Latest / The Book of Dreams and Ghosts / Chapter VII

Transcript

Chapter VII · The Book of Dreams and Ghosts

0:00
Chapter seven of the Book of Dreams and Ghosts. This is a LibriVox recording.
0:06
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to
0:11
volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Alison Roberts. The Book
0:17
of Dreams and Ghosts by Andrew Lang, Chapter seven, More ghosts with a
0:23
Purpose. The slaying of Sergeant Davies in seventeen forty nine, the trial Scott's
0:29
theory curious recent corroboration of Sir Walter's hypothesis. Other trials involving ghostly evidence their
0:37
want of authenticity. Fischer's ghost criticized the Illsbury murder, the Dogomaus, the
0:45
ghosts of Dogs. Peter's ghost, much later in time than the ghost of
0:51
Sir George of Ye is the ghost of Sergeant Davies of Guys's Regiment. His
0:56
purpose was first to get his body buried, next to bring his murderers to
1:00
justice. In this latter desire, he totally failed. This slaying of Sergeant
1:07
Davies. We now examine a ghost with a purpose. He wanted to have
1:11
his bones buried. The Highlands, in spite of Celadon, were not entirely
1:17
pacified. In the year seventeen forty nine. Broken men, robbers, fellows
1:22
with wrongs unspeakable to revenge were out in the heather. The hills that seemed
1:26
so lonely were not bare of human life. A man was seldom so solitary,
1:33
but that eyes might be on him from cave, corry wood, or
1:37
den. The disarming Act had been obeyed in the usual style. Old useless
1:42
weapons were given up to the military, But the spirit of the clans was
1:47
not wholly broken. Even the old wife of Donald Bean, when he was
1:52
sair hidden down by a bodach ghost, asked the spirit to answer one question,
2:00
will the Prince come again? The song expressed the feelings of the people.
2:05
The wind has left me bare indeed and blonde, my bonnet off my
2:08
heed. But something's hid in Highland bray. The winds no blonde my sword
2:13
away. Traffickers came and went from Prince Charles to Clooney, from Charles in
2:19
the convent of Saint Joseph to Clooney, lurking on ben alder, kilt and
2:23
tartan were worn at the risk of life for liberty. In short, the
2:28
embers of the rising were not yet extinct at this time. In the summer
2:34
of seventeen forty nine, Sergeant Arthur Davies of Guy's Regiment marched with eight privates
2:39
from Aberdeen to Dubrach in Braemer, while a corporal's guard accompanied the spittle of
2:46
Glenchee, some eight miles away. A more waste tract of mountain and bog
2:51
rocks and ravines without habitations of any kind till you reach Glencny is scarce to
2:57
be met with in Scotland, says Sir Walter. The sergeant's business was the
3:02
general surveillance of the countryside. He was a kindly prosperous man, liked in
3:07
the country, fond of children, newly married, and his wife bore witness
3:13
that he and she lived together in as great amity in love as any couple
3:16
could do, and that he never was in use to say away a night
3:20
from her. The sergeant had saved fifteen guineas and a half. He carried
3:27
the gold in a green silk purse and was not averse to displaying it.
3:31
He wore a silver watch and two gold rings, one with a peculiar knob
3:36
on the bezel. He had silver buckles to his brogues, silver knee buckles
3:42
two dozen silver buttons on a striped lute string waistcoat, and he carried a
3:46
gun, a present from an officer in his regiment. His dress on the
3:50
fatal twenty eighth of September was a blue surga coat with a striped silk vest
3:55
and techan breeches and brown stockings. His hair, of a dark mouse color,
4:01
was worn in a silk ribbon. His hat was silver laced and bore
4:05
his initials cut in the felt, thus attired a pretty man. Sergeant Davies
4:12
said goodbye to his wife, who never saw him again, and left his
4:15
lodgings at Michael Farquaharson's Early on twenty eighth September. He took four men with
4:23
him and went to meet the patrol from Glenchee. On the way he met
4:27
John Grower and Glenkennye, who spoke with him about a tartan coat which the
4:31
sergeant had observed him to drop, and after strictly enjoining him not to use
4:35
it again, dismissed him instead of making him prisoner. The encounter was after
4:43
Davies left his men before meeting the patrol, it being his intention to cross
4:47
the hill and try for a shot at a stag. The sergeant never rejoined
4:51
his men or met the patrol. He vanished as if the fairies had taken
4:56
him. His captain searched the hill with a band of men four days after
5:00
their disappearance, but to no avail. Various rumors ran about the country,
5:05
among others a clatter that Davies had been killed by Duncan Clerk and Alexander Bain
5:11
mac donald, but the body was undiscovered. In June one, Alexander mc
5:17
pherson came to Donald Ferkuson, the son of whom Davies had been used to
5:21
lodge. Mc pherson, who was living in a sheeling or summer hut of
5:26
shepherds in the hills, said that he was greatly troubled by the ghost of
5:30
Sergeant Davies, who insisted that he should bury his bones, and that he
5:34
having declined to bury them, the ghost insisted he should apply to Donald Ferkuson.
