Charles Lindley, Viscount Halifax - Lord Halifax's Ghost Book (Bellew, 1989, originally Geoffrey Bles, 1936)
Foreword
The Harper of Inverary
The Man in the Iron Cage
The Secret of Glamis
The Grey Man of Wrotham
The Haunting of Hinton Ampner
The Death of Lord Tyrone
The Passenger with the Bag
'Marche!'
The Man in a Silk Dress
The Strange Experience of the Reverend Spencer Nairne
The Renishaw Coffin
The Butler in the Corridor
The Telephone at the Oratory
Haunted Rooms —
— The Strangling Woman
— 'Here I Am Again!'
— Head of a Child
The Woman in White
Prophetic and other Dreams —
— The Corpse Downstairs
— The Murderer's Dream
— The Mad Butler
— Lady Goring's Dream
— The Sexton of Chilton Polden
— The Last Appearance of Mr. Bullock
— The Corpse that Rose
The Footsteps at Haverholme Priory
Mrs. Dundas's Stories —
— 'I will pay you all to-morrow'
— The Haunted Bungalow
Apparitions —
— The Monk of Bolton Abbey
— The Gentleman with the Latch-Key
— The Bordeaux Diligence
— The Appearance of Mr. Birkbeck
The Vampire Cat
Lord Lytton and a Horoscope
Colonel P.'s Ghost StoryBlurb:
Lord Halifax had a passion for collecting authentic ghost stories and reading them to his children. His son, Viscount Halifax, remembers being 'fascinated and spell-bound by a sense of delicious terror' but he 'never failed to ask for more.'
The result of this life-long interest remains one of the world's most fascinating ghost books. Hauntings, apparitions, dreams and nightmares, prophecies, a vampire cat, the Sitwell family ghosts, the secret of Glamis Castle, supernatural occurrences witnessed by kings, lords, thieves and gaolors, all were carefully recorded by Lord Halifax and written down with great style and elegance.
A classic in its time, but long out of print, Lord Halifax's Ghost Book is now available in this new edition introduced by Colin Wilson. The many Fontana paperback editions (1961 —) lack Wilsons introduction, otherwise include all the above, plus:
Shrieks in the West Room at Flesbury
The Shrouded Watcher
More Apparitions —
— The Ghostly Passenger
— The Fawn Lady of Burton Agnes
— The Page Boy of Hayne
— The Ghost of Lord Conyers Osborne
— The Ghost of Lady Carnarvon
— The Ghost of Bishop Wilberforce
— The Ship in Distress
— The Widow in the Train
— Killed in Action
The Troubled Spirit of Tintern Abbey
Labédoyère's Doom
Haunted Houses —
— Exorcism at St. Donat's Castle
— What the Gardener Saw
— Three in a Bed
— The Simla Bungalow
— The Cardinal of Waverley Abbey
Ghostly Guardians—
— 'Someone by his Side'
— Bishop King's Escape
Two Friends
Dreams and Portents—
— The Spanish Knife
— 'Turn to the Right!'
— President Lincoln's Dream
— John Arthington's Escape
— Two Submarines
— The Fighting Rooks and the Black Mouse
— Lord Decies' Ring
— The Death of Lord Hastings
The Rustling Lady of Lincoln
Some Curious Stories —
— The Bloody Hand
— Waiting for a Submarine'
The Restless Dead
The Countess of Belvedere'Classic' compilation of, mostly, purportedly 'true' stories, several of which have that 'authentic ' feel to them - ie, they are deathly dull. Occasionally, one among the Halifax entourage will shake you awake with something half decent.
The Strangling Woman: Thurstaston Old Hall, Cheshire. The ghost of an infant killer who escaped earthly justice. "Nothing would have been known of the crime if she had not confessed on her deathbed." The spectral child-murderer was sketched by Mr. Easton who spent seven nights in the haunted room, receiving the same eerie visitation on each.
Head of a Child: Sutton Verney. The guest room has long been haunted by a phantom infant. Eventually the entire wing is demolished to reveal a horrible secret. Story sent to Halifax by Lady Margaret Shelley, daughter of the first Earl of Iddesliegh, "who herself had a collection of stories of this nature." Would like to think they were all morbid and unpleasant as this example. Wonder what became of Lady Shelley's ghost book?
Three in a Bed: A married couple, sleeping in the guest room of a friends new home, find themselves sharing a bed with a third, cold party. A second ghost creeps through the door brandishing what we must presume is a phantom razor.
The Mad Butler: Acting on a vivid premonition, a woman travels from South Devon to Aberdeen to prevent the murder of her widowed mother. Caught in the act, the butler admits to having received instruction from the Devil to batter Mrs. ———— with a coal scuttle.
The Woman in White: A little girl reports an exceptionally tall woman approaching the cottage at the precise moment her father drowns at Bryanston. Six months earlier, John Allen had been made miserable by a premonition of his own death.
The Man in the Silk Dress: 10 October, 1879, Mannington Hall, Norwich. The ghost appeared to be reading over the Rev. Dr. Jessop's shoulder. It vanished when he reached for his sketch pad.
Harper of Inverary: Ever-loyal ghost of a Campbell family servant hung by Montrose's men for refusing to divulge whereabouts of the Marquess of Argyll. Haunts library, topples books, attends funerals.
The Butler in the Corridor: As witnessed by Sir William Hanwell while staying at a well known property local to the Doncaster racecourse. TheA diligent phantom manservant verifies all is as it should be.
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Some I made earlier: From Christine Bernard,
True Ghost Stories, 1974
The Man in the Iron Cage: Recorded by Miss Bessie Barrington in 1786 during a disrupted stay at the Lion d'or Hotel, Lille. Ghost is that of a young heir imprisoned inside cage in the attic and left to die by grasping uncle. Haunting still going strong as late as 1887. Has the ring of truth in that haunting really isn't as interesting as it should be.
The Bloody Hand: Mary disappears on her Wedding Day never to be seen alive again. Some years later, workmen clearing a fallen oak from a waterfall, discover a skeleton concealed behind rocks, the bony hand sporting a ring with a red stone. Ellen, Mary's surviving sister, insists on keeping the hand in a glass display box. On her death, it passes to a servant who opens a public house.
One night, a muffled stranger walks into the pub. The hand recognises him as he who murdered her bones!
President Lincoln's Dream: Lincoln's recurring dream of floating rudderless in a strange vessel invariably heralded a seismic event, so no surprise it paid a visit on the eve of his assassination.
The Encounter: While visiting Aberdeen in 1859, Rev. Spencer Nairne sees a familiar face on Union Street. When he greets her, she blanks him and vanishes. Later when he catches up with her, she swears it was the other way around, that he snubbed her. They compare diary dates. Both had recently travelled North, but at no time had their schedules clashed. In fact, Miss Wallis arrived in Aberdeen over a month after the Reverend had returned to England. This kind of phenomena seems remarkably common - it is crucial to a friend's
Haunted Bench experience (guest "personality" residue - me!). Doesn't make it any less dull to read about.
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