Ghosts of Motley Hall

There has been an Uproar at Motley Hall since the days of Queen Elizabeth the First. And although the dust now lies thick on its historic floors and weeds choke its once-fine gardens, there are Uproars still at Motley Hall. The house imposing, grand, decaying, unused, is not yet quite empty.

There are five Ghosts in Motley Hall. The oldest is Bodkin, an Elizabethan Fool employed by Motleys first owner, Sir Richard Uproar. Bodkin eventually died of flu, the result of being thrown in the lily-pond by Sir Richard, and he has haunted Motley with his bad jokes ever since. There is the White Lady, the mystery of Motley. A conventional sort of ghost, she goes in for wailing and moaning now and again, but she can usually be cheered up by Fanny - Sir Francis - Uproar, a dashing if rather dim eighteenth century Uproar who died of a fatal combination of drink and duelling. General Sir George Uproar is the noisiest of the lot. A soldier of the nineteenth century, he was the backbone of the British Army until he fell down stairs and broke his neck. And finally there is young Matt, a stable lad of the Regency period, and the only one of Motley's ghosts who is able to leave the house and rove freely in the grounds. Matt is the eyes and ears of Motley Hall, warning the other ghosts when danger threatens - be it demolition, redevelopment, or new house owners who know nothing of ghosts and their ways. Like residents of some lonely guest house, the ghosts of Motley Hall, each from a different era in the house's history, are compelled to get along with each other as best they might, and try somehow to keep the twentieth century away from their doorstep, that they might remain undisturbed as the sole occupants of their ancestral Motley Hall home.