SOUTER FELL SPECTRES. 141 



the very home of superstition and romance. This 

 Souter or Soutra Fell is the mountain on which 

 ghosts appeared in myriads, at inter- 

 S( specibes LL va ^ s during ten years of the last cen- 

 tury ; presenting the same appearances 

 to twenty-six chosen witnesses and to all the 

 inhabitants of all the cottages within view of the 

 mountain; and for a space of two hours and a 

 half at one time — the spectral show being closed 

 by darkness! The mountain — be it remembered 

 — is full of precipices which defy all marching 

 of bodies of men; and the north and west sides 

 present a sheer perpendicular of 900 feet. On 

 Midsummer eve, 1735, a farm-servant of Mr. Lan- 

 caster's, half a mile from the mountain, saw the 

 eastern side of its summit covered with troops, 

 which pursued their onward march for an hour. 

 They came, in distinct bodies, from an eminence, 

 on the north end, and disappeared in a niche in the 

 summit. When the poor fellow told his tale, he 

 was insulted on all hands ; as original observers 

 usually are when they see anything wonderful. 

 Two years after, — also on a Midsummer eve, — 

 Mr. Lancaster saw some men there, apparently 

 following their horses, as if they had returned from 

 hunting. He thought nothing of this ; but he 

 happened to look up again ten minutes after, and 

 saw the figures, now mounted, and followed by an 

 interminable array of troops, five abreast, marching 

 from the eminence and over the cleft as before. 

 All the family saw this, and the manoeuvres of the 

 force, as each company was kept in order by a 

 mounted officer who gallopped this way and that. 

 As the shades of twilight came on, the discipline 



