“Some years have now elapsed since the incident I have now related took place, and again, in response to orders given by the enterprising landlord of the property, long-closed doors and windows have been thrown open, and painters and paperhangers have brought their skill to bear upon gruesome rooms and halls; the house is once more inhabited, this time by a widow lady and some grown-up sons.  These tenants come from a distance, and are entirely strangers both to the neighbourhood and the former history of the house, but, to use her own words, the mistress ‘cannot understand what ails the house,’ her sons insist on sleeping together in one room, and the quiet of the house is constantly being broken by the erratic appearances of a large white rabbit, which the inmates are frequently engaged chasing, but are never able to find.”

Mr. Stead offers no explanation.  I can see no other conclusion, however, than that this ghost was the actual phantasm of some rabbit that had been done to death in the house, probably by the boy whose apparition was among the other manifestations seen there.

John Wesley’s Ghost

In his article “More Glimpses of the Unseen” (Occult Review, October, 1906), Mr. Reginald B. Span writes:—­

“During the extraordinary manifestations which occurred in the house of John Wesley at Epworth, the phantom forms of two animals appeared, one being a large white rabbit, and the other an animal like a badger, which used to appear in the bedrooms and run about and then disappear, whilst the various bangings and rappings were at their loudest.”

This is the only case I have ever come across of the ghost of a badger.  I think it must be unique.  Mr. Span adds:  “Many strange and inexplicable things occurred in that house which were not due to any natural cause or reason.  I remember that loud rappings used to sound round my room at nights, even when I had a light burning.  I was often awakened by rappings on the floor of my bedroom, which would then sound on the walls and furniture, and were heard by others occupying rooms some distance off.”  This, again, is most interesting, as ghosts seldom visit lighted rooms.  Mr. Span continues:—­

“It was in the afternoon in broad daylight when my brother saw this mysterious animal.

“He was in the drawing-room alone, and as he was standing at one side of the room looking at a picture on the walls, he heard a noise behind him, and found, on looking round, that a sofa which generally lay against one of the walls had been lifted by some unknown power into the middle of the room, at the same time he saw an animal like a rabbit run from under the sofa across the room and disappear into the wall.  He searched everywhere for the animal, which could not have escaped from the room, as the doors and window were closed, but was unable to find any sign of one or any hole whereby one might have passed out.”

The Psychic Faculty in Hares and Rabbits