The Lady Awaits
Lady Louisa Carteret, the beautiful wife of Thomas Thyme,
2nd Viscount Weymouth is said to haunt Longleat as the
"green lady". Thomas was said to be an arrogant and unpleasant
man and when he married Louisa on July 3, 1733 most people
could not believe someone as sour as Thomas could get
a lady so fine to marry him.
After the birth of their second child
her marriage to Thomas was not going very well and legend
has it that she was either having an affair with the
footman she brought with her to Longleat, or he acted
as her confidant and someone to pour or heart out to.
Thomas upon hearing of her fondness for
the footman decided to ambush him and he threw him down
a spiral staircase breaking his neck and killing him.
Thomas had him buried in the basement and then told everyone
that he left quickly and never even bothered to say goodbye
to Louisa. Louisa however did not believe the story and
thought that her husband had imprisoned her footman on
the top floor of Longleat so she spent many hours in
search of him.
In the early 20th century workmen had
to lower the floor in the basement in order to install
a boiler for central heating. When they dug up the limestone
floor the found the body of the young footman. He was
layed to rest in the same cemetary as Louisa, but alas,
Louisa is not there, she still remains at Longleat, pacing
the corridors of the upper floor looking for her loyal
footman.
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