Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1883-11-03 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

SOME DORSETSHIRE GHOST  STORIES.  (By M. F. Billington, in Merry England.)  At a farm in the parish of Holt, there is a room situated over the dairy, and appropriated to the use of one or two of the farm lads as a steeping apartment. In this room, heavy footsteps are heard ascending the stairs; the bed clothes are tqrned back, and the terror-struck occupant sees himself the cynosure of a pair of ' huge glistening eyes—" as big as basins_ ' He then loses sight of them, and hears the footsteps descend. It he has the courage to go and look down the stairs he may be rewarded by another t rible stare from the eyes, which then vanish into silence and darkness. A barn about a quarter of a mile from this spot in the same parish is also vaguely spoken of as haunted. Indeed, barns seem to have a faculty for becoming haunted, one, about a mile out of Wimborne, on the Cranborne Road, called "Sunday's Barn," where a man once committed suicide by hanging himself. Ever since, there has been the apparition of a coffin lying across the road opposite the building. At Hill Butts and Stan. bridge, also near Vrinsborne, are two barns, to both of which this unenviable notoriety belongs. , No cattle' it is added, can or will stay there on I account of the horrible noises they hear. . .  Haunted houses are almost too common to be worth noticing. Most villages have at least one such house. It is the eeeeption if anything ghostly is ever seen in them ; strange noises being the usual attributes of these disturbed dwelling places. Peeple avoid taking them, and those who by force of circumstances are compelled to live in them are sincerly pitied by their neighbours. Occasionally, too, a belief arises that a church or chapel is haunted. The church at Hampreaton, near Wimlorne, is regarded with souse superstitions dread, because on certain nights of the year it is illuminated inside "by a brilliant white light." Probably the origin of this weird reputation may be traeed to some peculiar reflection of the moon, or the not unfrequent escape, under certain conditions of soil and atmosphere, of a luminous gas from a buried body. This is the phenomenon known either as "grave lights," or "corpse candles." During the recent erection of a chapel at Hay. theme, the idea was suddenly started that the evil due had entered and taken possession of the building. For some two or three weeks lie could not be dislodged. But this was at length accomplished by a number of persons who collected outside, and sang, and hooted at the top of their voices. It may be added that noise is generally considered a powerful element in subduing such unwelcome visitors from a worse world. This happened within only the last two years. It is curious to note how frequently the "headless figure" appears in such tales. The " Headless Horseman" is a familiar object to the readers of all old legends and ballads, and this similarity of fancy is explicable in more ways than one. It will be remembered that execution was formerly performed by decapitation ; consequently, if the spirit of anyone thus punished haunts the earth, it is most probable that it would take this ghastly form. Then, too, a headless figure is felt to be so distinctively and conclusively supernatural. There is a gate at Karmen, near Bournemouth, csecfully avoided after dark, as a figure holding its head under its arm is believed to be its nightly occupant. One of the roads between Poole and Lytchett is also regarded with much horror, because a coffin, carried by four headless men, is reported to have been seen there many times. It is conveyed down the road some distance, and disappears through the hedge. At Kingston Russell House, near Bridport, a coach drawn by four headless horses, driven by a headless coachman and footman, and containing inside four headless passengers, is supposed, on certain nights of the year, to drive up to the door, stay a moment, and drive back again. A spirit form, white, cloudlike, and shapeless, is said to have been near the church at Stanbridge, before mentioned. This floats along the road for about two hundred yards, perches itself on the churchyard wicket, and finally vanishes unaccountably. The same form of apparition troubles Gravel Hill, near Poole. A few years a man was accidently killed on the Merley crossing of the South Western Railway. The spot is now haunted by his spirit; because, say some of the unfortunate man's acquaintance, he had boasted, just before his death, that he had seen the devil, and that" the old gentleman was his first cousin." In consequence of this profanity, he cannot go to heaven; and the devil will not have him. So, like the wandering • yew, his spirit is one of those "wanderers o'er , eternity, whose bark drives on and on, and anchored ne'er shall be."  In Dorsetshire, little if any superstition attaches to Hallow e'en, the night still sacred to the departed in Scotland and the North of England. Old Christmas Eve is regazded as a day favoured by connection with the superptural ; and it is said that the cows and sheep, whether in the fold or shed, go on their knees. and low gently at the sound of the stroke of twelve o'clOck. This idea is common to many countries, and has its origin, of course, in the traditional presence of cattle in the Bethlehem stable. The night to be really dreaded, a Dorset rustic thinks, is Midsummer night. Anyone who is anxious to see aniritsin a visible form, can do so then, provided he will zonform to one or two ainditions. He should go about eleven o'clock to the nearest church porch. It isnot %sine gun non that he goes alone; but if he is in company, he must observe the strictest silence; and it is desirable that he should not even look at his companion. As midnight approachas he will find himself gradually deprived of all power to rise or move. When twelve o'clock strikes, the churchyard will suddenly become filled with_ spirits, includir g those of everyone he ever knew, whether alive or dead. They will pass him in a long, slow procession into the church, where , they will remain for sometime: but as the door will be closed, and himself unable to stir, he must be satisfied without knowing what their sacred rites may be. As they leave the building, the spirits of the dead will conic first while the spirits of those who are destined to die in the course of the year willnot iiuit the church at all. Those to whom any illness or great trouble is going to happen during the next twelve months, will come very slowly at the last; sad the worse the calamity to fall upon them, the slower they will come. This legendary awe of the shortest and most beautiful night in the year comes to