This portrait of "The Brown Lady" ghost is arguably the most famous and
well-regarded ghost photograph ever taken. The ghost is thought to be that
of Lady Dorothy Townshend, wife of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount of
Raynham, residents of Raynham Hall in Norfolk, England in the early 1700s.
It was rumored that Dorothy, before her marriage to Charles, had been the
mistress of Lord Wharton. Charles suspected Dorothy of infidelity. Although
according to legal records she died and was buried in 1726, it was suspected
that the funeral was a sham and that Charles had locked his wife away in a
remote corner of the house until her death many years later.
Dorothy's ghost is said to haunt the oak staircase and other areas of
Raynham Hall. In the early 1800s, King George IV, while staying at Raynham,
saw the figure of a woman in a brown dress standing beside his bed. She was
seen again standing in the hall in 1835 by Colonel Loftus, who was visiting
for the Christmas holidays. He saw her again a week later and described her
as wearing a brown satin dress, her skin glowing with a pale luminescence.
It also seemed to him that her eyes had been gouged out. A few years later,
Captain Frederick Marryat and two friends saw "the Brown Lady" gliding along
an upstairs hallway, carrying a lantern. As she passed, Marryat said, she
grinned at the men in a "diabolical manner." Marryat fired a pistol at the
apparition, but the bullet simply passed through.
This famous photo was taken in September, 1936 by Captain Provand and
Indre Shira, two photographers who were assigned to photograph Raynham Hall
for Country Life magazine. This is what happened, according to Shira:
"Captain Provand took one photograph while I flashed the light. He
was focusing for another exposure; I was standing by his side just behind
the camera with the flashlight pistol in my hand, looking directly up the
staircase. All at once I detected an ethereal veiled form coming slowly down
the stairs. Rather excitedly, I called out sharply: 'Quick, quick, there's
something.' I pressed the trigger of the flashlight pistol. After the flash
and on closing the shutter, Captain Provand removed the focusing cloth from
his head and turning to me said: 'What's all the excitement about?'"
Upon developing the film, the image of The Brown Lady ghost was seen
for the first time. It was published in the December 16, 1936 issue of
Country Life. The ghost has been seen occasionally since.