5:41
Ferguson could not believe this till mc pherson invited him to come and see
5:46
the bones. Then Ferkuson went with the other as he thought it might possibly
5:49
be true, and if it was, he did not know what the apparition
5:54
might trouble himself. The bones were found in a peat moss and about half
6:00
a mile from the road taken by the patrols. There too lay the poor
6:04
sergeant's mouse colored hair, with rags of his blue cloth, and his brugues
6:09
without the silver buckles, And there did Ferguson and McPherson bury them all.
6:15
Alexander macpherson, in his evidence of the trial, declared that late in May
6:18
seventeen fifty, when he was in bed, a vision appeared to him as
6:23
of a man clothed in blue, who said, I am Sergeant Davies.
6:29
At first McPherson thought the figure was a real living man, a brother of
6:32
Donald ferguson's. He therefore rose and followed his visitor to the door, where
6:38
the ghost indicated the position of his bones and said that Donald Farkuson would help
6:42
to inter them. McPherson next day found the bones and spoke to Grower,
6:47
the man of the Tartan coat. As Grower admitted at the trial, Grower
6:53
said, if McPherson did not hold his tongue, he himself would inform Shaw
6:56
to Daldoni. McPherson therefore went straight to Daldoony, who advised him to bury
7:01
the bones privily, not to give the country a bad name for a rebel
7:05
district. While mc pherson was in doubt and had not yet spoken to farkuson,
7:11
the ghost revisited him at night and repeated his command. He also denounced
7:15
his murderers Clerk and mac donald, which he had declined to do on his
7:20
first appearance. He spoke in Gaelic, which it seems was a language not
7:25
known by the sergeant Isabel mc carty, in whose service mc pherson was duponed.
7:33
One night in summer June seventeen fifty, while she lay at the end
7:38
of the sealing a hill hut for shepherds or needherds, and mc pherson lay
7:43
at the other, she saw something naked come in at the door, which
7:46
frighted her so much that she drew the clothes over her head that when it
7:50
appeared, it came in in a bowing posture. And the next morning she
7:56
asked mc pherson what it was that had troubled them in the night before,
8:00
to which he answered that she might be easy, for it would not trouble
8:03
them any more. All this was in seventeen fifty, but Clerk and mac
8:09
donald were not arrested till September seventeen fifty three. They were then detained in
8:16
the toll booth of Edinburgh on various charges as of wearing the kilt till June
8:20
seventeen fifty four, when they were tried. Grant of Prestongrange prosecuting aided by
8:26
Haldane, Home and Dundas, while Lockhart and Mackintosh defended. It was proven
8:33
that Clerk's wife wore Davy's ring, that Clerk, after the murder, had
8:37
suddenly become relatively rich and taken a farm, and that the two men armed
8:43
were on the hill near the scene of the murder on twenty eighth September seventeen
8:46
forty nine. Moreover, Angus Cameron swore that he saw the murder committed.
8:54
His account of his position was curious. He and another Cameron since dead were
8:58
a skull king near Sunset and a little hollow on the hill ow Galchurn.
