Elizabeth Dearnley [ed.] - Into the London Fog

[dem bones]

Elizabeth Dearnley [ed.] - Into the London Fog: Eerie Tales from the Weird City (British Library Tales of the Weird. 2020)

Cover design by Maurico Villamayor: illustration Enrique Bernardou

Elizabeth Dearnley - Introduction

TEMPLE: Violet Hunt - The Telegram
REGENT’S PARK: Lettice Galbraith - In the Séance Room
KENSINGTON: Elizabeth Bowen - The Demon Lover
MAYFAIR: Rhoda Broughton - The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth
SOHO: Thomas Burke - War, an extract from London In My Time
THE STRAND: Virginia Woolfe - Street Haunting
HOLBORN: Claude McKay - Pugilist vs Poet, an extract from A Long Way from Home
STOKE NEWINGTON: Arthur Machen - N
WHITECHAPEL: Marie Belloc Lowndes - The Lodger
WATERLOO: Sam Selvon - My Girl and the City
CRYSTAL PALACE: Edith Nesbit -The Mystery of the Semi—Detached
VAUXHALL: Charlotte Riddell - The Old House in Vauxhall Walk
PUTNEY (AND BLOOMSBURY): E. F. Benson -The Chippendale Mirror
PECKHAM: Anonymous - Spring—Heeled Jack

Blurb:
'Outside, where the air was foggy, the square was noiseless, save for an occasional hoot of a motor passing into the streets. By degrees I found the light growing rather dim, as if the fog had penetrated into the room...'

As the smoky dark sweeps across the capital, strange stories emerge from the night. A séance reveals a ghastly secret in the murk of Regent's Canal. From south of the Thames come chilling reports of a spring-heeled spectre, and in Stoke Newington rumours abound of an opening to another world among the quiet alleys.

Join Elizabeth Dearnley on this atmospheric tour through a shadowy London, a city which has long inspired writers of the weird and uncanny. Waiting in the hazy streets are eerie tales from Charlotte Riddell, Lettice Galbraith and Violet Hunt, along with haunting pieces by Virginia Woolf, Arthur Machen, Sam Selvon and many more.

Violet Hunt - The Telegram: (Tales of the Uneasy, 1911). Fiercely independent Miss Alice Damer, incorrigible flirt, encourages marriage proposals so she may reject them on the grounds that she might one day meet a man she actually loves. Only once has she come unstuck, and then, as always, her faithful, besotted doormat Everard Jenkyns was there to pick up the pieces. Now, with her mother dead and the years taking a toll, Alice finally gives up on finding Mr. Right. She will wed Everard and make the best of it. Except Everard has been terribly unwell recently and we can only hope she's not left it too late.

Lettice Galbraith - In the Séance Room: (New Ghost Stories, 1893). Dr. Valentine Burke, phoney psychic, is on the brink of marrying money in the shapely form of Miss Elma Long, when a ghost from his recent past threatens to ruin all. A passing fancy, Miss Katherine Greaves is now destitute and pregnant with his child. Fearful of scandal, Burke puts Katherine under hypnosis and persuades her to jump in the lake at Regents Park. Heedless of his own safety, the Doctor dives to the rescue but alas, too late! Burke loses his engagement ring - Katherine wrenched if from his finger in her death struggle - but it is such a small price to pay in exchange for his freedom!

Burke, feted as a hero, marries Elma's lovely loot, and pursues his lucrative career. All is well until the night he attends Madame Delphine's seance ...

Anonymous - Spring-Heeled Jack: (Charles Dickens [ed.], All The Year Round, 9 Aug. 1884). "The notoriety this fellow had obtained seems to have had the effect of making many silly young men emulous to enact the ruffian in a small way, considering it the height of cleverness to frighten women and children out of their wits, under the belief that Spring-heeledjack was attacking them. Many cowardly assaults on women were reported in various parts of the metropolis, under the impression, doubtless, that it was all a "lark;” but it was a joke the victims hardly appreciated, as, should they scream out in their terror, their unmanly assailants did not hesitate to strike them with their fists in the mouth, in order to silence them. "

A compilation of the other Jack's reported exploits over fifty years, and likely the primary inspiration for Peter Haining's audacious The Legend & Bizarre Crimes of Spring-heeled Jack which so upset Mike Dash. "The only surmise as to his identity that was ever hazarded, was that he was the Marquis of Waterford - then famous as a ringleader in all that savoured of fun and frolic - but not a shadow of proof could be ever adduced in support of this theory."

