HAMPTON COURT GHOSTS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 286, 5 December 1893, Page 4

HAMPTON COU RT GHOSTS.

One of the representatives of a London paper, who has beeniu.iuirins into the stories circulated recently of ghosts making nocturnal appearances at Hampton Court, writes : — T On my way to tho palace J dropped into a local baker'?, and was regaled with buns and stories of blood-curdling " appearances" which had been poured into willing ears by gossiping and excited serving maids. Hut it must be acknowledged that these stories were for the most part incoherent and disconnected. The retailers of them had evidently been indulging somewhat prematurely in Christmas literature of the good old Yule log type. Out of the confusion, however, there seemed to stand forth three figures. In the first place there is a lady, who, ignoring tue ethics of the spirit word, walks abroad at night clothed in garments of sombre black. Ihen there is another visitant, whose sex is un- | known, as its presence is recognised only through tbe sense of hearing ; and, lastly, there is a soldier. THE SOLDIER GHOST seems the most explicable of the three. I was unable to find anyone who had actually seen it, inasmuch as the man who " runs " this particular apparition was off duty and was in bed asleep. The spot where the ghost appears was, however, carefully pointed out to me. It is at the end of the cloister, upon wbich open Cardinal Wolsey's apartments. He who showed it drew attention to a mark on the wall. It is the mark of a bullet (so it is said) which killed a man. The man was a sergeant, and his murderer was a soldier of his regiment who had a grudge against him. The soldier was on sentry duty at the time, stationed somewhere away down the long prospective of the cloister. The date of this tragedy is lost in antiquity, but the appearance of the ghost of the murdered sergeant is as recent as last Saturday week. On this night a watchman, whose name was furnished to me, was going his rounds, and upon arriving at this spot saw a soldierly figure leaning against the wall, just where the bullet mark is. lhe uniform was not observable, as the figure wa3 wrapped in a long military cloak. The watchman spoke, but received no answer, and the figure " glided " away into the darkness of the interior of the building. Under thi3 cloister, it is said, there runs A SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGE away to the river's brink. It is led into by a small doorway under a staircase. In the case of the lady ghost, I was fortunate enough to find one who declared she had seen her. This eye-witness is the maidservant of a lady occupying a suite of apartments in the Palace. Hhe believes that what she saw was a bonajide visitor from the region of spirits. More than a week ago she was returning through the gardens, and upon reaching the archway which leads into Fountain Court, A TALL FEMALE FIGURE IN 13 LACK suddenly appeared quite by her side. Bhe is positive that a moment bsfore no one had been anywhere near, and not a sound was even then observable. In her sudden fright she shrieked, but the dark figure took no notice, and moved along by her side into the court. The girl" stood still, but the figure moved along the north side of the of the court, and disappeared in the direction of what is known as the haunted staircase. These are the two best authenticated stories. There are others, but they do not seem to bear the stamp of genuineness. Another maidservant declares that people have walked about her room when there was no material body there to walk, and a man felt a mysterious hand on his face while walking about one night. THE HAUNTED STAIRCASE is a place to be avoided at night. It is handsome and massive, but uncanny. Visitors will know it as the staircase which they descend on leaving the picture galleries. At the toot there stand generally two policemen, and the night watchmen deposit their coats there when they come pn duty. Light is admitted by tall small-paned windows. Descending the stairs one looks at an enormous canvas filling all the opposite wall. It sadly needs restoring, and all that can be made of it is that an interesting female is being dragged somewhere, while a number of small nude persons dance round in what, under the circumstances, seems to be indecent glee. But on the landing, befof*. descending the stairs, one sees two doors. The one in the corner deserves special attention, lt is the door of THE HAUNTED CHAMBER. Nobody knows why, but this door, has not been opened in the memory of the oldest inhabitant. It w is locked and barred, and the ke.yhole is stopped up with wood, it is a massive oaken door, of '.-*veat a<*e and strength, and behir^Ht no one knows what mystery i vr k 3 , You could not tempt anyV J(X j y , especially of late to pass that c i oor i n x\_ % n j g ht, Fortunately nobr^y requires to pass it, as there ar c n0 apartments in this portion 0 f the building. From \\kv__ \ learnt it would seem that the, panic is &o really serious that several servant., have given notice that Lhey will leave their sit nations. The watchmen go on their rounds in couples at present.