GhostLegendary
The Bursar's Return
Cambridge's oldest college, and a ghost even the accountant saw.
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- What's there
- Medieval college courts; haunted room itself closed
- Legend from
- 1997, ghost of 1789
- Tone
- Eerie
Peterhouse, Cambridge's oldest college: in 1997 its sober bursar admitted he had met a ghost in a wide collar by the fire.
In 1997 two butlers at Peterhouse, Cambridge's oldest college, saw a person-sized shape drift slowly across the panelled Combination Room, a foot above the floor, and vanish near a bay window. Months later the senior bursar, a self-declared sceptic, met a small balding figure in a wide collar holding a large hat, in a room suddenly cold despite the fire. The favourite suspect was Francis Dawes, a bursar who hanged himself from a bell-rope in 1789 after a bitterly disputed election of a master. The dean considered a requiem mass to settle the spirit, and some staff refused to enter the room.
One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.