Old Beaupre stands in fields beside the River Thaw a short walk from St Hilary, a roofless Tudor house built inside an older castle. Its showpiece is the tall stone porch of about 1600, carved with the Bassett arms and the Welsh motto Gwell angau na chywilydd, "Better death than shame." The house was abandoned in the eighteenth century when the family moved to New Beaupre.
Marie Trevelyan says the gwrach-y-rhibyn, the Welsh death-hag, took up residence there while the estate was out of Bassett hands, first with the Edmunds family and then the Treharnes of St Hilary. She was said to rise out of the River Thaw at twilight, wringing her hands and flapping bat-like wings. Late in the eighteenth century she was seen and heard in the grounds of New Beaupre too, as if she had a grievance against it. Early in the nineteenth century workmen staying nearby said they had seen her among the ruins of the old castle, and the sound of her wailing and sobbing was painful to hear. Soon the whole neighbourhood was talking about it.
The estate was eventually bought by a solicitor, Mr Daniel Jones, who was interested in the story. Trevelyan was told what followed by an old man of the Vale. He had been doing some work near the entrance door of the castle at twilight, under the Bassett panel, when he heard a low, sad wail moving round the courtyard. Opposite him, in the great porch, a shadowy figure stood wringing its hands and flitting in and out "like somebody in distress". When he crossed towards it, it vanished. Curious, he went further in, and a voice seemed to whisper in his ear, "Lost! lost! lost!" He could see no one. He went back into the porch and the wailing began again, the figure reappeared, and he distinctly heard a sweet, sad voice crying "Restore! restore! restore!"
The next day he told the owner. "I know all about it," said Mr Jones. "Strange voices often come from the past, and act as monitors for the future." The old man understood that the owner had seen and heard her himself. Whether or not the story is true, Trevelyan says, Jones left the Beaupre estate in his will to Captain Bassett, a direct descendant of the original owners.
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