Читать книгу The Element Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Hauntings: The Complete A–Z for the Entire Magical World - Theresa Cheung, Theresa Cheung - Страница 61

This ruined castle, located at Berry Pomeroy, Devon has been the scene of ghostly sightings and strange phenomena for hundreds of years. Even today, visitors to the castle remark upon its strange atmosphere and the feelings of foreboding and terror it inspires.

The great majority of the hauntings can be traced to the castle’s original owners, the Pomeroy family, who occupied it from about 1086 to 1550. The most terrifying apparitions are those of a white and a blue lady. The White Lady is believed to haunt the dark dungeons. According to the legend, she is the spirit of Margaret Pomeroy, who was imprisoned in the dungeons by her sister Eleanor. Eleanor was jealous of both Margaret’s beauty and her success with men, and Margaret slowly starved in the dungeons, a long drawn-out and painful death. Perhaps Margaret’s agony is the source of the feeling of unease and horror some people experience at the castle.

The Blue Lady roams around the castle as she pleases and has been seen trying to lure people into parts of the ruin. According to some stories she is the ghost of the daughter of one of the Norman lords of the castle. She was raped by her father, who then strangled the resulting baby in one of the upper rooms. In other tales it is she who smothers the child, haunting the castle in anguish. When she is seen, her face is said to portray this suffering. She is regarded as a death portent to those who see her. The well-known nineteenth-century physician Sir Walter Farquar is said to have seen the spirit while he was attending to the wife of one of the castle stewards. The wife died soon afterwards, although she seemed to be making a full recovery.

Other apparitions reported include a woman in a grey dress, the ubiquitous cavalier and strange shadows that appear to have no earthly presence to cast them.