The "Goblin Friar" was said to appear to the head of the Byron family before any unhappy event...
Shortly before his disastrous marriage to Anne Milbanke, Byron encountered the Black Friar of Newstead Abbey.
This ghost, also known as the "Goblin Friar", was said to appear to the head of the Byron family before any unhappy event. The poet recalls this meeting in his poem "Don Juan".
Lord Byron had several supernatural experiences in a bedchamber known as the Rook Cell. When sleeping here the poet was woken by the sensation of something mounting the bed.
On sitting up he was confronted by a shapeless black mass, featureless apart from two red glowing eyes. The apparition rolled from the bed onto the floor and disappeared. Lord Byron also is said to have seen a mysterious column of white vapour rising from the floor, which vanished without trace.
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