Butler's night-book, Asher Hall — entry for the night of 7–8 April 1923
A black-cloth quarto kept on the butler's pantry desk. Entries each night by Mr Aldred or by the under-butler in his absence. Ruled columns: hour, observation, action taken.
Night of Saturday/Sunday, 7–8 April 1923. Self on duty (T. Aldred). Under-butler in Bath on his half-day.
- 22:30 — Her Ladyship retired; Mr Robert in library still, with the Times.
- 23:05 — Mr Robert retired. Library lights extinguished by self.
- 23:20 — Mrs A. retired (she had been writing in the morning-room). The blue-room door closed at 23:24 (heard from the back stairs).
- 23:40 — Locked the south door of the glasshouse passage. Crisp had been through at 22:50 to close the boiler.
- 00:15 — Self retired.
- 02:33 — Wakened by a board in the west passage. The fifth board from the morning-room door, the one that has wanted nailing since Christmas. A light tread. Female. Carrying nothing audible (no rustle of paper, no glass). The footstep returned along the same passage at — I did not see the clock again until I had risen and looked. I judge no more than fifteen minutes elapsed. I had supposed her Ladyship might be unwell. I rose, half-dressed, and stood in the door of my own room with the light unlit, but the corridor was empty by the time I came to it.
- 03:00 — All silent. Self resumed retiring.
Note appended in a different ink, Sunday afternoon:
I have asked Daisy whether her Ladyship was unwell in the night. Her Ladyship was not. Her Ladyship slept until quarter past seven, as is her custom on the Sunday.
The light tread was therefore not her Ladyship's. I have not written the name in this book. T.A., 8th iv. 1923.