Mildred Darby (née Dill; 18 March 1867 – 5 January 1932) was an Anglo-Irish novelist in the Gothic genre and owner of Leap Castle, considered the most haunted castle in Ireland partly due to her input.
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Biography
Mildred Henrietta Gordon Dill was the daughter of Richard Dill and Augusta Caroline Wale. She married Jonathan Charles Darby, son of Jonathan Darby and Caroline Graham. Jonathan Charles Darby was the heir to the Darby family and the last Darby to own Leap Castle. Together he and Mildred had five children.
Mildred Darby was interested in the supernatural and was a regular writer of Gothic novels. Her novel Paddy-risky was published in 1903. Since women writers of Gothic novels often published under alternative names, or anonymously, this book was published under her pen name of Andrew Merry. Her work was reviewed by the Spectator: "Paddy Risky" is a capital farce not unworthy of comparison with the best descriptions of country race-meetings in the "Recollections of an Irish R.M."
In 1910 she published her Gothic novel The Hunger. Her interest in the supernatural was quite common for people of the time and she regularly held séances in the castle. She described the atmosphere and things she claimed to see to the journal Occult Review in December 1908:
Suddenly, two hands were laid on my shoulders. I turned round sharply and saw, as clearly as I see you now-a grey ‘Thing’, standing a couple of feet from me, with its bent arms raised as if it were cursing me. I cannot describe in words how utterly awful the ‘Thing’ was, its very undefinableness rendering the horrible shadow more gruesome. Human in shape, a little shorter than I am, I could just make out the shape of big black holes like great eyes and sharp features, but the whole figure-head, face, hands and all-was grey-unclean, blueish grey, something of the colour and appearance of common cotton wool. But, oh! so sinister, repulsive and devilish. My friends who are clever about occult things say it is what they call an 'Elemental'.