Unanswered questions from
"We Faked The Ghosts of Borley"
by Louis Mayerling

Mayerling presents as fact certain items I can neither confirm nor deny. Perhaps a third party might determine their accuracy.

  • A researcher for the late Cardinal Griffin, "presented a second alternative for the name of Borley - as being constructed from the Anglo-Saxon 'Borslea' (meaning the land of Borl - he being a Saxon chieftain). Perhaps this is more likely, rather than naming the place after a pig - as 'boar's lea.'"
  • "Most of its four acres lay in Suffolk, but a boundary stone sat determinedly on the lawn to show that the long garden wall and ground did, in fact, lie in Essex.
  • There were "three traps to the roofs," not mentioned by any other writer. Nor has any other author described the small windows in the gables nor the area in the top of the main-door turret. All of these aided hoaxers in producing "psychic phenomena." Mayerling relates how "this small roof chamber came in very handy for creating 'poltergeist' effects," although this would have been limited to children, as it took some effort to get inside. A nail on a string would be dangled to tap on a window below, for example.
  • "Price, myself, and others had taken a pleasurable part in some of those flights of fancy."
  • "The rectory had quickly become known for its ability to create many varieties of wine - from potato to gooseberry, and all very potent. Cellars of the place were well equipped for the storage of vast quantities." Mayerling recalls the "ever-pervading sickly smell of home-made wine arising form the hundreds of empty bottles in the cellars." The bottles must have been cleaned out before the Foysters moved in, for Marianne told an investigator, "You see the mystery about the bottles - there were no bottles around Borley at all. There was no storage of bottles, and the mystery always to us was where the bottles came from because they were old bottles, and there was no storage or place around Borley because I looked, and we never did discover where the bottles came from." Harry Price recorded about the time of his lease there was "a beggarly account of empty bottles."
  • "Previous residents were aware [of the trick of holding a lamp in the stable to reflect on the window of room 7] and so was Harry Price!" (emphasis original)
  • Mayerling was present during an exorcism by Smith, "insidiously recommended" by Price, who was there also. Additionally, two church wardens were present. Mayerling was probably also present during a follow-up exorcism by a "more experienced priest" a few days later.
  • As George Carter, he served as organist for two weeks while staying with the Smiths.
  • He attended Smith's last sermon at Borley in 1930. Carter met Anna Craven, whom he later married. Also in attendance were Mr. And Mrs. Williams from the Mark Teys Spiritualist Society. (Foyster indicates their first appearance as 1932.) Price also showed up, promoting his investigation and became "almost subservient" to Mayerling's expertise.
  • He was given the sewing machine used by Mrs. Bull.
  • His design of an Austin Motors 7 won the world speed record.
  • Upon the pleading of Price, they stayed at the rectory, with Price taking "copious notes" of Mayerling's revelations.
  • Price "never actually owned a car," although his restored Rolls was the subject of a 1999 television show.
  • Present during visit by Professor Julian Huxley on behalf of the BBC.
  • George Bernard Shaw told him, "Without the Foysters, there would be precious little to tell about Borley."
  • Lionel wrote diaries from childhood onward. These were given to Mayerling, partially in aid of his helping Price. Subsequently, they were given to Trevor Hall.
  • The Bible (which I gave up without examination to Adelaide) carries genealogy of the Foysters back to 1740.
  • William Shaw repaired boots to supplement his income.
  • Annie Shaw was a concert pianist and taught lessons.
  • Lionel gave Geoffrey Shaw a bicycle so he could attend choir.
  • Shaws borrowed money from Lionel in order to move to Ireland.
  • Geoffrey was left with foster parents when they moved.
  • He knew Ian.
  • Marianne implied she was an "active member" of the IRA.
  • When Foyster took a holiday from Canada in 1919, he met Georgie Carter at Borley and took him to Long Melford. They climbed "hundreds of steps" in the church tower where they could see six counties. (Such a view WAS afforded visitors to Pentlow Tower.)
