The Legend of the Mistletoe Bough or the Mistletoe Bride is a ghost tale that many big houses claim as their own. Bramshill House is one of them, and the story of the dead bride trapped in the chest haunts the already haunted place.
Buried Alive: On Christmas Day the tale of the Mistletoe Bride that gets trapped in a chest and dies is told and retold throughout England.
A girl will always remember her wedding day, and making the wedding be held on Christmas day will surely make it easier to remember the wedding anniversary. But more people will remember it, if the bride turns into a ghost.
This is the case of the bride of Bramshill House in Hampshire, one of Britain’s most crowded paranormal places. And although many big houses tries to claim the ghost of the bride in the oak chest as their own, Bramshill could be one of the choices with no less than 14 ghosts they claim wander there.
Deadly Hide and Seek
In the early 17th century a girl named Anne Cope was to be married in this house. Anne is the name in some accounts, Genevre Orsini in others. English in some accounts while she was believed to be Italian in others. What remains the same is that it was Christmas Day and everyone was in a festive mood. She and her husband, Sir Hugh Bethell celebrated after having taken their vows, and as the old custom went, she was to be escorted to the marital bed.
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But before the party was over, the bride wanted to play a round of hide and seek, where the target to be found was her. And after a five minute start the search began, but to no avail.
Searching the whole house, the guest came back empty with no sign of the bride. Perhaps it was a trick from the bride? Could she just be exceptionally good at this game? But as time went on, the innocent prank she could have played on the guest turned into a dangerous one.
Many believed the bride had fled from her marriage. Her husband Hugh on the other side, spent decades searching for his bride that was lost. It was only after fifty years the mystery surrounding her disappearance came into light, and then her haunting had already began.
It is not the only ghost story from England that starts at a wedding during Christmas.
Hugh, now an old man, was in the attic, still searching. Having been through the mansion so many times, one should have thought there could be no more things to be found. But then, when knocking on some oak panelling, a secret door he didn’t know about suddenly opened. Inside the door was a room with a wooden chest. It was locked. Inside the chest when he finally got it open, the remains of the bride he had hoped to spend his life with, still in her wedding dress, holding her bouquet of wilted flowers, she had been by his side all this time.
In the lid of the chest the bride had been trapped in, there were signs of nails scraping in her dying efforts to escape, to get out, but she never would.
The Bride in the Oak Chest
The Chest: Although the original chest was removed in 1812, there is always a chest in the houses claiming the ghost. Photo: Country Life page 435 by Edward Hudson (1854–1936
So many accounts of the white lady has been reported at Bramshill House. Even Michael the first of Romania asked to move room after the white lady kept passing his room during his stay there. And you can sense her arrival by scent, lily of the valley, which was Anne’s favorite.
Not so many remember her wedding, her death, all in one. She is remembered as much, although her real name is disputable, the name Mistletoe Bride remains. Poems, movies, books and folklore retells about the young bride in the oak chest.
The same story was retold by Susan E Wallace in 1887 as ‘The Old Oak Chest’ and by Henry James as ‘The Romance of Certain old Clothes’ in 1868. The old tale also made it onto the silver screen in 1904 when Percy Stow made the short film ‘The Mistletoe Bough.’
And every Christmas, her death is retold again and again, without her ever being found alive. “Oh sad was her fate! In sportive jest, She hid from her Lord, in an old oak chest. It closed with a spring and her Bridal bloom, Lay withering there in that living tomb.”
Chute de la Dame Blanche or the White Lady Waterfall is a legend of a grieving bride to be in the midst of the battle of Canada. She now haunts the waterfall still wearing her wedding dress were she ended her life, still grieving the loss of her lover.
Taller than the Niagara Falls, the Montmorency falls towers 83 m over the city of Québec. It flows downstream from the city and into St. Lawrence. It is a majestic sight, the veil gushing and all sound but the masses of water is heard when standing close to it. But next to it, another lesser known waterfall falls. From ground water it connects with the Montmorency River along the way as water does. When the waterfall hits the river below the water spreads out, like a wedding veil. This particular waterfall is called Chute de la Dame Blanche or the White Lady Waterfall.
Stories from waterfalls have always been connected with grief, love and death. At least in European folklore. Tales like the Banshee is steeped in water imagery and female ghost stories, and many waterfalls tells a sad tale of a bride to be that died too soon. And this one about the Chute de la Dame Blanche, is just that.
The Bride to Be of the Chute de la Dame Blanche Legend
But who is this woman in the waterfall that came to be known as The White Lady Waterfall more than her original name? A banshee? According to legend, it is the spirit of a young Canadienne woman. An ethnic group of French colonists who settled in Canada from the 17th century. Or as they were known back then, French.
The veil: The waterfall of Montmorency, 1900, just next to Chute de la Dame Blanche.
In a time when Québec was called Nouvelle-France, or, New-France, the state was in an unrest and in the middle of a war that was going to last for seven years against the British empire.
The story tells about Matilde Robin, living near either Côte-de-Beaupré or Île d’Orléans, close to Québec. At the end of the summer in 1759, she was meant to marry her beloved Louis Tessier. Through the summer, she tailored her own white wedding gown, in anticipation of her wedding.
But the unrest in the country was creeping in and about to disrupt the romantic notion of a happily forever after. Canada, being under French government was in a state of unrest as the British wanted a piece of the land and there were whispers about them going to attack soon.
On the night of 8th or 9 July, British forces landed on the north shore, some 1.2 km (1 mi) east of the Montmorency Falls, east of where the French west-east defense line ended, at the mouth of the Montmorency River. They met no opposition from the French for the landing, but the armed forces prepared for battle.
