Bramber Castle, West Sussex.

Only a 76-foot high fragment of the Norman castle wall, which stands upon a huge natural mound, now survives of what was once a proud and imposing fortress. In the reign of King John, the castle was owned by William de Braose, whose lavish lifestyle earned him the envy of the monarch, but his involvement in the events that led to the sealing of the Magna Carta in 1215 incurred the king's displeasure. Determined to make an example of de Braose, the scheming sovereign commanded that the powerful baron surrender his four young children to be held as hostages against their father's future good behaviour. When the preposterous demand met with a stubborn refusal, John sent an army to Bramber with instructions to take the children by force. Learning of the plan, de Braose gathered his family and fled to Ireland, where they were captured, returned to England and imprisoned at Windsor Castle. There, the vengeful monarch had the children starved to death as a warning to the other rebellious barons that he, John, was not a man to be trifled with. Although they died at Windsor Castle, it is to the ruin of Bramber Castle that the wraiths of the murdered children return, Christmas being their favoured time. The ragged, hollow-eyed wraiths of the two girls and a boy wander the crumbling vestiges of their old home, their emaciated hands held out as if begging for food from witnesses, who are almost moved to tears by the sad and tragic apparitions.