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A GHOST IN LOGIE KIRKYARD
INTREPID CONDUCT OF A POLICEMAN.

The Dundee Courier & Argus, 22nd June 1869

 


A remarkable circumstance occurred at Logie Kirkyard about ten days ago, which has given rise to many strange conjectures in the minds of the good folks of Lochee and caused a revival of the stories of certain events which happened there many years ago. Every one in this locality is acquainted with the situation of Logie burying ground, which occupies a rising piece of ground beside the highway about mid distance between Dundee and Lochee.
This place was but very recently the most “eerie” part of the road, though now. owing to the rapid rise of buildings in the neighbourhood, it is overlooked at one end by dwelling houses. On the night in question, and shortly before the Witching hour the constable was pacing his beat, extending from the High Street of Lochee to Dudhope Free Church and had just gained the south most end of  the Kirkyard when lo ! a figure, all in white, was seen about the centre of the ground. Immediately afterwards the whirr of a stone thrown in his direction was heard, and this, added to the constables unbelief in spirits haunting the repose of the dead, convinced him that the apparition was nothing more or less than that of an inhabitant of this world. The sight of the figure was indeed enough to appal the stoutest heart; it was some six feet high, straight as a pole, and completely arrayed in white. It moved slowly and majestically forward amongst the tall rank grass surrounding the gravestones, and when the silence of the place and the lateness the hour are taken into account, the constable, when his eyes first lighted on the strange apparition, might have excused had he beaten a retreat. But the intrepid guardian of the night, all alone though he was, flinched not from what he conceived to be his duty— the expulsion of the ghost from the Kirkyard. With this end in view he directed the light of his lantern fair on the object (at that time about twenty yards distant from him), shouting meanwhile that its best policy would be to decamp immediately, and threatening
the pains of the law- no less than sixty days imprisonment-as the reward of disobedience.
The ghost however did not seem to apprehend the dread meaning conveyed in these these words-- "sixty days," or else considered itself beyond the reach of justice-loving Baillies and careful turnkeys, for it gave not the slightest indication of having heard the policemans warning. The latter was just about to leap over the wall with the intention of making a closer acquaintance with the ghost when a lady and gentleman came up. Their eyes also lighted on the apparition, and the lady shrieked in the utmost terror and all but fainted, on beholding what she believed to be a spirit from another world. The constable upon hearing the lady's cries, walked back to where she stood, clutching hold of her husband, and it was with the utmost difficulty that her fears could be quieted. After some little time she became more calm, and then her husband proposed to accompany the constable in his pursuit of the ghost, which was still stalking about the graveyard, being anxious to gain some personal knowledge of the nature of ghosts, and to ascertain whether it was indeed the truth that their “ bones are marrow less and their blood is cold,” and whether there was any or no “ speculation in those eyes that they do glare with.” He never got near enough, however, to satisfy his curiosity on those; interesting questions, the ghost apparently not relishing the idea of being subjected to so close a  scrutiny as the gentleman intended to make. The . lady dreaded to be left on the road alone, but ultimately consented to her husband accompanying the constable and the two then went over the wall enclosing the kirkyard. The apparition at this time began to recede from their view, and before the pursuers had gained the brow of the eminence, it had flitted away by the back of the cemetery and was lost  to sight. We leave our readers to conjecture whether the disguise was doffed, and the ghost found refuge in some of the adjacent houses, or that, its “ leave having expired, the earth opened, 'and it was swallowed up like Korah and his company. An examination  of the entire ground was made by the constable and his assistant, but no trace of the ghost was to be seen. It was stated, however, by some persons that they saw the same apparition about an hour afterwards. Since that evening nothing has been seen or heard of this strange nocturnal visitant.

 

 

 

Reproduced courtesy of the Lamb Collection, copyright Dundee Central Library