The Society for the Investigation of Spectral Phenomena
Dr. Ashworth's Notes on the Glass-Dwellers of Whitby
St John's Church, church, Whitby, North Yorkshire
I.Background & History
St John's Church is an Anglican church in Whitby, a town in North Yorkshire, in England. It stands in the western part of the town, within a short walk of the harbour and of the headland where Whitby Abbey rises against the sky.
The Society holds few further particulars of the fabric of the building, and the Recording Secretary declines to supply what the record does not warrant. It is a town church of the ordinary sort, set among streets of houses and neighbouring chapels, and it is the account below, not its architecture, that draws the Society's attention.
II.The Entity
The Pane-Walker
A tall figure in a long wet coat that appears solely in reflecting surfaces: dark window-glass, the brass of the font-cover, a pool of rain on the flagstones. It stands always a little behind the observer's own reflection, face turned away, and in every sighting it stands one pace nearer than before. No trace of it is ever found in the room itself, though those who have seen it report that it casts a reflected shadow upon the floor that is not there.
Assessment of Peril
Class IV: Malignant
The entity advances a pace with each sighting, and the afflicted have been found, without exception, in a state of collapse or entirely vanished from their lodgings once it stood beside them in the glass. Its attention fastens upon any who remark upon it to another.
III.The Account
The case was brought to the Society in the winter of 1962 by Dr. Lionel Ashworth, a physician of Whitby, who deposited with us eleven notebooks. The earliest entries are clinical and brief. In October 1953, he attended a Mrs. Verity Cowl, forty-one, a sexton's widow who cleaned St John's, complaining of sleeplessness. 'Patient states that she sees a man standing behind her in the church windows after dusk. Turned, found no one. Prescribed bromide and rest. Nervous exhaustion, in my judgement.'
By 1955 he had nine such patients, every one of them a parishioner or a person who had sat late at some office in that church. The notes lose their composure. 'All describe the same figure. A long coat, running with water. Head bowed, face averted. Visible in window-glass, the polished lectern, a basin of water left in the vestry. Not one of them has seen it directly. I tested this myself on the fourth of March with a hand-mirror and a lamp. I did not see it. I saw, however, that my own reflection was standing very slightly to the left of where I was.' Beneath this he has written, and struck through, 'It has begun to take an interest in me.'
The later entries are written in a failing hand. Mrs. Cowl was found in 1958 seated before her bedroom window, eyes open, the curtains drawn back on a black pane. 'She is not marked. But the glass was wet on the inside.' A curate, Mr. Edmund Rudd, covered every mirror in the vicarage and took to bathing in the dark, yet Dr. Ashworth records that the figure then appeared in the surface of his tea. In the notebook for 1961 appears a note on a page otherwise blank: 'It is now at the length of an arm. Face still turned. I do not dare to look in the glass to see whether it has turned the face.'
IV.Recorded Manifestations
- ✦A tall figure in a wet coat glimpsed in dark windows, always standing behind the observer's own reflection
- ✦Reflections that stand slightly out of true with the body that casts them
- ✦Window-glass found damp on the inside after the afflicted have been in the room
- ✦Standing water in basins, fonts and puddles that shows a figure where the room shows none
- ✦A reflected shadow upon the floor where no shadow falls
- ✦Afflicted persons who cover mirrors, then find the figure in tea, spoons and the lenses of spectacles
Testimony of Witnesses
“"He is stood behind me in the glass of the north window every evening, sir, with the water running off his coat. I turn about and there is only the pew. But the glass is wet, sir. On the inside of it, the glass is wet."”
“"I have shrouded every mirror in the house and it has gone into the teacup. I may not drink. I may not wash. I should like the Society to tell me how near it is. I think you will not tell me."”
“"I reset the vestry window myself, new glass, new putty. It was there the same night, closer than at the old pane. It does not live in the glass, sir. It comes through it."”
