751 B. In the Journal S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 146, November 1893, an account was given by Miss M. W. Scott, of Lessudden House, St. Boswell's, Roxburghshire, of an apparition seen several times by herself, and occasionally by others, on a country road near her home. Her first experience was in May 1892, when, walking down a short incline on her way home, she saw a tall man dressed in black a few yards in front of her. He turned a corner of the road, being still in view of her, and there suddenly disappeared. On following him round the corner, Miss Scott found a sister of hers, also on her way home, who had just seen a tall man dressed in black, whom she took for a clergyman, coming to meet her on the road. She looked away for a moment, and on looking towards him again could see no one anywhere near. Miss Scott on overtaking her found her looking up and down the road and into the fields in much bewilderment. It appeared that they had not seen the man at exactly the same moment nor in exactly the same place, but from their description of the surroundings it seems impossible that it could have been a real person, who had contrived to get away unnoticed.

In July of the same year at about the same place, Miss Scott, walking with another of her sisters, saw a dark figure approaching them, dressed in black, with a long coat, gaiters and knee-breeches, a wide white cravat and low-crowned hat; the sister also saw the upper part of the figure, which seemed to fade away into the bank by the side of the road as they looked at it.

Again, in June 1893, walking alone on the road in the morning, Miss Scott saw a dark figure some way in front, which she recognised as the apparition when she got nearer to it. She made a determined effort to overtake it, but could not get nearer than a few yards, as it then seemed to float or skim away. At length, however, it stopped, turned round and faced her; then moved on a few steps, and turned and looked back again, finally fading from her view by a hedge. She was able to notice fully the details of the dress, - knee-breeches, black silk stockings and shoe-buckles, - like the dress of Scottish clergymen about a century ago.

The apparition was also said to have been seen at different times by some children and other persons in the neighbourhood; but of this no first-hand accounts were forthcoming. There was also a legend that a child had been murdered close by; "but," Miss Scott wrote, "this fact is quite beyond the recollection of the oldest inhabitant of the neighbourhood," and it seems not unlikely that it was invented to account for the ghost.

We received later several other accounts of a similar apparition having been seen by various persons at different times in the same place; and in the Journal S.P.R., vol. ix. pp. 299-306, all the further evidence on the subject that had reached us up to that date (October 1900) was printed. I proceed to quote some of this.

Miss Louisa Scott - the sister who shared Miss M. W. Scott's first experience - wrote as follows:-

Lessudden House, St. Boswell's, August 14th, 1894.

... A young lady, who is a governess in this neighbourhood, told me this afternoon of a meeting she had had with [the ghost] this spring. She was returning home along the haunted road at about a quarter-past four in the afternoon, when she was attracted by seeing in front of her a rather tall old man, dressed in a long black cloak, with one cape which came to a little below his shoulders; his hat, as on the occasions when my sisters and I saw him, was low-crowned, and the brim slouched over his eyes. My informant was much interested in this peculiar-looking person, and did not take her eyes off him, whilst she watched him walk backward and forward between the turn of the road and a heap of stones about a hundred yards lower down; he repeated this six times, the last time stopping as if he were speaking to a man who was cutting the hedge at the time. What struck Miss Irvine as peculiar was that the man who was hedge-cutting did not look round, and seemed quite unconscious of the other's presence.

Miss Irvine walked on, and was going to pass the old man, when, to her astonishment, he vanished when she was only about three yards from him. . . .

Miss Irvine sent soon after her own account of her experience. By an unfortunate accident, the first sheet of her letter was lost; but the latter part is as follows:-

Greycrook, St. Boswell's, Roxburghshire.

This seemed to me stranger than ever and I wondered what I had seen, for he was nowhere in the field. On returning home I described the old gentleman to some friends who were likely to know if a person answering my description lived in the neighbourhood, but was told, "No." He was dressed rather like a clergyman, wore a long black cloak with cape and slouched hat, his hands in his coat pockets. I had never seen anything of the kind before, though I had frequently walked the same road and at all hours. This happened about four o'clock in the afternoon. I have not again seen him. . . .

Mary Blamire Irvine.

