AMONG THE GHOSTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23525, 9 December 1939, Page 15 (Supplement)

AMONG THE GHOSTS

r PHE ghost that walked a turreted Sussex castle back in the bow and arrow days now has the chance of free lessons in typing and working a duplicator, writes Ililde Marchant in the Sunday Express, London. His favourite turret room, whore he could put his head on the windowsill and moan until midnight, is now t.he duplicating room for two secretaries of the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society. It's a fine excuse, of course, to tell the boss that the missing carbon copy has been carted off by a ghost. When I went to the castle the drawbridgo over the moat was clown. There was an old chain bell at the oide of the Norman arch entrance, but that didn't work. I pushed open a great oak door and walked straight into the correspondence department.

Four-Poster Beds There under the fluted roof nrnl Hying buttresses six clerks worn working ut trestle tables. There was a portable fire in the wide stone fireplace, and an electric light dangled over tho iron lantern. No one looked up. They took my pnfcraneo just as naturally as if I had come through swing doors. For tho staff of 300 have settled down to their usual jobs—oven though the t y sleep every night in Elizabethan four-poster beds. When tho Hearts of Oak wero looking for a safe place for their more valuable records and papers, the management decided that this castle, with twelve-foot walls, which have persisted through centuries of wars, would bo as safe as anywhere. So on the Saturday before war was declared they told tho staff they wero moving to a ca«tle in the country.l Ninety-two tons of records were moved, and by the following Monday

the clerks were paying out. benefits from the 15th century cnstle as efficiently as they did from their steel desks in Euston Road. North London. Just a change of address. There were one or two difficulties, of course. At the first trial black-out in the castle, light shone through the slits where hot lead used to bo poured on the enemy. The high-arched windows, with lacy carved stone steps, also revealed a bright light. Now they have been hung with heavy curtains. The ballroom lias been taken over by 128 clerks of the voluntary contributions department. Steel cabinets stand against some of the tapestried walls, arid Elizabethan oak chests were stacked with the evening mail. The staff have got used to the oil paintings that panel the walls, and the magnificent plaster ceiling that in the summer brought visitors from all parts of the world. [ asked one of the girls how she liked working with Henry VIII. looking over her shoulder. "Don't notice him," she replied. She had, after all. several hundred envelopes to address. Minstrels? No, Films The state bedroom has made a fine room for the benefits department. Tho nrras still hangs at one end of tho room. The other bedrooms have been arranged into dormitories. These people from neat suburban homes don't like very much the draped four-posters—-"You wake up «»d think you've been Bleeping in a box," 0110 of them said. The minstrel gallery lias been fitted with a portable cinema, which projects its pictures over the stone dining-room 011 to a screen hanging whero the old ancestors' faces used to look down. If there is an air raid warning the staff can go down into the dungeons. The other day they opened a hot dog stall in the quadrangle for late night parties. They- have evening concerts. At week-ends they go for rambles. And there arc a couple of office romances blossomingI bet tho-old ghost enjoys himself.