My Library

A very curious and instructive instance of the extreme persistence of these artificial elementals under favourable circumstances came under the notice of one of our investigators quite recently. All readers of the literature of such subjects are aware that many of our ancient families are supposed to have associated with them a traditional deathwarning—a phenomenon of one kind or another which foretells,usually some days beforehand, the approaching decease of the head of the house. A picturesque example of thisjs the well-known story of the white bird of the Oxenhams, whose appearance has ever since the time of Queen Elizabeth been recognised as a sure presage of the death of some member of the family; while another is the spectral coach which is reported to drive up to the door of a certain castle in the north when a similar calamity is impending.
A phenomenon of this order occurs in Connection with the family o,f one of our members, but it is of a much commoner and less striking type than either of me hbove, consisting only of a solemn and impressive strain of dirgelike music, which is