Over Fen and Wold

by James John Hissey

EXTRAORDINARY HAPPENINGS

For curiosity I cut out this letter and pasted it in my Commonplace Book. The subject had almost slipped my memory, when, just before starting on our present tour, I read in the Standard of 30th August 1897 of another haunted house in Lincolnshire. The account was long and circumstantial; having perused it carefully I took note of all particulars, determining to visit the house, if possible, and to see if by any means one could elucidate the mystery. As it may interest my readers, I venture here to quote the article in extenso; the more am I induced to do this as it happened we did manage to inspect the house at our leisure, and had besides a long conversation with Mrs. Wilson, who claims to have actually seen the ghost! But I am getting previous. It will be noted that the account is of some length, and that the story was not dismissed by the editor of the Standard in a mere paragraph. This then it is:—

From Halton Holgate, a village near Spilsby, Lincolnshire, comes a story which is causing some sensation among the country folk in the neighbourhood. For some time rumours of human bones having been discovered under a brick floor of a farm, near the village, of strange tappings having been heard, and of a ghost having been seen, have been afloat, and it was with the intention of trying to sift the mystery that a Lincoln reporter has just visited the scene. The farmstead where the sounds are said to have been heard, and the ghost seen, stands some distance back from the high road, and is occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Wilson and their servant man. On being interviewed Mrs. Wilson was at first reluctant to make any statement, but eventually she narrated the following story:—

“We came here on Lady-day. The first night or so we heard very strange noises about midnight, as though some one was knocking at the doors and walls. Once it seemed as though some one was moving all the things about in a hurry downstairs. Another time the noise was like a heavy picture falling from the wall; but in the morning I found everything as right as it was the night before. The servant man left, saying he dared not stop, and we had to get another. Then about six weeks ago, I saw ‘something.’ Before getting into bed, my husband having retired before me, I thought I would go downstairs and see if the cow was all right, as it was about to calve. I did so, and when at the foot of the stairs, just as I was about to go up again, I saw an old man standing at the top and looking at me. He was standing as though he was very round-shouldered. How I got past I cannot say, but as soon as I did so I darted into the bedroom and slammed the door. Then I went to get some water from the dressing-table, but ‘feeling’ that some one was behind me I turned round sharply, and there again stood the same old man. He quickly vanished, but I am quite certain I saw him. I have also seen him several times since, though not quite so distinctly.”

Mrs. Wilson conducted her interviewer to the sitting-room where the figure appeared. The floor in one corner was very uneven, and a day or two ago Mrs. Wilson took up the bricks, with the intention of relaying them. When she had taken them up she perceived a disagreeable smell. Her suspicions being aroused, she called her husband, and the two commenced a minute examination. With a stick three or four bones were soon turned over, together with a gold ring and several pieces of old black silk. All these had evidently been buried in quicklime, the bones and silk having obviously been burned therewith. The search after this was not further prosecuted, but a quantity of sand introduced and the floor levelled again. Dr. Gay, to whom the bones were submitted, stated that they were undoubtedly human, but he believed them to be nearly one hundred years old.

A GHOST MYSTERY

Now it happened, whilst we were at Boston, that we purchased a copy of the Standard of 13th September 1897. On glancing over this our eyes caught sight of the following further and later particulars of this haunted dwelling, now exalted into “The Lincolnshire Ghost Mystery.” The account brought up to date ran thus:—

A Lincoln Correspondent writes: “Despite all efforts, the Lincolnshire ghost mystery still remains unravelled. That the noises nightly heard cannot be ascribed to rats has been amply demonstrated, and other suggestions when acted upon likewise fail to elucidate the matter. All over the country the affair has excited the greatest interest, and two London gentlemen have written asking for permission to stay a night in the house. Other letters have been received from ‘clairvoyants’ asking for pieces of the silk or one of the bones discovered under the floor, whilst a London clergyman has written advising Mrs. Wilson to bury the bones in consecrated ground, then, he says, ‘the ghostly visitor will trouble you no longer.’ The owner of the house in question—a farmstead at Halton Holgate, near Spilsby—has tried to throw discredit on the whole affair, but such efforts have failed, and it now transpires that the house was known to be haunted fully thirty years ago.”

The mystery had quite a promising look; and, coming across this second account of it just as we were approaching the neighbourhood of the scene of ghostly doings, raised our curiosity still more, and increased our determination not to miss this rare opportunity of inspecting a genuine(?) haunted house. See it somehow we must! Now it occurred to us that, as Halton Holgate was within easy distance of Wainfleet, our landlord would surely know something about the story and the people, and that he might enlighten us about sundry details. So in the morning, before starting, we interviewed him in his snug bar, and having shown him the cuttings from the Standard that we had brought with us, awaited his comments. “Oh yes,” he began, “I’ve heard the story, but do not put much account on it myself, nor do I believe any one else about here does. I think the London papers put more store on it than we do. They say noises have been heard in the house at night. Well, you see, sir, the house stands on the top of a hill, and is very exposed to the wind. I’ve been told that there is a small trap-door in the roof at the top of the staircase, which is, or was, quite loose, and at the foot of the staircase is the front door, and they say that when the wind blows at all strong it gets under the door and lifts the trap up and down, and this accounts for the noises, perhaps there may be rats as well. I fancy the noises frightened the woman when she first went into the house, and she imagined the rest. At least that’s my view of the matter from all I’ve heard.” Manifestly the landlord was unbelieving; truly we too were sceptical, but even so, we thought the landlord’s explanation of the nightly noises rather weak, notwithstanding his further remark that he thought the woman was very nervous, and the house being in a lonely situation made her the more so when she was left in it by herself at times, as she frequently was on their first coming there. “But that hardly accounts for her seeing the ghost,” we exclaimed. “Oh! well, I just put that down to nerves; I expect she got frightened when she went there at first, and, as I’ve said, imagined the rest. I don’t believe in ghosts seen by other people.” “And what about the human bones?” we queried. “Well, as to the bones, they say as how when the house was built some soil was taken from the churchyard to fill up the foundations, and that fact would account for the finding of them.”