The Society for the Investigation of Spectral Phenomena
Furrow-Hound: Memoir of a Child at Kingsley Hall
Kingsley Hall, manor house, Bristol, Bristol
![Kingsley Hall, Bristol, UK. Listed Grade II* [1]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Kingsley_Hall.jpg/1280px-Kingsley_Hall.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
I.Background & History
Kingsley Hall stands at 59 Old Market Street in Old Market, Bristol, and is a listed building. The Society's dossier gives no more than this, together with the plain fact that it lies in the eastern quarter of the city, close to the course of the former castle precinct.
The ground around it is among the most thickly built-over in Bristol. Within a few hundred yards lie the sites of Bristol Castle and of several friaries, together with the ruins of Temple Church, and the earth of the district has been broken and refilled through many centuries. Of the hall's own earlier history the Society holds no verified particulars, and none are offered here.
II.The Entity
The Furrow-Hound
A big, rough-coated drover's dog, black along the back and grey at the muzzle as if powdered with chalk, which is never seen to move. It is found lying on the surface, dry and cold, in whatever place it was last buried deep. Its coat smells of turned earth, and its paws are clogged with a pale yellow clay that is not found anywhere in Bristol.
Assessment of Peril
Class III: Hostile
The hound has never bitten anyone, but each burial leaves it lying closer to the sleeping rooms, and each time it lies a little more like a crouching man than a dog. Those who bury it are afterwards troubled by an unshakable certainty that they are being dug for in return.
III.The Account
I was eight years old in the spring of 1916, and I set this down at the Society's request in my seventy-sixth year, being now the last of my family. My father was gone to France, and my mother and my brother Tom, who was seventeen and not yet called, kept rooms in Kingsley Hall, where my mother took in sewing. In March a drover's dog was found dead in the yard, no one's dog, a great black beast with a grey face. Tom dug a hole behind the water butt and put it down a full yard deep, and my mother said that was the end of it. In the morning it lay on the flags of the passage, dry as a loaf, with its paws turned in.
Tom carried it to the waste ground beyond the market and buried it deeper, under a cartload of rubble. It was lying on the kitchen step by breakfast. He buried it in the churchyard wall, he buried it in the lime, he paid a man with a boat to sink it in the harbour mud with a paving stone tied to its neck. Each time the dog was clean when it came back, and the rope was gone, and I noticed that the yellow clay on its feet never changed. It was not our clay. My mother scrubbed the step every day with her mouth shut tight.
IV.Recorded Manifestations
- ✦A dry carcass of a large black dog, found each dawn on the surface of the ground, however deep it was buried the evening before.
- ✦Pale yellow clay of a kind unknown in Bristol, smeared upon steps, thresholds and the soles of sleepers' feet.
- ✦A slow, comfortable shifting beneath floorboards in the hours before light.
- ✦A smell of freshly turned earth in rooms where no earth is to be found.
- ✦Fresh pits found in yards and cellars of the district, dug to a man's height, with the diggers sitting in them unable to say who set them to the work.
Testimony of Witnesses
“"I sank him in nine foot of mud with a stone on him. When I stood in that kitchen I could see he had gone on from there, further down than any man can, and had come up the long way.”
“"The widow came to us with a boot in a cloth and begged that someone tell her what weight a dog might be when it was first laid in the ground. I could tell her nothing. Her hands were quite steady, and that frightened me more than anything.”
“"We broke up the passage floor at Kingsley Hall to lay a new one. Under the third slab was a hollow the shape of a large dog curled round, quite clean, and warm to the hand. I made the men put the slab back, and we left it so."”
V.Rite of Expulsion
Difficulty: Perilous
Requisites
- ☐A new spade that has never touched the soil
- ☐A bowl of clean water drawn before sunrise
- ☐A drover's cord of plaited hemp
- ☐A tallow candle, unlit
- ☐A child's boot, laced
The Rite
- I.1. On a night of no moon, lay the carcass upon the surface of the ground in the yard, and do not bury it.
