout produced the old woman from the house, who hastened +to let them through, apologising profusely for the padlock, but saying +she had been obliged to lock her gate, because "the boys were so bad to +her. Look," she added, pointing to the end wall of her cottage, "that is +what they did to me last night." And there, nailed to the wall, was a +black rabbit. One of the gentlemen, to cheer her, said jokingly, "Oh, +that's nothing. A black rabbit! Isn't that lucky?" "No," was the answer, +"not lucky; very bad luck, and they knew that very well."</p> + +<p>To any one conversant with Cardiganshire superstitions, there is no +doubt that the nailing up of the black rabbit was intended to signify +that the inhabitant of the house was a witch. True, the animal should +have been a hare, but the Ground Game Act having caused hares to become +almost extinct in this district, the perpetrators of the insult took the +best substitute they could find in the shape of the black rabbit, well +knowing that its sinister significance would not be lost on the poor old +woman.</p> + +<p>To return for a moment to the Pembrokeshire village we have already +mentioned, Llaw——n, where there is a beautiful ruin of a castle, most +picturesquely situated on the edge of a wooded cliff overhanging the +river Cleddau. In olden times this castle was a place of great +importance as a Palace of the Bishops of St. David's, some of whom, it +is said, preferred its strong, well-fortified walls to their splendid +palace in the episcopal city. And in Llaw——n Castle there was once +imprisoned a celebrated witch, Tanglost ferch Glyn, against whom the +reigning prelate, Bishop John Morgan, had taken proceedings for some +rather serious offence, and whom he pronounced "accursed," or, in other +words, excommunicated. After escaping once from custody, and being +rearrested, Tanglost made submission, and (we presume) did penance, and +was at length released, though banished from the diocese of St. David's. +Thereupon she betook herself to Bristol, where, engaging the services of +another witch, one Margaret Hackett, she endeavoured to "distrew" her +enemy the Bishop by witchcraft. After a time, Tanglost ventured to +return to Pembrokeshire, and at a certain house<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> (still well known +and inhabited), "in a chambre called Paradise Chambre," made, with +Hackett's help, two waxen images for injuring the Bishop. Two images not +being powerful enough to do the work, Tanglost and her coadjutor called +in the aid of a third party, "which they thought hadde more counynge and +experience than they had, and made the IIIrd ymage to distrew the +Bishop." However, not only did the prelate continue to live and +flourish, but, as was inevitable, knowledge of these sinister designs +reached his ears, and Tanglost, with her two assistants, was summoned to +appear for judgment before the Prior of Monckton, who held jurisdiction +in her neighbourhood. Escaping for the moment, she again fled to +Bristol, but was there reached by the long arm of the Church, and +arrested on a charge of heresy. Four Doctors of Divinity considered her +case, and handed her over to the Bishop for punishment, which would +probably have meant being burnt as a witch in the market-place, if Fate +had not again interfered through the efforts of her friends, who caused +Tanglost to be arrested on an accusation of debt, bailed her +successfully out of prison, and rescued her from the Bishop's +emissaries. Then a bill in Chancery was filed against her, praying that +the Mayor and Sheriffs of the city of Bristol should be ordered to +arrest her, and bring her before the King in Chancery. But to make a +long story short, Tanglost, who seems to have been a woman of infinite +resource, managed once more to evade this fresh danger, and it is to be +supposed eventually died in her bed, in spite of her unlawful traffic +with witchcraft. Her persecutor, Bishop John Morgan, held the See of St. +David's from 1496 to 1505, and reference to the Chancery proceedings +against Tanglost are to be found at the Record Office under "Early +Chancery Proceedings."</p> + +<p>The practice of making waxen images of the person to be injured is of +immemorial antiquity. We read in Professor Maspero's "Dawn of +Civilisation" about the Egyptian magicians that "to compose an +irresistible charm they merely required a little blood from a person, a +few nail-parings, some hair, or a scrap of linen which he had worn, and +which from contact with his skin had become impregnated with his +personality. Portions of these were incorporated with the wax of a doll +which they modelled and clothed to resemble their victim. Thenceforward +all the inflictions to which the image was subjected were experienced +by the original; he was consumed with fever when his effigy was exposed +to the fire, he was wounded when the figure was pierced with a knife. +The Pharaohs themselves had no immunity from these spells." Nor need we +go back as far as the Pharaohs to find witches and wizards making use of +effigies for the undoing of their enemies. According to Mr. Elworthy, +from whose interesting book on the "Evil Eye" I have already quoted, +such images and figures were used in quite modern times by "witches" +among the Somersetshire peasants, and dried pigs' and sheeps' hearts +studded with pins have been found in old cottages in that county +dedicated to the same malevolent purpose. Onions were also sometimes +used in the same way. A lady, who lived many years in a rural parish of +Somerset, also told me only a few months ago that she had there known +several people who were supposed to be witches, and had seen hanging in +their chimneys, dried animals' hearts, stuck full of pins, intended to +injure their own or other people's enemies.</p> + +<p>A well-known "white witch" lives and flourishes to-day in the village of +T——n, in South Pembrokeshire. Some most interesting particulars +concerning her were sent me a few weeks ago, by a correspondent in that +county. My friend wrote: "An old man, David Evans, (no relation to the +witch) ... who has worked ... for thirty years, 'failed,' as they say in +Pembrokeshire, some time ago, and has done no work for seventeen weeks. +He has had medical advice and medicine, but with no satisfactory +results.... He took it into his head that he would consult the +'charmer.' I was on my way to visit him and his wife, when I met Mr. +Blank's bailiff, Pike, who told me he had sent him to T——n that very +day, and that I should only find the wife at home.... When I got to the +house I found the old man had returned.... He told me whom he had been +to see, and I naturally wanted to know all about it. The following is +what he told me:</p> + +<p>"'When I got to Gwen Davies'<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> house, I told her about myself, and how +long I had been ill, and that I had seen the doctor and had bottles of +physic and was no better. She made me sit down in a chair and she laid +eleven little pieces of straw on the table; then she took a long straw +and waved it several times round my head; having done this she went to +the table and removed one of the little bits of straw to another part of +the table. When this was done she came back to me and repeated the +waving of the long straw, and so on till all the eleven little bits of +straw had been removed from where they had been put at the beginning.'</p> + +<p>"I asked whether the 'charmer' had said anything during this +performance. 'She mumbled something each time she was at the table, but +I could not make out the words.'</p> + +<p>"I inquired then, 'What did she say to you when this was over?'</p> + +<p>"David Evans replied that she said that he would recover, but that it +would be a long time....</p> + +<p>"'What advice did she give you as to what you should eat, drink, and +avoid?'</p> + +<p>"'Eat all you can get,' she told him, 'but no doctor's stuff, and no +drink.' My last inquiry was, 'Did you give her anything?'</p> + +<p>"'No,' said the old man, 'she would take nothing.' I think I may safely +say this is a properly authenticated narrative."</p> + +<p>To this account my friend a few days later added the following +postscript.</p> + +<p>"To add something to my last letter. I met our Archdeacon ... on Friday, +and was telling him about the 'White Witch of T——n'; he had heard of +her when he was Vicar of L——n; his account of her proceedings is +slightly different from what I wrote to you;—the little bits of straw +are more than eleven, and she moves them, not on a table, but on two +chairs, transferring them from one to the other; and what the old man +described as 'mumbling' is that she repeats passages from the Bible. +This latter fact connects, in my mind, her 'hanky-panky' with the old +ceremony of 'touching' for the King's Evil."