Lived at 15 Learmouth Gardens Edinburgh in and around 1936.
It was in the above house that the events below were to become known not only to the locals and his friends but also to the world at, large by the parts of local and national newspapers played in the story it’s self. Below we shall look in to this strange curse and by taking extracts from Dr Alexander’s very own account of what happened and try to peace together just what happened on those days he had the bone.
Dr Alexander and his wife Zeyla, were travellers, have travelled most of the world, his wife had set her heart on seeing one of the last known great sights that of Egypt and the valley of the Kings Having agreed to take time of and go and see this great country in all it’s glory. They set off on the voyage. Not knowing at that time what they would bring back.
Having reached the Nile and the lovely city of Cairo. They set of for one of the most aww inspiring sights The Temple at Luxor, Below is words taken from Dr Alexander when he first set eyes on this temple.
Dr Alexander;
“THE TEMPLE at Luxor is beyond my powers of description - it has to be seen to be believed and many hours can be spent amongst the temples and beautiful buildings all around.”
Although this seemed to be a most wonders sight for him and his wife. The Valley of the Kings seemed to be somewhat let down as later he wrote,
“The Valley of Kings disappointed me, except for the tomb of Tutankhamen, there was really little to see.”
Could it be the most sought after place in Egypt was not of his liking only find the tomb of the boy King worth the visit here. We can look at this point later at the end of the book. See points and notes.
His visit was to be a long one for he may have wanted to visit other great sites. He seemed to stay in the same hotel but moved on as again his notes were to revel this;
“After two wonderful days we wended our way back to Cairo and this time to the Mena Hotel, on the edge of the desert and only ten minutes walk from the Sphinx. The great Pyramid of course towers right over the hotel and at night its shadow could be seen cast around everywhere.”
Dr Alexander only seems to look at the things through his own eyes in these reports and writings to friends and family. he would seem to be happy looking around Cairo and other places close by the hotel. He went on to write.
“We did the usual sight-seeing that all tourists have to do, including a ride on a rather unpleasant camel and then retired for a bathe in the swimming pool and dinner on a table at the edge of the pool. In a mood of complete satisfaction, caused by good eating, excellent brandy and the cool of the evening but most important of all the receipt of a very welcome cheque from a Glasgow editor, to whom I had sent a description of my journey by destroyer, I had pleasure in receiving Abdul. He told me that new tombs had been found recently behind the Pyramid and although not of any great historical value it might be as well if we saw the finishing stages of one of these tombs being examined, which was going on the next day. "My brother could arrange" he said. It was arranged therefore, that he would collect us the next morning after an early breakfast, and for an extra fee he would take us into the newly opened tomb - a thing the Egyptians were very much against.
"I had a feeling in my bones that something was going to happen over this and it was only with the greatest of difficulty that Zeyla cajoled me into going with her. I wish earnestly to God that we had not gone!”
Is this with foresight that he feels something may go wrong, or was the fact that he was just not really in to going there. It would seem by what he wrote his wife must have had a job in getting him to go. Strange why would he not just let his wife go alone there. He seemed to enjoy the fact of some other sights and viewed. The Temple to be amazing sight to be hold. Yet he found this to be something he did not want to do.
Going in to a new just opened tomb would to me and most people a sight worth seeing. As you are seeing a sight not seen for made be thousands of years. Jet he said he had miss giving’s over it. He went on to report best he could what he felt there.
“I am not an Egyptologist so I will not attempt to describe the tomb beyond the fact that it was pre-mummy era, we were informed, and had at one time been filled by the mud of the Nile, when it was known in history to have caused widespread damage. When this was I don’t know, but I believe it to be four or five thousand years ago. We went down some roughly hewn rock steps - about 30 of them - and there, lying on a stone slab and uncovered was the remains of a skeleton – water and mud had removed most. You could see the skull quite clearly and the leg bones but few ribs were left although the spine was almost intact.
