Chapter V

The following appeared in the "Newcastle Daily Chronicle" a couple of years after the publication of my book, in 1874:--

"SIR,--On Good Friday last I went to Holy Trinity Church, York, for
morning service, at 11 o'clock, and repaired with a friend to the
gallery, being anxious to see a certain apparition which is said to
haunt the place.

"The gallery is situated at the extreme west end of the building,
and faces the east window, from which it is distant some 50 feet or
so. It is said that in the aisle and body of the church nothing is
ever seen. The gallery was full, but no one seemed to have come
there especially for the ghost, and though many of them afterwards
said they saw it, they were not in the least affected by the
apparition, treating it as a matter of course, to which they were
well accustomed.

"I kept my eyes fixed upon the east window for nearly the whole of
the hour and a half during which the service lasted, but was not
favoured with a sight of the phenomenon; although others saw it
cross the window and return, and my friend, who knows it well,
called my attention to the fact, at the moment, yet I could not
perceive nothing. I therefore left the place as unbelieving as
ever, and supposed that either I was the victim of a hoax, or that
it required a great stretch of imagination to fancy that a passing
shadow was the desired object. However, not liking to discredit the
statements of many friends who were used to seeing it almost every
Sunday, I consented on Easter Day to go to the same place and pew.
The seat I occupied was not an advantageous one, a large brass
chandelier being between me and the lower panes of the window. In
the middle of the service my eyes, which had hardly once moved from
the left or north side of the window, were attracted by a bright
light formed like a female robed and hooded passing from north to
south with a rapid gliding motion outside the church apparently at
some distance. The window is Gothic, and I fancy, from 20 to 25
feet high, by 12 to 15 feet wide at the base. The panes through
which the ghost shines are about 5 feet high and about half-way
between the top and bottom. There are four divisions in the window,
all of stained glass, of no particular pattern, the outer on right
and left being of lighter colour than the two centre panes, and at
the edge of each runs a rim of plain transparent white glass, about
two inches wide, and adjoining the stone work. Through this rim,
especially, could be seen what looked like a form transparent, but
yet thick, (if such a term can be used) with light. It did not
resemble linen, for instance, but was far brighter, and would, no
doubt, have been dazzling to a near observer. The robe was long,
and trailed. The figure was of course not visible when it had
crossed the window and passed behind the wall. My friend whispered
to me that it would return, must return, and at the end of five
minutes or so, the same figure glided back from right to left,
having turned round while out of sight. About half an hour later it
again passed across from north to south, and having remained about
ten seconds only, returned with what I believe to have been the
figure of a young child, and stopped at the last pane but one,
where both vanished. I did not see the child again, but a few
seconds afterwards the woman reappeared, and completed the passage,
behind the last pane, very rapidly. Nothing more was seen during
the service, and no other opportunity presented itself to me for
making observations. During each time, the chandelier prevented me
from obtaining a complete view but there could be no doubt as to
the shape, a certain amount of indistinctness, however, being
caused by the stained glass. On the reappearance for the last time,
I saw the head, which was, I believe, that of the child, move up
and down distinctly, as if nodding. The figure shone with dazzling
brightness, and appeared to be at a considerable distance, say
thirty yards or so, though at the same time as distinct as
possible, considering the obstruction of coloured glass. Each time
the level upon which it glided was precisely the same, and
afterwards, on carrying a straight line from the spot in the
gallery where I sat, through the part of the glass where the feet
of the figure shone, and continuing that line (in my mind's eye,
with all the objects before me, except the ghost, whose position I
had taken good notice of), I found that it would traverse a thick
holly tree eight or nine feet high at about four feet from the
ground, and at two or three feet from the ground a low wall about
four feet high, and would reach the ground itself in the middle of
a gravel yard belonging to the back premises of the house, called
the vicarage, at a distance of twelve or fifteen yards from the
window. Any person walking between the window and the holly tree
would barely be seen at all, much less be seen in the place which
the apparition occupies; and any one on the further side of the
tree would be almost if not quite invisible on account of the holly
and other bushes and the dead wall. Any one about there at all can
easily be seen from the many houses on all sides.

"If it were a shadow thrown upon the glass of the window it would,
of course, be seen by those who sit in the body of the church as
well as those in the gallery.

"It cannot be a reflection on the principle of Pepper's Ghost,
which is produced by the figure actually being in a very strong
light and appearing reflected on glass in a darkish spot. The
lights both inside and outside of the church at York which might
be thought to produce the ghost, are precisely the reverse, and any
figure required to be reproduced by reflection on the east window
would have to be standing or walking in the centre of the aisle.

"For the above facts I can vouch, and I have no reason to believe
that the following are either incorrect or exaggerated.

"It is said to appear very frequently on Trinity Sunday, and to
bring two other figures on to the scene, another female, called the
nurse, and the child. It is often seen as distinctly on a dark,
rainy, or snowy day, as when the sun is shining. When I saw it the
sun was not bright.

"The motion is even, not at all jerky. Sometimes it glides swiftly;
at other times slowly. It cannot be a mere accidental reflection,
from a door or window, for instance, for the figure faces different
ways, according to the direction in which it is going; and it is
not always alone, nor do the figures always act in concert.

"One of my friends, with a companion, has watched outside on the
wall, where he had a full view of the whole place around, during
morning service. The ghost has been seen from the inside while
outside nothing was visible.

"It is said to have haunted the church for 150, 200, and some
authorities say 300 years, and there are many pretty legends
connected with it.

"One of the many traditions says that 300 years ago, during
religious disturbances, a party of soldiers came to sack the
convent attached to this church; that the abbess, a woman of great
virtue and courage, stopped them, as they were entering, declaring
that they should enter over her dead body only, and that, should
they succeed in their sacrilegious purpose, as they afterwards did,
her spirit would haunt the place until the true Church were
re-established, and a convent built on the same spot. Another story
relates that during the plague, some two hundred years ago, a
nurse and child died of the pestilence, and were necessarily buried
outside the city walls, while the unfortunate mother of the child,
at her death, was interred in Holy Trinity Churchyard. Here the
mother waits and receives the nurse and child, weeping and wringing
her hands before parting with them. The same scene is often enacted
several times during the same day, and even during the same
service.

"Whatever may have been the circumstances under which the ghost (if
it is one, which it is hard to believe in these matter-of-fact
days) commenced its peculiar promenade, I would recommend those who
have the chance to go to Holy Trinity Church, York, and see for
themselves, though an audience of the apparition cannot always be
assured. A ghost in broad daylight does no harm, frightens no one,
and ought to interest everybody.--I am, &c.,

"H. G. F. T."

Finally the Rector of Holy Trinity, York, intervened; he wrote to the "York Herald":--

"I think the time has come when it is perhaps necessary for me to
give a word of explanation in regard to this imaginary apparition.
The fact is simply this: Any one seated in the gallery of the
church which is at the west end, can see through the east window
any person, or persons, walking in the vicarage garden. The wall at
the east end of the church, below the east window, is too high to
allow anyone in the body of the church to see either the garden or
anyone in it. This fact explains at once the reason, how it is
absolutely necessary for anyone to be in the gallery in order to
see the 'ghost.' This is the real truth of the matter. What is seen
is not a 'ghost;' it is not a 'reflection,' but it is a living
being, or beings, walking in a garden. Of course the east window
being of stained glass and of a rather peculiar pattern, a distinct
form is not always visible. And I may say that this simple
explanation has been attested and verified over and over again both
by myself and others. One argument of proof is all, I think, that I
need give. The Vicarage House was at one time empty for about 12
months, during which time the 'ghost' was neither seen nor heard
of, and then it was let to a person with a large family; and on the
very first Sunday after the family took possession of the premises,
I was told by a simple-minded youth that the ghost had returned,
and five or six young ghosts with it. After what I have here
stated, I need hardly say that all the sensational matter in regard
to vivid lights, mother, nurse, and child, extraordinary displays
on Trinity Sunday, &c., &c., is as pure an invention as ever was
fabricated by a morbid imagination. And I will add that I sincerely
hope that the people of York will not take the advice of one of
your voluminous correspondents, and will not go to the church for
the mere purpose of seeing this purely imaginative ghost. I trust
that all who go will remember it is God's house, intended to be a
house of prayer, and not a place for gratifying an idle curiosity."

This letter called forth a sharp animadversion from another correspondent who signed himself "Novocastrensis," to which H. G. F. T. replied:--"I have read Mr. Gould's accounts since I saw the 'ghost,' and find that though they differ considerably in the details from my description, in the essential points they agree with and corroborate it. I should like to state here distinctly that the story was not adapted for my 'own' or any other's 'purpose' from 'Yorkshire Oddities,' but is an unprejudiced, and to the best of my belief, an unexaggerated and true account and description of what I myself saw. It is not my desire to raise a discussion, but the injustice implied in the letter is the excuse I urge for thus trespassing upon your space.--I am, &c.

"H. G. F. T.

"Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 6th May, 1876."

This provoked another letter from a fresh correspondent:--"SIR,--I was in York when the letters appeared in the _Chronicle_ and the _Journal_ about the ghost in Holy Trinity Church. A lady, a member of the congregation, who has frequently seen the ghost, gave me the following simple explanation. Opposite the window there is a cottage, in one of the windows of which there is a swing pane of glass. The tenant of the cottage can cause the ghost to appear and disappear at pleasure by simply opening and shutting it, thus causing reflected sunlight to fall on the church window:--I am, &c.,

"J. L.

"May 9th, 1876."

Another correspondent rushed into print:--"SIR,--though I am not one of those who can boast of having seen the York ghost, yet even to me the explanation published in today's _Journal_, in a letter signed 'J. L.,' seems utterly inadequate to explain the matter. The fact of a swing window opening and shutting might throw sunlight upon the church window, but it is perfectly clear that in such a case the reflection would not be confined perpetually to the same identical part of the window, the angles caused by the sun and the swing window being of course varied, according to the time of day. It strikes me that by those means the figures could not be reversed on their return as is always the case, according to the story. Again, the apparition is often seen in dull weather, when no sunbeam could be reflected. If the light were actually turned on to the stained glass, the congregation seated in the body of the church would be able to see it as well as those in the gallery, but they do not. I should like to see the matter explained. Yet a reason such as 'J. L.' gives for it is altogether unsatisfactory, and may be taken for what it is worth, which is not much, considering the evidence against him, and the fact that his information is only second-hand.--I am, &c.,

"R. H. H.

"Newcastle-on-Tyne."