V.Rite of Expulsion
Difficulty: Perilous
Requisites
- ☐Every mirror and window of the affected room, shrouded in unbleached linen
- ☐A bowl of salt water, held beneath the level of the eye
- ☐One tallow candle, lit and shielded from every reflecting surface
- ☐A plain wooden chair with its back to the window
- ☐A clean slate and a piece of chalk
The Rite
- I.1. Begin at the hour of dusk and shroud every reflecting surface in the room, leaving no bright metal exposed.
- II.2. Seat the afflicted with his back to the window, and permit no one to stand behind him.
- III.3. Light the candle and set the bowl of salt water before him, but forbid him to look into it.
- IV.4. Write upon the slate the name of the afflicted, and beneath it the words 'Thou art not here', and read them aloud thrice without lifting the eyes.
- V.5. Remove the linen from the window only, and keep every gaze fixed upon the slate.
- VI.6. Extinguish the candle at the stroke of midnight and pour the water across the threshold in a single motion.
- VII.7. Leave the room backwards and do not look into any glass until the next sunrise.
Caution. At no point in the rite may any person look at a reflection. Mr. Tarrant of this Society glanced once into the bowl at the fourth step and was thereafter found each morning at the window, facing out, lips moving. The Society does not recommend the rite.
VI.Hauntings of the Surrounding District
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Abbey Stables · Abbey · 0.4 miles
The Hay-Cart Drovers, phantom procession. Silent men leading a laden cart across the stable yard at midnight, its wheels leaving no mark in the frost.
Abbey House · Abbey · 0.4 miles
The Bell-Pull Maid, poltergeist. Servants' bells ring in an empty house, and each pull of the cord is found to be warm to the touch.
Whitby Abbey Cross · Abbey · 0.4 miles
The Cross-Foot Heron, spectral animal. A great grey bird stands at the cross's base each dusk, and those who pass it find their shadows gone before they reach home.
Whitby Abbey · Abbey · 0.4 miles
The Veiled Cantor, white lady. A pale figure sings in the ruined choir with her face hidden, and the song grows louder the nearer the listener is to death.
St Hilda's Church · Church · a few paces
The Pew-Rent Collector, spectre. A thin clerk in rusty black walks the aisle gathering coin from empty pews, and a tally of the living is taken at his passing.
Brunswick Methodist Church · Church · a few paces
Brother Hymnbook, revenant. A lay preacher who left his grave with his page still marked, and who stands behind a pulpit whose Bible has no words.
Bagdale Hall · Manor House · a few paces
The Gable Merchant, headless apparition. A shipowner in a fine coat walks the upper gallery with his hat held out where his head should be.
St Ninian's Church · Church · a few paces
The Lantern-Knot, will-o'-the-wisp. A small blue flame hovers above the graves and leads night-walkers toward the cliff edge.
Whitby Hospital · Hospital · 0.1 miles
The Ward-Sister's Hand, possession. Patients wake to find their hands arranging the bedclothes of the neighbouring bed with careful, unfamiliar tenderness.
Flowergate Old Chapel · Church · 0.1 miles
The Chapel-Door Cur, phantom hound. A rough-coated dog lies against the locked chapel door, and passers-by hear it breathing a full minute after it has gone.
Whitby Cemetery · Cemetery · 0.8 miles
The Lamp-Trimmer, spectre. A stooped man tends the cemetery lamps in the small hours, and the flames he trims burn with no heat at all.
Whitby Quaker Meeting House · Church · 0.2 miles
The Silent Elder, unclassified entity. In the meeting house a presence sits unmoved while all others fall still, and whoever meets its eye cannot afterwards speak above a whisper.
St Hilda's Church · Church · 0.3 miles
The Gull-Winder, spectral animal. A white gull perches on the roof-ridge on the nights before a drowning, and turns its head all the way round.
Seamen's Hospital · Hospital · 0.3 miles
The Pensioned Mate, revenant. An old mariner in a shore-going coat asks the hour of the tide and, when told, is seen to weep seawater.
St Patrick's Church · Church · 0.4 miles
The Lamp-Black Mourners, phantom procession. Figures in sooty crape pass the doors at dawn bearing an empty bier, and that house will soon require it.
