Father of Seventy Children.

Lake County Press, Issue 905, 5 April 1900, Page 2

Father of Seventy Children.

All the recent difficulties in Chitral appear to have risen from (he circumstance of what Mr. Nicholas Easy would have called Aman-Ul-Mulkh’s philoprogenitiveness. “I could never ascertain,” said Captain Young-husband, “ the exact number of his children. Ido not think he quite knew himself, but at any rate it was somewhere near seventy. Of these children there were about seventeen sons who could claim a certain amount of respect and respectability,” and It Is this excess of respectability which apparently led to the row of such respectable dimensions in ChitraL

Some English Ghosts. There is at any rate one ghost in London, for the first Lord Holland is said to walk the Sir Joshua Room in Holland House with hie head in his hand —a very fashionable ghostly proceeding —on certain nights of the year ; and it is a known fact that there are many | houses which never have been let, never | are let, and never will be let for any ! length of time on account of uncanny | traditions associated with thorn. The ! people who take these houses are ready enough to -stay, but no (servants will stay, and so they are driven elsewhere. No stranger to Epsom was ever shown Pit Place by a native without being told the “Wicked’’ Lord Lyttelton’s ghost-story—the white bird which fluttered at. his window on the night of 2-1 th November, 1779, changing into a white-robed woman, who approached the foot of his bod, and told him that he would be dead in three days, which actually happened. Sussex, which of all the home counties Ims retained its old characteristics the most, has a good many ghosts who are still realities in the eyes of the rustics of that little-visited district, which was once the centre of England’s iron industry. There is old Oxenbridgo of Brcdc Place. There is the headless man of St. Leonard's Forest, known as Squire PanIctt. who -jumps upon the crupper of a horseman entering the forest, and remains there until clear of it. There is the Drummer of Tlnrshnonceanx. Black dogs--a favourite shape assumed by ghosts al! over England—haunt all dark lanes and lone by-roads, and under many a sequestered wooden bridge a headless woman may lie seen spinning ; whilst on the old eattle-road between Kingston, near Lewes, and the Marshes, known as the Drove Way, a goblin may he seen on any dark, wild night, lueessantly spinning charcoal ! 'Flic same species of “ general” ghosts, as they may he called. Is recorded by Mr. Rye. the Norfolk topographer, to he strongly developed in his county. There is the pale, long-haired woman, who runs shrieking amongst the pits on Aylmerton Heath. There is the great black “Shuck Dog” —the word “Shuck” said to mean the devil —who at Goltishall Bridge is headless. and at Salhouse has a blazing eve In the centre of his 'forehead, and who inis a brother at Peel Gastlo in the Tsle of Man. the spirit of a murdered prisoner. known as the Alan the Dog. But ' the ihistorieal ghosts are more interest- ! lug objects of study. In this same county of Norfolk, says Mr. Rye. young Lord Dacrc. who was 'murdered In 15(l> by his guardian. Sir Richard Fnlinerston, who arranged that a rocking-horse on which the hoy sat should fall, still prances about on a (headless, of course) rocking-horse. Anne Boleyn still rides down the avenue of Bhckling Park once a year, in a hearse-like coach, drawn by four headless horses, and driven by n headless driver, with her head in her i lap ; and her father. Sir Thomas, does the same tiling. At Gaistor Castle there Is another coach and headless team, and yet another near Great Melton. This last rises from a pool every midday and midnight, and with its load of four headless, dripping, white-robed Indies passes slowly round the field and sinks again ; and tradition says-that at this spot, long ago. n bridal party were unset Into this pool and never seen again. Then there Is the Gray Lady of Ralnbam —not to bo confounded with the Brown Lady of Rainhara In Durham—who represents Lady Dorothy W alpole, forced, it is said, to marry Lord Townsend in 1719. A firmly helieved-ln coach-ghost timt of Ladv Howard, daughter and heiress of Sir John Eitz of Eitzford. In Devonshire, about 1000. who. Air. Bar-ing-Gonld says, travels nightly from Okohampton Gastlo to Eitzford