In Trevelyan's version the coach is a storm warning, like the voice of Helig heard off the north Wales coast before a wreck. The coach and four with headless, burning horses is a very old image in British ghost lore, and here it is tied to the long flat sands running out towards Worm's Head, where a wild night can come in fast.
The Mansel family were the great landowners of Gower and later Margam, and their name has become attached to the Rhossili coach in modern retellings. The Great British Ghost Tour says legend has it that the squire found treasure on the bay, squandered it in life and now drives across the sand looking for more.
It is worth keeping the two layers apart. The storm omen of the Lord and Lady of Rhossili is a documented nineteenth century belief; the treasure-hunting squire is a later, more colourful version, and the name Mansel is not in Trevelyan's text.
Comments