</p> + +<p>The slight discrepancy in the details of the witch's proceedings in +nowise detracts from the central, most interesting fact, that such +professional "charmers" should be still resorted to in the rural +districts of Wales by invalids having apparently every faith in their +ability to work cures.</p> + +<p>It was the Rector of Llaw——n who kindly gave me many particulars of a +very famous "wise man" known as Harries of Caio. These are real names; +Caio is a parish in Carmarthenshire, and my clerical friend had formerly +been Vicar there, though subsequent to Harries' death, which occurred +some years ago. But he is well remembered and talked of in the country, +and if all tales told of him are true he must have possessed +considerable psychic powers, which in these days would by no means be +thought supernatural by enlightened people, but which thirty or forty +years ago would most certainly have impressed and awed an ignorant +peasantry. Harries is described as a fine-looking man with a long beard +and remarkably bushy eyebrows. He would occasionally tramp the country, +carrying an enormous volume of astrological lore under his arm, +leather-bound, with a strong lock attached. This, he said, was to +prevent ignorant people reading the charms contained in the book, and +thereby raising evil spirits.</p> + +<p>Although often consulted as a healer it was on his powers as a seer or +prophet that Harries' fame chiefly rested. If any one had a relation ill +or in trouble, he would go to the wizard and ask what his friend's fate +would be. Harries then put himself into a trance, and when he came out +of it would say, "I am sorry for you, but your friend will die," or "he +will recover," as the case might be.</p> + +<p>But the most interesting story connected with Harries of Caio, and one +which the Rector of Llaw——n had heard on excellent authority, is as +follows: A certain man in Carmarthenshire started one day to walk over +the hills to Breconshire on some farming business. He did not return +when expected; time went by, and his friends became alarmed and made +inquiries, but to no purpose; nothing could be heard about him. At last +the police were called in, but they were equally unsuccessful, and after +many weeks had passed without news of the missing man, his relations +determined as a last resource to apply to the wizard of Caio. So a +deputation of them went to his house, and having stated the purpose of +their visit were told by Harries that he could give them the information +they sought. "But," he added solemnly and with great feeling, "I am +sorry to tell you that your friend is no longer alive. If you cross the +mountain between Llandovery and Brecon your path will lead you past a +ruined house, and near that house there is a large and solitary tree. +Dig at the foot of that tree and you will find him whom you seek." These +words of gloomy import only crystallised the feelings of vague +foreboding already in the minds of the inquirers, who, after a short +consultation, determined to test the truth of the wizard's information. +A small party was formed, who proceeded, according to the seer's +directions, along the lonely track that led over the mountain to Brecon, +the way by which it was known their friend had intended to travel. After +a while they came to a ruined cottage, with a large tree close +by—landmarks probably known to most of them. Dead leaves covered the +ground beneath the tree, but on raking these aside it was at once seen +that the earth had been lately disturbed, and on digging deep below +Harries' words were sadly verified by the searchers, who did indeed +discover the body of their friend. That a crime had been committed was +abundantly clear, but by whom has remained a mystery to this day, nor +was any ordinary explanation ever sufficient to account for Harries' +extraordinary information on the subject, all inquiry—and also his high +character—precluding the most remote suspicion of his being in any way +connected with such a misdeed.</p> + +<p>After Harries' death his "magic books" were sold, and are now in the +possession of the Registrar of the Welsh University College at +Aberystwith.</p> + +<p>Mention of Llandovery reminds me of a celebrated "Curse story" connected +with Cardiganshire, but which has been so often the theme of abler pens +than mine that I shall do little more than refer to it here. Briefly it +is this. In the seventeenth century, Maesyfelin Hall, a large house some +few miles from Lampeter, was the centre of hospitality and culture in +Cardiganshire. Judge Marmaduke Lloyd, owner of the house and great +estates, was universally known and respected in South Wales, counting +among his intimate friends the well-known Vicar Pritchard of Llandovery, +whose book, "Canwyll y Cymru" (The Welshman's Candle), is still much +prized for its quaintly pious teaching by all religious Welsh people. +This clergyman had a son, Samuel, who seems to have been a frequent and +welcome visitor at Maesyfelin, until a day came when a terrible tragedy +occurred. The young man's body, bearing evidence that he had been foully +done to death, was found floating in the river Teify, and dark must have +been the suspicions of his grief-stricken parent when he could pen words +such as the following, fraught with deadly enmity towards his former +friends:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The curse of God on Maesyfelin fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On root of every tree, on stone of wall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Because the flower of fair Llandovery town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was headlong cast in Teivi's flood to drown."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Or in the original Welsh:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Melldith Duw ar Maesyfelin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ar bob carreg, dan bob gwreiddyn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Am daflu blodeu tref Llandyfri<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ar ei ben i Deifi i foddi."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Tradition asserts that Samuel Pritchard met his death in some brawl +arising from the discovery of his persistence in some prohibited love +affair; but the whole story rests on the most slender evidence, and +beyond the fact that he lost his life by violence, somewhere between +Lampeter and Llandovery, there is nothing to prove that the family of +Maesyfelin had any share at all in the dark deed. However, not many +generations passed before it seemed as if the Vicar's words had indeed +taken effect, for after Sir Marmaduke's death, the estate of Maesyfelin +was gradually weakened by the extravagance of his descendants, and +finally what was left of the land passed through marriage into the +possession of the Lloyds of Peterwell in the year 1750. Maesyfelin Hall +was left empty, and time and neglect have most literally fulfilled to +the letter the curse pronounced by Vicar Pritchard nearly three hundred +years ago. Not an unusual history, and one that might probably be true +of many an old and extinct family in Great Britain. But in Cardiganshire +the reverses and final extinction of the Lloyds of Maesyfelin were +always ascribed to the effect of the pious Vicar's malison. Oddly +enough, that curse seemed to follow the name of Lloyd, for the family of +Peterwell had no better luck with the Maesyfelin estates than the +original owners. At the death of John Lloyd of Peterwell, his great +property, including Maesyfelin, went to his brother Herbert, who was +made a baronet in 1763, and sat in Parliament for seven years. He was a +man of extravagant tastes and imperious temper, and seems to have ruled +like a dictator in his own neighbourhood. Many and interesting are the +tales still told of him and his ways, and the manner of his death and +burial were as sensational as his career through life might lead one to +expect. But all that is "another story," and here it is sufficient to +say that, Sir Herbert Lloyd dying deeply in debt and without +descendants, his heavily mortgaged lands passed to strangers and were +divided, while his great house of Peterwell, with its "four gilded +domes," became, like Maesyfelin, a ruin, of which only the broken walls +remain to tell of former splendours. And the famous curse, having +fulfilled its end, is now forgotten, or remembered in the district only +as an interesting tradition.