_The Grey Dog of ---- House, Birmingham_

According to a story current in the Midlands, a house in Birmingham,
near the Roman Catholic Cathedral, was once very badly haunted. A family
who took up their abode in it in the 'eighties complained of hearing all
sorts of uncanny sounds--such as screams and sighs--coming from a room
behind the kitchen. On one occasion the tenant's wife, on entering the
sitting-room, was almost startled out of her senses at seeing, standing
before the fireplace, the figure of a tall, stout man with a large, grey
dog by his side. What was so alarming about the man was his face--it was
apparently a mere blob of flesh without any features in it. The lady
screamed out, whereupon there was a terrific crash, as if all the
crockery in the house had been suddenly clashed on the stone floor; and
a friend of the lady's, attracted to the spot by the noise, saw two
clouds of vapour, one resembling a man and the other a dog, which, after
hovering over the hearth for several seconds, finally dispersed
altogether.

A gasfitter, when working in the house, saw the same figures no less
than nine times, and so distinctly that he was able to give a detailed
description of both the man and dog.

The house seems to have been well known in Birmingham, and was certainly
standing as recently as 1885. Many theories were advanced as to its
history, the one gaining most credence being that it was occupied, in
1829, by a man who supplied the medical students with human bodies.

It was noticed at the time that many people who were seen to enter the
house in the company of the owner were never seen to leave it, which