  • "As long ago as 1910, and during his first appointment at Harwicke, Canada, the thought of writing ghost stories entered [Lionel's] mind, with the working title of 'Fifteen Months in a Haunted Rectory.' His imagination was constantly kept alive by family correspondence to and from Borley. . . . When leaving Harwicke, for a new living in Drummond in 1920, his intended book still remained on hand awaiting completion - and it was there in his rectory that the eccentric priest first set about performing amateurish poltergeist effects - which, later, continued when living at Salmonhurst. (Marianne, of course could not have participated in these curious activities as she had not then visited Canada.) Emphasis mine. I have copies of all three versions of Lionel's "Fifteen Month" pages, which seem a paltry collection for 35 years of effort - 1910-1945! Others have wondered if a member of the clergy would have taken such an active part in a purposeful hoax.
  • A child named "Davey" showed up prior to Francois Jr.
  • The organ in 1931 had "only one manual and only four stops" with no pedal board.
  • The Foysters installed a 200 gallon water tank in the attic, cleared the rats from the cellar, and dug a new well.
  • "Lionel had been extremely disappointed that the dubious efforts of Marianne and the children had been so easily detected by Price."
  • The total income for the Foysters was £6 per week - "from which he had to employ two servants and a handyman and maintain the condition of the rectory."
  • Lionel "had gone about 'haunting' the place in his own fashion - helped by his wife!"
  • Price and Mayerling met often to discuss Lionel's latest chapter, "mostly in a popular restaurant next to Charing Cross station."
  • Lionel "was in constant need of his wheelchair" at Borley. Purchased with the help of Mayerling from a shop in New Portland Street, London.
  • Marianne took pills at Borley for "slimming."
  • As a psychic, Marianne's spirit guide was "Tiger Tim."
  • Lionel was addicted to opium.
  • Marianne joined the Wood Green and District Motor Cycle Club.
  • Marianne put a "missionary" collection box in a niche in the wall where those looking for ghosts would most likely stand.
  • "Hundreds" of Mayerling's photos were made part of the Harry Price Library, including "all members of the ensuing incumbent families and many noted visitors." Some "appeared in the press," and some were given to Eric Dingwall. Hundreds more personal photos were also given to Price.
  • A galvanized bath tub was thrown out a window on to the glass house.
  • Marianne gave Carter a 17-jewel Elgin watch, engraved, "To Georgie, the bestest. Happy hauntings, always, Marianne. OK?"
  • Mayerling brought a generator to the rectory. It supplied electric light to the kitchen and the drawing room until thrown into the cesspool after a young servant girl was shocked.
  • Mayerling proofread some of Lionel's sermons.
  • Mayerling spent a night in the church with Father Sean O'Neal.
  • Father O'Neal later took to drink and drugs.
  • Marianne and camera salesman Willie der Herberg "eloped" to London. Their flat was previously acquired by Mayerling for der Herberg. When her German friend disappeared, the man's wife gave Marianne his car, with a friend of Mayerling taking care of the shipping. She supposedly sat in the car as it was parked in the rectory drive way.
  • Mayerling also met Henry Fisher.
  • Foyster built a home for the Fishers. (On £6 per week?)
  • Lionel shared a "very dark secret" about the rectory with Mayerling, known only to him and Marianne.
  • My adoption was to replace a previous adoption of a "less faulty" baby needed for immigration to America. That baby's eyes rolled around.
  • Marianne referred to me as a "rather horrid fat boy," to Mayerling. (A photo sent to our relatives in Minnesota was sent very proudly, however.)
  • Mayerling met my father Robert O'Neil, whom he described as "a vulgar drunk."
  • Harry did not mention Mabel or his other sisters and brothers in his will.
  • The Borley "treasure" was polished by the children and kept in the crypt under the church. In part, in consisted of "some very large gold and silver plates and trays, and a collection of 18 silver goblets brought back from the Crusades by Sir Willow de Willoughby. . . .the big St. Anthony altar cross."
  • Mabel had a collection of letters from Carter.
  • Foyster left Borley "in a covert manner."
  • Mayerling humorously proposed to Price they buy the rectory after Foysters left. It would have become "a small boarding house for spiritual recluses." Price took the idea seriously, and may have tried the idea on his own. The authorities refused, so Price rented it instead.
  • Price's secretary passed along letters sent to Price and deemed as the "less interesting rubbish." Mayerling would reply.
  • Price was strong (p. 189). Price was weak (p. 86).
  • The reputation of the house had reached London in the 1920s. "Miss Florence" who answered an ad for servants was really a "medium," and knew some tricks like jerking keys from locks.
