The ghosts of Fort Monroe

Ghost-hunters might have an interesting time at Fort Monroe, with a few celebrity ghosts for good measure!

Fort Monroe is a six-sided enclosure, within a moat, on a peninsula overlooking Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, USA. It covers a huge area (more than 500 acres) and contains more than 150 buildings, many of them of historical interest. It has been associated with several ghostly sightings, some of them being of well-known people who have been incarcerated there.

One of these was Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States who was taken to Fort Monroe in shackles in 1865 after he had led the losing side in the American Civil War. His wife Varina later joined him and pleaded that, because his health was failing fast, he be allowed to die in peace in a private apartment rather than a prison cell. However, Davis survived the experience and lived for another 24 years. Despite not dying anywhere near Fort Monroe, the ghosts of both Jefferson Davis and his wife are said to haunt the fort, with Davis being seen in his former cell and Varina in the bedroom of a house that had a view of the prison block.

Another famous name associated with Fort Monroe is Edgar Allan Poe, who was there for four months in 1829 as part of his short military career before he became a full-time writer. Poe’s ghost is said to have been seen in the building that was his former barracks. Perhaps it is not coincidental that, during his time at Fort Monroe, Poe wrote “The Cask of Amontillado”, which is a story about a military man who is walled up in an empty stone building.

Another ghost is that of the “Light Lady”. This is Camille Kirtz. Her husband found her with her French lover on a lane within the fort. He shot at both of them, but although the lover escaped Camille was not so lucky and was killed. Her ghost wanders forever in a grove of oak trees as she searches for her lover.

Two ghost children have also been spotted, and it is believed by some people that they seek out real children to play with. The story goes that they died, either of disease or hunger, within the walls of Fort Monroe. One is seen in an upstairs room of a house next to the moat of the fort, while the other is in the basement of a house that belonged to a former soldier.

Whatever the truth of these stories, Fort Monroe is very much on the American ghost-hunter’s trail as a place of interest.

© John Welford

The Dunmow flitch trials

Great Dunmow is a village is Essex (half way between Bishop’s Stortford and Braintree) that owes its fame to a custom that has been running unbroken since the 12^th century and which is mentioned in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Married couples are put on trial to prove the strength of their marriage and, should they convince a judge and jury, win the prize of a side (or “flitch”) of bacon.

Dunmow and its flitch

The custom is supposed to have started when the lord of the manor and his wife went in disguise to the prior of the local monastery and asked him to bless their marriage, which had lasted for a year and a day. The prior rewarded their selfless devotion to each other with a prize of a flitch of bacon, and, ever since that time, that has been the prize on offer to married couples who, during their marriage of at least a year and a day, have never “wished themselves unmarried again”.

Of course, just saying that you are an utterly devoted couple proves nothing. You have to show the proof by “standing trial”, producing the evidence, and being willing to be cross-examined by barristers in front of a judge and jury, and that is what the Dunmow Flitch Trials are all about.

How the trials are held

The trials only take place in the July of a leap year, hence only during a single month once every four years. Five couples are selected in advance from all those who apply and each couple is tried separately.

These days, the proceedings are conducted in a light-hearted manner, but the trials are real enough in that the judge and barristers are often genuine legal personnel who conduct the trials in full regalia. A jury is sworn in, but these are 18-year-olds from local schools who represent pre-marital purity (one hopes!), with the maidens in white dresses and the bachelors wearing dark suits and ties.

The trials are held in a marquee and there is much processing about and speechifying by officials dressed in medieval costume and wearing hats adorned with flowers. Pride of place in the “courtroom” goes to the flitch, which hangs on a frame surrounded by greenery.

The flitches are donated by local butchers, who, naturally enough, would prefer not to have to give away valuable produce and so instruct their legal counsel to find chinks in the armour of the couples who claim never to have regretted their decision to marry. Lots of references are doubtless made to appreciative glances at pretty neighbours, burnt dinners and toilet seats being left up!

When a couple win their trial (which is the usual jury verdict), they are carried aloft in the “Flitch chair” by eight “humble folk” to Great Dunmow’s main square where they repeat the “Flitch oath” to the effect that they have never “offended each other in deed or in word”, “in bed or at board”.

A couple that is unsuccessful has to walk behind the empty Flitch chair and endure the mockery of the villagers. However, they do get a joint of gammon as a runners-up prize!

As for the flitch itself? These days the butchers generously cut it up for the winners to make it easier to carry home.

As mentioned above, this event is conducted with a friendly and humorous attitude and it is all regarded as a bit of fun, although it does require the couples involved to be somewhat broad-minded in publicly revealing aspects of their private lives. However, it has been known for couples, presumably with an addiction to bacon, to take things too seriously. On one occasion in times past a couple, having been awarded the flitch, was overheard arguing about what to do with it. The flitch was promptly confiscated and distributed among the other claimants!

© John Welford

Crystal meth versus spaghetti sauce

Can you tell the difference between crystal meth and spaghetti sauce?

Apparently this was beyond the wits of certain members of the police force in Gainesville, Florida, in October 2014. As reported in the Gainesville Times, a woman driver was pulled over by a traffic cop who noticed a spoon on the shelf of the car. He immediately suspected that this had been used for the ingesting of crystal meth and promptly arrested the driver for a drugs violation.

The lady in question protested that she had never used drugs in her life and that the residue on the spoon was not methamphetamine but something far less harmful, namely a tomato-based spaghetti sauce from the takeaway meal she been eating shortly before she was pulled over.

