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The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall
One of many well known stately home hauntings the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is possibly the most famous of all.
Raynham Hall is located between the village of Burnham Market on the North Norfolk Coast and the market town of Swaffham.
There have been a huge number of sightings of the so called Brown Lady since her death in 1726. She is believed to be Dorothy Walpole, the sister of Britain's first ever Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole of Houghton Hall.
Those who have had the unfortunate experience of meeting her ghost describe it a more than frightening, it is understood that during her life she was a well liked, charming lady. Although this is so, it is believed that it was her obsession with flamboyant attire caused a rift between herself and her husband the second Marquess Townshend, (known fondly as Turnip-Townshend as it is he who introduced the vegetable to England.
The details of the pairs relationship beyond this are sketching and in fact two very different stories are often told.
It is known that Dorothy's father was made guardian of Charles Townshend, when he was only 13 years old, so having grown up in each others company, when Dorothy was 15 and Charles 27 he fell deeply in love with her and wanted to marry her. Dorothy's father refused to give his blessing and put a stop to the whole affair, as he feared he would be accused of wanting to gain the Townshend fortune and property.
It is at this point that two versions of Dorothys life are told, and no-one is certain which is the more accurate.
The least favourable version implies that Dorothy did not share Charles' feelings towards her, but in fact found him repulsive!
However, the more romantic slant and far more interesting story claims her to have thrown herself into a life of wild parties and scandalous behaviour at a young age, and ultimately becoming the mistress of the well known, Lord Wharton.
During this time, Charles Townshend had married, but his
wife sadly passed away in 1713, when he and Dorothy were united at last.
After a time the marriage became unhappy, and Charles deprived Dorothy of the care of her children who were put in hands of his mother.
Miserable without them and treated very poorly by Charles Dorothy is said to have been confined to her own quarters rooms, and within a while died at the age of 40.
Various versions of her death are quoted, including starvation, falling (or being pushed) down the grand staircase at Raynham Hall, the most popular location for the sighting of her ghost.
Although this is so, the contemporary announcement of her death, on 29th March 1726, gives the cause as smallpox.
Whatever the cause of her death, one thing which is clear is that she did not rest in peace, as it was only a few weeks later that her ghost was first seen by servants working at the hall.
One of the most famous sightings reported was by George IV (then Prince Regent) who was, given the State Bedroom for the duration of his stay at Raynham with unfortunate results. He is said to have alerted the whole household in the middle of one night, reporting that he had been disturbed by 'a little lady all dressed in brown, with dishevelled hair and a face of ashy paleness' who he said had stood by his bedside. He then promptly refused to spend another moment in the hall and left immediately
Another sighting was reported in 1849 by Lucia Stone, a member of a large house party at Raynham. Major Loftus, a relative of Charles Townshend, had stayed up late with another guest playing chess, and as they went up to bed, he spotted a lady in a brown dress standing on the landing. He did not recognise her as one of the guests, but when he went to speak to her, she vanished.
Determined to speak with her, he stayed up the following night, and managed to come face to face
with her once again. He could see her clearly and described her wearing a 'richly brocaded brown dress
with a coif on her head', but the most frightening aspect was that instead of eyes she had two dark, hollow sockets!
He is believed to have made a sketch of what he had seen and showed it the following day to the other guests, which inspired some of them to do some ghost-hunting of their own, but the Brown Lady wdid not reappear.
The most dramatic effect of The Brown lady's being was that on the servants who all gave notice and left!
Captain Marryat, the famous author of Mr Midshipman Easy,was another person to sight the ghost when staying at Raynham Hall. The Captain briskly dismissed the notion of ghosts and insisted on sleeping in the haunted bedroom, which it is believed contained a portrait of the Brown Lady hersolef.
Having left the room to look in on some friends, when returning along the shadowy corridor when he saw a
woman coming towards him. Her feet made no sound, and the lamp she was holding illuminated a figure unmistakably identical to the portrait in his room.
At this point he fired his gun at the frightening figure, but to his dismay the bullets shot right through her head and out the other side, lodging in the door behind her, at which point she vanished.
Since these early sightings many more have occurred and the famous photograph of the Brown Lady has been frequently reproduced in books about ghosts and hauntings. It occurred in the thirties when two photographers from Country Life magazine were taking a series of photographs of Raynham Hall. Captain Provand was photographing the staircase when his assistant, Indra Shira, suddenly noticed a misty figure approaching down the stairs. He quickly urged Captain Provand to take an exposure, which he did, although he himself had seen nothing at all! He protested that Indra Shira must have imagined it, and declared that even if there was something there, nothing would appear when the negative was developed.
But Indra Shira insisted he had seen a figure so transparent that the steps were visible through it, and later when they
were developing the negatives the Captain could see that there was definitely something on the staircase.
Indra Shira hurried downstairs to the chemist below their studio and brought Benjamin Lones back to be a witness
that the negative had not been tampered with. Later a number of experts examined it and were satisfied that the
picture had not been faked in any way.
There seems no doubt that Raynham Hall is haunted but only you can decide if you think this photograph is a fake or not..............
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