"An intelligent gardener whom I questioned told me that he had kept
watch in the house on two separate occasions, abstaining from sleep
until daylight appeared at seven o'clock, but without hearing a sound.
A caretaker, who had spent months in the house, and who had to keep a
stove alight all night, never heard a sound, probably because there
was no one to make any."

The gardener's evidence on this point will be found on p. 218.

Without admitting, for one moment, the theory that a servant's
evidence may not be of equal value with that of the so-called educated
classes, it was thought desirable, before admitting that of Sanders,
to make some inquiries as to his character, intelligence, and capacity
for observation. His employer spoke well of him, and Colonel Taylor
had the advantage of a personal interview with him, which he thus
describes:--

"_July 18th, 1897._--I went to Coventry yesterday, and saw Sanders the
butler. He is a slight, dark young man, and, as far as I could judge,
quite honest and serious over the B---- affair. He assured me that he
had written the letter to _The Times_ without any advice or
assistance, and that all he wrote was absolutely true. I gathered from
him, indirectly, that before his B---- experience he knew nothing of
ghosts, spiritualism, or any occult matter, and does not now. He was
much astonished when I told him that the feeling which he describes as
like walking into an ice-house was a common one under the
circumstances. He said he omitted in his letter many small personal
matters, such as the following:-- During the manifestation in his
room, when his bed was shifted, and when he felt as if some one was
making 'passes' over him, and breathing in his face, he made the sign