The Ghost Garden and Halloween weekend

Like many of you, it has been an exhausting year and a half; and with the world being what it is, we’re planning to stay in this weekend and enjoy the Halloween weekend alone. We’re prepared for possible trick-or-treaters on Sunday night but today has been stormy and I’m ready to relax with a good book. To prepare for a spooky weekend, I am reading The Ghost Garden (1918) by Amélie Rives.

I have mentioned Amélie Rives before. She became a princess in 1896 when she married Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy-- after they had been introduced by Oscar Wilde! To me, she looks like someone who would know the famous author.

 

Countess Troubetskoy and Fang the wolf.
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division.

The couple lived near Charlottesville at Castle Hill in a home that was reported as haunted. According to the late L.B. Taylor JR., guests would smell the scent of rose perfume when there were no fresh flowers in the house and Amélie didn’t wear perfume. Some reported seeing an apparition of Amélie’s grandfather. And other guests of Castle Hill believed that apparitions simply wanted the couple to leave the house. Amélie continued to host numerous visitors.

She also wrote about apparitions, including The Ghost Garden (1918).

 

Amélie, her husband, and her grandparents, Senator William Cabell Rives and Judith Page Walker who was also a writer are buried at the Rives-Troubetzkoy Cemetery on the historic property.

If you're interested in reading the book, it's available for free via Google Books.