state of semi-unconciousness, evoked phantasms, based on no surer foundation than the wanderings of a fevered imagination; as the sudden apparition of the stone lady and the old chariot in which you were whisked away must now convince you. The incidents in the cellar you may rest assured never had any reality. As soon as reason partially dawned on you, you managed, somehow, to get up, scramble out of the hole you had tumbled into, and to fly from the spot; but with a brain still overclouded by the concussion it had endured, and the seemingly strange and startling events vividly impressed on its sensorium. Poor old Beanstraw, the occupier of Little Bullford, my churchwarden, and as good, simple-hearted an old soul as ever breathed, is about the last man in the world to have been entrusted by any one with the charge of a mysterious and dangerous lunatic. The bare idea of such a thing is simply preposterous. Dismiss the thought from your mind, I beseech you. In fact, if I were you, I would never mention the subject to any living person-not even to the members of your family. The story would only bring ridicule on yourself and tend to cast painful doubts on your own sanity-an odium, I am sure, you would not like to incur. Besides, even were you correct in your statements, only look on the unpleasant position you place yourself in by asserting them. Only reflect for a moment. Could you, if called upon to do so, prove all you affirm? And, mind you, unless you did prove it you would be bringing unnecessarily a painful, cruel slur upon a highly respectable family, and damning at the same time the reputation of an honest, industrious yeoman, implicating yourself likewise in what might very probably lay you open to the charge of manslaughter, and involve you in very serious consequences. Take my advice,-in retailing the circumstances of your visit to Bullford say nothing about the imaginary tenant of its lower regions. All the other things you have spoken of I can satisfactorily enough explain to you, and laugh at the surprise they must have caused one coming across them as you did. Το begin with, the stone statue, which seems to have impressed you so strongly, and concerning which there is a vast amount of superstition current amongst the country people, I must tell you it is supposed to represent some former mistress of the Hall, noted for her musical genius, by a display of which before the sovereign of the day some fine, or impost, leviel on the estate was remitted, in commemoration of which tradition the statue was erected. The pedestal on the lawn in front of the house, whereon once stood this figure, coming to grief the uncouth piece of sculpture was banished to the garden there to await a restoration that never came. With regard to the old chariot, its history I should have thought would have been known to everyone in the country, as hundreds (many of

cne he well knew all about. 1. dip of the medical verdict, uy anxiety on the part of rut..za with a note signi. 1..i insisted on my acceptnime bome some time the In S. rt, the kindness and the caritan knew no bounds. at Slushington had Leen ,w-t breaking stones by nd Hall, which, to this to account for the state

y comuniented his I am the gentleman all utol place, sez I to myself, lu't, and bided,

2 cut. But, there ike a esille about it, thi wa bisniss I

the neighbouring of being haunted. ttt the strange to perambulate, sion, wander. tone, and occait was averred, Ine Lours, she ss as though in rse, caused the all.

Test summed up -m my truly curious adven. remvigorated se vintage of st of dining.

12 tout my host de.

ime up to the

excuse me if I Sonned by the Xust 10, your reu: and while in a

state of semi-unconciousness, evoked phantasias, basel on no surer foundation than the wanderings of a fevered imagination; as the sudden apparition of the stone lady al the old clarist in which you were whisked away must now convince you. T..e incidents in the cellar you may rest assured never had any reality.

as reason partially dawned on you, you managed, somehow, to get up, scramble out of the hole you had tumbled into, and to fly from the spot; but with a brain still overclouded by the concussion it had endured, and the seemingly strange and startling events vividly impressed on its sensorium. Poor old Beanstraw, the occupier of Little Bullford, my churchwarden, and as good, simple-hearted an old soul as ever breathed, is about the last man in the world to have been entrusted by any one with the charge of a mysterious and dangerous lunatic. The bare idea of such a thing is simply preposterous. Dismiss the thought from your mind, I beseech you. In fact, if I were you, I would never mention the subject to any living person-not even to the members of your family. The story would only bring ridicule on yourself and tend to cast painful doubts on your own sanity-an odium, I am sure, you would not like to incur. Besides, even were you correct in your statements, only look on the unpleasant position you place yourself in by asserting them. Only reflect for a moment. Could you, if called upon to do so, prove all you affirm? And, mind you, unless you did prove it you would be bringing unnecessarily a painful, cruel slur upon a highly respectable family, and damning at the same time the reputation of an honest, industrious yeoman, implicating yourself likewise in what might very probably lay you open to the charge of manslaughter, and involve you in very serious consequences. Take my advice,-in retailing the circumstances of your visit to Bullford say nothing about the imaginary tenant of its lower regions. All the other things you have spoken of I can satisfactorily enough explain to you, and laugh at the surprise they must have caused one coming across them as you did. begin with, the stone statue, which seems to have impressed you so strongly, and concerning which there is a vast amount of superstition current amongst the country people, I must tell you it ie supposed to represent some former mistress of the Hall, noted for her musical genius, by a display of which before the sovereign of the day some fine, or impost, levied on the estate was remittel, in commemoration of which tradition the statue was erecte). pedestal on the lawn in front of the house, whereon once 1995 figure, coming to grief the uncouth piece of pore war on bred to the garden there to await a restoration th regard to the old chariot, its history I Lo have been known to everyone in the country.

