[Footnote 24:  “Alleged Haunting of B——­ House,” p. 94; ibid., p. 140, note.]

In the new part of the house these were less so, but people in them were less affected than had been the case when the H. family stayed there.

Rooms Nos. 1, 2, and 3 could be raked from north or south.  Nearly all the persons in the house were affected, and leaving out one or two men who objected to being reported, it appears that the ladies, who spent in the aggregate 237 nights in the house, had sixty-two nocturnal experiences, whilst men spending 108 nights had twenty experiences (between bedtime and breakfast was considered night-time).  But three of the eleven ladies were very sensitive; only one man out of fourteen was so.  Therefore, on a fair estimate, men and women were about equally sensitive; and this is the case with hypnotism generally.  A further proof of the nature of the attack.

With regard to rooms Nos. 1 and 2, the following curious fact is noted by Miss Langton.  “The knocks on the door between Nos. 1 and 2 have been audible in this room; No. 2 in my experience only when No. 2 is empty; and in No. 1 only when No. 2 is empty."[25] This looks as if attacks were made from the opposite side of the house to make detection less easy, especially by daylight.  The maid-servants in the attics were often more impressed than the people in the rooms below.  This seems due to the construction of the house; the attics are more approachable than the rooms from the staircase.  The electricity follows the track of a person far better on a stair than on a ladder, it may be remarked.  Thick walls, high window-sills, a commanding position, and a murmuring brook, are great securities against hypnotism, and these would be found in older Scotch castles.  Another element of safety, the purling brook, is here mentioned; all noise is a good antidote; it is perhaps the case that with hypnotism from a distance the hypnotic state is continually waxing and waning, one link, generally a weaker one, succeeding another in the chain of impressions on the temperament.  The diminution being continual, the force is renewed by people getting near enough to get a strong hold again, otherwise it dies out.

[Footnote 25:  “Alleged Haunting of B——­ House,” p. 169.]

These approaches were doubtless most dangerous on railway journeys; hypnotism acts better in a small room than in a large one, and therefore a person in a railway carriage is more affected.  Here discomfort and oppression helps hypnotism, but the hypnotist if in the train is in a favourable position, as the distance is preserved very closely and need not be very great.

Carriages are of the same size, and this is doubtless a help to the operator.  The frequency of phenomena being observed on the night of arrival has been noticed.  Miss N., who drove over, was not affected.  The average recurrence of phenomena to each person was every fourth night; other people besides those previously mentioned as suffering on first nights, were on the second visit Miss Langton and Miss Duff.  The latter was only very restless.  This resembles the experimental result obtained by Mr. Rose; he attempted to impress two ladies in the same house:  the elder saw his apparition, the younger was only restless.[26]