The author’s friend, Mr. Rokeby, lives, and has lived for some twenty years, in an old house at Hammersmith.  It is surrounded by a large garden, the drawing-room and dining-room are on the right and left of the entrance from the garden, on the ground floor.  My friends had never been troubled by any phenomena before, and never expected to be.  However, they found the house “noisy,” the windows were apt to be violently shaken at night and steps used to be heard where no steps should be.  Deep long sighs were audible at all times of day.  As Mrs. Rokeby approached a door, the handle would turn and the door fly open. {196} Sounds of stitching a hard material, and of dragging a heavy weight occurred in Mrs. Rokeby’s room, and her hair used to be pulled in a manner for which she could not account.  “These sorts of things went on for about five years, when in October, 1875, about three o’clock in the afternoon, I was sitting” (says Mrs. Rokeby) “with three of my children in the dining-room, reading to them.  I rang the bell for the parlour-maid, when the door opened, and on looking up I saw the figure of a woman come in and walk up to the side of the table, stand there a second or two, and then turn to go out again, but before reaching the door she seemed to dissolve away.  She was a grey, short-looking woman, apparently dressed in grey muslin.  I hardly saw the face, which seemed scarcely to be defined at all.  None of the children saw her,” and Mrs. Rokeby only mentioned the affair at the time to her husband.

Two servants, in the next two months, saw the same figure, alike in dress at least, in other rooms both by daylight and candle light.  They had not heard of Mrs. Rokeby’s experience, were accustomed to the noises, and were in good health.  One of them was frightened, and left her place.

A brilliant light in a dark room, an icy wind and a feeling of being “watched” were other discomforts in Mrs. Rokeby’s lot.  After 1876, only occasional rappings were heard, till Mr. Rokeby being absent one night in 1883, the noises broke out, “banging, thumping, the whole place shaking”.  The library was the centre of these exercises, and the dog, a fine collie, was shut up in the library.  Mrs. Rokeby left her room for her daughter’s, while the dog whined in terror, and the noises increased in violence.  Next day the dog, when let out, rushed forth with enthusiasm, but crouched with his tail between his legs when invited to re-enter.

This was in 1883.  Several years after, Mr. Rokeby was smoking, alone, in the dining-room early in the evening, when the dog began to bristle up his hair, and bark.  Mr. Rokeby looked up and saw the woman in grey, with about half her figure passed through the slightly open door.  He ran to the door, but she was gone, and the servants were engaged in their usual business. {198a}

Our next ghost offered many opportunities to observers.

THE LADY IN BLACK