- II.2. Set the bowl of water at its head and the laced boot at its feet, and stand to the east with the new spade upright in the earth.
- III.3. At the stroke of two, light the candle and speak the name of the nearest absent soldier of the household aloud, three times, and no other name.
- IV.4. Bind the forelegs with the hemp cord, in a plain knot that you could undo with your eyes shut.
- V.5. Pour the water over the hound's muzzle and say that it has been fetched home and may now lie down.
- VI.6. Quench the candle with the fingers, not the breath, and leave the yard without turning your head, whatever you hear stir behind you.
Caution. The Society records that Mr. A. Fenn, who was sent to conduct this rite in 1923, completed the sixth step and then looked back. He was found at sunrise standing in the yard with his feet buried to the ankle in yellow clay, and we are told that he has never since been willing to sit upon the ground.
VI.Hauntings of the Surrounding District
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Castlemead · Castle · 0.2 miles
The Moat-Cooper, spectre. A hooded figure is heard hammering hoops onto barrels in the dry ditch, and those who follow the sound find the staves laid out in the shape of a body.
Blackfriars · Abbey · 0.3 miles
The Hooded Almoner's Train, phantom procession. At vespers a line of dark friars is seen passing silently through the wall with their hands held out empty, and whoever drops a coin finds it hot an hour later.
Bristol Castle · Castle · 0.3 miles
The Drawbridge Sentinel, headless apparition. A mailed man stands at the sunken gate with his helm held under his arm, and it is said his lips move still in the hollow of the steel.
Temple Church · Ruins · 0.4 miles
The Leaning Weaver, unclassified entity. Something tall and thread-thin is glimpsed against the crooked tower in the dusk, and passers-by find their sleeves unravelled when they reach home.
Austin Friary · Abbey · 0.4 miles
The Salt-Lipped Sister, white lady. A pale woman is seen on the site of the friary with her mouth crusted white as with brine, and she is heard asking for water in a language nobody has spoken for centuries.
Sack Friary · Abbey · 0.4 miles
The Sackcloth Ewe, spectral animal. A grey ewe wrapped in a rough hood wanders the paths at night, and any who lead it home find the door of their own house standing open on a stranger's table.
St James' Presbyterian Church of England · Ruins · 0.5 miles
The Empty-Pew Sitter, revenant. A bearded man in Sunday black sits through the evening in the roofless nave, and each year he is seen a pew nearer the door.
St Jude's Church · Church · 0.1 miles
The Tallow Girl, poltergeist. Candles in the church gutter and burn blue without being lit, and a child's footprints in melted wax cross the aisle toward the font.
Central Quaker Meeting House · Church · 0.2 miles
The Silent Gathering, phantom procession. On wet Sundays a line of plain-clad figures files into the meeting house in perfect hush, and the number sitting down is always one more than the number who came in.
St Philip and St Jacob · Church · 0.2 miles
The Rope-Burned Bellman, spectre. A ringer with raw palms is seen in the tower stair at midnight, and bells are heard though no ropes hang.
Horfield United Reformed Church · Church · 0.2 miles
The Hymn-Board Boy, poltergeist. The numbers on the board change themselves each night to a hymn that was never sung there, and the pages of the books are found wet.
St Nicholas of Tolentino Church · Church · 0.3 miles
The Dove-Breasted Nun, white lady. A veiled woman is seen kneeling in the porch with something pale fluttering at her breast, and it does not rise when she stands.
Trinity Centre · Church · 0.3 miles
The Gallery Drummer, poltergeist. A slow roll of drumming comes from the sealed upper gallery at dusk, and it keeps time with the pulse of whoever listens longest.
St Peter's Hospital · Hospital · 0.4 miles
The Night-Sister of Ward Nine, spectre. A nurse in a starched cap moves between the cots after midnight, tucking each sleeper in with great tenderness, and those she tucks do not wake.
Stapleton Road Chapel · Church · 0.4 miles
The Harmonium Widow, possession. A woman in mourning sits at the silent instrument and plays on, and anyone who sits beside her afterward hums her tune in their sleep for the rest of their days.
