could judge,
quite honest and serious over the B---- affair. He assured me that he
had written the letter to _The Times_ without any advice or
assistance, and that all he wrote was absolutely true. I gathered from
him, indirectly, that before his B---- experience he knew nothing of
ghosts, spiritualism, or any occult matter, and does not now. He was
much astonished when I told him that the feeling which he describes as
like walking into an ice-house was a common one under the
circumstances. He said he omitted in his letter many small personal
matters, such as the following:-- During the manifestation in his
room, when his bed was shifted, and when he felt as if some one was
making 'passes' over him, and breathing in his face, he made the sign
of the Cross, on which the 'influence' receded from him, but
approached again almost at once. After repeating this a few times with
the same result, he crossed his arms over his chest, and holding the
bedclothes close up to his chin, went to sleep. He was at no time
afraid. He said things were more active during the stay of Father 'I.'
than at any other time, and that one of the young H----s had seen a
veiled lady pass through his room."

The following paragraph in the letter of _The Times_ correspondent
called forth the subjoined letter from Mr. H---- himself, the tenant
of B----:--

"The only mystery in the matter seems to be the mode in which a
prosaic and ordinary dwelling was endowed with so evil a reputation. I
was assured in London that it had had this reputation for twenty or
thirty years. The family lawyer in P---- asserted most positively
that there had never been a whisper of such a thing until the house
was let for last year's shooting season to a family, whom I may call
the H----s. I was told the same thing in equally positive terms by
the minister of the parish, a level-headed man from B----shire, who
has lived in the place for twenty years. He told me that some of the
younger members of the H---- family had indulged in practical jokes,
and boasted of them. One of their pranks was to drop or throw a weight
upon the floor, and to draw it back by means of a string. Another
seems to have been to thump on bedroom doors with a boot-heel, the
unmistakable marks of which remain to this day, and were pointed out
to me by our hostess. If there are really any noises not referable to
ordinary domestic causes, it is not improbable that these practical
jokers made a confidant o