Gate. Tavistock, in a coach of bones, preceded by a phantom dog. Gabriel Graddock Is a well-known Essex ghost. He was famous In the middle of the last century as Jerry Lynch | the highwayman, who with the pro- | coeds of his exploits, built Rainwater, Hall, near Leigh, so called because, upon the application of the workmen for drink, he bidr them “lap water.” Ho was run to earth In his new house, wounded, and drowned In the pond to i which ho had directed the thirsty workmen’s attention, and he is still believed to he seen on wild nights, bandy-legged, i and mounted on an earless mare, fleeing from his pursuers as they came from Shenfield. Ingrave. Ilorndon, Laindon, and Pit sea. Mannington Hall, the residence of the : Whalpolos. Earls of Orford. has its ghostly associations. Horatio, second carl, removed all the tombstones of the i Pealniers. the former possessors of the ! Hall, from AYiekmere Ghnrch. and one of tlie buried ladies is still believed to walk round the churchyard. To atone for the sacrilege, every Earl of Orford at his burial was driven in his hearse three times round AVickmere Ghnrch before being finally laid to rest. Very well known is the stile at Littlerote. near ATarlborongli. on the old Bathmad. wberat W T ild Darrell, the principal in the terribly weird tragedy at Li-ttle-coteTLill.isstill believed to he seen, followed by his howling hounds, as on the day when he met his death here—- ■ riding -madly along, reckless in h:s con- ! science torture, and confronted by the ' apparition of a babe burning in a flame. \ll (he unhappy ladies of history “walk”: Ann of Gloves paces ,up and down the gallery bearing hci name in Hevcr Castle : Pair Rosamond walks ! on the river-hank at God stow ; Am\ I Robsart on the side of Gnmimr : Alary. Queen of Scots, at Fothcringhay. At I Apethorpc. the Earl of Westmoreland's I .scat in Northamptonshire. Lady Grace, j wife of the first earl, walks in a corridor, scattering silver pennies as sV> 1 goes ; hut the pennies are air. and woe I to him who tries to tes< their solidity— I js 0 sav . and probably believe, the good folk around. In the romantic North Country these poor dames abound. there is the Brown Lady of b’ainham stately in I coif and rich brocade, but eyeless, j There “Silky” of Denton Hall, near I Newcastle, in a flow-red. long w,-listed ' satin go.wn and a saiin imod. There is the White Lady <>f S'kinsea Gasile : Lady Derwentwater of Dilst-m Castle: ! the ’Gray Woman of Willin.gtoii : Meg I of Aleldon in a broad hat ; the White Lady Blenldnsop. who still wails over a chest of gold, the cause of alt the nnj 'happiness of her married life. cum mnltis allis. The famous Canid Lad of Hylton, on the river Wear, was only “laid” during the last century, but his wall. “ I’m canid ! I’m canid !” lias been sworn to as hoard at a much l;Ver date ! Ho was not quite a stock ghost of the silent, gliding type, hut was more of a brownie or pixie, working hard in the kitchen during the night If the maids were sluggards—very much contrary to the usual rule of his kind. The Gray Man of Bellistei’ is another well-known North Country ghost. His original was a wandering

minstrel Trim called at the castle, which Is near Haltwhistle on the South Tyne, was admitted, and pleased the Blenldnsop owner for a time, until he trot suspicions that the poor old gray-clad singer was a spy from a neighbour baron with whom he was at feud. The minstrel got wind that he was suspected, and stele away. Blenldnsop sent bloodhounds after him, and he was torn to pieces. This happened In 1470. and the Gray Man is still spoken of in a district by no means behind the aye in refinement. Intelligence. and education. iCorby Gastic. near Carlisle, has been modernised, but in its wainscoted, tapestried “Ghost Room’’ the Radiant Boy still walks. At Ohillingham Castle in Northumberland there was also a Radiant Boy. until die skeleton of a boy found in one of the bedroom wsils. not very long aero, was buried, and then lie disappeared ; and at Coathani in Yorkshire, popular tradition speaks of a shining child who

vanishes when pursued. Apropos of ghostly children, a pretty tradition Is connected with a certain West Country bouse, to the effect that every cold morning Is seen on the window the scribbling of little fingers, not to be effaced by any amount of rubbing. —“ Chambers’s Journal.” Abridged.