Newstead Abbey

The sister of William, the 5th Lord Byron is said to walk the grounds wailing for a reconciliation with her brother that was hoped to occur on her deathbed - and which never happened. A "Black Friar" is believed to be another ghost here, as is a "White Lady" (sometimes described as "a column of greyish mist") whose appearance is accompanied by intense cold and a smell of rose petals; the route she walks in the grounds is known as White Lady's Walk. According to one version of the legends, she was a deaf-mute girl Sophie Hyatt, who died outside the Black Boy pub in the town. She was an admirer of Byron's poetry and lived on a farm near the Abbey even after he had sold the estate but the new owner, Colonel Wildman would allow her to wander his grounds. Eventually Wildman had planned to offer accommodation to Sophie for the remainder of her life, and set a rider to try and catch her before she left Nottingham for good to join her family in America. When the rider arrived in town, he found Sophie dead, having been killed a cart after she had failed to hear the driver's warning to move away. Another famous spectre here is said to be a "Goblin Monk" who was incanted by the abbot during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The creature was to take revenge on anyone who treated the Abbey "with disdain" and appeared when one of the Byrons, who had been given the estate, was about to perish. When a descendant found a large brass eagle, which contained the original land deeds in the lake, the Goblin Monk appeared and later, when a chest was unearthed when the water level had fallen. Subsequent misfortunte by the family was blamed on this malevolent creature. It is also said that Byron's dog, Boatswain, has been seen at dusk near the monument dedicated to it.

Link: Nottingham Post

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