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A TRUE GHOST STORY RELATING TO MISS HAVISHAM'S HOUSE.

"I live in an old red-brick mansion, nearly
covered with ivy--one of those picturesque
dwellings with high-pitched roofs and ornamental
gables, which were scattered broadcast over
England in the days of good Queen Bess. Every
stranger looking at it exclaims, 'That house must
have a history and a ghost!' Many a story has been
told of the ghost which has from time to time been
seen, or said to have been seen, within its walls;
and many a servant has, from fear, refused service
in this so-called haunted house.

"On the 28th May, one thousand six hundred and
sixty, Charles the Second sojourned and slept
here. This being the eve of 'The Restoration,' a
new name was given to the then old house, which
name it has since retained. Charles, having
knighted the owner (Sir Francis Clarke), departed
early the next morning for London.

"There are secret passages _in_ the house, and,
under ground, _from_ the house. From the room in
which the king slept, a secret passage through one
of the lower panels of the wainscot, leads to
various parts of the house. This passage is so
well concealed that I occupied the house some
years before it was discovered. I had occasion to
make a plan of the house, and the inside and
outside not agreeing, disclosed the space occupied
by the unexplored passage. The jackdaws had
forestalled me in my discovery, and had had
undisturbed possession for two centuries, having
got access through a hole under the eaves of the
roof. They had deposited _several bushels_ of
sticks. They had not been the only tenants, as
skeletons and mummies of birds, etc., were also
found.

"I came into possession of this old house in
December 1875, and on the 27th of April, 1876,
slept in it for the first time. At ten o'clock on
that night, my family retired to rest; having some
letters to write, I sat up later. At a quarter to
twelve, I was startled by a loud noise--a sort of
rumbling sound, which appeared to proceed from the