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Sunday Times (Sydney, NSW : 1895 - 1930), Sunday 18 March 1928, page 12

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122801646

SEEING SNAKES'

Old Italian Bed Haunted By Serpents

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.......

REMARKABLE GHOST STORY

Rivalling any Grand Guignol drama ever written,

or any story from the amaginative pen of Edgar Wallace

is the true Ghost story that comes from a country town

inN.S.W. .

, ,.-..?.?;?-='It is quite frequently that we hear of o#e or more

mysterious happenings in connection with a ghostly

visitor, but in this case the manifestations were numerous

and of a most character.

JOHNSOMMERLAD was a wealthy

pastoralist, but distinctly not of

the pioneer variety.

Ht had arrived in N.S.W. about 50

years ago, and after making a fortune

in the agency business in Sydney re

tired to the splendid Riverina property

of Longlands, which he had purchased

from an impecunious squatter.

Longlands was a fine old pro

perty, and the homestead- was one

of the most up-to-date in the State.

It had all the conveniences of a

city establishment, and was built

amongst beautiful surroundings.

Tiring of country life after a little

time John Sommerlad went on a tour

of the world.

The collector's instinct which had

made a fortune for him when he was

in the agency business was still with

v him.

During his tour abroad he developed

this flair for collection.. Amongst

other things he brought back with him

on his return to his station homo was

an old fashioned bedstead of genuine

antique which he had paid a big price

for! in Christie's, London.

A tall old four poster, which dealers

had placed as belonging to the

Eighteenth century and of a rare va

riety, probably old Italian.

The top of the bed was intricately

lizards, and Gargoyles, intertwined

with each other in a marvellous way.

These figures stood out with life

? like reality.

? like reality.

SPECIAL, GUEST ROOM.

John had this bed put in a special

guest roonv together with other period

furniture to match, which he had

picked up whilst abroad.

To add to the old world touch he

had a suit of armour placed in thu

room also.

- ? About this time a business friend of

Somrnerlad's came up with his family

from Sydney to spent a few days at

Longlands.

And then commenced the most re

?

markable happenings which are still the

talk of the district.

The visitor, C.irl Blenheim, was not

an imaginative man by any means.

A German wool buyer, he was noted

for his business astuteness and his

friends would have laughed had it been

suggested that he was a person likely

to be addicted to over imagination.

HOST AND GHOST.

One beautiful Summer night he stayed

up on the verandah with his host until

close on midnight.

Then he retired to bed.

Just as he was dozing off to sleep he

heard a queer sound in the room like

a woman's sob.

It was pitched in a low key, but

seemed to be a very penetrating sound;

He rested on his elbow in the big

Italian bed, thinking it was some out

side noise which he had hoard'.

The sound was repeated exactly as he

had heard it before, only this time he

sure had come from the

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was quite sure it had come from the

painting on the wall.

It was another of John's Art treasures

and depicted a heautiful woman of the

Medici period.

Springing out of bed, Carl

lighted the candle and looked in?

tentlyat the picture.

Ho ran his finger over the sur

face, but the cold canvas laughedat his suspicions.

It was a picture, and nothing else.

j-xc nua uuyuL tu uiuw out me canine

and get back into bed when a puff of

wind from the open window extinguishedthe candle.

Not bothering, to light it again, heturned once more to his bed and steppedback in amazement.

In a sort of luminous light of un

earthly brilliance, his bed stood out from

the darkness.

The elaborately carved headpiece was

alive.

The snakes, gargoyles, and lizards

were winding and twining themselvesinto all sorts of intricate patterns.

The glittering eyes of the lizards

seemed like tiny pin points of light, and

the gargoyles' mouths worked in fantastic fashion.

OPTICAL DELUSION.

Remembering the dTeams of an ab

sinthe-drinking friend, Blenheim was

prone to put. this sight down to some

trick of the eyesight.

Some queer hallucination. He thought

of his host's excellent port, but 'remem-

bered that he had drunk only two

glasses.

He approached the bed and touched

the moving mass.

tie drew back terrified.

The thing was alive.

His hand had come in contact

with the cold, scaly body of a ser

pent moving in the general design.

There was no mistake of that.

As hurriedly as he could, Jic found the

switch and flooded- the room with light.

In the brilliance of; the electricity,

ho went carefully over theroom and

especially the bedtop, but in the light

itwas just an elaborately carved piece

of woodwork, and nothing inore.

He was intensely surprised and non

plussed, but slept no more that night.

He was about to tell his host of the

strange happenings of the night when

his attention was attracted by another

matter. His. host's face was drawn and

hagjrard, as if he, too, hnd spent a rest

less night. So he said nothing, and

waited.

Later in the day Sommerlad, in a

Later in the day Sommerlad, in a

casual way, broached the subject.

And then it all came out.

Blenheim was not the only one who

had been disturbed by a ghostly vistor.

BEAUTIFUL VISION.

Sommerlad had been roused by

strange noises during the night, and

woke up with a start, to find a beauti

ful woman bending over him and wringing her hands.

She was dressed in old-time costume,

the replica of the girl in the picture in

Blenheim's room. 'When he called out

she disappeared.

They decided to keep matters to

themselves in case the news alarmed

the womenfolk.

But that afternoon the housekeeper

came in to see Sommerlad.

She was in a pitiful state of dis

tress.

She said the kitchen was haunted.

Strange noises were heard during the

day.

The pots .and pans would start

jigging on the stove, doors would

open and close, and heavy foot

steps sound on the floor for no ex

plained reason.,

The kitchen man had been pelted

with coal, and articles had disappeared

from the kitchen, to re-appear in some

Other part of the house.?'.

This sort of thing went on for

several days. The woman in the

house had also been visited by strange

apparitions.

Almost every one had seen the weep

ing Medici girl, and had their repose

spoilt in other ways.

Blenheim and Sommerlad decided to

wait up one night and see if anything

happened.

They waited in the period. room, from

whence seemed to emanate all the

manifestations.

Turningoff the light, they waited in

the semi-darkness.

WHAT BOTH SAW.

A guttering candle burned near the

open window. How long they waited

before they fell into a doze they can

not say. But they both were awakened

by a strange noise in the room.

By the dim candle light they saw a

strange sight.

The bed-top was literally writhing

with life; the strange bed designs

had come alive again, and the

[

strange light burned around it.

By the sided of the bed stood thegirl of the picture.

She was wringing her hands and sob

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She was wringing her hands and sobbing.

They stood terrified at the sight.

The appeal in her eyes was not to

be misunderstood.

Apparently she was in great distress.

She pointed dramatically to the bed,and then to the candle, and made othermotions which they understood her to

mean that the bedshould be burnt.

Then she disappeared.

The next morning the two men took

the bed' out into the paddock, and,

covering it over with petrol, set a light

to it.

SEEING SNAKES.

It burned and crackled fiercely, and,as the flames- leapt over the ornamented

bed-top, the watchers fancied they

could see strange lizards 'and serpents'interlacing through the design as the

flames reduced them to ashes.

There were no more strange happenings at Longlands.

The repose of the visitors was no

longer disturbed by ghostly visitors.

Looking back over the incidents, the

party mostly concerned, John Sommerlad, often wondered what strange course

he brought back with him in the old

Italian bedstead, and what connection

the girl of the Medici picture had withits strange history.

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