"With a feeling of awe I looked around and could well imagine the placing of this poor body on the slab and the final sealing of the door at its feet. Our guide told us that it was the body of a high-class girl – but there was no question of her being a Princess. I couldn’t find out her age nor could I find out her name - time had erased that information, but that she was one of the countless hundreds that have been unearthed from behind the Pyramids, there is no doubt. The antiquity of the bones could be seen by the fact that although, as light as a feather, they would crumble very soon. As we left I remember thinking to myself, how strange that one day someone may be looking at my bones and wondering what the devil the owner looked like. I said a small prayer and then made the others come on up into the sunshine and life. Zeyla seemed fascinated by it and slipped back past us to have one more look – I was only too glad to have a smoke!”
Was it to be the body of some person not yet known or could it be just another body that was hidden for no reason in the tombs. How did they know it was a female?. What made his wife return to take the part of the female a bone from the tomb it’s self. Did she want or need to?. She seemed happy to back in to a dark tomb on her own.
It would seem form what Dr Alexander had to say later in his own words may shed some light on this we can but hope.
They seemed to head back towards their hotel through the streets of Cairo as he went on to say they could visit many a shop.
“On the way back to the Mena House it was suggested that we should call at the Pyramid souvenir shop. To my surprise Zeyla rejected the idea. That night after a bathe, Zeyla told me that she had got a wonderful souvenir in the shape of a Bone that she had taken off the skeleton we had seen that morning. She showed it to me and to my eyes it looked like digestive biscuit, apart from it being slightly convex and the shape of a heart. I told her to put it away and indeed never gave it another thought until we were back in Edinburgh some weeks later after finishing our holiday in Egypt. We had asked some friends around for supper and Zeyla produced this somewhat grotesque relic, much to the amusement of all. I produced a small case, which had once contained a clock, and we put the bone in the dining room on a table.”
Was this the main reason for taking the bone, so she could show off what she had taken. To be one up on her close friends. At this time most people were talking at great length, places they had visited. So it would seem to her that she had picked this bone up to show off with. But it would seem the bone was to play a bigger part in the fame she sought. As it could be said as we read on in to his own words the bone and what it did became famous in their own right. It would seem the bone was able to show what it could do right away.
“Just as our friends were leaving there was the most almighty crash and a huge piece of the roof parapet landed about two feet away from us. It could have killed anyone. Whether this can be connected with the Bone or not is difficult to say, but it certainly scared us and was very hard to explain.”
Was this the bone stating to show it’s power off. Was the bone unhappy about being removed form it’s grave and taken away from it’s lands?. It may be the roof was old and needed to be repaired. No report is around to say if and when the roof was repaired and what was found when it was. We can believe it must have been checked at some point. After part of the roof feel off.
It would seem the bone if it was this would go on to make it’s self known in other ways to the people of the house.
“A few nights later, after we had gone to bed, Nanny came running upstairs to say that she had heard someone moving about in the Drawing Room. I went downstairs but there was nothing there – just imagination and the rain outside I told Nanny.
That night in my sleep I do remember hearing a crash but didn’t think anything of it at the time. The following morning, however, Zeyla accused me of being careless the night before and of having upset the corner table. Sure enough, there the table lay on its side, with the small glass case beside it and the Bone on the floor. I apologized, thinking that I must have carelessly put the table unevenly against the wall and the vibration of the traffic must have shaken it over.”
The mind can play tricks and indeed he may have ht the table or replaced the table in a different way. Why would he move the table at that time of night if there had been no reason to or no one around?. It would seem the bone was in away responsible for this act and many more to come.
“One night a few weeks later, when Nanny was out, we heard someone on the stairs and not expecting her so early, Zeyla went outside to see if she was alright, but there was no-one there. We didn’t say anything to Nanny about it, but during the following nights something kept waking us up at different times and none of us could explain the noises.
