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303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
110
As
a
rule
their
bodies
were
unburied,
and
so
they
demanded
sepulture;
or
they
had
committed
a
wrong,
and
wished
to
make
restitution;
or
they
had
left
debts
which
they
were
anxious
to
pay;
or
they
had
advice,
or
warnings,
or
threats
to
communicate;
or
they
had
been
murdered,
and
were
determined
to
bring
their
assassins
to
the
gibbet.
Why,
we
may
ask,
were
the
old
ghost
stories
so
different
from
the
new?
Well,
first
they
were
not
all
different.
Again,
probably
only
the
more
dramatic
tales
were
as
a
rule
recorded.
Thirdly,
many
of
the
stories
may
have
been
either
embellished--a
fancied
purpose
being
attributed
to
a
purposeless
ghost--or
they
may
even
have
been
invented
to
protect
witnesses
who
gave
information
against
murderers.
Who
could
disobey
a
ghost?
In
any
case
the
old
ghost
stories
are
much
more
dramatic
than
the
new.
To
them
we
turn,
beginning
with
the
appearances
of
Mr.
and
Mrs.
Furze
at
Spraiton,
in
Devonshire,
in
1682.
Our
author
is
Mr.
Richard
Bovet,
in
his
Pandaemonium,
or
the
Devil's
Cloister
opened
(1683).
The
motive
of
the
late
Mr.
Furze
was
to
have
some
small
debts
paid;
his
wife's
spectre
was
influenced
by
a
jealousy
of
Mr.
Furze's
spectre's
relations
with
another
lady.
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