Loftus
Hall.
Loftus Hall, Co. Wexford is an old rambling mansion, with
passages that lead nowhere, large dreary rooms, panelled walls, and a Tapestry
Chamber with a story to tell. It was built on a limestone promontory stretching
out into the Atlantic Ocean by one de Raymond, a follower of Strongbow, who
settled there. After the Rebellion of 1641 it was forfeited and became the
property of the Loftus family. It’s described as "A wild and lonely
place".
The
Ghost Story:
The details that follow apparently occurred when
Charles Tottenham and his family came to live in the mansion in the middle of
the 18th century. Charles Tottenham's first wife had been the Honourable Anne
Loftus (the second daughter of the 1st Viscount Loftus). Anne died in 1775 and Charles
remarried his cousin Jane. Was it this that caused the hauntings to begin, we
will never know the answer to that question.
On a stormy night a young man turned up at the front
door unexpectedly and was welcomed into the mansion. Anne and the young man
became very close, then one night they were in the parlour; around this time it
was not well-mannered for a girl to play cards, but Anne refused to be dictated
to and insisted on playing. When a card was dropped on the floor she went to
pick it up, and she noticed that the young man had a hoof in place of a foot.
It’s said that Anne screamed and the man went up
through the roof in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a large hole in the
ceiling. Anne was in shock and was put in her favourite room in the mansion,
which was known as the Tapestry Room. She refused food and drink. She died in
the Tapestry Room in 1775. It’s said that the hole could never be properly
repaired, and it’s alleged that even to this day, there is still a certain part
of the ceiling which is slightly different from the rest. This, of course, is a
myth, since the present house was built more than a century after the events
described.
Meanwhile it was believed that the stranger with the
cloven hoof returned to the house and caused persistent poltergeist activity.
Strangely enough if you know the history of the Irish
Hellfire club you will recognise the same story of a stranger seeking shelter
from the storm and playing cards. He too was found to have cloven feet and
disappeared in a puff of sulphur smoke through a hole in the ceiling.
A number of Protestant clergymen apparently tried
and failed to put a stop to this. The family, who were themselves Protestants,
eventually called on Father Thomas Broaders (a Catholic priest, who was also a
tenant on the Loftus Hall estate) to exorcise the house which he managed to do
in spite of fierce opposition from at least one of the hostile spirits. The
success of Broaders led to many concessions being made to local Catholics whose
religion was still technically illegal. Fr. Broaders was parish priest of the
surrounding area from 1724 to 1773.
Fr. Broaders later became parish priest of the united parishes of the
Hook and Ramsgrange for almost fifty years.
Eventually
Father Broaders became Canon Broaders and he died in January, 1773, on his tomb
in Horetown Cemetery is the following epitaph;
"Here lies the body of Thomas Broaders,
Who did good and prayed for all.
And banished the Devil from Loftus Hall".
The apparent success of Father Broaders' exorcism
did not end the ghostly visitations at Loftus Hall. The ghost of a young woman,
presumed to be Anne Tottenham, was reported to have made frequent appearances
in the old Hall, especially in the Tapestry Room, until the building was
finally demolished in 1871.
Although the present Loftus Hall is an entirely new
building, interest in the ghost story has remained strong and many aspects of
the story seem to have attached themselves to the newer house.
Subsequent Experiences
1.The father of the Rev. George Reade stayed with a large
party at the Hall some time about 1790, and was given the Tapestry Chamber to
sleep in. He is said to have reported that
"Something heavy leapt upon his bed, growling like a
dog. The curtains were torn back and the clothes stripped from the bed".
Suspecting that
"Some of his companions were playing tricks",
he shouted to warn
them and then fired his pistol up the chimney to frighten them. He then
searched the room and, of course, found nothing. The door was locked as he had
left it when he had gone to bed.
2. Some years later, when the 2nd Marques of Ely was at the
Hall, his valet, Shannon, was put in the Tapestry Chamber and woke the whole
household by his screams in the night. The curtains of the bed, he said, had
been violently torn back and he saw
"A tall lady dressed in stiff brocaded silk".
He fled in terror.
3. After a further period George Reade and his father were
staying at the Hall. George knew nothing of his father's earlier experience,
and chose the Tapestry Chamber as his bedroom. One bright moonlight night he
sat up late reading an article in Blackwood's Magazine, when he saw the door
open and a tall lady in a stiff dress passed noiselessly through the room to a
closet in the corner, where she disappeared. For some reason the idea of a
ghost never entered his head, and he went to sleep.
The next night the experience was repeated. He rushed towards
the lady, threw his right arm round her, and exclaimed
"Ha! I have you now".
His arm passed through
her and came "With a thud against the bed-post".
The figure went on, and her silk brocaded gown "lapped
against the curtain". Next morning he told his father, who said nothing;
and the whole incident left little impression on him.
He slept in the room without disturbance "many a night
after". Some years later George Reade was again at the Hall, and heard the
valet, Shannon, tell the housekeeper that "he would sooner leave his
Lordship's service than sleep in the Tapestry Chamber". Reade asked him
why; and Shannon then told him the story of Anne, which he had never heard
before.
4. In 1858 the 4th Marques, who succeeded in 1857 at the age
of 8, came to the Hall for the bathing season, with his mother (the Lady of the
Bedchamber) and his tutor, the Rev. Charles Dale. The tutor was put in the
Tapestry Chamber and came down to breakfast one morning in an obviously nervous
state, but refused to say anything.
In the autumn Lord Henry Loftus, uncle of the Marques, wrote
to George Reade, told him about Charles Dale, and added that a Mr. Derringey
had slept in the room and had had "a splendidly fitted dressing case"
ransacked during the night. He asked him what his own experience had been. Reade
wrote to Dale, then in a parish in Kent, a long letter, in which he said that
he had slept in the Tapestry Chamber for three weeks without disturbance - and
without knowing anything about Anne Tottenham. Then one moonlight night he had
had the same experience as Reade's father - something heavy jumping on the bed,
growling, and tearing off the bedclothes.
He leapt out of bed, lit a candle, but could find nothing. He
had, however, made inquiries and had talked with an old woman called Haggard,
who lived to the age of 106. She had told him the whole story, and remembered
Father Broders and the exorcism very well.
5. Finally, in 1868, Reade once more visited the Hall, which
had been considerably altered. The Tapestry Chamber was now a billiards-room.
He asked the old housekeeper how Miss Anne Tottenham had taken these changes,
and she replied
“Oh! Master George, don't talk about her. Last night she made
a horrid noise knocking the billiard balls about!”
So there you have it, would you be brave enough to spend the
night in Loftus Hall.
