Italy for firing _feux de joie_. Father H---- answered, "Yes perhaps,
if they were continuous enough." He said that the sound which alarmed
him more than any other was as of a large animal throwing itself
violently against the bottom of his door, outside. A third noise which
he had heard was of ordinary raps, of the kind called "spirit-raps."
He mentioned a fourth sound, the nature of which Lord Bute does not
remember with the same certainty as the others, but believes it was a
shriek or scream. Such a sound is described by other witnesses during
the subsequent occupation of the house by the H---- family. The fact
that the sounds appear to have been inaudible to every one except
Father H---- is a strong argument in favour of their subjective, or
hallucinatory, character. It will be found that this was very often
the case with the peculiar sounds recorded at B----, and even when
they were heard by several persons at the same time, there does not
appear to be any ground for refusing to recognise them as collective
hallucinations.

Lord Bute's diary and recollections have been here quoted, not as
differing from, but only as being antecedent to, the following
account, which has been furnished by Father H---- himself:--

"I went to B---- on Thursday, July 14th, 1892, and I left it on
Saturday, July 23rd. So I slept at B---- for nine nights, or rather
one night, because I was disturbed by very queer and extraordinary
noises every night except the last, which I spent in Mr. S----'s
dressing-room. At first I occupied the room to the extreme right of
the landing [No. 8],[A] then my things were removed to another room
[No. 3] (it seems to me at this distance of time that _this_ room
faced the principal staircase, or was a little to the left of it). In
both these rooms I heard the loud and inexplicable noises every night,