178 THE STORY OF THE BETTISCOMBE SKULL. 



had also referred to the similar one attaching to Bettiscombe 

 in terms no doubt taken from my earlier contributions to 

 " Notes and Queries." In the same year also the subject 

 was mentioned in the Daily News, for a correspondent of 

 the Dorset County Chronicle in February of that year made 

 enquiries relating to the skull at Chilton Cantelo, which drew 

 a reply from Mr. A. J. Goodford (a son, I believe, of my 

 former fellow-correspondent), who gave certain particulars as 

 to the Somerset skull. 



I will now take up the story with regard to its Dorset rival. 



In the second series of " Haunted Homes," issued in 1884, 

 Dr. F. A. Ingram quotes an account of the Bettiscombe Skull 

 from an essay written by Mr. William Andrews on " Skull 

 Superstitions," in the course of which the story is related of a 

 visit paid to Bettiscombe Farm by Dr. Richard Garnett, his 

 daughter, and a friend. The particulars reported as having 

 been gathered by this party contained some new details, 

 namely, the skull was that of a negro servant who had lived in 

 the service of a Roman Catholic priest, and there were dark 

 hints of a murder. The negro had declared before his death 

 that his spirit would not rest unless his body were taken to 

 his native land and buried there. On his burial in the Bettis- 

 combe churchyard, the haunting began ; fearful screams 

 proceeded from the grave ; strange sounds were heard all 

 over the house, and the inmates had no rest until the body 

 was dug up. Subsequent attempts to dispose of it were 

 followed by similar results. 



This was the first time I had ever heard anything of the 

 kind, or that the owner of the skull had been the servant of a 

 Roman Catholic priest, and that there had been any idea of 

 foul play in the matter, or that there had ever been any 

 skeleton other than the head in the house. My information 

 had been mainly derived from an old lady in Dorset (still 

 living), who in her younger days had often visited and stayed 

 at the old manor-house at Bettiscombe, and who had learnt 

 and treasured up the legend as she had first heard it before time 

 and publicity had lent a somewhat heightened and conjectural 



