were being forced open. The sound came from a passage in which was a door
nailed up and clamped with iron bands. A heavy footstep came down
the passage, and stopped at the bedroom door for a moment; no sound was
heard, and then the 'thing' came through the room to the foot of the bed.
It moved round the bed, they not daring to stir. The horrible unseen
visitant stopped, and they _felt_ it watching them. At last it moved
away, they heard it going up the passage, the door crashed, and all was
silence. Lighting a candle, my father examined the room, and found the
door locked; he then went along the passage, but not a sound was to be
heard anywhere.

"Strange noises like footsteps, sobbing, whispering, grim laughter, and
shrieks were often heard about the house. On one occasion my eldest
sister and a girl cousin drove over to see the family and stayed the
night. They and my two younger sisters were all crowded into a huge,
old-fashioned bed, and carefully drew and tucked in the curtains all
round. My eldest sister awoke feeling a cold wind blowing on her face,
and putting out her hand found the curtains drawn back and, as they
subsequently discovered, wedged between the bed and the wall. She reached
for the match-box, and was about to light the candle when a horrible
mocking laugh rang out close to the bed, which awakened the other girls.
Being always a plucky woman, though then badly scared, she struck a
match, and searched the room, but nothing was to be seen. The closed room
was said to have been deserted after a murder, and its floor was supposed
to be stained with blood which no human power could wash out."

Another house in Co. Clare, nearer the estuary of the Shannon, which was
formerly the residence of the D---- family, but is now pulled down, had
some extraordinary tales told about it in which facts (if we may use the
word) were well supplemented by legend. To commence with the former.