Ghost Story Review: "The Haunted Cove" by Sir George Douglas

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Clyffe, the author tells the reader, is “commonplace in itself” and shows “positive vulgarity in the style its pleasure grounds are laid out.” Its one redeeming characteristic is a private bathing ground (er… beach, I guess), which is reached through a tunnel cut through the soft from gardens above. The only approach is from the sea. To prevent intrusion from the sea, it was locked with an iron gate. In the 1890s (so the story goes), a daughter of the house, Miss Alix, was engaged to a young officer who was stationed nearby. He’d row over and they’d spend an evening on the private bay. The author refers to them as “blameless but not particularly interesting.” One particular evening, the young officer arrived quite early and waited in the tunnel, smoking cigarette. He might even have looked at the inside of his eyelids. When he work, he saw what appeared to be a young woman walking on the beach. She appeared to be in agony, beseeching someone for something. At first, the young officer was annoyed, but then he grew curious. Who was this woman? How did she manage to get to this private beach? He lost sight of her. After she arrived and he asked her about it, Miss Alix’s first thought was the young woman’s arrival had to do with one too many whiskey and sodas. This ghost story unravels in a clumsy fashion. The author shows an odd contempt for his characters. The young officer begins as a not terribly bright lieutenant and ends as a buffoon of a colonel. Miss Alix is “practical” throughout, that is cold and controlling. In the midst of it is an old tragedy that is not talked about much, or, if it is, is mentioned merely as a curiosity. This was just rather strange. This story is available from Project Gutenberg in the collection The Haunters and the Haunted. ______ Title: “The Haunted Cove” Author: Sir George Douglas (1856-1935) First published: The Haunters & the Haunted: Ghost Stories 1921 Source: ISFDB