anthony bliss - photography

      Hosts of ghosts - The apparition has been sighted of Cardinal Wolsley, the first owner of Hampton Court, who, in a desperately unsuccessful attempt to escape charges of treason, presented the palace to Henry VIII in 1528.

      The blue glowing wraith of Anne Boleyn, angry and afraid, has been observed gliding forlornly through the huge deserted passageways and immense chambers. Jane Seymour, dressed in long white robes, clutching a lit candle, an expression of heart-rending melancholy on her face has materialised in both the Clock Court and the Silver Stick Gallery, and the hysterical terrified screams of Catherine Howard as she raced down the Haunted Corridor desperately pleading and begging the King to spare her life have often been heard.

      Tall, gaunt, hooded and robed, the spectre of Mistress Sibell Penn, who died in 1562 and was royal nurse to Edward VI, has been seen frequently in her old apartments.

      The phantoms of Lord Francis Villiers, younger brother to the Duke of Buckingham, and a companion, who were set upon and murdered in a civil war skirmish in 1648 were, at one time sighted extremely frequently. They had been killed and their bodies quickly hidden in a hole underneath the flagstones that encircle Fountain Court. Over 200 years later, a titled resident of one of the ‘grace & favour’ apartments that overlook that square complained so consistently and constantly, that eventually workmen levered up the flagstones and discovered the bones lying in their shallow grave.