TALES OF A GHOST

Waipa Post, Volume 38, Issue 2286, 28 March 1929, Page 7

TALES OF A GHOST

"ROMANTIC LADY'S" VISITS. South Mimms, the little village in Hertfordshire which won fame; by not having a wedding service for 18 months, is haunted—by a "romantic" lady. The writer who tells the story in a London newspaper says he has it on the authority of the vicar, the Rev Allen Hay, that she has been appearing in the vicarage at least since his arrival 30 years ago. Mr Hay said: "Nearly every morning I have been awakened by the spirit. When I came I thought I •couldn't stay here a week. The place was so lonely. But in spite of the manifestations of the spirit as the clock strikes three I have stayed—and the spirit also.

"Even the restoration of the vicarage, which is now proceeding, has not banished the spirit, and it visits me in the temporary bedroom which adjoins my usual one. Local tradition states that it is the ghost off a lady who died after the shattering of her romance. Its strangest manifestation was seen by one of my parishioners, Miss Long. In broad daylight she saw the figurej of a priest kneeling in the stalls of the parish church, which dates from 1350.

"Two days later I received news of the death at Bournemouth off the Rev. William White, who prceded me as vicar 30 years ago. Miss Long, who had never seen the late vicar, described the phantom figure in the church to me. It tallied exactly with that of Mr White.

"The spirit seems to have as its chief characteristic the foreshadowing of death. My wife's aunt, Mrs Nicolle, who stayed at the vicarage frequently, says she saw a white figure going from one room to another. Once it brushed past her and went out in the direction of the churchyard. Not long after Mrs Nicolle left the vicarage we received a cablegram stating that she was dead.

"Those who say they have seen the spirit in the churchward describe it as a curious kind of blue-white glow. The evidence of the presence of something supernatural in the village! has been so impressive that a physical investigation is proceeding. A well known physical research worker, Mr O'Donnell, is in charge. The village police sergeant is inclined to be sceptical. "I don't believe in anything I can't see for myself," he said. "And I haven't seen the ghost yet."