9:03
There he had skulked all day waiting for Donald Cameron, who was afterwards hanged
9:09
together with some of the said Donald's companions from Lochaber. No doubt they were
9:13
all honest men who had been out, and they may well have been on
9:18
Clooney's business of conveying gold from the Loch Arquae hoard to Major Kennedy for the
9:24
Prince. On seeing Clerk and MacDonald strike and shoot the man in the silver
9:30
laced hat, Cameron and his companions ran away. Nor did Cameron mention the
9:35
matter till nine months later, and then only to Donald, not he who
9:39
was hanged. Donald advised him to hold his tongue. This Donald corroborated.
9:45
At the trial, the case against Clerk and MacDonald looked very black, especially
9:50
as some witnesses fled and declined to appear. Scott, who knew Macintosh.
9:56
The council for the prisoners, says that their advocates and AI agent were convinced
10:01
of their guilt. Yet a jury of Edinburgh tradesmen, moved by Mackintosh's banter
10:05
of the apparition, acquitted the accused solely. Ascop believes because of the ghost
10:11
in its newly learned Gaelic. It is indeed extraordinary that Preston Grange, the
10:16
patron of David Balfour, allowed his witnesses to say what the ghost said,
10:22
which certainly is not evidence. Sir Walter supposes that Macpherson and missus McCarty invented
10:28
the apparition as an excuse for giving evidence. The ghost's commands, according to
10:35
Highland belief, were not to be disobeyed. McPherson must have known the facts
10:39
by ordinary means. We have seen that Clerk and MacDonald were at once suspected
10:45
there was a clatter against them. But Angus Cameron had not yet told his
10:50
tale of what he saw. Then who did tell? Here comes in a
10:56
curious piece of evidence in the year eighteen ninety six. A friend writes,
11:01
twenty ninth December eighteen ninety six, Dear lang, I enclose a tradition connected
11:09
with the murder of Sergeant Davies, which my brother picked up lately before he
11:13
had read the story in your cock Lane. He had heard of the event
11:16
before, both in Athel and Braemar, and it was this that made him
11:20
ask the old lady see next letter about it. He thinks that Glencunye of
11:26
your version page two hundred fifty six must be Glencune into which alt Kiost falls.
11:33
He also suggests that the person who was chased by the murderers may have
11:37
got up the ghost in order to shift the odium of tail bearing to other
11:41
shoulders. The fact of being mixed up in the affair lends some support to
11:46
the story here related here follows my friend's brother's narrative. The name of the
11:52
witness being suppressed concerning the murderer of Sergeant Davies. There is at present living
12:01
in the neighborhood of Dash, an old lady about seventy years of age.
12:07
Her maiden name is Dash, and she is a native of Braemar, but
12:11
left that district when about twenty years old, and has never been back to
12:15
it even for a visit. On being asked whether she had ever heard the
12:18
story of Sergeant Davies, she at first persisted in denying all knowledge of it.
12:24
The ordinary version was then related to her, and she listened quietly until
12:28
it was finished. When she broke out with that isn't the way of it
12:33
at all. For the men were seen, and it was a forebear of
12:37
my own that saw them. He had gone out to try to get a
12:39
stag and had his gun and a deer hound with him. He saw the
12:43
men on the hill doing something, and thinking they had got a deer,
12:46
he went towards them. When he got near them, the hound began to
12:50
run on in front of him, and at that moment he saw what it
12:54
was they had. He called to the dog and turned to run away,
12:58
but saw at once that he had made a mistake, for he had called
13:03
their attention to himself, and a shot was fired after him, which wounded
13:07
the dog. He then ran home as fast as he could, never looking
13:11
behind him, and did not know how far the men followed him. Some
13:15
time afterwards, the dog came home, and he went to see whether it
13:18
was much hurt, whereupon it flew at him and had to be killed.
