Miss E. BelPs Letter to the Secretary. 155 



of bone were used as personal ornaments by our Celtic prede- 

 cessors ; these, however, would, owing to the value of the mate- 

 rial or the difficulty of the manufacture, be confined to chieftains 

 and persons of wealth. The more common ornament, especially 

 for females, appears to have been made of jet and cannel coal, 

 which could easily be obtained, and with little difficulty could be 

 cut and tastefully arranged. I have seen several necklaces of 

 these materials in the extensive and interesting museum of 

 Mr. Bateman, near Bakewell ; one of them was found around 

 the neck of a female skeleton in a barrow on Middleton Moor 

 in Derbyshire, and was formed of 41 7 beads, which were similar 

 in shape and arrangement to those discovered in Northumber- 

 land. 



A Letter from Miss E. Bell to the Secretary. 



Spring Hill, August 22, 1853. 

 My dear Sir, — On the 15th of this month, about seven in the 

 evening, while Miss Hunter and I were walking in a lane be- 

 tween Loughton and Saintfoin, to the north-west of the village 

 of Birgham, we saw two men on a rising part of the road coming 

 towards us from the west. As these men came down the slope, 

 we both at the same time observed that they were accompanied 

 by two gray shadowy forms, exactly resembling themselves. 

 Each shadow was placed to the north of the man it resembled, 

 so that all four at times seemed almost abreast ; though occa- 

 sionally the shadows fell partially behind, so that their heads 

 and shoulders only were then perceptible over the left shoulders 

 of the men. 



When they came nearer, so plainly were these two figures to 

 be seen, that I began to fancy they were not shadows; but 

 presently after all doubt vanished on perceiving them lengthen 

 out till they became much taller than the two men, and so trans- 

 parent that we could distinctly see objects through them. At 

 last, when perhaps about fifty feet from us, these tall pale gray 

 phantom-like figures entirely ceased to be visible. 



At the time this occurred the evening was calm and gray, 

 without a gleam of sunshine, and the air seemed perfectly free 

 of all vapour : indeed we had been observing that the Cheviot 

 Hills were particularly clear and beautiful; yet there might 

 have been vapour in the air without our perceiving it, as there 

 was some low ground at no great distance from us, which, though 

 now under cultivation, was formerly marshy. 



Miss Hunter and I are aware that such phantom-like appear- 

 ances are not unusual in mountainous countries ; but never 



