Her duty had been to examine the Meresby parish registers, and to compare certain entries with information given by the ghosts and written by her in her note-book.  If the entries in the parish register tallied with her notes, she was to pass the time between one o’clock and half-past one, alone, in Meresby Church, and receive a communication from the spectres.  All this she said that she had done, and in evidence of her journey enclosed her half ticket to Meresby, which a dream had warned her would not be taken on her arrival.  She also sent a white rose from a grave to Dr. Ferrier, a gentleman in no sympathy with the Jacobite cause, which, indeed, has no connection whatever with the matter in hand.

On hearing of this letter from Mrs. Claughton, I confess that, not knowing the lady, I remained purely sceptical.  The railway company, however, vouched for the ticket.  The rector of Meresby, being appealed to, knew nothing of the matter.  He therefore sent for his curate and parish clerk.

“Did a lady pass part of Sunday night in the church?”

The clerk and the curate admitted that this unusual event had occurred.  A lady had arrived from London on Saturday evening; had lodged with Wright, the parish clerk; had asked for the parish registers; had compared them with her note-book after morning service on Sunday, and had begged leave to pass part of the night in the church.  The curate in vain tried to dissuade her, and finally, washing his hands of it, had left her to Wright the clerk.  To him she described a Mr. George Howard, deceased (one of the ghosts).  He recognised the description, and he accompanied her to the church on a dark night, starting at one o’clock.  She stayed alone, without a light, in the locked-up church from 1.20 to 1.45, when he let her out.

There now remained no doubt that Mrs. Claughton had really gone to Meresby, a long and disagreeable journey, and had been locked up in the church alone at a witching hour.

Beyond this point we have only the statements of Mrs. Claughton, made to Lord Bute, Mr. Myers and others, and published by the Society for Psychical Research.  She says that after arranging the alarm bell on Monday night (October 9-10) she fell asleep reading in her dressing-gown, lying outside her bed.  She wakened, and found the lady of the white shawl bending over her.  Mrs. Claughton said:  “Am I dreaming, or is it true?” The figure gave, as testimony to character, a piece of information.  Next Mrs. Claughton saw a male ghost, “tall, dark, healthy, sixty years old,” who named himself as George Howard, buried in Meresby churchyard, Meresby being a place of which Mrs. Claughton, like most people, now heard for the first time.  He gave the dates of his marriage and death, which are correct, and have been seen by Mr. Myers in Mrs. Claughton’s note-book.  He bade her verify these dates at Meresby, and wait at 1.15 in the morning at the grave