CLERK AND THE LAST RAVENS 251 



old-style farmers who sat at meat with their men 

 before the division of classes, and before the piano 

 came in and the church organ to kill the villagers' 

 music. Also the fairies and ghosts. The tricksy little 

 people were not seen but were known to be about in 

 a field close by; "Fairy Field" it was called because 

 when it was being ploughed the horses invariably 

 stopped short at a certain spot and refused to go 

 on. Eventually, during the late owner Sir Charles 

 Shelley's time a well-preserved Roman pavement 

 was discovered by chance at a depth of three to 

 four feet, just on the spot over which the horses 

 had always refused to draw the plough! The other 

 supernatural story relates to an old house adjoining 

 the village and overlooking the quiet valley of the 

 Itchen. Here, tradition says, a crime was committed 

 by a former owner, and from the time of his death 

 the place was haunted, but in a singular way; at 

 all events I have never heard any ghost story quite 

 like it. At night when the air was perfectly still, a 

 sound as of a sudden high wind could be heard among 

 the trees, travelling like a whirlwind in the direction 

 of the house, but invariably on coming to the house 

 it would die away into silence. 



The old clerk introduced me to one of his life-long 

 pals and asked him to tell me his story of the ghost. 

 The story was that when he was a young man about 

 fifty years ago, he went to the house one still dark 

 night about midnight to get some apples. There was 

 a large apple orchard between the woods and the 

 gardens and lawns surrounding the house and divided 



