They need be no further
remarked upon here, than to observe that the following pages contain
at least one example, viz. that of the apparition of the Rev. P.
H----. (See p. 119.)
It is very difficult to judge of the forces which may act in the
conditions of what we are accustomed to call "another world," but a
plausible explanation might be found in the Divine Word, "Where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also." The thoughts and
affections appear to dwell for a time where they have been already
fixed during life, but changes here, including the gradual reunion on
the other side, of all those who are loved with those who love them,
the advancing dissociation of the mind with things here, and, no
doubt, the evolution of a different life under different conditions,
seem gradually to efface the ties of earthly memory, connecting the
feelings with particular spots on earth.
Such thoughts not infrequently include repentance, a desire for the
remedy of acts of injustice, and an eagerness for the compassion and
sympathetic prayers of those whom we call the living.
It is natural, therefore, to suppose that haunting, such as that met
with at B----, would be connected with persons who had died within
some such period as a century at the outside. Now the number of the
members of the S---- family and others, whose thoughts, memories,
feelings, and affections may presumably have dwelt largely at B----,
and who have died within the last hundred years, is very considerable;
but--saving the tradition referred to by Dr. Menzies (see p. 22), only
to be dismissed--there seems to have been no idea of the place being
haunted before the deaths of Sarah N---- and of Major S----, whereas
since that time the peculiar phenomena have been constantly attested.
John S----, his successor, was, as stated, the second son of Major
S----'s sister Mary, and assumed the name of S---- upon succeeding to
the property. He was a Roman Catholic; he was married, and had several
children, of whom the eldest son is the present proprietor. One of the
younger sons is a Jesuit, but not yet a priest.
In January 1895 Mr. S---- went to London on family business, and was
there killed by being run over by a cab in the street. It was stated
on the authority of three persons, not counting members of his own
family, that on the morning on which he left B---- for the last time,
while he was talking to the agent in his business-room, there were
raps so vio
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