scarcely as comforting to the Colthearts, who, unable to bear the
strange sights and noises any longer, evacuated the premises. As no
other tenants could be found, the house was eventually pulled down, and
a row of fine modern buildings now occupy the site. As the history of
the place could never be traced with any degree of authenticity, one can
do no more than speculate as to the cause of the disturbances, which, I
am inclined to think, were due to the phantoms of people and animals
that had once actually lived and died there.


_Dogs seen before a Death_

Mrs. Crowe, in her _Night Side of Nature_, mentions the case of a young
lady named P----, who saw a big black dog twice suddenly appear and
disappear by her side, immediately before the death of her mother.

In _The Unseen World_ a story is also told of the phantasm of a big
black dog appearing on the bed of a Cornish child, doomed to die shortly
afterwards, the same dog invariably manifesting itself before the death
of any member of the child's family.

There are so many cases of a similar kind--one hears of them nearly
everywhere one goes--that one is led to believe some of them, at least,
must be true. There is no more reason to believe all ghost-story tellers
are liars, than there is to believe all parsons are liars--and this
being so, additional proof is afforded of the continuation of the dog's
life after death; for these family canine ghosts are more than probably
the phantasms of dogs that once belonged to families--maybe centuries
ago--and met their fate in some cruel and unnatural manner.