The following extraordinary personal experience is sent by a lady, well known to the present writer, but who requests that all names be omitted.  Whatever explanation we may give of it, the good faith of the tale is beyond doubt.

“Two or three months after my father-in-law’s death my husband, myself, and three small sons lived in the west of Ireland.  As my husband was a young barrister, he had to be absent from home a good deal.  My three boys slept in my bedroom, the eldest being about four, the youngest some months.  A fire was kept up every night, and with a young child to look after, I was naturally awake more than once during the night.  For many nights I believed I distinctly saw my father-in-law sitting by the fireside.  This happened, not once or twice, but many times.  He was passionately fond of his eldest grandson, who lay sleeping calmly in his cot.  Being so much alone probably made me restless and uneasy, though I never felt afraid.  I mentioned this strange thing to a friend who had known and liked my father-in-law, and she advised me to ’have his soul laid,’ as she termed it.  Though I was a Protestant and she was a Roman Catholic (as had also been my father-in-law), yet I fell in with her suggestion.  She told me to give a coin to the next beggar that came to the house, telling him (or her) to pray for the rest of Mr. So-and-so’s soul.  A few days later a beggar-woman and her children came to the door, to whom I gave a coin and stated my desire.  To my great surprise I learned from her manner that such requests were not unusual.  Well, she went down on her knees on the steps, and prayed with apparent earnestness and devotion that his soul might find repose.  Once again he appeared, and seemed to say to me, ’Why did you do that, E——?  To come and sit here was the only comfort I had.’  Never again did he appear, and strange to say, after a lapse of more than thirty years I have felt regret at my selfishness in interfering.

“After his death, as he lay in the house awaiting burial, and I was in a house some ten miles away, I thought that he came and told me that I would have a hard life, which turned out only too truly.  I was then young, and full of life, with every hope of a prosperous future.”

Of all the strange beliefs to be found in Ireland that in the Black Dog is the most widespread.  There is hardly a parish in the country but could contribute some tale relative to this spectre, though the majority of these are short, and devoid of interest.  There is said to be such a dog just outside the avenue gate of Donohill Rectory, but neither of the compilers have had the good luck to see it.  It may be, as some hold, that this animal was originally a cloud or nature-myth; at all events, it has now descended to the level of an ordinary haunting.  The most circumstantial story that we have met with relative to the Black Dog is that related as follows by a clergyman of the Church of Ireland, who requests us to refrain from publishing his name.