a special intention in his manner. He was much annoyed about the
kitchenmaid, said such talk was "all havers" [_anglicé_:
"drivel"], begged me not to employ her again, and undertook to
get another, lending me a girl in his own service meanwhile.

I went with him into the wing to get him to see to things there.
We have been too busy in getting the rest of the house into
order to look after it yet; but I find the pipes are out of
order, the cisterns frozen, and the "set-basins" in the three
bedrooms and bath-room out of working order. He promised
attention, but discouraged the use of the wing. "Had we not room
enough without?" and so on. I suggested that, any way, for the
sake of the rest of the house it must be aired and thawed, and
he insisted that the kitchen fire below did that sufficiently.

I cannot help remembering that this is the scene of the
phenomena recorded by Miss "B----," as Duncan R----, the factor,
is well aware. Also, he was persistent about "keeping out the
natives," and their chatter, if I wanted to keep the servants,
but did not specify the nature of the chatter, and I asked no
questions.

_February 6th, Saturday._--No phenomena last night. The house
perfectly still.

During Colonel Taylor's tenancy a good many experiments of different
kinds were made in hypnotism, crystal gazing, and automatic writing.
These, however, belong to a class of matter quite different from that
of spontaneous phenomena, and are therefore not referred to, with the
exception of a single instance of crystal gazing, which, though