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Chapter VI · The Book of Dreams and Ghosts

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Chapter six of the Book of Dreams and Ghosts. This is a LibriVox recording.
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All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to
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volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The Book of Dreams and Ghosts by
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Andrew Lang Chapter six transition to appearances of the dead. Obvious scientific difficulties,
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purposeless character of modern ghosts, theory of dead men's dreams illustrated by sleep Walking
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Housemaid. Purposeful character of the old ghost stories. Probable causes of the difference
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between old and new ghost stories. Only the most dramatic were recorded, or
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the tales were embellished or invented. Practical reason for inventing them. The demon
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of Sprayton, Sources of story of Sir George Villier's ghost, Clarendon, Lily
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Dersh Wyndham, Wyndham's letter, Sir Henry Wotton, Isaac Walton, Anthony Wood
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a Wotton dream proved legendary. The ghost that appeared to Lord Lyttleton his Lordship's
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own ghost. Appearances of the dead. We now pass beyond the utmost limits
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to which a scientific theory of things ghostly can be pushed. Science admits if
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asked that it does not know everything. It is not inconceivable that living minds
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may communicate by some other channel than that of the recognized senses. Science now
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admits the fact of hypnotic influence, though sixty years ago Braid was not allowed
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to read a paper on it before the British Association. Even now the topic
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is not welcome. But perhaps only one eminent man of science declares that hypnotism
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is all imposture and mal observation. Thus it is not wholly beyond the scope
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of fancy to imagine that some day official science may glance at the evidence for
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telepathy. But the stories we have been telling deal with living men supposed to
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be influencing living men. When the dead are alleged to exercise a similar power,
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we have to suppose that some consciousness survives the grave and manifests itself by
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causing hallucinations among the living. Instances of this have already been given in The
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Ghost and the Portrait, the Bright Scar and Riding Home after mess. These
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were adduced as examples of veracity in hallucinations. Each appear hearance gave information to
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the seer which he did not previously possess. In the first case, the
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lady who saw the soldier and the suppliant did not know of their previous existence
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and melancholy adventure. In the second, the brother did not know that his
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dead sister's face had been scratched. In the third, the observer did not
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know that Lieutenant B had grown a beard and acquired a bay pony with black
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mane and tail. But though the appearances were voracious, they were purposeless.
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And again, as in each case, the information existed in living minds,
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it may have been wired on from them. Thus, the doctrine of telepathy
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puts a ghost of the dead in a great quandary. If he communicates no
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verifiable information, he may be explained as a mere empty illusion. If he
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does yield fresh information, and if that is known to any living mind,
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he and his intelligence may have been wired on from that mind. His only
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chance is to communicate facts which are proved to be true, facts which nobody
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living knew before now. It is next to impossible to demonstrate that the facts
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communicated were absolutely unknown to everybody. Far however, from conveying unknown intelligence,
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most ghosts conveyed none at all and appeared to have no purpose. Whatever it
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will be observed that there was no traceable reason why the girl with a scar
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should appear to mister G or the soldier, and the suppliant to Missus m
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or Lieutenant B to General Barker. The appearances came in a vague, casual,
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aimless way, just as the living and healthy clergyman appeared to the diplomatist.
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On Saint Augustine's theory, the dead persons who appeared may have known know
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more about the matter than did the living clergyman. It is not even necessary
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to suppose that the dead man was dreaming about the living person to whom,
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or about the place in which he appeared. But on the analogy of the
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tales in which a dream or thought of the living seems to produce a hallucination
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of their presence in the minds of other and distance living people, so a
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dream of the dead may, it is urged, have a similar effect,
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if in that sleep of death such dreams may come the idea occurred to Shakespeare.
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In any case, the ghosts of our stories hitherto have been so aimless
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and purposeless as to resemble what we might imagine a dead man's dream to be.
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This view of the case that a ghost may be a reflection of a
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dead man's dream will become less difficult to understand if we ask ourselves what natural
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thing most resembles the common idea of a ghost. Your reading alone at night,
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let us say the door opens and a human figure glides into the room
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to you. It pays no manner of attention, It does not answer if
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you speak. It may trifle with some object in the chamber, and then
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steal quietly out again. It is the housemaid walking in her sleep. This
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perfectly accountable appearance, in its aimlessness, its unconsciousness, its irresponsiveness, is
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undeniably just like the common notion of a ghost. Now, if ordinary ghosts
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are not of flesh and blood like the sleep walking housemaid, yet are as
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irresponsive, as unconscious, and as vaguely wondering as she, then if they
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did are somewhat a ghost may be a hallucination produced in the living by the
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unconscious action of the mind of the dreaming dead. The concept is at least
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conceivable if adopted merely for argument's sake, it would first explain the purposeless behavior
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of ghosts, and secondly relieve people who see ghosts of the impression that they
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see spirits. In the Scotch phrase, the ghost obviously is not all there
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any more than the sleep walker is intellectually all there. This incomplete, incoherent
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presence is just what might be expected if a dreaming disembodied mind could affect an
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embodied mind with a hallucination. But the good old fashioned ghost stories are usually
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of another type. The robust and earnest ghosts of our ancestors had their own
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purpose sun clear before them. As mister Carlyle would have said, they knew
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what they wanted, asked for it, and saw that they got it.
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As a rule, their bodies were unburied, and so they demanded sepulchure.
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Or they had committed a wrong and wished to make restitution. Or they had
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left debts which they were anxious to pay, or they had advice or warnings
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or threats to communicate. Or they had been murdered and were determined to bring
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their assassins to the gibbet. Why, we may ask, were the old
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ghosts stories so different from the new? Well, First, they were not
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all different. Again, probably only the more dramatic tales were, as a
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rule recorded. Thirdly, many of the stories may have been either embellished a
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fancied purpose being attributed to a purposeless ghost. Or they may even have been
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invented to protect witnesses who gave information against murderers who could disobey a ghost.
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In any case, the old ghost stories are much more dramatic than the new
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to them. We turn beginning with the appearances of mister and Missus Fairs at
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Sprayton in Devonshire in sixteen eighty two. Our author is mister Richard Boveatt in
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his Pandemonium or the Devil's Cloister, opened sixteen eighty three. The motive of
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the late mister Furs was to have some small debts paid his wife's specter,
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was influenced by a jealousy of mister Furze's specter's relations with another lady. The
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Demon of Sprayton in Devon and o. Sixteen eighty two. About the month
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of November in the year sixteen eighty two, in the parish of Sprayton,
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in the County of Devon, one Francis Fay, servant to mister Philip Firs,
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being in a field near the dwelling house of his said master, there
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appeared on to him the resemblance of an aged gentleman like his master's father,
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with a pole or staff in his hand, resembling that he was wont to
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carry when living, to kill the moles withal. The Spectrum approached near the
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young man, whom you may imagine not a little surprised at the appearance of
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one that he knew to be dead. But the Spectrum bid him not be
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afraid of him, but tell his master, who was his son, that
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several legacies, which by his testament he had bequeathed, were unpaid, naming
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ten shillings to one and ten shillings to another, both which persons he named.
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To the young man, who replied that the party he last named was
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dead, and so it could not be paid to him. The ghost answered,
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he knew that, but it must be paid to the next relation,
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whom he also named. The Spectrum likewise ordered him to carry twenty shillings to
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a gentlewoman sistered the deceased, living near Totness in the same county, and
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promised if these things were performed, to trouble him no further. But at
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the same time, the Spectrum, speaking of his second wife, who was
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also dead, called her wicked woman. Though the gentleman who writ the letter,
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knew her and esteemed her a very good woman, and thus having related
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him his mind, the spectrum left the young man, who, according to
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the direction of the spirit, took care to see the small legacies, satisfied
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and carried the twenty shillings that was appointed to be paid to the gentlewoman near
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Totness, but she utterly refused to receive it, being sent her, as
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she said, from the devil. The same night, the young man lodging
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at her house, the aforesaid spectrum appeared to him again, whereupon the young
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man challenged his promise not to trouble him any more, saying he had performed
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all according to appointment, but that the gentlewoman his sister, would not receive
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the money, to which the spectrum replied that was true indeed, but withal
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directed the young man to ride to Totness and buy for her a ring of
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that value which the spirit said she would accept, of which being provided accordingly,
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she received. Since the performance of which the ghost or apparition of the
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old gentleman hath seemed to be at rest, having never given the young man
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any further trouble. But the next day, after having delivered the ring.
