The Society for the Investigation of Spectral Phenomena
Marginalia in Mr. Hobday's Bill of Works
Arundel Blackfriars, abbey, Arundel, West Sussex
I.Background & History
Arundel Blackfriars, otherwise the Dominican Priory at Arundel in West Sussex, was a friary of the Dominican Order. Its foundation preceded 1253, in which year Saint Richard, bishop of Chichester, mentioned it in his will. It remained small and poor throughout its history, and was dissolved in 1538, when it held five friars.
The Society can vouch for nothing further of its fabric. What follows is the Society's record of a later builder's dealings with its remains, and is not to be mistaken for the history of the place.
Source: Arundel Blackfriars, Wikipedia
II.The Entity
The Ruddle Hand
Nothing is seen but the work of a hand: items entered in the red ruddle that masons use to mark stone, in a small, level, clerkly script. They appear in the margins of any bill, specification or measure-book left open within the precinct. The ruddle is always fresh and stains the finger. The sums are correct to the farthing, and the charges are for work not yet done.
Assessment of Peril
Class IV: Malignant
Every item the Hand has charged has been discharged, and each was a burial, a coffin or a stone for a named person who was alive when it was entered. It has never been known to err in a name, a sum or an hour.
III.The Account
In the summer of 1819 Mr. Nathaniel Hobday, master mason and builder of Arundel, contracted to make safe what stood of the friary, and he kept a bill of works in the careful form of his trade: so many perches of flint walling, so many bushels of lime, a footing underpinned, a gable shored. His grandson gave the bill to the Society in 1874, and it forms the substance of this file. On the eleventh day his men broke into a vaulted space beneath the north range and found it bare. The floor was swept clean and the walls were limewashed white, though no whitewash had touched the place in three centuries. Upon the plaster, at a height a man might reach, ran a single row of mason's marks in red ruddle. His labourers were uneasy in the place, and declined to eat their dinners near it.
On the Monday Mr. Hobday opened his bill to enter the week's account and found a line in the margin that he had not written. 'Item. To digging one grave, six feet by two, for Wm. Dacre, hodman, to be ready Wednesday, 2s. 6d.' The ruddle was wet and came away red on his thumb. The sum was in the proper column, and the hand had ruled its own lines beneath. Dacre, who was in rude health, was crushed on the Wednesday beneath a falling lintel. The same afternoon the sexton, who had received no order, found the grave already opened in the churchyard at the exact size and without a footprint beside it.
IV.Recorded Manifestations
- ✦Items entered in red ruddle in the margin of any bill, measure-book or register left open in the precinct, ruled and summed correctly.
- ✦A smell of wet limewash in rooms that have not been whitewashed.
- ✦Charges that name a grave, a coffin or a stone for a person still living, and never miss the day.
- ✦Red marks on the finger of whoever has touched a page the Hand has used, which do not wash away until the entry is fulfilled.
- ✦Graves found already dug in the churchyard to a stranger's measurements.
Testimony of Witnesses
“"It charges me for the digging. It has never charged me for the writing. I believe it considers the writing a courtesy."”
“"I put the vestry accounts down on the wall to straighten my back, and when I took them up there was a sum in the margin for a coffin. I did not care to learn whose."”
“"I saw a stub of red chalk standing upright on the page without a hand to it, and the page was very quiet, like a thing being listened to."”
V.Rite of Expulsion
Difficulty: Perilous
Requisites
- ☐A bill of works left entirely blank and ruled in black
- ☐A bowl of slaked lime mixed with spring water
- ☐A new mason's trowel
- ☐A length of white linen
- ☐A candle of unscented beeswax
The Rite
- I.1. Enter the precinct at noon, carrying no pen, pencil, chalk or ruddle, and speak to no one on the way.
- II.2. Lay the ruled bill upon the lowest step of the north range and open it flat with a stone at each corner.
- III.3. Mix the lime in the bowl and spread it with the trowel across the whole of the first page, leaving no mark visible.
- IV.4. Read aloud the names of the five friars of 1538, which are to be had from the Society, pausing the space of a slow breath between each.
- V.5. Fold the linen over the page, light the candle, and let it burn for exactly as long as it takes the lime to dry.
- VI.6. Leave the bill beneath its linen and depart without looking behind you, and do not read any word that you find written on your own hands.
Caution. Do not unfold the linen to see whether the page is clean. The Society's officer Mr. Aldous Crewe unfolded it in 1902 and was found eleven days later, seated and composed, his fingers red to the knuckle and every page of his pocket-book ruled for a sum.
VI.Hauntings of the Surrounding District
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Arundel Castle · Castle · 0.2 miles
The Rampart Muster, phantom procession. Armoured men file along the battlements at dusk, and one fewer comes down the stair than went up.
Trinity Congregational Church · Church · 0.1 miles
The Pew-Cobbler, spectre. A stooped man in a leather apron sits at the back of the gallery mending a shoe, and turns to look at whoever sits beside him.
Slayer's Slab · Tomb · 1.4 miles
The Slab-Sleeper, revenant. Whoever rests a hand upon the stone at midnight feels it warm slowly, as though something beneath were turning over.
Arundel Priory · Church · 0.2 miles
Sister Candlemas, white lady. A pale nun passes the priory wall with a taper that gives no light, and the lane behind her is found darker by morning.
Fitzalan Chapel · Church · 0.2 miles
The Marble Whippet, spectral animal. A lean grey dog is heard on the chapel flags, and the effigies are found each dawn turned a little towards the door.
Arundel Cathedral · Church · 0.3 miles
The Vestry Knocker, poltergeist. Three slow knocks sound within the locked sacristy cupboards, and each night they come from a lower shelf.
Arundel and District Hospital · Hospital · 0.6 miles
The Ward Matron, spectre. A starched woman walks the corridor at three in the morning, straightening the sheets of beds already empty.
Poling Preceptory · Templar Preceptory · 1.9 miles
The Knight of the Cut Cord, headless apparition. A white-mantled rider crosses the field with his neck bound in a rope, and calls the names of those who will follow him.
Lyminster Priory · Abbey · 1.4 miles
The Marsh Almoner, will-o'-the-wisp. A small yellow light hovers on the water-meadow path as though offering alms, and draws the traveller into the reeds.
South Marsh Mill · Old Mill · 0.6 miles
The Millstone Dog, phantom hound. A shaggy black beast pads about the mill by night with a sound of grinding teeth, and is never seen to cross the threshold.
St Mary Magdalene's Church · Church · 1.7 miles
The Borrowed Choirboy, possession. A boy of the parish sings in a man's voice at dusk, in a tongue the clerk cannot name, and wakes with no memory of it.
St Nicholas Church · Church · 2.3 miles
The Gravedigger's Fellow, revenant. A pale labourer opens fresh ground at dusk, and the grave he digs is always found to fit the next mourner.
St Mary the Virgin's Church · Church · 2.3 miles
The Chancel Damp, unclassified entity. A black stain spreads up the north wall each Advent in the outline of a kneeling figure, and is found a little taller each year.
St Mary's Church · Church · 3.1 miles
The Lady of the Lych-gate, white lady. A veiled woman stands beneath the roof of the gate with her back to the road, and whoever greets her is not seen again in the village.
Littlehampton Friends Meeting House · Church · 3.1 miles
The Silent Elder, spectre. A grey figure rises from the bench at the close of Meeting and points at one member of the congregation, who does not see the following spring.
