In his Irish Sketch Book, published in 1843, William Makepeace Thackeray described staying at Jones's Hotel in Londonderry. He is unflattering. He writes that the hotel is about as gay as a family vault, and that a severe figure of a landlord in seedy black is occasionally seen in the dark passages or on the creaking old stairs of the black inn. The landlord does not bow; he only warns the guest, a silent, solemn gentleman, something between a clergyman and a sexton, by the Latin motto displayed in the house, ut migraturus habita, live as one who will depart. Thackeray adds that the same man can produce a good pint of port in the evening and that the dinner is excellent, so that his fear gradually wears off.
Spirited Isle reads this as an unusual local tale concerning a ghostly former landlord, a courteous black-clad spirit guiding guests along the passages. That is not what the text says. It is a living innkeeper described in an exaggerated deadpan way. The hotel stood near Shipquay Street and no longer survives in its original form.
I keep the record so the claim is not repeated as an early ghost account of Derry. It is a useful example of how a witty travel description can be turned into a haunting by later retelling.
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