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was an exciseman. After which eclaireissment the same explanation struck all present, viz.,
the Highlanders of the mansion had chosen to detain the exciseman by the apparition of an
ancient heroic ghost, in order to disguise from his vigilance the removal of certain modern
enough spirits, which his duty might have called upon him to seize. Here a single circum-
stance explained the whole ghost story.
At other times it happens that the meanness and trifling nature of a cause not very obvious to
observation has occasioned it to be entirely overlooked, even on account of that very mean-
ness, since no one is willing to acknowledge that he has been alarmed by a cause of little
consequence, and which he would be ashamed of mentioning. An incident of this sort hap-
pened to a gentleman of birth and distinction, who is well known in the political world, and
was detected by the precision of his observation. Shortly after he succeeded to his estate and
title, there was a rumour among his servants concerning a strange noise heard in the family
mansion at night, the cause of which they had found it impossible to trace. The gentleman
resolved to watch himself, with a domestic who had grown old in the family, and who had
begun to murmur strange things concerning the knocking having followed so close upon the
death of his old master. They watched until the noise was heard, which they listened to with
that strange uncertainty attending midnight sounds which prevents the hearers from immedi-
ately tracing them to the spot where they arise, while the silence of the night generally occa-
sions the imputing to them more than the due importance which they would receive if mingled
with the usual noises of daylight. At length the gentleman and his servant traced the sounds
which they had repeatedly heard to a small store-room used as a place for keeping provisions
of various kinds for the family, of which the old butler had the key. They entered this place,
and remained there for some time without hearing the noises which they had traced thither; at
length the sound was heard, but much lower than it had formerly seemed to be, while acted
upon at a distance by the imagination of the hearers. The cause was immediately discovered.
A rat caught in an old-fashioned trap had occasioned this tumult by its efforts to escape, in
which it was able to raise the trap-door of its prison to a certain height, but was then obliged
to drop it. The noise of the fall, resounding through the house, had occasioned the distur-
bance which, but for the cool investigation of the proprietor, might easily have established an
accredited ghost story. The circumstance was told me by the gentleman to whom it hap-
pened.
Page 153
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There are other occasions in which the ghost story is rendered credible by some remarkable
combination of circumstances very unlikely to have happened, and which no one could have
supposed unless some particular fortune occasioned a discovery.
An apparition which took place at Plymouth is well known, but it has been differently related;
and having some reason to think the following edition correct, it is an incident so much to my
purpose that you must pardon its insertion.
A club of persons connected with science and literature was formed at the great sea-town I
have named. During the summer months the society met in a cave by the seashore; during
those of autumn and winter they convened within the premises of a tavern, but, for the sake
of privacy, had their meeting in a summer-house situated in the garden, at a distance from the
main building. Some of the members to whom the position of their own dwellings rendered
this convenient, had a pass-key to the garden-door, by which they could enter the garden and
reach the summer-house without the publicity or trouble of passing through the open tavern.
It was the rule of this club that its members presided alternately. On one occasion, in the win-
ter, the president of the evening chanced to be very ill; indeed, was reported to be on his
death-bed. The club met as usual, and, from a sentiment of respect, left vacant the chair
which ought to have been occupied by him if in his usual health; for the same reason, the
conversation turned upon the absent gentleman s talents, and the loss expected to the socie-
ty by his death. While they were upon this melancholy theme, the door suddenly opened, and
the appearance of the president entered the room. He wore a white wrapper, a nightcap
round his brow, the appearance of which was that of death itself. He stalked into the room
with unusual gravity, took the vacant place of ceremony, lifted the empty glass which stood
before him, bowed around, and put it to his lips; then replaced it on the table, and stalked out
of the room as silent as he had entered it. The company remained deeply appalled; at length,
after many observations on the strangeness of what they had seen, they resolved to dispatch
two of their number as ambassadors, to see how it fared with the president, who had thus
strangely appeared among them. They went, and returned with the frightful intelligence that
the friend after whom they had enquired was that evening deceased.
The astonished party then resolved that they would remain absolutely silent respecting the
wonderful sight which they had seen. Their habits were too philosophical to permit them to
believe that they had actually seen the ghost of their deceased brother, and at the same time
they were too wise men to wish to confirm the superstition of the vulgar by what might seem
indubitable evidence of a ghost. The affair was therefore kept a strict secret, although, as
usual, some dubious rumours of the tale found their way to the public. Several years after-
wards, an old woman who had long filled the place of a sick-nurse, was taken very ill, and on
her death-bed was attended by a medical member of the philosophical club. To him, with [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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