A curious example occurred recently at Vienna, where the British representative, Lord —, rented a noble old mansion, the Palace L—.
One fine suite of apartments had been for some years wholly disused, and although his lordship had been rather strenuously recommended to allow them to remain so, the exigencies of a large establishment compelled their re-occupation.
For a short time all went quietly, till, one by one, the German domestics began to leave. Very soon the British also began to evince signs of uneasiness, and it was then ascertained that such extraordinary sounds were prevalent, both by day and night, in the newly-opened chambers, that a perpetual panic existed among those who inhabited them, and it was with much reluctance that any domestic even ventured within the doors.
Lord — himself had heard unaccountable noises. His own study was situated in the haunted suite, and he very quickly satisfied himself that the servants had by no means exaggerated the amount of disturbance. While engaged late at night in study, the hush would be suddenly broken by dull dead blows, such as caused the whole house to vibrate from roof to cellar, struck upon the wall; noises above, resembling the flinging together of ponderous articles of furniture; noises below, like the rumbling of heavy wains, &c.
On one occasion, so fearful a crash occurred that Lord — actually leaped from his chair in alarm, imagining that the house was coming down. It could, as he declared in relating these facts to a friend of the writer’s, be compared to nothing but the sudden giving way of the roof and walls of the apartment. Yet nothing was displaced, nor, to all appearance, was even a grain of dust disturbed.
Lord — averred that he passed whole nights moving about the mansion, pistol in hand, unable to believe such very material sounds to be other than the work of some designing person, and resolved, if possible, to detect him. The noises continued, with brief intervals of quiet, during the whole period of Lord —‘s tenancy, and were never traced to any definite cause.
It was found necessary to re-close the “haunted” suite, as scarcely a servant could be induced to enter it, and a comparative tranquility succeeded. But, as a haunted reputation, like the dry rot, is usually ineradicable by any means short of the destruction of the building, the noble lord was not sorry when a favourable opportunity occurred for effecting an honourable retreat.
The L— Palace is one of the oldest in Vienna, and is very substantially built, the red pine being largely used in the frame-work and interior fittings of the mansion. When it is added that the mysterious sounds almost always recurred at night, and at those periods of it at which atmospheric changes are most perceptibly felt, those who have dwelt in old houses may perhaps remember how their own dreams were now and again rudely interrupted by similar alarums.
Pp. 43-44 in “Strange things among us”, by H Spicer (1863).