STORIES OF GHOSTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3733, 22 December 1927, Page 4

STORIES OF GHOSTS.

MEDIUM’S SAVAGE FIGHT. The cheerful white walls and pleasantly material atmosphere of the Lyceum Club in London took on an eerie appearance one night a few weeks ago, when an authentic “ghost story” dinner was held. Some of the tales that were told were amazing; even to the sceptic they made excellent hearing. Miss Helen Bou'lnois presided, and the speakers included the Countess of Tankerville, Mr. Elliott O’Donnell, Mrs. Violet Tweedale, Mr. Ralph Shirley, and Mrs. Mansell Moullin.

Mrs. Tweedale told of her uncanny experience in a haunted house in the Torquay district. A party of seven, including a medium, one Captain McCormack, four professional “ghost-hunters,” and herself, went to this house in broad daylight to attempt to plumb its mysteries.

The medium, almost as soon as Mrs.Tweedale entered a certain room of the house, was possessed by an entity, well known in Torquay as “The Serpent.” This entity took possession of the woman’s body, made her stagger about as though she was drunk, and blaspheme terribly. This entity in turn was expelled by that of “The Doctor,” who had at one time owned the haunted house. Under his dominion the woman began to roar and fling herself upon the ghosthunters, who fled from the house. Then, still under the spell of “The Doctor,” she attacked Captain McCormack, and tore his face until the blood ran down.

“Then began a combat,” said Mrs Tweedale “more terrible than anything I have ever seen. It was a struggle between this woman, possessed by ‘The Doctor,’ and another entity, which we could not see. We could hear ‘The Doctor’s’ curses added to a tigerish growling. Between the two adversaries we saw the mediupi’s hat torn off, her hair pulled down, and her clothes torn from her body. I flung myself before her and her unseen opponent. I could feel blows raining down upon me; yet I felt secure and safe, as though I were encased in a steel coating.

“Finally I realised that Captain McCormack was exercising the spirits, and all was quiet. We carried the medium downstairs, broken and bleeding and apparently dead. After a while we brought her round; but she never really recovered from this terrible contest and died within a year. The house is still haunted 1 by ‘The Doctor/ who can drive anyone out of it. You can do nothing; you san see nothing. Only one man can interpret the mystery in the course of time, and God will be the source of the interpretation.” Mr. Elliott O'Donnell told of experiences, less tangible, but equally eerie, in another haunted’ house in the West of England. He said that on stormy nights psychic phenomena were more free than on calm nights, also that he was usually accompanied by a dog, as a dog was more responsive to strange and unnatural happenings than human beings. v,

The Countess of Tankerville described a vision which she said had come to her in her home, the famous Chillingham Castle, in which she had seen ancestors of her husband’s family, in their habit as they lived, four hundred years ago. The face of the chief actor, though he was dressed in the garb of the time of Henry VIII., was that of her own husband. 1