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303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
131
Considering
the
remoteness
of
time,
the
story
is
very
well
recorded.
It
is
chronicled
by
Mrs.
Thrale
before
the
news
of
Lyttelton's
death
reached
her,
and
by
Lady
Mary
Coke
two
days
later,
by
Walpole
on
the
day
after
the
peer's
decease,
of
which
he
had
heard.
Lord
Lyttelton's
health
had
for
some
time
been
bad;
he
had
made
his
will
a
few
weeks
before,
and
his
nights
were
horror-haunted.
A
little
boy,
his
nephew,
to
whom
he
was
kind,
used
to
find
the
wicked
lord
sitting
by
his
bed
at
night,
because
he
dared
not
be
alone.
So
Lockhart
writes
to
his
daughter,
Mrs.
Hope
Scott.
{131}
He
had
strange
dreams
of
being
in
hell
with
the
cruel
murderess,
Mrs.
Brownrigg,
who
"whipped
three
female
'prentices
to
death
and
hid
them
in
the
coal-hole".
Such
a
man
might
have
strange
fancies,
and
a
belief
in
approaching
death
might
bring
its
own
fulfilment.
The
hypothesis
of
a
premeditated
suicide,
with
the
story
of
the
ghost
as
a
last
practical
joke,
has
no
corroboration.
It
occurred
to
Horace
Walpole
at
once,
but
he
laid
no
stress
on
it.
Such
is
a
plain,
dry,
statistical
account
of
the
most
extraordinary
event
that
happened
in
Dr.
Johnson's
day.
However,
the
story
does
not
end
here.
On
the
fatal
night,
27th
November,
1779,
Mr.
Andrews,
M.P.,
a
friend
of
Lyttelton's
was
awakened
by
finding
Lord
Lyttelton
drawing
his
curtains.
Suspecting
a
practical
joke,
he
hunted
for
his
lordship
both
in
his
house
and
in
the
garden.
Of
course
he
never
found
him.
The
event
was
promptly
recorded
in
the
next
number
of
the
Scots
Magazine,
December,
1779.
{132}
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