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THE BROWN LADY OF RAYNHAM HALL

Raynham Hall, England

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The Most Famous Ghost Photograph

Probably the most famous ghost picture of all time was taken by photographers Captain Provand and Indre Shira while shooting for Country Life magazinein 1936. The photograph appears to show a ghost, known as "the Brown Lady", descending a staircase at England's historic Raynham Hall

She is known as The Brown Lady due to reports of the spirit being seen wearing a brown brocade dress. In life, she was believed to be Dorothy Walpole, the second wife of Charles, 2nd Viscount Townshend, who died in 1729. She officially died of smallpox, but rumors have it that she was pushed down the stairs by her husband after learning of an affair.

Provand and Shira were working on a commission for the magazine Country Life, taking pictures of the interior of the hall. They were about to finish their series of photographs when Shira said he could see a figure descending the staircase and told Provand to take a picture.

Although he was unable to see anything unusual at the time, when Provand exposed the plate, the developed photograph showed a strange, luminous shape on the staircase. The photograph was published in Country Life on 26 December 1936, and in the December edition of Life magazine in the USA.

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More Ghost Photos: The Boothill Cemetery Ghost The thin person wearing a black hat in the background looks as if he is holding a knife, and appears to have no legs or as if he is rising from out of a grave..... Freddy Jackson's Ghost The ghost of an air mechanic who had been accidentally killed by an airplane propeller two days earlier, shows up in this photograph on the day of his funeral..... Ghost Ship Sighting, Milnerton Beach, Cape Town On the 14th February I was on Milnerton Beach, near Cape Town, and took a photo of a ghostly sailing ship exiting the harbour in the thick fog with it's sails still rolled up. Is this perhaps the legendary ghost ship, The Flying Dutchman?..... Lord Combermere's Ghost Photo This photograph of the Combermere Abbey library was taken in 1891 by Sybell Corbet. The figure of a man can faintly be seen sitting in the chair to the left. It is believed to be the ghost of Lord Combermere.....

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