Fabia Shahzadi
The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is probably the most famous and most widely used reported ghost. According to legend, the “Brown Lady of Raynham Hall” is the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpole (1686-1726). The brown brocade dress she is claimed wears gives her the name.
It is said that Lady Townsend’s husband, Charles Townsend, suspected his wife of being unfaithful and even though she is listed of being buried in 1725 many people think that her death and funeral were faked. Instead, Lady Townsend was locked in a remote part of the house until she passed away in 1726 from smallpox never even allowing her to see her own children. Ever since then she is thought to be haunting Raynham Hall.
The first recorded sighting of the ghost was made at a gathering at Raynham Hall at Christmas in 1835. The next sighting of the “Brown Lady” was noted in 1836 by Captain Frederick Marryat, a friend of novelist Charles Dickens followed by in 1926.
On September 19, 1936, two London-based photographers were taking photographs of the staircase at Raynham Hall for an article. The story goes that after taking one photograph one of the photographers looked up and saw a shady image and quickly took another photograph. Later, when the negative was developed, the famous image of the “Brown Lady” was revealed.
Since then, however, some critics have claimed that one of the photographers faked the image. Others claim that the image is an accidental double exposure or that light somehow got into the camera. After this last sighting in 1936, the Brown Lady has not been seen.