Bryan A. Netherwood - Medley Macabre

[dem bones]

Bryan A. Netherwood (ed.) - Medley Macabre: An Anthology of Stories of the Supernatural, Being Ghosts, Psychic Phenomena, Psychical Phenomena, Uncanny Mysteries (Hammond Hammond, 1966, 1970)

Richard Harris

Introduction - Bryan A. Netherwood

Malign Influences, Sorceries, Evil Powers.

M. R. James - The Stalls Of Barchester Cathedral
Ralph Adams Cram - No. 252 Rue M. Le Prince
Arthur Machen - Out Of The Picture
H. G. Wells - The Red Room
E. F. Benson - Negotium Perambulans
Algernon Blackwood - Smith: An Episode In A Lodging House
William F. Harvey - The Ankardyne Pew
H. Russell Wakefield - Lucky’s Grove
H. Russell Wakefield - Or Persons Unknown
M. P. Dare - “Bring Out Your Dead”
Noel Langley - The Bone Bead Necklace
Nigel Kneale - Minuke

Phantoms And Ghostly Visitations

A. M. Burrage - The Green Scarf
Mrs. Catherine Crowe - Seventh Evening
Edith Wharton - The Eyes
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch - A Pair Of Hands
R. H. Benson - Father Macclesfield’s Tale
Elliott O’Donnell - The Grey Piper And The Heavy Coach Of Donaldgowerie House, Perth
Elliott O’Donnell - The House Of The Ghostly Tap-Dancing
Oliver Onions - The Cigarette Case
Thomas Burke - The Lonely Inn
William Croft Dickinson - Return At Dusk

Possession By Evil Influences

F. Marion Crawford - For The Blood is The Life
E. and H. Heron - The Story Of The Grey House
L. P. Hartley - Feet Foremost
Dennis Wheatley - The Case Of The Long Dead Lord

Prediction And Doom

Robert Hichens - Demetriadi’s Dream
Violet Hunt - The Barometer
E. F. Benson - The Bus Conductor
Sir Andrew Caldecott - Seated One Day At The Organ
William F. Harvey - August Heat

Spiritualism And Magic

Ambrose Bierce - The Realm Of The Unreal
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Playing With Fire
J. B. Priestley - The Other Place

Witchcraft And Satanism

M. R. James - The Ash Tree
E. F. Benson - The Sanctuary
Algernon Blackwood - May Day Eve
R. H. Malden - A Collector’s Company
Amyas Northcote - The Late Mrs. Fowke
R. Ellis Roberts - The Hill
H. P. Lovecraft - The Haunter Of The Dark


Best UK horror/ supernatural anthology of the 'sixties? Medley Macabre is certainly in with a strong shout. It's as though Mr. Netherwood took Montague Summers' likewise indispensable The Supernatural Omnibus as his template, even down to reprising the barking one's happy tendency to mix in some quirky choices with acknowledged classics.

We didn't really get very far with giving a blow by blow account of Medley .. on our the first attempt, so time to put that right over the coming days!

[mattofthespurs]

This one did arrive yesterday from eBay though.
I've read the first story.
Looks like it's going to be an excellent read.
I'm taking it with me tonight. I'm staying in a haunted hotel just outside St Ives (near Cambridge, not the south west one).
Just for one night where the tomb of a young lady who committed suicide is in the bar.
Looking forward to it. ;D

[killercrab]

I'm taking it with me tonight. I'm staying in a haunted hotel just outside St Ives (near Cambridge, not the south west one). >.

Ha ha I read scary books so I don't have to go stay in places like that! Gimme a comfy sofa and brew and I'm set. ;D

KC

[dem bones]

Amyas Northcote - The Late Mrs. Fowke: High drama at the Parsonage. The Reverend Barnabus Fowke could hardly believe his luck when Stella Farnleigh accepted his marriage proposal and it never occur ed to him to find out more about his bride to be. Stella, locally unpopular as she and her mother were back in Hungary, is given to putting up at an inn of ill repute on certain nights and is not about to change her routine over such a trifling matter as marriage. The Reverend follows her on one of these excursions ... and is horrified to discover that she is High Priestess of a Black Magic cult! How can he stop this Devil-worshipper and her hooded cronies?

