The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-13

ROOM while some imaginative individ-
ual was so carried away with unwhole-
some excitement that he stated that the
very party walls of the house, when
touched, We're found saturated with
electric horrorl" That mysterious
noises were heard at night by the neigh
bors, thus giving rise to the apprehen-
sion that the house was being used by
a gang of coiners, is probably true
for 1t subsequently appeared that the
occupants eceentricity took the form
of wandering up and down the stair
cases and passages during the small
hours.
I The lease had still six years to run
when the unfortunate gentleman died,
! Whereupon the action of his sister, to
whom the property passed, in refusing
either to let the house or to live in 1t
| herself, caused the ghost stories con-
corning it to be circulated more freely
than ever. Finally this lady sold the
lease, and the house passing TO a skep-
tical firm Of house agents, the exterior
and interior We're put into thorough
state of repair. Tenants We're then
speedily forthcoming, and as these.
needless to say, neither saw nor heard
anything abnormal the haunted" rep
utation soon became thing of the
past. The manner in which the series
of outrageous spook stories had grown
to be connected with it was very clev-
ery and indefatigably exposed by the
correspondents of Notes and Queries.
Only one point remained to be cleared
up when the house was renovated, viz,
whether it had possessed the reputa-
ton of being haunted before the eccen-
trio gentleman's tenancy. Fortunately,
the butler of the previous occupier was
discovered, and he solemnly stated
that during the years he had been In
the house. often alone, and at all hours,
he had never seen any bigger ghost
than himself" The moral, if any, is,
keep the exterior of your house in good
repair otherwise ghost may be APP
propriated to you with as little show Of
evidence, authority, or justification as
in the case of the so-called Berkeley
Square mystery, The house was quite
the London ghost sensation of the sew
entities, though it is said that a
certain house in Sloane street then pos
sessed, and may still possess, a far more
substantial horror-an apparition which
could squeeze you as though in an iron
wise.
One of the first cases of a haunted |
house which the Society for Psychlcal |
Research was asked to investigate was |
situated in Chelsea, where an artists |
studio was the scene of weird visita- |
lions An apparition was seen by the |
artist in broad daylight, and appeared |
to him constantly during his three
years tenancy. The circumstances |
were such as to preclude all possibility
of deception, and the figure itself was
so distinct and lifelike that he sue
ceeded in producing portrait of it.
A rough sketch Of this portrait which
is now in possession of the society rep
resents young man of about twenty
Ave with the right arm torn away from
the choulder and a strangely mournful,
pleading expression in the eyes The
society examined the house and found
that it's then tenant, who had replaced
the artist, had seen nothing.
1t was discovered, however, that
suicide had taken place in
the house shortly after it had been
built (and about forty years before the
date of the vision alleged to have been
seen by the artist. but 1t did not seem
possible to connect this in any way
with the latter And there the matter
ended.
This is the last bona -fide case of a
London haunted house which we have
1een able to trace. The West Kensing-
on one reads spuriously, as though the
equation had really originated in the
empting target which a long empty
md derelict-looking house always Of
ers to the stone-throwing propensitles
# the small boys of the neighborhood
Nevertheless, it lsjonly fair to add that,
according to some accounts, this unfor-
unate villa has suffered its uncanny
distinction for some sixteen years past.
Pail Mall Gazette