Evening star., 1936-12-20
One sIaps the faces of guests;
another races screaming down the halls
they are EngIand's royal spooks.
The King may see one this Christmas -
the Nun with the Cobwebbed Face
by G. PATRICK THOMPSON
Deesmbsr 20, 1896

-HE Sandringham Nun has recently been
seen fitting down a dark corridor of
Sandringham House, Norfolk seat of
Britain's King.
Christmas Eve is the traditional date for
this celebrated ghost with its huge eye hol-
lows and cobwebbed face to make her eerie
appearance in the royal mansion which King
Edward VII built on the site of an old num-
merry. Possibly the wrath has mixed up her
dates. More probably she has become agi-
tated by the report that the great mansion
may be empty this Christmas for the first
time since Edward Wits grandfather select
ed Sandringham as the traditional place for
the Christmas reunion of the Royal Family.
If King Edward VIII decides, after all, to
maintain the Sandringham tradition inst for
Christmas, the spectre Nun will have a
distinguished audience. But if he adheres to
his original idea of spending Christmas at
Fort Belvedere, his real home, he will be the
first British King in history to pass the
holiday in an unhaunted house: a quaint
situation for man who owns" more ghosts
than any other human being.
over a thousand years, has score of ghosts.
though none of them is so sinister as the
Boynton Skull, which screams through the
Elizabethan residence of the old Boynton
family; or the fearful Tube Ghost, most hor-
rife of the spectres which haunt the blood
stained dungeons of the Tower of London.
The two most regular apparitions in the
castle of Windsor are Queen Elizabeth and
King Charles l. Both have been seen by
Kings, courtiers, and menials over the last
200 years. One day after lunch the Empress
Frederick of Germany, who was visiting at
the castle, went into the library to read.
Suddenly she became aware that somebody
watching her. She looked up, and saw, close
beside her, cavalier calmly smiling at her.
For moment they exchanged glances; and
then the Empress blinked, and found herself
looking at nothing The cavalier bore strong
resemblance to portraits of the unfortunate
Charles whose head was axed off on the
scaffold All ghosts of Charles are supposed
to stop short at the severed neck, the bleed
ing head being tucked under the left arm.
But this one, perhaps due to the broad day.
light, carried his on his shoulders
Those who claim to have seen the ghost
of Queen Elizabeth fitting about the castle
describe her as being ''sad," 'haggard, and
as possessing stony stare" The present
Kings great-aunt, Princess Beatrice, once saw
the figure of the Virgin Queen standing on the
terrace of the castle. She was quite motion
less, and after few moments, she vanished. y
On another occasion the Princess was quietly
reading in her room. Her black cat had
perched itself on the sill of the open window.
The room was two stories up: the night was
calm and clear. Suddenly the Princess be-
came aware that something was astir. The
cat had risen, and, with arched back, was
glaring down from the window. The princess
looked out There was a white glimmer of
stiff brocades in the dusk and the frightened
1T leaped to the ground.
til