Thomas Burke - The Lonely Inn: Two stranger's chance upon The White Cockade, a remote and supremely dismal pub hidden in the Derbyshire countryside, landlord uncommunicative, customers surly. After a time, both men are aware of the hushed whispers "that's him", and it seems these fellows recognise 'Mac' (on account of his being a Scot) and aren't the least pleased to see him. The following weekend, Mac visits The White Cockade alone. It's the last anyone ever sees of him or the pub which was burnt down 200 years ago. An old gardener and local history buff has a terrible tale to relate.

E & H. Heron - The Story Of The Grey House: A Flaxman Low adventure. 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.

H. R. Wakefield - Lucky’s Grove: Christmas Day, 1938, and “the cream of North Berkshire society” descend on the Braxton’s snowbound Abindale Hall. Unfortunately, Mr. Braxton’s land agent, Curtis, has retrieved their splendid tree from the locally shunned Lucky’s Grove. The larch in question, furious at being uprooted and festooned in Disney characters, wreaks spectacular Norse God-assisted vengeance, and deforming the snowman is the least of it. It all makes for an interesting holiday and gives the survivors much to ponder.

H. R. Wakefield - Or Persons Unknown: How Sir Roger Wallington met his dreadful end after taking on the Gypsy poachers on his magnificent property, Elin Court. Having gotten himself royally pissed at his club, Wallington is driving home by the woods near Ollen when he spies his nemesis, Black Jack and his faithful hound, Scottie, standing in the road. Sir Roger swings the car at Black Jack, misses, and mows down the dog instead. "I was rather fond of Scottie, and knew all his tricks ... He's got some funny tricks too. Don't be too sure you've done with him!" warns the poacher, shoving the dogs mangled face into Wallington's.

Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle - Playing With Fire: London. The small party at 17 Badderley Gardens will never again realise the same success they enjoyed the night M. Paul de Duc joined them for a seance. M de Duc believes that "when you imagine a thing you make a thing" - a terrifying concept when you think about it - and on this evidence he's right. First, via medium Mrs. Delamere, a chatty spirit gives the assembled invaluable insight into the afterlife, then the Frenchman rather foolishly conducts his experiment ... and materialises a unicorn. Which promptly goes berserk.

William F. Harvey - August Heat: James Withencroft, artist sketches the impression of a man he's never met, " ... enormously fat. The flesh hung in rolls about his chin: it creased his huge, stumpy neck ...He stood in the dock, his short, clumsy fingers gripping the rail, looking straight in front of him. The feeling that his expression conveyed was not so much one of horror as of utter, absolute collapse."
Satisfied with his work, Withencroft goes for a stroll. Its a sweltering day and lost in thought, he wanders into a stone-masons, to be confronted with the original of his picture. The mason seems genial enough, working on a gravestone he's planning to enter for an exhibition. Withencroft reads the name he's inscribed and asked how he came by it. The mason tells him it's a funny thing, but he plucked it straight out of the air. It is, of course, Withencroft's, with his exact date of birth to boot.

To reveal any more would be to ruin it for anyone who's not read it (you should), but Fryer seems to be of the opinion that we're all of us God's toys, manipulated by powers we can't hope to comprehend. And these forces are not necessarily benign. This theme surfaces again in one of his out-and-out horrors ...

E. F. Benson - Negotium Perambulans: " ... and him that had been a great burly man was withered to a bag o' skin, for the critter had drained all the blood from him."

Polearm, an isolated fishing village in Western Cornwall. A panel in the church depicts a priest stood at the lychgate brandishing a crucifix at the huge caterpillar-cum-slug-like entity, "the pestilence that walketh in darkness", reputed to have destroyed at least two Godless men. Now John Evans, a likable local artist who grew up at the rectory, moves into the cursed Quarry-house. In no time he's cultivated a serious Whiskey habit and his paintings take a turn for the monstrous. The narrator is present to witness his terrible doom.