The Bloody Battle of Beauport
The 31th of July, at the cusp of fall, the British attacked. In what was going to be known as the Battle of Beauport or the Battle of Montmorency. The British had been mostly successful in their attacks with their aggressive battle strategy, sending 40,000 soldiers to New-France. For the campaign against Québec, General James Wolfe was given command of an army of about 7,000 men.
At war over Canada: This is a map depicting the troop arrangements at the 1759 Siege of Quebec. It was after this battle that the ghost legend of the Chute de la Dame Blanche is said to have started.
The women and children took cover from the battle in the forest to hide from the bloody battle that raged on. And according to legend, so did Mathilde. The French army, as well as soldiers was volunteers in a militia as well as around 500 natives. Louis was one of the militia men and assisted the French in the following days the battle raged on.
The attack was a fail for the British. Wet air from the falls nearby and a sudden storm ruined the English gun power. The British troops were forced to retreat and admit defeat for the time being. Wolfe recorded 210-deaths in this journal. The French leader, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, recorded 60.
The White Lady Waterfall
It was a French victory though, and they returned to their loved ones in the forest. Mathilde also waited for her Louis in anticipation. But he was one of those that were never going to return from the battlefield. He died in the battles according to the legend. The deaths of the soldiers during this battle were mostly attributed to the fire coming from the great battery of the Montmorency camp of the British. Perhaps that’s how it also happened for Louis.
In some version of the story of the Chute de la Dame Blanche, it is Mathilde that finds his dead body, floating on the shores of the river banks after the battle. Perhaps she did, perhaps it just makes a better story.
Chute de la Dame Blanche: The White Lady Waterfall has been pictured many times in both books, stamps and postcards. This shows just how much a part of the culture and history this ghost story has become.
No matter of the manner she learned about the death of Louis, it was more than Mathilde could live with, and she ran home, grieving while the rest was celebrating French victory. In some version the houses was on fire after the battles, although it seems unlikely, given of the summer rain storm that ended the attacks.
In either case, she ran to save her one beloved item, the wedding dress. She put on her gown as well as the veil even though she knew there would be no wedding. She went to the Montmorency Falls were she and Louis used to go to be alone before the war. She threw herself from the cliff into the water, her white bridal veil becoming one with the gushing waterfall, becoming Chute de la Dame Blanche or the White Lady Waterfall.
Only a couple of months later, the French were defeated on the Plains of Abraham, and the dream of a New France died as it ended under the British crown.
Today, especially during the summer and early fall, reports of seeing the young girl in her wedding dress lives on around the Montmorency Falls. And the small sister waterfall, Chute de la Dame Blanche, is all hers.
The Truth of the Legend of the Chute de la Dame Blanche
The legend of the Chute de la Dame Blanche has definitely gone through some changes over the years. It is nevertheless a persistent one, and it even made the cut to be put on Canadian post stamps, making Chute de la Dame Blanche or the White Lady Waterfall somewhat of a national treasure.
The Bride in the Waterfall: Many waterfalls like Chute de la Dame Blanche tells a sad story about a bride dying to soon.
A female ghost in the waterfalls is a common enough myth, especially with the dramatic flare of a wedding veil, fitting the aesthetic of a waterfall and across the world there are countless of brides to be’s that are supposedly haunting the waterfalls.
But looking at the timestamp of the legend, such a white veil as the foaming waterfall is unlikely as brides didn’t wear white until after Queen Victoria’s wedding in 1840. Could it just be the details of the wedding dress that were embellished over the years, or is the whole legend just that, a classic ghost story?
One thing that actually is true, is the battles, and it is definitely true that the Battle over Beauport happened, and that young men died and that women were left, longing after their lost ones. But was a man named Louis Tessier one of them?
According to a database of the French and British army soldiers in Québec in 1759 and 1760, there were no French volunteered named Lois. According to them there are no official military documents clearly identifying Canadian Militia members. And if our Louis did exist, he probably would have been one of them. However, some combat participants have been identified using historical and genealogical research. Biographical information will be posted as it becomes available.
From the French army, on the possibility he could have been one of those, there were not many Tessier. We found a Jean Tessier, born in France and part of the French army. Only 26 years old, he was Mortally wounded in the battle of the Plains of Abraham 13 September 1759, not in the Battle of Beauport.
On the account of Louis, there were a lot of them. Most of the Louis that showed on record they died in 1759, died in the battle of Plains of Abraham or the days leading up to it. The only ones dying up to French victory of Beauport were:
Both of these particular people were French born and in the French army, not in the militia. And therefore unlikely of being the Louis marked up in the legend of the Chute de la Dame Blanche.
As for Mathilde Robin, no such name has come up in the research in and around the time of the battle. Considering there is no certain sources as to their names, we have to consider the research and their story, inconclusive.
Chute de la Dame Blanche Illuminating the Country
However the legend of the Chute de la Dame Blanche, be it true or not, the waterfall runs as it has always done. The water keeps flowing, the veil creates the mist everything can hide in, perhaps even ghosts. But it isn’t all doom and gloom around the waterfall of the Chute de la Dame Blanche, but rather, the first source of light.
In 1885 on the 29th of September at eight o’clock, a crowd is gathered on the Dufferin terrace in the city, 12 km away from the gushing waterfall. For the first time in Canada at that distance, electrical light is powered from the power of the waterfall, bringing light again to the country and bringing Canada into the modern world.
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