MYSTERIOUS MONK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 31, 7 February 1939, Page 5

MYSTERIOUS MONK.

IN HISTORIC HOUSE. VOUCHED FOR BY OFFICERS. : GHOST THAT SPOKE. (By Air Mall.) , LONDON, Jan. 10. touched for by prosaic-minded officers of the Navy, Army and Air Force, this amazing story of a monk of the Middle Ages who recently appeared in his habit to the residents of an old Thames House, has just been revealed to the "Sunday Dispatch." The house, called Paradise, is on the [historic property, Ladye Place, atl Hurley-on-Thames, owned by Colonel C. X. Rivers-Moore, the Berkshire archaeologist. The property includes the site of St.] Mary's Priory, founded in A.D. 1080. Colonel Rivers-Moore, now on the Reserve list of the Royal Engineers, has done extensive excavation work since he bought it 14 years ago. In the Cloisters. 1 heard the story first (writes a "Sunday Dispatch" reporter) from a young woman whom I have known several years. She is charming, cultured, a fearless horsewoman and car driver, and a golfer. Her husband has a responsible job in aviation. She said she was walking in the Cloisters at Ladye Place one evening when a man dressed in a monk's habit, with his arms crossed, passed her and then vanished before her eyes. Wishing to hear more of this apparition, I went to see Colonel and Mrs. C. IN. Rivers-Moore. The colonel showed me a dossier of weird happenings at Ladye Place which he and his wife have compiled. Each : story is signed by witnesses. "I cannot publish the names of my friends." said Mrs. Rivers-Moore, "but • these signatures include an ai?chitect. a i doctor, and officers of the Navy, Army and Air Fore*."

"Evil Influence." This is the amazing story of the ghostly monk: — A woman tenant of Paradise who occupied the house with her child, felt there was an evil influence. She wa,s advised to sprinkle holy water. Just as she was about to do so, a monk appeared and said: "You must not do it, you will stop my work." A medium was brought in, but as soon as he went into a trance the monk "took possession" and tried to attack the sitters. Through the medium he declared that he had practised black magic, and ever since had tried to keep his persecutors out of the house. The monk was assured that he had been forgiven by his Father Prior, whereupon he promised not to cause further difficulty in the house. "Monks of the old Priory have been seen by friends and visitors many dozens of times," the Colonel told nie. "The present Ladye Place in which we live is modernised, the oldest part I dating from the sixteenth century. One of its owners was Admiral Kenipenfelt, of the Royal George disaster." -