association), knocks at the door, thuds on the lower
panels within, say, two feet of the ground; footsteps,
not as before, but rapid and as of many feet, and
again the same voices. The night was perfectly
still, and I could clearly differentiate the cries
of the owl (of two kinds, I think), the kestrel
hawk, and even of the rabbits on the lawn. I went
to the windows and looked out, but the night was
quite dark, and the dawn was grey and misty.
About 5.45 I fell asleep, and did not wake till my tea came up at 7.30, when I asked the maid if she had been disturbed, and she replied that the servants had been extra busy the day before, had gone to bed early, and had slept soundly.
Miss Langton and Mr. T——
attest the above as a correct account
of our experience, so far as they
were concerned.
The following is from Miss Langton’s private diary:—
“Miss Freer, Mr. T——, and I all agreed that, as it was the anniversary of the old Major’s death, we would sit to-night in his own sitting-room, which we always call ’the downstairs smoking-room.’ Just before dinner, Miss Freer, who was sitting between the writing-table and fireplace, suddenly called out, ‘What is Spooks running after?’ and then she said that there were two black dogs in the room, and that the other dog was larger than Spooks she said, ‘like a spaniel.’
“After dinner we three sat round the fire and played games; suddenly one of us called out, ‘Listen to those footsteps,’ and then we distinctly heard a heavy man walking round the room, coming apparently from the direction of the safe, in the wall adjoining the billiard room, and then walking towards the door, passing between us and the fireplace in front of which we were sitting. It was a very curious sensation, for the steps came so very close, and yet we saw nothing. Footsteps died away, and we resumed our game. Three times over we distinctly heard outside the door the voices of a man and woman, apparently in anger, for their voices were loud and rough. Each time we jumped up at once and opened the door quietly—there was nothing to be seen; the passage was in total darkness, all the servants having gone to bed (the last time was nearly eleven o’clock). We certified this fact by making an expedition into the kitchen regions. We then returned to the smoking-room, and not long after the footsteps again began in exactly the same direction. This time they lasted a longer time.
“I slept in No. 8, and was so tired I slept pretty well, but before going to sleep, just before one o’clock, I heard the sound of a heavy man in slippers come down the corridor and stop near my door, and then the sound as of a long argument in subdued voices, a man and a woman.”
On April 9th Miss Freer and Miss Langton left B—— in order to pass Easter elsewhere, and Mr. T—— left with them.