</p> + +<p>A Scotch friend once told me of a curse that had been laid upon her own +family by three Highlanders. These men were implicated in the '45 +Rebellion, and were handed over to the Duke of Cumberland by an ancestor +of my friend, a man whose sympathies were Hanoverian, and the owner of +considerable property. The Highlanders were duly condemned and executed, +but before they died they solemnly cursed their enemy, prophesying that +his descendants in the third generation should not possess an acre of +land. This prophecy was fulfilled to the letter; and my friend tells me +that a relation of hers has talked with a very old woman who came from +the same part of the country, and who spoke of the curse and its origin +as well-known facts.</p> + +<p>Connected with this subject of family curses is a story I heard not +long ago, of a certain country house in one of the Eastern Counties. On +the landing of the principal staircase of this house there might be +seen, a few years since, a glass case covered by a curtain, which, if +drawn, revealed the waxen effigy of a child, terribly wasted and +emaciated, lying on her side as if asleep. It was described to me as so +realistic as to be quite horrible, and it is apparent that some very +strong reason must have existed for keeping so unpleasant an object in +such a thoroughfare of the house. Its history is this. Some generations +ago, the wife of the owner of the place died, leaving motherless a +little girl. The father soon married again, giving his child a cruel +stepmother, who, in her husband's absence from home, so ill-treated and +starved the poor little girl that very soon after her father's return +she died. It is said that the facts of his wife's cruelty reached the +father's ears, and in order that he might punish her with perpetual +remorse, he had a wax model made of his child exactly as she appeared in +death, and placed it conspicuously on the staircase landing, where his +wife must see it whenever she went up or down stairs. He further +directed in his will that the model should never be removed from its +place, adding that if it were, <i>a curse</i> should fall on house and +family. So, covered in later years by a curtain, the effigy remained +until a day arrived in quite recent times, when the family then in +possession were giving a dance, and for some reason had the case +containing the wax-work carried downstairs and put in an outhouse. But +mark what happened. That very night occurred a shock of earthquake +violent enough to cause part of the house to fall down! Very likely mere +coincidence; but as it <i>might</i> have been the working of the curse +consequent on the removal of the case, it was thought advisable to +restore the grisly relic to its former position, where, as far as my +informant knew, it may be seen to this day.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>ODD NOTES</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Plain and more plain, the unsubstantial Sprite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To his astonish'd gaze each moment grew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ghastly and gaunt, it reared its shadowy height,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of more than mortal seeming to the view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And round its long, thin, bony fingers drew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A tatter'd winding-sheet, of course <i>all white</i>."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>In that very interesting book, "John Silence," Mr. Algernon Blackwood +remarks that cats seem to possess a peculiar affinity for the Unknown, +and that while dogs are invariably terrified by anything in the nature +of occult phenomena, cats, on the contrary, are soothed and pleased.</p> + +<p>Perhaps that is why cats have so often figured in history and fiction as +companions of sorcerers and witches; and perhaps it was a knowledge of +their occult sympathies that helped to render these animals sacred to +the ancient Egyptians. These are only speculations, but there is no +doubt that cats are, in fact, queer and sphinx-like creatures; capable +moreover of inspiring an extraordinary dread and dislike (quite out of +proportion to their size and character) in some people. It is said that +Lord Roberts, bravest of Generals, cannot stand the sight of a cat. I +have known personally at least two people who have the same loathing and +fear; and one of these individuals can tell if a cat is anywhere near +without either seeing or hearing it; and I have seen this exemplified +when my friend has been assured—in good faith—that there was not a cat +in the house, much less in the room. But on search being made a cat was +found—though no one knew how it got there. And this curious instance of +perception by some "sixth sense" reminds me of an odd thing I was told +about a man who, until quite lately, was employed as a verger in Ely +Cathedral. This man, in some unknown way, could always tell if there +were any person in the Cathedral, although he could neither see, feel, +nor hear them. It is said that this extraordinary faculty was tested +over and over again, but the verger was never mistaken.</p> + +<p>But to return to our friend Puss; another of her funny characteristics +is, that she always seems to seek out the people who dislike her, and +appears to desire their friendship, contrary to her usual habit with +strangers, with whom she is generally coy and repellent. Altogether it +is not difficult to credit cats with some degree of psychic power, and +probably few of us would object to their comfortable Tabbies or languid +Persians seeing ghosts and spirits if they are able to. But when it +comes to a cat being itself a ghost, the idea is somehow horribly +uncanny. Yet I know a lady who for a long while occupied a house in +Dublin where there was a ghost cat. I had heard a vague rumour of this, +and much interested, I wrote to Miss M——n for information. She replied +(dated October 17, 1907): "With regard to my 'ghost cat' I have no story +to tell, or cause for its appearance. For some time my sister and I were +the only people who saw it, but of late my niece, and also different +friends I have had staying with me, have also seen it. It is always just +walking under a table or chair when seen, which may account for neither +its head nor front portion of its body ever having been seen. It is +coal-black. For many years when it used to appear, I had no black cat, +but have had one now for some time, so don't notice the ghost one so +much, as we don't bother to notice whether it is the real or the +supernatural, but know for a fact it has been seen several times this +year. I am sorry I can't give you any further details, but not being a +believer in ghosts, I am afraid I pay very little attention to my +friendly cat."</p> + +<p>One would like to know the <i>raison d'être</i> of that little feline +spectre, and there is doubtless some story connected with it that would +account for its presence could we but look back far enough into the +histories of former tenants of the house. But in a city or town, strange +happenings connected with any particular family are more quickly +forgotten than in the country, where such traditions are apt to linger +far longer in the memories of the local inhabitants. In a town, one is +told "such and such a house is haunted"; but if you ask why and how +haunted, you will generally meet with "I don't know" in reply. Whereas +in the country, if a house acquires a "haunted" reputation, there is +mostly chapter and verse for its particular kind of ghost, and often a +story told to account for the haunting.