[dem bones]

Was a little disappointed that so many of these stories are familiar from previous anthologies. Brightened up on realising it's likely a century or so since I last read The Telegram, In the Seance Room (both excellent) or, indeed;

Charlotte Riddell - The Old House in Vauxhall Walk: (Weird Stories, 1882). Graham Coulton storms out of home after an argument with his father, the Admiral, vowing never to return. Destitute, drenched and broke, the young hot-head contemplates ending it all - until he spots an old family servant, removing furniture from a house on Vauxhall Walk. William, now a nightwatchman, has been house-sitting a property difficult to let on account of its bad reputation; a miserly old hag was murdered in her bed by burglars. Graham, unaware of the story, is only too grateful of a roof for the night.

Mrs. Riddell devises an evil haunted house to almost rival that on Berkeley Square - which makes it the more disappointing that this is yet another suspenseful story hamstrung by the dreaded 'Victorian' ending. So much for nineteenth century folk being miserable and funereal all the time, the jolly bastards.

[dem bones]

E. F. Benson - The Chippendale Mirror: (Pearsons, May 1915). The year's big unsolved crime is the Wimbledon Mystery. Mrs. Yeats butchered in her home by burglar unknown. Suspicion falls on her erstwhile husband but he has a watertight alibi and is entirely innocent in the affair.

Some months later, Hugh Grainger, who has recently come into an inheritance, splashes out on a flashy car, a chauffeur, a fur coat, a house in Bedford Square, and, via "some incredible place in Putney," the most fetching antique mirror.

The killer, meanwhile, lands a lucrative position, goes about his business as though nothing has happened. He'd have gotten away with it too, were it not for Hugh's bewitched prize purchase!

[dem bones]

Rhoda Broughton - The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth: (Temple Bar, Feb. 1868). Recently married Cecilia Montressor moves in at at 32 - Street, Mayfair, hardly daring to believe she could land her dream home at a ridiculously reasonable £300 a year. All is well until the grocer tittle tattles to Cecilia's housemaid that the place is haunted, "last lot held out just a fortnight." Soon that same hapless servant has been terrified into a madhouse by something she dare not describe. Brash young Ralph Gordon insists on to spend a night in the haunted room, and lets see how this so-called ghost likes a stout poker up him. To placate their concerns, Gordon instructs the household to listen for the service bell. "If I ring twice, come ..."

Elizabeth Bowen - The Demon Lover: (The Demon Lover & Other Stories, 1945). In August 1916, Kathleen, the future Mrs. Drover, rashly promised herself to a soldier leaving for France. Twenty five years later he returns to claim her.

Sam Selvon - My Girl and the City: (BIM, 1957). Newly arrived in London from the West Indies, the young couple feel entirely disconnected from all around them, bypassed by an entire city as though they are not there. Ghosts before their time.

[dem bones]

Henry Raleigh (McClure, Jan. 1911)

Marie Belloc Lowndes - The Lodger: (McClure, Jan. 1911). Last weeks in the life of an escaped lunatic and the several woman who fall in his path. Mr. Sleuth rents the spare room at the Buntings' house on Marylebone Road. His short stay coincides with a series of appalling murders. Mrs. Bunting, who is initially won over by her pious, gentlemanly lodger, begins to suspect him of the crimes but turns a blind eye - until Daisy, her eighteen-year-old daughter, returns home from the country and Mr. Sleuth insists they three visit Madame Tussauds to see the Chamber of Horrors.

Despite the off-page murders and lack of gore, a far nastier story than I misremembered, this thanks to the landlady's ambiguous feelings toward the killer. After all, if he's only experimenting upon that sort of woman, where's the harm? Note to self. Must try fit in a rematch with novel of same name in New Year.

[Dr Strange]

Filmed numerous times, I caught the 50s version of The Lodger (re-titled as Man In The Attic) with Jack Palance on Talking Pictures TV just a few weeks ago.