What better subject for a 'nearly' Christmas post than tales of ghostly happenings in Lydiard House. Like any self respecting ancient property Lydiard House boasts a spectral presence or two. But like a thing of beauty, could the Lydiard House phantoms be just an imaginative figment in the eye of the beholder. There have been the occasional sighting of a 17th century gentleman roaming the grounds and giving directions to lost visitors, supposedly Sir John St John, first baronet, who died in 1648. Sir John is depicted in portraits in the house and in St Mary's Church he can be seen recumbent on the magnificent Bedstead Monument and portrayed in the St John polyptych he commissioned in memory to his parents. Now I'm not saying that Sir John wasn't a thoroughly nice man, but my feelings are that he would be more likely to point a musket at visitors wandering about his estate rather than give them a guided tour. In 1996 Margaret North contributed an article to Th...