</p> + +<p>But ghostly dogs are, to my mind, quite as unpleasant as ghostly cats, +and there is something very disagreeable, I think, about the following +experience of a person whom we will temporarily christen Mr. Archer. He +was a youngish man of strongly psychic temperament, and in the intervals +of business was accustomed to dabble pretty freely in occult matters of +all kinds. It happened once that he went to stay in a large northern +city, where he had some spiritualist friends, and one evening he and +these people arranged to hold a séance. Forgetting all about such a +mundane affair as dinner, they "sat" for hours, but with no result; they +could get no manifestations, and at last gave up the attempt, Archer +returning weary and disappointed to his hotel. It was then very late, so +going to his room, he locked the door, and proceeded to get ready for +bed. Suddenly he heard a very queer noise—a sort of rustling and +scrambling; and as he turned quickly to see where it came from, a large, +black dog darted from under the bed. Archer felt much annoyed at what he +considered the carelessness of the hotel servants in shutting the +animal into his room, and he promptly rushed at it with the intention of +turning it out into the passage. But before he could reach it, the dog +walked to the locked door and simply vanished or melted through the +panels, leaving Archer in a state of bewilderment hard to describe. The +incident as I heard it goes no further. But as Archer was presumably +accustomed to investigating supernatural phenomena, we may suppose that +he made full inquiries in the hotel as to a possible real dog, or an +already known ghostly one, though apparently without satisfaction. He +told the friend from whom I had the story that he had no shadow of doubt +as to his having really seen the thing, and that it disappeared in the +unusual manner related, and that, whatever the dog may have been, it was +no hallucination. Could it have been possible, I wonder, that the +fruitless séance was answerable for the creature's appearance? That not +being able to raise the powers they wished, the sitters had unwittingly +attracted some being from a lower plane, which Archer was able to +visualise, owing to the mental effects produced by a long fast and +bodily fatigue, joined to his peculiar temperament. For there is no +doubt that they who deliberately set to work to "raise spirits" must +take their chance of the character of such "demons" (to use the ancient +name) as respond to the call.</p> + +<p>Traditions concerning mysterious "bogies," elementals, or spirits—call +them what we will—supposed to haunt certain localities, are to be +heard of in many parts of Great Britain. In Wales such legends have +always abounded, and innumerable are the tales of bogies said to +frequent lonely roads, and especially the neighbourhood of bridges. Many +of these stories were no doubt invented for the purpose of frightening +ignorant people and children, while others had their origin in the +brains of intoxicated individuals returning late at night from fair or +funeral. Yet it is curious how these old tales cling. There is a bridge +spanning a ravine or dingle, about a mile from my own home, which had +such an evil reputation for being haunted that until quite recent years +no local postboy or fly-driver would take his horses over it after dark, +for fear of the bogey that was said to sit on the parapet at night, or +that,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Half seen by fits, by fits half heard,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>would glide tall and menacing across the road just where the hill was +steepest, and the gloom of overhanging trees most impenetrable.</p> + +<p>Only the other day, a Merionethshire woman told me of an extraordinary +apparition seen by two men whom she knew well, on the bridge in her +native village. One of these men was a chapel deacon, respected and +respectable, and, according to my friend, quite incapable of +misrepresenting facts. Their houses were separated by the bridge, and on +a certain evening, when one man had been visiting the other, he said +jokingly to his friend, "Now, John, you must come out and see me home, +for I'm afraid to cross the bridge alone." So the two started together. +It was a bright moonlight night, and arrived on the bridge, what should +they see but the figure of an enormous man, clad in white, standing in +the middle of the road! Remembrance of their jesting words, spoken only +a few minutes before, flashed across the deacon's memory, and with their +hearts in their mouths they stood rooted to the spot. But the figure, +whatever it was, made no movement, and at last with shaking limbs and +clammy brows, they stole past it in safety. Then came the dilemma. How +was he who had acted escort to reach his own home across the bridge +alone?</p> + +<p>My informant said it was afterwards rumoured that the two friends spent +the whole night escorting each other home. For neither dared ever return +alone. But in fact all they themselves really said when questioned was, +that they had waited what seemed to them an interminable time before the +Shape which they watched vanished quite suddenly and never reappeared.</p> + +<p>Of course this tale is capable of more than one humorous interpretation, +such as that of an evening spent in overmuch good-fellowship, or as an +example of a successful practical joke. But still I give it as it was +told me, as an excellent instance of the Welsh "bogey story," of a kind +that might, I expect, have been collected by the dozen in our remote +districts twenty or thirty years ago, but are now rapidly being +forgotten. I have heard of another "bŵcgi" (as bogey becomes in +Welsh) of the same type as the above, which used to frequent a +cross-road some four miles from Newcastle Emlyn, and took pleasure in +frightening respectable people after dark. And still another of these +creatures of the night was supposed to haunt the grounds of a house not +far from Cardigan, and was known as "Bŵcgi chain," its appearance +being always accompanied by the noise of clanking chains. This bogey +seems to have been quite an institution in the neighbourhood, and I +fancy familiarity with the tradition had bred, if not contempt, at least +disregard of poor old "Bŵcgi chain."</p> + +<p>A friend who lives in South Cardiganshire wrote to me of a man in her +own neighbourhood—still living—who declared he had once seen "the evil +spirit" of a neighbour, "at dawn, near a limekiln, a creature 'twixt dog +and calf, and with lolloping gait, not fierce, but evil to look at, for +the Welsh believe that evil people can take the form of creatures and +roam about, for no good of course. And though they never name it, and +would deny it to you or me, yet secretly, behind closed doors, they +whisper of the different forms taken by the evil spirits of neighbours +who are workers of darkness."</p> + +<p>Personally I have never come across this belief in Wales, but it is most +likely the remains of a very ancient superstition peculiar to that +district, just as the belief in the "Tanwe" (to which I alluded in a +former chapter) seems to have been localised in North Cardiganshire.</p> + +<p>Of course this idea of the spirit of a living person roaming about to +work wickedness can be nothing more nor less than a variation of the +Were-wolf or Loup-garou legend, which from time immemorial has been +believed throughout almost all Europe, and, it is said, still lingers in +remote parts of France, and particularly Brittany. Now, closely related +in race as the Welsh are to the Bretons, it is not hard to imagine that +the superstitions and beliefs of both nations have had their origin in a +common stock, taking us back to those far-away times when the great +Celtic tribes were young. Local circumstances, religious influences, and +differences of education have combined in the course of centuries to +determine the survival or decay of these old traditions in both +countries, and probably the "loup-garou" ceased to be generally heard of +in Wales many hundreds of years ago. But everybody who has studied even +slightly the subject of folk-lore and superstition, knows how long +fragments of some ancient belief (often so tattered as to be almost +unrecognisable) will be found obstinately preserved in perhaps quite a +small district, among a few people in whom such a belief appears as an +instinct which yields but slowly before the spread of modern education. +And endeavouring to follow these dwindling rivulets of strange old-world +ideas to their source is one of the most fascinating subjects of +speculation in the world.</p> + +<p>However, all this is digression, and we must come back to our Welsh +bogies, for to omit mention of the Gŵrach or Cyhoeraeth, which is the +most terrible of them all, would be unpardonable. Fortunately, to see or +hear one of these spectres seems to be very rare. Howells, in his +"Cambrian Superstitions," says that the Cyhoeraeth is a being with +dishevelled hair, long black teeth, lank withered arms, a frightful +voice, and cadaverous appearance. "Its shriek is described as having +such an effect as literally to freeze the blood in the veins of those +who heard it, and was never uttered except when the ghost came to a +cross-road or went by some water, which she splashed with her hands ... +exclaiming 'Oh, oh fyn gŵr, fyn gŵr' (my husband, my husband), or +sometimes the cry would be 'my wife, my wife,' or 'my child.' Of course +this doleful plaint boded ill for the relations of those who were +unlucky enough to hear it, and if the cry were merely an inarticulate +scream it was supposed to mean the hearer's own death."