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It scuttled past me out of the undergrowth near the Devil's Dyke and lay hid in the grass the far side of the golf-green.

Four lusty men, tending that green, forming square, then drove it into a cup in the ground, where one of them siezed it. half trampling it first with his heavy hoof.

When I got close, I saw a tiny rabbit scarce bigger than a guinea-pig, trembling in the large palm of the trampler: its little ears laid back and bright beady eves, wide-staring with fear, but otherwise unhurt.

"Well," I asked its captor, " and now what are you going to do with it?"  I knew him well, for he often came for beer to my inn, where he drank and talked more than he ever listened; and I disliked, him intensely.

"Why, eat him of course," he rejoined, rudely, "what do you think? He'll make a juicy little pie."

I Iooked down at the future " juicy little pie." that exquisitely coloured and shaped ball of brown silk, took, it into my hand and, feeling its hammering heart, wondered however I was to save it.

I asked. " What do You want for it?"

Shepherds in those days (about 1850) were treated much more as friends than mere hired servants and were generally consulted by their masters as to what fields should be sown with this and that, without hurting the run of the flock: consequently there was a better understanding between master and man than we generally see these days, though some of the old conditions and traditions still exist in parts.

"Shepherd's Acres" are still to be found on many estates.  Frequently the shepherd held by inheritance a piece of land known as "Tenantry" which he let to his master.  His wages, true, were small, about fourteen pounds a year, but then he had some thirty or forty "yoes" of his own for which he had to pay when he took the situation.

These "yoes" ran with his master's flock and fared just the same as the rest did, and when any sheep were sold the shepherd received a proportionate part of the money realised, and the same with the sale of the wool after sheep-shearing.  In those days the owner had little to do with the flock, leaving all to his shepherd.  This plan made the shepherds more painstaking and gave them a greater insight about things than they seem now to possess.

Yet, many of the existing shepherds of the South Downs, though they cannot now as of old reckon themselves men of property, are nevertheless still men of family who could easily prove by parish registers an unbroken line of pastoral progenitors for some hundreds of years back.

Edward Shoosmith 1932

My second ghost story also happened in Southern Ireland.

After our stay at Castle Ross in County Meath ended on Friday morning we had the rest of the day to travel down to County Cork in the South West corner of Ireland.

Castle Townsend - Our room was on the right top floor

We had booked a stay at Castle Townsend for 5 days arriving on the Friday and leaving on the Wednesday. Our bedroom was situated in the right tower overlooking the inlet.

This story is close to home because it was myself that experienced it first hand.

It happened back in 2007 when my wife and I went on holiday to Southern Ireland.  We booked a stay at Ross Castle in County Meath for 5 nights on the top floor of the keep.  The castle itself consists of the old square keep with an annexe to the side connected by a glass, stone and wood foyer.

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon to a deserted castle and parked the car just outside of the keep as you can see from the photo below.