The story is told in Burne's ghost chapter. Roughly thirty years before she wrote, a young Shropshire lady, still living, was on bad terms with an aunt who had spoken unkindly of her and then gone to live in Paris.
The niece was staying at Bridgnorth and drove out with friends towards Cleobury North. About a mile from the town the horse stopped suddenly and refused to move however it was whipped. She jumped out and took the bridle, and was flung aside against a fence by a power she could not see. Then a gigantic arm and hand slowly appeared, holding the horse by the neck, with no other part of the figure visible.
The church clock at Bridgnorth struck twelve through the still air, the hand loosened and faded, and the horse moved on, though it was never fit for work afterwards. She later heard that her aunt had died in Paris a few minutes before noon that same day.
Burne gives no names or place beyond the road. It is a crisis-apparition story told at second hand by a living witness, and the timing is unverified. The pin is approximate.
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