</p> + +<p>The wailing cry of the Welsh Cyhoeraeth reminds one of the Irish banshee +legends; and though I have never so far come across any one who has +seen or heard the Cyhoeraeth, yet two people in Wales have told me of +death warnings conveyed by what they called "banshees."</p> + +<p>One story concerns a Welsh lady, Miss W——, who happened to be staying +at an hotel at Bangor, in North Wales, and was awakened one night by a +hideous, wailing cry. Much alarmed, she got up, and as she reached the +window (from whence the sound came) saw slowly and distinctly cross it +the shadow of some great flying creature, while the dreadful cry died +gradually away. Miss W—— felt half frozen with fear, but managed to +open the window and look into the street. Nothing was to be seen; but +afterwards, as she lay awake, trying to account for what she had seen +and heard, a possible, though perhaps far-fetched solution, occurred to +her.</p> + +<p>Next morning, when breakfasting, she asked the waiter whether he knew if +any Irish person in the house or street had died. The man looked rather +surprised at the question, and said "No." Presently, however, he came +hurrying back to Miss W—— and said "Colonel F.," mentioning a +well-known name, "a gentleman from Ireland, who has been staying here +very ill for some time, died last night."</p> + +<p>Miss W—— was always firmly convinced that what she heard and saw that +night at Bangor were the shadow and the warning cry of the Colonel's +family banshee.</p> + +<p>The other instance was told me by a friend, who declared that being +awakened one night when staying in the town of Cardigan by an +extraordinary and startling noise at his window, he jumped up, threw +open the window and looked out. And there, <i>flying</i> down the street he +saw what he called "a banshee"-like spectre "of horror indescribable, +which beat its way slowly past the silent houses till it disappeared in +the gloom beyond." It returned no more, and the rest of the night passed +undisturbed; but on receiving unexpected news next day of the death of a +great friend, my informant could not help thinking of the extraordinary +incident, and wondering if the "banshee" had brought a warning.</p> + +<p>It is a common belief in Wales that the screeching of barn-owls close to +a house is a very bad sign, betokening the approach of death, and +certainly it requires no great effort of the imagination to produce a +shudder of foreboding as the gloom of an autumn evening is suddenly rent +by the weird cry. And though I am no believer in what is of course a +mere superstition, yet the recollection of it came to my mind on an +occasion when I happened to be staying at a country house where a death +occurred somewhat unexpectedly. I well remember the incessant and +extraordinary noise made by the owls during a few evenings immediately +before and after the event, shriek following shriek, often appearing to +be just outside the windows; and though every one knew it was only the +owls, yet it would be difficult to describe the uncanny, disturbing +effect produced on one's mind by such an unearthly-sounding clamour. +This was only coincidence; but whether regarded as prophetic or not, the +"gloom-bird's hated screech," as Keats calls it, is not a cheerful +sound, and seems a fitting accompaniment to that hour</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In the dead vast and middle of the night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When churchyards yawn."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Mysterious knockings and taps, or the sound of an invisible horse's +hoofs stopping at the door, are also thought in Wales to be death omens. +It is said that in the old days of lead-mining in Cardiganshire, the +miners always used to declare that to hear "the knockers" at work was "a +sure sign" of an accident coming.</p> + +<p>I once heard a story about a woman belonging to a parish not far from my +own home, who went with her husband to live in Glamorganshire, where he +heard of work at Pontypridd, to which town he betook himself, leaving +his wife at Dowlais. But a terrible accident happened in the mine where +the man worked, and he was killed. His body was brought back to his +wife's house at Dowlais, and as the coffin was carried into one of the +upstairs rooms, it was carelessly allowed to knock noisily against the +door. The widow afterwards told her friends that two nights before the +accident happened she had been awakened in that very room, by a loud +sound exactly like that caused by the bumping of the coffin, and could +not imagine what had made such an odd noise. She was thenceforward +convinced that a premonitory sound of the coffin being carried into the +room had been sent her as a "warning."</p> + +<p>There is a house I know very well in South Wales where a curious sound, +always supposed to be of "ghostly" origin, used to be heard occasionally +by a lady who lived there for a few years. She described it as the noise +"of a person digging a grave," or using a pick-axe for that purpose, and +said it was most horrible and gruesome to hear. It appeared to come from +just outside the drawing-room windows, yet nothing was to be seen if one +looked out. Other tenants have come and gone since that lady's time, and +I have never heard again of the ghostly grave-digger. But mysterious +footsteps have been heard in that house quite lately, and by three +people who say they do not "believe in ghosts"; one of them, however, +admitted to me that in spite of close investigation he was utterly +unable to account for the soft footfalls he most certainly heard. But it +may well be that invisible presences still linger about a place which in +olden times was the site of a little settlement of monks, though nothing +now remains but the name to remind us of the fact.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p>While on the subject of warnings and death omens, I may mention a +curious tradition connected with an old church I know in Pembrokeshire. +In a corner of the building is kept the bier used at funerals; and it is +reported that always just before any death occurs in the parish, this +bier is heard to creak loudly, as though a heavy burden had been laid +upon it. The churchyard adjoining has also a haunted reputation, and I +have been told that not even a tramp would willingly pass its gates +after dark.</p> + +<p>Another death warning is the tolling—by unseen hands—of the bell of +Blaenporth Church (in Cardiganshire). This eerie sound was said to be +always heard at midday and midnight just before the death of any +parishioner of importance. But as far as I can gather, the Blaenporth +bell has ceased to toll its warnings; for an inhabitant of the parish, +who knows the country people and their ideas very well, told me she had +never heard of the mysterious tolling, and thought it must be a dead +tradition. But it is a picturesque one, and so characteristic of Celtic +ideas, ever interpreting as signs and portents the slightest incident +that happens to break the ordinary routine of life, that I thought it +worth recording here.</p> + +<p>Another superstition (certainly not picturesque), which I have never +heard of but in Cardiganshire, was that it was very unlucky to bury the +bodies of any cattle that happened to be found dead in the fields! What +idea can have been connected with such an unsanitary prejudice I cannot +imagine.</p> + +<p>When reading a paper at a local antiquarian meeting some few weeks ago, +the Vicar of Lledrod,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> Mr. H. M. Williams, referred to the origin of +the Welsh word "Croesaw," which means "welcome"; and in explanation he +related how he came to realise that the word was derived from the noun +<i>croes</i> (a cross). He said: "A farmer's wife, whenever I visited her +house, as soon as she saw me at the door, would take some instrument of +iron, such as a poker or knitting-needle, and ceremoniously describe a +cross on the hearth, and would afterwards address me with the words +'Croesaw i' chwi, syr.' ('Welcome to you, sir.') This custom existed at +Llanddeusant, Carmarthenshire, where I lived twenty years ago."