As the traffic speeds along the busy Bayswater Road, to the north of Hyde Park, the cars, buses and trucks pass a line of tall white-walled houses set back behind a garden.
They are part of a gated enclave which goes under the name of Hyde Park Gardens.
Few, if any, of the drivers or pedestrians that pass them even notice them, and I would hazard a guess that none of them are aware of the fact that behind one of these stately facades, in 1864, a girl was quite literally frightened to death when she thought she saw a ghost.
This is the story of that long ago tragedy.
The Shoreditch Observer provided full details of the tragic occurrence in its edition of Saturday the 30th of January, 1864:-
FRIGHTENED BY A GHOST
DEPLORABLE DEATH OF A YOUNG WOMAN
On Monday last, Mr. H. Raffles Walthew, deputy coroner, held an inquest at the White Hart Tavern Kingsland-road, touching the death of a young woman named Priscilla May, aged 19 years, who lost her life through the practical joke of a servant in dressing up as a ghost.
HER FATHER’S EVIDENCE
Mr. R. May, a cheesemonger, carrying on business at No. 145, Kingsland-road, said that the deceased, his daughter, was a dressmaker. She was in perfect health when, about four months ago, she went to Mr Blyth’s house in Hyde Park-gardens, to do some work.
She returned three days afterwards looking seriously affected in health. She could hardly breathe. Her nostrils were greatly distended and were plugged.
She said she had been terribly frightened the night before.
THE GHOST IN THE BATHROOM
As she was going upstairs with the governess and the servant, past the bath-room, the door of the latter was seen to be open.
She asked the servant to close the door, and the latter was going to do so, when something all in white threw the door wide open, and appeared from the darkness.
She said that she instantly fell back screaming into the arms of the governess.
Blood gushed from her nostrils, and she was carried downstairs insensible.
A doctor was sent for, and the servants remained with her all night.
It appeared that the apparition in white was a servant, who dressed herself all in white in a practical joke.
SHE NEVER RECOVERED
The deceased never recovered from the shock. She lost her appetite, and her mind became affected.
She gradually sank, and she died on the 19th inst.
SOPHIA STURGEON’S EVIDENCE
Sophia Sturgeon said that she was a servant in the employ of a gentleman, residing at 80, Upper Hyde Park-gardens, Bayswater.
On the night in question, the witness was preceding Miss Clarke, the governess, and the deceased upstairs, when she heard a supernatural scream to imitate a “ghost.”
The deceased gave a scream – like a laugh – and fell. The witness believed she fell upon the stairs.
The deceased had been bleeding from the nose during the day.
A doctor was sent for.
IT WAS A JOKE
The witness said that Emma Frisley, the nursery governess, came to the door of the bath-room in her white night dress as a joke.
The witness would swear that none of the other servants were in on the secret.
EMMA FRISLEY’S EVIDENCE
Emma Frisley, nursery governess, said that she made her appearance in white merely to frighten the persons going upstairs.
The other servants knew nothing of her intention.
She told the deceased that she was very sorry that she had seriously frightened her.
The whole affair was a frolic out of her own head.
NOT PRE-ARRANGED
Mr. Waller, coroner’s officer, said that from what could be ascertained the “ghost” was not pre-arranged by the other servants.
THE DOCTOR’S TESTIMONY
Mr. A. Catherwood, surgeon, said that he was called in to the deceased, and found her suffering from loss of blood, from nausea, sleeplessness, and want of appetite. Latterly she became affected in mind. She would not look at witness, nor answer when spoken to.
He believed she died from an obscure affection of the brain conjoined with hysteria.
Her death was decidedly accelerated by the fright.
THE CORONER’S SUMMING UP
The coroner said that the fact of dressing up as a ghost was very foolish and very dangerous.
In several cases it produced idiotcy, and in the present instance it caused death.
It was but right to consider, however, that the young woman who caused the mischief did not intend anything serious, and that she was evidently sincerely sorry for her folly.
No doubt this case would act as a warning to young persons, and in that way do a public good.
THE VERDICT
The jury returned a verdict of death from obscure disease of the brain and hysteria, accelerated by fright, and that her said death was caused by misfortune.
The proceedings then terminated.
ONE OF MANY STORIES
And thus the curtain came down on the short life and sad fate of Priscilla May, as the protagonists in the saga shuffled back into anonymity.
The story is just one of many that must have occurred in similar buildings across the country, or, for that matter, around the world.
Indeed, many of the buildings we pass by on a daily basis have stories to tell and will have borne witness to similar events that may just have left a memory or two trapped within their fabric.
For, as Longfellow put it:-
All houses wherein men have lived and died are haunted houses.
Indeed, they are Henry, indeed they are!