The English obsession with Ghosts and their desire for continuity

The English see more ghosts more than anyone.  Interestingly, the English are also obsessed with the past; ruins, ancient volumes, churches, cathedrals etc

As Peter Ackroyd has it 'Ghosts represent continuity albeit of a spectral kind.'

The English have a rich repository of words to describe Ghost's terrain; 'marsh, fen, bog, swamp, fog
i.e plausibly seen but because of the terrain credibly unseen, so the sight of them is both alarming but oddly consoling.

So how should one deal with this still persistent belief in Ghosts, the stentorian voice of 18th century
England (Peter Ackroyd again) come to mind in that of Samuel Johnson on the subject of Ghosts
'...all argument is against it, but all belief if for it.'

So next time you are alone in the house and you think you hear a scraping on the floor; a sound as if someones moving furniture, the sound of footsteps, that strange sound as if someone near by is jingling money and you feel  you are  witnessing the sounds of a ghostly intruder in
your house, be not afeared, for what is actually happening is that you are dragging up by recall  old wife's tale and ghostly lore.  And if you live in England there is plenty of Ghostly lore.

My God, what was that?  Was that footsteps I heard.  Seriously, be not afraid for it is a fundamental
desire in you for continuity.