</p> + +<p>This strikes me as one of the most curious survivals of an ancient +superstition that I have heard of in Wales. Of course there can be no +doubt as to the word "croesaw" being derived from the "croes" made as +described above; but the question is, why was that cross made at all? +The Vicar, who is a scholar and learned antiquary, and whose views +should therefore be regarded with respect, seemed to think that the +cross was a sort of sign and seal of welcome, as a man in old days would +set his mark—a cross—to anything as a signification of approval and +affirmation. Perhaps that is so; but my own idea (advanced with all +diffidence) is that the cross had a far different meaning, and that it +had its origin in the mediæval dread of the "evil eye." A stranger +coming to the house must ever be welcomed according to the laws of Welsh +hospitality, and he might very likely be quite guiltless of the uncanny +power to "ill-wish" or "overlook." But to avoid risks, it was better to +use some simple charm, before bidding the visitor enter, and what could +be more powerful against malign influences than the holy symbol of the +cross quickly made in the ashes, where it could be as easily obliterated +the next moment, and so wound nobody's feelings. Again, the use of the +poker or knitting-needle for the rite seems to be a remnant of the old +universal belief that witches, evil spirits, and ghosts hated iron, and +cannot harm a person protected by that metal. Such at least is my +explanation of a most interesting local custom, which has become +mechanical nowadays—just as many of us cross ourselves when we see a +magpie, without knowing why—and perhaps by this time has disappeared +altogether.</p> + +<p>Mr. Williams tells me he has never met with this custom in +Cardiganshire, but says that a curious little ceremony used to be +performed, about fifty years ago, by the children of the parish of +Verwig, near Cardigan. "As the children were going home from school, at +a cross-road before parting, one of the elder ones would describe a +cross on the road and solemnly utter the following holy wish:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">"Gris Groes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Myn Un, ie, Myn Un, aed mys moes."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Rendered in English this is:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"Christ's Cross<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the Holy One, yea by the Holy One, may gentle manners prevail."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>What the quaint little ceremony meant it is hard to say, and no doubt +the children themselves could have given no reason for its performance, +except that "they always did it." But it was a pretty idea, whatever its +esoteric meaning, which would probably lead us back to the days when +Wales was Roman Catholic, and nearly all instruction, both as regards +book-learning and manners, in the hands of priests and monks. Then it is +not difficult to imagine some such simple charm or invocation taught his +wild scholars by the gentle schoolmaster-monk of the local monastery, to +help carry the peace of the cloister home with them, and as a safeguard +against the emissaries of Satan, in whose active power to work ill our +forefathers so firmly believed. And it may be that the slight element of +mystery—always attractive to childish minds—connected with the making +of the cross may have helped to preserve the little custom, when one +dependent on words alone would more readily have been forgotten.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>CONCLUSION</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The wind-borne mirroring Soul:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A thousand glimpses wins,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And never sees a whole."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>It is easier to write the title of this chapter than its contents. For +what general conclusion can be satisfactory, regarding all these +instances of the supernatural? Every one has his own ideas about them, +ranging from the sceptic's point of view to that of the most credulous +believer, both attitudes of mind to be equally deprecated when dealing +with occult phenomena. However, such extremes of opinion are becoming +rare, while the number of people who preserve an open mind on such +subjects is ever increasing, and this, I venture to think, is the right +way of regarding "the Unknown." For blind negation has never enlightened +any one, while uncritical acceptance of unsubstantiated statements is +equally prejudicial to real knowledge. Of course, this attitude of +toleration, and, as it were, awaiting further revelation, is essentially +a modern one. Our forefathers of three or four hundred years ago would +have thought us poor creatures for holding our judgment in suspense. +Most people then believed in "ghosts" and held it no shame to do so; +while the minority of the superior who disbelieved took no pains to +dissemble their scorn and contempt for those who did. There was never +any attempt at impartial investigation of supernatural occurrences; one +section would have had neither the courage nor intelligence necessary, +while the other would have scorned the undertaking. So Superstition's +sway remained unchecked for many a long century, and though its power +began to dwindle directly education became a systematic affair amongst +civilised nations, yet it is only in recent years that one has begun to +foresee a time when its terrors will have disappeared for good and all. +Because it is only within the last few decades that men of great and +trained intellect have discovered that the methods of science and law +apply as perfectly in the investigation of psychic as in material +phenomena; and that discovery once made, I cannot help thinking that it +is merely a matter of time before mankind penetrates the mystery of the +Unseen, though, as I have said before, this will not happen in our +generation. At present we are only at the beginnings of things; learning +the alphabet of a whole new series of experiences, one of which is +telepathy, or thought communicating thought, without aid of the ordinary +senses. We know this wonderful power does exist, reliable experiment has +proved it, but so far we know little more, and can only guess that some +minds in some way—probably unknown to themselves—possess the +mysterious faculty of setting in motion vibrations that travel along a +medium finer and rarer far than the famous Hertzian waves. But presently +the laws that govern such vibrations will be discovered, and mind will +then speak to mind at will, even across half the world. And telepathy, +which we are still apt to think of as something almost supernatural, +will then be as much a matter of course as wireless telegraphy is in our +day.</p> + +<p>However, at present we are only on the threshold of these marvels, and +we who are not engaged in the task of occult discovery can still be +interested and entertained by "ghost stories" <i>as</i> ghost stories, and +can discuss various points and form our own ideas about them. And there +is one feature common to a great many of these supernatural tales and +incidents which I think must strike everybody, whether believers or +sceptics, and that is their apparent lack of purpose. There are, as we +have seen, ghostly happenings which come as "warnings," though, as I +have remarked in a former chapter, these warnings seldom appear to avert +disaster. But in nine cases out of ten odd things are seen or heard, and +nothing particular happens afterwards. The question—and a puzzling +one—is, why should these things occur at all? Why should such a +tremendous reversal of the laws which ordinarily govern our human +environment take place, as is implied by, let us say, the extraordinary +experience of Miss Travers at Glanwern, related in Chapter III? Of +course in this volume I have tried to collect ghost stories that <i>did</i> +mean something, as naturally they are the more interesting type of +incident. But I have heard innumerable instances of people hearing and +seeing strange things, followed by no particular consequences. Probably +every one knows the kind of tale, interesting to the person concerned, +but rather dull when related.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the following illustration will help us to understand these +inconsequent manifestations a little better. Let us imagine ourselves as +the audience in a huge, well-lighted theatre. At least the auditorium is +lit up, but the vast stage is in complete darkness, with a great shadowy +curtain hiding anything that may be taking place behind it from our +eyes. In fact, nobody troubles much about the stage at all, every one is +talking and thinking of other things and few people so much as glance +towards the curtain, though those who do dimly feel that there really is +a play going on behind it, and some of us wish, in a vague sort of way, +that we could know what it is. But sometimes the curtain goes up for a +moment, and then, if any one is looking, he sees a glimpse of the play; +and, not knowing what has come before or what is to follow, it seems +rather meaningless, or even alarming. Sometimes, too, an actor will +appear on the stage, or come amongst the audience with a message for one +or a group of them, but only the few can see him, and his message is not +always intelligible to them. Some bold people, tired of looking at the +impenetrable curtain, have ventured to explore behind it, and if they +escaped the dangers so braved, have tried to impart their experiences to +their friends when they returned. But their accounts are often received +with incredulity or lukewarm interest, some even asserting that there is +really nothing at all behind the curtain, and that the explorers have +merely been the victims of their own imaginations. And this they say, +knowing quite well that when "carriages are called" they and every one +else will have to leave the house by way of the dark stage, and be +obliged to go behind the scenes and learn the mystery that the curtain +hides.