In August 1898, Miss M. W. Scott wrote that about a fortnight earlier, when coming down the "haunted" road in the dusk, she had heard footsteps walking beside her, but could see nothing. She had also seen the apparition again in the spring of 1897. She described this in December 1899, as follows:-

. . . My sister and myself were paying an afternoon visit at a friend's house situated near the haunted road, and having rather overstayed our time, the dusk was just beginning to fall . . .; it being then suggested that we should take a shorter cut home, we gladly availed ourselves of the permission to walk through the park and wood which open out of and enter the evil-reputed road. Upon coming to the end of the park, there is a small gate and narrow pathway, separated from the road by a hedge and some trees; the space between being only a few yards, a pedestrian on the other side is distinctly visible. At the other end of the wood, again, there is another gate, which [leads to] the small incline and angle of the road, and, looking either way, the whole expanse is clearly defined. Just about this time we had nothing supernatural in our thoughts and were talking and laughing gaily together. Suddenly . . . our conversation seemed gradually to cease, for when we were quite half-way down the wood, I noticed a man's figure walking alongside of me between the hedge on the other side, which, either real or unreal, I was determined not to lose sight of. ... In a moment I recognised the ghastly features of the apparition.

I cannot tell how he was clothed, or if he wore a hat; my eyes seemed fixed only on the profile from just below the forehead. Instinctively I felt he moved beside me, but heard no sound or footsteps of any kind. My sister saw nothing, and not being equal to the occasion, I made no remark, until we had almost reached the end of the boundary, then exclaimed in French, "L'homme!" At that moment the ghost must have vanished, for when we opened the gate to pass through not a living soul was there; had it been a person of either sex, we were perfectly certain to have met. It was very strange my companion should perceive nothing unusual, though she remarked about me "staring into space." It is quite impossible to account for this phantom - it is no illusion formed by a disordered brain or based upon imagination or defective light; the sun had certainly set, the dusk slightly fallen, but giving quite sufficient power for mutual recognitions. The man had walked calmly on, looking straight in front of him, never appearing to notice anything, as though engaged in deep meditation.

On August 17th, 1900, Miss Scott wrote to say that she had recently seen the apparition twice, the most recent occasion having been "only last night." She describes it as follows:-

July 24th, 1900

I am writing to let you know the dates that I have again seen the apparition. . . . On the evening of July 24th I was standing speaking to a friend, exactly upon the part known as the property of that "mysterious he." I had forgotten the very existence of our supernatural neighbour, and while we conversed upon indifferent subjects, I inadvertently glanced carelessly down the expanse beyond, when I perceived the tall black figure walking on in advance with his back towards us. How he came to be there I had not the faintest idea, not having remarked his advent. I made no comment to my companion, but, wishing her a hasty adieu, hurried away as quickly as possible to try and make up upon him, but he instantly vanished - there was no one to be seen either high or low. It was just eight o'clock in the evening, as I heard the hour chime in the village almost at the same time. He was dressed in the same way, namely, all in black, and was only proceeding about twenty yards away. . . .

My second illustration of last night, August 16th, 1900, can tell you something more definite than the previous one, for I certainly believe the man to be a clergyman of the ancient school, but why this "Father of the Church" frequents that road is an unexplained mystery. On this occasion the outline of his head and shoulders were completely visible - all black, with a wide white muffler-looking thing wound round his throat; his hair seems light, face cleanshaven and very pale, but he was not quite near enough for the features to become clearly defined; the hat looked like an ordinary clerical wide-awake, only the crown seemed much higher than those used in the present day. The lower part of his body [was] overshadowed, as he was advancing towards me up the incline, while I was on the level above.

There was a man with a pony and trap cutting grass by the roadside within a few feet of where I saw the apparition appear, who had his back to the worker; yet the most wonderful part of it all is that when I questioned the man he declared he had seen "no one." "But," I said, "he was close beside you." He still declared he saw "no person there," so I let the matter end, though I expect that he, like the whole village, knows well the reputation of the road, for he looked slightly nervous and remarked, "It was not a safe place to come down alone. ..." M. W. Scott.

In the above case it will be seen that there is no evidence whatever for the identity of the apparition; the whole force of the case rests on the repetition of the appearance, and its being seen independently by several different persons. A good many other cases of the same general type have appeared in the Proceedings and Journal S.P.R. I may refer as an example to that recorded by Mr. and Mrs. Dauntesey in the Journal, vol. vii. p. 329. Another very complete and typical instance of what is commonly called "haunting," - consisting of unexplained noises, generally heard by all within earshot and continued at intervals through a series of years, in the course of which various visual phantasms were seen by different people, - was the Willington Mill case, an account of which was given by Mr. Procter in the Journal, vol. v. pp. 331-352.