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The young man was riding home to his master's house, accompanied by a servant
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of the gentlewoman's near totness, and near about the time of their entrance,
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or a little before they came into the parish of Sprayton, aforesaid, there
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appeared to be upon the horse behind the young man the resemblance of the second
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wife of the old gentleman spoken of before. This demon often threw the young
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man off his horse and cast him with such violence to the ground as was
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great astonishment, not only to the gentlewoman's servant with him, but to divers
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others who were spectators of the frightful action, the ground resounding with great noise
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by reason of the incredible force with which he was cast upon it. At
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his coming into his master's yard, the horse which he rid, though very
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poor and out of case, leapt at one spring twenty five foot, to
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the amazement of all that saw it. Soon after the she specter shewed herself
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to Divers in the house the aforesaid young man, Mistress thomasin Gidley, Anne
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Langdon, born in that parish, and a little child, which, by
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reason of the troublesomeness of the spirit they were fain to remove from that house.
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She appeared, sometimes in her own shape, sometimes informs very horrid now
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and then like a monstrous dog, belching out fire. At another time it
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flew out of the window in the shape of a horse, carrying with it
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only one pane of glass and a small piece of iron. One time the
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young man's head was thrust into a very straight place betwixt a bed's head and
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a wall, and forced by the strength of divers men to be removed thence,
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and that not without being much hurt and bruised, so that much blood
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appeared upon it. Upon this it was advised that he should be bleeded to
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prevent any ill accident that might come of the bruise. After bleeding, the
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ligature or binder of his arm was removed from thence and conveyed about his middle,
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where it was strained with such violence that the girding had almost stopped his
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breath and killed him. And being cut asunder, it made a strange and
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dismal noise, so that the standers by were affrighted at it. At divers
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are the times he hath been in danger to be strangled with cravats and handkerchiefs
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that he hath worn about his neck, which have been drawn so close,
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that, with the sudden violence he hath near been choked, and hardly escaped
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death. The specter hath shewed great offense at the periwigs which the young man
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used to wear, for they are often torn from his head after a very
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strange manner, one that he esteemed above the rest, he put in a
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small box, and that box he placed in another, which he set against
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the wall of his chamber, placing a joint stool with other weight atop of
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it. But in short time the boxes were broken in sunder, and the
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periwig rendered into many small parts and tatters. Another time, lying in his
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master's chamber with his periwig on his head to secure it from danger, within
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a little time it was torn from him and reduced into very small fragments.
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At another time, one of his shoe strings was observed, without the assistance
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of any hand, to come of its own accord, out of its shoe
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and fling itself to the other side of the room. The other was crawling
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after it, but a maid, aspying that with her hand, drew it
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out, and it strangely clasped and curled about her hands like a living eel
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or serpent. This is testified by a lady of considerable quality, too great
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for exception, who was an eye witness. The same lady chewed mister C
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one of the young man's gloves, which was torn in his pocket while she
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was by, which is so dexterously tattered and so artificially torn, that it
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is conceived a cutler could not have contrived an instrument to have laid it abroad
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so accurately, And all this was done in the pocket in the compass of
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one minute. It is further observable that if the aforesaid young man or another
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person who is a servant made in the house, do wear their own clothes,
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they are certainly torn in pieces on their backs, but if the clothes
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belong to any other, they are not injured. After that manner, many
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other strange and fantastical freaks have been done by the said demon or spirit.
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In the view of divers persons, a barrel of salt of considerable quality hath
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been observed to march from room to room without any human assistance. A hand
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iron hath seemed to lay itself cross overthwart a pan of milk that hath been
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scalding over the fire, and two flitches of bacon have, of their own
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accord, descended from the chimney where they were hung, and placed themselves upon
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the hand iron. When the specter appears in resemblance of her own person,
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she seems to be habited in the same clothes and dress which the gentlewoman of
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the house, her daughter in law, hath on at the same time.