My nephew, young Alasdair Black came to stay for a few days shortly after these strange occurrences, and one morning he calmly announced that he had seen "a funny dressed person going upstairs". He assured me that he had gone to the lower lavatory the night before and had seen this person. He didn’t seem to be the slightest bit scared about it, however, so I didn’t say anything more about it, but decided to sit up one night to see if I could see anything.”
It would seem the bone had brought with it (if the nephew is to be believed a full apparition with it. Pity he did not say what the person was dressed like or if they were male or female he saw. It would also go on to seem that, Dr Alexander thought it may be someone trying to break in and steal stuff from them. He went on to report.
“We had some valuable snuffboxes in the Drawing Room and I thought that someone might be trying to get at them. So, having made quite sure that the Drawing Room windows were all locked, I locked the door, putting the key into my pocket. For hours I watched from the balcony outside our bed-room, feeling rather foolish doing so.
Nothing happened so I went to bed, only to be rudely awakened by a yell from Zeyla, that someone was downstairs. Grabbing my revolver, I dashed downstairs, to meet a very scared Nanny. Of course the door was locked and the key was still in my pocket. I yelled to Zeyla to get the key and when we finally got in the Drawing Room, it looked as if a battle royal had taken place there. Chairs were upset, books flung about, and there in the middle of the chaos was that damn Bone, looking as harmless and more like a biscuit than ever. The windows were still locked!
It was after this episode that I decided that we were up against something – a poltergeist or some such thing. It had been known, but I had never had the misfortune to come across the results of one. Zeyla, who was very superstitious, found a local soothsayer, who really said practically nothing except that her fee was 1 and was of no help.
Weeks passed without anything unusual happening; then it started again. Noises, banging and always in the Drawing Room. Zeyla thought it was something to do with the bone and had the brilliant idea of moving the articles which had been flung about, except for the heavy chairs, downstairs to my Sitting Room. This we did and of course the Bone, table and all, came down as well.
After a week or so I got fed up with having my sitting room cluttered up and said that I would shift all the things back the following day. That night, however, something nearly did the job for me. As usual there it was – the Bone – on the floor, and as much furniture as could be was tipped up all over the place. This time I did connect this with the Bone, and told Zeyla that I was going to burn it.
Unfortunately, this was met with such a storm of abuse from Zeyla that I was only too glad to leave the whole thing and go out for a drink to forget the whole incident. I told some of the members of my club what had happened which caused much laughter, and was not believed, except for a dear old chap called Col. E V Coates, who had traveled a great deal. We had a long talk about it and when I left the club that night -a little tight - I left with the avowed intention of destroying the Bone.
When I arrived home I found that the Bone had been at it again. This was much earlier than usual but the damage was more severe than usual, as this time it was obvious that the table upon which the bone lay had been subjected to what one might say was severe pressure for one of the legs was cracked. I just couldn’t believe my eyes.
During the course of the next day or so I was pestered by a very charming reporter from the Express who had a cock and bull story that he wanted me to look at. It was such utter tripe that I told him so, and in so doing I opened up the gates of a dam with miles of water behind it!
From then on after the article had appeared in print my life became hell on earth. How the reporters got hold of the story I don’t know, but every paper seemed to want a statement of some description or another but I was adamant. "I had no comment to make." The young Express reporter asked if he could borrow the Bone for a week and write up a daily article on it. I agreed to this, but nothing happened of any note whilst in the reporter’s possession and it was returned to me.
A few more weeks elapsed and still the papers molested me, but I had nothing to tell them, until one evening at about 6 p.m. Nanny was scared out of her life. I suppose her nerves were frayed, we had had a domestic scene and I had gone to the club and Zeyla was with her family and Egidia. The story we heard from Nanny really worried me, apparently the same thing had happened. Noises etc. but this time there was a terrific crash, followed by breaking glass and she had been too frightened to go up to the Drawing Room to see what had happened. By this time I knew what to expect, and I was amazed to find the room untouched, except for the table and the Bone. The table was smashed on its side, the glass canopy under with the Bone rested was in small pieces and the Bone itself was broken up into about five pieces.
