Ghosts

The most famous of the Longleat ghosts is that of Lady Louisa Carteret, wife of the 2nd Viscount Weymouth, whose portrait hangs in the Lower Dining Room. Here is her story as written by Lord Bath:-

The ‘Grey Lady’

Louisa Carteret married Thomas, 2nd Viscount Weymouth, in the early 18th century. She was a beautiful lady and reputedly of an angelic disposition: in contrast to which Thomas was ill-tempered and unpredictable. But she managed quickly enough to furnish him with the son and heir, who was later to become the 1st Marquess.

There was unfortunately much envious jostling for position within the household, with those who resented the esteem that Louisa bestowed upon the footman whom she had brought with her to Longleat when she had first arrived. Thomas had always been quick of temper, easily led and of poor judgement, so that when some lackey suggested to him that the man knew more of Louisa’s favour than was commonly realized, he flew into a rage and had the footman ambushed as he came out of the Old Library, where they had been sitting, and then flung down the spiral staircase which descends from that passage to the floor below.

Unfortunately the man’s neck was broken in the process of this fall, and there was the imminent prospect of a murder investigation, where the 2nd Viscount’s responsibility in these matters might well have been established. So his corpse was taken down to the ground floor and buried beneath the flagstones in the basement, with the story then put out that he had simply decided to leave: not that Louisa ever believed that he could have behaved in such a fashion. And the legend arose within the household that she was sometimes to be seen searching the rooms up on the top floor, in the vain hope of discovering where he might have been imprisoned against his will.

She herself died shortly after this, whereupon the 2nd Viscount moved out from Longleat altogether, going to reside in the village of Horningsham instead. And there were those who whispered that the real reason for him doing so was that he was terrified of running into Louisa as she walked the top passage after nightfall, constantly searching for her loyal retainer.

There is an interesting postscript to this story in that, when my grandfather, the 5th Marquess, introduced central heating for the first time to Longleat, soon after the turn of the century, the floor in the basement had to be lowered in order to take the new boiler. And, on digging down beneath the flagstones, a body was discovered – in a bad state of decay, but with crumbling raiment and boots that could be dated as of a style worn in the time of Queen Anne. Even at the belated date of the Edwardian era, when these human remains were unearthed, my grandfather was anxious to avoid too serious a police investigation. So everything that had not completely crumbled into dust was scooped up into a hatbox and buried in the local church cemetery, without any further fuss or bother: the same cemetery (by an odd coincidence) where the remains of the 2nd Viscount had long been lain uneasily to rest.