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Divers times, the feet and legs of the young man aforesaid have been so
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entangled about his neck that he hath been loosened with great difficulty. Sometimes they
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have been so twisted about the frames of chairs and stools that they have hardly
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been set at liberty. But one of the most considerable instances of the malice
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of the spirit against the young man happened on Easter Eve when Missus c the
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realtar, was passing by the door of the house. And it was thus,
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when the young man was returning from his labor, he was taken up
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by the skirt of his doublet by this female demon, and carried a height
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into the air. He was soon missed by his master and some other servants,
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that had been at labor with him, and after diligent inquiry, no
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news could be heard of him until at length near half an hour after he
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was heard singing and whistling in a bog or quagmire, where they found him
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in a kind of trance or ecstatic fit to which he hath sometimes been accustomed.
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But whether before the affliction he met with from this spirit, I am
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not so certain. I am not certain he was affected much after such sort
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as at the time of those fits, so that the people did not give
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that attention and regard to what he said as other times. But when he
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returned again to himself, which was about an hour after, he solemnly protested
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to them that the demon had carried him so high that his master's house seemed
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to him to be but as a haycock, and that during all that time
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he was in perfect sense, and prayed to Almighty God not to suffer the
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devil to destroy him, and that he was suddenly set down in that quagmire.
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The workmen found one shoe on one side of his master's house and the
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other on the other side, and in the morning espied his periwig hanging on
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the top of a tree by which it appears he had been carried a considerable
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height, and that what he told them was not affection. After this it
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was observed that that part of the young man's body which had been on the
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mud in the quagmire, was somewhat benumbed and seemingly deader than the other.
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Whereupon, the following Saturday, which was the day before low Sunday, he
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was carried to crediton a alias curtain to be bleeded, which being done accordingly,
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and the company having left him for some little space, at their return
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they found him in one of his fits, with his forehead much bruised and
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swollen to a great bigness, none being able to guess how it happened until
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his recovery from that fit, when upon enquiry he gave them this account of
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it, that a bird had, with great swiftness and force, flown in
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at the window with a stone in it, which it had dashed against his
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forehead, which had occasioned the swelling which they saw. The people, much
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wondering at the strangeness of the accident, diligently sought the stone, and under
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the place where he sat they found not such a stone as they had expected
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but a weight of brass or copper, which it seems the demon had made
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use of on that occasion, to give the poor young man that hurt in
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his forehead. The persons present were at the trouble to break it to pieces,
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everyone taking a part and preserving it in memory of so strange an accident.
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After this, the spirits continued to molest the young man in a very
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severe and rugged manner, often handling him with great extremity. And whether it
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hath yet left its violences to him, or whether the young man be yet
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alive, I can have no certain account. I leave the reader to consider
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of the extraordinary strangeness of the relation. The reader, considering the exceeding strangeness
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of the relation, will observe that we have now reached great swinging falsehoods,
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even if that opinion had not hitherto occurred to his mind. But if he
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thinks that such stories are no longer told and even sworn to on Bible oath,
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he greatly deceives himself. In the chapter on Haunted Houses, he will
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find statements just as hard narrated of the years eighteen seventy and eighteen eighty two.
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In these, however, the ghosts had no purpose but mischief. We
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take another ghost with purpose, Sir George Villier's ghost. The variations in the
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narratives of Sir George Villiers's appearance to an old servant of his or old protege,
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and the warning communicated by this man to Villier's son, the famous Duke
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of Buckingham, are curious and instructive. The tale is first told in print
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by William Lilly, the astrologer, in the second part of a large tract
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called Monarchy or No Monarchy in England London, sixteen fifty one, twenty three
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years after Buckingham's murder, but while prior in publication. Lily's story was probably
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written after, though independent of Lord Clarendon's in the first book of his History
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of the Rebellion, begun on eighteenth of March sixteen forty six, that is,
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within eighteen years of the events. Clarendon, of course, was in
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a position to know what was talked of at the time. Next we have
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a letter of mister Dersh to Glanville, undated but written after the restoration,
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and finally an original manuscript of sixteen fifty two. Dersh makes the warning arrive
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some few days before the murder of Buckingham, and says that the ghost of
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Sir George, in his morning gown bade one Parker tell Buckingham to abandon the
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expedition to La Rochelle or expect to be murdered. On the third time of
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appearing, the vision pulled a long knife from under his gown as a sign
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of the death awaiting Buckingham. He also communicated a private token to Parker,
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the percipient, Sir George's old servant. On each occasion of the appearance,
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Parker was reading at midnight. Parker, after the murder, told one Seely,
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who told it to a clergyman, who told Dersh, who told Glanville.
