Ghost
Lady Hoby's bloodied hands
She washes and washes, but the stain stays.
Private, don't visit
- What's there
- Tudor manor house on the Thames
- Legend from
- Victorian ghost lore
- Tone
- Chilling
A learned Tudor lady, a blotted copy-book, and a basin that floats before her ghost.
Bisham Abbey, a Tudor manor on the Thames near Marlow, is said to be haunted by Dame Elizabeth Hoby. Wikipedia gives the long-standing legend that she beat her son to death for blotting his copy-book. Royal Berkshire History tells it differently: she locked the boy in the tower room, was called away to Queen Elizabeth's court, and returned to find him dead. Her ghost is said to wash her hands in a floating basin. The Royal Berkshire Archives show that supposed ghost photographs of her were triple exposures of Florence Vansittart Neale.