SOURCE: "The Tratate Middoth" by M. R. James  (More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911)

DESCRIPTION: "This time, if you please — ten o’clock in the morning, remember, and as much light as ever you get in those classes, and there was my parson again, back to me, looking at the books on the shelf I wanted. His hat was on the table, and he had a bald head. I waited a second or two looking at him rather particularly. I tell you, he had a very nasty bald head. It looked to me dry, and it looked dusty, and the streaks of hair across it were much less like hair than cobwebs. Well, I made a bit of a noise on purpose, coughed and moved my feet. He turned round and let me see his face — which I hadn’t seen before. I tell you again, I’m not mistaken. Though, for one reason or another I didn’t take in the lower part of his face, I did see the upper part; and it was perfectly dry, and the eyes were very deep-sunk; and over them, from the eyebrows to the cheek-bone, there were cobwebs — thick. " ("The Tractate Middoth" by M. R. James)

NOTES: The library ghost appears in "a certain famous library" to indicate a book, The Tractate Middoth. The book was donated by John Rant in 1875 and is the key to a fortune. A deserving heiress must race to keep her fortune from an unscruplous relative.

HISTORY: Not so much a horror story as a supernatural adventure tale. James would write "Casting the Runes" in a similar vein.