  • "Practically all poltergeist energy was absent when the servants were."
  • All seven of the photographed wall writings were not labeled in their correct location.
  • Mayerling was given a key to the front door, a fact known by Price but not accounted for when sealing up the place during an investigation.
  • Professor C.E.M. Joad told Mayerling, "I wish my name had never been connected with [Borley].
  • Carter received a letter from a "national newspaper" for accounts of Helen Glanville's seances. The newspaper mistakenly thought the two were husband and wife. Price discussed this in The End of Borley Rectory.
  • "As children [at the rectory], we were regularly being excited by the use of the Ouija board as early as the mid-1920s." It ended up as a dartboard, but was later replaced.
  • Carter "directed" the Ouija in the presence of four clergymen.
  • Mayerling publishes a photo purportedly of his real mother, Amelia Romanov, with Lionel Foyster.
  • Marianne called for two seances in the spring of 1932 which Mayerling arranged. Seven people attended the first, but Marianne excused herself. Prior to the second sitting, she appeared as the nun, and then as a monk, eventually explaining, "you see how easy it is to be disillusioned." Six came to the second sitting, held in the cellar with the hopes "their story. . . . would most likely appear in the columns of the newspaper organizing the event." Letters from each participant were sent to Mayelring recounting the event, including one from lyricist Percy Edgar.
  • At the seance in the cellar, Marianne gave Mayerling a very valuable cross. A jeweler showed him a photo of the cross, one of a pair. It was broken up during WWII as a bribe to Hitler. By coincidence, a German guard was also a jeweler, and recognized the cross.
  • Another seance was attended by George Bernard Shaw, Sir Bertram Montague, Sir Bernard Spilsbury, and Maurice Barbanell. Price and T.E. Lawrence Shaw were invited, but did not attend. Lawrence had an "increasing obsession" with Borley. Spilsbury took pictures of the wall writings. The seance was held in the cellar, which had a stone floor. Bells were heard, Spilsbury was activated into action "out of his control," and a "strike of silver blue light" imploded within. All were striken motionless for a time. Shaw and Barbanell were left with a permanent stiffness in one of their arms, and Mayelring was left blind in one eye.
  • Marianne often walked in the garden, and as such, was sometimes mistaken for the nun. She once told some girls who asked if she was the nun, "I am Marianne of Borley. I am the un-dead. Go away and tell the world that somewhere there is life."
  • Mayerling and his "singular companion" T.E. Lawrence rode motor bikes and visited a spirtualist medium together.
  • Marianne addressed her letters to "The Rev. George Carter," knowing he was now Louis Mayerling.
  • Lionel's grave was marked with a headstone which was constantly vandalized. His grave is actually covered with a full-sized, flat marker.
  • Wesley Downes told Mayerling that on the 50th anniversary of Lionel's death, he "saw a vapour rise from the grave and then proceed slowly towards the church door."
  • Price was paid by Mayerling to investigate his house in London for ghosts. None were found.
  • Price entrusted two tea-chests full of Borley records to Mayerling.
  • Marianne often gave hints of a treasure, and Price received confirmation in a seance. Subsequently, Price dug in the ruins of the rectory, and in the church crypt. As familiar as he had been with the place as a child, Mayerling could no longer remember how to access the crypt.
  • The portion of the skull and jawbone found by Price and Henning were identified as belonging to a pig.
  • Price showed Mayerling the small coffin before burying the supposed remains of Marie Lairre.
  • Price wrote a very long letter to Mayerling, thanking him for persisiting that Price keep up his pursuit of Borley, even though he often wanted to quit.
  • Mayerling told the November 18, 1995 Psychic News the wall writings were created by "invisible writing" pens "very much in vogue at the time." This explanation is NOT in his book. Since 1995 has someone discovered such toys were not available during the Foyster incumbancy from 1930 to 1935? In the same piece, Mayerling suggested flying objects originated with Marianne who had "considerable skill with a catapult," and with a "very old lady" with a pea-shooter. The later was also responsible for the "smell of lilacs" by her continued "sucking of extra-strong peppermints." These explanations also escaped his book.
  • The rectory and the church did "hold many smouldering secrets - known in the end only to Marianne and me."
    Responses from various readers