The Phantom Bird

Anyone who has ever read Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven knows that there is something terrifying about a ghoulish bird.  Birds can be somewhat frightening to begin with.  They loom over us and stare out at us with glowing eyes.  The very sound of an owl late at night can bring to mind old ghost stories and whisper of childhood fears.  At the Lincoln Inn in London, such fears are justified.

Lincoln's Inn is in the center of legal London. It is not an inn as Americans define inns. It is one of four Inns of Court in London to which attorneys are called to bar.  It has a long and dark history that lends itself well to stories of ghosts and hauntings.  Lord Antony Babington was convicted of trying to assassinate Elizabeth 1st in 1586 and he and his followers were hanged, drawn and quartered at Lincoln’s Inn.  Lord William Russel's notoriously grisly execution also took place at Lincoln's Inn.

According to legend,  a group of young men were attacked at the law offices of  Lincoln's Inn in 1913.  The young men were accosted by a giant bird.  The bird cast no shadow and when the assault was over one of the young attorney's was left dead.  Charles Appleby was found covered in claw parks and drenched in blood.  A few years later another young man, John Radlett, was found hanging in the same office. The young man had locked himself in the office and huge claw marks were found on the walls and the doors of the office.    Rumors of the phantom bird spread quickly after this and the two journalists decided the story was worth investigating.  They locked themselves into the haunted room and began their investigation.
At first, nothing happened.  In fact so much nothing happened, the investigators began playing cards and wrote the story off as local legend and folklore.   It was only when the men were relaxed that the bird struck.  The windows were flung open and the room was filled with a sound of great flapping.  The doors shut and claw marks could be seen across the floor of the haunted room.  Shortly after this, the building containing this cursed room was destroyed and the bird vanished with the building, but the story is still one of the most terrifying haunted bird stories I have heard.  It would make Alfred Hitchcock shiver. 

The Ghost and Her Horse

Over a hundred years ago, in the rolling hills of Kentucky, there lived a famed horsewoman who was the daughter of Randolph Corbett a famous breeder.  Her family was know for breeding the finest thoroughbred race horses in the world.  Her life began like a storybook tale of love and success.  Mary was beautiful and rich and popular.  Everyone loved her.   She married a wealthy judge named Wheedon and together they continued building on her father's equine empire  She had a beautiful son named Randolph.   She raised him well and he won a scholarship to the University of Virginia.

Sadly,  even storybook tales can end in tragedy and Mary Wheedon was destined for great tragedy.  After her son left home,  he showed terrible judgement in all manners financial.  He invested in one con artist's scheme after another, bleeding Mary dry and destroying his family fortune.  She tried to keep her son's problem's secret from her husband, Judge Wheedon, but when her beloved baby boy shot himself,  all of his bad decisions came to the surface.  It wasn't  long after her son died that the stock market crashed reducing Judge Wheedon's fortune to nothing.   They say the stress was too much on the Judge's heart and he died a few days later.  Mary was destitute.   She had nothing left.  The sudden, accumulation of horror was too much for Mary.   After this, she vanished from society.   She vanished and  left everything behind but her favorite horse.

Mary's favorite horse was named Hussar's Gold and he was, in fact, the fastest race horse alive, so even after she vanished there were those that sought her out and looked for her horse.  It was twelve years before Mary was seen again.  Two lost travelers came upon her.  She found them wandering the woods by Lexington.  She walked side by side with an enormous  gold stallion.   Her horse and she guided the two lost travellers to Lexington.  Others sought Mary out after this.  They tried to convince her to sell her horse and buy back her life.  But Mary wouldn't hear it.  People who saw her said she spoke to the horse like a friend and they wandered the woods together like they were family.

Time past and it can be assumed Mary and her beautiful stallion died in the shadowy woods of old Kentucky.   However,  children and adults as well still tell stories of meeting a ghostly woman and her horse in the old woods near Covington.  Mary and her horse linger there as they did in life.  Those who see her say that Mary still talks to her horse and that he nods his head in understanding.

Story taken from James Reynold's Ghosts in American Houses, which was among my grandmother's ghost story collection.