13:22
They thought that it was trying to revenge itself on him for having left it
13:26
behind. At this point, the old lady became conscious that she was telling
13:33
the story, and no more could be got out of her. The name
13:37
of the lady who keeps a secret of a hundred forty five years standing is
13:41
the name of a witness in the trial. The whole affairs thoroughly characteristic of
13:46
the Highlanders, and then of Scottish cher prudence after Claudin. While the verdict
13:50
of not guilty when not proven would have been stretching a point, is evidence
13:56
to the common sense of the eighteenth century. There are other cases in Webster
14:03
Aubrey and Glanville of ghosts who tried more successfully to bring their murderers to justice,
14:09
but the reports of the trials do not exist or cannot be found,
14:13
and Webster lost a letter which he once possessed which would have been proof that
14:16
ghostly evidence was given and was received at a trial in Duham sixteen thirty one
14:22
or sixteen thirty two. Reports of oldman present were collected for Glanville, but
14:28
are entirely too vague. The case of Fisher's ghost, which led to evidence
14:33
being given as to a murderer in New South Wales, cannot be wholly omitted.
14:37
Fisher was a convict settler, a man of some wealth. He disappeared
14:43
from his station, and his manager, also a convict, declared that he
14:46
had returned to England. Later, a man returning from market saw Fisher sitting
14:52
on a rail. At his approach, Fisher vanished. Black trackers were laid
14:56
on, found human blood on the rail and finally discovered Fisher's body. The
15:03
manager was tried, was condemned, acknowledged his guilt, and was hanged.
15:09
The story is told in Household Words, where Sir Frederick Forbes is said to
15:13
have acted as a judge, no date is given. In Botany Bay,
15:18
the legend is narrated by mister John Lang, who was in Sydney in eighteen
15:22
forty two. He gives no date of the occurrence and clearly embellishes the tale.
15:28
In eighteen thirty five, however, the story is told by mister Montgomery
15:33
Martin in volume four of his History of the British Colonies. He gives the
15:37
story as a proof of the acuteness of Black Trackers, Beyond saying that he
15:43
himself was in the colony when the events in the trial occurred, he gives
15:46
no date. I have conscientiously investigated the facts by aid of the Sydney newspapers
15:52
and the notes of the judge, Sir Frederick Forbes. Fisher disappeared at the
15:58
end of June eighteen twenty six from Campbelltown. Suspicion fell on his manager Worrel.
16:03
A reward was offered late in September. Late in October, the Constable's
16:08
attention was drawn to bloodstains on a rail starting thence the Black Trackers found Fisher's
16:15
body. Warrel was condemned and hanged after confession in February eighteen twenty seven,
16:22
not a word is said about why the constable went to and examined the rail,
16:26
but mister Resden, author of a History of Australia, knew the medical
16:30
attendant D Farley, who saw Fisher's ghost and pointed out the bloody rail and
16:36
often discussed it with Barley. Mister Sutar, in a work on colonial traditions,
16:41
proves the point that Farley told his ghost story before the body of Fisher
16:47
was found, but for fear of prejudicing the jury, the ghost was kept
16:52
out of the trial, exactly as in the following case. The gardener's ghost,
17:00
perhaps the latest ghost in a court of justice except in cases about the
17:04
letting of haunted houses, appeared at the Aylesbury Petty Session of twenty second August
17:10
eighteen twenty nine. On twenty fifth October eighteen twenty eight, William Eden,
17:15
a market gardener, was found dead with his ribs broken, in the road
17:21
between Eylesbury and tem jan Sewell. In August eighteen twenty nine. Accused a
17:26
man named Tyler, and both were examined at the Aylesbury Petty sessions. Missus
17:33
Eden gave evidence that she sent five or six times for Tyler to come and
17:37
see the corpse. I had some particular reasons for sending for him, which
17:41
I never did divulge. I will tell you my reasons, gentlemen, if
17:45
you ask me in the face of Tyler, even if my life should be
17:48
in danger for it. The reasons were that, on the night of her
17:53
husband's murder, something rushed over me, and I thought my husband came by
17:57
me. I looked up and I thought I heard the voice of my husband
18:00
come from near my mahogany table. I thought I saw my husband's apparition and
18:06
the maham that had done it, and that man was Tyler. I ran
18:10
out and said, oh, dear God, my husband is murdered and his
18:14
ribs are broken. Lord nudgeit. What made you think your husband's ribs were
18:18
broken? He held up his hands like this, and I saw a hammer
18:23
or something like a hammer, and it came into my mind that his ribs
18:26
were broken. Suwell stated that the murder was accomplished by means of a hammer.
