The Perfect Hiding Place

         Several English houses were haunted by spectral brides, but none more poignantly than Marwell Hall, near Owslebury in Hampshire. In this case, the bride suffered an appalling fate on her wedding day. Full of high spirits and still in her wedding finery, she insisted on a game of hide-and-seek with the guests. She was not found that day ot the next or the next, although the whole countryside was searched. Finally, it became clear that she had died. Her ghost began to flit along the corridors and fumble at the locks.

          Years later, the mystery was solved. A servant, exploring one of the many attics of the house, prized open an oak chest and found within a skeleton in bridal array. The bride had been too clever in her hiding place. Apparently the lid of the chest had fallen and locked. Now that it had at last been opened again, the hapless ghost was released from its torment and haunted Marwell Hall no more.

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