The Times Correspondent further criticised the method of inquiry employed at B——.

“Lord Bute’s original idea was a good one, but it was never properly carried out.  Observing that the S.P.R. had made many investigations in a perfunctory and absurd manner by sending somebody to a haunted house for a couple of nights and then writing an utterly worthless report, he desired in this case a continuous investigation extending over a considerable period.  He ought, therefore, to have employed a couple of intelligent detectives for the whole term, and thus secured real continuity.  As things are, the only continuity is to be found in the presence—­itself not entirely continuous—­of the lady just mentioned.  But simply because she is a lady, and because she had her duties as hostess to attend to, she is unfit to carry out the actual work of investigating the phenomena in question.  Some of her assistants sat up all night, with loaded guns, in a condition of abject fright; others, there is reason to suspect, manufactured phenomena for themselves; and nearly all seem to have begun by assuming supernatural interference, instead of leaving it for the final explanation of whatever might be clearly proved to be otherwise inexplicable.”

It is hardly necessary to repudiate such a condition of mind on the part of the guests at B——­, but it may be well to remark that the writer of this sapient paragraph seems to be under the impression that every result of certain forces at present imperfectly understood is supernatural.  The assertion that any one who was in the house during Colonel Taylor’s tenancy believed in the possibility of the existence of anything supernatural is, so far as the present editors are aware, a pure fabrication, having no foundation whatever.  In their own belief all things which exist, or can exist, are, ipso facto, natural, although their nature may not belong to the plane of being in which we are normally accustomed to move.

In this connection may be usefully quoted the following passages from Miss Freer’s article in The Nineteenth Century, August 1897:—­

“Some of my friends asked me how I proposed to organise a haunted house research, to which I could only reply that I didn’t propose to do anything of the sort.  It seemed to me that among several things to be avoided was self-consciousness of any kind, that the natural thing to do was to settle down to a country-house life, make it as pleasant as possible, and await events....  The subject of the ‘haunting’ was never accentuated, and we always tried to prevent talking it over with new-comers....  As to the guests, for the most part they came on no special principle of selection....  Several of our visitors had more or less special interest in the inquiry, but others merely came for a country-house visit or for sport, and some knew nothing whatever till after their arrival of any special interest alleged to attach to the house....  Analysing our list of guests, I find that there were eleven ladies, twenty-one gentlemen, and The Times Correspondent.  Of the gentlemen, three were soldiers, three lawyers, two were men of letters, one an artist, two were in business, four were clergy, one a physician, ... and five, men of leisure.”