A remarkable circumstance occurred at Logie Kirkyard about ten days ago, which
has given rise to many strange conjectures in the minds of the good folks of
Lochee and caused a revival of the stories of certain events which happened
there many years ago. Every one in this locality is acquainted with the
situation of Logie burying ground, which occupies a rising piece of ground
beside the highway about mid distance between Dundee and Lochee.
This place was but very recently the most “eerie” part of the road, though now.
owing to the rapid rise of buildings in the neighbourhood, it is overlooked at
one end by dwelling houses. On the night in question, and shortly before the
Witching hour the constable was pacing his beat, extending from the High Street
of Lochee to Dudhope Free Church and had just gained the south most end of
the Kirkyard when lo ! a figure, all in white, was seen about the centre of the
ground. Immediately afterwards the whirr of a stone thrown in his direction was
heard, and this, added to the constables unbelief in spirits haunting the repose
of the dead, convinced him that the apparition was nothing more or less than
that of an inhabitant of this world. The sight of the figure was indeed enough
to appal the stoutest heart; it was some six feet high, straight as a pole, and
completely arrayed in white. It moved slowly and majestically forward amongst
the tall rank grass surrounding the gravestones, and when the silence of the
place and the lateness the hour are taken into account, the constable, when his
eyes first lighted on the strange apparition, might have excused had he beaten a
retreat. But the intrepid guardian of the night, all alone though he was,
flinched not from what he conceived to be his duty— the expulsion of the ghost
from the Kirkyard. With this end in view he directed the light of his lantern
fair on the object (at that time about twenty yards distant from him), shouting
meanwhile that its best policy would be to decamp immediately, and threatening
the pains of the law- no less than sixty days imprisonment-as the reward of
disobedience.
The ghost however did not seem to apprehend the dread meaning conveyed in these
these words-- "sixty days," or else considered itself beyond the reach of
justice-loving Baillies and careful turnkeys, for it gave not the slightest
indication of having heard the policemans warning. The latter was just about to
leap over the wall with the intention of making a closer acquaintance with the
ghost when a lady and gentleman came up. Their eyes also lighted on the
apparition, and the lady shrieked in the utmost terror and all but fainted, on
beholding what she believed to be a spirit from another world. The constable
upon hearing the lady's cries, walked back to where she stood, clutching hold of
her husband, and it was with the utmost difficulty that her fears could be
quieted. After some little time she became more calm, and then her husband
proposed to accompany the constable in his pursuit of the ghost, which was still
stalking about the graveyard, being anxious to gain some personal knowledge of
the nature of ghosts, and to ascertain whether it was indeed the truth that
their “ bones are marrow less and their blood is cold,” and whether there was
any or no “ speculation in those eyes that they do glare with.” He never got
near enough, however, to satisfy his curiosity on those; interesting questions,
the ghost apparently not relishing the idea of being subjected to so close a
scrutiny as the gentleman intended to make. The . lady dreaded to be left on the
road alone, but ultimately consented to her husband accompanying the constable
and the two then went over the wall enclosing the kirkyard. The apparition at
this time began to recede from their view, and before the pursuers had gained
the brow of the eminence, it had flitted away by the back of the cemetery and
was lost to sight. We leave our readers to conjecture whether the disguise
was doffed, and the ghost found refuge in some of the adjacent houses, or that,
its “ leave having expired, the earth opened, 'and it was swallowed up like
Korah and his company. An examination of the entire ground was made by the
constable and his assistant, but no trace of the ghost was to be seen. It was
stated, however, by some persons that they saw the same apparition about an hour
afterwards. Since that evening nothing has been seen or heard of this strange
nocturnal visitant.
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