</p> + +<p>In this simple illustration I have tried to convey the idea of a +life—or perhaps I should rather say a Consciousness—coincident and +connected with this life that we know, but separated from it by a +difference of consciousness which the majority of us are not able at +present to bridge. A few have done so, either by a system of mystic +training, or by the natural gift of the "sixth sense," clairvoyance, +second sight, whatever we like to call it, which in olden days often +caused its possessors to be classed as magicians and witches. And if we +grasp this idea of a consciousness, interwoven and yet by matter +separated from this life, of which only a few of us can get glimpses +from time to time, but which is as absolutely real, perhaps more so than +the life we live here, it will help us enormously to understand the +meaning of psychic phenomena, or what we call "ghost stories." Because +we shall realise that there is <i>continuity</i> behind the veil which hides +the Unseen, just as there is continuity in this life, and that the law +of cause and effect goes with us "behind the scenes," just as it governs +our present existence. So that we must cease to think of any +supernatural incident as irrelevant or inconsequent, even if it means +nothing to ourselves. It is just a glimpse—seen "through a glass +darkly"—of a life organised on lines at present unfamiliar to our own, +and infused with a meaning which we cannot trace, and which we yet feel +has the most intimate connection with our life here.</p> + +<p>However, these are paths of metaphysics, in which it is not well to +linger, unless one can give time and all one's thoughts to their +exploration. A little knowledge about occult matters is worse than +useless; it is absolutely dangerous, and every furlong of the road that +leads to such knowledge should be marked with a red signal, for it is +strewn with the wrecked intellects of those who, unequipped, have +lightly followed its windings.</p> + +<p>Regarding the chapters in this book which concern Welsh superstitions, +the first idea which occurred to me when reading them over was the +exceedingly gloomy character of these ancient beliefs. They all seem to +dwell morbidly on death and its surroundings, ignoring the lighter and +happier side of life altogether. And any one who did not know Wales +might imagine from reading these tales that the Welsh were a sullen and +silent people, given to solitude and brooding. Nothing could be further +from the truth; they are a lively and gregarious race and never seem to +cease talking amongst themselves. Nobody is fonder of junketing than a +Welshman or Welshwoman, nothing in the way of an outing comes amiss; +fairs, eisteddfodau, "auctions," church and chapel festivals, political +meetings, anything for a jaunt! But the most important functions of all +are—funerals. Every one goes to a funeral, and makes it a point of +honour to do so, for the more burials you attend in your lifetime, the +greater are the number of people who will come to your own obsequies. I +often think of the characteristic remark addressed by a Welshwoman I +knew to an English neighbour, who had no taste for gadding, and found +Cardiganshire rather <i>triste</i>. "Well indeed, Mrs. Brown <i>fach</i>, I am +sorry for you; but indeed you should go about to fairs and funerals, and +enjoy yourself."</p> + +<p>So as funerals and the excitement connected with them really occupy a +large place in the minds of the Welsh country-folk, it is perhaps not +strange that superstition and folk-lore have collected round the +subject and that omens and death warnings should be specially heeded and +repeated. Also, in spite of lively manners and gregarious instincts, +there is a curious strain of melancholy underlying the Welsh character, +in common with the other Celtic races; a trait which I do not think any +one can understand unless he has some Celtic blood in his veins. It is +not a melancholy which colours the disposition, for most Welsh people +are cheerful and pleasant companions. Of course there are variations +from the type, and differences of temperament just as in other +nationalities, but if asked suddenly to name a Welsh characteristic, I +should at once mention cheerfulness. And yet they are melancholy; and if +this sounds paradoxical, it cannot be helped, because it is true. It is +the primitive sadness of an old, old race, the remembrance of</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Old unhappy, far-off things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And battles long ago,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>inherited from tribal ancestors, and the days when life was a struggle +even to the strong, and elementary passions held undisputed sway. So it +is that the Welsh character unconsciously responds to all that touches +this minor string in its nature, and, as it were, almost enjoys gloom +and woe. This is the secret of the great religious revivals that from +time to time agitate the Principality; the Welsh really relish their +spiritual wretchedness, and enjoy being miserable sinners (especially in +company!). And well does a revivalist like Evan Roberts understand his +work, and the character of his congregations, and know how to twang that +minor string. Not that I would jest at revivals; in many cases their +influence has been for permanent good, and the kind of people they reach +and benefit are no doubt those who require a spiritual "dressing-down" +occasionally.</p> + +<p>Nowadays, as I have said before, belief in corpse-candles, Toili, &c. +has very much gone out of fashion amongst the country-folk; the present +generation, having many of them been away to London or the large towns, +are much too superior to believe such things, and it is difficult to get +the old people to talk about them. But it is not so very long ago that +such beliefs were really part of a Welsh person's life, and supernatural +experiences only infrequent enough to be interesting. If John Jones +entered the village inn trembling and perspiring declaring that he had +seen the Toili—well, he <i>had</i> seen it, and no one thought of +questioning his statement, but all fell to wondering "whose Toili" it +could be. And it was not only among the lower classes that these beliefs +obtained, their "betters" often shared them. The story is still told +about here how a neighbouring squire, head of a well-known county +family, saw the Toili in the twilight of a summer's evening, wending its +way along the road which passed his house to the church.</p> + +<p>The old gentleman who saw the vision has himself been dead for over +sixty years, but the locality is probably quite unchanged from what it +must have been in his day, and I have often thought when passing the +spot how well the natural surroundings of romantic beauty lent +themselves as a setting to any such weird happening, and have tried to +conjure up the scene in my own mind. To this day it is said that when a +death occurs in that particular family a corpse-light is always seen a +few days previously, flickering and quivering up the drive from the +direction of the churchyard.