it was heard by many others.  About half-an-hour afterwards my husband heard a piercing shriek; then all was still, save for the hooting of the owls in the neighbouring trees.  When the grey dawn stole in it was welcome; so was the cheery sound of the bagpipes, as the kilted piper took his daily round in the early morning.  The next night and succeeding ones we heard loud single knocks at different doors along our passage.  The last night but one before we left I was roused from sleep by hearing the clock strike one, and immediately it had ceased six violent blows shook our own door on its hinges, and came with frightful rapidity, followed by deep groans.  After this sleep was impossible.  The next night, our last in Scotland, my husband and others watched in our passage all night, and though the sounds were again heard in different directions, nothing was to be seen.  As I write, at the commencement of October, the house on the lonely hillside is deserted; the tenants have gone southwards; an old caretaker (too deaf to hear the weird sounds which nightly awaken the echoes) is the sole occupant.  Even she closes up all before dusk, and retires into her quarters below; though she hears not, her sight is unimpaired, and she perhaps dreads to meet the hunchback figure which is said to glide up the stairs, or the shadowy form of a grey lady who paces with noiseless footfall the lonely corridor, and has been seen to pass through the door of one of the rooms.  Within the last two months a man with bronzed complexion and bent figure has been seen by two gentlemen, friends of mine.  They both describe him as having come through the door and passed through the room in which they were about three in the morning.  I have tried to give a faithful and accurate account of these strange events.  I leave it to each and all to form their own opinion on the matter.”

Some passages in private letters to Miss Freer and Lord Bute written by Mrs.  “G.,” should be quoted as bearing upon some points in the above:—­

“February 9th.—­I am going to ask you if you do go there [B——­ House] if you would let me know if you see or hear anything.  I am immensely interested in it, as we stayed there in the autumn with some friends who took it, and anything more horribly haunted could not be.  I never should have believed it if I had not been there.”

After the appearance of The Times correspondent’s accusation against the H——­ family, Mrs.  “G.” wrote as follows to Lord Bute:—­

“June 10th.—­If the noises complained of by nearly all who have stayed at B——­ were the result of practical jokes perpetrated by the H——­s, how is it that not only were they heard by guests who stayed there years ago, but are admitted by members of the S——­ family to have been heard by themselves?  Miss Freer also has told me, that the same noises were heard at all hours day and night by herself and her guests for months after the H——­ family