THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996 TAG: 9610230040
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHEN HARRIMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLES CITY, VA. LENGTH: 227 lines
THE THREE OF US are sitting in the Gray Room at Sherwood Forest Plantation, and two of us - L.B. Taylor Jr. and I - are hoping to see, or at least HEAR a ghost. Specifically, the Gray Lady, for whom the room, which is NOT gray, is named.
I'm not sure that Kay Tyler really is. She runs the day-to-day operations at Sherwood Forest for her father-in-law Harrison Tyler, a grandson of President John Tyler, and his wife, Payne, who live here. Tylers have lived at Sherwood Forest since the president bought the place in 1842.
Once Kay was a skeptic. She was uneasy about passing along ghost stories to visiting tourists. No longer. She has, well, ``experienced'' the Gray Lady - it MUST have been the Gray Lady - and she was a little spooked by it.
No matter. With camera in hand and pen poised, I'm thinking Page A1 for this story of the centuries, maybe even ``Larry King Live'' . . . IF the lady shows.
If ever a ghost would want to make itself known, I figured it would be to Taylor. He knows OF more ghosts, knows more ghost stories, than probably anybody in Virginia. He's become Virginia's most prolific ``ghost writer.'' He's authored eight books on the subject of spirits and haunts throughout the state, and he has a ninth book due out in December.
His first book, ``The Ghosts of Williamsburg and Nearby Environs,'' first printed in 1983, contains the stories of some of the haunts at the James River Plantations along Virginia Route 5 that connects Williamsburg and Richmond.
Four of these historic plantations, along with three others that are now bed and breakfast establishments, and Westover Church will be offering progressive house and grounds tours Friday through Sunday, featuring the mysterious characters and legends that are unique to each site.
The thing is, though, Taylor has never personally experienced a ghost. At least not that he is aware of. Actually, he may have taken a photograph of one, although he wasn't aware of it at the time. More about that later.
That is why I asked Kay Tyler if we could meet in the Gray Room. Maybe, just maybe. . . .
No one knows precisely who the Gray Lady is. She's not a Tyler. More than likely she was a nurse or governess, which might account for her gray apparel. Servants wore gray at Sherwood Forest.
The presumption is the Gray Lady was taking care of a ill child. She would take the child from the first-floor bedroom, now the Gray Room, walk up the hidden back staircase to the second-floor nursery, where she would rock the child. Eventually the child died.
``This presents a speculative motive for the Gray Lady's ghost to remain in the house,'' Taylor writes. ``It could have been that the Gray Lady was not nearby when the child passed away, or she might have perceived that had she been more attentive the tragedy would not have occurred. No one knows for sure.
``What is known is that ever since, the sounds of the Gray Lady have been heard in the house - always in the same forms. Her footsteps are heard going up or down the hidden stairway, and the sound of her rocking is heard in the second floor nursery and in the Gray Room.''
We inspected the staircase and we sat listening in the Gray Room. We heard nothing. It could have been the Gray Lady's day off.
Kay Tyler's experiences vary a bit from the standard legend.
``My husband, William, and I were staying here, and we went out to visit our cousin Alice. We had been talking about the Gray Lady. I had expressed my doubts. Alice said, `Kay, trust me on this.'
``When we came back here, every light in the house was on. We had not left any on. And all the fireplace pokers had been knocked over. I'm sure no human being had been in here because all the dogs were in the house.''
And then there was the time. . . .
``We had gone to bed upstairs. It must have been 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, something like that, when I woke up and there was this feeling in the room and a sort of whiteness all around. And we both distinctly heard footsteps.''
And then there was the time. . .
``There was a woman here at Christmastime, helping to serve tea. When she got ready to leave late in the afternoon, she looked out the window and saw a woman at the edge of the woods dressed in the long garb of ages ago. She called me and said, `Kay, you're not going to believe this. . .' ''
But Kay does believe now.
Payne Tyler, Kay Tyler's mother-in-law, had more Gray Lady experiences than that. More than enough.
``I know this sounds ridiculous,'' she told L.B. Taylor, ``but I sat down and had a talk with her. I felt it was something I had to do.
``I said, `Maybe you feel I am an intruder and that this is your domain, but that's not the case and I'm not moving out. We're just going to have to learn to get along together.' ''
The Gray Lady hasn't gone away, but her appearances have been less frequent. The co-existence has been rather peaceful.
L.B. Taylor Jr., 60ish, is a native of Lynchburg. A journalism graduate of Florida State University, he wrote about America's space program for 16 years for NASA and aerospace contractors before moving to Williamsburg in 1974 to become public relations director for BASF Corp. He retired in 1993.
Taylor is the author or more than 300 national magazine articles and 30 non-fiction books. His research for the book, ``Haunted Houses,'' published by Simon and Schuster in 1983, stimulated his interest in area psychic phenomena.
``I saw there was so much material, just here in Virginia, that I became interested in doing some regional books,'' he says.
His New York publisher's response: ``Regional books don't sell.''
Taylor's response: ``I asked the people at Colonial Williamsburg if they would be interested in selling a book on Williamsburg ghosts in their bookshops.''
So how do regional books sell?
``The Williamsburg Ghosts book is now in its 15th printing,'' he says. ``It has sold 75,000 copies.''
He also has written ``The Ghosts of Virginia'' volumes I and II, with a third volume due out in December. His books also include ghost stories of the Civil War, Richmond, Tidewater, Fredericksburg and Charlottesville and Lynchburg.
``And I have material for about half of another book.''
Taylor is not the first to put together a collection of Virginia ghost stories. One of the best, in his opinion was a book called ``Virginia Ghosts,'' by Marguerite du Pont Lee, first published in 1930. In 1932 she wrote ``Virginia Ghosts and Others.'' The original book was reprinted in a revised edition in 1966, but has long been out of print.
