"
Finding that we listened to her with great attention, Nanny Smith went
on with her gossiping. "One time," said she, "Lord Byron took a notion
that there was a deal of money buried about the Abbey by the monks in
old times, and nothing would serve him but he must have the flagging
taken up in the cloisters; and they digged and digged, but found
nothing but stone coffins full of bones. Then he must needs have one of
the coffins put in one end of the great hall, so that the servants were
afraid to go there of nights. Several of the skulls were cleaned and
put in frames in his room. I used to have to go into the room at night
to shut the windows, and if I glanced an eye at them, they all seemed
to grin; which I believe skulls always do. I can't say but I was glad
to get out of the room.
"There was at one time (and for that matter there is still) a good deal
said about ghosts haunting about the Abbey. The keeper's wife said she
saw two standing in a dark part of the cloisters just opposite the
chapel, and one in the garden by the lord's well. Then there was a
young lady, a cousin of Lord Byron, who was staying in the Abbey and
slept in the room next the clock; and she told me that one night when
she was lying in bed, she saw a lady in white come out of the wall on
one side of the room, and go into the wall on the opposite side.
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