E. And H. Heron - Ghost Stories

[dem bones]

E. And H. Heron (Kate and Hesketh Prichard) - Ghost Stories (Pearsons, 1916)

Introduction

The Story Of The Spaniards, Hammersmith
The Story Of Medhans Lea
The Story Of The Moor Road
The Story Of Baelbrow
The Story Of The Grey House
The Story Of Yand Manor House


The details of these stories have been supplied by the narratives of those most concerned, supplemented by the clear and ample notes which Mr. Flaxman Low has had the courtesy to place in our hands.

For obvious reasons, the exact localities where these events are said to have happened are in every case merely indicated.

Includes:

The Story Of The Spaniards, Hammersmith: Low comes up against a top ghost in this one, a damp, clammy diseased thing which had once been a leper and likes to strangle the unfortunate inhabitants of a particular bed.

The Story Of The Baelbrow: Baelness, East Anglia. The Swaffams' family mansion has been haunted for several generations. The present day owners are rather fond of their spook - until it turns malevolent and frightens a maid to death. Low discovers that the mansion was built on the site of an ancient barrow, and an evil spirit has animated a mummy brought home by one of the family. To make matters worse, the mummy displays classic vampire behaviour. Haunting terminated when Swaffam blows it's face off and the remains are set alight and cast adrift in a canoe.

The Story Of The Moor Road: An elemental haunts the lonely road, fast draining the life from Scully. "Coughing like a sick cow" it attacks another fellow, who is fortunate to survive. Enter Flaxman Low.

The Story Of The Grey House: A lonely village on the coast of Devon. Low volunteers to investigate the mystery of the house prepared for young Montesson by his horticulturalist guardian, Lampart, in which several people have been found "not just strangled, but suspended, as the marks on their necks show." The puncture marks on the throat suggests the culprit to be another vampire. Perhaps the red-blossomed creepers climbing the walls of the building because they've been possessed by an evil spirit have something to do with it.

These stories were originally published in the larger collection, Ghosts: Being The Experiences Of Flaxman Low (Pearsons, 1899). According to E. F. Bleiler, "the original periodical publications contained photographs of each haunted house!"

[unholyturnip]

These sound really good actually. Has there been any recent publication of their works?

[dem bones]

Well, I wouldn't go by anything I have to say about it, if I were you, as there's many who've barely lived to regret taking one of my recommendations, although The Story Of The Spaniards, Hammersmith seems generally well regarded and Montague Summers was a fan.

According to the excellent Tartarus site, a Ghost Story Press edition of the above (1993) reprints the stories as they first appeared in periodical form (presumably what Bleiler is talking about). Ash Tree added a Jack Adrian introduction and reprinted it as The Experiences of Flaxman Low, 2003. Perhaps someone can tell us if there's been a more recent edition?

The Heron's/ Pritchard's didn't score too highly in the Wordsworth poll (on here, at least), but the fact they're out of copyright means it might be wise to hang around and see what happens before meeting the asking price for a second-hand Ash Tree.

[lobolover]

I downloaded some of these of Horrormasters, but they dont have all. Its funny how they recently upload just four authors over and over again. Middleton and Lin Linton mostly, but ive never heard of them, so im afraid to read any of those. After all, its on horrormasters that I actualy stumbeled upon "The eggs of the silver moon" by R.W.Chambers, which has about as close to a horror story, as Ahmadinejad from wining a Nobel Piece prize and recieving honorary citizenship of Izrael

For the slow: it deals with a suposed murder, that doesnt happen, has a female detective , the narrator being mushy over her , the title comes from scientists hatchign some bug eggs and being competent about it (and NO, nothing of the weird, horrible or even unusual happens in acordance with the bugs) and the "terrible" shocker at the end is when he sees the detective smacking lips with his asistant. This coming from the man, who wrote "The king in yellow" and "The maker of moons" .

So unless I have it confirmed anywhere, I dont download things I dont know.

However, this does not aply here, so ignore my rant

[lobolover]

Anyway, dem, what about the two others, they worth a check or not?

[humgoo]

I lucked out some years ago and got a reasonably priced copy of the Ash-Tree edition, which is introduced by Jack Adrian. As one may expect of Mr. Adrian, the introduction is meandering, gossipy and thus utterly fascinating.

Instead of discussing the tales in detail, Mr. Adrian tells us Hesketh "does seem to have had an excessive—verging on the unhealthy—fondness for his mother. His extant letters to her make for uncomfortable reading today", and devotes some paragraphs to speculating on his cause of death: "It should perhaps, at least for completeness's sake, be pointed out (although I doubt anyone will thank me for it) that these symptoms also bear some resemblance to symptoms of certain sexually transmitted diseases".

As to the stories, Mr. Adrian's comment is succinct: "The stories in Ghosts are fresh and original (apart from the final two in the sequence, which do contain rather more than just a nod to the Holmes/Moriarty business in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes), highly significant in the history of weird literature and extremely influential [...]"

I think what I like most about the Flaxman Low stories is that the best of them are meant to be mysteries, with clues laid conscientiously for "fair play" with the reader before the denouement (like, the reader should be able to solve it, if only they're sharp enough and know those thing as well as Mr. Low!), not just ghost stories narrated by a "psychic sleuth".

[darko]

I have a copy of this book. If anyone is interested please message me.