Brown Lady of Raynham Hall - a Ghost haunts Raynham Hall, United Kingdom

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The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is a phantom, which purportedly frequents Raynham Hall in Norfolk. It turned into a stand-out amongst the most celebrated around the world hauntings in Great Britain when photographic artists from Country Life magazine guaranteed to have caught its picture. The "Brown Lady" is so named in view of the tan brocade dress it is guaranteed she wears.

As per legend, the "Brown Lady of Raynham Hall" is the phantom of Lady Dorothy Walpole (1686–1726), the sister of Robert Walpole, usually viewed as the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. She was the second wife of Charles Townshend, who was famous for his fierce temper. The story says that when Townshend uncovered that his wife had bound infidelity with Lord Wharton he disciplined her by securing her rooms in the family home, Raynham Hall. Consistent with Mary Wortley Montagu, Dorothy was indeed ensnared by the Countess of Wharton. She welcomed Dorothy over to stay for a couple of days realizing that her spouse might never permit her to abandon it, not even to see her youngsters. She stayed at Raynham Hall until her passing in 1726 from smallpox.

The initially recorded claim of a locating of the phantom was by Lucia C. Stone concerning an assembling at Raynham Hall at Christmas 1835. Stone says that Lord Charles Townsend had welcomed different visitors to the Hall, incorporating a Colonel Loftus, to join in the Christmas merriments. Loftus and an alternate visitor named Hawkins said they had seen the "Brown Lady" one night as they approached their rooms, noting specifically the dated tan dress she wore. The accompanying night Loftus guaranteed to have seen the "Brown Lady" once more, later reporting that on this event he was attracted to the spectre's void eye-attachments, dim in the gleaming face. Loftus' sightings expedited some staff for all time leaving Raynham Hall.

The following reported locating of the "Brown Lady" was made in 1836 by Captain Frederick Marryat, a companion of writer Charles Dickens, and the writer of an arrangement of well known ocean books. It is said that Marryat solicited that he use the night in the supernaturally inhabited room at Raynham Hall to demonstrate his hypothesis that the frightful was brought about by nearby dealers to keep individuals far from the region.

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Woman Townsend reported that the "Brown Lady" was next seen in 1926, when her offspring and his companion asserted to have seen the phantom on the staircase, recognizing the spooky figure with the representation of Lady Dorothy Walpole which then hung in the supernaturally inhabited room.

On September 19, 1936 Captain Hubert C. Provand, a London-based photographer working for Country Life magazine, and his assistant Indre Shira were taking photographs of Raynham Hall for an article to appear later in the year. The two men's account claims that they had already taken a photograph of the Hall's main staircase, and were setting up to take a second when Shira saw "a vapoury form gradually assuming the appearance of a woman" and moving down the stairs towards them. Under Shira's direction Provand quickly took the cap off the lens while Shira pressed the trigger to activate the camera's flash light. Later, when the negative was developed, the famous image of the "Brown Lady" was revealed. The account of Provand and Shira's ghostly experience at Raynham Hall was published in Country Life magazine on December 26, 1936 along with the photograph of the "Brown Lady". The photograph and the account of its taking also appeared in the January 4, 1937 edition of Life magazine.

Soon after the noted paranormal investigator Harry Price interviewed Provand and Shira and reported: "I will say at once I was impressed. I was told a perfectly simple story: Mr. Indre Shira saw the apparition descending the stairs at the precise moment when Captain Provand’s head was under the black cloth. A shout – and the cap was off and the flashbulb fired, with the results which we now see. I could not shake their story, and I had no right to disbelieve them. Only collusion between the two men would account for the ghost if it is a fake. The negative is entirely innocent of any faking."

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Experts called in by Country Life stated that the photograph and its negative did not appear to have been interfered with. Since then, however, some critics have claimed that Shira faked the image by putting grease or a similar substance on the lens in the shape of a figure, or by himself deliberately moving down the stairs during an exposure. Others claim that the image is an accidental double exposure or that light somehow got into the camera.

The Brown Lady has not been seen after this alleged sighting in 1936.