MARIE ANTOINETTE

Evening Star, Issue 22719, 5 August 1937, Page 1

MARIE ANTOINETTE

MOST FAMOUS GHOST STORY There died some week's ago the only survivor of those two ladies _ whose anonymous account of their vision at Trianon in August, 1901 (first published in January, 1911), has been the most discussed ghost story of our day (writes a correspondent of the London ‘Observer’)- This is because, apart from the romantic interest of the story itself, there never has been a ghost story so well and so historically documented. Miss Anne Moberly was the seventh child of a seventh child, so she was a predestined clairvoyante. Her father, Dr Moberly, successively head master of Winchester and.' Bishop Salisbury, must have had ' Russian blood. It declared itself in the cast of countenance of several of his children, notably in Miss Anne Moberly herself. His mother was a daughter of John Cayley, English Consul at St. Petersburg, where he spent his early years. Dr Moberly married Miss Mary Ann Crokat, a Scotswoman, so more than one race could be -traced in Miss Moberly’s blood. The experience of the two ladies referred to in the previous paragraph was described in a book entitled ‘ An Adventure.’ It is thus summarised by the ‘ Observer ’ correspondent: On August 10, 1901, Miss Moberly and Miss Jonrdain visited Versailles for the first time, and eventually they found themselves at the Petit Trianon. Here they passed some curious old cottages and a small garden casino, which they described as a “ kiosk.” _ They crossed a rustic bridge over a ravine into which fell a tiny cascade. They spoke to gardeners, footmen, and caretakers, and they -received answers to • their questions from these people. _ They eventually reached the Petit Trianon itself, and there they saw a lady reading a letter. She looked annoyed at their intrusion. Still they did not suspect that their experience was other than an ordinary walk through a garden filled with historical memories. Only when they returned subsequently to the Trianon did they discover that the building and the kiosk which they had seen did not actually exist. The bridge they had crossed, and the ravine which it spanned, had vanished a century before. The lady was no tourist, but the face they had seen -was that of Marie Antoinette herself. The gradual recovery of the facts lying behind the vision of the two ladies is related to ‘ An Adventure,’ and it is this careful historical documentation which has made the book a classic. It is, in fact, unique, and through it Miss Moberly and Miss Jonrdain made fo.r themselves a niche in a byway of history where their names will long be remembered.