Rainham Hall Estate. England - Alternative View

Rainham Hall Estate. England - Alternative View
Rainham Hall Estate. England - Alternative View

Video: Rainham Hall Estate. England - Alternative View

Video: Rainham Hall Estate. England - Alternative View
Video: Rainham Hall ~ Video Tour. 2024, November
Anonim

Raynham Hall is the family estate of the Townshend Marquis, located a few miles southwest of Fakenham in Norfolk. Incredible, but true: for several centuries in the estate you can meet the ghost of a woman, nicknamed the Brown Lady.

It is not known exactly whose restless soul roams the ancient building, but most believe that it is the ghost of Lady Dorothy Townshend, wife of the second and most famous Marquess of Townshend, daughter of Robert Walpole, MP for Houghton, and sister of Sir Robert Walpole, first Prime Minister of England …

The portrait, believed to represent Lady Dorothy, hung in the house until its sale in 1904. The woman wears a brown brocade with yellow trim and a round puff collar. It was said that Dorothy on the canvas looked friendly only in daylight, and by candlelight, her expression began to seem displeased or even angry.

Over the centuries, many stories have come down to us about the mysterious Brown Lady. At the beginning of the 19th century, the regent George IV stayed at the family estate and spent the night in the sovereign's bedchamber. Unexpectedly for himself, he woke up in the middle of the night and saw a pale-skinned woman in brown robes next to the bed. The horror that gripped George forced him to leave the estate that very night.

In 1835, on the night before Christmas, Colonel Loftus observed the appearance of a ghost on the stairs. He managed to sketch what he saw and the next morning showed the others the face of a woman with empty eye sockets.

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There is also a known case when two nephews of Lord Charles Townshend came face to face with the Brown Lady in the hallway. Frightened, one of the nephews shot her with a pistol. The ghost disappeared, and the bullet was later found stuck in the door. After this episode, the mystical events stopped, but in 1920 the spirit again reminded of itself, once again caught the eye of one of the new inhabitants of the mansion.

In 1936, Lady Townshend brought in a photographer, Indra Shire, to photograph the interior of Rainham Hall. Shire and his assistant Provand took photographs with a flash of magnesium; they were filming the staircase when Shira saw a blurry silhouette on the steps. He resembled the figure of a woman dressed in white. The ghost began to descend the steps. Shire excitedly ordered Provanda to film. Prowand could not see the ghosts, but turned the camera in the direction indicated by Shire. Prowand didn’t believe that Shira had seen a ghost, and bet his five pounds that the photograph would not reveal the white silhouette. However, he lost - the "brown lady" appeared in the picture in the form of a silhouette, the attire of which resembled a wedding dress and a veil.

Promotional video:

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The photo was published in the magazine "Selskaya Zhizn" on December 1, 1936, and then famously excited the public. A thorough examination of the image by experts did not reveal any signs of fraud.

Rainham Hall even today looks very unfriendly and at times it seems that from its windows someone's languid gaze is watching anyone entering the estate.