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303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
130
This,
literally,
is
all
that
is
known
about
Lord
Lyttelton's
ghost.
It
is
variously
described
as:
(1)
"a
young
woman
and
a
robin"
(Horace
Walpole);
(2)
"a
spirit"
(Captain
Ascough);
(3)
a
bird
in
a
dream,
"which
changed
into
a
woman
in
white"
(Lord
Westcote's
narrative
of
13th
February,
1780,
collected
from
Lord
Lyttelton's
guests
and
servants);
(4)
"a
bird
turning
into
a
woman"
(Mrs.
Delany,
9th
December,
1779);
(5)
a
dream
of
a
bird,
followed
by
a
woman,
Mrs.
Amphlett,
in
white
(Pitt
Place
archives
after
1789);
(6)
"a
fluttering
noise,
as
of
a
bird,
followed
by
the
apparition
of
a
woman
who
had
committed
suicide
after
being
seduced
by
Lyttelton"
(Lady
Lyttelton,
1828);
(7)
a
bird
"which
vanished
when
a
female
spirit
in
white
raiment
presented
herself"
(Scots
Magazine,
November-December,
1779).
Out
of
seven
versions,
a
bird,
or
a
fluttering
noise
as
of
a
bird
(a
common
feature
in
ghost
stories),
{130a}
with
a
woman
following
or
accompanying,
occurs
in
six.
The
phenomena
are
almost
equally
ascribed
to
dreaming
and
to
waking
hallucination,
but
the
common-sense
of
the
eighteenth
century
called
all
ghosts
"dreams".
In
the
Westcote
narrative
(1780)
Lyttelton
explains
the
dream
by
his
having
lately
been
in
a
room
with
a
lady,
Mrs.
Dawson,
when
a
robin
flew
in.
Yet,
in
the
same
narrative,
Lyttelton
says
on
Saturday
morning
"that
he
was
very
well,
and
believed
he
should
bilk
the
ghost".
He
was
certainly
in
bed
at
the
time
of
the
experience,
and
probably
could
not
be
sure
whether
he
was
awake
or
asleep.
{130b}
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