GHOST OF ABBEY

Hokitika Guardian, 2 May 1934, Page 8

GHOST OF ABBEY

THE COWLED MONK AGAIN. DAYS OF HENRY THE EIGHTH LONDON, May 2. Westminster Abbey’s solitary ghost has been seen again after an interval of nearly two years. The apparition is that of a tall and lean cowled monk of the time of Henry VIII., who, according to legend, was killed by robbers in the Chapel of the Pyx. The spectre is sunposed to haunt the cloisters : every evening between the hours of five and midnight, but lias rarely been seen by. visitors . The ghost was seen a few weeks ago, however, according to a visitor, walking along the cloisters as early as half-past four iii the afternoon.

“There is nothing frightening about the monk,” a member of the staff of the Abbey said, “and nothing to distinguish him from a perfectly normal human being except the fact that he always walks about an inch above the apparent level of the floor, and has a habit of vanishing without the least

warning. . * “It is said that lie walks on the floor as it was in his own time before it was worn away by the passing of the centuries. I have not seen the ghost myself, but there seems to be so much evidence for its existence that I am almost compelled to believe in it.” The last recorded appearance of the monk two years ago aroused considerable interest, since it was stated that he had actually spoken to two American tourists and described tlie circumstances of his death. Although there is no actual record of a monk being killed by robbers in the Abbey, says the Morning Post, the ■legend has continued with such persistence that it is now part of the accepted history of the great building.