I suppose the
phantom horse and rider had appeared to me with the sole purpose of
making their fate known. If so, they at all events partly achieved their
end, though the mystery surrounding their identity was never solved. All
the remains, both human and animal, were removed elsewhere, and accorded
a decent burial. The site of their original interment, however, is, I
believe, still haunted, and maybe will remain so till the miscreants are
brought to book." _Brief Summary_

After a little consideration I am inclined to think there are quite as
many authentic cases of hauntings by the phantasms of horses as by the
phantasms of cats and dogs. Innumerable horses die unnatural deaths. Apart from those killed in war, many,--more particularly, it is true, in
the olden times,--have been murdered in the highways along with their
masters; whilst all but the comparative few, when no longer of use to
their owners, are butchered in the slaughter-house, and subsequently
despatched to the Zoological Gardens, to be eaten by lions and tigers. So much for Christianity, and for man's gratitude. How much better would
the promoters of the White Slave Traffic Act be employed, if,--instead
of trying to pass a bill which obviously cannot cure the evil it aims
at, but can only, by diverting the course of that evil, drive from
pillar to post thousands of defenceless, albeit erring women,--they were
to labour to secure a peaceful ending for our four-footed toilers, who
work for us all their lives, never strike, never think of a pension for
old age, and never even dream of a vote. Alas! If only our poor horses
could vote, what a different attitude would our pharisaical politicians
at once adopt towards them! _Phantasms of Living Horses_

From what I have experienced and have been told, I am of the opinion
that horses possess the same faculty of separating their immaterial from
their material bodies, as cats and dogs. I knew a Virginian lady who had
a piebald horse that frequently appeared simultaneously in two places. She lived in an old country house near Winchfield, and one morning when
she went into the breakfast-room, she was surprised to see the piebald
horse standing on the gravel path, outside the window, looking in at
her. When she called it by name, it immediately melted into fine air. Going round to the stables she found the horse in its stall, and on
enquiry was informed that it had been there all the time. The same thing frequently occurred, other members of the household
besides herself witnessing it, and so like, in all its details, was the
immaterial horse to the material, that they were often at a loss to tell
which was which. The phenomenon sometimes occurring when the real horse
was awake, and sometimes when it was asleep, proves that the animal
possessed the faculty of projecting its spiritual ego--astral body, or
whatever you like to call it--both consciously and unconsciously. I know
of many similar instances. _Horses and the Psychic Faculty of Scent_

Horses, in a rather less degree than cats, and in much the same degree
as dogs, possess the property of scenting the advent and presence of
spirits. On more than one occasion, when I have been riding after dusk,
my horse has suddenly come to an abrupt halt and shown unmistakable
signs of terror. I have not been able to see anything to account for its
conduct, but on subsequent enquiry have learned, either that a tragedy
was actually known to have taken place there, or that the spot had long
borne a reputation for being haunted. And my experiences are the
experiences of countless other people. Before a death a horse will often neigh repeatedly outside the house of
the doomed person, and not infrequently show evidences of terror in
passing close to it, from which I deduce the horse can at all events
scent the proximity of the phantom of death. Like the dog, however, I
think it only possesses this peculiar psychic property in a limited
degree. It can, for example, readily detect the whereabouts of phantasms
haunting localities, but not so easily those haunting people. It shows little or no discrimination on sight, between cruel and brutal
people and those who are kind, giving the same amount of passing space
to the one as it does to the other. Yet, on the other hand, I have
watched horses at night, standing in the fields, their heads thrown
back, a transfixed, far-off expression in their eyes, sniffing the
atmosphere--and snuffling it in a manner that strongly suggested to me
they were carrying on, by means of some silent, secret code, a
conversation with some superphysical presence, which they either saw or
scented, very likely both. Scent, I am convinced, is the medium of conversation, not only between
superphysical animals, but between material animals, and if we ever wish
to converse with spirits we must employ cats, dogs, and horses to teach
us. _Phantom Coaches_

There are few parts of the British Isles--few countries in Europe--which
have not their phantom coaches. Perhaps the most famous are those that
haunt a road near Newport, South Wales, and an old highway in Devon. _A Spectre Coach and Horses in Pembrokeshire_

Miss Mary L. Lewes, in an article called "Some More Welsh Ghosts," that
appeared in the _Occult Review_ for December, 1907, writes thus:--

"In common with several other districts in Great Britain and Ireland,
Pembrokeshire possesses a good 'phantom coach' legend, localized in the
southern part of the county, at a place where four roads meet, called
Sampson Cross. In old days the belated farmer driving home in his gig
from market was apt to cast a nervous glance over his shoulder as his
pony slowly climbed the last pitch leading up to the Cross. For
tradition says that every night a certain Lady Z. (who lived in the
seventeenth century, and whose monument is in the church close by)
drives over from Tenby, ten miles distant, in a coach drawn by headless
horses, guided by a headless coachman. She also has no head, and
arriving by midnight at Sampson Cross, the whole equipage is said to
disappear in a flame of fire, with a loud noise of explosion." Miss Mary L. Lewes goes on to add:--

"A clergyman living in the immediate neighbourhood, who told the writer
the story, said that some people believed the ghostly traveller had been
safely 'laid' many years ago in the waters of the lake not far off. He
added, however that might be, it was an odd fact that his sedate and
elderly cob, when driven home past the Cross after nightfall, would
invariably start as if frightened there, a thing which never happened by
daylight." What these kinds of spectral horses are no one can say. At the
most--despite what theosophists and occultists may declare to the
contrary--one can only theorize--and the speculations of one person, be
he who he may, seem to me to be of no more consequence than those of
another.