Polesden Lacey stands on the North Downs at Great Bookham. A house is recorded there by 1336, Anthony Rous rebuilt it in 1630, Richard Brinsley Sheridan lived there from 1797, and in 1906 Margaret Greville bought it and had it remodelled by the architects of the Ritz. She left it to the National Trust in 1942. The future George VI and Queen Elizabeth honeymooned there in 1923.
Surrey Live's round up of county hauntings says the house is haunted by an unknown apparition whose presence pre-dates the Edwardian mansion by centuries. The figure is described as monk-like, in a brown cloak with the hood pulled up so that the head is hidden, and visitors are told to keep their eyes peeled in the grounds.
The article gives no witness, no date and no location within the estate, and the Wikipedia history of the house contains no ghost material, so the story rests on that one paragraph and on whatever the local ghost books say. A hooded monk is a very common figure in English ghost lore, and nothing ties this one to a particular religious house. It is entered as a single report.
Comments