The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-03-08
copyright. 1897. by II. A-'TIeringl
PART l.


PART I.
Neither Tallcington is a quaintold red
built, red-tiled townlet. k is the seat
of the camel's-hair paint brush indus
try, but at the time this story opens IL
had another and more singular claim TO
distinction. II was the only place IN
the Kingdom that possessed genuine
ghost. There have been many reputed
ghosts up and down the country, but
their existence has never been satisfac-
tcriL proved. These fictions show
their presence by absurdly stumping
about on bare boards, clanlNing heavy
chains. breaking crockery, moving
heavy furniture and by giving utter
iance TO weird and uncouth sounds
manifestations utterly without rhyme
or reason. and which cannot in any one
case be traced TO bona fidespirit.
Not so was it with the ghost of
Neither Talkington. 1t was n genuine
lElizabethan relic, the shade of an old
squire who had come TO a bad end after
leading an awful life, and the Neither
Tallxingtonians were very proud of
liz. 1t resided at the Grange at the far
end of the town. For generations no
living being had tenanted il. 1t was
specially set apart for the ghost the
local authority arranging that the moat
was always filed with stagnant water
and that the place was kept in the
desolate condition so appropriate to its
tenant-
1t was an ideal place for ghost to
dwell in, and the shade of the squire
evidently thought SO, for he never left
IT, Summer and winter il was TO be
found there by all those desirous of see
ing il and many were those who came.
Neither Talkington owed much of its
prosperity 10 the ghost, for never day
passed without visitors turning up for
the purpose of seeing IL, and on some
days they came in shoals. Matters had
much improved in this respect since the
Psychical Research society had inves-
tigated the phenomenon and pro-
nounced il genuine. for this had intro
duced big American custom, and in
the summer large parties came from
Stratford on their way to London.
1t was harmless ghost, and of
taciturn disposition. Sometimes 1T
would speak, but on those occasions its
language was chiefly maledictory. 1t
was extremely methodical in its habits
and was to be seen any time between
midnight and cock crow, and between
nine and ten p. IN. In the early hours
il sat in the dining-room smoking a
fantastic pipe that had been given To
.he squire by his friend Sir Walter
Raleigh, and the evening hour it spent
in perambulating the terrace by the
sun dial, on the lookout for a lady who
had made an appointment some two
hundred years ago, which she had
failed to keep.
This methodical arrangement of the
ghost had existed according TO authen-
tic accounts from the squire's death at
the end of the sixteenth century, and
his shade had never varied its pro-
gramme within living memory. Con-
loeive, therefore, the CONSERVATION that
rtigned in Neither Talkington when the
report spread that the ghost was miss
ing. A large party of visitors from
lTontine, Oak, had called upon 1t at
two a. m, and the guide had been un-
able to give them value for their shil-
lings. They waited till four o'clock,
but to no purpose, and although their
money was returned they left Neither
lTall<ington the next morning in high
dudgeon. That night two missionaries
and photographers armed with fash
light apparatus, were in waiting by the
sun dial. but they waited in vain.
The disappearance OF the ghost was
q severe blow 10 the town, for the shil-
ling admission had eased the burden
nf taxation for its inhabitants, and