TRUE GHOST STORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1934, Page 15

TRUE GHOST STORIES

(By

MADGE SCOTT)

A curious type of Christmas ghost is vouched for by several local gentlemen of unquestioned repute, as occurring in the vicinity of the churchyard, in the little village of Burton. These gentlemen, being newcomers, were very critical of the story firmly believed by the natives, that at midnight on Christmast Eve there appeared the shadowy form of the resident vicar emerging from the church. Following him, wrapped in ' a winding sheet, and pale as death would be the figure of some local person, whose death was certain to occur during the following year. This occurred again and again, and each time the fated person walked solemnly behind the advancing priest. The thing was incredible, until they put it to the test, and saw and heard for themselves, for there was an accompanying noise as of rattling chains. They saw the grim procession pass, time after time, from church to yard, and there halt among the tombs, whilst the clergyman appeared to read the burial service, and then slowly return to the church alone. The one failure of the test was that the faces and figures were too indistinct to determine upon whom grim death would lay his hands in the subsequent year. NUN OF NEWTON ABBOT. A noisy and active ghost chasing a noiseless nun may he encountered by any one who is invited for the Christmas festive season to be a guest at Ford House, Newton Abbot. The house was in being in Queen Elizabeth’s time, and there is a legend that a nun was walled in alive by some foul criminal. The house is owned by the Earl of Devon, and tenanted by his sister, Lady Amy Bertie, and her husband, Hon. Reginald Bertie. Mrs. Saunders, a descendant of Sir Richard Reynell, who built the house, herself experienced the ghost’s nocturnal visits, when the rush of unmistakable footsteps of a heavily-booted man was heard, and her bedroom door was repeatedly thrown open. At first she thought her son was unwell, though she could not account for him wearing heavy boots in the night. When she went to his room, however, she found him fast asleep. One of the maids being ill one night another servant went downstairs to fetch some brandy, but was heard . to scream, and was found in a dead faint. Afterwards she said that someone had

passed her in the hall and disappeared. Frequently the thin wraith of the nun gliding by is seen and the heavilybooted figure of the man hotly pursuing. TOWARDS DEEP WATERS. The moated house of Baddesley Clinton has a thrilling reputation. Besides passages and hiding holes, there is a diabolical contrivance in the shape of a passage that leads directly, without warning, into the deep waters of the silent moat. Someone in those good old days, hearing a splash, might innocently ask: “What was that?” and be answered by the host, “Oh, only a fish." Baddesley Clinton was built by one of the Catesbys and purchased by a relative named John Brome. His son Nicholas came home from doing penance for avenging the slaughter of his father, when he found the local priest "choking his wife under the chin —really “chucking.” Brome slew the priest on the spot, and threw his body into the moat. The local people give the old manor house a wide berth on any dark night, and especially when Christmas approaches, when the murder it is assumed, was committed. No one, however, seems to be sure whether it is the priest or Nicholas Brome who haunts the old place. A SPECTRAL HORSEMAN. Once a year, about Christmas time, many people believe a spectre horseman, attired in the costume of the ■ Stuart period, appears at Wycoller Hall, near Colne. There are uncouth trappings on his horse. If the weather is wild and tempestuous, with no moon to light the lonely roads, the horseman can distinctly be heard dashing at full speed up the road. Residents who dare to look out, can see the shadows of horse and horseman as they cross the narrow bridge. Follow, and they will be seen to stop at the Hall door, and the rider will dismount and make his way up the oaken stairs into one of the rooms. Then the screams of a woman will be heard which soon subside into a groan. The horseman again appears, mounts and dashes off at full speed. The tradition is that one of the Cunliffes, who owned the hall, murdered his wife amid the festivities. Before she died she predicted the extinction of the family, which has been fulfilled,