I dug deep, deep into my soul to find the heart, the love, the tenderness. I could not stand to be unquiet with a shrieking spirit whose howls made my blood run cold. After growing increasingly uncomfortable in the rain, I returned home late. The vibrations of every word uttered still echoed in the ether. The evening was so dreary that I earnestly just wanted to have a warm meal in the dining room in front of the fireplace. I went down into the kitchen, in search of supper, all the rest of the household having retired long before. Even more astoundingly, perhaps, I suddenly found myself walking down a hallway completely unrecognizable to me. Everything seemed quiet. When I reached the front parlor, I distinctly saw the tall, beautiful lady, with long fair hair, wearing a blue Tudor-style dress walk across the kitchen. I could faintly smell her apple scented perfume. She gazed forlornly out the window. Thinking it was one of the maids, I spoke to her, but the figure vanished into thin air, and a search discovered nothing at all. Mr. Hansen, however, described how he saw a man in the stable-yard, and, under the impression that he was some unauthorized visitor to the Servants’ Hall, asked him what he was doing there. As he approached the man, darkness closed in around him, so did the cold, and so did two and then four blue and green orbs. The man “vanished” without a reply. After about a minute, Mr. Hansen retuned to his group. His hands were stiff and icy cold and he was physically shivering from a bone numbing chill he had just experienced, although the farm fields were lush with summer crops. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6

Such a place as this have never existed before in all our long bloody history. Never such a place as this—full of mythologies of dead gods and lexicons of evil and demons invented by aggrieved souls. Its prominent appearance presupposes the supernatural.  Llanada Villa is densely overshowed by trees, and the chief entrances to it, by the ancient wrought-iron gate back and front, are, and long have been, closed, the usual approach being by the stable-yard on the west side. This singular disuse of the entrances originally planned has itself given rise to many fantastic legends. Llanada Villa hails a new revelation that comes to our minds and our souls, wed as they are to flesh, living flesh, a revelation rising out of the pain and thirsts of the hearts lost souls. Every time I enter my home, I feel a great shudder pass through me. It is almost, almost, the very concept of life beyond the veil. There, against the dark woods where men tremble and pray to the God some were about to meet, was a golden cross and what appeared to be several gold stars hovering above and to the right of it. One of my butler’s had a daughter who lived here on the estate. She was six years old. In the small hours of the morning, when dawn was making things clear, the child, waking up, saw a little old woman scratching with her fingers against the wall, close to the fireplace. She was not at all frightened at first, but sat up to look at her. The noise she made in doing this caused the old woman to look round, and she came to the foot of the bed, and, grasping the rail with her hands, stared at the child long and fixedly. So horrible was her stare that the child was terrified. Later that day, the sheriff found her wandering in a rainstorm, shivering and crying, and saying she was afraid to go home. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6

On a fine summer evening, the servants returned to the Servants Hall for the night. One of the housemaids felt that the heat was still so great that she could not seep, and having fastened her window, she did not close the shutters—in that very quiet place it was not necessary—and, propped against the pillows, she still watched the wonderful, the marvelous beauty of that summer night. Gradually she became aware of a looming figure approaching the entrance gate. As it drew closer, it was fixed in a dark substance, a definite ghastly something, which seemed ever moment to become nearer, increasing in size and substance as it approached. Every now and then it was lost for a moment in the long shadows which stretched across the lawn from the trees, and then it emerged larger than ever, and still coming on—on. As she watched it, the most uncontrollable horror seized her. It was a man on a horse, dressed like a Confederate officer. She longed to get away, but the door was locked on the inside, and while she was unlocking it, she must be for an instant near to it. She longed to scream, but her voice seemed paralyzed, her tongue glued to the roof of her mouth. Suddenly, she could never explain why afterwards, the terrible object on the horse seemed to turn to one side, seemed to be going round the house, not to be coming to her at all, and immediately she jumped out of bed and rushed to the door, but as she was unlocking it, she heard scratch, scratch, scratch upon the window, and saw a hideous ghostly figure upon a horse with flaming eyes glaring in at her. She quickly got back to the bed, but the creature continued to scratch upon the window. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6

A severe thunderstorm had developed, and the creature continued to scratch upon the window. The housemaid felt a sort of mental comfort in the knowledge that the window was securely fastened on the inside, as the rain continued to pour.  Suddenly, the scratching sound ceased, but the wind blew then rain inside the room, she could hear it dropping on the floor as the wind howled and the shutters slammed against the wall. In her agony, a long bony finger tapped on her shoulder. Her terror was so great that she could not scream. It twisted its long, bony fingers into her hair, and it dragged her head over the side of the bed, and—it bit her violently in the throat. As it bit her, her voice was released, and she screamed with all her might and main. The other servants rushed out of their rooms, but the door was locked on the inside. A moment was lost while they got a poker and broke it open. Then the creature had already escaped through the window, and the housemaid, was bleeding profusely from a wound in the throat, was lying unconscious over the side of her bed. One servant pursued the creature, which feld before him on horseback, and he shouted, “If I catch you, I’ll bend this pistol over your skull!” However, the creature galloped off in the moonlight and seemed to disappear over the wrought-iron gate. The servant quickly rejoined the others at the housemaid’s bedside. She was dreadfully heart, and her wound was a very definite one, but she was of a strong disposition, and when she came to herself she said, “What has happened is most extraordinary and I am very much hurt. It seems inexplicable, but of course there is an explanation, and we must wait for it. It will then turn out that a lunatic has escaped from some asylum and found his way here.” #RandolphHarris 4 of 6

The wound healed, and she appeared to get well, but the doctor who was sent for to her would not believe that she could bear so terrible a shock so easily, and insisted that she must have a change, mental and physical; so I sent her to England. She became involved in all the interests of the country. The house which she let was a single story. This time the housemaid always closed her shutters. After a year abroad, the housemaid returned. The winter passed most peacefully and happily. In the following April, the housemaid was awakened by a sound she remembered only too well—scratch, scratch, scratch upon the window, and, looking up, she saw, climbed up to the topmost pane of the window, the same hideous creature, with glaring eyes, looking in at her. This time she screamed as loud as she could. The servants rushed out of their rooms with postils, and out the front door.  But all of the blood had been drawn out of the housemaids veins, and the creature was already riding away across the lawn on horseback. The next day the servants summoned all the others servants. They patrolled all 747 acres of land that I owned and found a cavern that led to an underground vault. A horrible scene revealed itself. The vault was full of coffins; they had been broken open, and their contents horribly mangled and distorted, were scattered over the floor. One coffin remained intact. Of that the lid had been lifted, but still lay loose on the coffin. They raised it, and there, withered, shrivelled, in a Confederate uniform was the hideous figure that had attacked the housemaid; and they did—the only thing that can lay a vampire—they burnt it. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6

There was something so sad about that child and so peculiar. She was absolutely earnest and the wildest look would come into her blue eyes. Sometimes she would stay up until after dark. Defenseless and sobbing bitterly, she would not utter a word when the other servants accused her of bring a man into the mansion. They claimed they spied her and a man dressed in a Confederate uniform meeting in the garden after dark. They said she allowed the man to touch her indecently and her innocence was a complete façade. As well, people had reported seeing the housemaid with a huge black devil-dog with red eyes and heard the muffled voice of the housemaid talking to it.  Other times she was see with what some servants thought was a ghost of a man in black whom they said they heard him offer to buy her soul in returned for a song. To which she agreed. The ghost commanded the housemaid, Martha, to meet him at midnight. However, she was too frightened to go. The next day, he was so annoyed that he had been disobeyed that he hit the housemaid around the head almost dislocating her neck. After this, she absolutely refused to meet with her mysterious companion and that is when the Confederate soldier on a horse started to appear. Although it has been many years since, the footpath leading to the place where they used to meet has been the scene of disembodied voices and there are reports of a ghostly lady, resembling Martha, in a grey dress as well as a boy in knee-high shorts and a transparent white horse that sometimes appears to shock witnesses. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6

The Winchester Mystery House

Many people who tour The Winchester Mystery House have frequently reported a ghostly legend. An apparition of a women wearing a black dress periodically appears and walks across the north-east of the mansion. She was first reported in 1920 by several servants who were reportedly scared half to death. She is thought to be wearing Victorian clothing and wanders around the horse stables, turning a corner and then vanishing. She is believed to be the spirit of the housemaid Martha, who according to records, left for England in 1895. https://winchestermysteryhouse.com/

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