"

In a letter to Miss Freer, dated June 12th, Mrs. "G." writes, in
reference to the charge of practical joking:--

"They are the most unlikely family to do such a thing; and besides, if
further proof were wanted, the young men of the family were away from
B---- when we stayed there ten days, and there was only one night when
we did not hear the noises."

Miss Freer of course entirely accepts Mrs. "G.'s" statement, and that
of Mr. H---- as published in _The Times_. She had been led to her
earlier conclusions as to the marks of a boot-heel on the upper panels
of the doors by the statements of interested persons.

A suggestive point in this connection is the fact, to which Miss "G."
has herself testified, that while Mr. and Mrs. "G." were disturbed to
the utmost degree, their daughter, who slept in a room communicating
with that of her mother, heard nothing whatever; from which it would
appear that the noises heard by them were subjective, and that the
alleged evidence of the boot-heel, even were it credible, would be, in
fact, irrelevant.

The mention of the hallucinatory nature of such phenomena suggests
attention to the intellectual acumen displayed by _The Times_
correspondent in saying that "Lord Bute ought to have employed a
couple of intelligent detectives" for the purpose of catching
subjective hallucinations. On the same principle, he ought to offer to
his learned friend, Sir James Crichton-Browne, well known as an
alienist, some advice as to the best mode of securing morbid
hallucinations in strait-waistcoats. Is he prepared to propose to take
photographs of a dream, to put thoughts under lock and key, or to
advocate the supply of hot and cold water on every floor of a castle
in the air?

One of the guests at B---- during Colonel Taylor's tenancy wrote after
his return to London to Miss Freer as follows:--

"_March 24th._--I went to call the other day on the 'G.'s' who chanced
to be still in town.... I begin chronologically, and give you what I
was told in all seriousness.... The H----s knew nothing about any
stories of haunting when they took the place, and Miss H---- and one
of the sons went up, most innocently, to prepare for the arrival of
the others. As soon as they entered it the son said to his sister that
he couldn't explain why, but he had a conviction that the house was
haunted. That night, however, nothing happened. But the second night
the bangings began. An old Spanish nurse was in the haun