Halloween
means ghost tales, and everyone loves a good ghost story. Folks who lived
during the Regency were no exception. Here are some famous ghosts of people who lived in the centuries just before the Regency. Accounts of their supernatural activities would have chilled the blood in the veins of people living in the early 19th
century.
Nell Gwyn. Nell Gwyn
would have been a familiar name during the Regency, even though she lived
during the 17th century. She was the very “pretty and witty” (as the
diarist Samuel Pepys described her) mistress of the Merry Monarch, King Charles
II. In those times, in which the English were bitterly divided by religion, she
is said to have quieted an unruly mob by declaring “Good people, you are
mistaken. I am the Protestant whore.” (She was referring to one of King Charles’s
other mistresses, the Catholic Duchess of Portsmouth.)
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Nell Gwyn |
Nell is reputed
to haunt Salisbury Hall. For more about Nell and her afterlife activities you can
view this NBC special from the 1960s. In it, plummy-voiced actress and occult enthusiast Margaret Rutherford discusses Nell's haunting of Salisbury Hall, along
with ghosts at two other English manors.
Henry VII and his wives. Hampton
Court Palace, the 16th century home of Henry VIII, would also have
been recognized by people living during the Regency, and they would have known
about its ghosts, too. According to legend, Henry himself is still in residence
there (in ghostly form, of course) as are two of his ill-fated wives, Jane
Seymour and Catherine Howard.
Brown Lady of Raynham Hall. Another
well-known ghost of that era would have been the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall in
Norfolk. This was supposed to be the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpole, whom some
say was trapped at Raynham Hall by the jealous wife of her lover, Lord Wharton.
The Countess of Wharton reputedly tricked Lady Dorothy into visiting her home and then forced her to stay there until Lady Dorothy eventually died of smallpox in 1726. Documented sightings
of the “Brown Lady” go back as far as 1835, and a photo was taken of her
apparition in 1936. Not too surprisingly, this photo was later proved to be a fake.
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The photo of the Brown Lady, as it appeared in 1936 in Country Life magazine |
Potential ghosts at Downtown Abbey. Just as entertaining
as the real-life ghost stories associated with England’s stately homes are the
fictional tales. Take Downtown Abbey, for example. Over the past four seasons of this popular TV series many characters have died in or near the house. (I’m thinking of you, Matthew
Crawley and your ridiculous auto accident in a lane near the estate.)
Potential
ghosts include Lady Mary’s Turkish diplomat lover Kemal Pamuk, who scandalously
died in her bed and had to be dragged back to his own room in the middle of the night; the brave footman-turned-soldier William, who managed to live
long enough to wed Daisy before expiring in the servant’s quarters; the delicate
Lavinia, Matthew’s fiancée who died so conveniently of the Spanish flu in an upstairs
bedroom; the tragic death of Lady Sybil in childbirth in another bedroom; and of
course, Matthew, who died just as everyone was celebrating the birth of his and
Lady Mary’s son. How could Downtown
Abbey not be haunted?
So, what
should you do if you encounter a ghost in your own stately home this Halloween?
This video should give you a clue. (Look for advice from such SNL and SCTV
alumni as Chevy Chase, John Candy, Danny DeVito and Terri Garr.)
All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Fun post, Maureen! Wow! That's such a large number of deaths at Downtown Abbey! Plus, what about Lady Cora's unborn child? Yikes! I can't believe how many deaths I've watched on that show. :-( Happy Halloween! xo Jennifer
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Jennifer - I did forget about Cora's unborn child, who would've been the male heir Lord Grantham longed for if the spiteful O'Brien hadn't arranged Cora's accident. Downton Abbey must be teeming with ghosts! :)
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