The Fair Ghost
The Fair Ghost
A beautiful young girl, Eliza Meiring lived at the house at Clovelly in 1768. Being so beautiful she was popular with all the young men. In order to help her choose the right suitor, she set a task, which involved retrieving a Disa specimen from an inaccessible precipice in the Matroosberg mountain range. One of the men that Eliza particularly favoured, Phillip set out to secure a Disa.
Somewhere high in the Matroosberg, he was taking a rest when he noticed the coveted red flower in the cracks of the rocks below him. When he leaned forward to get his prize lost his footing and fell to his death. Philip’s body was later discovered by a local herdsman who reported back to the family..
. Eliza went into severe shock and lost her mind. She had to be locked in an upstairs room of the house. On trying to escape she managed to force a window open but she slipped and fell to her death. Her spirit is said to wander the windswept mountains at night lamenting her lost love. She was called ” Die Heks van Exeriviervallei” ( The witch of the Exe River valley.)
