Here’s an entry you probably shouldn’t be reading at night, but you know you want to so go on. Croglin Low Hall in Cumberland was owned by the Fisher family. They leased it to Amelia Cranswell and her two brothers, who moved in that winter. Time passed without incident, until the warm months of summer. Ms. Cranswell turned in one night without fastening her shutters and lay in bed unable to sleep. Gazing out the window, she saw what she took to be a pair of lights coming from a ring of trees on the property. There was one problem though. These lights were moving.
She was eventually able to make out a dark shape getting closer to the house. She was nearly paralyzed with fear and, although she attempted to open her door, she was unable to escape. Something bolted through the window, grabbed her, and proceeded to bite her on the neck. She finally managed to scream out and her brothers broke down her door. They found her bleeding profusely but could not catch the fleeing creature.
The siblings left for a short while for Ms. Cranswell to recuperate in Switzerland, but eventually returned. The brothers took to carrying pistols with them at all times, but all was quiet for a while. It wasn’t until sometime in March that Ms. Cranswell herad the familiar sound of something trying to open her window, although this time the shutters were fastened. She screamed immediately and her brothers rushed in. One of them fired a shot and managed to hit the creature in the leg, although it ultimately got away.
The next day, the brothers rallied their neighbors and they went to the graveyard. There were rumors of something living in one of the vaults so they forced it open. In one of the few undisturbed coffins they found a shriveled figure with a bullet wound to one leg. They promptly burned the coffin and its occupant.
This story first came to light when it was published by Augustus Hare, who claimed to have heard it from one Captain Fisher. He dated the occurrence to 1875 and skeptics soon called foul. They pointed to similarities between his story and Varney the Vampyre, published in 1847. There has been some back and forth, with researcher over the years unearthing snippets of information. The final word, thus far, comes from F. Clive-Ross, who interviewed residents of the area to determine if stories handed down generations could shine any light on the veracity of the story. They claim that Hare was greatly mistaken when he stated that the creature had been sighted in the late 1800s. Rather, the events of the story actually dated back to the 1600s.
