AN OLD GHOST STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19390, 27 July 1926, Page 9

AN OLD GHOST STORY.

WINDSOR CASTLE MYSTERY. QUEEN ELIZABETH'S WRAITH. LEGEND OF THREE CENTURIES. For more than three centuries past Windsor Castle is supposed to have had its own " spook," who it is asserted bears a close resemblance to Queen Elizabeth. Although the irreverent suggest alcoholic excess in those who say they have seen the ghost, there are many good people, says a London paper, who bear witness to the contrary. New interest has been lent to the legend by the declaration that the ghosthas been seen walking, not in the usual haunts—the Queen's Library or along the East Terrace—but close by the Saxon Tower. The story is that one night a few weeks ago a resident was surprised to see a woman in medieval dress leaning from one of the windows of the tower. The lady at the window bore a close resemblance to the recognised portraits of Quen Elizabeth, but before the wanderer could recover from his astonishment she had vanished.

Among the Brigade of Guards usually in garrison at the castle there are many duly authenticated stories of the appearance of the wraith. One concerns a senior officer of the Grenadiers who was reading in the library in the early " "eighties" when he was surprised to see a hooded figure stand before him as though she had stepped out of the book-cases on tho wall. With no more sign than a sigh she vanished, and later search failed to disclose any sign of a trap door or secret panel by which the visitor could have come.

" A Hooded and Veiled Woman." The officer was laughed at when be told his story, but he was so emphatic about it that he prevailed on his superiors to order a thorough search for any secret passage , there might be. Nothing was found. For many nights thereafter he and some of his friends, kept vigil in the library, but the ghost did not appear again. Tho next " visitation" duly recorded on tho journals of the castle was in 1889, when a sentry on duty on tho East Terrace reported that when he was at his post the night before a hooded and veiled woman with a strange, unearthly manner about her had come to within a few yards of him, sighed, dropped on her knees in supplicating manner, and then disapeared as though she had gone through the ground. The man was told that ho had been drinking, or had allowed his imagination to get worked up by tho tales told locally. "It was proved, however, that he had never heard anything about the legends of the Haunted Castle, and his sincerity in the matter was attested by the fact that, though a good soldier in every way, he preferred punishment for refusing to go on duty by night at this spot again. A more recent " visitation" of the Ghost of "'Good Queen Bess" occurred when a draft of Guards waiting to be taken out to France by the late Mr. Raymond Asquith, son of Lord Oxford and Asquith, was at the castle. The sentyy on the East Terrace was found by the officer of the guard in a state of abject and his explanation was that a woman, wearing a cowl and a ruff, and otherwise garbed in the Elizabethan manner, had walked to within a few paces and vanished before he had time to challenge.

Mr. Asquith's Investigation. Mr. Raymond Asquith, who was curious about stories' of the occult, was so impressed with the earnestness of the soldier, an experienced man, who had no suggestion of nerves about him, that he made personal investigation of the story, and, before returning to France, did nightly turns of/luty on the terrace in the hope of getting a glimpse of the strange visitor. He was unsuccessful, and declared his intention of resuming his investigations when ho returned from France. But fate decided otherwise. Apart from the officers in garrison at the castle there have been official attempts to prove the mystery at intervals, for it is accepted by very, many that whether the visitor be a clever practical joker or a wanderer from the other world there is no doubt about the fact that the figure has been seen. One of the most ingenious attempts ever made to explain away " the ghost" was put forward 20 years ago, when it was suggested that in some mysterious way the peculiar lighting of the castle projected on to the walls close to the East Terrace the outlines of the Elizabethan figure that, on canvas in the building. Experiments were made to test this theory. They were not entirely satisfactory, and the explanation was afterwards abandoned, leaving the supernatural version to hold the field. « The latest story of the return of the ghost, has aroused interest in the town, and there have lately been nightly journeys to the neighbourhood of the Saxon - Tower. Inquiries show that the sentries on duty near the tower on the night of the supposed " visitation" had nothing unusual to report.