Ghosts of the Carolinas

Alice of the Hermitage

Alice of the Hermitage SHE DIED MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, BUT SHE STILL COMES BACK TO THE HOME SHE LOVED It was one of the most elaborate balls of the Charleston season. A few short years before the coming of the War for Southern Independence, there was no hint of wartime austerity. Richly attired young men bowed before lavishly gowned girls in the sumptuous private ballroom. And soft music played on into the early morning hours. One young girl stood ouramong the rest, lovely as a perfect camellia. Her flowing white gown, trimmed with lace and exquisitely embroidered, floated about her as she went through the figures of each dance with graceful perfection. No one could have guessed that when next the girl wore this dress she would be in her coffin. Student at an exclusive young ladies' school in Charleston, Alice had been a reigning belle for two seasons. Shortly after the ball she was stricken with a fever thought to be malaria. Since it was near the end of the school term the head mistress decided to send her to her home at Murrell's Inlet north of Georgetown with a returning neighbor. By the time Alice reached ''The Hermitage," the family summer home built by her father in 1849, her condition was critical. Her malady was not malaria but the deadly typhoid. In spite of the loving care of 101 102 her family shedied within a few days. The beautiful ball gown was unpacked and the wan but still lovely young girl was dressed in it for the last time. She had worn this same dress when a famous painter did her portrait, a portrait which could be seen in "The Hermitage" until recent years. The body was placed in a glassed-in casket in Alice's own room and all who saw her exclaimed over her beauty even in death. At the time her mother was many miles away visiting relatives. No decision could be made as to a final resting place for the bodyso Alice was buried on the plantation. She was later removed to the churchyard and buried near relatives in the live-oak shaded cemetery. It was not long after Alice's death that a Northern cousin arrived with her young son for a visit. The next morning at breakfast the boy asked who was the pretty lady in the white dress he hadseen in his room. His mother told him that it had only been a dream. But the youngster steadfastly maintained that he had seen a girl who would not answer when he asked her name but only shook her head and smiled. The hostess recognized his description as that of the girl who had died a few years before. Ashort time Alice's bedroom at the Hermitage later Alice's apparition appeared in the garden to members of the family. "The Hermitage" looks now much as it did at the time Alice lived there. For three generations she has continued to appear. Sometimes she walks through the garden in the moonlight. And on other occasions she may be seen sitting in the window of the room which was once her own. All who haveseen her have been amazed at the beauty of this lovely young apparition who still returns to the home she loves so well. 103 ...