R. Chetwynd-Hayes (ed.) – Doomed to the Night

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R. Chetwynd-Hayes (ed.) – Doomed to the Night (William Kimber, 1978)

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R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Introduction

W. Somerset Maugham – A Man from Glasgow
Barbara Joan Eyre – A Visit to Amelia Pride
A. M. Burrage – Browdean Farm
Daphne Froome – Strange Happenings at Canalps
Miss Braddon – The Cold Embrace
J. S. Lefanu – An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House
The Marquess of Lorne – The Double-Bedded Room
Mary E. Penn – In the Dark
Margaret Chilvers Cooper – And Not One Penny to the Innkeeper
Anonymous – At Ravenholme Junction
Richard Middleton – The Conjurer
Amelia Edwards – How the Third Floor Knew the Potteries
Martin Armstrong – The Pipe Smoker
Ambrose Bierce – A Jug of Syrup
Anonymous – The Legend of Gorie Grange
Eric Ambrose – The Man Who Died
R. Chetwynd-Hayes – The Day that Father Brought Something Home

He'd already included the Maugham, Burrage and Mary E. Fitt stories in earlier collections, but otherwise Doomed To The Night has the feel of what might have been The 21st Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories had not the series been cancelled. It's the typical RCH curates egg. Downside is that much precious space is afforded the over-familiar (Le Fanu, Braddon, Bierce) and the forgotten for good reason (Tory girl the Marquess of Lorne's tedious non-adventure in The Double-Bedded Room. On a positive note, original contributions from Fontana Ghost regulars Daphne Froome, Margaret Chilvers Cooper and Barbara Joan Eyre, plus the welcome revival of Richard Middleton's sad and lonely tale of The Conjurer whose one moment of magic destroys his life.


The Marquess of Lorne - The Double-Bedded Room: (Blackwoods, Sept. 1894). Celebrity dowser Cecil Wake and our narrator, D ------, are hiking in the Swiss Alps, when an electrical storm forces them to seek shelter at the nearest hotel. Wake is loath to share a room with D., as he has an uneasy feeling about the place. D. is suitably appalled at his friend's attitude - is Long trying to imply ...?!!!! - until he, too, glimpses the sorrowful phantom mourners gathered around the dead man in the bed. They later learn that the ghost corpse is that of a fellow English traveller struck down by lightening.

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Having read Chetwynd-Hayes's introduction - same format as we're familiar with - am now convinced more than ever that this collection was conceived as The 21st Book Of Fontana Great Ghost Stories.

Anonymous – At Ravenholme Junction: Exhausted and depressed, signalman Dazely fell asleep on duty just long enough to cause a fatal collision between the night mail and a coal train. Overcome by grief and shame, the poor man hung himself. Tonight is the second anniversary.

Eric Ambrose – The Man Who Died: At the moment of his death, Henry Bell realises that his supposed best friend, John Martin, is secretly delighted at his passing as he stands to inherit a small fortune. Such is Bell's fury at being duped that his undying hatred for the man takes possession of a complete stranger, Leslie Hibbert. Eight years later, Hibbert, believing himself Bell's ghost, calls on the grasping, duplicitous Martin, intent on bloody vengeance.

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Barbara Joan Eyre – A Visit to Amelia Pride: Recently widowed Mrs. Eliza Becket is a volunteer visitor of the elderly and socially isolated. It is not the most rewarding vocation, especially as she is more miserably and crotchety than her lonely charges, and her new client, Miss Amelia Pride, proves a difficult proposition. A nicely told spot-the-ghost(s) story, but saw the twist-ending coming a mile off and I'm not usually very good at that kind of thing.

Anonymous - The Legend Of Gorie Grange: "And from behind the door cautiously there peered in - the face of a black man.

Another Victorian melodrama, this time narrated by one Anthony Hare, a pompous short-arse who fondly regards himself "a most amusing man and a favourite in society." Hare lives with his three great-aunts at the old Blankshire Grange, and the legend concerns the death of his ancestor, a miser and recluse, murdered in his bed by person unknown. The chief suspect, Sambo, a sinister West Indian manservant, disappeared without trace that same night. Renovation work on the old West Wing stirs up the past.

Richard Middleton – The Conjurer: The audience at Hennings Theatre are in hostile mood due to the no-show of the star attraction, Cissie Bradford, while the washed out stage magician who is standing in for her is having a bad night. But their jeers turn to applause when the Conjurer makes his wife disappear before their eyes. Mr. Henning even gives him a contract, but it's no consolation now he can't bring back Molly.

W. Somerset Maugham - The Man From Glasgow: When the narrator meets Robert Morrison, he finds him contagiously jumpy and takes him for a chronic alcoholic. Morrison is returning home after spending "too long" in Spain where he's been managing an olive grove. In the centre of the grove stands a derelict house, and it's the dreadful laughter and screams emanating from within that haunt him. Twenty years earlier, the mad owner was slain with a razor, and the crime is re-enacted on nights of the full moon. Morrison hopes that by putting an ocean between himself and San Lorenzo, he will no longer hear the lunatic laughter ...

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Amelia B. Edwards - How The Third Floor Knew The Potteries: Another marvelous Victorian supernatural melodrama from The Phantom Coachwoman. Louis Larache, a skilled painter on porcelain, lands a well paid job at the pottery and sets about alienating the work force, most notably honest George Barnard the foreman and the company watchdog, Captain. The flash, evil-eyed Frenchie soon seduces George's much younger fiancee, Leah Payne, generally regarded as the local beauty. One day George fails to turn up for his shift, and everyone assumes that, unable to face the lovely Leah's desertion, he's packed his bags for good. But that night the foreman's ghost appears to young Ben, the apprentice, and directs him to a furnace in the baking house where a horrible discovery awaits.

Daphne Froome - Strange Happenings At Canalps: Shortly before construction work begins on a new dam, the brilliant Swiss engineer, Friedrich Hertzberg, is killed in a landslide. On opening day, His ghost - accompanied by the phantom of his still-living daughter - appears to an English colleague to warn of a structural defect. Decent story, but do-gooder, busy-body spooks ain't really my thing.

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Mary E. Penn - In The Dark: Yet more Victorian ghastliness. After the death of his wife, John Drysart and daughter move into The Cedars, a charming riverside villa near Kew. Ethel dreams that there is a child locked in her bedroom closet. Her sceptical father recommends she lay off the cucumber at night, but wise old Dr. Cameron is sympathetic. A certain Captain Vandeleur lived here for a time with his orphan nephew, a simple-minded child with a morbid fear of the dark. When the boy died, Vandeleur got rich on a life insurance policy and left England in disgrace. I'm sure you can put two and two together.

Martin Armstrong - The Pipe-Smoker: Seeking shelter from the rain, a traveller calls at the nearest house. An old recluse in priestly attire welcomes the Heaven-sent opportunity to unburden himself of a terrible crime - the murderer of his predecessor, Rev. James Baxter! The traveller thinks it best to humour his mad host's request that he sit before the five-lighted window where Baxter died. At a certain time during the day, explains the bogus clergyman, something strange happens in the fifth glass panel ....

Ambrose Bierce – A Jug of Syrup: Although he died in mid-July, such is Silas Deemer's diligence to duty that he's back behind the counter of his general store within three weeks. As Mr. Creede the bank manager soon learns, his wares have a habit of disappearing once purchased. Very slight, but (I thought) very funny.