A
famous ghost
Ninety-nine
point nine percent of all spirits I have communicated with are not famous.
Not for me are the likes of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII or Cesare Borgia.
However, I have met one famous ghost.
Martin and I were on holiday and it was one of those years when we did not have a lot of money to spend, so we decided to drive up the east side of Britain and visit Northumberland. I had always wanted to visit Hadrian's Wall and had not yet managed to get there. Part of me is a frustrated archaeologist and I just love to visit important sites of interest. We were going to drive up north from London over a couple of days so that we could visit stately homes along the way, something which we both enjoy and which often produces interesting ghosts.
We got to Grantham and tried to visit a grand pile called Belton House, only to find that it was closed on Mondays. As it was Monday we had to go away disappointed. Travelling on, we looked at the National Trust and the English Heritage books to see what else we could see when Martin suggested Newstead Abbey in Nottingham. We had just enough time to get there for a late afternoon visit so we decided to try it.
Newstead Abbey is owned by the local city council. It is a wonderful half- wrecked building which they say is one of the most haunted houses in Britain (but aren't they all!). It's existence is threatened by coal mining interests so if it goes through the building may become unsafe you may never have the
chance to meet these ghosts. It had been owned by the Gordon family and as they had been impoverished aristocrats they could never fully renovate it. We bought a ticket to visit the house and noticed a sign saying that they had special ghost visiting tours in the evening. As we were going on our way we had to be content with a daytime visit.
We went on up through the house with a guide book. The first of the main rooms we came to was a lovely wood panelled room. I was very taken by it, it was such a convivial room. In reading the guide book it said it was the favourite room of George, Lord Byron, famous for his poetry and rather risqué life style. I stopped in this room and started to soak up the nice atmosphere when I realised that I was NOT ALONE (okay, so there were other tourists and Martin in the room, but you guys know what I mean). I was aware that a cheerful sort of spirit was with me. He started to tell me about his friends and how they enjoyed the drinking parties in this room. It slowly began to dawn on me that here I was, a lowly mortal woman `talking' to George, Lord Byron. He was the pin-up beef-cake of his day (regency period in the UK, early nineteenth century). All the women swooned just for a chance to meet him. Although I very rarely `see' the spirits I definitely got a sense of a male hunk (it seems even a ghost can exude sensuality even after a century or two).
Links
Towards the end of the visit we reached a quadrangle. This was the most haunted space. In one of the corners there was an almost solid black cloud. Here Byron got very sad and quiet. I was paying attention to him rather than the black cloud. Martin came up to me and said "I can almost see a woman in that corner". So I turned and looked. I saw the cloud and got an impression of a deeply grieving woman in a long crinoline dress. I asked Byron who it was. He told me it was his mother and the reason he had to hang around his old house was to try and help her. He wasn't haunting so much as trying to help the haunter, his mother. I sensed she was holding a letter and sobbing her heart out. I could not pierce through her grief so I could not help Byron or her go free.
If you ever get a chance to visit Newstead Abbey in the city of Nottingham, and it is still open to visitors. Do visit Byron and cheer him up as he waits for his mother to see him and be happy again. For those of you who pray, say a little prayer for her and George.
(c) Judy Farncombe 1999