With a high degree of certainty, we can assume that as soon as ghosts find refuge in castles and prisons, they can also settle in old houses. Indeed, such facts are known to specialists in paranormal phenomena.
Ballyhin House in Scotland is one of the most famous houses of this kind. Without going into the history of this building, let's start with the fact that almost immediately after the death of the former owner of the house, Major Robert Stewart, strange things began to happen in the premises: tapping, noise of furniture being moved, screams of quarreling people. Once, the wife of the new owner of the mansion, John Stewart, entered the major's office and smelled a clear doggy smell. In addition, she felt how she was literally repelled by some invisible dog's paws. These and other events brought such horror to the inhabitants of the house that all the servants fled.
One morning in 1895, before going to London, John was on the phone with his agent. It was about some kind of family business. Suddenly, during this conversation, someone knocked loudly on the door three times. And on the same day, by a tragic accident, on one of London streets, John died under the wheels of a cab. Many who believe in fate, this death was associated with three blows on the door, believing that in this way the ghost warned John of the impending disaster.
In 1896, a family settled in the house, who knew nothing about the strangeness of the house. But just four months later, she left the scary place, as the family members were frightened by the crackling, knocking, and footsteps that were constantly heard in the room, day and night.
Moreover, heavy breathing was heard at night and someone invisible was pulling the blankets off the frightened people. Sometimes waves of icy cold rolled through the rooms.
Eventually, anomalous experts Colonel Lemesurer Taylor and Miss A. Goodrich-Freer took over the haunted house. And the very next day, they heard a full set of various sounds, as well as someone's voices.
For greater objectivity, the researchers invited 35 people to live in the house, who were not told about the bad reputation of the house. And each of these tenants witnessed numerous unusual phenomena: rustles, voices, loudly reading something, as well as the ghosts of a hunchback and a black spaniel.
The Times newspaper published a full report on the observations made at Ballikhin House. And in 1899 the book "B-house - a haunted house?" Was published. However, at the request of the Stewart family, all original names and titles in the book were replaced with fictitious ones. For this reason, many experts on anomalous phenomena began to doubt that the ghosts at Ballyhin House actually existed.
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Another house in which the ghost lived was in the English county of Essex, in the village of Borley. This mansion was built in 1863 for the parish priest Henry Bull. The building was erected on the site of the burned down monastery.
However, for the first time, the ghost made itself felt only on July 28, 1900. It was on that day that the priest's daughter Ethel and her two sisters saw in the garden in front of the house a female figure in monastic attire, which slowly moved along the stream that flowed through the garden. Since the nun was at a considerable distance from the sisters, they did not see her face. The fourth of the sisters who met them came very close to the woman in black, but she suddenly disappeared.
From that time on, the ghost of the nun began to appear quite often in front of the residents of the house. He usually walked in the garden in front of the house, and always moved along the same route, which was later called the Nun's Alley. Henry Bull himself was not afraid of the ghost. Moreover, next to the alley, he even erected a summer house, from which he repeatedly observed the ghost of a nun.
On February 27, 1939, the Borley house burned down. At the site of the fire, the famous parapsychologist and ghost hunter of the 30s of the last century Harry Price, who 10 years ago was already engaged in research of a strange house and established the presence of a ghost of a nun, organized excavations.
This time, while exploring the basement of a burnt building, the scientist, together with assistants, discovered the remains of a female skull and lower jaw. In the course of studying these fragments, it was found that the woman died around the 30s of the 19th century from blood poisoning caused by suppuration from an inflamed tooth.
Subsequently, all those who managed to see the ghost of the nun claimed that her face was distorted by a grimace of terrible pain …
There are also many haunted houses in the United States. One of these is the Myrtle Plantation Estate in Louisiana, built by General Dave Bradford. The mansion located in this estate, according to parapsychologists, is very rich in ghosts.
Local legend tells that one of the slaves named Chloe loved to eavesdrop on conversations. And then one day the general caught her doing this. To wean the servant from her bad habit, he ordered her ear to be cut off. Disgraced Chloe harbored evil on the offender. And to take revenge on him, she baked a poisonous cake and served it to the table. But it was not the owner who ate him, but his wife and two daughters, who died in terrible agony.
Chloe was lynched by order of General. Since then, the ghosts of the slave, the wife and daughters of the general wander around the house and the alleys of the garden. Eyewitnesses say that ghosts leave hand and foot prints on flour, and fingers on furniture.
There is also a haunted house in Moscow. It is located in the center of the capital on Malaya Nikitskaya. Previously, this cozy mansion belonged to the head of the NKVD Lavrenty Beria, but now it houses the Embassy of Tunisia. For a long time, there was talk that, by order of the odious People's Commissar, beautiful girls were often brought to this house, many of whom later disappeared without a trace.
So, some of the old-timers heard how, closer to midnight from the Garden Ring, an invisible car first drives up to the mansion, then there is a clap of a closed door, voices are heard, and then a frightened female scream shakes the silence of the night …
Naturally, it is impossible to tell about all the haunted houses, since there are several dozen of them in England alone. There are many of them in other countries: USA, Canada, Scotland, etc.
Of course, all of these stories can be considered ordinary urban legends. But here's what the data obtained in 2005 by the Gallup Institute during an interesting study says. In three countries - the United States, Canada and the UK - a population survey was conducted, during which it turned out that people believe in haunted houses more than other abnormal phenomena: of the respondents, 37% of Americans are convinced of the existence of this phenomenon, 28% Canadians and 40% British.
As for the reasons for the appearance of ghosts in homes, according to scientists, in many cases people see ghosts after being poisoned by carbon monoxide.
In conclusion of the story about houses with ghosts, it should be noted that in such structures, cases of poltergeist are often very frequent. And it is this phenomenon that will be discussed further.
Bernatsky Anatoly