for hanging his pictures.
Another strange and fairly frequent occurrence was the following. I had
got a set of skunk furs which I fancied had an unpleasant odour, as this
fur sometimes has; and at night I used to take it from my wardrobe and
lay it on a chair in the drawing-room, which was next my bedroom. The
first time that I did this, on going to the drawing-room I found, to my
surprise, my muff in one corner and my stole in another. Not for a moment
suspecting a supernatural agent, I asked my servant about it, and she
assured me that she had not been in the room that morning. Whereupon I
determined to test the matter, which I did by putting in the furs late at
night, and taking care that I was the first to enter the room in the
morning. I invariably found that they had been disturbed."
The following strange and pathetic incident occurred in a well-known
Square in the north side of the city. In or about a hundred years ago a
young officer was ordered to Dublin, and took a house there for himself
and his family. He sent on his wife and two children, intending to join
them in the course of a few days. When the latter and the nurse arrived,
they found only the old charwoman in the house, and she left shortly
after their arrival. Finding that something was needed, the nurse went
out to purchase it. On her return she asked the mother were the children
all right, as she had seen two ghostly forms flit past her on the
door-step! The mother answered that she believed they were, but on going
up to the nursery they found both the children with their throats cut.
The murderer was never brought to justice, and no motive was ever
discovered for the crime. The unfortunate mother went mad, and it is said
that an eerie feeling still clings to the house, while two little heads
are sometimes seen at the window of the room where the deed was
committed.
A most weird experience fell to the lot of Major Macgregor, and was
contributed by him to _Real Ghost Stories_, the celebrated Christmas
number of the _Review of Reviews_. He says: "In the end of 1871 I went
over to Ireland to visit a relative living in a Square in the north side
of Dublin. In January 1872 the husband of my relative fell ill. I sat up
with him for several nights, and at last, as he seemed better, I went to
bed, and directed the footman to call me if anything went wrong. I soon
fell asleep, but some time after was awakened by a push on the left
shoulder. I started up,
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