I always was a strange kid. I loved reading about magic and ghosts, so when my family was in England I begged to do a ghost tour. My parents figured the poltergeist tours of London and Edinburg might be a little too intense for my sister and I, so instead my mother found a walking ghost tour of Bath. It was a fairly tame tour, starting out right before dusk and telling us the history of the town, from Roman times up to Victorian times. He told us about druids and ley lines, and how the architect of the town had designed the buildings and streets upon these mystical energy points. We also heard typical ghost story sightings and otherworldly and unexplained tales.
One of the first stories goes like this:
‘Nash built a fine house, now the Garrick’s Head pub, which he paid for by having paying guests who came to Bath to gamble and drink the nights away.
One gentleman spent many such nights, leaving his pretty young wife to amuse herself at Nash’s. Gambling one night, he heard a rumour about just how she was keeping herself ‘entertained’. He rushed back only to find her ‘otherwise engaged’ with a young man in the parlour, (now the main bar in the Garrick’s Head). The husband challenged the young buck to a duel, but the unfortunate lover did not have his sword to hand. He was run through and killed.
In her distress the unfaithful wife is said to have rushed to the roof and thrown herself to her death on the pavement below. And so starts the legend of the Grey Lady, also known as the Jasmine Lady. In February customers at the Garrick’s head will often smell jasmine in the air. It is a precursor to a ghostly visitation.
As he told the story, he stepped back at the part when he told how she had thrown herself onto the pavement, and a flourish of his hand made it seem like it was the exact cobblestones we were standing, I swear I almost saw a red tint appear on those bricks. And I wondered if I could smell Jasmine in the air.
She is always seen as shades of grey – colourless. She has poured a drink over an grumpy barmaid’s head, she has been seen drifting through the wall where the door once was or just standing in the corner where the slot machine now stands, but it is next door at the Theatre Royal where she is most notorious.
The theatre now extends into part of what was Beau Nash’s house and in the top box nearest the stage the Grey Lady is often seen standing and staring. The box is situated where her room would have been. More than one usher has been given a fright when they went to confront what they took to be a gatecrasher. Many others have also seen her, drifting through the seats in the stalls, passing through the wall at the back, but most famously appearing on stage beside the actress Dame Anna Neagle in front of a crowded auditorium. People fled the theatre in terror and Dame Anna refused to ever set foot in the theatre again.
Later as we turned onto the Royal Crescent it got darker and darker, making the mood perfect for the next story. The guide explained that this area is the most haunted part of the city as it was the old dueling grounds, called The Gravel Walk. Men would come to fight and die for their honor in the field here. The story goes that the wounded would be taken to a doctor’s tent, and often would die from their wounds. Where the tent once stood, now a large holly bush grows. There are many sightings here, including a young man walking with a sword, who enters the field, stands defensively, and then simply disappears.
Before we stooped down to go inside the holly bush, our guide told us that we needed to remain extra quite, because sometimes the ghosts of the young hansom dead duelists would favor us. It is said sometimes young women (such as myself) would feel a kiss on their cheek, while others might feel a touch on their shoulder or back if they are a “kindred spirit” to the ghost. The latter would mean that the ghost would leave with you, and become your protector for the rest of your life, as that was the only way for them to leave the darkness of the bush. Their goal would be to protect you from an untimely end, but it would only happen if your were of pure heart and honorable.
Being a believer in ghosts, I wanted desperately for a real ghost encounter. I also thought it would be interesting to have a ghost protector, although the young teenager in me wondered if the “ghost protectors” would stare at me while I was in the shower. But, hesitation on the logistics aside, I eagerly stepped into the dark holly bush and kept quite.
Source. This is what it looks like inside.
It was a bit chilly, even though it was August. Most of the others in our group quickly headed out, as they were too tall and found the hunching annoying. But short me bearly had to stoop, and instead I closed my eyes, willing a ghost to kiss or protect me. I thought it was working. It was otherworldly quite, the loudest thing I could hear was my own breathing. And then, out of the darkness I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I slowly turned around…BOOOOO My mother and sister shouted at me at the top of their lungs. And then they started laughing at me, destroying the mood completely. Â I remember being so pissed and sulking with emo music the rest of my time in Bath. Never bring skeptics on a Ghost Tour.
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Travel Missteps is an every-other week series on how sometimes part of the journey is making mistakes and getting lost.
So sorry to break the mood!!!