readily understood that their proud old
clans--and rightly proud, for who but a grovelling money grubber would
not sooner be descended from a warrior, elected chief, on account of his
all-round prowess, than from some measly hireling whose instincts were
all mercenary?--possess ghosts that are nearly allied to the banshee.

The Airlie family, whose headquarters are at Cortachy Castle, is haunted
by the phantasm of a drummer that beats a tattoo before the death of one
of the members of the clan. There is no question as to the genuineness
of this haunting, its actuality is beyond dispute. All sorts of theories
as to the origin of this ghostly drummer have been advanced by a prying,
inquisitive public, but it is extremely doubtful if any of them approach
the truth. Other families have pipers that pipe a dismal dirge, and
skaters that are seen skating even when there is no ice, and always
before a death or great calamity.

_English Family Ghosts_

There are a few old English families, too, families who, in all
probability, can point to Celtic blood at some distant period in their
history, that possess family ghosts. I have, for example, stayed in one
house where, prior to a death, a boat is seen gliding noiselessly along
a stream that flows through the grounds. The rower is invariably the
person doomed to die. A friend of mine, who was very sceptical in such
matters, was fishing in this stream late one evening when he suddenly
saw a boat shoot round the bend. Much astonished--for he knew it could
be no one from the house--he threw down his rod and watched. Nearer and
nearer it came, but not a sound; the oars stirred and splashed the
rippling, foaming water in absolute silence. Convinced now that what he
beheld was nothing physical, my friend was greatly frightened, and, as
the boat shot past him, he perceived in the rower his host's youngest
son, who was then fighting in South Africa. He did not mention the
incident to his friends, but he was scarcely surprised when, in the
course of the next few days, a cablegram was received with the tidings
that the material counterpart of his vision had been killed in action.

A white dove is the harbinger of death to the Arundels of Wardour; a
white hare to an equally well-known family in Cornwall. Corby Castle in
Cumberland has its "Radiant Boy"; whilst Mrs E. M. Ward has stated, in
her reminiscences, that a certain room at Knebworth was once haunted by
the phantasm of a boy with