The Serpentine dominates the southern end of Hyde Park in London. This man-made lake was created around 1730 for Queen Caroline, wife of King George II, blocking the Westbourne River. The Serpentine was one of the first artificial lakes in England designed to appear natural when long, straight lakes were in vogue at the time.

It did not take long to make the artificial lake a destination for suicides, there were dozens and dozens of suicide attempts every year, many of them fatal.

For example Harriet Westbrook Shelley committed suicide right here at age 21 in 1816. Harriet was the first wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and had been abandoned by him for Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, famous for writing Frankenstein. It is rumored that she was pregnant by a lover at the time of her suicide and many swear that her ghost still walks around the Serpentine.

A story tells that two ladies stopped on the bank of the Serpentine, and noticed something in the lake that was moving. A thin, pale hand was visible with long fingers opening and closing like those of a drowning person. On the middle finger the hand had a gold ring that sparkled and then the ghost hand disappeared into the lake.  Could that be Harriet’s ghost?

In 1857 a child was killed and thrown into the Serpentine, for several years it is said that a ghost of a child often passed by, so much so that many then decided not to go near the Hyde Park lake.

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There are also relatively recent testimonies of this apparition dating back to the 90s. This is a number 7 bus that appears in the Cambridge Gardens area of Notting Hill at 1.15am in the morning only in May.

The first appearance was in 1934 when a gentleman driving a car swerved quickly to avoid something and crashed into a wall and died instantly.

Some eyewitnesses said the man tried to avoid a number 7 bus, while a couple of others said there was no bus.

Other motorists since then swear they see a driverless bus with the lights off driving at high speed into their vehicle. But when they avoid them and turn to see what it was, the bus disappears.

No one has an idea of the reason for these apparitions and why they are seen always at the same time and only in the month of May.

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According to some Nostradamus predicted coronavirus but to be really honest it’s very unlikely. There have been posts on social media about this prophecy  attributed to Nostradamus.”“There will be a twin year (2020) from which will arise a queen (corona) who will come from the east (China) and who will spread a plague (virus) in the darkness of night, on a country with 7 hills (Italy) and will transform the twilight of men into dust (death), to destroy and ruin the world. It will be the end of the world economy as you know it.”

Experts have denied that this is a prophecy by Nostradamus who doesn’t have appeared to have predicted COVID-19.  He predicted for 2021 the start of Third World War and the deaths of Putin, the Pope and Trump.  He also predicted a massive earthquake in California, a new king in Britain and a financial crisis.  We still have a few days of this awful year so we can’t yet think we are safe. But as we know Nostradamus doesn’t get everything right. 

Just as well because according to whoever interprets his writing 2021 might be even worse.  In fact he predicts zombies, an asteroid hitting Earth, famine, a massive earthquake in California and the fact that people return to religion. Not a surprise after so many catastrophes.