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A #ghost with very alarming trousers from 'A World Of Romance' published in 1892. #Victorian #gothic #apparition #supernatural #paranormal #ghostlore #illustration #oldillustration #ghostsky

submitted 16 hours ago • 0 comments

In 1899 'Wide World' interviewed "Brusher" Morris, the snake catcher of the #NewForest in #Hampshire. Having caught and killed an adder, he would strip it of its fat and sell it. It was widely believed to magically cure many ailments, including adder bites. #FolkoreSunday #FolkMagic #witchsky

submitted 20 hours ago • 1 comment

Scans of two photos from holidays in the 1980s when I would drag my family along to see #prehistoric #antiquities against their will. They show a bit of the Kingston Russell stone circle in #Dorset and the cup-and-ring marks at Drumtroddan in the Rhins of #Galloway, #Scotland. #StandingStoneSunday

submitted 23 hours ago • 0 comments

"[The Barn Owl's] shriek is still a bad omen; if it perches on a house to screech, it is a certain sign of death, and if it is heard at a birth, the child will be unlucky all its life." - Christina Hole, 'English Folklore' #BookWormSat #superstition #tradition #birds #owl #omens

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Just seen its #bird week at #BookWormSat. Richard Jefferies writing in the 1880s from the a garden in the then village of Surbiton: "There was a turtle-dove cooing in the copse [...] a wryneck was perched up in an oak at the end of the garden [...] and a nightingale was singing..." Bloody hell.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Robot Yeti come down from the hills to terrorize a monastery and The Master prepares to make use of some Lovecraftian magick to wake up the last of The Daemons. (From two of the Target Dr Who novelizations of the 1970s.) For @gregbuzwell.bsky.social #DoctorWho #FolkHorror #BookWormSat #scifi

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

My 1976 first edition of 'A Dictionary Of Fairies' by Katherine Briggs. The hardback seems quite hard to find now so I'm pleased to have a copy - it's a wonderful book. #BookWormSat #folklore #fairy #fairies #faery #faerie #fairylore #katherinebriggs #BookChatWeekly

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

14thC St Nicholas's #Church at Canewdon, #Essex. Cunning Murrell (see previous posts) prophesied 9 #witches would always be resident in the village and for a time the church was said to be a meeting place for modern witches at Hallowe'en. It also has #ghosts! #SteepleSaturday #witchsky #witchcraft

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

A post for nuptials of #FolkyFriday. In 1899 'Wide World' reported on a #Pagan Finnish wedding. The day was marked by piteous weeping by bride and family till the Panvuska ('magician') lifted the bride's veil and festivities began. My scans of 3 of the (murky) photos are all captioned. #witchcraft

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

My favourite children's book (even allowing for the 20-odd #DoctorWho Target paperbacks I had filling up a shelf in my bedroom!). Cover by the wonderful Anthony Maitland, who also did most of the Leon Garfield covers. #FolkHorror #Hookland #legend #fantasy #fantasyfiction #childrensbooks

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

An unfortunate Moth #Fairy drawn to the light in a picture by the symbolist painter Fidus. Fascinating man Fidus - a Theosophist and neopagan and also openly homosexual (in early 20th C Germany!). Despite this, he nearly joined the Nazi party but swiftly denounced them. #illustration #faery #faerie

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

I had no idea the great John Piper had painted Ettington Park, the house where they shot the 1963 'The Haunting' (still the best film on a #supernatural theme in my opinion). Now a hotel - but way too pricey to stay there (on my budget!) #LandscapePainting #ghost #horror #classichorror #horrorfilm

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Arthur Morrison met the smith who once made iron 'witch bottles' for Cunning Murrell. These contained charmed materials to protect a house from #witchcraft. Unfortunately, the last one was flawed, and when it was placed on the fire to activate the spell, it exploded. #folklore #FolkMagic #witchsky

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

It was author Arthur Morrison who learnt history of Cunning Murrell. One story he heard was of 'a young woman so devil-possessed' she ran round a table without being able to stop and walked about on the ceiling, until Murrell 'destroyed the witch's power over her.' #folklore #FolkMagic #witchcraft

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

In the 1860s in what was then rural #Essex (Hadleigh) there lived the last recorded male #witch in England, Cunning Murrell. 20-odd years later old folk could recall him prophesying, cursing or removing curses, casting out 'demons'. Photo from 1900 of his old cottage #folklore #folkmagic #witchcraft

