Collected Ghost Stories

Travel Guide

Haunted England

James’ ghosts are those which haunt many angles of the British countryside. They linger in the vast wooded copses, woods and huge forests, in the deepest darkest corners, amongst the tombstones of the oldest crumbliest churches and the dark fields of the English countryside.

There’s also the somewhat innocent places like staircases which take on a very ghostly tone:

“The Treasure of Abbott Thomas”:

“Well, I felt to the right, and my fingers touched something curved, that felt–yes–more or less like leather; dampish it was, and evidently part of a heavy, full thing. There was nothing, I must say, to alarm one. I grew bolder, and putting both hands in as well as I could, I pulled it to me, and it came. It was heavy, but moved more easily than I expected. As I pulled it towards the entrance, my left elbow knocked over and extinguished the candle. I got the thing fairly in front of the mouth and began drawing it out. Just then Brown gave a sharp ejaculation and ran quickly up the steps with the lantern. He will tell you why in a moment. Startled as I was, I looked round after him, and saw him stand for a minute at the top and then walk away a few yards. Then I heard him call softly, “All right, sir,” and went on pulling out the great bag, in complete darkness. It hung for an instant on the edge of the hole, then slipped forward on to my chest, and put its arms round my neck”.

The classic Jamesian tale usually includes the following elements:

a characterful setting in an English village, seaside town or country estate; an ancient town in France, Denmark or Sweden; or a venerable abbey or university
a nondescript and rather naive gentleman-scholar as lead character

the discovery of an old book or other antiquarian object that somehow unlocks, or at least attracts the unwelcome attention of a supernatural menace, usually from beyond the grave