Date: Sat Dec 08 2001

Time: 08:59:46

Recently my parents and I were visiting Longleat country
house in Wiltshire, quite well known for it's ghost
stories (amongst other things). Whilst we were looking
round the house my dad got to chatting with one of the
tour guides; when he mentionned that he had a ghost story
about the place that occurred back in the 1960's we were
told to find one particular guide who apparently had had
several occurances herself and was now an avid collector
of tales. This is the story my dad told her:

Back in the 1960's my dad was a teacher, taking a group
of children around the house on a school trip. About
halfway through the tour they did a headcount and
realised that one boy was missing. Unalarmed the tour
guide told him not to worry, doors leading off the main
tour route were locked and he was bound to be found by
another guide and returned pretty quickly. When the tour
was concluded the boy was indeed at the end of the route,
waiting for his classmates.

However, he was very keen to tell them that he had been
on his own private tour - seeing the back rooms and
corridors of the great house. When asked who had shown
him, he replied it was an older man dressed in funny
period clothing; the boy had thought he was one of the
guides, albeit one in costume. At this point the guide
who was with them got very flustered and lead the boy to
a row of portraits hanging in a hall at the beginning of
the route. She asked him if he recognised the man from
any of the paintings. The boy then identified him as a
gentleman who had worked on the house's original
construction, and who had died before it's completition.
She then went on to tell my dad that apparently this sort
of thing happened semi-regularly and always to young
children, apparently the ghost just couldn't help but
show off his building designs!

When my dad had finished telling the tale the tour guide
told us a few of her own experiences:

One evening she was getting ready to leave and was just
about to lock up the rooms for the night when she heard a
loud thud, like someone stamping their feet on the wooden
floors. Going through to investigate she found no one
there but a light had been left burning. It was angled
directly onto a drape, and if it had been left all night
would certainly have caused a fire. It seems the ghost
was protecting his property and also chastising her for
her mistake!

treehavn

treehavn@hotmail.com

England