A Horse & Cart Phantom Hitchhiker Story

[Eponastill]

I thought people might like this as an old example of familiar themes. I haven't read my Michael Goss book on the subject for a bit, so I don't know what the oldest example would be!

From the 1930s 'Schools Collection' of folklore in Ireland.
https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4613714/4611560

A country man was returning home one night from Listowel Fair to his home in Gorta[?]nane, in a horse and cart. His horse was young and swift, and as his owner drew near a field known as the Clover Field, a short distance from his home. A stile led into this field, and as he drew near, a strange man dressed in black emerged from the shadows round the stile and in the twinkling of an eye was sitting in the cart with the astonished farmer. The horse got out of control, and rushed off madly in a lather of sweat. It was almost impossible to keep him in hand. The mysterious stranger vouchsafed no answer to the countryman's attempts at conversation: Good night. Tis a fine night, thanks be to God. Isn't it late you're walking abroad? To all this the man in black pursued a close silence, and upon reaching the bend of the road the driver was petrified to discover that on turning once more to his silent companion, there was no one beside him in the cart. The pony immediately stopped, quivering with terror, but on being calmed and rubbed down, he resumed his former steady trot homewards.
The man who had this strange encounter told the story to his nephews and nieces, also adding that there was a fairy fort in the Clover Field, and very probably the stranger was from that spot.​

It has some interesting familiar fortean features: it happens at night, the stranger comes from a boundary spot (and leaves at one?), the farmer doesn't get a word out of him, he doesn't really see him appear or disappear from the cart - plus the classic "Animals Know" theme.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Cloverfield. Nothing good happens there.

 

[escargot]

the stranger comes from a boundary spot (and leaves at one?)

This point reminds me of an ongoing railway ghost story. There's a cemetery somewhere dahn sarf (I know where it is!) next to the tracks. Train drivers claim that as they draw level with the cemetery a woman appears sitting in the spare seat beside them and disappears when they reach the opposite fence. So she is there for the duration of the journey beside the cemetery.

 

[Cochise]

This point reminds me of an ongoing railway ghost story. There's a cemetery somewhere dahn sarf (I know where it is!) next to the tracks. Train drivers claim that as they draw level with the cemetery a woman appears sitting in the spare seat beside them and disappears when they reach the opposite fence. So she is there for the duration of the journey beside the cemetery.

Great Eastern round about Manor Park?

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

This point reminds me of an ongoing railway ghost story. There's a cemetery somewhere dahn sarf (I know where it is!) next to the tracks. Train drivers claim that as they draw level with the cemetery a woman appears sitting in the spare seat beside them and disappears when they reach the opposite fence. So she is there for the duration of the journey beside the cemetery.

Could it be the vast Brookwood necropolis in Surrey?
It has a creepy reputation and starts just a few metres from the Southbound platform. A few times when waiting for the train down from London, I walked down the station steps and strolled a short distance around the cemetery perimeter. Always seems to be foggy there at night...

http://www.ghostvillage.com/ghostcommunity/index.php?showtopic=14874

 

[Eponastill]

Another horse and cart phantom hitchhiker story:

The Shropshire village of Northwood, midway between Wem and Ellesmere, is in a state of excitement over a series of mysterious nightly visitations (says the 'Daily Express' Whitchurch (Salop) correspondent).
Stories are told of woman's figure which has been seen by several people, all of whom agree that she is dressed in sombre clothing as distinguished from orthodox ghostly habiliments, the image of a local woman, a farmer's wife, who lives in the neighbourhood.

A farmer named Morris and a workman named Peate were returning homeward one night with a horse and trap when they saw the woman and stopped the horse with the view of giving her a "lift," as they knew her well. She disappeared suddenly and, although the men actually got out of the trap and searched for her, she was not to be found. Two nights later Mr Morris saw her again.

Subsequently a man named Egerton, in the same district, was walking along the road late at night and distinctly saw the woman in the glaring light of a passing motor-car. As the car passed onwards over the spot where the woman was standing the man rushed forward, expecting to find the body in the road, but nothing was visible.

Mr Arthur R Ellis, a wireless factor, of Wem, was driving his car in the same district and distinctly saw the woman, whom he knows well. She was standing in the road and he jammed on the brakes and swerved to avoid her, pulled up and found - nothing.

This story is corroborated in every detail by a boy named George Bache, who was in the car at the time. Many of the more adventurous spirits are prowling the roads at night, and it seems that those who have deliberately gone out to watch have drawn blank every time.

I found this story reprinted in the Belfast Telegraph (21.12.1928). It's interesting that the phantom is identified as a living person (I think they should have gone round to interview her). I looked Northwood up and I'm very vaguely acquainted with the area, having been to the nearby bog at Wem Moss several times. There's an interesting parallel with the Irish story at the top - it's nighttime, and Northwood is on a major boundary, that between England and Wales. (But I can find significance in anything you know).

 

[EnolaGaia]

Another horse and cart phantom hitchhiker story ...

The part I find most interesting in this story is the claim that everyone who saw the woman figure recognized her as someone they really knew. Furthermore, the phrasing implies all the witnesses were seeing and recognizing the very same woman.

It's curious that the story makes no mention of anyone verifying where the woman was at the time or times of these diverse sightings. I would have thought this would be a blatantly obvious follow-up.

 

[escargot]

Could it be the vast Brookwood necropolis in Surrey?
It has a creepy reputation and starts just a few metres from the Southbound platform. A few times when waiting for the train down from London, I walked down the station steps and strolled a short distance around the cemetery perimeter. Always seems to be foggy there at night...

Ah now that'll be yer miasma, yer foul air. You should've had your correct plague-fighting gear on.

 

[Eponastill]

Ooh I came across another story, from the 1870s. It finishes with a joke that I'm sure the modern commuter will wryly appreciate.

American ghosts have almost reached their ne plus ultra of eccentricity. The drivers and conductors on a tramway in Detroit have been frightened out of the few wits they possess by the spectre of a lady, who mysteriously boards the last car at night, and afterwards as mysteriously vanishes. When she first appeared the conductor wondered at her agility in entering while the horses were at a trot, and when the car had passed along several blocks, asked her for her fare. Her face was turned away, and as he put out his hand to touch her shoulder, she faded into air. Every subsequent night, according to the testimony of half a dozen conductors, the same lady behaves in the same manner. She is richly dressed in a winter costume, and so closely veiled that a sight of her features is impossible. She invariably omits to pay her fare.
From the United States - that modern home of ghostly romance - we have already heard of phantom engine drivers driving phantom trains. They, perhaps, were chained to earth by habit and a sense of duty, but why a ghost should amuse itself every evening by riding in a public conveyance is hard to conceive. Only one greater piece of spectral eccentricity remains to be reached - that a phantom should risk travelling by railway and pay its full fare.

In 'The Globe', Thursday 11th September, 1873.