midnight
This I apprehend to have had its origin in the famous story of the wild huntsman , the favourite goblin in German tales ; though , by-the-by , as I was talking on the subject with Master Simon the other evening in the dark avenue , he hinted that he had himself once or twice heard odd sounds at night , very like a pack of hounds in cry ; and that once , as he was returning rather late from a hunting dinner , he had seen a strange figure galloping along this same moor ; but as he was riding rather fast at the time , and in a hurry to get home , he did not stop to ascertain what it was . Popular superstitions are fast fading away in England , owing to the general diffusion of knowledge , and the bustling intercourse kept up throughout the country ; still they have their strong-holds and lingering places , and a retired neighbourhood like this is apt to be one of them . The parson tells me that he meets with many traditional beliefs and notions among the common people , which he has been able to draw from them in the course of familiar conversation , though they are rather shy of avowing them to strangers , and particularly to `` the gentry , '' who are apt to laugh at them . He says there are several of his old parishioners who remember when the village had its bar-guest , or bar-ghost -- a spirit supposed to belong to a town or village , and to predict any impending misfortune by midnight shrieks and wailings . The last time it was heard was just before the death of Mr. Bracebridge 's father , who was much beloved throughout the neighbourhood ; though there are not wanting some obstinate unbelievers , who insisted that it was nothing but the howling of a watch-dog . I have been greatly delighted , however , at meeting with some traces of my old favourite , Robin Goodfellow , though under a different appellation from any of those by which I have heretofore heard him called . The parson assures me that many of the peasantry believe in household goblins , called Dubbies , which live about particular farms and houses , in the same way that Robin Goodfellow did of old .