Ghostly Inspirations and Lamb House: A Mini-Essay

     Artists have always drawn on unconventional sources for inspiration, from painter Vincent van Gogh’s homeopathic physician Dr. Paul Gachet to author Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s opium-induced trances. For novelist Joan Aiken, the Lamb House in Rye, England, and its long history of supernatural occurrences spurred the ghostly narrative of her 1991 novel The Haunting of Lamb House.[1] Built in 1722 by the prosperous wine merchant and politician James Lamb, the homestead served as a haven for writers at the end of the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth century, with Henry James residing there between 1898 and 1916, Edward Frederic Benson occupying it from 1918 until 1940, and Rumer Godden dwelling there between 1968 and 1973.[2] The home is also inhabited by the spectral presence of an elderly woman wearing a mantilla, who came to torment Benson, Godden, and James during their stays and prompted Godden to seek priestly intervention and bless the house.[3] Although it is contestable whether or not the paranormal activities had any influence over the authors’ tales, particularly James’ famed The Turn of the Screw published the same year he moved into Lamb House, Aiken openly admits the spirit’s pestering of these notorious writers was pure fodder for her own book.

Works Referenced

Biggers, Sherley Hoover. British Author House Museums and Other Memorials: A Guide to Sites in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2002.

Carpenter, Lynette and Wendy Kolmar. Ghost Stories by British and American Women: A Selected, Annotated Bibliography. London: Routledge, 1998.

Jones, Richard. Haunted Britain and Ireland. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2002.
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[1] Carpenter, xxxv-xxxvi.
[2] Biggers, 192-198.
[3] Jones, 65.