I am still near, Watching the smiles I prized on earth, Your converse mild, your blameless mirth.[64
- Date of account
- Late nineteenth-century compilation
- Source
- The Ghost World
- Reference
- The Ghost World · selected passage 131
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-24
Record summary
Local tradition still tells us that 'Madam Dudley's ghost did use to walk in Cumnor Park, and that it walked so obstinately, that it took no less than nine parsons from Oxford "to lay her." That they at last laid her in a pond, called "Madam Dudley's Pond," and, moreover, wonderful to relate, the water in that pond was…
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyLocal tradition still tells us that 'Madam Dudley's ghost did use to walk in Cumnor Park, and that it walked so obstinately, that it took no less than nine parsons from Oxford "to lay her." That they at last laid her in a pond, called "Madam Dudley's Pond," and, moreover, wonderful to relate, the water in that pond was never known to freeze afterwards.' Heath Old Hall, near Wakefield, is haunted by the ghost of Lady Bolles, who is commonly reported to have been conjured down into a hole of the river, locally known as 'Bolles Pit.' But, as in many other cases of ghost-laying, 'the spell was not so powerful, but that she still rises, and makes a fuss now and then.' Various reasons have been assigned for her 'walking,' such as the non-observance by her executors of certain clauses in her will, whilst a story current in the neighbourhood tells us that a certain room in the Hall which had been walled up for a certain period, owing to large sums of money having been gambled away in it, was opened before the stipulated time had expired.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis material belongs to a folklore tradition. Story type, collector, community, transmission and literary editing matter when comparing it with other sources.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyLattice compares motifs and reported features without assuming that a traditional being is a biological species or that similar stories document one external cause.
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