he sites of several large Roman villas
have been discovered in the neighbourhood. This place must have stood
rather lonely, away from the town, probably in the wood which then
covered the whole of this county; but it is curious, is it not?" said
the vicar, "that the tradition should have been handed down through all
these centuries of its being an ill-omened place, long after any
tradition of what the uses of the spot were!"

It was curious indeed! The vicar was presently called away, and I sate
musing over the strange old story. I could fancy the place as it must
have been, standing with its high blank walls in a clearing of the
forest, with perhaps a great column of evil-smelling smoke drifting in
oily waves over the corner of the wall, telling of the sad rites that
were going on within. I could fancy heavy-eyed mourners dragging a bier
up to the gates, with a silent form lying upon it, waiting in pale
dismay until the great doors were flung open by the sombre rough
attendants of the place; until they could see the ugly enclosure, with
the wood piled high in the pit for the last sad service. Then would
follow the burning and the drenching of the ashes, the gathering of the
bones--all that was left of one so dear, father or mother, boy or
maiden--the enclosing of them in the urn, and the final burial. What
agonies of simple grief the place must have witnessed! Then, I suppose,
the place was deserted by the Romans, the walls crumbled down into
ruin, grass and bushes grew over the place. Then perhaps the forest was
gradually felled and stubbed up, as the area of cultivation widened;
but still the sad tradition of the spot left it desolate, until all
recollection of its purpose was gone. No doubt, in Saxon days, it was
thought to be haunted by the old wailing, restless spirits of those who
had suffered the last rites there; so that still the place was
condemned to a sinister solitude.

I went on to reflect over the strange and obstinate tradition that
lingers still with such vitality among the human race, that certain
places are haunted by the spirits of the dead. It is hard to believe
that such tradition, so widespread, so universal, should have no kind
of justification in fact. And yet there appears to be no justification
for the idea, unless the spiritual conditions of the world have
altered, unless there were real phenomena, which have for some cause
ceased to manifest themselves, which originated the tradition. But