W.B Obbly’s Obelisk Observer Society @lyndwyrm0 (Ghost Post)
The Obelisk acts a boundary mark for Southsea, but also marks the site of John Felton’s Gibbet replaced in 1782, over a century after Felton assassinated the Duke of Buckingham (George Villiers) in 1628.
The ghosts of Felton is said to haunt the Clarence pier area where the Gibbet once was, as his heart and hook of the Gibbet where rumoured to be held within the obelisk. However his ghost, and the ghost of Villiers, is also said to frequent the site of the murder itself. Ye Spotted Dogge, the site where Villiers supposedly shouted ‘VILLAIN!!!’ Before being stabbed to death. Felton then is said to have gone for a drink and hidden in a cupboard, while every one outside began conspiring that the was some larger scheme or that the French had done it. But proud of his work Felton emerged and declared that he had killed the duke. other theories suggest that the blaming of a Frenchman was misheard as Felton and so thinking he’d been rumbled, revealed himself.
The duke was a bit of a marmite figure, lots of poetry after the fact swings heavily on very pro Felton as the man’s man hero of the people or very anti Felton. John Milton’s own teacher, Alexander Gill the Elder, had his ears chopped off and was fined £2000 for drinking to Felton’s health and remarking that Villiers would be joining King James in hell.
Felton is also said to haunt the nearby Felton House next door, however expert ghost enthusiasts doubt this as Felton never visited this location.
Funnily enough, the book that brought us to the attention of the missing Obelisk was Haunted Britain by Antony Hippisley Coxe. The book came out in 1973, but talks of the obelisk in present tense, despite it definitely not being there.
I’ll discuss theories in another post, as this is the ghost post, but it is definitely not there in 73.
