The Society for the Investigation of Spectral Phenomena
The Bishop's Bedchamber: Occurrences in the Amberley Gatehouse
Amberley Castle, castle, Amberley, West Sussex
I.Background & History
Amberley Castle stands in the village of Amberley, West Sussex, and is a Grade I listed castle in the Chichester District. It is a fortified building of the kind that the county's lowlands, under the long shoulder of the South Downs, still keep in unexpected places.
The Society's records of the fabric are few, and the Society does not presume to supply dates the dossier does not give. It is enough to say that the castle is old, that it has been lived in, and that its walls enclose rooms in which people have slept for a very long while.
Source: Amberley Castle, Wikipedia
II.The Entity
Old Mother Pressgang
A tall, stooped woman in a bishop's-household laundress's apron, seen only after she has settled upon a sleeper's breastbone, when the room darkens and her face comes down close to the sleeper's own. The face is the sleeper's own, aged forty years and wet as though lately drowned, and it breathes slowly in time with the dreamer's breath a half-second late.
Assessment of Peril
Class IV: Malignant
Three persons are recorded as dying within a year of waking beneath it, each found with the eyes open and the face set in the likeness of great age. Those who survive are not agreed that they are the same persons who lay down.
III.The Account
The constable's notebook of P.C. Walter Dyer, of the Sussex Constabulary, Amberley beat, opens in the autumn of 1907. Entry, 14 October: called at seven in the morning to the castle by a housekeeper, Mrs. Ansell, who said the under-butler had not come down. Found him in the room over the gatehouse, on his back, eyes open, quite cold. No marks. No forced entry. The doctor, Mr. Lyle, gave heart failure. I noted that the man's hair, which the housekeeper swore was black on Saturday, was white on the pillow. I noted it because she did.
Entry, 29 October: second call. A kitchen girl, Ellen Marsh, aged seventeen, living-in, found at six on the floor of the same room, alive, unable to speak. She had begged to be moved from the bed the night before, saying that something in the dark was 'getting the measure of her.' When she could talk she said a weight had settled on her chest like a sack of wet linen and she could not draw breath nor open her mouth. She opened her eyes and there was a woman's face an inch from hers. She said it was her own face, grown old, and that it was smiling because she could not scream. Dr. Lyle prescribed bromide. I do not hold with him.
Entry, 3 November: I sat the night in the room myself, with Sergeant Orme's leave and a lantern. I record plainly that I was awake at one. I record that at some time after I was not. The weight was on me, and the room was cold as a well. I could not move my hands. Above me hung a face which I knew for my own, but it was the face of a man of eighty, the skin drawn fine, the mouth moving as mine moved, and the eyes wet and quite understanding. It breathed when I breathed, but late, so that each of my breaths was answered, as by one who learns. I do not know how long. The lantern was out in the morning, though full of oil.
IV.Recorded Manifestations
- ✦A weight upon the chest of the sleeper, as of wet linen, with paralysis of the limbs and the voice.
- ✦The sleeper's own face, aged by decades, bent over him and breathing a half-second behind his breath.
- ✦Hair blanched white in a single night.
- ✦A sour smell of wet washing and cold stone in the gatehouse chamber.
- ✦Lamps and lanterns extinguished though full of oil.
- ✦A slow second breathing heard on the stair, just behind one's own.
Testimony of Witnesses
“"I have been thirty years in service and never felt a room look at me till that one. He was white as his own linen, sir, and his eyes were open, and I would swear they were pleased."”
“"It had my face, sir, but old, and it was wet. It was glad of me. It breathed when I did, only after."”
“"I would not carry the new footman's box up past the gatehouse, not for a sovereign. You could hear the breathing from the yard, and it was not his."”
V.Rite of Expulsion
Difficulty: Perilous
Requisites
- ☐A bolster of fresh straw, never slept upon
- ☐Two tallow candles
- ☐A looking-glass turned to the wall
- ☐A bowl of salt water
- ☐A bunch of rue
The Rite
- I.1. Enter the chamber at ten minutes before midnight with no lamp, bearing only the two candles, and hang the looking-glass face to the wall.
- II.2. Set the bowl of salt water beneath the bed and the rue upon the sill.
- III.3. Let the officiant lie down upon the straw bolster and breathe aloud, evenly, with a second person counting the breaths aloud from the doorway.
- IV.4. When the weight settles, do not open the eyes, whatever may be said in one's own voice.
- V.5. Breathe out twice for each breath the thing returns, until the answering breath is no longer late.
- VI.6. At the first cock-crow, rise, overturn the bowl upon the threshold and leave without speaking or looking back.
Caution. The Society's officer Mr. R. Gale opened his eyes at the fourth breath, and was removed from the chamber at dawn a very old man who gave his name as that of his father.
VI.Hauntings of the Surrounding District
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St Mary the Virgin's Church · Church · 1.6 miles
The Sexton's Sleeper, spectre. A figure in a burial shroud sits in the back pew each dusk, and the faces of those who turn to look are afterwards found altered.
Hardham Priory · Abbey · 2.5 miles
The Lamp-Trimmers' Walk, phantom procession. Hooded brethren file through the ruin with unlit lamps, and any lamp brought near them burns black.
Greatham Church · Church · 2.0 miles
The Pale Ewe of Greatham, spectral animal. A white ewe stands in the churchyard at lambing time, and the shepherd who counts it finds one more than he began with.
St Botolph's Church · Church · 2.8 miles
Hob Garner Underfoot, revenant. A drowned farm labourer walks the path from the water-meadow to the porch, leaving wet footprints that begin at the door.
Our Lady of England Priory · Abbey · 3.6 miles
The Linen Sister, white lady. A veiled woman folds sheets in the cloister garth at night, and whoever sleeps beneath them does not wake as before.
The Abbey · Abbey · 3.7 miles
The Rapping Almoner, poltergeist. Knocking moves from door to door through the house each midnight, always stopping at the door of the one who will next fall ill.
Arundel Castle · Castle · 3.7 miles
The Barbican Archer, headless apparition. A bowman without a head stands on the leads at dawn with his arrow trained upon the bedroom windows.
Arundel Blackfriars · Abbey · 3.8 miles
The Grey Cowl-Maker, unclassified entity. Something stitches in the dark of the friary ruin, and the thread is found in the hair of the sleeping.
Amberley Mount to Sullington Hill · Downland Hill · 2.0 miles
The Chalk-Pit Lantern, will-o'-the-wisp. A blue flame bobs along the ridge and leads night walkers toward the edge of the old diggings.
St Joseph's Hall · Manor House · 3.6 miles
The Borrowed Housekeeper, possession. A servant of the hall wakes each morning speaking in the voice of a woman long buried, who knows the secrets of the household.
St Mary's Church · Church · 3.7 miles
The Bell-Rope Mourner, spectre. A weeping man in black hangs upon the bell-rope, and the bell rings when no hand has touched it, once for each parishioner soon to die.
Fitzalan Chapel · Church · 3.7 miles
The Earl's Waking Cousin, revenant. A knight's effigy is found each morning with its hands unclasped and its eyes open.
Arundel Priory · Church · 3.8 miles
The Cloister Lurcher, phantom hound. A lean grey hound pads the ruined walks at dusk and lays its muzzle on the knee of any who sit alone.
Old Place Manor · Manor House · 3.8 miles
The Stair Magpie, spectral animal. A single magpie taps at the upper windows, and in the room beneath someone is found at dawn with their face turned to the wall.
Arundel Cathedral · Church · 3.8 miles
The Candle-Bearing Choir, phantom procession. A thin singing is heard in the nave after the doors are locked, and the candle-ends are found warm in the morning.
