Illiam Dhone meets the family

Illiam Dhone meets the family

Tue, 30 Jul 2013

Louis Christian (second from right) with Martin Christopher who played Illiam Dhone in TNT Theatre's production of The Ghost of Illiam Dhone.

The hugely successful run of the new drama The Ghost of Illiam Dhone has now finished, but not without some unusual coincidences.

On the morning of the first performance in the grounds of Milntown House, where Illiam Dhone was born, it was discovered that the small painting of Illiam Dhone which hangs in the main hall of the house was lying broken on the floor. Although they're used to hauntings in the house, this was a particularly bizarre event.

The picture had been hanging from a high-quality picture cord, knotted at each end three times. Not only had the cord been severed but one end had been carefully unknotted, allowing the painting to fall. The house alarms and motion sensors had been on all night but the fall had gone undetected.

As Estate Manager Paul Ogden remarked 'even if you can explain the cord coming undone why, given the dozens of paintings in the house, was it this one that fell, and on this particular day?'

Another coincidence had happened the previous day just before the dress rehearsal in the grounds. Quite by chance an elderly American visitor arrived with his family on the last day of his holiday. It turned out that he was the great-grandson, times 17, of Illiam Dhone.

Illiam Dhone's son Thomas had emigrated to America a few years before his father's execution and the American visitor, Mr Louis Christian, was a direct descendent.

He was delighted to learn that the dress rehearsal of the play was about to start and he and his family stayed for the whole performance.