14 The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall (Famous Hauntings And Spooky Spots)
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This article is from the Ghost Stories FAQ, by obiwan obiwan@best.com with numerous contributions by others.
14 The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall (Famous Hauntings And Spooky Spots)
The Brown Lady is famous mostly as being one of the most reliably
photographed ghost in history. [The picture can be found at my web
page or FTP area.] Although she has not been seen since 1936, she is
said to wear a long brown dress or cape. No one knows who the Brown
Lady is, or how she is connected to Raynham Hall.
The first sighting was reported in 1835 by a house guest, Colonel
Loftus. He actually viewed her twice. He said she was wearing a
brown satin dress and had only black empty sockets for eyes.
Another sighting was made by Captain Frederick Marryat. He inten-
tionally slept in the "haunted room," but instead caught a glimpse of
the Brown Lady an upstairs hallway. His description was the same as
Loftus', except this time the Brown Lady was carrying a lantern. Mar-
ryat happened to have a gun with him, and fired point-blank at the
figure. The bullets, of course, passed right through the ghost.
The ghost was not reported again until 1926, at which time it was
viewed by two little boys. In 1936, the famous photograph was taken
by photographers Captain Provand and Indre Shira during a shoot for
the magazine -Country Life-. Shira saw the ghost on the stairs, and
instructed Provand to take a picture. [Note: In -The Encyclopedia of
Ghosts-, Daniel Cohen notes that this photograph could have been
easily faked. It is a fascinating picture nonetheless.]
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