A horror masterpiece and no mistake. My tiny criticism is that Evans and the previous victim might have attempted something worse than hitting the bottle and skipping church to warrant their deplorable fate? Chetwynd-Hayes borrowed heavily from this for his Looking For Something To Suck.


Coming soon: the strange and frightening truth behind the Westminister "horrible dwarf" scare when a little girl was set upon by a monster and dropped her bag of sugar!

[dem bones]

Arthur Machen - Out Of The Picture (The Children Of The Pool, 1936): Machen's take on his hero Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a slow burner, but switches gear with the advent of the Horrible Dwarf's reign of terror in the City. Artist and student of the Kabalah Sandy M'Calmont's attempts at achieving a new, realistic style for his paintings results in a series of landscapes of singular oppression and terror. Studying the paintings, Machen is impressed by the solitary, at first vague, twisted figure in Eighteenth century dress M'Calmont has included in each of his works, coming more into prominence as the series progresses.

Shortly after Machen is treated to this private showing, a young girl is attacked by a hideous brute in Westminster. The incident is a seven day wonder in the press, soon dismissed as the mischief of "one of those tiresome but not dangerous semi-lunatics who cut off girls' hair on the bus, or slash their clothes in the street", until the 'Horrible Dwarf' strikes again and again, becoming ever more violent with each outrage. Machen is certain that M'Calmont is in some way connected to these assaults, and late one foggy night, he makes a terrible discovery ...

Once it gets going, Out Of The Picture mutates into something approaching a (very literate!) penny dreadful! Machen references the London Monster, Jack the Ripper, fraudulent mediums, Gothic architecture and poltergeist activity in a Hornsey flat, all of which have some bearing on the plot.

[dem bones]

just dug this out while i get in training for another attempt. We had a Medley Macabre thread going on Vault MK I, initiated by Victoria, the much-missed first lady of Vault, so no harm in a swift exhumation;

Victoria (Apr 13th, 2006) - Just got this today in my local Oxfam! I've had a look round the board and I don't think it's mentioned elsewhere so here's the contents list:

Phew! This one should keep me busy for a while. A few old favourites, but some I haven't come across before. I'm particularly looking forward to "The House Of The Ghostly Tap Dancing"- hope it doesn't involve Lionel Blair (though that would be quite scary).

It also has a great cover (by Richard Harris)- kind of Clyfford Still- ish running colours over a skull.

dem

Great find, especially with the jacket. It's a shame Netherwood didn't have a long stint as an anthologist as the only two I've been able to find (this and the much smaller Uncanny) were both excellent, a thoughtful mix of the familiar and the relatively obscure [there's a third, Terror (Blackie & Sons, 1970)]. Medley Macabre puts me in mind of Montague Summers' The Supernatural Omnibus from the 'thirties.

The first section, MALIGN INFLUENCES, SORCERIES, EVIL POWERS, would make a great paperback.

Let us know how you get on with it!

Victoria

Just finished "Lucky's Grove" (which I'd never come across before), which kind of reminds me of "Orange Is For Anguish, Blue For Insanity" by David Morrell- another "there's something nasty in the woods" number. Also enjoyed "The Barometer"- another first time read. It's great to find an anthology with some really unusual choices.

Calenture

It's a shame Netherwood didn't have a long stint as an anthologist... a thoughtful mix of the familiar and the relatively obscure. Medley Macabre puts me in mind of Montague Summers' The Supernatural Omnibus from the 'thirties.

Yep, I was thinking Montague Summers, too. And some of these are obscure. I don't think I've seen that Arthur Machen story elsewhere.

The story I'm curious about here is The Robert Hichens one. Anyone know it? I guess everyone's read his How Love Came to Professor Guildea, which is arguably the scariest thing I've read. But it's also the only story of his that I know! So I'll be interested to read your opinion of Demetriadi's Dream, Victoria.

Nice one!

