VERSAILLES REVISITED .sx BY JAMES EDWARD HOLROYD .sx In a small black pocket-diary in the Bodleian Library there are various brief pencilled entries which record the owner's holiday in Paris with a friend in the summer of 1901 :sx 'August 7 St. Denis .sx August 9 Louvre buildings .sx ' And then :sx 'August 10 Versailles .sx ' The diary is signed C. A. E. Moberly on the fly-leaf .sx That laconic entry represents the starting-point of the strange experience of the two English women who saw , or thought they saw , Marie Antoinette and members of her entourage in the grounds of the Petit Trianon at Versailles on that far-off summer afternoon .sx The experience lasted only half an hour .sx The two women thought so little of it at the time that they did not discuss it for a week ; did not write down any account of it for three months ; did not publish it to the world until ten years later .sx When the book appeared pseudonymously under the title of 'An Adventure' fifty years ago in 1911 , it aroused controversy which continues today .sx Although the two women , whom we now know to have been Miss Annie Moberly and Miss Eleanor Jourdain , were of high academic standing , their accounts were not without confusion .sx Some of their evidence is careless if not suspect ; some of their research contradictory .sx They have been accused of altering their stories ; of adding later touches which lifted their experience from the light of common day into the rarified atmosphere of the late eighteenth century .sx The two women were always somewhat hypersensitive to criticism , and as if to refute any suggestion of collusion or conspiracy , Miss Moberly deposited their letters and papers in the Bodleian .sx Neither of the two is now alive , but the echoes of their adventure- which has been described as 'the most famous ghost story in the world'- still puzzle the inquirer .sx Were they victims of hallucination ?sx Did they only imagine the experiences they described ?sx Could their adventure be explained in natural terms ?sx Or did they , in fact , find a doorway into the past which enabled them to participate , however briefly , in the sunset thoughts of the unhappy queen ?sx There are few places in the world in which it is easier to imagine ghosts than the vast palace of Versailles .sx The echoing halls of the great cha@5teau , the labyrinthine walks of the main park with their stone benches and frozen statuary , the haunted gardens of the Petit Trianon- all are alike murmurous with the footfalls of history .sx Miss Moberly was the principal of St. Hugh's , Oxford , and Miss Jourdain the joint head of a girls' school at Watford on that August afternoon which was to establish their life-long link with Versailles .sx Their respective ages were fifty-five and thirty-eight .sx Both were daughters of Anglican clergy .sx Miss Moberly was , in fact , the seventh child of a bishop of Salisbury who had previously been headmaster of Winchester .sx She had acted as her father's secretary , and although lacking formal academic qualifications was appointed to the headship of the first women's college in Oxford , a post to which she brought considerable gifts of administration and undoubted authority .sx In the summer of 1901 she was seeking a vice-principal for St. Hugh's , and the sightseeing holiday , with Miss Jourdain's Paris flat as base , was to be a mutual exploration of temperament and personality .sx Neither of the women claimed to know more of Versailles than occasional casual reading had brought .sx 'We had very hazy ideas as to where it was or what there was to be seen,' Miss Moberly wrote of the Petit Trianon .sx 'Both of us thought it might prove to be a dull expedition .sx ' Miss Jourdain was familiar with French and gave lessons on the history of the Revolution .sx Miss Moberly could read French but was not good at the spoken word .sx Let us now follow them on their adventure at Versailles .sx In the middle of the afternoon , after the usual tourists' round of the palace , they decided to visit the Petit Trianon .sx They looked up the general direction in Baedeker and walked down through the main grounds until they reached the forecourt of the Grand Trianon .sx Instead of walking along the Avenue des Deux Trianons , which would have brought them immediately to the main entrance to the Petit Trianon , they went along a lane through a gate on the right-hand side of the Grand Trianon forecourt .sx After walking up the lane they made a sharp turn to the right past some buildings .sx Miss Jourdain described them as farm buildings and noted that implements , among them a plough , were lying around .sx In retrospect they always felt that the point at which they passed the buildings marked the beginning of their adventure- that from this moment they trod enchanted ground .sx Only in retrospect , however :sx at the time they were walking briskly and talking with animation about England and their mutual acquaintances .sx Miss Moberly recorded that although the weather had been very hot all the week , the sky was somewhat overcast that afternoon and a lively wind was blowing across the main park .sx Passing the buildings , they went along the middle path of three , where they met two men and asked the way to the house .sx They were told to go straight on .sx The two men were dressed in long greyish-green coats and , according to Miss Moberly , wore small three-cornered hats .sx The two visitors first spoke of them as gardeners , but later thought they must have been officials of some kind .sx Miss Jourdain remembered that when they spoke to the men she saw to the right a detached cottage with stone steps and a woman and girl at the doorway .sx Miss Moberly apparently did not notice either the cottage or the two occupants .sx Unknown to each other , the two visitors now began to experience a deepening sense of depression .sx Miss Jourdain noted that she began to feel that they had lost their way and that something was