One might assume that such a simple mistake could have been sorted out in double-quick time, but that is apparently not the way things are done in Gainesville. Instead, the driver was locked up in the county jail for six weeks while the crime lab performed its analysis and reported back.

When the report was made she was released without charge with her account of events being fully confirmed. However, that was six weeks of her life taken away that she would never get back – let’s hope that the Gainesville Police Department ended up paying her a substantial sum in compensation!

© John Welford

Some superstitions regarding clothes

In times gone by, getting brand new clothes was a special event. It is therefore no surprise that several superstitions have grown up around clothing, particularly where new clothes are concerned.

Money in pockets

Good luck could be added to clothes by placing money in pockets. In 19^th century Britain a tailor would put a halfpenny (old money!) in each pocket of a man’s new suit. Some tailors went further and added another halfpenny to the second pocket, yet another to the third, and so on. Presumably this was done by tailors who limited the number of pockets they put in their suits!

Another tradition was that a boy who was given a new suit would, when wearing it for the first time, visit all his neighbours, each of whom would give him money for his pockets. The neighbours had to be careful which pocket they put the money in, though, because if someone put the money in the left pocket they would always be short of money themselves. It was just as well that getting new suits was not something that happened very often, otherwise the whole neighbourhood would soon have been short of cash!

How to avoid bad luck

Bad luck would follow you if you treated your clothes the wrong way, whether new or old. In the days when shirts had tails, it was important not to iron the tail. This was not just to save time, given that the tail was always tucked away out of sight anyway, but ironing the tail meant that you were ironing money away.

It was also important not to try mending your clothes while you were wearing them. This had nothing to with the probability of sticking yourself with a needle but it was back to money again. You would never grow rich if you did so, apparently!

If the hem of a jacket or a lady’s dress was accidentally turned up, that meant that a letter was on its way. However, it was important to let the hem sort itself out – it you tidied it yourself the letter would not arrive after all!

It was good luck to accidentally put an item of clothing on inside-out, but you had to leave it as it was for the whole day, otherwise your good luck would disappear.

However, it was bad luck to catch a skirt in a doorway, and not only because you might tear it. Letting your clothes get gnawed by rats was the worst luck of all, because that indicated that somebody close to you would soon die.

Should that event come to pass, you would of course need to wear mourning clothes, but it was important to get rid them as soon as the mourning period was over. It was also vital not to wear mourning clothes unless you were actually in mourning.

There was so much to remember if you wanted to stay rich, lucky and alive!

© John Welford

The ghosts of the Myrtles Plantation

The Myrtles Plantation, some 70 miles north of New Orleans, was built in 1794 by David Bradford. It is reputed to be one of the most haunted places in North America, and it attracts a constant stream of people who hope to see a ghost or two!

The most famous ghost on offer is that of Chloe, a governess who was hanged in 1820 for the murder of the wife and children of her employer and lover. It is said that she roams the mansion at night and will lift the mosquito net off the bed of anyone who is sleeping there.

You might also come across the ghost of William Winter, who was the Plantation’s owner in the 1860s. He was shot one night while on the porch of the mansion and tried to stagger upstairs to reach his wife. There were 20 stairs but he only reached the 17^th before collapsing and dying. His ghost can apparently be heard climbing the stairs, but never further than the 17^th!

Then there are the two girls who peer through a window, a Voodoo princess, and a Confederate soldier …

There are stories of at least ten murders having taken place at the Myrtles Plantation, although only one can be reliably attested to. That does not matter, as long as the tourists keep turning up!

© John Welford

Superstitions concerning salt

Salt has been an important element in people’s lives for many centuries. It has the important function of being able to preserve food, and was therefore vital in the days before refrigeration. Having access to salt could make the difference between eating and starving, especially during the winter when fresh food was hard to come by.

Salt acquired a value of its own and was even used in place of currency in some parts of the world. We get our word “salary” from the Latin for salt, not because Roman soldiers were paid in salt, as is sometimes thought, but because they used most of their income to buy salt in order to keep their food fresh. They were therefore paid their “salt money”.

It is not surprising that many superstitions have arisen that concern salt, given its importance in the lives of people from ancient times. These superstitions are mostly to do with salt bringing good luck and averting evil.

Spilling salt was often regarded as an unlucky thing to do, because it was such a precious thing. In North America the custom was to sweep up any spillage and throw it on the fire, which had the added bonus of drying up any tears that might be shed. Throwing salt on the fire, whether spilled or not, was also supposed to undo the bad effects of some previous unwise action.

However, throwing salt over the left shoulder is supposed to avert bad luck, and sprinkling it on the doorstep ensures that the unwelcome visitor who has just left – the rent man for example – will not come back. That sounds like wishful thinking in more ways than one!

Salt has long had an association with keeping witches and evil spirits at bay, and this was probably behind the custom, when moving into a new house, of getting a child to sprinkle salt on the hearth and in every corner of every room. Another version of this custom was to take a bar of salt into the house before any furniture was allowed to be moved in.

It is unlucky to borrow salt and then return any that has not been used – so the lender must be sure not to let the salt-less person have too much!

Most people who use salt these days do so to flavour their food. However, it is very unlucky – so it is said – to add salt to someone else’s food at the table. This has led to the saying: “Help me to salt, help me to sorrow”.

It is also, of course, extremely unlucky to confuse your salt and sugar dispensers. The number of people who have had a nasty experience after enthusiastically salting their coffee is too many to count!

© John Welford