Over the last few columns, we have looked at a most entertaining article about ghosts in the Capitol, published February 5, 1899 in the Washington Times. While most of the stories refer to famous statesmen who continue to haunt the Capitol even long after their death, one story stands out as featuring not a politician, but a young bride:
It is said that the wraiths of many women may be seen parading the musty dark corridors, wringing their hands and wailing. Legend has it that once upon a time a fair young bride who was visiting the Capitol with her happy young husband accepted a dare to explore the crypts alone. The challenge was intended as a joke, but the young bride determined that she should not be held up to ridicule, and, taking a lighted candle, she started off into the mysterious space of black. Her footsteps echoed along the hollow arches and she fearingly ran on until she became bewildered in the turns and twists. A sudden draught of air extinguished the candle, and she was left in the blackness of the crypts. She was several hundred yards from the starting place, and when the horror of her situation dawned upon her she was frantic. How long she wandered around in the darkness is not told, but it is related that she was found by a party of guides who were hunting for her several days later. She was dying and was a raving maniac.
It’s a horrifying story, no doubt. And it has some aspects to a famous ghost story known as the “Legend of Mistletoe Bough.” It was first published 1822 as a poem by Samuel Rogers entitled “Ginevra,” but its most famous version was as a song by Thomas Haynes Bayly and Sir Henry Bishop about 10 years later. The story in both is the same: A young bride decides to play hide and seek with her wedding party, and hides somewhere in the attic of the country mansion in which the wedding took place. Her friends and family are unable to find her. Many years later during a further event at the house, her body is found in a locked chest. She had hidden inside and then been unable to get back out.
It’s a pretty gruesome story, and so, of course, the song became a favorite for British people to sing at Christmas.
The story is told in multiple variations, generally being set in a British country home, and sometimes her disappearance is not due to a game of Hide and Seek, but simply because she wants some time alone on what must have been a stressful day. In a version published in 1845 as a two-act play, her ghost appears sporadically between the bride’s death and her rediscovery.
The story was updated for this publication, moving the settings to modern times, but elements remain intact. I guess the moral is that a bride should never wander off alone?
While there most certainly were many brides who came to the Capitol and the story of bride lost on her wedding day, usually entitled Bride and Go Seek continues to circulate, this appears to be the only time that they were brought together.