respectable, and such as would in any matter of judicial investigation
be deemed wholly unexceptionable witnesses. There is not an incident
here recorded which would not have been distinctly deposed to on oath
had any necessity existed, by the persons who severally, and some of
them in great fear, related their own distinct experiences. The Editor
begs most pointedly to meet _in limine_ the suspicion, that he is
elaborating a trick, or vouching for another ghost of Mrs. Veal. As a
mere story the narrative is valueless: its sole claim to attention is
its absolute truth. For the good faith of its relator he pledges his own
and the character of this Magazine. With the Editor's concurrence, the
name of the watering-place, and some special circumstances in no
essential way bearing upon the peculiar character of the story, but
which might have indicated the locality, and possibly annoyed persons
interested in house property there, have been suppressed by the
narrator. Not the slightest liberty has been taken with the narrative,
which is presented precisely in the terms in which the writer of it, who
employs throughout the first person, would, if need were, fix it in the
form of an affidavit.]


Within the last eight years--the precise date I purposely omit--I I was
ordered by my physician, my health being in an unsatisfactory state, to
change my residence to one upon the sea-coast; and accordingly, I took a
house for a year in a fashionable watering-place, at a moderate distance
from the city in which I had previously resided, and connected with it
by a railway.

Winter was setting in when my removal thither was decided upon; but
there was nothing whatever dismal or depressing in the change. The house
I had taken was to all appearance, and in point of convenience, too,