This mysterious tale takes place in the area which in
just a few years would become known as Dracula's homeland.
Jules Verne has the knack of it. He knows how to make the
scientifically romantic story. You might not know what a
"nyctalop" was, but if you saw one flapping his wings around
the dark fortress in the Carpathians, you would run for it,
as did Nic Deck.. Orfanik is head conjurer, and in his trial
he explains how he brought into play for a wicked purpose a
variety of ingenious inventions.
It
seemed fitting to place this cache near to a local castle that also
has some mystery of its own...
HARTSHILL CASTLE
One
evening in 1976 a couple were walking past this ruined Elizabethan
mansion standing in the middle of the village when the woman
suddenly stopped and said ` Who's That?`. A few yards away was the
figure of a lady in a black silk dress and ` a white apron down to
her knees`. The husband, unable to see the apparition or at least
he said he was, tried to reassure his wife, when the ghost suddenly
disappeared. Unbeknown to each other was the fact that the lady
with the silk dress has been seen several times, on so many
occasions that timid villagers are reluctant to go anywhere near
the old buildings.
Mr.
J. Moore of Harshill, on being interviewed by the local 'Chronicle'
stated that his family had lived in the `castle` for over two
hundred years but now in such a state of disrepair it is used
merely as a store in connection with a small holding. When his
younger brother saw the ghostly figure some years ago he appealed
to `The Bishop to carry out an exorcism`, but this was never
carried out. `She would come so close that she almost brushed by
and you could hear the rustle of her dress`.
Over
50 years ago Mr. Moore`s grandfather discovered a subterranean
passage leading from the building to nearby Merevale Hall and his
mother told him that there was a skeleton in the tunnel, the
remains of the last man who tried to walk the passage. Or could it
be the phantom female is connected with the skeleton in some
way?.
The
view of the castle from the cache is super and I placed it with
Milly in tow, however there is a climb to be had before reaching
the cache site.