</p> + +<p>But very soon all these ancient beliefs will be obliterated in the land +of Cambria; and though it seems a pity from the picturesque point of +view, and to lovers of antiquity and folk-lore, yet on the whole it is a +good thing. For we who are apt to bewail the passing of the old ideas +often forget that they frequently went hand in hand with dreadful +ignorance both mental and moral. For instance, belief in witchcraft is +very interesting and picturesque to read about in our times, but we +should not overlook the terrible consequences of it which took the form +of torturing and persecuting hundreds of innocent persons only three +hundred years ago. Read Sir Walter Scott's "Demonology and Witchcraft" +if you want to know what the result of a "picturesque superstition" may +be among ignorant people. There is no question as to the ultimate +benefit of enlightenment and education, even if at first they appear to +banish originality and produce monotony of character. But that is better +than the type of mind which could drown an old woman because she kept a +black cat, and sold nasty herbal "love-philtres" to silly girls. I do +not think witches were much persecuted in Wales as a matter of fact, +and, as I have shown, they and "wise men" are still to be found in the +country. As we have seen, superstition took other forms there, and a +greater hold, because it was, I am convinced, rooted in a foundation of +psychic facts, just as the "second sight" was, and I suppose is still, a +fact amongst the Highlanders of Scotland. But I have no doubt that for +one Welshman who did really have the vision of his own or a neighbour's +funeral, there were at least ten who would make the same assertion out +of their own imaginations. And probably now the real faculty is very +rare indeed, for it is a gift belonging to primitive races, and ever +stifled by education and self-consciousness. We cannot deplore its loss, +because with it has gone a mass of darkest ignorance, but that need not +prevent us from being interested in its effect on the traditions and +beliefs of the country. Personally I am quite indifferent as to the +amount of occult truth contained in the miscellaneous material of this +volume; that some truth there is, I do not doubt, but its existence is +of secondary importance in comparison with the delightful, old-world +atmosphere that clings to these antiquities, and seems in some way to +make us realise "the times of our forefathers" better than the history +of more serious events. So let us, in our hurrying, bustling days, +cherish this faint fragrance of a bygone age as long as we can; it will +fade quickly enough, dying with that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"... race of yore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who danced their infancy upon their knee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And told our marvelling boyhood legends store,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of their strange ventures happed by land or sea.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How are they blotted from the things that be!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How few all weak and withered of their force,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wait on the verge of dark eternity,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like stranded wrecks, the tide returning hoarse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To sweep them from our sight...."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Magicians were able to command spirits to do their bidding, +while sorcerers, though they could <i>summon</i> demons, were obliged to obey +them.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The noise of a ghostly equipage being driven to the door is +to be heard at Ô—l T—e, a house in Ireland. A friend who lived there +for some months told me she heard it not once but several times, and not +only she, but other people in the house heard it also. The sound was +described as unmistakably that of heavy carriage wheels; yet nothing was +to be <i>seen</i>, nor could such a characteristic noise be accounted for in +any other way.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> This is the real name. The story is included by the kind +permission of the Editor of the <i>Western Mail</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> See remarks in Chapter VI. referring to "Corpse Dogs."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> In his "Welsh Folk-lore" the Rev. Elias Owen says: "The +Fairy Dogs howled more at cross-roads and like public places than +elsewhere. And woe betide any one who stood in their way, for they bit +them and were likely to even drag a man away with them, and their bite +was often fatal. They collected together in huge numbers in the +churchyard when a person whose death they announced was to be buried, +and howling round the place that was to be his grave disappeared on that +very spot; sinking there with the earth and afterwards they were not to +be seen."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Mr. Leadbeater would probably class this "ghost" as a +"thought-form." "Apparitions at the spot where some crime was committed +are usually thought-forms projected by the criminal, who, whether living +or dead, but most especially when dead, is perpetually thinking over and +over again the circumstances of his action. Since these thoughts are +naturally specially vivid in his mind on the anniversary of the original +crime, it is often only on that occasion that the artificial elementals +which he creates are strong enough to materialise themselves to ordinary +sight."—"The Astral Plane."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> A high hill in Cardiganshire.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Fach</i>, a mild term of endearment in Welsh.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> In "Folk-lore of the Northern Counties" Mr. Henderson says: +"They believe in the county of Sussex that the death of a sick person is +shown by the prognostic of 'shell-fire.' This is a sort of lambent +flame, which seems to rise from the bodies of those who are ill and +envelop the bed."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> I am indebted to Mr. Owen M. Edwards, the Editor of +<i>Cymru</i>, for his kind permission to publish the translations included in +this and Chapter VII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> In Welsh folk-lore cross-roads always figure as likely +spots for uncanny happenings.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> To "send" any one means to go with him part of the way +back—a Welsh idiom.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> A horrible spectre, supposed to foretell death.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Literally, "Fair Family."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Rooms.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> <i>I.e.</i>, the sun.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> "Eglwysfach" is the real name, and in "Welsh Folk-lore" +Mr. Owen relates a case of "measuring the yarn" in the same village, +where the custom seems to have been long prevalent and firmly believed +in. His account of the charming for a case of "Clefyd y Galon" (or +heart-sickness) is worth quoting. The patient was bidden to roll his +sleeves up above the elbow, then "Mr. Jenkins (a respectable farmer and +deacon amongst the Wesleyans) took a yarn thread and placing one end on +the elbow measured to the tip of Felix's (the patient) middle finger, +then he tells his patient to take hold of the yarn at one end, the other +end resting the while on the elbow, and he was to take fast hold of it, +and stretch it. This he did and the yarn lengthened, and this was a sign +he was actually sick of heart-disease. Then the charmer tied the yarn +around the patient's left arm above the elbow, and there it was left, +and in the next visit measured again, and he was pronounced cured."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Perhaps this house had an ancient reputation for +possessing an atmosphere suitable for such "works of darkness." For +Giraldus Cambrensis, writing three hundred years before the time of +Tanglost, mentions it as being haunted by an unclean spirit which +"conversed with men, and in reply to their taunts upbraided them openly +with everything they had done from their birth, and which they were not +willing should be known by others ... the priests themselves, though +protected by the crucifix or the holy water, on devoutly entering the +house were equally subject to the same insults...."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> The witch's name and that of her patient are of course +changed.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> There is a tradition connected with this house concerning +a former owner who was a miser and died about a century ago, to the +effect that his spirit is imprisoned within a certain rock on the coast +about two miles away, where he is doomed to stay until he has picked his +way out with a pin!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> A Cardiganshire parish.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Stranger Than Fiction, by Mary L. 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