``The original is a real collector's item,'' Taylor says. ``I don't understand why it hasn't been reprinted again.''
While Taylor has capitalized on the rather recent interest in ghosts, he has difficulty in explaining the interest with any certainty.
``It's just been in the last 15 years or so,'' he says, ``this interest in life after life.
``When I first started doing research, people were very reluctant to talk about ghosts. People would think they were crazy. Now it's become almost a fashionable thing.
``When I was doing research for the first book, at Berkeley Plantation they said, `We don't have any ghosts.' After the book came out I got a call. They wanted to know, `Why didn't you write about our ghosts?' ''
Taylor is also puzzled by the association of ghosts with Halloween.
``Ghosts are a year-round activity,'' he says. ``And they're really very benign things. Very rarely do you get any that are really harmful.''
Ghosts, to Taylor, seem to be some sort of manifestation of a person, or sometimes an animal, that has died a tragic death . . . something that remains to see that things are all right, or something that has been left behind to take care of something unfulfilled in life.
``The experts - and I'm not an expert - seem to think a ghost is a spirit that is trapped between here and where they are supposed to be going,'' he says.
``One professor called a ghost someone who has missed the bus.''
While Taylor readily admits that he has never experienced a ghostly phenomenon, he concedes that he may have photographed one without realizing it. He wasn't even aware of it until a reader of his ``Ghosts of Tidewater'' pointed it out.
The object in question appears in a photograph of Evelynton Plantation. The plantation, once part of the great Westover estate, was named for Evelyn Byrd, who allegedly died at the age of 29 of a broken heart in the 18th century because her father would not let her marry the man she loved.
``I had photographed the house in 1989,'' Taylor writes. ``I dug through dusty files of my storage room to find the original photograph, and sure enough, there was something on the porch of the house that I had not noticed before. I got a little excited.
``Under a large magnifying glass, it appeared that what is there may be a child or a young girl, with blonde hair, with her back to the camera, dressed all in white. I didn't recall seeing anyone on the porch the day I took the picture, but it is possible there was a tourist or someone seated on a bench there.
``But then again, if it isn't a person, who or what is it. Was Miss Evelyn Byrd playing tricks with me?''
Taylor's favorite ghost story? He likes the one about the Master's Hound of the Blue Ridge. This is a tale that has its roots in the 17th century and was first recorded in 1907.
This sighting took place somewhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains between Bedford and Botetourt counties, northeast of Roanoke and west of Lynchburg.
In the wildest part of the trail through the mountain gap, a great black dog would appear at sunset and disappear at sunrise.
``Normally,'' Taylor says, ``ghostly phenomenon are witnessed by only one person, but this was apparently witnessed by thousands.
``People tried to scare it away, but only their horses got scared off. Some people tried to shoot the dog, but apparently the bullets went right through it.''
Eventually a woman came over from England in search of her husband. She had traced him to Bedford County, where the trail went cold. She heard the story of the dog. Her husband had had a great black dog. She had the local people take her up the mountain to see the ghost.
At sunset, the dog appeared.
He walked straight to the lady and laid his head in her lap. Then he turned and walked a short way from the trail, looking back to see that she was following. Then he scratched the ground, gave a long wail and disappeared.
The people dug where the dog had scratched and found the skeleton of a man and the hair and bones of a great dog. On the man's remains were a signet ring and a heraldic embroidery in silk that the woman recognized.
It was her husband.
The great dog, his work done, never appeared again.
MEMO: If you have a ghost story to share with L.B. Taylor Jr., write to
him at 248 Archer's Mead, Williamsburg, Va. 23185, or call (804)
253-2636. ILLUSTRATION: Photo illustration by STEPHEN HARRIMAN & BOB VOROS
The Virginian-Pilot
[L.B. Taylor Jr.]
HUNTING FOR HAUNTS?
Each of the Charles City County progressive spirits and haunts
tours begins at 5 p.m. and lasts until about 8 p.m. Tickets may be
purchased at the first scheduled tour site for each evening for
$23.50 per person. Space is limited and reservations are
recommended.
Friday: Begins at Evelynton Plantation - where a lady in white,
perhaps Evelyn Byrd, frequently returns - with a guided house tour,
then continues with guided lantern tours of the grounds at Berkeley
Plantation and Westover Church. A full assortment of refreshments
will be served at Evelynton, and Taylor will autograph his books
there. Reservations: (804) 829-5075.
Saturday (night of the full moon): Begins at Sherwood Forest
Plantation - home of the ``Gray Lady'' as well as President John
Tyler's descendents - and continues at North Bend Plantation B&B and
Piney Grove Plantation B&B with a sampling of spirited treats at
each site. Taylor will NOT be available, but his autographed books
are at Sherwood Forest. Reservations: (804) 829-5377.
Sunday: Begins at Shirley Plantation - home of the ``Aunt Pratt''
legend - with refreshments and continues at Edgewood Plantation B&B,
where Lizzie Rowland's spirit resides, and Westover Church's
graveyard, where Lizzie's body was laid to rest. Taylor will
autograph books at Shirley. Reservations (804) 829-5121. A witch's
brew luncheon will be served at Edgewood from noon until 5 p.m. for
an additional $10. Luncheon reservations: (804) 829-6908.
Getting there: From South Hampton Roads, take I-64 west to exit
242 near Williamsburg, then Virginia Route 199 west to Virginia
Route 5 west. Follow Route 5 to Evelynton, Sherwood Forest or
Shirley, depending on which day you choose.
JAMES RIVER PLANTATIONS
Map
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