Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 288

Transcript

Some believe in ghosts, many do not, that is to say they have never seen one, and therefore cannot say. I never was superstitious, or inclined that way. But, seeing is believing. Many, many years ago, I was passing along the then almost bare banks of the Avon, on Oxford Terrace. This was at night, a nice clear night. I saw a man, who to me, appeared a big strong bearded man. As everybody, as one may say, knew everybody, and thinking he was eeling, I went towards him. The nearer I got to the place, the surer I was that there was no living soul there! I cooed and looked all round. The very next day, I think it was, a body, that of a big man, was found floating. But the body had been in the water, so the doctors said, nine or ten days. There you are. How do you account for it?

On Marshall

There are few left of the earlier settlers on the Papanui Road. The Carlton corner was not built on until 60-61, having been bought by Mr Money from the Wakefield’s. All the opposite block, stretching away for about 100 acres, was long a paddock, belonging to Dr Barker, in fact there was barely a house, up to St Alban’s Lane. In the sixties Mr Peacock built. Merivale was attacked about 64 or 5 when Mr Moorhouse put up an establishment. Further up Dr Lilly “Craikston”[?], Angus, Wm Thomson, Swinburne, Ashby, Schumaker, the “Toll bar” above the Carlton. Flashbourne and Medding’s pig.