GHOSTS THAT WALK AT CHRISTMAS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 303, 23 December 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

GHOSTS THAT WALK AT CHRISTMAS

i.By MAITLAND MALLETT.) “At Chrystmas Tyme/’ to quote an old chronicler, “ye ghostes do love to walk abroade.” And certainly there are many of our ancient houses at which spectres of the past are as inevitable a feature of Christmas as the turkey and the Yule log. At Glamis Castle. Strange and terrifying tales arc tola of the ghosts that gather at Glamis Castle, that grim Forfarshire home of the Earls of Strathmore, at Christmastime —of a bearded man who flits about at night and hovers over the beds <>i sleepers; of pale faces that peer through the windows and vanish to an accompaniment of shrieks; of sounds of hammering, “as if somebody was putting up a scaffold.” And these are by no means the greatest of the castle’s terrors. A lady guest at the castle awoke one < hristmas night to hear the moving of a soft body over the floor of her be 1room, and the crack of a bony joint, and then to see the outline of something “luminous and horrid.” “Slowly,” she says, “the thing, whatever it was, took shape. A body, tawny and hunched; arms long and spidery, a large and terrible head cohered with a tangled mass of grey ha?r, a face white and staring—pig-hke m formation, malevolent in expression. “As I stared at it aghast it reared itself on its haunches and leered hideouslv at me. Then, shuffling forward, it rolled over and lay sprawled out iike some ungainly turtle. At this juncture the handle of the door turned, someone entered, there was a loud cry, and the whole tower, .walls and rafters, rang with the most appalling screams I ever heard. 5 ' At Newstead Abbey. Newhtead Abbey, the ancient home of the Byrons, is credited with a jalaxy of ghosts, who appear at Chi'.st-mas-time. Among them are the sister of the fifth Lord Byron, who has ocen seen again and again taking spectral rides with her brother on dark and stormy nights, vainly imploring him to forgive her, and the ‘‘Goblin friar, who takes his nightly walks in the cloisters and halls. For many a century Hilton Cast.e was supposed to be haunted at Yuletkle by the ‘‘Cauld Lad” —an old-time scullion, who amused himself by breaking crockery and flinging pewter dishes in all directions. One Christmas Eve a scullery-maul stayed up late in order to taste surreptitiously the plum puddings in the larder. She extracted a plum here, and chipped off a tasty morsel there. Suddenly the hall clock struck the midnight hour, and a little figure, in scarlet cloak and green hood appeared. ‘‘Ye taste,” it cried, ‘‘and ye taste; but ye never gi’e th e Cauld Lad a taste!” Other Ghosts. Tamworth Castle is the possessor of two ghosts, who never fail to appeal at Christmas-a ‘‘White Lady” who promenades the terrace, arrayed in glistening robes which shimmer m the moonlight; and a “Black-robed Lady,” whose haunt is the ancient staircase leading from the royal bedchamber to the tower. At Haddington Court you may sec a garden avenue, known as “Lady Wintour’s Walk,” along which, at Yuletide, the ghost of Lady Win tour, wife of one of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, is said to promenade. It was while walking in this avenue during her lifetime that she heard the news ot her husband ’s capture. For three centuries the spirit ot Lady Bothwell has visited Woodhouselea, the home from which she was driven on Christmas night, 1568, to wander half-clad, with her infant m her arms, until death brought release. And the ghost of Lady Jane Grey is said to drive round the grounds ot Bradgate House, in Leicestershire, every Yuletide, in a phantom carriage drawn by four spectral grey horses. Each Christmas Bay, it is said, the “Radiant Boy” flits along the corridors of Corby Castle, in Cumberland, and stands by the bedsides of sleepers. The ghostlv "drum is heard in the silence of the night at Cortachie Castle. And the “bad Lord Lonsdale’s” shade may be seen furiously driving his sixhorsed coach in the grounds of Lowther Castle. Tb e Ghostly Janitor. A novelist looking-for a sensational btory might do worse than investigate the ghost that centres about Marischal College, Aberdeen. The apparition is of one Downie, who in the flesh was a sacrist, or janitor, of the College, who incurred the enmity of students owing to the strictness with which he performed his duties. To be revenged, a number of them seized the luckless man one Christmas Eve, and after a mock trial, blindfolded him, and “beheaded” him—with a wet towel. Of course it was intended as a practical joke, but the consequences were serious. Poor Downie died of fright; and since the unintentional murderers could not possibly be brought to justice his wraith celebrates each anniversary of the occurrence by “walking” the College grounds. The ghost story of Four Oaks Hall is worth repeating. Elizabeth Pudsey, ot Langley Hall, married the owner of Four Oaks and died about 1742. But attached to her death is a mystery of mysteries, inasmuch as neither the date of her death nor the place of interment has ever been discovered. It may be presumed that it was the gh(*?t of this lady that haunted the Hall every’ Christmas, which view was strengthened when the building was demolished and the workmen employed discovered a portion of what they took to be the remains of a human being bricked up m what appears to have been a closed window in the servants’ hall. This was regarded at the time as a possible solution of the lady’s disappearance and a satisfactory explanation of the haunting. Alas, however, for romance, the remains were those not of a human being but of a calf. Thus, not only was one mystery left unsolved, but another was created. How came the calf to be bricked up in such an unusual situation? Gruesome, too, is the story of the “Manx Dog” which haunts Peel Castle each Christmas Day. This is a dreadful apparition of a mis-shapen hound, pure white about the body, with red, cavernous jaws. The story goes that a soldier of the garrison, in a spirit of bravado, went one Christmas Night alone to the gallery where the “Manx Dog” roamed. He returned a jibbering idiot, and died the next day. The Spectre Horseman. A remarkable ghost story is that of

tthe Spectre Horseman of Wyecollar Hall. The apparition is supposed to be the ghost of on e of the Cunljffes, who in years gone by is said to have murdered his wife. Once, a year, at Christmastime, he revists the scene of the gedyHe is attired in the costume of the early Stuart period, and the trapping of his horse are of a most uncouth description. On the evening of his visit Ihe weather is always wild and tempestuous. There is no moon to light th e lonely roads, and residents of the district do not venture out of their cottages. When the wind howls its loudest the horseman can be heard dashing up the road at full speed, and after crossing the narrow bridge he stops at the door of Wyecollar Hall. He dismounts and makes his way up the broad oaken stairs into one of the rooms of the house. Dreadful screams are heard, which soon subside into groans. The ghostlv horseman then makes his appearance at the door, remounts his steed, and gallops off up the road by vhicli he came.