Victoria

The Machen is great- kind of "Pickman's Model" meets Jeykll and Hyde! I found the Hitchens a bit disappointing, though. It was one of those stories that begins really well but ends rather abruptly- in fact the direction I thought it was going in was more interesting than what actually happened! I haven't read the other story you mention, Calenture, so I can't compare the two- do you know if it's available on line at all?

Calenture

I just Googled How Love Came to Professor Guildea, and found this page: www.otrcat.com/scififav.htm. If I understand it right, you get over 34 hours of radio shows in mp3 format for $5??? Including How Love Came to Professor Guildea! Can that be right?

Better check!

I think I'll get that free Quiet Please download from this page, before it goes away.

Incidentally, Victoria, I think you said you were looking forward to reading the Elliott O'Donnell story. I've just had to revise my own thoughts about O'Donnell, as previously I hadn't liked his 'docu-fiction' approach. But I've been reading this Creeps volume: gruesomecargoes.proboards52.com/index.cgi?board=creepy&action=display&thread=1142620128.

Dem' has provided the synopsis for O'Donnell's The Ghost Table, which - to my surprise - I enjoyed reading last night!

Victoria

Thanks for the link- just finished reading it. You're right, Demonik, it's far more memorable than "Demetriadi's Dream".

Just out of interest: the character of Father Murchison reminded me of Chesterton's "Father Brown" (of whom I'm a huge fan)- right down to the physical description. Do you think Hitchens might have "borrowed" it?

Calenture

The descriptions of Fathers Murchison and Brown are certainly strikingly similar. I was reading the Father Brown stories late last year, and as soon as I saw those first few lines of Hichens story, I thought of Father Brown, too. But according to my Readers Encyclopedia, the Hichens story predates the first Father Brown book by 11 years...which I guess leaves us wondering if Chesterton read Hichens!

And thanks for yet another great link. Some of us (me, for instance) hadn't found that site at all.

dem

You can read How Love Came to Professor Guildea here (Gaslight: where would we be without them?). It's certainly a far more memorable story than Demetriadi's Dream: it always puts me in mind of Oliver Onions' succubus story The Beckoning Fair One for reasons I am utterly incapable of articulating.

I found this 1924 anthology with the unpromising title Twenty And Three Stories by Twenty And Three Authors which turns out to be ... a ghost & horror anthology! If I get a minute's peace, I'll type up the details, but Hichens has a story in there, The Nomad.

Out Of The Picture is a blur to me, but "Pickman's Model" meets "Jeykll and Hyde!" - how can I not re-read it?

The Haunted Table is typical of O'Donnell's Creeps stories. I find them much of a muchness, but enjoyably so. The Haunted Spinney has one of those twist endings you see coming somewhere around the fourth paragraph, but it's no less entertaining for that. Another features death by having a nail hammered into your brain as you sleep.

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

Thanks to the mention of 'several Jamesian items' when this anthology was mentioned in the very first Ghosts & Scholars - which I'm only 38 years late in reading - I ordered a copy of this, and it's turned up just in time for Christmas. Quite a few authors in there I'd been interested in investigating, so I think I'm in for a treat.

[Michael Connolly]

Dec 22, 2017 12:16:28 GMT The Lurker In The Shadows said:

Thanks to the mention of 'several Jamesian items' when this anthology was mentioned in the very first Ghosts & Scholars - which I'm only 38 years late in reading - I ordered a copy of this, and it's turned up just in time for Christmas. Quite a few authors in there I'd been interested in investigating, so I think I'm in for a treat.

Fortunately, like Medley Macabre, copies of Bryan A. Netherwood's other two equally worthwhile anthologies Terror! (1970) and Uncanny (1974) are easy to find. I think I paid £2.81 for very good copies of the last two.

I do have a question.  Does anyone know anything about Bryan A. Netherwood? 

[Michael Connolly]

Dec 22, 2017 13:49:30 GMT Michael Connolly said:

Dec 22, 2017 12:16:28 GMT The Lurker In The Shadows said:

Thanks to the mention of 'several Jamesian items' when this anthology was mentioned in the very first Ghosts & Scholars - which I'm only 38 years late in reading - I ordered a copy of this, and it's turned up just in time for Christmas. Quite a few authors in there I'd been interested in investigating, so I think I'm in for a treat.