18:33
The prisoners were discharged on thirteenth September. On fifth March eighteen thirty,
18:40
they were tried at the Buckingham lent A Seas were found guilty and were hanged
18:45
protesting their innocence on eighth March eighteen thirty. In the report of missus Eden's
18:52
evidence at Thesese's. No mentioned is made of the vision here and our ghosts
18:57
and courts of justice. The fall Fllowing ghost gave evidence of a murder,
19:02
or rather confessed to one, but was beyond the reach of human laws.
19:07
This tale of seventeen thirty is still current in Highland tradition. It has however,
19:12
been improved and made infinitely more picturesque by several generations of narrators. As
19:19
we try to be faithful to the best sources. The contemporary manuscript version is
19:23
here reprinted from the Scottish Standard Bearer, an organ of the Scottish Episcopalians,
19:30
October November eighteen ninety four. The Dog a Maze account of an apparition that
19:37
appeared to William Suiter in the Maws, seventeen thirty. Editor's note. This
19:42
is a copy from that in the handwriting of Bishop Ratrey, preserved at Craig
19:48
Hall, and which was found at mclar a few years ago, to the
19:52
proprietor of which mister Mercer. It was probably sent by the Bishop W.
19:57
W. H. Third of August eighteen forty six, end of editor's note.
20:03
I have sent you an account of an apparition as remarkable, perhaps as
20:07
anything you ever heard of, and which considered in all its circumstances, leaves
20:14
I think no ground of doubt to any man of common sense. The person
20:19
to whom it appeared is one William's Suitor, a tenant of Balgown's, who
20:23
lives in Middle Moors, within about half a mile from this place, on
20:27
the other side of the river, and in view from our windows of Craigll
20:32
House. He is about thirty seven years of age, as he says,
20:37
and has a wife and bairns. The following is an account from his own
20:41
mouth, and because there are some circumstances fit to be taken in as you
20:45
go along, I have given them with reference at the end that I may
20:49
not interrupt the sense of the account or add anything to it. Therefore it
20:56
begins in the month of December in the year seventeen twenty eight, about sky
21:02
setting. I and my servant, with several others living in the town open
21:07
brackets, farmsteading close brackets, heard a scratching open brackets, screeching, crying
21:14
close brackets, and I followed the noise with my servant a little way from
21:18
the town, open brackets, farm steading throughout close brackets. We both thought
21:25
we saw what had the appearance to be a fox, and hounded the dogs
21:29
at it, but they would not pursue it. About a month after,
21:33
as I was coming from Blair alone, about the same time of the night,
21:38
a big dog appeared to me of a dark grayish color, between the
21:42
hill town and Knockhead of Moors on a lee rig a little below the road,
21:48
and in passing by it touched me sonsily open brackets firmly close brackets on
21:55
the thigh at my haun spain open brackets, hip bone, close brackets,
22:00
upon which I pulled my staff from under my arm and let us stroke at
22:03
it. And I had a notion at the time that I hit it,
22:07
and my haunch was painful. All that night. However, I had no
22:11
great thought of its being anything particular or extraordinary, but that it might be
22:17
a mad dog wandering about. A year after that, to the best of
22:22
my memory, in December month, about the same time of the night and
22:26
in the same place, when I was alone, it appeared to me again
22:30
as before, and passed by me at some distance, and then I began
22:34
to think it might be something more than ordinary. In the month of December
22:40
seventeen thirty, as I was coming from Perth from the claith Open Bracket's Cloth,
22:45
Close Brackets Market, a little before sky setting, it appeared to me
22:51
again, being alone, at the same place, and passed by me just
22:55
as before. I had some suspicion of it then likewise, but I began
23:00
to think that a neighbor of mine in the hill town having an ox lately
23:03
dead, it might be a dog that had been at the carrion, by
23:07
which I endeavored to put the suspicion out of my head. On the second
23:12
Monday of December seventeen thirty, as I was coming from Woodhead a town,
23:18
Open Brackett's Farm, Close Brackets in the ground of DRUMLOCHI it appeared to me
23:23
again in the same place, just about sky setting. And after it had
23:29
passed me, as it was going out of my sight, it spoke with
23:32
a low voice, so that I distinctly heard it these words within eight or
23:37
ten days, do or die, And it thereupon disappeared no more passed at
23:44