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In Lily's version, the ghost had a habit of walking in Parker's room
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and finally bade him tell Buckingham to abstain from certain company or else he will
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come to destruction. And that suddenly Parker, thinking he had dreamed, did
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nothing. The ghost reappeared and communicated a secret which he Buckingham knows that none
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in the world ever knew but myself and he the Duke, on hearing the
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story from Parker, backed by the secret, was amazed, but did not
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alter his conduct. On the third time, the specter produced the knife,
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but at this information the Duke only laughed. Six weeks later he was stabbed.
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Dersh makes the whole affair pass immediately before the assassination, and mister Parker
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died soon after, as the ghost had foretold to him. Finally, Clarendon
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makes the appearances set in six months before Felton slew the Duke, the precipient
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unnamed, was in bed. The narrative now develops new features. The token
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given on the ghost's third coming obviously concerns Buckingham's mother, the Countess, the
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one person more who knew the secret communicated. The ghost produces no knife from
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under his gown. No warning of Buckingham's death by violence is mentioned. A
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note in the ms of hers that Clarendon himself had papers bearing on the subject,
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and that he got his information from Sir Ralph Freeman, who introduced the
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unnamed percipient to the Duke, and from some of Buckingham's servants, who were
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informed of much of it before the murder of the Duke. Clarendon adds that
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in general, no man looked on relations of that sort with less reverence and
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consideration than he did. This anecdote he selects out of many stories scattered abroad
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at the time, as upon a better foundation of credit. The precipient was
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an officer in the King's wardrobe at Windsor, of a good reputation for honesty
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and discretion, and aged about fifty. He was bred at a school in
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Sir George's parish, and as a boy was kindly treated by Sir George,
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whom afterwards he never saw. On first beholding the specter in his room,
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the seer recognized Sir George's costume, then antiquated. At last, the seer
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went to Sir Ralph Freeman, who introduced him to the Duke on a hunting
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morning at lambeth Bridge. They talked earnestly, apart observed by Sir Ralph Clarendon's
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informant, the Duke seemed abstracted all day, left the field early, sought
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his mother, and, after a heated conference of which the sounds reached the
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ante room, went forth in visible trouble and anger, a thing never before
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seen in him. After talk with his mother, she was found overwhelmed with
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tears and in the highest agony imaginable. It is a notorious truth that,
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when told of his murder, she seemed not in the least degree surprised.
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The following curious manuscript account of the affair is after the preferatory matter, the
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copy of a letter dated sixteen fifty two. There is nothing said of a
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ghostly knife, the name of the seer is not Parker, and in its
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whole effect the story tallies with Clarendon's version, though the narrator knows nothing of
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the scene, with the Countess of Buckingham Cavalier version sixteen twenty seven. Since
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William Lilly the Rebels Juggler and Mountebank, in his malicious and blasphemous discourse concerning
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our late martyred Sovereign of ever blessed memory, amongst other lies and falsehoods imprinted
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a relation concerning an apparition which foretold several events which should happen to the Duke
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of Buckingham, wherein he falsifies both the person to whom it appeared and ye
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circumstances. I thought it not amiss to enter here that it may be preserved
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the true account of that apparition, as I have received it from the handle
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and under the handle of mister Edmund Wyndham, of Chelford in the County of
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Somerset. I shall set it down eppiasemis verbis as he delivered it to me
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at my request, written with his own handle Wyndham's letter. According to your
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desire and my promise, I have written down what I remember, divers things
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being slipped out of my memory of the relation made me by mister Nicholas Tows
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concerning the apparition which visited him about ye year sixteen twenty seven. I and
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my wife, upon an occasion, being in London, lay at my brother
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Pine's house without Bishop's Gate, which was ye next house on to mister Nicholas
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Tows's, who was my kinsman and familiar acquaintance, in consideration of whose society
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and friendship he took a house in that place, Ye said, Tows,
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being a very fine musician and very good company, and for aught I ever
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saw or heard a virtuous, religious and well disposed gentleman about that time,
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ye said. Mister Towers told me that one night, being in bed and
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perfectly waking, and a candle burning by him as he usually had, there
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came into his chain and stood by his bed, an old gentleman, in
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such a habit as was in fashion in Queen Elizabeth's time, at whose first
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appearance mister Tows was very much troubled. But after a little time recollecting himself,
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he demanded of him, in ye name of God, what he was,
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whether he were a man, and ye apparition replied no. Then he
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asked him if he were a devil, and ye answer was no. Then
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mister Toos said, in ye name of God, what art thou? Then?
