IT seems that, like the Heworth couple, I must have a ghost in my house (September 3). I was amazed to read that Goddard-Youngs inexplicably found an atlas exactly where they left it, though my case is even more difficult to comprehend.

The other day I found the two folders of CDs, which had been missing for several weeks, in the first-aid drawer in my bedroom yet, two weeks previously, I had actually put them in their usual place on a shelf in the lounge (I think).

Thanks to your article, the cause of my mystery is revealed. I am now convinced that a ghost or poltergeist took my CDs and put them back in the wrong place. I expect to encounter him or her, partial or complete, any day.

If I enlist the services of a clairvoyant, perhaps she will be able to detect weird energies and even describe my ghost for me, if I first supply her with all the hints she needs to concoct an acceptable explanation.

What makes this all really spooky is that the ghost in your feature haunts Heworth and mine, remarkably, is just along the road in Tang Hall, and I frequently visit Old Malton, which is uncomfortably close to the Norton ghost!

Dr James Merryweather,

Ingleborough Avenue,

Tang Hall,

York.

...I WAS very interested in the report of a "Roman" ghost at Malton (Roman hand, August 31).

As the resident "Ghost Walker" in my home town of Bridlington may I offer an explanation?

This ghost is more than likely the spirit of a young child who means no harm to anyone in the household. Romans buried dead children in the foundations of their properties as a good luck charm because an innocent child was without sin, so was a protector of the building.

The stroking of the knee and legs and hair touching also point to a child's relationship to its mother (or mother figure). The fact that the doll moved and possibly the television that changes channels (because the buttons are at child height) and also the fact that young females are in the household is a factor.

This is not a "Randy Roman" but a young child who is there as a comfort and may disappear when the children grow older.

The ghost may become mischievous as a child would, but not violent. As long as there is family love in the home it will, I believe, grow quiet when the children grow older and become dormant, until, once again, other children or a caring mother move into the house.

D Mooney,

Local Historian and Ghost Walker,

Brookland Road,

Bridlington.

Updated: 11:51 Saturday, September 07, 2002