Cases of complex haunting, although, for obvious reasons, seldom admitting of any satisfactory explanation, always interest me the most. Here is one I chanced to hit upon in Newcastle.
A house in —— Street had stood empty for seven or eight years, and on my making enquiries about it, I was told to apply to a Mr. Black, the last tenant. I did so, and Mr. Black very kindly gave me a detailed account of what had taken place there during his tenancy. It was as follows:—
“A day or two after our arrival I happened to be going upstairs, and, as I passed by one of the bedrooms, the door of which was slightly open, I glanced in, and saw the figure of a lady, whom I had never seen before. She was dressed in green, and standing in front of the looking-glass, engaged apparently in putting on her hat. Wondering who on earth she could be, for I knew the room had not been slept in, I spoke to her, and receiving no reply, I was advancing towards her, when she suddenly disappeared. I did not know what to make of the affair, but, thinking that possibly it was an hallucination, I resolved to think no more of it, and to say nothing about it to any of my family or household.
“Some days later, however, when out walking with my wife, I met a friend who asked me where I was living. I told him, and he exclaimed excitedly:
“‘Good gracious, not in that house! Why, my dear fellow——’ At a sign from me he stopped. I had guessed what was coming, and as my wife is extremely nervous I thought it best she should not hear what I knew he was going to say, namely, that the house was haunted.
“That night I went round to see my friend. He made no bones about it; he told me that the house I had taken was haunted—that he knew it for a fact.
“‘Some months ago,’ he said, ‘I was thinking of taking it myself, and, obtaining the key from the agent, went to look over it. It was quite light, not more than five o’clock in the afternoon, and the house seemed bright and cheerful. Closing the front door carefully behind me, I commenced a tour of the premises. I had reached the top floor, and was standing in the centre of one of the rooms, when I heard a slight noise. I started, and, turning round in the direction from which the sound came, perceived a lady and a little girl standing in the doorway watching me. There was nothing at all remarkable about them. The lady was dressed in green, the child in white, both modern, or at least comparatively modern, costumes. I was so surprised at their being there, however, as I knew I had shut the hall door, that I simply stood and stared at them. Then something much more extraordinary happened—they vanished. It was not an hallucination—that I can swear to—and thoroughly scared, I tore downstairs and out of the house. After this I gave up all idea of taking the place, and I can’t help feeling sorry, old fellow, that you’ve taken it.’
“In spite of this warning,” Mr. Black continued, “I did not give up the house immediately. After we had been there a week or so, a cousin of mine came to stay with us; and one evening he and one of my children, who were in the drawing-room, together heard a soft, cautious whistle—as if someone were giving a signal, coming, they thought, from just behind them. The whistle was repeated, and a few minutes later they heard a loud cry, half human, half animal, and wholly ominous. My cousin pretended it was one of the servants, but my child would not be convinced, and begged to be taken to bed at once, as she dared not remain in the room any longer. After this, phenomena of all kinds happened; steps used to be heard bounding up and down the stairs at all hours of the night; one of the maids declared she saw something that was a man and yet not a man come out of the drawing-room with a run, and race up the staircase two or three steps at a time; heavy pantings and sighs were heard, and several of the household were awakened by a cold hand being laid upon their face. But I think the most remarkable thing that happened is this:—I was sitting in my study one evening, when the maid rapped at my door and said that a clergyman (whom she had shown into the drawing-room) wished to see me on some very urgent matter. I at once put down the book I was reading, and, hastening to the drawing-room, found it empty. Wondering what had become of the clergyman, I was about to ring the bell to enquire, when I suddenly caught sight of a large eye, human in shape and horribly sinister, glaring at me from behind an arm-chair. I was so frightened that I could do nothing but stare back at it, and then, to my intense relief, my wife entered the room with a friend, and the phenomenon disappeared.”
