Aug. 18. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



129 



APPABITION OF "THE WHITE LADY. 



(Vol. viii., p. 317.) 



I am unable to answer C. M. W.'s Query as to 

 the origin of her ladyship. But I append a cut- 

 ting from the Morning Post, November 8th, 1854, 

 in which is related the latest appearance of " The 

 White Lady " to a member of the royal family of 

 Bavaria. The extract is headed — 

 " A German Legend. 



"The following extraordinary letter appears in the 

 German papers : — 



" ' The Queen Theresa of Bavaria died of cholera at 

 Munich on the 26th, as already known. I hasten to com- 

 municate to your readers the following highly interesting 

 and affecting details, of which I can guarantee the exact 

 veracitj' : 



" ' On the 6th of October, between eight and nine o'clock 

 in the evening, two princes of the Bavarian royal family, 

 equal in birth and relationship, were seated at tea in a 

 room of the Aschaffenburg Palace. A folding-door divides 

 this room from another apartment, and a smaller papered 

 door separates it from the antechamber usually occupied 

 by the domestics in waiting. Of a sudden the latter door 

 opened, and a lady covered with a black veil entered and 

 made a low curtsey before the two illustrious personages. 

 One of the princes, no little astounded, asked the lady if 

 she were invited to tea, and, pointing to the folding-door 

 leading into the tea-room (where the Queen and ladies 

 were assembled), gave her to understand that she should 

 enter. No replj', and the lady vanished through the 

 small papered door. Both the illustrious personages were 

 extremely agitated by this wonderful apparition, and its 

 mysterious disappearance. One of them immediately 

 hastened to the antechamber to inquire of the servants 

 about the mysterious figure. No one had seen it come or 

 go, except Asj'at, Queen Theresa's body hussar, who had 

 met it on the passage. No other trace could be dis- 

 covered. Both illustrious persons narrated what had 

 occurred, and it soon came to Queen Theresa's ears, and 

 she was so overwhelmed therebj' that she became greatly 

 indisposed, and wept during the whole night. The 

 journey to Munich was fixed for the following day. All 

 the luggage and half the servants were already on the 

 road. To remain longer at Aschaffenburg was' scarcely 

 possible. Queen Theresa was filled with the most sorrow- 

 ful forebodings. She asked several times if it were not 

 possible to remain here. It would be too painful for her 

 to quit Aschaffenburg this time. The mysterious and 

 ominous Black Lady glided constantly before her imagin- 

 ation. Somewhat calmed, at length, by judicious observ- 

 ations, she at last sorrowfully commenced the journey, 

 which it was not possible to postpone. But still, at Mu- 

 nich, where she was at first slightly indisposed, but re- 

 covered, her mind was preoccupied with the apparition 

 of the Black Ladj', of whom she spoke to many persons 

 with trembling apprehension. She was sought to be con- 

 soled by saying that the sentries on duty had seen the 

 lady enter the palace. But all was in vain. The idea 

 that the apparition of the figure had a sinister foreboding 

 for her life never quitted her mind. Twenty da.vs after 

 the mysterious evening. Queen Theresa lay a corpse in 

 the Wittelbacher Palace. Your readers are at liberty to 

 judge of the incident as they please. I must, however, 

 solemnly protest against any suspicions being thrown 

 upon the exact truth of these facts, derived from the 

 highest authority, as I took the above narrative verbatim 

 from the statement of the best informed persons before I 



No. 303.] 



had the slightest suspicion of the Queen's death. The 

 two illustrious persons narrated the circumstance of the 

 apparition minutely to several persons, so that the whole 

 town heard of it next morning, and on the same evening 

 the whole personnel of the palace and the soldiers on duty 

 were strictly examined, and requested to state all they 

 knew of the matter — a good proof that the occurrence 

 cannot be set down among ordinary nursery tales.' 



" When King Frederick I. of Prussia was attacked by 

 his last indisposition, he sat one evening, about dusk, in 

 his chamber at the Berlin Palace. The folding-door 

 suddenly opened with a crash of broken glass — a white 

 figure, with dishevelled hair and bespattered with blood, 

 rushed before him. ' The White Lady ! the White Lady ! 

 My death is at hand,' exclaimed the suffering King, and 

 never completely banished the idea from his mind, al- 

 though the figure was nothing more than his fanatic and 

 insane Queen, a princess of Mecklenburg Schwerin." 



Since reading the above I observed in The 

 Times an account of the death of a woman at 

 Wolverhampton, from fright, in consequence of 

 seeing " The White Lady " rushing up the steps 

 leading from the cellar of a house there. Perhaps 

 some correspondent can refer me to the paragraph. 

 C. MANsriELD Inglebt. 



HBAI.TH OP TOBACCO MAWUFACTDREBS. j 



(Vol.xii., p. 39.) -^ 



Not coming under either of the classes Mr. 

 Batks invites to discuss his well-timed Note on 

 the health of tobacco manufacturers, I must sub- 

 mit what I have to say as a non-professional, and 

 merely state what has come under my own ob- 

 servation. 



1849 was a terrible year to New Orleans, and 

 the towns on the Mississippi River. To hear that 

 populous districts were thinned, and in some in- 

 stances whole households carried off in a night, 

 occasioned but little surprise to those who had in 

 former years seen the ravages of epidemics in this 

 malarious climate. But, amidst the disease and 

 death, there were some spots comparatively safe, 

 and these were the tobacco manufactories. In 

 New Orleans, while I was there, I had frequent 

 opportunity of examining this interesting problem; 

 and invariably found that, whilst cotton-dressers 

 and sugar-refiners suffered with the rest of the 

 inhabitants, the tobacco manufacturer was gene- 

 rally exempt. But the term tobacco manufac- 

 turer is, perhaps, too exclusive as a principal one 

 in so interesting an inquiry. For practical pur- 

 poses, it would be well to know how far man's 

 connexion with tobacco exempts him from various 

 complaints. 



Besides cigar rollers, cut-and-dry choppers, and 

 snuff-makers, there are those engaged in planting, 

 attending, curing, packing, warehousing, and load- 

 ing, — all being brought in different degrees of 

 contact with the "weed." On plantations, the 

 negro and overseer are alike subject to the cholera, 



