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303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
217
Nobody,
in
short,
could
enter
this
room,
except
by
passing
through
that
of
Mrs.
Ricketts,
the
door
of
which
"was
always
made
fast
by
a
drawn
bolt".
Yet
somebody
kept
rustling
and
walking
in
the
inner
room,
which
somebody
could
never
be
found
when
sought
for.
In
summer,
1770,
Mrs.
Ricketts
heard
someone
walk
to
the
foot
of
her
bed
in
her
own
room,
"the
footsteps
as
distinct
as
ever
I
heard,
myself
perfectly
awake
and
collected".
Nobody
could
be
discovered
in
the
chamber.
Mrs.
Ricketts
boldly
clung
to
her
room,
and
was
only
now
and
then
disturbed
by
"sounds
of
harmony,"
and
heavy
thumps,
down
stairs.
After
this,
and
early
in
1771,
she
was
"frequently
sensible
of
a
hollow
murmuring
that
seemed
to
possess
the
whole
house:
it
was
independent
of
wind,
being
equally
heard
on
the
calmest
nights,
and
it
was
a
sound
I
had
never
been
accustomed
to
hear".
On
27th
February,
1771,
a
maid
was
alarmed
by
"groans
and
fluttering
round
her
bed":
she
was
"the
sister
of
an
eminent
grocer
in
Alresford".
On
2nd
April,
Mrs.
Ricketts
heard
people
walking
in
the
lobby,
hunted
for
burglars,
traced
the
sounds
to
a
room
whence
their
was
no
outlet,
and
found
nobody.
This
kind
of
thing
went
on
till
Mrs.
Ricketts
despaired
of
any
natural
explanation.
After
mid-summer,
1771,
the
trouble
increased,
in
broad
daylight,
and
a
shrill
female
voice,
answered
by
two
male
voices
was
added
to
the
afflictions.
Captain
Jervis
came
on
a
visit,
but
was
told
of
nothing,
and
never
heard
anything.
After
he
went
to
Portsmouth,
"the
most
deep,
loud
tremendous
noise
seemed
to
rush
and
fall
with
infinite
velocity
and
force
on
the
lobby
floor
adjoining
my
room,"
accompanied
by
a
shrill
and
dreadful
shriek,
seeming
to
proceed
from
under
the
spot
where
the
rushing
noise
fell,
and
repeated
three
or
four
times.
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