Filed under: Europe, United Kingdom, Hotels and Accommodations, Nightlife
The best thing about being an agnostic is that you don't have to live your life fearing the unknown. The worst thing is admitting the possibility that there might be something to fear after all.
Instead of pretending to have all the answers, my belief system ranks things in order of likelihood, and ghosts are pretty far down the list. Not as low as Santa Claus or the "we never landed on the Moon" conspiracy theory, but a poor ranking nonetheless. So when I heard that my hotel room in England was supposedly haunted, my only thought was that I'd bagged a good story for Gadling.
Unlike a lot of supposed hauntings, this one's actually based on a true story, related to me by local historian and folklorist Steven Wood.
Back in 1906, Haworth, Yorkshire, was holding its annual gala. Like in other years, brass bands played, entertainers wowed the crowd, and food stands sold all sorts of delicacies. This year, however, the people of Yorkshire had been promised something special. Lily Cove, a famed "aeronaut", was going to do a death-defying parachute jump from a balloon. This was only three years after Kitty Hawk, so nobody in the area had ever seen an airplane, and balloons were a rarity too. Seeing a lovely lady jump from one and land safely was something of a miracle.
Lily Cove stayed at The Old White Lion Hotel in Room 7, the very same room I had. While waiting for a day with good weather the glamorous aeronaut made many acquaintances in town and became very popular.
On June 11 the weather was fair and thousands gathered to see her performance. After she and her manager Captain Frederick Bidmead checked the balloon, she secured herself to a trapeze hanging from the bottom. The balloon soared into the air with Lily waving to the crowd with a handkerchief. The idea was that once she got to a good altitude, Lily would leap from the trapeze and a ripcord would open up her parachute. She'd then float gracefully to earth.
Gallery: The ghost of Lily Cove
Continue reading Three nights in a haunted hotel roomThree nights in a haunted hotel room originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments
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