The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-02-28
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u ADYENTURU 81
THE GHOST AT WINDSOR.
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We, who send wireless messages
through space, and draw flames out
of the air, agree that nowadays no
body believes in ghosts. Phantoms
prowl only to disturb the slumbers of
those who have looked on the red
lobster and duskily rich plum pud-
ding too affectionately, and in Lon
don there exists a society organized
for the purpose of exposing ghosts
and evicting them from their favor
ite lairs.
No census has ever been taken
of the well authenticated family
ghosts of Great Britain, nor have any
statistics been compiled as to the
number of haunted houses that the
United Kingdom boasts. Still, it is
safe to say that the figures, if they
could be given, would not only sur
prise the average American, but
prove that ghosts die hard in Eng
land.
1t is the peasant and the aristo-
crat who refuse to deny ghosts both
shelter and respect, and what is a
little overwhelming to some Ameri-
cans is to find how very seriously
ghosts are considered by the laborers
and the lords. Active middle-class
folk do not ordinarily have much
time to spare, even in England, for
speculation on the supernatural.
Yet it can be shown that even in
this excessively incredulous day
some of the busiest and most highly
regarded ghosts in Great Britain are
still conducting their blood-curdling
business at the old stands where they
have been practising as spectres for
ages.
There is, for instance, the Gray
Woman of Windsor. Nobody knows
how long she has been haunting the
royal castle, except perhaps the royal
family, who could tell when she first
appeared and the tragic circum-
stances out of which, in good ortho-
dox fashion, she was evolved. But
the royal family refuses to discuss
the Gray Woman, whose duty is to
herald the approaching death of any
resident of the castle.
She always comes in the Horse
shoe Court, one of the oldest and
quaintest parts of Windsor, and her
naturalization takes place at dusk.
Nobody can deny that the tradition
concerning this slim creature, clad
in gray and wearing her gray hair
flowing, has always disturbed and
distressed the owners of the great
pile.
Windsor is not popular with King
Edward, and in the later years of her
life, Queen Victoria never found her
it in winter, she went to Osborne
House, and to avoid it in summer,
she dwelt in Balmoral Castle.
Until the time Of her husband s
death, she was very much at the
castle. One afternoon, though, on
happening to look down from her
window into the Horseshoe Court,
she saw a gray figure standing in
the dusk under the shelter of the
cloisterlike gallery that runs around
the inclosure
The queen sent to know who the
woman was, and why she was there,
but no woman could be discovered by
her lady of the bedchamber. A week
later, the Prince Consort was dead,
and then the sorrowing wife learned
what the appearance of the Gray
Woman portends.
At intervals, King Edward stops
at Windsor, but never for long. He
prefers Sandringham, Balmoral
Castle, Buckingham Palace or his
friends houses, to this home of his
ancestors overlooking the Thames;
and persons who boast their ability
to draw conclusions from certain
royal movements insist that the
orders recently given for the enlarge
ment of Sandringham House are the
direct result of the Gray Woman S
most recent appearance and the ex-
cessive nervous fears from which the
delicate Princess Victoria suffered as
result.
A few weeks ago, terrified groom
insisted that in the February dusk
ne saw gray figure gliding in the
shadows of the Horseshoe Court.
Several days later a child in the
castle news died, which explained
the phantom S appearance.
Nevertheless, as Princess Victoria
cannot stop at Windsor for more than
a few days at time, the money that
was to be spent on the castle is now
to be devoted to the Kings Norfolk
place. Sandringham House will now
be made large enough for all pur-
poses of royal entertainment, and
Windsor will be ignored, more and
more, for the new house, where no
ghost has ever been seen.-F'rom the
House Beautiful.
SENSATIONAL LOVE DRAMA.