wrong .sx After leaving the men , they continued along the path until it was crossed by another at right-angles .sx In front of them , overshadowed by trees , they saw a small building with roofed-in columns .sx In their original notes they referred to this as the Temple de l'Amour , judging it to be this from the map , but in the published account Miss Moberly described it as 'a light garden kiosk , circular and like a small bandstand .sx ' A man wearing a cloak and a large slouch hat was sitting close to the kiosk .sx As he turned to look at them , both saw that his expression was evil and repulsive , and their growing sense of depression and unease culminated in a feeling of alarm .sx Miss Moberly also recorded that 'everything suddenly looked unnatural , therefore unpleasant ; even the trees behind the building seemed to have become flat and lifeless , like a wood worked in tapestry .sx ' There were no effects of light and shade and no wind stirred the trees .sx It was all intensely still .sx She thought that nothing would induce her to go to the left- presumably past the seated man .sx In the silence they were relieved to hear someone running towards them .sx Miss Moberly 'connecting the sound with the gardeners,' saw it was a handsome young man- 'distinctly a gentleman'- who also wore a large sombrero and a dark cloak with one end flying out in his prodigious hurry .sx He told them in French that it was not necessary to go to the left and that they would find the house to the right .sx He then disappeared and they heard his retreating footsteps , still running .sx The two visitors then crossed a small rustic bridge over a tiny ravine with a trickle of water on the right , followed a pathway under trees , and skirted a narrow meadow of long grass , damp and with an orchard look about it .sx This , although they did not realise it at the time , was the English garden on the north side of the Petit Trianon .sx The windows facing them were apparently shuttered .sx As they went up to the terrace bordering the north and west fronts , Miss Moberly noticed a woman sitting below the north terrace and holding a paper at arm's-length as if sketching .sx Afterwards she was able to describe the dress with some particularity , and noted , 'I thought she was a tourist , but that her dress was old-fashioned and rather unusual ( though people were wearing fichu bodices that summer) .sx ' Miss Moberly subsequently identified the woman from a photograph as being Marie Antoinette .sx Later it emerged that Miss Jourdain had not noticed anyone at this point , although they asserted that there was no one else in sight .sx The two visitors then crossed over the west terrace fronting the French garden and were moving towards an unshuttered window on the French garden side when they heard a door bang and a young man ( afterwards described as 'the Chapel man' ) stepped on to the terrace from what seemed to be a second house at right-angles .sx He told them that the way in was by the entrance court and walked down the French garden with them to an exit in the front drive .sx The visitors then went through the forecourt of the Petit Trianon to the house , where they followed in the wake of a French wedding-party walking arm in arm in a long procession round the rooms .sx They were at the back of the party , too far away from the guide to hear much of his story .sx But they noted that the feeling of depression had passed and that they now felt quite lively .sx Then they drove back to tea at the Ho@5tel des Reservoirs in Versailles , and they did not speak of any of the events of the afternoon .sx Because of the wind , Miss Moberly had put on her coat during the drive to the hotel , and as they later returned to Paris by train she noted that 'the setting sun at last burst out from under the clouds .sx ' 'Again and again the thought returned- was Marie Antoinette much at Trianon , and did she see it for the last time long before the fatal drive to Paris accompanied by the mob ?sx ' That , in plain terms , was the substance of the adventure ; and a commonplace experience it would have remained , but for the extraordinary circumstances that followed .sx Although the two women stayed on in Paris for a while , they asserted that they never alluded to that afternoon until , a week afterwards , Miss Moberly was writing a letter to her sister in England and suddenly asked Miss Jourdain if she thought the Petit Trianon was haunted .sx Miss Jourdain promptly answered ~'Yes,' and then , for the first time , they became aware that their feelings of depression and anxiety had begun at the same point of their journey .sx Talking it over , they realised for the first time the theatrical appearance of the running man and the inappropriateness of his wrapped cloak on a warm summer afternoon .sx Miss Jourdain also admitted having disliked the thought of passing the seated man at the kiosk .sx On November 10 , 1901 , three months after the experience , Miss Jourdain was staying with Miss Moberly at Oxford and they returned to the subject , only to discover that Miss Jourdain had not seen the sketching woman .sx Thereupon they resolved to write down separate accounts of the experience to discover how far they had seen the same things .sx These first accounts , both dated November 1901 , are still in existence and can be seen at the Bodleian .sx ( For convenience they can be referred to as M1 and J1 .sx ) During November and December they also wrote two more detailed accounts ( which will be referred to as M2 and J2 ) to show to friends .sx These longer accounts were the versions that appeared in their book published in 1911 .sx The original documents of M2 and J2 are no longer in existence , having been lost or destroyed after being copied into a manuscript book in 1906 .sx It is important to note here that in the autumn of 1901 , before either had written down a single word , Miss Moberly had told friends about their 'ghost story .sx '