Thorpe Hall in Louth, Lincolnshire dates back to 1596. It was originally owned by Sir John Bolles. During an expedition with Sir Walter Raleigh to Cadiz he was captured by the Spaniards and spent time in a dungeon. A wealthy Spanish noblewoman, Donna Leonora Oviedo, passed by his cell which looked onto the street. She bought him food and eventually bribed his jailers to release him.
When he went back to England she begged him to let her follow. He refused and told her he was happily married. She let him go with a portrait of herself in her favourite green dress and he promised to hang it in his home.
Some months after he had left she followed him to England and killed herself in Thorpe Park Gardens. John Bolles hung her picture and laid a place at the dinner table in her honour.
She can be seen walking the Garden some nights in the hope that she should see John Bolles again. She is the lady in the Green Dress.
Yep, I've been to Thorpe Hall and seen the picture. Unfortunately we were kicked out a 6pm so I can not say if the Lady roamed the garden
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