Fortunately, like Medley Macabre, copies of Bryan A. Netherwood's other two equally worthwhile anthologies Terror! (1970) and Uncanny (1974) are easy to find. I think I paid £2.81 for very good copies of the last two.

I do have a question.  Does anyone know anything about Bryan A. Netherwood? 

Apparently not.

[fritzmaitland]

Had to head straight for the Dennis Wheatley - The Case Of The Long Dead Lord. Marvellous Scots atmosphere at Castle Stuart, a modern (less than 150 years old) version of a nearby ruin. An American gent and his daughter are there for the shootin', but she's become awfully listless and almost fey. Her English gentlemen friend is so perturbed by her change in manner and reports of strange visitations in her room (although he's slept in there with nae bother), he calls in a Norwegian psychic investigator, but asks this character to pose as a naturalist so as not to alarm anyone else.Despite turning up with a cat, and especially developed (hee!) cameras and sound equipment, the Scandinavian Harry Price gets nowhere until hints of foul play involving the girl's ancestors at the auld castle provoke a quick library scan, and a last minute dash through psychic fog...throwaway stuff'n'nonsnse, rather well told, especially the ending.

Tried the Machen. Glad there's some explanations here as I was rather at sea with it, especially the abrupt change right in the middle, when it jumps from vaguely occult paintin, to horrible dwarf sadism at the drop of a hat.

[helrunar]

Great thread. Bryan Netherwood must be a pseudonym of somebody or other.

cheers, Hel

[fritzmaitland]

October 27 - after the female frightfest yesterday, calmed things down today with a couple of genteel and frightfully British ghost stories.

Oliver Onions - The Cigarette Case
Thomas Burke - The Lonely Inn

Both concern a pair of British gents ending up in a mysterious place, that , should you go back the next day...
Particularly enjoyed the taciturn landlord and shadowy clientele (when you walk in, you wouldn't know they were there) of The Lonely Inn.

[Michael Connolly]

Nov 2, 2008 14:13:01 GMT dem bones said:

Arthur Machen - Out Of The Picture (The Children Of The Pool, 1936): Machen's take on his hero Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a slow burner, but switches gear with the advent of the Horrible Dwarf's reign of terror in the City. Artist and student of the Kabalah Sandy M'Calmont's attempts at achieving a new, realistic style for his paintings results in a series of landscapes of singular oppression and terror. Studying the paintings, Machen is impressed by the solitary, at first vague, twisted figure in Eighteenth century dress M'Calmont has included in each of his works, coming more into prominence as the series progresses.

Shortly after Machen is treated to this private showing, a young girl is attacked by a hideous brute in Westminster. The incident is a seven day wonder in the press, soon dismissed as the mischief of "one of those tiresome but not dangerous semi-lunatics who cut off girls' hair on the bus, or slash their clothes in the street", until the 'Horrible Dwarf' strikes again and again, becoming ever more violent with each outrage. Machen is certain that M'Calmont is in some way connected to these assaults, and late one foggy night, he makes a terrible discovery ...

Once it gets going, Out Of The Picture mutates into something approaching a (very literate!) penny dreadful! Machen references the London Monster, Jack the Ripper, fraudulent mediums, Gothic architecture and poltergeist activity in a Hornsey flat, all of which have some bearing on the plot.

It had a plot?  I could not understand this story.

[Middoth]

Oct 29, 2021 19:49:35 GMT Michael Connolly said:

It had a plot?  I could not understand this story.

In short, the artist freed the demons with his art.

[Michael Connolly]

Oct 29, 2021 19:56:33 GMT Middoth said:

Oct 29, 2021 19:49:35 GMT Michael Connolly said:

It had a plot?  I could not understand this story.

In short, the artist freed the demons with his art.

I haven't looked at this story for probably over twenty years and you give the end away!