Barguest

A goblin or phantom of mischievous character traditionally reported in the north of England and also in Wales. The meaning of the term is disputed, some believing it to be "town ghost" (burhghest), others suggesting it derives from the German berggeist ("mountain demon"). The goblin often appears in the form of a monstrous dog with huge teeth and claws. Another tradition suggests that the phantom is named from his habit of sitting on bars or gates. A writer in the mid-nineteenth-century Encyclopaedia Metropolitana relates a story of a woman he knew who had been brought up in the country. As a child, she had been passing through the fields one morning and saw someone sitting on a stile; as she drew near, however, the figure vanished.