London:
Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Ltd.
THE STONEGROUND
GHOST TALES
COMPILED FROM THE RECOLLECTIONS OF
THE REVEREND ROLAND BATCHEL,
VICAR OF THE PARISH.
BY
E. G. SWAIN
Cambridge:
W. HEFFER & SONS Ltd.
1912
TO
MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES
(LITT.D., HON. LITT.D. DUBLIN,
HON. LL.D. ST. ANDR., F.B.A., F.S.A., ETC.)
PROVOST OF KING’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,
FOR TWENTY PLEASANT YEARS MR. BATCHEL’S FRIEND,
AND THE INDULGENT PARENT OF SUCH TASTES
AS THESE PAGES INDICATE.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
|---|---|
| I.—The Man With the Roller | 1 |
| II.—Bone to His Bone | 19 |
| III.—The Richpins | 35 |
| IV.—The Eastern Window | 63 |
| V.—Lubrietta | 83 |
| VI.—The Rockery | 103 |
| VII.—The Indian Lamp Shade | 123 |
| VIII.—The Place of Safety | 147 |
| IX.—The Kirk Spook | 175 |
I.
THE MAN WITH THE ROLLER.
On the edge of that vast tract of East Anglia,which retains its ancient name of the Fens,there may be found, by those who know whereto seek it, a certain village called Stoneground.It was once a picturesque village. To-day it isnot to be called either a village, or picturesque.Man dwells not in one “house of clay,” but intwo, and the material of the second is drawnfrom the earth upon which this and the neighbouringvillages stood. The unlovely signs ofthe industry have changed the place alike inaspect and in population. Many who haveseen the fossil skeletons of great sauriansbrought out of the clay in which they havelain from pre-historic times, have thought thatthe inhabitants of the place have not sincechanged for the better. The chief habitations,however, have their foundations not upon clay,but upon a bed of gravel which anciently gaveto the place its name, and upon the highest partof this gravel stands, and has stood for manycenturies, the Parish Church, dominating thelandscape for miles around.
Stoneground, however, is no longer theinaccessible village, which in the middle agesstood out above a waste of waters. Occasionalfloods serve to indicate what was once itsordinary outlook, but in more recent time