Chapter IV: YORK, March 28th, 1874

"SIR,

"Owing to severe illness in my family, I was not able to reply to
your note earlier. I will now try and tell you what I have seen and
been told on the subject of the ghosts at Holy Trinity Church,
Micklegate.

"A York lady, now dead, told me she remembered seeing it when a
child, and that she once read an account of it in an old History of
York: she thought the book must have been published in the
seventeenth century.

"We now live in the parish of Holy Trinity, and attend the church
regularly. A part of my family sit in the gallery, therefore I will
tell you, in as matter-of-fact a manner as possible, what I myself
have seen, and leave one of my daughters, if she likes, to give you
her experiences.

"I must state also that the ghost is seen more or less distinctly
as you happen to be seated in the centre or side of the gallery; as
a rule, the former is the best place.

"As I have no faith in ghosts, I have been most wishful to have the
matter cleared up. At present I cannot account for the appearance
in any way.

"I went many times to the gallery in hopes of seeing the
phenomenon, but was repeatedly disappointed. At last, one dull day,
hopeless for the purpose as I thought--rain was falling at the
time--I was startled by seeing something.

"There are two east windows--one on the right, filled with common
green glass, the organ in front of it. From the outside of this
window I saw something move, and immediately a graceful figure of a
girl of eighteen or twenty years crossed the outside of the stained
east window with a light, free step. She was entirely covered with
a fine lace veil which, as she walked and met the air, showed the
outline of the head and figure; the features I could not
distinguish, but could see a shade through the veil where they
naturally would be.

"The veil was of a pure white, flowing back as a train as she
walked. In two or three minutes the figure returned, the robe
flowing back in the same way, and disappeared behind the organ
window.

"The figure appeared to me to be decidedly outside the window, and
at a greater distance than was possible for any one to be; in the
first place, because the east window is high up, and therefore
anyone walking past it, to be seen at all, must be at some little
distance from it; and, secondly, because there is a dead wall
within a few yards of the window.

"The pure white of the robe quite obliterated the colours in the
window, but the lead work was distinct enough, and the figure
appeared behind it The distinct outline of the figure is most
striking.

"The apparition always returns to the organ window. I have seen
this several times since the first. Owing to the dull day and the
darkness of the windows, the appearance on the first occasion was
the more remarkable. Two or three other figures also appear, but I
never thought them as distinct as the first, and I thought the
second and third might be reflections of the first. The two or
three often move quickly back and forwards with a dancing movement
somewhat like the reflection of the sun on a wall, but taking the
form of human figures. However, it was dull and raining when first
I saw the apparition, so that on that occasion there could have
been no reflection of sunlight.

"These appearances are sometimes not seen for weeks and months;
then they appear once or twice on succeeding days or Sundays. No
one can be sure of seeing them if they go to the church for that
purpose. I do not believe the apparition takes place at one more
favoured time than another, though some people like to think so.
The present rector wished to abolish the 'ghosts,' and was advised
to cut down one or two trees. This was done; all thought that the
ghosts were banished. Ten months after there was a gay wedding; my
daughters went into the gallery to witness the ceremony, and lo!
the 'ghost or ghosts' were there also. They had not been seen for
nine or ten months. That was the first occasion since the cutting
down of the trees on which they reappeared.

"The Sunday-school children who sit in the gallery see the form so
often as to be quite familiar with the sight, and call them 'the
mother, nurse, and child.'

"The legend I have heard told of it is that a family, consisting of
a father, mother, and only child, lived here once upon a time. The
father died, and was buried at the east end of the church, under or
near the organ window. After a while the plague broke out in York
and carried off the child, and it was buried outside the city, as
those who died of plague were not allowed to be laid in the
churchyards for fear of communicating the infection.

"The mother died afterwards, and was laid in her husband's grave,
and now, as in her lifetime, continues to visit the grave of her
child and bemoan the separation. The child is brought from its
grave in the plague-pit by the mother and nurse, and brought to
the grave of its father, and then it is taken back to where it lies
outside the walls."

"L. S."