I thought, alright you can have your story now – and arranged for a cameraman from the Scottish Daily Mail to take a picture of it. You should have seen the story the next day! I gave the Bone to the reporter who had covered the story. It was returned to me, however, because apparently he became seriously ill – same old trouble or was it? My suggestion that there was a connection with this fact and the fact that the previous reporter had had a car accident was met with a great deal of ridicule, however, so we decided to forget the whole thing and prayed for peace.
This was not to be, however, for on Boxing Day night we had a really cheerful crowd coming to dinner which was scheduled for 7.30 for 8. Cocktails were to be served upstairs in the Drawing Room. Everyone was very happy and in good spirits and as it was very cold outside I had laid a big log fire in the large fire-place of the L shaped room.
Naturally the subject of the Bone came up and to my disgust and dismay, Zeyla, who had got a friend of hers, a doctor, to mend the Bone as far as possible, had placed it on a table opposite the door leading into the room. This of course made a good conversational interest and it came out that the Bone was a Sacrum, or the bone at the base of the spine, joining the hip bones, apparently, although not being a doctor I wouldn’t swear to this. Whilst we were talking, and a fresh round of drinks were being served, the entire table, bone and all, went hurtling onto the wall opposite, with a terrific thump. No-one was standing near it, nor did anyone see it happen – it just happened! Chaos followed, the maid fainted as did Zeyla’s rather hysterical cousin Gert! The party became a fiasco from then on. No-one picked the Bone up because I insisted that my room downstairs should be used. This story was spread of course and all sorts of things said about it.
In the New Year the American papers got hold of the story and they went to town with it, the whole story being magnified and I found myself again the leading figure in a story which I had become to hate. Several spiritualistic meetings were held on the subject, to which literally hundreds of people came and I only wish now that I had had a good agent – I could have made a fortune out of it! Many unkind people thought that I had, and that I was keeping the ball rolling to gather in the money but this was certainly not so.
Amongst the thousands of letters I received was one from a Dr Carter, of Tutankhamen Tomb fame, in which he asked me to respect his confidence by not publishing its contents, but he assured me that things quite inexplicable like this could happen, indeed had happened and will go on happening.
I am not a Roman Catholic although I had a very great respect for my uncle who was Father Benedict, at the Fort Augustus Abbey. I suggested that he should come and exorcise whatever it was. He obtained permission and came to the scene. It was a solemn visit, carried out in Zeyla’s absence. The Bone, having been blessed, was then destroyed by me by burning, and I made certain that it had all gone for good.
The papers were anxious to have this story, of course, but was a personal one and a very devout one, so they extracted no information from me at all, and they reported what they made up themselves. The strange thing is, that after this, we had peace in the house, although Zeyla could not forgive me for destroying the Bone and it didn’t help our already rocky marriage at all.
I can give no answer as to what caused these mysterious happenings but to my mind, there was some strange power released that we humans are apt to laugh at, but which was oh! So very real! Looking back on this experience I still think that it was one of the most horrible experiences that I have been through, happening as it did both in the daytime and the night.
My own interpretation of the matter is that through some uncanny power of religion it was brought under destructive control but if – and I emphasise the world "if" – it really did carry a curse, as many people thought, the curse certainly did not end when I destroyed the Bone by fire, and from 1936 onwards trouble, sometimes grave, seemed to be always around the corner. My daughter Egidia became ill with the result that she had an operation on her ear-drum. Then Zeyla had the same trouble in both her ears. My troublesome kidney was still causing me great discomfort and altogether life was very difficult.
Elizabeth Elphinstone
Location: Edinburgh - Large house to the north of Balcarres Street, Morringside cross
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1720s
Further Comments: Elizabeth was stabbed through the heart by her husband after he found her in the arms of his son from a former marriage. The husband killed himself soon after the incident. Elizabeth's ghost took to haunting the house until the death of her stepson, when all spiritual activity ceased.