To

them strangers from great distances) annually come to visit it. Some ladies-members of the Gudeman family-with a few trusty followers were, it is said, endeavouring to fly from the persecutions of the Parliamentary faction when, seeing themselves likely to be overtaken by their fleetly. mounted pursuers, they abandoned, under cover of a neighbouring wood which then existed, their cumbersome conveyance and mounting the horses-hastily detached from it-safely effected their escape, leaving the coach where, many a long day after, it was casually discovered, and from whence it was subsequently dragged to its present abiding place. Many offers have, from time to time, been made by speculative individuals for its purchase, and as often rejected. Any attempt to now remove it would, they say, be certain to end in its destruction; its preservation much longer, even where it at present stands, being considered very doubtful.

"To the odd sepulchral vault you spoke of there attaches a little history. The slab, with the inscription on it which you quoted, is said to have been stolen from the church more than a hundred years ago, when that edifice was undergoing repairs, and placed where you found it to fill up an awkward gap, or hole, alleged to have been formerly used as a depositary for hoarded wealth. The last and only tenant who has occupied the mansion since its desertion, some thirty years since, by the family to which it belongs, was a physician from London, who rented it for a short time during which he converted it into an asylum for the treatment of a few demented females of superior rank whom their friends entrusted to his charge with a handsome honorarium for his trouble. But he, being a man of reckless habits, much addicted to horse-racing, gambling, and hard living, the speculation soon collapsed. The doctor, sorely pressed by his creditors, to whom he was heavily indebted, finished his career by his own hands, under a fit of delirium tremens, in that very billiard-room where you yourself were so agreeably entrapped. The coroner's jury in the case returning a verdict of felo-de-se, the rites of Christian burial were refused; and the body was, according to the gossip of the ignorant yokels, interred beneath the big stone under the back stairs. Of course, a very unlikely proceeding.

"Now, the old lady, in one of the bedrooms upstairs, who so frightened you, was a reality. A living one, too, and not a corpse, as you imagined. I can tell you all about her. She is old Beanstraw's mother-deaf, blind, and upwards of ninety years of age. The poor creature has been bedridden for I don't know how long. Little Bullford being small, and consequently very limited in its accommodation, the old dame is, both for convenience and airiness, kept in the apartment in the larger house you saw her in. A

grand-daughter is generally in constant attendance on her; and I, myself, frequently visit her to offer her such ghostly comfort as lies in my power; but to one who, like her, has outlived nearly every faculty it is difficult to administer consolation of any kind; the receiving tablets of her memory having become an almost unimpressionable blank. It is painful to contemplate such a spectacle. But He who giveth knoweth when to take away.'

"Now, in respect of the family, the only child I ever heard of the late Sir Mildmy having had is the present possessor of the estate, who is married to an archdeacon, holding the very valuable living of Barntytheside in Yorkshire, who has assumed in right of his wife, and pursuant to her father's will, the name of Gudemann; or, as they now spell it, G-o-o-d-e-m-a-n-n. It is by his presentation that I hold this very benefice of Slushington-cum-Muddyford. In our early days-for we are about of the same standing-the venerable Joseph Nicholas Goodeman-plain Joe Nick to me then -and I were school fellows and afterwards college.chums. At that time he was a poor hard-working scholar, ambitious to a degree, but with no views even half so good as my own. I am now the comparatively speaking, poor man, and his debtor for much that I possess. Such are the ups and downs of the wheel of fortune; but do not imagine that I, for a moment, envy my patron, for his career, I am well aware, has not been without its thorns. My predecessor, at whose death I succeeded to this cure, had been for many years a non-resident through difficulties of various kinds, which he got himself into while in charge of the parish. He died abroad, with a character not altogether surrounded by a halo of sanctity. Amongst other accusations laid at his door, there is one of having either himself tampered with the registers, or of having allowed others to do so. It has been frequently brought forward, but whether on good grounds or not it is impossible for me to say. The old records are certainly in a very discreditable state; still that proves nothing, as in those days the archives of many a remote country parish were in a similar state; stories being told of incumbents who were known to use the pages of these documents for gun. wadding. Bullford Hall is-why or wherefore I cannot say-ever and anon, by fitful starts, advertised as to be let, when for a short while after such announcements a host of visitors, attracted by the low rent demanded and the puff accompanying the advertisement, generally turn-up but never come to a deal. Then to the rush succeeds a long lull, during which one is apt to forget that such a place exists even. For years neither painter, carpenter, nor mason, have been called upon to ply their arts upon the ancient fabric, the result of which is that rain comes in at its roof, worms honeycomb its rafters and woodwork, and water-rats undermine its