A young woman named Marion Bonnington who was out riding near Hamstreet in 1832 gave perhaps the most graphic description of the ghost in a candid letter to her mother in Sevenoaks:

...it was the most extraordinary even of my life, and one which I pray I shall never have to experience again. As I passed along the dirt-track I noticed a rather scruffy fellow walking some distance ahead who seemed not to have heard me approaching. As I came upon hi, I shouted (so that I would not run him into the ditch), for Blaise [her horse] was traveling at quite a pace. In the event it was necessary for me to slow down to almost a stop as I perceived the old man must be deaf. As I came upon him I saw he was dressed rather strangely in old shiny leather clothes and a pointed hat like the one papa said to keep in the box in the garret. As he half turned (not to look at me but to see something to his right),I perceived a flower or garland sticking from a drinking horn on his chest. His countenance was that of a rough fellow and it quite made the short hair on my neck stand on end, and I became quite cold as if the weather had suddenly taken on the feel of a winter's day. As I understood him to be deaf, and not wishing now to pass him, I held Blaise back with the intention of turning her for home, when suddenly the man (though I would not call him that now) bent low and quickly dropped his leggings. Though I know you may laugh wickedly at what I am about to reveal, I was most fearful and amused (for I still did not think he knew I was there), and I was quite unsure what I should do next, however as I looked upon him, the fellow faded (looking somewhat of the texture of a counterpane), before vanishing completely in front of my eyes. I then grew so cold with fright that it was all I could do to kick Blaise (who seemed fully unaware of this fantasm) into a gallop. Though you know I would not lie to you mama, I well understand any disbelief you may show, however on arriving back at the village, I was asked by Mrs. Hothfield of my distress. She said I looked as though I had seen a ghost and upon being told of what I had seen (though of course I did not with to reveal that he had dropped his leggings) she herself asked if he had in her own words, untagged his breeches. Upon my revealing that this was so she informed me that I had seen an apparition who commonly haunts the marshes and begged me pay no heed as she said he was harmless. Mrs. Hothfield talks as if the experience is commonplace and revealed to me that her own husband once saw the same apparition twice whilst out walking two years ago...