that time. On the morrow I went to my brother, who dwells in
23:48
the nether aired of DRUMLOCHI and told him of the last and of all of
23:52
the former appearances, which was the first time I ever spoke of it to
23:56
anybody. He and I to see a sister of ours at Glen Bellew who
24:03
was dying, but she was dead before we came. As we were returning
24:07
home, I desired my brother, whose name is James Suiter, to go
24:11
forward with me till we should be past the place where it used to appear
24:15
to me. And just as we had come to it about ten o'clock at
24:19
night, it appeared to me again just as formerly, and as it was
24:25
passing over some ice. I pointed to it with my finger and asked my
24:29
brother if he saw it, but he said he did not, nor did
24:32
his servant who was with us. It spoke nothing at that time, but
24:37
just disappeared as it passed the ice. On the Saturday after as I was
24:42
at my own sheep cots putting in my sheep, it appeared to me again
24:48
just after daylight betwixt day and skylight, and upon saying these words, come
24:53
to the spot of ground. Within half an hour it just disappeared whereupon I
24:59
came home to my own house and took up a staff and also a sword
25:03
off the head of the bed, and went straight to the place where it
25:07
used formerly to appear to me. And after I had been there some minutes
25:11
and had drawn a circle about me with my staff, it appeared to me,
25:15
and I spoke to it, saying, in the name of God and
25:18
Jesus Christ, what are you that troubles me? And it answered me,
25:23
I am David Sutor, George Suter's brother. I killed a man more than
25:29
five and thirty years ago, when you was new born, at a bushby
25:32
east the road as you go into the isle. And as I was going
25:37
away, I stood again and said, David Sutter was a man, and
25:40
you appear like a dog. Whereupon it spoke to me again, saying I
25:45
killed him with a dog, and therefore I am made to speak out of
25:48
the mouth of a dog and tell you you must go and bury these bones.
25:53
Upon this I went straight to my brother to his house and told him
25:57
what had happened to me. My brother having told the Minister of Blair,
26:03
he and I came to the minister on Monday thereafter, as he was examining
26:07
in a neighbor's house in the same town where I live, and the minister,
26:11
with my brother and me and two or three more went to the place
26:15
where the apparition said the bones were buried. When Rachalzi met us accidentally,
26:21
and the minister told Rachalzi the story in the presence of all that were there,
26:25
assembled and desired the liberty from him to break up the ground to search
26:30
for the bones. Rachalzi made some scruples to allow us to break up the
26:33
ground, but said he would go along with us to glas Clun and if
26:37
he advised, he would allow search to be made. Accordingly, he went
26:42
straight along with my brother and me and James Chalmers, a neighbor who lives
26:48
in the hilltown of Maws, to Glasclun and told Glasgloon the story is above
26:52
narrated, and he advised Rachalzi to allow the search to be made, whereupon
26:57
he gave his consent to it. The day after being Friday, we convened
27:03
about thirty or forty men and went to the isle and broke up the ground
27:08
in many places, searching for the bones, but we found nothing. On
27:14
Wednesday, the twenty third December, about twelve o'clock, when I was in
27:18
my bed, I heard a voice, but saw nothing. The voice said,
27:22
come away upon this. I rose out of my bed, cast on
27:27
my coat and went to the door, but did not see it. And
27:32
I said, in the name of God, what do you demand of me
27:34
now? It answered, go take up these bones? I said, how
27:41
shall I get these bones? It answered again, at the side of a
27:45
withered bush, and there are but seven or eight of them remaining. I
27:52
asked, was there any more guilty of that action? But you, it
27:56
answered no. I asked again, what is the reason you trouble me?
28:03
It answered, because you are the youngest. Then said I to it,
28:07
depart from me and give me a sign that I may know the particular spot,
28:12
and give me time. Editor's note. Here there is written on the
28:18
margin in a different hand you will find the bones at the side of a
28:22
withered bush, there are but eight of them, And for a sign,
28:26
you will find the print of a cross impressed on the ground. End of
28:30
editor's note. On the morrow, being Thursday, I went alone to the
28:34
isle to see if I could find any sign, And immediately I saw both
28:38
the bush, which was a small bush, the greatest stick in it being
28:42
about the thickness of a staff, and it was withered about half way down,
28:47
and also the sign, which was about a foot from the bush.