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And as I remember, mister Taos told me that ye apparition answered him
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that he was ye ghost of Sir George Villiers, farther to ye than Duke
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of Buckingham, whom he might very well remember, since he went to school
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at such a place in Leicestershire, places which I have forgotten. And mister
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Toos told me that ye apparition had perfectly year resemblance of ye, said Sir
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George Villiers, in all respects, and in ye same habit, that he
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had often seen him where in his lifetime. The said apparition then told mister
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Tows that he could not but remember ye much kindness that he Ye said Sir
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George Villiers had expressed to him whilst he was a scholar in Leicestershire, as
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aforesaid, and that as out of that consideration, he believed that he loved
32:38
him, and that therefore he made choice of him. Ye said mister Taos,
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to deliver a message to his son, ye Duke of Buckingham, thereby
32:50
to prevent such mischief as would otherwise befall ye said Duke, whereby he would
32:55
be inevitably ruined. And then, as I remember, mister Taos told me
33:02
that ye apparition instructed him what message he should deliver unto ye Duke, on
33:08
to which mister Taos replied that he should be very unwilling to go to ye
33:15
Duke of Buckingham upon such an errand whereby he should gain nothing but reproach and
33:20
contempt, and to be esteemed a madman, and therefore desired to be excused
33:24
from ye employment. But ye Apparition pressed him with much earnestness to undertake it,
33:31
telling him that ye circumstances and secret discoveries which he should be able to
33:37
make to ye Duke, of such passages in ye course of his life,
33:42
which were known to none but himself, would make it appear that ye message
33:46
was not the fancy of a distempered brain, but a reality. And so
33:52
ye Apparition took his leave of him for the knight, and telling him that
33:57
he would give him leave to consider till the next night, and then he
34:00
would come to receive his answer whether he would undertake to deliver his message or
34:06
no. Mister Taos passed that day with much trouble and perplexity, debating and
34:13
reasoning with himself whether he should deliver his message or not to ye Duke.
34:17
But in ye conclusion he resolved to do it. And here next night,
34:22
when Ye Apparition came, he gave his answer accordingly, and then received his
34:29
full instruction, after which mister Tows went and found out Sir Thomas Spludder and
34:36
Sir Ralph Freeman, by whom he was brought to Ye Duke of Buckingham,
34:40
and had several private and lone audiences of him. I myself, by ye
34:46
favor of a friend, Sir Edward Savage, was once admitted to see him
34:52
in private conference with ye Duke, where although I heard not their discourses,
34:58
I observed much earnest in their actions and gestures. After which conference mister Towers
35:05
told me that ye Duke would not follow ye advice that was given him,
35:08
which was as I remember that he intimated ye casting of and ye rejecting of
35:15
some men who had great interest in him, which was and as I take
35:21
it he named Bishop Lord, and that ye Duke was to do some popular
35:27
acts in ye ensuing parliament, of which parliament ye Duke would have had,
35:30
mister Toos to have been a burgess. But he refused it, alleging that
35:37
unless Ye Duke followed his directions, he must do him hurt if he were
35:40
of year Parliament. Mister Tows then told that ye Duke of Buckingham confessed that
35:47
he had told him these things which no creature knew but himself, and that
35:52
none but God or ye devil could reveal to him. Ye Duke offered mister
35:59
Tows to have ye king knight him and to have given him preverment as he
36:05
told me, but that he refused it, saying that unless he would follow
36:09
his advice, he would receive nothing from him. Mister Tows, when he
36:15
made me this relation, he told me that ye Duke would inevitably be destroyed
36:21
before such a time, which he then named and accordingly ye Duke's death happened
36:27
before that time. He likewise told that he had written down all ye several
36:32
discourses that he had had with ye apparition, and that at last his coming
36:38
was so familiar that he was as little troubled with it as if it had
36:44
been a friend or acquaintance that had come to visit him. Mister Toos told
36:49
me further that ye Archbishop of Canterbury, then Bishop of London, doctor Loud,
36:55
should, by his counsels be ye author of very great troubles to ye
37:00
kingdom, by which it should be reduced to ye extremity of disorder and confusion,
37:08
and that it should seem to be passed all hope of recovery without a
37:13
miracle. But when all people were in despair of seeing happy days again,
37:17
ye kingdom should suddenly be reduced and resettled again in a most happy condition.
