Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-09-17
MUST THE GHOSTS GO TOOY
BY FREDERICK. Haskin.

become of historic British ghosts, now that SO
many English castles and manor houses are be-
ing torn down or sold at auction to plebian new
corners?
This question is deeply ~agitating the British
Society for Psychical Research, which has long
been engaged in the scientific Investigation of
such old and well-established family ghosts. In
the breaking up of famous old Estates 1t sees
the END of a valuable source of material. The
ghosts. it believes. will disappear after the cas-
ties or manors have changed hands and under
gone elaborate remodeling.
Family ghosts" says one authority on the
subject, ARE by no means or n wandering dis
position. Having established a reputation by
haunting one particular house, they stay there.
Some ghosts, as ancient family legends inform
us, have haunted one house for centuries, never
appearing anywhere else.
And now that such haunted houses are being
auctioned. sold and torn down. what will the
poor ghosts do? They may. find new homes to
skyscrapers, apartment houses
and freshly painted green and pink studios-but
there will not be any secret passages in which to
clank chains, nor ivy-clad turrets to parade
around, and no mysterious windows to fit across
in the moonlight. Furthermore. with the going
of the houses will go the traditions which served
Take the case of Windsor Castle" continues
this authority, which has housed several prom
inent ghosts, including Queen Bess herself. 1t
an officer of the Grenadier Guards who first
the phantom Of Queen Elizabeth twenty or
thirty years ago. He declared it suddenly ap-
peared and glided along in front of him, vanish
ing through a certain part of the wall in a room
at the end of the corridor. Investigation showed
that three centuries before there had been a
door, since sealed, at that very spot.
THAT is the structure where. the ghosts or the
quarrelsome but beautiful Duchess Of Cleveland,
the saucy-tongued Duchess of Mazarin and the
unhappy Catherine Howard, slain by Henry VIII,
are said to have been seen. The last named
it was reported by alleged witnesses,
ran through the corridor, hair streaming behlno
guards and rushed in to beg for her life from
her royal husband"
what would happen to these ghosts IL Wind
sor Castle is torn down to make room Tor MOD
ern Industrial EXPANSION =
Passing of the Manor.
England's early history, including many items
CHASTITY enough to found a whole race OF gnSsss,
was practically written around events whlch
in the castles and manors which nave
been recently sold. An English periodical lists
the following historic estates whlch nave
changed hands since the war: Pembroke, the
cradle of the Tudorsk where the first Tudor
was born; Fineshade Abbey, in northampton,
where Mary Queen of Scots was executed; ST.
Osyth's priory, in Essex, erected in the carry
part of the twelfth century; Abbey House, Ap-
and the Sutton Courtenay Manor, Where
the first rent kick against prodteering land
lords was voiced by tenants; Quenby House IN
.eicestershire, where Stilton cheese was first
made: the Stoke Park estate, home of John
Penn, where the monument to the poet Gray
was erected; Snowre Hall, where Charles found
by Dumas in his D'Artagnan romances;
Castle where David Bruce was taken
prisoner in 1916. and the old Castle OF Sken-
irith.
The Duke of Devonshire recently sold Devon
shire House in the very fashionable Park Lane,
London, and it is reported tnat the old place VIII
be torn down to make way for a modern notel.
Equally historic town and country places maoe
been abandoned Cat a high price) by the Dukes
Fl Westminster, Rutland, MARLBOROUGH Grai.on
md Buccleuth, Lords Leconfeld, LondesporouSh,
and Camden, the Earls OF Denplgn anu
Harrington, and many other noblemen. In lszo
firm of auctioneers alone sold S4s'o9o acfes
of country property, and this year thousands OIL
acres of old estates are being SOLD weekly.
The reason for this widespread partition OF
the huge country estates is best explained Dy d
speech made recently by the Duke OF Portland
to his tenants, in which he SAID
A Dukes Farewell. =.
"Tba war has entirely altered the outlook Oh
n,vself. as it must have done that OF other laree
owners in this country. For centuries past
landed estates have in many instances peen
La nded down from generation to genefauon III
family, and the landlords and tenants nave
grown I'D together and have lived, as We nave
done.on terms of mutual trust ana ahe htnns 10
II fear, however, that this state OF things Is
passing away, for, with the present enormous
weight of taxation and the extremely onerous
weight OF death duties inheritance taxesl .ne
future has become uncertain Tor all iahoeo
proprietors. ~
with regard to my own case it may or II
NAV not be possible for me and my famlly 70
re side at Welpeck. But l fear that there can De
little doubt hope 1 am wrong, but do not
think l am-that those VINO come al'er he ""'
not be able to do so. .
ut is of no use whatever blinking the fact,
however disagreeable it may be " that tnele
and inevitably will be a wholesaie cton nnS
down OF the larger country houses; IL not now
at all events when the present generation mas
Welbeck Abbey is literally supplied with
Ghosts and is particularly famous for us uhuer-
9ronnd passages and secret apartments, on
which the fifth Duke of Portland is said TO nave
snent 1000. 900 pounds. 1t contains an under.
Ground riding academy, 400 feet long 1O6 teet
wide and SO feet high; beyond that there is an
underground ballroom, 15S feet long, 90 1eet
wide. and 21 feet high, and still further on are
subterranean libraries. In fact, the underground
part OF the estate is said to extend for fifteen
II is estimated that there are very nearly
/ 600 huge country estates in Great Britain each
fifty or more employees 10 work mem.
more than 200 workers. while some OF the iarg-
est estates have as many as 500 employees each
on their payrolls. Before the war, for instance
Welbeck Abbey alone employed seventy gar
deners. The total operating expenses OF tne les.
fewer gardeners but its operating expenses are
nearly trebled.
The passing of the great English estate means
the last and final triumph of the new lnuustrlai
age over the preceding agricultuIai one. he.
land mourns it on the whole, but realizes tnat
IL 10 Invaluable. some even feel that the change
The Dukeries scarcely dovetail into the SEN
timent of a more democratic age, says tne ran
Mall Gazette, for instance, and while the PIC
trresoueness of the patriarchal regime will be
missed, it is a healthier life that Is beginning "
overspread the shires with its more equal ais
tribution Of property and initiative
None of this, however, sheds any lsht III
what is to become of the manor gnos,s So uea,
TO the heart of the Psychical Research society.
Ia II possible that they will follow the example
OF other dissruntled Europeans and emigrate 10
America?