28:52
The sign was an exact cross, thus picture of an X. Each of
28:56
the two lines was about a foot and a half in length and near three
29:00
inches broad, and more than an inch deeper than the rest of the ground,
29:06
as if it had been pressed down, for the ground was not cut.
29:10
On the morrow, being Friday, I went and told my brother of
29:14
the voice that had spoken to me, and that I had gone and seen
29:18
the bush which it directed me to, and the above mentioned sign at it.
29:22
The next day, being Saturday, my brother and I went together with
29:26
seven or eight men with us to the isle. About sunrising. We all
29:32
saw the bush and the sign at it, and upon breaking up the ground
29:37
just at the bush, we found the bones viz. The chaft teeth,
29:41
open brackets, jaw teeth, molers, close brackets in it, one of
29:45
the thigh bones, one of the shoulder blades, and a small bone which
29:51
we supposed to be a collar bone, which is more consumed than any of
29:55
the rest, and two other small bones which we thought to be bones of
29:59
the sword arm. By the time we had digged up those bones. There
30:03
convened about forty men who also saw them. The minister and RICHALSI came to
30:10
the place and saw them. We immediately sent to the other side of the
30:15
water to claywat to a right that was cutting timber there, whom Claywott brought
30:19
over with him, who immediately made a coffin for the bones. And my
30:25
wife brought linen to wrap them in. And I wrapped the bones in the
30:29
linen myself and put them in the coffin before all these people, and sent
30:33
for the mortcloth and buried them in the churchyard of Blair. That evening there
30:38
were near an hundred persons at the burial, and it was a little after
30:42
sunset when they were buried. This above account I have written down as dictated
30:48
to me by William Suiter, in the presence of Robert Graham, brother to
30:52
the Laird of Bulgowan, and of my two sons, James and John Ratree,
30:57
at Craighall, December seventeen thirty. We at Craig Hall heard nothing of
31:06
this history till after the search was over, but it was told us on
31:10
the morrow by some of the servants who had been with the rest at the
31:12
search, and on Saturday, Glasgloon's son came over to Craig Hall and told
31:18
us that William Suter had given a very distinct account of it to his father
31:23
on Saint Andrew's Day, the first of December. This David Suter open brackets
31:29
the ghost close brackets, listed himself a soldier, being very soon after the
31:34
time the apparitions said the murder was committed, And William Suitor declares he had
31:40
no remembrance of him till that apparition named him as brother to George Suiter.
31:45
Then he said he began to recollect that when he was about ten years of
31:49
age, he had seen him once at his father's in a soldier's habit,
31:55
after which he went abroad and was never more heard of. Neither did William
32:00
before hear of his having listed as a soldier. Neither did William ever before
32:05
hear of his having killed a man, Nor indeed was there ever anything heard
32:09
of it in the country, And it is not yet known who the person
32:14
was that was killed, and whose bones are now found. My son John
32:20
and I went a few days after to visit Glascloun and had the account from
32:23
him as William had told him over. From thence we went to Middlemors to
32:30
hear it from himself, but he, being from home. His father,
32:34
who also lives in that town, gave us the same account of it which
32:37
Glascloon had done, and the poor man could not refrain from shedding tears as
32:43
he told it. As Glascloon told us his son was under very great concern
32:47
when he spoke of it to him. We all thought this a very odd
32:52
story, and were under suspense about it because the bones had not been found
32:57
upon the search open brackets. Another account that also seems to have been written
33:04
by the bishop mentions that the murderer, on committing the deed, went home,
33:08
and on looking in at the window, he saw William Souter lying in
33:13
a cradle. Hence it was the gayest always came to him, and not
33:17
to any of the other relations. Close brackets. Mister Hay Newton of Newton
33:24
Hall, a man of great antiquarian tastes in the last generation, wrote the
33:30
following notes on the matter. Widow mc claren, aged seventy nine, a
33:36
native of Brae mar But who has resided on the Craighall estate for sixty years,
33:40
