r spoke. He had thus been occasionally met about two months
before he took any particular notice of it; at length the appearance
became more frequent, meeting him both morning and evening, but always
in the same field, yet invariably moving out of the path when it came
close to him. He often spoke, but could never get any reply. To avoid
this unwelcome visitor he forsook the field, and went to school and
returned from it through a lane, in which place, between the quarry pack
and nursery, it always met him. Unable to disbelieve the evidence of his
own senses, or to obtain credit with any of his family, he prevailed
upon Mr Ruddle to accompany him to the place.

"I arose," says this clergyman, "the next morning, and went with him.
The field to which he led me I guessed to be about twenty acres, in an
open country, and about three furlongs from any house. We went into the
field, and had not gone a third part before the spectrum in the shape of
a woman, with all the circumstances he had described the day before, so
far as the suddenness of its appearance and transition would permit me
to discover, passed by.

"I was a little surprised at it, and though I had taken up a firm
resolution to speak to it, I had not the power, nor durst I look back;
yet I took care not to show any fear to my pupil and guide, and
therefore, telling him I was satisfied of the truth of his statement, we
walked to the end of the field and returned--nor did the ghost meet us
that time but once.

"On the 27th July, 1665, I went to the haunted field by myself, and
walked the breadth of it without any encounter. I then returned and took
the other walk, and then the spectre appeared to me, much about the same
place in which I saw it when the young gentleman was with me. It
appeared to move swifter than before, and seemed to be about ten feet
from me on my right hand, insomuch that I had not time to speak to it,
as I had determined with myself beforehand. The evening of this day, the
parents, the son, and myself, being in the chamber where I lay, I
proposed to them our going altogether to the place next morning. We
accordingly met at the stile we had appointed; thence we all four walked
into the field together. We had not gone more than half the field before
the ghost made its appearance. It then came over the stile just before
us, and moved with such rapidity that by the time we had gone six or
seven steps it passed by. I immediately turned my head and