" 4. Mr. MacP----.
" 5. Mr. W----.
" 6. Dressing-room, Miss Moore.
" 7. Myself.
" 8. Mr. C----. (Sounds alleged, see evidence.)
_N.B._--Nothing is alleged against 4 and 5.
_February 7th, Sunday._--Miss Moore was awakened this morning
soon after one o'clock by a loud reverberating bang, which
seemed close to her bed. She lay awake for a long time
afterwards, but the sound was not repeated. The men heard
nothing. They report that they went to bed soon after eleven,
and very quietly.
My maid, who has had to give up her room, slept downstairs last
night. She was kept awake nearly all night by noises and
footsteps. The wing is not yet fit for use, as all the pipes are
frozen, and the only downstairs bedroom was insufficiently
aired; so I told her to use that for dressing, and make herself
up a bed on one of the sitting-room sofas, and she slept (or
rather, lay awake) in the drawing-room. She was not frightened,
as she thought all the noises were made by the gentlemen; but
they declare they made no noise.
I asked her as to the other servants. She says the maids are
still very nervous. I spoke to them for the first time about the
noises to-day. The butler's wife has heard sounds, but her
husband only scoffs. The upper housemaid thinks ghosts the
proper thing, and tolerates them along with the high families to
which she is accustomed. The under housemaid is very shy, is
Highland, and knows little English, and won't talk, but owns to
discomfort, and is scoffed at by the other servants, who think
it all part of her having been only a "general" till she came
here. The kitchenmaid goes home to sleep, but I believe some one
fetches her.
I have had a girl out of the village to make up the linen, and
she, we notice, is careful to go home before dark.
This morning we all went to churches of various sorts. When the
men came in to tea they reported that they had had a
conversation with an outdoor servant, who proved to have been
in the service of [Mr. F----'s father] Lord D----, and was
consequently the more communicative. I know him, and have found
him extremely intelligent.
He says that having heard from the H----s' butler (who slept on
the dining-room floor, in the room my maid is to occupy
to-night) that it was impossible to sleep in a room so noisy, he
induced him to all
|