like the conventional “haunted” house could be conceived.  The main body of the house was built in 1806, the wing about 1883, with the apparent object of providing the children of the family with rooms outside the “haunted” area.  It is cheerful, sunny, convenient, healthy, and built on a very simple plan, which admits of no dark corners or mysteries of any kind.  A pleasanter house to live in I would not desire, but it is constructed for summer rather than for winter use.  It has been added to at least twice, and there is much waste space.  The original mansion, which was, I understand, upon a different site, was dated 1579; the new wing was built about fourteen years ago, and consists of four rooms and offices, adapted for schoolroom or nursery use.  But the older walls are of great thickness.

After dusk we sat down to rest, and for the first time read the papers relating to the house,[C] breaking open the envelope in which Mr. Myers had given them to me.  I had done this for my own satisfaction, as I wanted, if only for a few hours, to have as unprejudiced a presentation of the place as was possible under the circumstances.  Miss Moore had heard some of the rumours about the house in Edinburgh from Mr. MacP——­ and Mr. C——­, but I had avoided all information as far as I could.

We now learnt, to our chagrin, that we had done the wrong thing, and had left rooms alleged to be haunted, and taken two apparently innocent.  We, however, consoled ourselves by the reflection that we can offer the others to our guests, and that we are at all events next to No. 8, which has an evil reputation.

It is the room in which Sarah N——­ died, and in which Miss H——­ heard the limping footsteps walking round her bed.

As we had been told that the avenue is shunned by the whole neighbourhood after dark, we went out for a stroll up and down about six o’clock.  We saw nothing, but our dog Scamp growled at the fir plantation beside the road.

   Mr. L. F——­ [eminent as an electrical engineer], arrived about
   10 P.M.  We thought it polite to give him a quiet night after so
   long a journey, and he is sleeping in No. 5.

   February 5th, Friday.—­Miss Moore and I slept well.  We were
   both desperately tired.

Mr. L. F——­ awoke suddenly at 2.30.  No phenomena.  He has an excellent little apparatus, an electric flashlight, which he is able to keep under his pillow and turn on at a second’s notice, very convenient for “ghost” hunting—­no delay, and no possibility of blowing it out.

   The maids tell mine that they heard the sounds below them of
   continuous speaking or reading, and “supposed the young ladies
   were reading to one another.”