Lord Lyttelton’s warning

Thomas, second Lord Lyttelton, a notorious rake, told friends that a bird had fluttered at his window and a woman in white had warned him he would die at midnight on the third day. On that day he took a party to Pit Place near Epsom, where the clocks were secretly put forward half an hour, and he seemed in good spirits. He went to bed, kept looking at his watch and joked that the lady was no true prophetess, but near the real hour of twelve he was found dead in a fit. He died on 27 November 1779, and the tale became one of the best known English ghost stories.