where the figure appeared. The floor in one corner was very uneven, and a day or two ago Mrs. Wilson took up the bricks, with the intention of relaying them. When she had taken them up she perceived a disagreeable smell. Her suspicions being aroused, she called her husband, and the two commenced a minute examination. With a stick three or four bones were soon turned over, together with a gold ring and several pieces of old black silk. All these had evidently been buried in quicklime, the bones and silk having obviously been burned therewith. The search after this was not further prosecuted, but a quantity of sand introduced and the floor levelled again. Dr. Gay, to whom the bones were submitted, stated that they were undoubtedly human, but he believed them to be nearly one hundred years old.
A GHOST MYSTERY Now it happened, whilst we were at Boston, that we purchased a copy of the Standard of 13th September 1897. On glancing over this our eyes caught sight of the following further and later particulars of this haunted dwelling, now exalted into "The Lincolnshire Ghost Mystery." The account brought up to date ran thus:—
A Lincoln Correspondent writes: "Despite all efforts, the
Lincolnshire ghost mystery still remains unravelled. That the
noises nightly heard cannot be ascribed to rats has been amply
demonstrated, and other suggestions when acted upon likewise
fail to elucidate the matter. All over the country the affair has
excited the greatest interest, and two London gentlemen have
written asking for permission to stay a night in the house. Other
letters have been received from 'clairvoyants' asking for pieces
of the silk or one of the bones discovered under the floor, whilst
a London clergyman has written advising Mrs. Wilson to bury the
bones in consecrated ground, then, he says, 'the ghostly visitor
will trouble you no longer." The owner of the house in question—a
farmstead at Halton Holgate, near Spilsby—has tried to throw
discredit on the whole affair, but such efforts have failed, and it
now transpires that the house was known to be haunted fully
thirty years ago."
