The Wicked Lady ACEO

ACEO, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, watercolor and gouache, 2008.

The Wicked Lady was Catherine Ferrers, a young woman married to a man she disliked and living in the country in the mid-17th century. For excitement she began to disguise herself as a highwayman and rob coaches. She soon became notorious for a series of daring robberies. She had no need of the loot she stole and hid it in a secret room along with her disguise. Eventually she was wounded during a robbery. Her husband found her dead at the door of her secret room. He sealed the room and had her quietly buried. However, Catherine's ghost is said to haunt her old home, Markyate Cell, and the surrounding lanes.

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