Research source

I am still near, Watching the smiles I prized on earth, Your converse mild, your blameless mirth.[64

Date of account: Late nineteenth-century compilation
Source: The Ghost World
Reference: The Ghost World · selected passage 63
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

In the neighbourhood of Leeds there is the Padfoot, a weird apparition about the size of a small donkey, 'with shaggy hair and large eyes like saucers.' Mr

Published source text

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Source passage

Source text · mention only

In the neighbourhood of Leeds there is the Padfoot, a weird apparition about the size of a small donkey, 'with shaggy hair and large eyes like saucers.' Mr. Baring-Gould relates[120] how a man in Horbury once saw 'the Padfooit,' which 'in this neighbourhood is a white dog like a "flay-craw."' It goes sometimes on two legs, sometimes it runs on three, and to see it is a prognostication of death. He was going home by Jenkin, and he saw a white dog in the hedge. He struck at it, and the stick passed through it. Then the white dog looked at him, and it had 'great saucer e'en'; and he was so 'flayed,' that he ran home trembling and went to bed, when he fell ill and died. With this strange apparition may be compared the Barguest, Bahrgeist, or Boguest of Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire, and the Boggart of Lancashire; an uncanine creature, which generally assumes the form of a large black dog with flaming eyes, and is supposed to be a presage of death. The word 'barguest,' according to Sir Walter Scott, is from the German 'bahrgeist'--spirit of the bier; and, as it has been pointed out, the proverbial expression to 'war like a Barguest,' shows how deep a hold this apparition once had on the popular mind.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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Modern context

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