The Society for the Investigation of Spectral Phenomena
Cuttings Concerning the Tolling in the Keep
Arundel Castle, castle, Arundel, West Sussex
I.Background & History
Arundel Castle stands above the town of Arundel in West Sussex. It was established in the eleventh century by Roger de Montgomery, and is a medieval castle that has been much restored and remodelled.
It was damaged in the English Civil War. The 11th Duke of Norfolk restored it in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and further restoration and embellishment was undertaken from the 1890s by Charles Alban Buckler for the 15th Duke.
The Society records these facts as the whole of the castle's verified history. What follows is the Society's own file of the matter, compiled from the local press and from correspondence.
Source: Arundel Castle, Wikipedia
II.The Entity
The Muffled Clapper
A bell-sound given a body: a stooped figure in a damp, grey, wadmal smock, its head bowed beneath a hood that sags with the weight of something within. In its folded arms it carries a bronze clapper bound in rags, and where it passes the stonework sweats cold. Those who see its face say only that it was the face of someone they had not yet met, and had been going to.
Assessment of Peril
Class IV: Malignant
The tolling is never heard by the one it summons, only by those who love them, and the Society has recorded no instance of a hearer's warning prevailing. Those who have attempted to intervene have themselves been taken.
III.The Account
[Cutting the first, pasted in the Society's file and said to be copied from a Sussex news-sheet of 1665.] 'It is reported from Arundel that during the dry weeks after Michaelmas, the garrison's watchmen did hear a bell struck thrice within the Keep, though no bell hangs there and the old turret has been without its rope since the late troubles. The steward, one Mr. Tobias Rudge, sent men up with lanterns and they found the stair dry of dust, as though lately swept, and a smear of damp upon the wall at the height of a man's shoulder.' Secretary's note: the bell was heard by the steward's wife and two servants. None of them was the one who died. On the third night Mr. Rudge's youngest daughter, who had slept soundly through all, was found at the foot of the Keep stair with her eyes open.
[Cutting the second, 1666.] 'The Arundel tolling is again spoken of. A carter, Josiah Weld, declares he heard it from the water-meadows below the castle on the evening of the 14th and went home in great fear, bidding his brother, who was abed with ague, to say his prayers. His brother mended and rose. It was Weld himself who was found at dawn upon the Mill Road, whither he had gone, it is thought, to fetch the physician. His lantern was lit beside him though it was full day.' Secretary's note: this is the first instance in which the hearer is not merely spared but is drawn onward, as though the sound carried the bearer to the place of the death. Mr. Weld's brother was thereafter observed by neighbours to stand at his window each evening, his head cocked, as one listening for a bell.
IV.Recorded Manifestations
- ✦Three muffled strokes as of a bell wrapped in cloth, heard from the Keep by persons at a distance, most clearly by those who love the one summoned.
- ✦A band of cold damp upon the turret wall at the height of a man's shoulder, found dry again by morning.
- ✦The hearer's sudden compulsion to walk, and to arrive at a certain door before the hour strikes.
- ✦Lanterns found lit at dawn beside the dead.
- ✦Persons spared by the bell afterwards stand at windows each evening with the head cocked, as if attending for another.
Testimony of Witnesses
“'I heard it thrice, as plain as the church clock, and my wife with me. I would to God it had been myself it was for.'”
“'A grey man in a smock, with a bundle of rags in his arms, was coming down the Keep stair, and he stopped and looked at me as though I were already of his acquaintance. I have since buried my husband, and my sister.'”
“'I heard nothing. Mr. Venn said, ”
V.Rite of Expulsion
Difficulty: Perilous
Requisites
- ☐A length of new wool, unspun
- ☐A plain tin bell with its clapper removed
- ☐A pail of well-water, drawn before dawn
- ☐A candle of unbleached tallow
- ☐A page torn from a parish register
The Rite
- I.1. Ascend the Keep stair at eleven at night and no later, bearing the candle, and tell no person where you go.
