"Under none of the accredited ghostly circumstances and environed by none of the conventional ghostly surroundings did I first make acquaintance with the house which is the subject of this Christmas piece. I saw it in the daylight with the sun upon it. There was no wind no rain no lightning no thunder no awful or unwonted ffcircumstance of any kind to heighten its effect. More than that: I had come to it direct from a railway station: it was not more than a mile distant from the railway station; and as I stood outside the house looking back upon the way I had come I could see the goods train running smoothly along the embankment in the valley. I will not say that everything was utterly commonplace because I doubt if anything can be that except to utterly commonplace people and there my vanity steps in; but I will take it on myself to say that anybody might see the house as I saw it any fine autumn morning."