Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/286

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266
Haunted Houses

example of this class of narrative, and I will choose, therefore, the case of which we have the fullest and most satisfactory record.

The chief percipient in the following history refrained from mentioning her early experiences to any member of her family, but wrote an account of them in contemporary letters to a friend. It is from these letters, which were happily preserved, that Miss "Morton's" account, written in 1892, is compiled. Some of the other percipients have given first-hand accounts of their experiences, but these, as will be seen, were written down some years after the events. Miss "Morton," who withholds her real name lest the house should be identified and its value impaired, is known personally to several members of the Society.

No. 61. From Miss "Morton"[1]

The house is a commonplace square building, dating from about 1860. Its first tenant was Mr. 8., whose first wife died in the house (in August, year uncertain). Mr. S. married again, but his second marriage was unhappy. Both he and his wife took to drink. In order to prevent his second wife securing his first wife's jewels, he had a secret receptacle constructed for them under the floor of the morning-room or study. In that room he died in July, 1876, his widow dying in another part of England in September, 1878. With the exception of a brief tenancy of six months, terminated by death, the house appears to have remained unoccupied from the summer of 1876 until March, 1882, when it was taken by Captain Morton. Neither Captain Morton nor his wife, an invalid, ever saw anything in the house. The eldest sister, Mrs.
  1. Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. viii., pp. 311–332.