In pursuit of evidence, it is a long way from 1780 to 1816. In November of that year, T. J. wrote from Pitt Place, Epsom, in 'The Gentleman's Magazine;' but his letter is dated 'January 6.' T. J. has bought Pitt Place, and gives 'a copy of a document in writing, left in the house' (where Lyttelton died) 'as an heirloom which may be depended on.' This document begins, 'Lord Lyttelton's Dream and Death (see Admiral Wolsley's account).'
But where IS Admiral Wolsley's account? Is it in the archives of Sir Charles Wolseley of Wolseley? Or is THIS (the Pitt Place document) Admiral Wolsley's account? The anonymous author says that he was one of the party at Pitt Place on November 27,1779, with 'Lord Fortescue,' 'Lady Flood,' and the two Misses Amphlett.
Consequently this account is written after 1785, when Mr. Fortescue succeeded to his title. Lord Lyttelton, not long returned from Ireland, had been suffering from 'suffocating fits' in the last month. And THIS, not the purpose of suicide, was probably his reason for executing his will. 'While in his house in Hill Street, Berkeley Square, he DREAMT three days before his death he saw a bird fluttering, and afterwards a woman appeared in white apparel, and said, "Prepare to meet your death in three days." He was alarmed and called his servant. On the third day, while at breakfast with the above-named persons, he said, "I have jockeyed the ghost, as this is the third day."' Coulton places this incident at 10 P.M. on Saturday, and makes his lordship say, 'In two hours I shall jockey the ghost.' 'The whole party set out for Pitt Place,' which contradicts Coulton's statement that they set out on Friday, but agrees with Lord Westcote's. 'They had not long arrived when he was seized with a usual fit. Soon recovered. Dined at five. To bed at eleven.' Then we hear how he rebuked his servant for stirring his rhubarb 'with a tooth-pick' (a plausible touch), sent him for a spoon, and was 'in a fit' on the man's return. 'The pillow being high, his chin bore hard on his neck. Instead of relieving him, the man ran for help: on his return found him dead.'
This undated and unsigned document, by a person who professes to have been present, is not, perhaps, very accurate in dates. The phrase 'dreamt' is to be taken as the common-sense way of stating that Lord Lyttelton had a vision of some sort. His lordship, who spoke of 'jockeying the GHOST,' may have believed that he was awake at the time, not dreaming; but no person of self-respect, in these unpsychical days, could admit more than a dream. Perhaps this remark also applies to Walpole's 'he dreamed.' The species of the bird is left in the vague.
Moving further from the event, to 1828, we find a book styled 'Past Feelings Renovated,' a reply to Dr. Hibbert's 'Philosophy of Apparitions.' The anonymous author is 'struck with the total inadequacy of Dr. Hibbert's theory.' Among his stories he quotes Wraxall's 'Memoirs.' In 1783, Wraxall dined at Pitt Place, and visited 'the bedroom where the casement window at which Lord Lyttelton asserted the DOVE appeared to flutter* was pointed out to me.' Now the Pitt Place document puts the vision 'in Hill Street, Berkeley Square.' So does Lord Westcote. Even a bird cannot be in two places at once, and the 'Pitt Place Anonymous' does seem to know what he is talking about. Of course Lord Lyttelton MAY have been at Pitt Place on November 24, and had his dream there. He MAY have run up to Hill Street on the 25th and delivered his speech, and MAY have returned to Pitt Place on the Friday or Saturday.** But we have no evidence for this view; and the Pitt Place document places the vision in Hill Street. Wraxall adds that he has frequently seen a painting of bird, ghost, and Lord Lyttelton, which was executed by that nobleman's stepmother in 1780. It was done 'after the description given to her by the valet de chambre who attended him, to whom his master related all the circumstances.'
*It was a ROBIN in 1779.
**Coulton says Friday; the Anonymous says Saturday, with Lord Westcote.
Our author of 1828 next produces the narrative by Lord Lyttelton's widow, Mrs. Peach, who was so soon deserted. In 1828 she is 'now alive, and resident in the south-west part of Warwickshire.'
According to Lady Lyttelton (who, of course, was not present), Lord Lyttelton had gone to bed, whether in Hill Street or Pitt Place we are not told. His candle was extinguished, when he heard 'a noise resembling the fluttering of a bird at his chamber window. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw the figure of an unhappy female, whom he had seduced and deserted, and who, when deserted, had put a violent end to her own existence, standing in the aperture of the window from which the fluttering sound had proceeded. The form approached the foot of the bed: the room was preternaturally light; the objects in the chamber were distinctly visible. The figure pointed to a clock, and announced that Lord Lyttelton would expire AT THAT VERY HOUR (twelve o'clock) in the third day after the visitation.'
We greatly prefer, as a good old-fashioned ghost story, this version of Lady Lyttelton's. There is no real bird, only a fluttering sound, as in the case of the Cock Lane Ghost, and many other examples. The room is 'preternaturally light,' as in Greek and Norse belief it should have been, and as it is in the best modern ghost stories. Moreover, we have the raison d'etre of the ghost: she had been a victim of the Chief Justice in Eyre. The touch about the clock is in good taste. We did not know all that before.
But, alas! our author of 1828, after quoting the Pitt Place Anonymous, proceeds to tell, citing no named authority, that the ghost was that of Mrs. Amphlett, mother of the two Misses Amphlett, and of a third sister, in no way less distinguished than these by his lordship. Now a ghost cannot be the ghost of two different people. Moreover, Mrs. Amphlett lived (it is said) for years after.
