Letter from Philip Francis, Berkeley, Gloucestershire, to an unidentified woman, 1807 November 11 : autograph manuscript signed with intials.

Writing to satisfy her desire to know about his stay at Berkeley Castle; informing her that the "ancient Ladies seen at the wells" along with their grandmothers, "are mere modern babies & infants compared with Antiquities of both sexes" he met yesterday; reporting that it rained heavily and he would have been drowned but for the fact that his room ("last occupied by King Stephen") is two hundred feet above the Severn "and the walls twelve feet thick"), and adding that the crows below him were all washed away; describing his bed and apartment, which "had been neglected since the time of King Harold", undergone improvements for the reception of William Rufus, and since occupied for a few days by King Stephen "& by no other person until I came & took possession of it"; describing the painting on the windows and the room's historical furnishings, and going on to say that "All this nothing compared to what I saw in a certain chamber that must be nameless", and describing his experience: "I heard the groans of an agonising King. I lifted up a black veil, spotted with blood; but I dropt it instantly, and dare not tell you what I saw. My guide dropt his candle too & ran away. Confess that it required a very good conscience to be able to sleep in such company. I do not think it possible to make my escape without seeing an apparition."; directing her to communicate at Berkeley with Mrs. Turner, if she should see fit, "but not to such giddy persons as your two cousins."