says that the tradition is that the man was murdered for his money,
33:45
that he was a highland drover on his return from the South, that he
33:50
arrived late at night at the mains of Maws and wished to get to Richhalsi,
33:54
That he stayed at the mains of Maws all night, but left it
33:58
early next morning when David Suiter, with his dog, accompanied him to show
34:02
him the road, But that with the assistance of the dog, he murdered
34:07
the drover and took his money at the place. Mentioned that there was a
34:10
tailor at work in his father's house that morning when he returned after committing the
34:15
murder, open brackets, according to the custom at that date by which tailors
34:21
went out to make up customer's own cloth at their own houses, close brackets,
34:27
And that his mother, being surprised at his strange appearance, asked him
34:30
what he had been about, to which inquiry he made no reply. That
34:36
he did not remain long in the country afterwards, but went to England and
34:40
never returned. The last time he was seen he went down by the bray
34:45
of Cockridge. A man of the name of Irons, a fisherman in blair
34:51
Gowrie, says that his father, who died a very old man some years
34:55
ago, was present at the getting of the bones. Miss to Small Finjan,
35:00
when bringing his daughter home from school in Edinburgh, saw a coffin at
35:06
the door of a public house near Richhalzi, where he generally stopped, but
35:09
he did not go in as usual, thinking that there was a death in
35:13
the family. The innkeeper came out and asked him why he was passing the
35:17
door, and told him the coffin contained the bones of the murdered man,
35:22
which had been collected, upon which he went into the house. The Suitors
35:28
disliked much to be questioned on the subject of the Dog of Maws. Thomas
35:32
Souter, who was tenant in Eastern Maws, formerly named no Head of Maws
35:37
and died last year upwards of eighty years of age, said that the suitors
35:42
came originally from Annandale, and that their name was Johnston. That there were
35:46
three brothers who fled from that part of the country on account of their having
35:51
killed a man. That they came by Suiters Hill, and having asked the
35:55
name of the hill, were told Suter, upon which they said, Suitor
36:00
be it then and took that name. One of the brothers went south and
36:05
the others came north. The appearance of human ghosts in the form of beasts
36:10
is common enough in Shropshire. They usually come as bulls open brackets Sea miss
36:16
Byrne's Shropshire Folklore close brackets. They do not usually speak like the dog omors.
36:23
Monsieur d'assier, a French Darwinian, explains that ghosts revert atavistically to lower
36:30
forms of animal life. We now, in accordance with a promise already made,
36:37
give an example of the ghosts of beasts. Here an explanation by the
36:43
theory that the consciousness of the beast survives death and effects with a hallucination.
36:49
The minds of living men at animals will hardly pass current. But if such
36:53
cases were as common and told on evidence as respectable as that which vouches for
36:59
a peerings of the dead, believers in these would either have to shift their
37:04
ground or to grant that, admitted to that equal sky, our faithful dog
37:09
may bear us company. We omit such things as the dripping death wraith of
37:15
a drowned cat who appeared to a lady, or the ill used monkey who
37:20
died in a Chinese house after which he hunted it by wrapping secreting objects,
37:25
and in short, in the usual way we ajuce Peter's ghost. A naval
37:35
officer visited a friend in the country. Several men were sitting round the smoking
37:39
room far when he arrived, and a fox terrier was with them. Presently,
37:45
the heavy shambling footsteps of an old dog and the metallic shaking sound of
37:51
his collar were heard coming upstairs. Here's old Peter, said his visitor.
37:58
Peter's dead, whispered his owner. The sounds passed through the closed door,
38:05
heard by all, they pattered into the room. The fox terrier bristled up,
38:09
growled, and pursued a viewless object across the carpet. From the hearth
38:15
rug sounded a shake, a jingle of a collar, and the settling weight
38:20
of a body collapsing into repose. This pleasing anecdote rests on what is called
38:25
nautical evidence, which, for reasons inexplicable to me, was open brackets.
38:31
In these matters close brackets distrusted by Sir Walter Scott end of Chapter seven