Jack Courage
Jealousy? Temper? Envy? I seem to detect hints of all three in this story from Edinburgh of young love, a forced marriage, and an O. Henry twist of fate.
Way back in 1712, a retired colonial administrator named Thomas Elphinstone bought a home in Edinburgh’s Morningside district. He was a widower, whose wife had died giving birth to a now-grown son. This son was long since on his own in life, and it seems there must have been some friction between him and his father, for reasons that will become clear as our story progresses.
Sir Thomas–he had been knighted for his services to the Crown–was, by this time, a man in his fifties, but he was in love: with a much younger woman called Elizabeth Pittendale. As was often the case in the old days, her family was all in favor of Sir Thomas’s suit, never mind the difference in age.
And never mind that Elizabeth’s heart was given irrevocably to another. At some jollification or other, she had met a dashing young army officer called–surely an unusual name–Jack Courage.
Jack, however, was about to be posted overseas, and her family would, she felt sure, never agree to her marrying him and leaving them, perhaps forever. Their pushing and prodding finally persuaded her that she should do her duty instead of following her heart. She broke off with Jack, and, once he was gone, married Sir Thomas.
She tried hard to be a good wife. Oh, she tried! But the careful pretense she built up of being blissfully happy tumbled down not long after her marriage, for Sir Thomas told her they would soon be getting a visit from his grown son, John. He had been serving abroad in the military and was coming home on furlough.
And–wouldn’t you know, and as you may already have guessed, Dear Reader–she recognized John Elphinstone no sooner than she saw him.
John Elphinstone was none other than the young man to whom she had given her heart: the man she had known as Jack Courage.
I could go off on a long thread of speculation here: perhaps father and son hated each other, with the father blaming the son for the loss of his first wife and the boy’s mother, the boy resenting the father’s undeserved blame; perhaps the boy ran away to join the service, and gave himself a new name in the process. . .or most sinister of all, that Jack Courage knew of his father’s affection for Elizabeth Pittendale and had deliberately courted her under an assumed name. . .
Nothing more than conspiracy theories tricked up in romantic dress, those speculations. Young Jack Courage, it would seem, loved Elizabeth, stepmother or no, as passionately as she loved him.
It followed, perhaps inevitably, that the much older Sir Thomas found his young wife, one day, in a feverish embrace with his son.
Sir Thomas went after his son like a tiger after prey, and Jack fought back with equal fury.
Unfortunately, neither of them reckoned on Elizabeth.
In the course of the fight, Sir Thomas had pulled a knife, and to prevent him from stabbing Jack, Elizabeth stepped in and took the blade through her own heart.
Horrified and heartbroken, Sir Thomas took his own life that same day. Three days later, his shaken son had the bodies of husband and wife placed side by side in the family vault.
John Elphinstone, aka Jack Courage, inherited the house and his father’s fortune, but did not stay in Morningside; he rented the house out to a friend and returned to his military service.
This friend and tenant settled into the house and lived quietly for some time, until, one night, he was surprised to hear footsteps in an upstairs corridor where, he knew, no one was present at the time; all others in the house were downstairs at the time.
The tenant went upstairs and was startled to see a pallid figure walking down the corridor toward one of the bedrooms: a woman, weeping as she went.
Although he wasn’t frightened–or claimed not to be–by this obviously spectral being, the tenant could not help but be moved by her tears and general air of sorrow.
It would be another hundred years and more before spiritualism became widely practiced, but there were those around who claimed to be able to communicate with the dead, and the tenant consulted one such, who told him what he probably should have known before: that the weeping lady was none other than the late Elizabeth Elphinstone. The medium, though, added something interesting: Elizabeth was not able to rest in the family vault, and would not rest, as long as she lay beside the man who had killed her.
The tenant communicated with Jack Elphinstone, who came home and promptly had Elizabeth’s body moved out of the vault, and buried in the nearby churchyard, after which her spirit no longer walked.
When Jack Courage died, a very few years later, he was buried beside his beloved Elizabeth.
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