November 29th.--Mr. H. A. B. told me of his friend Mr. ------ (who was
formerly attache to the British Legation at Washington, and whom I saw at
Concord), that his father, a clergyman, married a second wife. After the
marriage, the noise of a coffin being nightly carried down the stairs was
heard in the parsonage. It could be distinguished when the coffin
reached a certain broad lauding and rested on it. Finally, his father
had to remove to another residence. Besides this, Mr. ------ had had
another ghostly experience,--having seen a dim apparition of an uncle at
the precise instant when the latter died in a distant place. The attache
is a credible and honorable fellow, and talks of these matters as if he
positively believed them. But Ghostland lies beyond the jurisdiction of
veracity.
In a garden near Chester, in taking down a summer-house, a tomb was
discovered beneath it, with a Latin inscription to the memory of an old
doctor of medicine, William Bentley, who had owned the place long ago,
and died in 1680. And his dust and bones had lain beneath all the merry
times in the summer-house.
December 1st.--It is curious to observe how many methods people put in
practice here to pick up a halfpenny. Yesterday I saw a man standing
bareheaded and barelegged in the mud and misty weather, playing on a
fife, in hopes to get a circle of auditors. Nobody, however, seemed to
take any notice. Very often a whole band of musicians will strike up,--
passing a hat round after playing a tune or two.
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