The Society for the Investigation of Spectral Phenomena
Sermon Papers Written Beside the Standing Water
St Anthony's Hospital, hospital, North Cheam, London
I.Background & History
St Anthony's Hospital stands in North Cheam, formerly in the county of Surrey and now within the London Borough of Sutton, at the junction of the A24 and Gander Green Lane. It is today a private hospital in the Spire Healthcare group.
It was formerly owned and operated by the Daughters of the Cross of Liege, a Roman Catholic religious order. Beyond these facts the Society holds no certain record of the building's earlier fabric, and none is claimed here.
II.The Entity
The Font-Sister
A tall religious in a sodden habit, her white wimple heavy and dark at the hem, who stands in any water deeper than a finger-joint. Her face is always turned from the observer, and where she has stood the water holds a faint warmth and a smell of wet wool. Those who look into the pooled water beside her see, not her reflection, but a second corridor of the hospital, lit and empty.
Assessment of Peril
Class IV: Malignant
The entity draws the sick and the sleepless toward standing water, and three persons are recorded as lost to it. It is attentive to anyone who writes of it, and its notice, once fixed, has not been turned.
III.The Account
The notes that follow were found folded inside a volume of sermons belonging to the Rev. Mr. Edmund Tarrant, who ministered to the Anglican patients of the district during the late war. They are written in the margins and on the versos of his sermon-sheets, and the Society has transcribed them in order. The first, dated October 1941, is plain: 'Preached on Naaman and Jordan. Visited the sisters at St Anthony's. Water standing in the lower corridor after no rain, a hand's depth, perfectly still. Sister Bernadette said it came up in the night and was gone by Lauds. Mopped it myself. It was warm.'
By the winter the hand is less steady. 'Sermon on the Gadarene swine, which I could not finish. The water returns each night to the same place, before the door of the linen room, and the drains below are dry. I held a lamp to it. There is a shape in the floor of it, which I took for a reflection, but the ceiling it showed had lamps of a pattern I have never seen. Sister Agnes will not enter the corridor. She says a sister walks there whose hem drips, and that she is always going toward the water, never away.'
In the spring of 1942 the sermons cease and only the notes remain. 'I have no sermon. I have written the word Jordan nine times. A night orderly, Pike, was found at dawn kneeling in the standing water with his eyes open and his hands joined, and the water about his knees was cold as a well. He has not spoken. The sister stands in it now when I look; I have not seen her face. I notice that she is nearer each time I write of her. I notice that she has begun to turn.'
IV.Recorded Manifestations
- ✦Water standing a hand's depth in dry corridors, warm to the touch, with no source and no drain.
- ✦A smell of wet wool and cold incense before the water appears.
- ✦Reflections in the pooled surface showing a different, empty hospital corridor.
- ✦Patients who rise in their sleep and are found kneeling in the water with joined hands.
- ✦The sound of a heavy wet hem dragged over stone, always approaching.
- ✦Small pale shapes turning slowly beneath the surface, which dissolve when disturbed.
Testimony of Witnesses
“It comes up in the night and is gone by Lauds. I have mopped it, and it was warm, as though someone had lately stood in it.”
“I saw her in the water, sir, to the knee. She was not in the water. The water was in her. I was kneeling before I knew I had been called.”
“I am a sceptic and will remain one on paper. But I have measured that water at ninety-eight degrees on a night of frost, and I do not go below stairs after dark.”
V.Rite of Expulsion
Difficulty: Perilous
Requisites
- ☐A china basin of water drawn before sunrise
- ☐A rush candle
- ☐Seven white linen strips
- ☐A sprig of dry rosemary
- ☐A small bell of plain iron
The Rite
- I.1. Enter the lower corridor at the first stroke of three, when the water is shallowest, and carry nothing that is wet.
- II.2. Set the basin upon dry floor and light the candle beside it, never within the standing water.
- III.3. Tie the seven linen strips to the nearest rail, one at each stroke of the bell.
- IV.4. Read the Naaman text aloud, but stop at the sixth reading and do not speak the seventh.
- V.5. Pour the basin onto the standing water without looking down at it.
- VI.6. Walk backward from the corridor, the bell ringing, and do not turn until a dry door is behind you.
Caution. Do not look into the water at any time. Mr. Tarrant read the seventh time, and the Society's last officer to enter the corridor looked down; he was found kneeling, dry to the skin, with his hands joined.
VI.Hauntings of the Surrounding District
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Morden Cemetery · Cemetery · 0.9 miles
The Barrow-Mourners, phantom procession. Hooded figures push empty handcarts between the graves at dusk, and stop when one is seen counting them.
St Alban's · Church · 1.0 miles
The Candle-Snuffer of St Alban's, spectre. A stooped sexton extinguishes lights one by one down the aisle, and the congregation's own breath is next.
Lumley Chapel · Church · 1.3 miles
Squire Harrow's Return, revenant. A landowner lies on his own tomb each Advent, and is found warmer each year.
Nonsuch Mansion · Manor House · 1.5 miles
The Park Stag, spectral animal. A white stag with human eyes stands beneath the windows and is never seen to breathe.
All Saints Church · Church · 1.3 miles
The Pew-Rapper, poltergeist. Knocking moves from pew to pew toward whoever remains behind, and stops at their shoulder.
Secombe Theatre · Old Theatre · 1.6 miles
The Stalls Usher, headless apparition. A headless figure in livery shows patrons to seats that were sold to no one.
Trinity Church · Church · 1.6 miles
The Hymn-Board Hand, unclassified entity. Numbers change on the board overnight, and each series is the date of a death in the parish.
St Nicholas Church · Church · 1.6 miles
The Lych-Lantern, will-o'-the-wisp. A blue light bobs along the path to the porch and leads the unwary toward the open grave.
St Mary's Church · Church · 2.1 miles
The Lady of the Lectern, white lady. A pale woman reads from the Bible in a language no one knows, and her listeners forget their names.
St Lawrence Church · Church · 1.1 miles
The Vestry Mastiff, phantom hound. A large dog's panting is heard behind the vestry door, and claw-marks appear on the inside.
Malden Manor · Manor House · 1.8 miles
The Dairymaid's Habit, possession. A servant of the house speaks in a stranger's voice and milks cows long since sold.
Chessington Hall · Manor House · 1.9 miles
The Gallery Bride, spectre. A woman in a rotting veil is glimpsed at upper windows, and her hands are always pressed to the glass.
Fitznells Manor · Manor House · 2.4 miles
The Reeve of Fitznells, revenant. A bailiff walks the boundary at night, counting those who have trespassed, and stops before the sleepers' door.
St Helier Hospital · Hospital · 1.6 miles
The Ward Sister's Rounds, spectre. A figure in starched cap checks each bed in darkness, and those she touches grow cold by morning.
St James's Church · Church · 1.8 miles
The Lantern Bearers, phantom procession. Silent mourners carry a coffin lid through the nave, and the lid bears the name of one in the congregation.
