Nottoway Adventure
Aug 5 & 6, 2011
Meredith Tague and I joined the members of SOLA on a writer’s retreat at Nottoway Plantation. The weekend started with a tour of the plantation. We went through several rooms before ending up in The White Ballroom, where they hold a lot of weddings.
Before I continue, I must state that I am a skeptic. While I have had many personal experiences with premonition type dreams, I have yet to meet a ghost.
In this rounded room is a portrait of Mary Henshaw (painted in 1857), who is not a member of the original family. The painting was procured in 1980 by Nottoway’s previous owner, Arlan Dease.
Everyone entered the ballroom on the east side, and after the tour guide gave a bit of history, she instructed us to look at the woman as we walked to the west side of the room. As instructed, I did just that. Not only did the woman’s eyes follow us, it appeared that her entire body shifted so that we could always see her as if we were sta...