legends · 4 min read ·
Visitors' Book
A house museum's visitors' book is signed each day by the same hand, above a line that no one drew.
**Harwell House Museum · Visitors' Book, Entrance Hall**
*Please sign in. Name, date, and any comments are welcome. The book is kept for the archive.*
· · ·
**12 Feb** · Margaret and Lewis Foy, Bristol. "Lovely house. The gardens are beautiful. Lewis wanted to see the kitchen and I said he'd have to wait his turn."
**12 Feb** · Ian Hobday, Exeter. "The tour guide was excellent. Mentioned the rooms are kept as they were when the Harwell family lived here. I liked the chaise longue."
**13 Feb** · Sarah Pike, York. "Sat in the window seat on the landing for ten minutes. Very peaceful. Someone else was sitting there when I came back, but they didn't say hello."
**13 Feb** · Michael Tran, London. "Visited with my mother. She said the house felt like it was expecting someone."
· · ·
**14 Feb** · *[no name]* · "I was here yesterday with my husband. We signed the book and went home. This morning I came back and my name is already here, in my handwriting, and I don't remember writing it."
*Curator's note: the visitor's signature matches the one from 13 Feb. The signature is dated 14 Feb but the book was locked overnight. The page has been dried. The ink is still soft.*
· · ·
**15 Feb** · Ruth Ellery, Cardiff. "Please don't let the woman in the blue dress stand at the bottom of the stairs. She keeps looking at the door as if she wants to be let out. We told the guide, and he said she's always there."
**15 Feb** · Ben and Tess Marlow, Leeds. "We saw her. She waved."
· · ·
**16 Feb** · Harold Pym, Chester. "I was asked to sign on behalf of the Harwell trust. I'm told the book has been signed every day for seventy years, by the same hand, always at the top of the page. I'd like to know who that is."
*Curator's note: the top of the page is blank. Every entry in the book has been written below a line drawn in the same hand.*
· · ·
**17 Feb** · *[no name]* · "I signed in, and then I went up to the nursery. There's a crib with a dent in it, and a rocking chair with a cushion. The woman in the portrait over the fireplace is looking at me. She has the same signature as the book."
· · ·
**18 Feb** · Eleanor Vance, London. "I'm the great-granddaughter of the family that owned this house. My grandmother told me the book was started by her mother, who was the housekeeper here. She kept the visitors' book so that the family would know who had come to see them, because no one else ever did."
**18 Feb** · Eleanor Vance, London. "My grandmother also said the book was meant to be closed when the last visitor had signed. She didn't say how you'd know who the last one was."
· · ·
**Donor's letter (received 20 Feb, hand-delivered)**
*To the Curator, Harwell House,*
*I'm writing to donate the visitors' book, and to ask you to stop keeping it open. I've read the entries. I recognise the handwriting, and I've come to understand that the housekeeper didn't keep the book for the family. She kept it for the visitors, so that they would have something to come back to when they couldn't remember leaving.*
*She's still at the top of the page. She's been signing it every morning, the way she signed the first entry in 1954. She doesn't want to be found. She only wants to know who came up the stairs last, so she can say goodbye properly.*
· · ·
**Curator's note (21 Feb)**
The visitors' book has been closed and placed in the archive vault. The top of the page has been checked. There is one entry, in very faint ink, written in the same hand as every other entry in the book. It has been signed by someone who is not a visitor.
It reads: *Thank you for coming. Please don't stay.*
· · ·
**Visitor entry (22 Feb, after closure)** · *[no name]* · "I came back. I didn't sign. I just wanted to look at the page. Her hand is still on the desk, the one with the pen in it. The ink hasn't dried."