Leeds Corporation has quite a number of ghosts among its invisible assets. There are at least a couple of municipally-owned spectres at Temple Newsam; there is one, which presumably comes under the Waterworks Department, at Swinsty Hall, alongside the reservoir in the Washburn Valley; there is the haunted Abbot’s bed in the Kirkstall Museum, and probably one or two others which have temporarily slipped my memory. But I must confess that until this week I did not know that we had a municipal Curse in Leeds.

The present bearer of the Curse is the lovely lady whom you see in the picture. She is one of the waxworks on which Mr. Kenneth Sanderson’s collection of old-time costumes are set out to their best advantage in the Leeds Art Gallery. On her head she wears a lace lappet, or head-dress, and it is with this that my story, which comes to me from Mr. Sanderson, is concerned.

The lappet belonged originally to Madame du Barry, having been given to her by Louis XV. Before her execution she is said to have placed a curse upon every item in her wardrobe, declaring that ill-luck  would attend anyone who presumed to wear her possessions.

Her treasures were scattered during the Revolution, and ultimately this lappet turned up at a Paris saleroom, where it was bought by an English visitor for his wife. That was in 1794. The lady wore the lappet at the Waterloo Victory Ball, and when coming home she was thrown out of her carriage and killed. Later, her daughter wore it—and immediately met with serious injuries through falling from her horse.

Then the lappet was hidden for a time, no one daring to wear it. Eventually, however, it was rescued by one of the younger generation who wore it at a ball. Not long afterwards she was drowned at sea.

Gradually, the lappet’s evil reputations was forgotten, but was discovered afresh when tragedy befell its new owner in 1914. After that it was kept securely hidden, and only given to Mr Sanderson for his collection on condition that he would never allow it to be worn by anyone – except the waxen beauty in my picture. So far she is bearing up well, but if ever she suffers from mice, damp or any other evils to which wax is heir, you will know the reason why.