- II.2. Bind the bell in the wool, tightly, saying aloud the name of no living person.
- III.3. Pour the water upon the third step, where the damp is to be found, and wait until it is drunk by the stone.
- IV.4. Read from the register page the names of the dead, and stop when the bell is struck, whichever stroke it may be.
- V.5. If you hear the tolling, do not turn, and do not walk towards any door.
- VI.6. Descend backwards, with the candle held before you, and extinguish it only at the foot of the stair.
Caution. The Society's Mr. Venn, in 1893, heard the bell at the fourth step and answered it. He has not been recorded since. Whoever hears the bell during the rite must on no account go to look for the one it tolls for.
VI.Hauntings of the Surrounding District
Select a bar to filter the register.
Arundel Blackfriars · Abbey · 0.2 miles
The Salt-Cowled Brother, spectre. A friar in a stiffened, white-crusted cowl is seen kneeling in the ruined walls, and whoever stands behind him finds salt upon their own lips by morning.
Fitzalan Chapel · Church · 0.1 miles
The Lamp-Carrying Mourners, phantom procession. Six mourners with shaded lamps cross the chapel flags at midnight, and the seventh lamp is always carried empty, towards the living observer.
Arundel Priory · Church · 0.2 miles
The Prioress of Dry Hands, white lady. A pale woman is seen drawing water from a well that has been dry for centuries, and offers the cup to any who pass.
Trinity Congregational Church · Church · 0.2 miles
The Pew-Shifter, poltergeist. Pews are found rearranged each Monday in a pattern spelling out the name of the next to die in the congregation.
Arundel Cathedral · Church · 0.2 miles
The Candle-Snuffer of Maltravers Lane, revenant. A tall man in a vergers' gown extinguishes the sanctuary lights one by one, and the room is left darker than the absence of light can explain.
Slayer's Slab · Tomb · 1.6 miles
The Pale Heifer, spectral animal. A white heifer stands motionless over the slab at dusk, and its eyes follow the walker long after the head has turned away.
Arundel and District Hospital · Hospital · 0.5 miles
The Ward-Sister's Breath, unclassified entity. A cold exhalation moves down the corridor at three each morning, and the beds it passes are found stripped by dawn.
Poling Preceptory · Templar Preceptory · 2.0 miles
The Cross-Marked Brach, phantom hound. A lean red-eyed hound bearing a pale cross upon its flank paces the preceptory boundary, and silence falls where its paw has been.
Lyminster Priory · Abbey · 1.6 miles
The Abbess Without a Veil, headless apparition. A tall figure in sisters' black glides along the cloister walk, and the place where her face should be is the exact shade of the dark behind her.
South Marsh Mill · Old Mill · 0.7 miles
The Miller's Lantern, will-o'-the-wisp. A pale flame drifts over the marsh in the shape of a man's swinging lamp, and those who follow it are not found until the tide has turned twice.
St Mary Magdalene's Church · Church · 1.7 miles
The Borrowed Cantor, possession. A chorister is heard singing in a voice not his own, in a Latin the parish has not spoken for six hundred years.
St Mary the Virgin's Church · Church · 2.2 miles
The Hay-Cart Cortege, phantom procession. A slow wagon heaped with grey hay passes the churchyard wall at dusk, and walking beside it are the faces of those not yet buried.
St Nicholas Church · Church · 2.4 miles
The Stile-Sitter, revenant. A bare-headed farmer sits upon the churchyard stile, and anyone who greets him is recorded in the register within the year.
Amberley Castle · Castle · 3.7 miles
The Moat-Washer, spectre. A woman kneels at the water's edge scrubbing a sodden garment that grows heavier as she wrings it, and the stain is of no colour known.
St Mary's Church · Church · 3.1 miles
The Grey Rook, spectral animal. A single rook perches on the lych-gate and speaks, once, the Christian name of whoever passes beneath.
