HAUNTED HAMPTON.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume III, Issue 361, 21 February 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

HAUNTED HAMPTON.

The offer of apartments at Hampton Court Palace to Mrs. Scott, mother of rhe Polar hero, is doubtless due to the King’s initiative. It is a tradition that these delightful apartments “shall be granted by grace and favour of the reigning monarch to the widows and children of those who have served their Sovereign and country with honour ant distinction.”

There are some fifty suites of apart ments at the Palace which have been occupied in this manner since the reign o! Georee 111. In addition, a dozen suites or so are inhabited by officials.

Tn the Georgian era the private apartments were so popular among the nobility that they were not always granted to the proper kind of occupant. When Garrick 'livechtthere, one of his visitors, the celebrated Hannah More, wrote that fhe rooms were all occupied by people of fashion : “ Mr. Lowndes, for example, who has a fortune of £4,000 a year, and Lady Agusta Fitzroy, mother of the Duke of Grafton.” This excess of favouritism developed into a scandal when Dr. Johnson, writing from Fleet-street, made application for a suite, and was refused. The refusal. however, helped to make history for Fleet-street. _ * Like most big buildings of its kind, the Palace is popularly supposed to be haunted. Doors that have been bolted and barred swing open unexpectedly, and ghostly sighs and rushing footsteps are frequently heard. Not long ngo a famous ghost hunter tried to get permission to spend the night in the public galleries adjoining the chapel, but failed to do so.