Page 52 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

32 Ghosts and Phantoms

The Foysters also told Price and his team The phantom nun was seen three times in
that the phenomena had begun to produce one evening by one observer, but was not
items that they had never seen before. A small noticed at all by any of the other investigators.
tin trunk had appeared in the kitchen when A strange old cloak kept the researchers baf-
the family was eating supper. A powder box fled by continually appearing and disappear-
and a wedding ring materialized in the bath- ing. Several of Price’s crew reported being
room, and, after they had been put away in a touched by unseen hands.
drawer, the ring disappeared overnight. Stone-
throwing had become common, and Reverend On the last day of Harry Price’s tenancy on
Foyster complained of finding stones in their May 19, 1938, Marianne Foyster’s missing
bed and under their pillows as well. wedding ring once again materialized. The
investigator snatched it up, lest it disappear,
Although Reverend Foyster was a brave and brought it home to London with him.
man, he had never enjoyed good health nor the
kind of stamina necessary to outlast a full-scale In late 1938, the Borley Rectory was pur-
haunting. The Foysters endured the phenome- chased by a Captain W. H. Gregson, who
na at the rectory for five years before leaving in renamed it “The Priory.” He was not at all dis-
October of 1935. After the Foysters left, the turbed by warnings that the place was haunted,
bishop decreed that the place was for sale. but he was upset when his faithful old dog
went wild with terror on the day they moved
In May of 1937, Harry Price learned that the
in and ran away, never to be seen again. He
rectory was empty and offered to lease the place
was also mildly concerned with the strange
for a year as a kind of ghost laboratory. His sum
track of unidentified footprints that circled the
was accepted, and the investigator enlisted a
house in fresh fallen snow. The tracks were not
crew of 40 assistants, mostly men, who would
caused by any known animal, the captain
take turns living in the rectory for a period of
swore, nor had any human made them. He fol-
one year. Price outfitted the place and issued a
lowed the tracks for a time until they mysteri-
booklet that told his army of researchers how to
ously disappeared into nothingness.
correctly observe and record any phenomena
that might manifest themselves. Captain Gregson did not have long to puz-
Shortly after the investigators began to zle out the enigma of Borley. At midnight on
arrive, strange pencil-like writings began to February 27, 1939, the “most haunted house
appear on the walls. Each time a new marking in England” was completely gutted by flames.
was discovered, it would be carefully circled Gregson testified later that a number of books
and dated. Two researchers reported seeing had flown from their places on the shelves and
new writing form while they were busy ringing knocked over a lamp, which had immediately
and dating another. It appeared that the entity exploded into flame.
missed Mrs. Foyster. “Marianne…Marianne… Borley Rectory has remained one of the
” it wrote over and over again. “Marianne… most haunted houses in Britain, but in Decem-
prayers…please help.”
ber 2000, Louis Mayerling, who claimed Borley
The organized investigators were quick to was a second home to him until it burned in
discover a phenomenon that had not been 1939, wrote a book entitled We Faked the Ghosts
noted by any of the rectors who had lived in of Borley Rectory in which he claimed that Harry
Borley. This was the location of a “cold spot” Price and the world had been taken in by
in one of the upstairs passages. Certain people hoaxsters. Mayerling states that he first arrived
began to shiver and feel faint whenever they at Borley in 1918 to find Rev. Harry Bull and his
passed through it. Another “cold spot” was family taking great delight in perpetuating local
discovered on the landing outside of the Blue folklore about a phantom nun and other para-
Room. Thermometers indicated the tempera- normal activity. According to the author, the
ture of these areas to be fixed at about 48 Foysters were also in on the hoax, encouraging
degrees, regardless of what the temperature of Mayerling, a teenager at the time, to walk
the rest of the house may have been. around the gardens at dusk in a black cape.

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