by Rachael Stone

Created on: November 09, 2008

"Of course there did not always used to be a house in the forest you know" said my Auntie Caroline as I stood looking in amazement at what she was showing me. "this house used to be the main house, the original house"

"Wow" I said stunned, I had come to visit my Aunt she had just inherited a huge house with acres of land. She had come across this house just sitting in the middle of the forest as she was exploring her new surroundings and of course she could not wait to show me her find.

"There is a pretty grim story surrounding this house, well I say story but people around here believe it is true and not just one of those legends that gets handed down through the generations" she looked at me waiting for my reaction.

I said "Oh come on then tell me! Don't leave me in suspense"

"OK" she said "This house belonged to Robert Mitchell, he is a direct blood line descendant on our side but I need to check that out through the family tree, anyway back in 1780 he was just 18 and his family were poor and had nothing. Now Robert was a bit of a gambler and a pretty good one, he also knew some tricks and that is how he won the land that this house here is built on. Being a clever man Robert saw a chance to make something for himself and his parents and he did, by the time he was 20 he had a house built, he had land that was farming and he had built houses for his workers that is the village that you passed through on your way here."

" He was a very clever man then" I said.

"Clever or just lucky" replied my Aunt "Anyway as I said he had people working for him and they lived in the houses he had built in return for a small rent he was a very fair man and so people started coming from all over the place in the hopes of working for him. Back then many landowners were very harsh with their pay and their rents so Robert was a very popular much loved man. He met his wife to be in the village she was by all accounts a beautiful young woman and they fell in love and were married. He knocked the original house down and built this house you see here now, he wanted a palace fit for his Princess and this is what he built for her. Within a year of their marriage they a son, who they named Robert Jr, they were a happy little family and when Robert Jr was two they found she was pregnant again, this time things did not go well, she was extremely poorly and she went into labour too early and their new baby, a girl was stillborn. Of course there was not the knowledge there is today and unfortunately

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