Submitted by Seraphim on
I was amazed at just how many cases there are pertaining to spirits that originate from lovelorn rhapsody and loveless existence. Whilst we celebrate Valentine’s Day by showering loved ones with gifts, such as roses, chocolates and romantic meals, let us venture into the darker side of love. A place where the power of love has resulted in many phantoms roaming the capital. Let us explore the spectres who have drowned in their tears, as love has dissipated, and hearts have been broken.
London Tales ...
Tragically, a majority of apparitions which haunt London, as victims of love, are women. In south-east London, at Veremont House, Shooter’s Hill, once lurked a phantom of a woman named Bertha Rungate. This haunting originates to the early 1900s, after a jealous feud erupted and resulted in murder.
Bertha had on many occasions showed her love to Philip Rungate, who was the nephew of her late father. However, Philip was not interested in her love, and instead poured his own heart out, and pined for Bertha’s governess. In a rage, Bertha was alleged to have murdered Philip, and in her evil vengeance, the ghost of Bertha was said to prowl the house. Those that saw the spirit described it as a despicable, scowling wraith with gaunt complexion, huge, black eyes, dark hair and adorned in a purple dress. The haunting abruptly ceased when the remains of Philip were found in the basement of the house and taken away from the building.
Another love-related haunting also occurred around the same time as Bertha’s malevolent form. At Brentford, the Lady Boston, of Boston House, had been having an affair with Lord Fairfax. Eventually, her husband, Viscount Boston found out and murdered the woman, casting her corpse into the depths of the Thames. Strangely, the man then returned to the stretch of water, retrieved the body and buried it in a section of the garden, and it is this spot that the spectre of Lady Boston frequents from the other side.
An eerie ghost dressed in all black, garments of funeral quality, was once said to haunt a stretch of railway line running from London to Cardiff during the early twentieth century. The woman, in the land of the living, was said to have been a bride-to-be whose dream never came true for her husband was tragically killed after he stuck his head out of a train window whilst travelling with her. He was decapitated. The legend has it, that the woman reached London cradling the headless body of the man she was to marry. It is said that she went completely insane as the love dripped from his lifeless body, and so in the ethereal void she continues to make that journey, still pining for a love that was not to be.
A century previous comes a vague and foggy tale from Nan Clark’s Lane, Mill Hill. It was here that a local landlady, named Nan Clark, was murdered, or possibly committed murder, involving a lover or husband. No-one knows the truth of this lovelorn ghost story except to say that the spirit returns to the area each year.
A white lady is often heard sobbing for her lost love in south-west London at Old Ranelagh and the Lower Richmond Road. No-one knows why her love went away but the figure is always heard crying her eyes out as she reaches the road and vanishes.
At Wanstead Park, Catherine Tylney Long committed suicide many years ago. The woman had become so depressed by the greedy ways of her lover who drained from her every penny she had obtained, and her spirit is said to roam the park, possibly in some kind of limbo.
One such haunting at Greyfriars Churchyard could well be a spectacular one to observe if fortunate enough. It is here that Queen Isabella and Lady Alice Hungerford are seen to scrap on occasion in fits of jealousy. On these occasions neither were seeking revenge regarding love, but in fact, held their fisticuffs as both were green with envy of each other’s beauty. Whether they killed each other in the fight is unlikely, but this makes for an unusual haunting.
In more recent times there have been a few ghosts treated unfortunate by love, who’ve roamed the capital. In 1969 a Margaret Ray was said to haunt one of the bedrooms of the Old Admiralty House in south-west London. Margaret had been shot by her former lover. Meanwhile, in 1971 at Bruce Castle in the north, a Lady Coleraine was seen, and still, each year continues, to leap from a balcony as the only way of escaping the possessive nature of her husband. The ghost is said to appear around November 3 each year.
And finally, at a private house in Lewisham at Georges Lane, there has often been seen a ghost, from 1974 onwards, who appears as a bit of a groping spirit. No-one is sure as to whether the phantom is male or female, but on one occasion in the guest bedroom a woman was kissed by the unseen spook, and several other women have run screaming from the room claiming that a presence has touched them, or held their hand. Maybe the resident ghost simply yearns for companionship, and could be a male apparition, for should any man sleep in the bedroom, they are overcome with icy chills, as if whatever lurks in the room does not want them there.
So, the next time you’re upset by the lack of a Valentine’s card from your loved one, and you’re just about to murder them, just think about those who have left this world in body but not in soul, and continue to seek the love they lost.
Neil Arnold
http://www.thelondonword.com/2009/02/ghost-stories-for-valentine%E2%80%99s-day/