37:25
At this time, my father Pine was in trouble and committed to ye Gatehouse
37:30
by ye lords of ye council about a quarrel between him and ye Lord Pawlet,
37:37
upon which one night I said to my cousin Tows, by way of
37:40
jest, I pray ask your apparition, what shall become of my father Pine's
37:46
business, which he promised to do. And yet next day he told me
37:52
that my father Pine's enemies were ashamed of their malicious prosecution, and that he
37:59
would be at liberty within a week or some few days, which happened.
38:02
According mister Tews, his wife since his death, told me that her husband
38:08
and she living at Windsor Castle, where he had an office, that summer,
38:14
that ye Duke of Buckingham was killed. Told her that very day that
38:19
the Duke was set upon by ye mutinous mariners at Portsmouth, saying then that
38:25
ye next attempt against him would be his death, which accordingly happened, and
38:31
at ye instant, ye Duke was killed, as she understood by ye relation.
38:37
Afterwards, mister Tows was sitting in his chair, out of which he
38:43
suddenly started up, and said, wife, ye Duke of Buckingham is slain.
38:50
Mister Tows lived not long after that himself, but told his wife ye
38:55
time of his death before it happened. I never saw him after I had
39:00
seen some effects of his discourse, which before I valued not, and therefore
39:06
was not curious to inquire after more than he voluntarily told me, which I
39:12
then entertained not with these serious thoughts which I have since reflected on in his
39:17
discourse. This is as much as I can remember on this business, which,
39:22
according to your desire, is written by sincerely Yours et cetera, Edmund
39:30
Wyndham, Boologna, fifth of August sixteen fifty two. This version has,
39:39
over all others, the merit of being written by an acquaintance of the Seer,
39:45
who was with him while the appearances were going on. The narrator was
39:50
also present at an interview between the seer and Buckingham. Is mention of Sir
39:54
Ralph Freeman tallies with Clarendon's, who had the story from Freeman. The ghost
40:01
predicts the restoration, and this is recorded before that happy event. Of course,
40:07
mister Tows may have been interested in Buckingham's career, and may have invented
40:13
the ghost after discovering the secret token as an excuse for warning him. The
40:19
reader can now take his choice among versions of Sir George Villier's Ghost. He
40:25
must remember that in sixteen forty two Sir Henry Wotton spent some inquiry whether the
40:32
Duke had any ominous presigment before his end, but found no evidence. Sir
40:39
Henry told Isaac Walton a story of a dream of an ancestor of his own.
40:45
Sir Henry told Isaac Walton a story of a dream of an ancestor of
40:52
his own, whereby some robbers of the University Chess at Oxford were brought to
40:58
justice. Anthony would consulted the records of the year mentioned and found no trace
41:04
of any such robbery. We now approach a yet more famous ghost than Sir
41:09
George's. This is Lord Lyttleton's. The ghost had a purpose to warn that
41:17
bad man of his death. But nobody knows whose ghost he was. Lord
41:25
Lyttleton's ghost, Sir said Doctor Johnson, it is the most extraordinary thing that
41:34
has happened in my day. The Doctor's day included the Rising of seventeen forty
41:40
five and of the Wesleyans, the seizure of Canada, the Seven Years War,
41:46
the American Rebellion, the Cocklaan Ghost, and other singular occurrences. But
41:53
the most extraordinary thing was Lord Lyttleton's ghost. Famous as is that specter.
42:01
Nobody knows what it was, nor even whether there was any specter at all.
