The Mysterious Lady in Black: Bognor House Haunting

A ghost in a haunted house is seldom observed
The spectre in the following narrative could not be photographed,
Efforts to touch it were failures, nor did it speak.
This story is unromantic ; and the names are fictitious.
A ghost in a haunted house is seldom observed
The spectre in the following narrative could not be photographed,
Efforts to touch it were failures, nor did it speak.
This story is unromantic ; and the names are fictitious.
The pair used to quarrel about some jewels which Mr. S. concealed in the flooring
of a room where the ghost was never seen.
A Mr. L. now took the house, but died six months later.
Bognor House stood empty for four years, during which there was vague talk of hauntings.
In April, of 1882, the house was taken over by Captain Morton.
In June Miss Rose Morton, a lady of nineteen studying medicine,
saw the first appearance of the lady in black.
Miss Morton did not mention her experiences to her family,
but she transmitted accounts to a friend, in a kind
of diary of letters.
Phenomena of this kind usually begin with noises,
and go on to apparitions.
Miss Morton one night, while preparing to go to bed, heard a noise outside,
and thought it was her mother, opened the door, saw a
tall lady in black holding a handkerchief to her face,
she followed the figure till her candle burned out.
A widow's white cuff was visible on each wrist, and the face was never seen.
From 1882-1884, Miss Morton saw the figure about six times
it was also seen three times through the window from outside, by other people, who took it
for a living being.
Two boys playing in the garden ran in to ask who was the
weeping lady in black.
On 29th January, 1884, Miss Morton spoke to the lady in black as it stood beside a sofa.
" She only gave a slight gasp and moved towards the door. Just by the door I spoke to her
again, but
she seemed as if she were unable to speak."
In May and June Miss Morton fastened strings at different
heights from the stair railings to the wall, where
she attached them with glue, but she twice saw the
lady pass through the cords, leaving them untouched.
When Miss Morton cornered the figure and tried to
touch her, or pounce on her,she dodged, or disappeared.
But by a curious contradiction her steps were often
heard by several of the family, and when she heard the
steps, Miss Morton used to go out and follow the figure.
There is really no more to tell. Miss Morton's father never saw the lady in black, even when
she sat on a
sofa for half an hour, with Miss Morton watching her.
Other people saw the lady in black in the garden crying, and sent
messages to ask what was the matter, and who was the lady in distress.
Many members of the family, boys, girls, married ladies,
servants and others often saw the lady in black.
In 1885 loud noises, bumps and turning of door handles were common, and
though the servants were told that the lady was
quite harmless, they did not always stay.
The whole establishment of servants was gradually
changed, but the lady still walked.
She appeared more seldom in 1887-1889, and by 1892 even the
light footsteps ceased.
Two dogs, a retriever and a Skye terrier, showed much alarm. "Twice," says
Miss Morton, " I saw the terrier suddenly run up
to the mat at the foot of the stairs in the hall,
wagging its tail, and moving its back in the way
dogs do when they expect to be caressed.
It jumped up, fawning as it would do if a person had been
standing there, but suddenly slunk away with its
tail between its legs, and retreated, trembling, under
a sofa." Miss Morton's own emotion, at first, was
" a feeling of awe at something unknown, mixed
with a strong desire to know more about it ".

1 S.P.R., iii., 115, and from oral narrative of Mr. and Mrs.
Rokeby. In 1885, when the account was published, Mr. Rokeby
had not yet seen the lady in grey. Nothing of interest is known
about the previous tenants of the house.
2 Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. viii., p. 311.
LADY IN BLACK. 1 99
1 Six separate signed accounts by other witnesses are given. They
add nothing more remarkable than what Miss Morton relates. No
account was published till the haunting ceased, for fear of lowering
the letting value of Bognor House