For the first time, talk about the oddities in the Rhineham Hall estate, which belonged to Lord Townshend, began in 1835. It happened on Christmas Eve when the house was full of guests.
Two of the guests of the amateur chess players - Colonel of the British Army Loftus and his friend Mr. Hawking stayed late for the game. When they finished their last game, it was about three in the morning. The friends walked along the corridor to their rooms. Suddenly Hawking cried out: a beautiful girl in dark clothes stood at the door of one of the rooms. The men were dumbfounded. It was a ghost who told them: "Do not leave this house tomorrow" - after that he disappeared. By the way, the friends did not hear the voice, it sounded in their heads.
The frightened men decided not to go anywhere in the morning. Lord Townshend suggested that this was the spirit of the manor, which he had heard from his relatives. According to the descriptions of Loftus and Hawking, this ghost was like a portrait of a young woman that hung in the living room.
The old portrait was painted by an unknown artist. It depicted a beautiful girl in a dark brown dress with a snow-white collar. The painting, Townshend argued, had inherited him along with the house.
In the afternoon, the colonel and his friend learned that the train on which they were supposed to go to London had derailed, dozens of passengers were injured …
Kill the ghost
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A few months later, the ghost appeared to another guest of the mansion, the captain of the British army, Mariette. Mr. Mariette was seated in an armchair opposite the old portrait. He looked for a long time at the image of a beautiful stranger. For so long that he had the feeling that she was looking at him. Already late at night, he decided to go to his room. Suddenly, he saw the same girl in a brown dress, she was walking right at him. Mechanically he grabbed his revolver and fired. The echo of the shot echoed through the house, the bullet pierced the ghost girl through and through, and got stuck in the wall. The spirit stared at the captain for a few more seconds and disappeared into thin air. Perhaps the mysterious lady wanted to tell the captain something. Namely, that he will be killed in two days.
Ghost photography
Lord Townshend's great-great-grandchildren, Shar and Provand, invited two photographers into the house in the 1900s. When one of the photographers was looking for a good angle about to capture a magnificent oak staircase, the other suddenly screamed. Ball, Provand and two photographers saw in front of them a young woman in an antique dress, slowly descending the stairs.
"Shoot quickly!" Shar shouted. A flash flashed, blinding everyone. This is how this famous photograph appeared. After some time, this picture appeared in many newspapers and magazines. The lady in the brown dress is interested in experts from the society of the paranormal.
Clue
The secret of the ghost was revealed quite by accident. In the 60s of the last century, the new owners of Rheinham started a major renovation in the house. Hundreds of books were found in the old library, among which was the diary of one of the owners of the mansion.
The diary was kept by Charles Townshend. Once he suspected his young wife Dorothy of treason. In his diary, Charles wrote that he kept Dorothy locked up on bread and water for over eight years. Before her death, in 1726, the woman promised her husband a restless life. The prophecy came true: the ghost began to constantly haunt Charles Townshend.
From the same diary, another case became known. In the summer of 1729, Charles Townshend's house was visited by his 14-year-old niece. The girl said that a ghost came to her, who said that tomorrow the head of the young lady would be broken, and her neck would be broken. The next day a hunt was planned, but the frightened girl decided to stay at home. One of the guests sat on the horse that Townshend's niece was to hunt. He did not return from the hunt - the horse was carried away, and the rider was under his hooves.
In 1730, Charles left Great Britain, his further fate is unknown. The new owners of the mansion invited experts on the paranormal, who drove the woman in brown out of the house.