42:07
Thomas lord Lyttleton was born in seventeen forty four. In seventeen sixty eight
42:15
he entered the House of Commons. In seventeen sixty nine, he was unseated
42:20
for bribery. He then vanishes from public view. Probably he was playing the
42:24
prodigal at home and abroad till February seventeen seventy two, when he returned to
42:31
his father's house and married. He then went abroad with a barmaid till seventeen
42:39
seventy three, when his father died in January seventeen seventy four. He took
42:46
his seat in the House of Lords. In November seventeen seventy nine, Lyttleton
42:52
went into opposition. On Thursday, twenty fifth November, he didn government in
43:00
a magnificent speech. As to a sinecure which he held, he said,
43:06
perhaps I shall not keep it long. Something had happened on the night before
43:13
his speech, that of Wednesday, twenty fourth November, Lyttleton had seen the
43:19
ghost and had been told that he would die in three days. He mentioned
43:24
this to Rowan Hamilton on the Friday. On the same day, or on
43:30
Friday he mentioned it to Captain Ascoff, who told a lady who told missus
43:36
Thrale. On the Friday, he went to Epsom with friends and mentioned the
43:42
ghost to them, among others, to mister Fortescue. About midnight on twenty
43:47
eighth November, Lord Lyttleton died suddenly in his bed, his valet having left
43:54
him for a moment to fetch a spoon for stirring his medicine. The cause
44:00
of death was not stated. There was no inquest. This literally is all
44:06
that is known about Lord Lyttleton's ghost. It is variously described as one a
44:12
young woman and a Robin Horace Walpole. Two s a spirit captain Ascoff.
44:20
Three a bird in a dream which changed into a woman in White Lord Westcote's
44:27
narrative of thirteenth February seventeen eighty collected from Lord Lyttleton's guests and servants. Four
44:35
A bird turning into a woman Missus Delaney, ninth December seventeen seventy nine.
44:43
Five A dream of a bird followed by a woman Missus Amphlet in White Pitt
44:51
Place Archives after seventeen eighty nine. Six A fluttering noise as of a bird,
44:58
followed by the apparition of a woman who had committed suicide after being seduced
45:04
by Lyttleton Lady Lyttleton, eighteen twenty eight seven. A bird which vanished when
45:13
a female spirit in white raiment presented herself Scott's Magazine, November through December seventeen
45:21
seventy nine. Out of seven versions, a bird or a fluttering noise as
45:27
of a bird, a common feature in ghost stories, with a woman following
45:30
or accompanying, occurs in six. The phenomena are almost equally ascribed to dreaming
45:38
and to waking hallucination, but the common sense of the eighteenth century called all
45:45
ghosts dreams. In the Westcoat Narrative seventeen eighty, Lyttleton explains the dream by
45:52
his having lately been in a room with a lady, Missus Dawson, when
45:58
a robin flew in. Yet, in the same narrative, Lyttleton says on
46:02
Saturday morning that he was very well and believed he should bilk the ghost.
46:09
He was certainly in bed at the time of the experience, and probably could
46:14
not be sure whether he was awake or asleep, considering the remoteness of time.
46:20
The story is very well recorded. It is chronicled by Missus Thrale before
46:25
the news of Lyttleton's death reached her and by Lady Mary Coke, two days
46:31
later by Walpole, on the day after the peer's decease, of which he
46:36
had heard. Lord Lyttleton's health had for some time been bared. He had
46:43
made his will a few weeks before, and his knights were horror haunted.
46:47
A little boy, his nephew, to whom he was kind, used to
46:52
find the wicked lord sitting by his bed at night because he dared not be
46:57
alone. So lockehard writes to his daughter, Missus Hope Scott, he had
47:02
strange dreams of being in hell with the cruel, murderous Missus Brownrigg, who
47:10
ripped three female prentices to death and hid them in the coal hole. Such
47:15
a man might have strange fancies, and a belief in approaching death might bring
47:22
its own fulfillment. The hypothesis of a premeditated suicide with the story of the
47:28
ghost as a last practical joke, as no corroboration. It occurred to Horace
47:34
Walpole at once, but he laid no stress on it, such as a
47:39
plain, dry, statistical account of the most extraordinary events that happened in Dr
47:45
Johnson's day. However, the story does not end here. On the fatal
47:53
night twenty seventh November seventeen seventy nine, mister Andrews m P, a friend
48:01
of Lyttleton's, was awakened by finding Lord Lyttleton drawing his curtains. Suspecting a
48:08
practical joke, he hunted for his lordship both in his house and in the
48:14
garden. Of course, he never found him. The event was promptly recorded
48:19
in the next number of The Scots magazine, December seventeen seventy nine, end
48:28
of chapter six