The Eclipse Inn in Winchester (formerly a Rectory) is haunted by the ghost of Lady Alice Lisle. Lady Alice was found guilty of hiding fugitive Cavaliers in 1685 by the notorious Judge Jeffries. She was sentenced to death and a scaffold was erected in front of the Eclipse. Lady Alice stepped onto the scaffold from a window where she was subsequently beheaded for her crime. She was 71 years old.

Lady Alice had given refuge to a Cavalier by the name of John Hickes during the Monmouth Rebellion. She claimed that she was not aware that Hickes had fought for Monmouth at Sedgemoor and was betrayed by a fellow villager. She was arrested by a former Cavalier who bore a grudge against her husband who had been a strong supporter of Oliver Cromwell and who was murdered by a Royalist assassin in Switzerland.

Judge Jeffries presided over Lady Alice's trial and bullied witnesses so that he would be successful in convicting the old lady. Having been found guilty she was originally sentenced to be burned at the stake but the public petitioned the King who changed the sentence to a beheading.

It was at the Eclipse Inn that Lady Alice spent her final days before stepping onto the scaffold and meeting the axeman who was going to carry out the beheading.

Lady Alice's spirit returns frequently to the Eclipse Inn where it haunts the room she was held in before her death and her footsteps have been heard treading the narrow passageways on the upper floors of the Inn.

A grey lady, believed to be Lady Alice has appeared to several people including the wife of a doctor who awoke one night to find her standing at the foot of her bed. A similar experience was had by a Naval Officer who was so frightened by the apparition that he packed his bags immediately and fled the building.

Shadowy figures have been seen in the passageways by staff and guests and a strange presence has been felt in the room haunted by Lady Alice.. Some people have reported the feeling of being touched and when they turned were stunned to find a grey apparition vanishing before them. Feelings of being watched by something have also been reported and even one cleaner reported being pushed gently prior to the appearance of the apparition.

Lady Alice is reported to be a tall woman dressed in a long grey woollen dress and is often seen standing quite still in the corner of the room.