ROYAL GHOSTS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 13092, 13 February 1937, Page 12

ROYAL GHOSTS

SPECTRES HAUNT NOBLE FAMILIES EVEN WINDSOR NOT IMMUNE Windsor Castle, of cowrs©, has its gliotst, and not even the brightness and gaiety of the festival as celebrated ill this Royal home can, it is said, banish, tlio dread of nervous attendants and members of the household 'Staff lest they should meet the ghost of Queen Elizabeth, white her white upstanding ruff and old-time garments, passing silently ‘along the corridor she is stated to haunt in her former homo

During the last century, and before. there wore many reported appearances of the Royal spectre, some of those were doubtless due to. the vivid imagination of some nervous and highly strung underling, but there are. of comparatively recent times at least two. wcll-authent'catod recorded appearances, both during the last decade of the 19th. century.

“ENGLAND IS IN DANGER.”

Oil one occasion, (ho officer of the guard, while sitting at -supper about midnight, suddenly felt a draught of icy cold arm Supposing that the door must have come open, ho rose, crossed the room, and wont to close it, when ho fund-himself confronted by a woman attired in black velvet spangled; over with gold, and wearing an upstanding ruff, in the fashion of three centuries before. The figure stood still and stared fixedly at the lieutenant.

‘‘Madam, what.is your .pleasure?” lie asked politely. ‘‘That you no longer feast idly •lucre”, was the reply in a stern voice. “England ;s in danger.” And with these words the figure suddenly vanished.

TERRORS OF WAR,

Very "much bewildered and perturbed, the officer mentioned his encounter to several of the door attendants of the-castle. These shook their heads and told him that he had undoubtedly seen the ghost of the Virgin Queen, whose appearance never failed lo indicate disaster to the Royal home of the nation. Only a week or so later, the latter found itself on the very brink of war with Germany over the Jameson Raid and the Gorman Emperor's letter to President Kruger. A crisis occurred in the year year with the United Stat over Venezuela. Two years later we were at war with the Boers, and the spectre of Queen Elizabeth again appeared justprior to the disastrous Battle of Oolenso-. In more recent times, the gha«t was reported to have appeared to members of the suite of the Archduke Ferdinand, whoso assassination with his Archduchess, in the streets of Sarajevo not very long afterwards precipitated the greatest, war in history.

GHOST OF “OID NOLL” A London ghost is that- of Oliver Cromwell, which is- said to haunt Bloomsbury Square on the night of January 22. the anniversary of the execution of Charles I. Quite a number of credible people have declared that they have soon the ghost- of “Old Noll.”

Tho Irish ghost, known ns the spectre br’clo of Kill cry. County Monaghan, is a truly romantic one. The story goes that whenever any young person of either sex, who is cn gaged to ho married, dies and is hurried about Christmas time in the churchyard the spectre makes an appearance. BOND WITH DEATH

Should the deceased be a girt, the sorrowing lover is confronted by the apparition of n, beautiful girl, who uses all her w'll to make him fall in love with her. If successful in bewitching him, she asks him to. pledge her his troth over the grave of Ji.'s dead love, and to promise to meet her in tlio churchyard a. month hence.

She -scats the compact with a k’ss, and then suddenly disappear**. 'The mi fortunatq young man then realises that he has entered into a bond with Death, for everyone the Kilievy spectre kisses dies within the month and

is buried on the day appointed for the meeting. If the bereaved lover is a girl, the spectre takes- on the semblance of a handsome young man. It is well’ known that an ancestor of a former Lorbd Chief Justice of Ireland, Sir Thurlough O’Brien, declared that ho met the spectre on the clay his' betrothed- was buried, and kissed licr. Be this as it may, it- is recorded that he died and was buried that day month.

Both tho ghosts o/i' Anno Boloyn and of Lady Jane Grey are said to appear at times in tin* Tower of London. And, comparatively recently, a rjold'er reported that lie had seen a grey lady crossing the courtyard near the tower in which Lady Jane Grey had been confined.

I- Tho late Lord Halsbury, conccrn- • ing whose veracity and level-headcd- ■ ness then can ho no question, had a ■ strang experience at his country homo ' in Sussex some years ago. He was sitting down with Lady Halsbury, 1 when they saw an antiquated-looking conveyance drive'up. In it was'seated a, very, old, lady, in a poik-ei bonnet, with a shawl thrown over her'shoulders, and his lordship remarked to his w'f© that sho appeared to be dresfied a century behind the then prevailing fashion. A foot-man got down off . the box of the carriage and knocked at the door of the house, which was answered by the servant. The latter came to the room in which Lord and Lady Salisbury were sitting, and told them that a lady, who refused to give her name, wished to see his lordship. Lord Halsbury went to the front door hut, on reaching it, was surprised to find that the carnage had vanished. She called her husband who was equity astonished. Although a search was made along the drive and in the grounds no trade was, found of tho coach of the coach nor of any wheel marks- . They hoard a few day® later that the lady who had been the previous owner of the house, had died tho same afternoon as the coach had appeared. Further, there-was a tradition that whenever a death occurred j in the family of which sho was a mem-

her, a carriage was- seen .to drive up to the bouse which had belonged toit for some generations.

-GHOSTLY PIPERS

In Scotland there are many wellauthenticated. appearances of ghosts and spectres. Indeed, the castles and mansions of that land are most of them provided with lefend-s and ghost stories -of their own. One of the most famous is the tradition which states that whenever a member of the 1 rouse of Andie dies-, the invisible pipers- play a dirge-like and weirdlyhaunting melody, the “keel” or funeral lament of the “Bonnie House of Airlie” and the war march of the clan.

Other people beside the notoriously superstitious Highland peasantry have heard it; even footmen and others in Belgravia. There are. many living in the vicinity of G-orthacy Castlo Forfarshire, who say that they heard the ghostly pipers when tho late Earl died in South Africa in J9OO. while serving during the Boer war. Others •scattered throng-out the length arid breadth of the world, even remotely, connected with the noble house of Airlic, have hoard tho mystic and disquieting music of the pipes. THE UPROOTED PTNE

From time immemorial, it is said — and there arc many proofs forthcoming in support 01 statements—whenever an Earl of Seafiold dies, no matter in what part of the globe; a violent storm occurs in the neighbour of the family Castle, and a. pinei tree—tho Sca-field crest is a pine—is uprooted. On the occasion of the death of the late Ear], in 191-!!, a number of references to the great storm that raged and the uprooting of the pine tree wore made in the. press.