The Banshee

opose to narrate a few cases which I will term cases of doubtful Banshee haunting-that is to say, cases of haunting which, al

g, low, two-storied building, stood on a lonely spot on the road leading to Montreal, and a young lady,

black clouds gathered in the sky, the wind whistled ominously in the chimneys and savagely shook the many-coloured maple leaves, while, after a time, the m

her attention was arrested by the sound of a heavy carriage lumbering along the high road, from the direction of Montreal, at a very great rate. It being now nearly ten o'clock, an hour when there was usu

abruptly pushing past her to the front door, just as the carriage drew up

series of loud rat-tat-tats, although, as everyone instantly remembered, there was no knocker on the doo

nd they now knelt, huddled together, whilst the Major in a voice which, despite the fact that it was raised to its

ime descending, and the carriage drove away. It was not, however, until the reverberations of the wheels could no longer be heard that the Major rose from his knees. Then, bi

now, and the moon was shining forth in all the splendour of its calm cold majesty; but the grounds and road beyond were quite deserted; not a vestige of any pers

e had just managed to doze off, when she was aroused by her friend Ellen, the elder of the Major's two nieces, pulling violently at her bedclothes, and, on looking up, she perceived a tall figure, clad in what looked like nun's garments, walking across the room with long, stealthy s

last called out to Miss Delane and implored her to come and

s Delane, and shuddering violently. "I don't think I shall ever get over it

eemed to them as if the morning would never come; but, when at last it did come, they told Ma

nces, was far the wisest and safest thing for them to do. An hour or so later, having finished their packing, they were all three taking a final stroll together in the garden, when

ic and malicious, and as they shrank back terror-stricken, it stretched forth one of its long, bony arms and touched first Ellen and then her sister on the shoulder. It

n where they were, trembling; but their faculties at length reasserting themselves

n her home in Ireland, received any explanation of the phenomena she had witnessed. It was given

times it shrieks, like the shrieking of a woman who is being cruelly done to death, and sometimes it merely stares at or touches its victim on the shoulder with its skelet

which the Banshee-if Banshee it really were-had appeared, she received tidings of the deaths of both Ellen and her sister (the former succumbing to an attack of some malignant fever, and the latter to an accident), and in addition heard that Major R-- had died also. As Maj

shee that we know does not appear, as the R--'s ghost appeared, attired in the vestments of a religious order; and the coach or hearse phantasm (which in the R--'s case preceded the manifestation of the supposed Banshee) is by no means an uncommon haunting;[8] and sin

an incident related by that past master of the weird, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, in a short story entitled "A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family." A

ne, and her elder sister, who had recently married a Mr Carew of Dublin, being expec

shtown some time the following day. The morning and afternoon passed, however, without any sign of the Car

re straining their ears to the utmost, must have caught the sound of an approaching vehicle on the high road, had there been one, when it was still at a distance of several miles. But no sound came, and when suppertime ar

desperate hope that something must at last happen-either, the Carews themselv

m-she would now let someone else speak first. In the meantime, on and on came the wheels, stopping for a moment whilst the iron gate at the entrance to the drive was swung open on its rusty hinges; then on and on again, louder, louder and louder, till all could distinguish, amid the barking of the dogs, the sound of scattered gravel and the crackling and swishing of the whip. There was no doubt about it now, and with joyous cries of "It is them! They have c

d faces; they began to be afraid; whilst the dogs, running about, a

ired to rest, but not to sleep, and early the next morning they received news that fully confirmed their suspicions. Mrs Carew had been taken ill with fever on Monday, while preparations for the de

ted with Ireland, may sometimes be mistaken for a genuine Banshee haunting, although, of course, there is no reason whatever to suppose that Mr Le Fanu himself laboured under any delusion with regard to it, or

a headless driver, is seen about midnight proceeding rapidly, but without noise, towards the churchyard, the death of some considerable personage in the parish is sure to happen at no distant period." Also, there is a phantom of this description that is occasionally seen on the road near Langley in Durh

no doubt, the phantom coach is not essentially Iri

an incident in connection with Mrs Elizabeth Sheridan, which is recorded in footnotes on pages 32 and 33 of "The Memoirs of the Life and W

e Sheridan family was heard wailing beneath the windows of Quilca before the news arrived of Mrs Frances Sheridan's death at Blois, thus affording them a preternatural intimation of the impending melancholy event. A niece of Miss Sheridan'

Sheridan was of English extraction, for the Banshee has frequently been heard before the death of a wife whose husband was one of an ancient Irish clan-even though the wife had no Irish bl

a ghostly experience of the author and his wife, which experience the writer of the paragraph, referring to this

ly successful in the vocation he finally selected, but he had been equally fortunate both with regard to love and money. The lady with whom he fell in love returned his affections, and, on their marriage, brought him a rich dowry. It was partly with her money that he purchased the estate

f Earl Hardwick, Lord Rossmore met Lady Barrington, and gave her a most press

ell Sir Jonah that no business is to prevent him from bringing you down to dine w

orning Sir Jonah was awakened by a sound of a very extraordinary nature. It occurred first at short intervals and resembled neither a voice nor an instrument, for

it was altogether a different character of sound. My wife at first appeared less affected than I; but subsequently she was more so. We now went to a large window in our bedroom, which looked directly upon a small garden underneath. The sound seemed then, obviously, to ascend from a grass plot immediately below our window. It continued. Lady Barrington requested I would call up her maid, which I did, and she was evidently more affected than either of us. The sounds lasted for mo

s himself, made him promise he would not mention the incident to an

ed at the bedroom door and began, "Oh, Lord, sir!", in such agit

alth (Lord Rossmore, though advanced in years, had always appeared to be singularly robust, and Sir Jonah had never once heard him complain he was unwell), but that about two-thirty this morni

. The question that most concerns me is whether they were due to the Banshee or not, and as Lord Rossmore was not apparently of ancient Irish lineage, I am inclined to think the phenomena owed its origin to some other class of phantasm; perhaps