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

In 1913 the #ArthurConanDoyle story 'The Horror Of The Heights' was published in The Strand. It tells of an aviator who flies much higher than anyone before and encounters monstrous jellyfish creatures in the upper atmosphere. My scan. (@memizon.bsky.social) #WyrdWednesday #scifi #monster #horror

submitted 4 days ago • 3 comments

In February 1896 Pearson's Magazine published 'In The Abyss' by #HGWells. In October 1927 The Strand began serializing 'The Maracot Deep' by #ArthurConanDoyle. Both told of pioneers into the unplumbed depths of the ocean and what they found there. (My scans). @memizon.bsky.social #WyrdWednesday

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Header from 'The Strand Magazine', February 1896 (my scan), for Elisabeth Braddon's yarn about a sweet old dear who kills a series of young companions and transfuses their blood to keep herself alive. #vampire #vampires #horror #gothic #Victorian #horrorstory #vintagehorror #fantasy #darkfantasy

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

'Some houses are born bad...' The creepiest house I know is this ruin at the disused Dorothea Quarry in #Gwynedd. #haunted #ruin #gothic #Victorian #NorthWales #creepy

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Caspar David Friedrich liked burial chambers. Perhaps he saw something of the #sublime in them, the concept that so attracted the Romantic painters of his period. Here's another one in 'Walk At Dusk'. #TombTuesday #cromlech #landscape #LandscapePainting #Neolithic #prehistory #artsky #ancientsky

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Caspar David Friedrich's stunning painting, 'Time Does Not Rest.' #TombTuesday #megalith #cromlech #landscape #LandscapePainting #sublime #Neolithic

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

'The Sphynx Of Giza' by Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach. #AncientSite #MythologyMonday #AncientEgypt #Egypt #legend

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Two more #landscapes by the presumably Paul Nash-inspired David Inshaw. Pinched from somewhere (apologies to Mr Inshaw). Avebury and Cerne Abbas, obviously. #Hookland #BritishLandscapes #LandscapePainting #Wiltshire #Dorset #AncientSites #prehistory #ancientsky

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

The Headless Lady of Tarvin. A Cheshire legend from the 17C of a young woman beheaded during a violent dispute and buried in an unmarked grave near St. Andrew’s Church. The figure has been reported to police (walking along the nearby bypass) no less than 8 times in the last 30 years!

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments

"By the light of the Silbury moo-oon..." [David Inshaw's painting of Silbury Hill At Night] #JulianCope #Hookland #Wiltshire #Avebury #AncientSiteSunday #psychogeography #prehistory #Neolithic #BritishLandscape #UKLandscape #LandscapePainting

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Wicken Fen in #Cambridgeshire where folklorist (and duck murderer and racist) J Wentworth Day was warned not to use an ancient causeway to get home because: "That owd Black Dog do run there o' nights - do ye goo, he'll have ye as sure as harvest." #SwampSunday #FolkloreSunday #FolkloreAgainstFascism

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

For #StandingStoneSunday a few of the array of #megaliths at Tal y Fan, along an ancient track through the #Conwy hills where #Roman milestones have also been found. Now pylons march along it. It's uncertain whether they are #Neolithic or from the #BronzeAge. #megalithic #prehistory #archaeology

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

I insist you come for a visit. We can travel those paths that Hooklanders claim are so ghost-soaked they are 'wicked roads'. The walking of them is said to risk a corruption of the soul which sounds like the perfect adventure for us. – #CLNolan in a letter to #ArthurMachen, 1912

submitted 9 days ago • 4 comments

Illustrator Adelaide Claxton is best known for her artwork depicting ghosts and dreams, but she was also an inventor. During the 1890s, she registered several patents under her married name, Adelaide Sophia Turner, including the 'Armpit-Crutch for Bed-Rests and Chair-Backs'. #LegendaryWednesday

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

I've only just realised #BookWomSat has a #Norse theme this week. So here is the Maes Howe #Dragon carved into the ancient tomb in Orkney by treasure-robbing #Vikings. #Folklore had it the mound was #haunted by a weird being called the Hogboy, derived from a Norse word meaning something like #ghost.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Scans from the rich pickings in my copy of The Strand Magazine for June 1903: a classic #ghost story by F Marion Crawford; another spooky yarn by #ArthurConanDoyle ('The Leather Funnel'); and 'The Magic Shop' by #HGWells. (@memizon.bsky.social) #BookWormSat #fantasy #fantasyfiction #booksky

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

A little while ago I posted my 1912 edition of Ingram's 'Haunted Homes'. I ended up with an 1886 edition too just because I loved the cover: the dark blue with a spooky image and silver highlights is really attractive, I think (and rather #gothic). #BookWormSat #ghosts #folklore #Victorian #booksky

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment