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Be ees at easel leash mete) T Tre ee ees etd 7 THE WORLD r Puy Velie ayy If Paras Wuinylssnee) ere es a) THE BOOK OF GHOSTS HOW USBORNE'S WORLD OF THE UNKNOWN ~ SPOOKED THE SEVENTIES AND CREATED A GENERATION OF YOUNG GHOST HUNTERSHewlow Theat atrn OT 280CT to NOVDecpaa ‘eNov thet couk iin ead ovr Westend Briere il Cie Theatre OISG4ST3 381 NOV tts nce 170 bhilcvecauh F Newbury Com Exchange 08455216218 Daringlon Majesti Theatre 07325633 255 sno arena NY nate Camberley Theatre ‘01276 707 600 ry Bay Playhouse 1844 248 158 ow recon WHO slayhouseuhiteya Tontepioe 0779572207 tong ‘aaidocr olen T Brine Tae 22 Sey ae OTA in e i 11 NOW theatresevern, a sat __ tera oct Stasi *S UTRECHT Big Top-Jarbours Se 2h instru athe pe F cosh ackourn Empire Oe =e —eE BOT adtuta pana Gom 0 Glasgow Kings Teave 084471758 ea UK 9 JAW atgtkescomlvnues ings tet F Blackpool Pleasure Beach 0871 22909 %426OCT varkpopesuredeachcom 7 ‘London Paldum SOLD OUT 0 loser Por Oe Taare 08 ‘Wetingborugh Case 0 T4NOY—fikesoucecoukirioesie F 9 AN patente ith-Daenned Witensiawe Forun ——CiGT 9554000 Stoke on Wen Vera Hal O48 717 BIE “ith comludtourclesh harrors 15 NOV ‘wythenshaweforumcauk ¥ 10 JAN ‘iti 2teiégs Hata Pee Wal Spiegeltent 01422525217 708 hope. co.uk Me Blt Se Te Co) BUT eT OFFER* SUEUR aa Pe OU Say LO e CKr ee TO) SD Ee eee Poem neat isa Se EE PCa and ea Caos Manchester Dance House 016 8321117 S2UA3JAN —_thedanothowse cok 7 orton Royal erga 0160 248 15MN roland Peterborough Ven Theatre "7 16JAN_newtbeate pelertoouchcon T Crested Winding Wheel 01286 eyo Southarpion 02 ald Ha Bat Parion ) HerelordCourtyerd OTA HOS5 courtyardorguk? ls ala fpurcase tom T tcketmastercouk 08444 983666 oA MSs ale hen Pee eae ke eon ee eS oem PG ee ie ce EU ee UE Mee ae116 Longiast Lewis Chessman 25, The DNA of Loch Ness 8 Giants inthe land: Ceme Abbas sex symbol gets @ make-over [COVER IMAGE: COURTESY USBORNE PUBUSHING Lemmon WL | siel he) Why fortean ? Seu eeu Poca Peete STRANGE DAYS A digest ofthe world le weird, including: faceless phantoms, wer, and more. 44 SCIENCE 26. STRANGE CONTINENT 418 GHOSTWATCH 28 NECROLOG 24 AUENZ00 30 THEUFOFLES FEATURES S$ 32 COVER STORY WHERE GHOSTS GATHER In 1977, Usborne published World of the Unknown: Ghosts, the children’s book that inspired a generation of junior forteans. Four decades on, the book is back in print... and BOB FISCHER, tracked down its pleasantly surprised writer, Chris Maynard. 38 THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND In search of the ‘sequestered places ofthe British Isles, EDWARD PARNELL arrives in Cardiganshire to look for the house in which the neglected master of weird fiction William Hope Hodgson wrote one of his greatest works. 44 THE CHASE VAULT MYSTERY REVISITED "The moving coffins of Barbados have been a staple subject of books on the unexplained for aver a century, and yet no one has so far provided a satisfactory solution tothe spooky mystery BEN RADFORD thinks vo'vo been looking in the wrong place. REPORTS | 54 BUILDING A FORTEAN LIBRARY ‘The Philadelphia Experiment HIEROPHANT'S APPRENTICE 74 FORTEAN TRAVELLER ‘Rothenburg’s Medieval Crime Museum STEVE TOASE, FORUM — 55 turn to paragraph 400 RYAN SHIRLOW ‘56 A bang on the head MARK GREENER REGULARS 02 EDITORIAL © 69 LETTERS 79 PHENOMENOMIX 57. REVIEWS 78 READERINFO 80. STRANGE DEATHS‘asuontrtacumeseon) cue dovidarsematcom OCEAN (comings com) Ichemestircirinenecr ‘Muumususmanec Poo Fd, toeon 27 00D ‘em manag retin sci ts ‘omens PUBLISHED BY DENNIS PUBLISHING, Sith eer ——= ssn Susan sredregree ceonndom® Smee saeco Satan Buea ast ae 00 a ab See mone et seb an ‘lence ase onat Tess Fa O13 7081272 Ue Geooqtaehbr3t ees EDITORIAL WHEN GHOSTS WALK AGAIN ‘THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES I KILED MATT GROENING! Wiel guess that many FTreaders atleast © We received a numberof letters and emails, those who grew upin the 1970s and 1980s referring to the premature announcemouat will have fond memories of Usborne’. ofthe death of Simpsuns creator Matt ‘World of tke Uaknows books, hich Groening in our last issue (FT384:4) For introduced a young readership to the some baffling reason the mistake (arising pleasures of various fortean subjects, from froma confusion concerning the death of ‘monsters and mythology to vampires and Simone co-developer Sam Simon back UFOs §n2015) was spotted, corrected, and then or some reason, though, it was the the final layout before volume devoted to the magazine went to shosts that most deeply press. shamefaced Noe] stirred the imaginations Rooney writes of British enildren, “In the most recent whose nightmares were ‘edition of Fortea henceforth filled with ‘Tomes Tinadvercently terrifying spectral referred tothe creator ‘monks and screaming ‘ofthe Simpsons asthe sal, F regular Bob Tate” Matt Groening. Fischer was one such sincerely hope that FT haso’t starteda ‘conspiracy theory about ‘Mr Groening particularly in an edition that earries, an article about precisely youngster, and inthis Iss (932) he explores the impact chat All About Ghostshadl on hira and a whole generat of impressionable proto- ‘that kind of thing forteans. happeningto various Bab also meets the man behind this smembersof the Beatles, legendary compendium of chills, the mild “Ltrust that the Simpsons team are less ‘mannered Christopher Maynard, whose litigiousand more Mark Twain about the mission was to oth entertain andinform, _whele thing and who knows? ~ they might topresent the facts and explore different’ even consider referring to our litle blooper interpretations of them: *1 wanted the fom the show (no desperate wannabe plug kids rake something away, and feel hat intended, ebviousl), they owneda bit of knowledge, and hiad an "Matt, of course meant to refer to you insight nto something about the world,an asthe great’ Matt Groening, and Tcally insight thatmightreturafuller and more __don’teare what some people might say complete” And in many cases that seems about your toes.” tobe just what happened, with curious readers of Chris'sghost book growing into. ERRATUM ‘keen forteans (like Reece Shearsmith,who FT383:50: Graham Sharp, author of ‘wrote foreword for the very weleomenew ‘Gambling on the Unbelievable’ pointed printing of All About Ghosts) a they got cout that the photo captioned "The author older Ashley Thorpe, or example, whose and Chris Bonington, about to embark on acclaimed film about Borley Rectory ‘eri Hunt 88” in fat shows “Cheri with reviewed on p63, noted: “I would never Ian Bishop ofthe Natural History Museum, hhave made my animated film Barley Rectory the man who wos charged with ofcilly if Thadn'tloved this book so much asa confirming whether Chris returned with child. wonderful bookandripeforanew the relevant evidence". Graham can be ‘generation to discover’ seen on p49 and clearly hears absolutely no Elsewhere in this issue, which should resemblance toMr Bishop. «each you in good time for Hallowe'en, you ‘can enjoy more suitable spooky fare ~ from our resident ghostwatcher Alan Murdie exploring the supernatural trope of the Boy faceless phantom to Ben Radtord’s descent imo thecreeyy ChaseVaul.honeo! ie | SS ? ian mings a ds asNO NEED TO SEARCH THE SKIES Ue ea py oe Wee PRT aecieni SFOs esis mle ase VSR aeRO a Lv SVU TSU UA NUEVA HOO 0) U0Sr WB NTI iySTRANGE DAYS RE-CHALKING THE CERNE ABBAS GIANT LISA GLEDHILL reports from Dorset on how Britain's biggest sex-symbol has cleaned up his image What’ the first thing you notice about the Cerne Abbas Giant? I's not his lack of ears ist? The giant with his mighty tlh sustains an entine tourist industry in this quiet comer of Dorset. He appears on postcards, “Tshirts and dovens of novelty ‘tems, including a wall clock with a disturbingly hypnotic hourhand. He's probably the only image of a fully erect naked man on uncensored publie display inthe British Isles, Like al il figures, grass, moss and weather erosion gradually obscure his outline, so this summer the National Trust decided to give him a makeover: ‘he te-halking involves more than 80 volunteers, digging out the cracked and discoloured chalk, then pounding in 17 tonne’ of clean crushed chalk te ‘make afresh surface. This once inadecade event is all done by hand to avoid damaging the hillside and takes around two weeks to complet. ‘Natalie Holt, Countryside ‘Manager for the National Trust, says “Re chalking the Giant is, challenging in many ways, aot only due to ts sie but because ofthe shoer steepness ofthe slope he's on, “We are constantly reviewing how best to look after the Giant so that he can be enjoyed by visitors for many years to come, “When we're happy we've done a realy good job of packing the chalk, we will eave him alone and tamper with him as litle as possible ~ to preserve him for anosher decade” 1’ 99 years since the Ptt- Rivers family gave the giant to the National Trust and the ‘Trust hopes to mark the 100th anniversary by solving the riystery of his age. Archaologists will use Optically Stimulated Luminescence tests on parts of the figure which are believed tobe undisturbed by later re cutting to try and establish Whe he was originally created, ‘The earliest definite reeord ofthe giant dates from 1694, s0 some histerians believe he isa rude caricature of the and owner Lord Holles, cut by waruly servants while his ledship was away. Tt seems lot of wouble to go to for a practical joke but maybe they had more time on their hands in the 17th century A similar story says that he was fut a century earlier by monks rom Cerne Abbey to mock their randy abbot. Another popular theory is that ‘he giants a caricature of Oliver Cromwell. Lord Holles was a politcal opponent of Cromwell ‘whose followers liked to portray him asa “modern Hercules” — sos this giant figure waving ‘Herculeaa club with his private parts embarrassinly exposed really the world’s biggest political cartoon? Tes easy to see why many visitors to Cerne Abbas assume the giant is some Sort of prehistori god and there is some circumstantial «evidence to support this idea. Iron Age seulprures of similar \ experiance of reading about Hodgson's grotesque krakens- like Melville and Conrad before him, he drew on his own Firsthand nautical knowledge to canter authenticity upon his writing. Hodgson’s finest short soa-set tale of the fantastic, The Voice in the Night’, was published in the November 1907 edition Df the Blue Book Magazine Init, the lone sailor awake on the deck of ashing Schooner "becalmed in the Northern Pacific” is shocked by a voice that dri upwards out of the blackness. The occupant Df the unseen rowing boat, who claims to be an old man, insists chat George and his now-alertcrewmaa stop shining the beam oftheir lamp out onto the waters He asks, ia “a voice curiously throaty and inhuman”, for food to take to his starving female companion, who is waiting on 2 ‘nearby island, The two sailors Hat a box of provisions to him, which the old man initefully receives Laer, still under the Cover of darkness, the speaker returas alongside, and tells the men the stary of how, Some four months previous, be and his fiancée he isnot, it transpires, old ~ were abandoned by the erew oftheir doomed ‘sel the Alhatms, before they managed to construct a rat and escape, Days afterwards the pair found a deceptive haven in a lagoon, housing @ ship shrouded ina "gre, lichenous fungus” that also covered the entire island. “The Voice in the Night isan intense, . cr ee si ee Ki UROL Pe tne Guar Wie) eRe) LEFT Hope Hodgson's The Boats ofthe “sen Crea” appears in an ‘ercan pulp magazine in 1888. powerful work about infection 8nd altered bodily states. Te moment the fiancée discovers the beginnings of the thing that ‘will consume her is horrifying, and resonant: “It was on the thumb of her right hand that the growth first showed. Tt was only a small circular spot, much ikea little grey mole. My God! how the fear leapt to ay heart when she showed me the place” GLANEIFION Terunch up the shingle to the back of Glaneifion, where now just three people ~a middle aged couple and a woman - are enjoying the spring sunshine at the boundary of beach and ‘arden, “Sorry to disturb you," Task, "Teas wondering if you know whether an Edwardian weiter used to live inthis house." “Do sou mean Wiliam Hope Hodgson?” the woman replies, and Tnod, surprised "My husband's who you want to speak with, Hes watching the rugby atthe minute, Hang on. Fl go see.” Sho ve-omerges with hor husband, a man 1d guess is in his early 605, with shoulder- length, sleery-grey hair and thick white eyebrows. He greets me with a smile and asks me to follow him inside “Pim Anthony,” he says and as we climb the sais Ithank him, apologising for disturbing his rugby viewing. “Don't worry i isn’ much of a match” explain what Fm doing and Anthony wonders whether T have al of Hodgson's books inthe brief period before my entrance he's already gathered a collection of paperbacks in pile on the floor of the Jounge. He gestures to the sofa and then disappears to fetch more ephemera. And 1 am sitting alone inthis room averlooking the beach and it's so exciting and unexpected to be here tha [half expect time to start cascading forwards and back asit does in The Howse on the Borderland. (My host returns with various items of correspondence, including from R Alain Everts,an American who compiled ‘one of the few biographical pieces on Hodgson. There are also the transcribed reminiscences of a neighbour of Hope's ‘mother and sister fom when they relocated mile inland to their newly built hillside residence called Lisswood ~ Hope visited the pair there when he was on leave from the war. Anthony tells me that despite being from Bort, he hadn't heard ofABOVE: A wiew over ort, BELOW: Leutonant Willa Hope Hodson ofthe Raval Feld Atilen.photasraahe gore te during World War. FACING PAGE: The ‘kan House eon af The House onthe Bereta pedi by Ragust Dera W 1946, Hodgson when he moved back tothe village 22 years ago, But afterwards people would %ecp mentioning that they wore in the house where William Hope Hodgson used tolive,and although Anthony wasn't a particular fan of horror or science fiction hh searched out and bought all of his books. ince then, few waifs and strays ike me have swept up unannounced, including, ‘once, two Americans. Probably hecause of the posthumous praise accorded to Hodgson by HP Lovecraft, and later, August Derleth, who reissued his works under his Arkham House imprint, Hodgson enjoys a much higher profile in the States than in is native Britain. Anthony ask if Pm familiar with the region, and Tadmit Pm not. Just behind the village there's flat anphitheatredike area of bog, not unlike the topography of “the Plain’ tha features so strikingly in The House on the Borderland. After a pint or two inthe pub, Anthony say, tak sometimes turns to whether it was Hodason’s inspiration for his aovels enigmatic arena ‘And in Febroary 2014 this wild expanse atthe back of Borth was temporarily transformed into a Hedgsonesque vision of hell, when a pont fire engulfed the land, COSMIC HORROR ‘The strangeness of The House on the Borderland has stayed with me ever since [first read it afew years ago, and Tstil can't quite believe 'm in the place where ‘Hodgson signed off its introduction posing “Far around there spreads a waste of inhospitable country” as the editor ofa mysterious handwritten, journal that had come into his possession, Apart from his brief overview and 4 few foototes, we have no more interventions irom Hodgson; in the atmospheric prologue, we learn of the manuscripts discovery from ‘our initial narrator, a Vietorian gentleman tourist, Berregenog, ‘who ison a fishing tip to the west of Leland swith his equally oddly ‘named companion ‘Tonnison. Having arrived the previous evening ft the nearest ‘ain station of Ardrahan~ the Galway village ro whieh Hodgson and his amily were sent ~ the two men travel all of the nextday, some 40 miles over rugged tracks, before they reach the fictional hamlet of Kraighten, “Far around there spreads a waste of Bleak and totaly inhospitable country: ‘where, here and there at great intervals one may come upon the ruins of some Jong desolate catage~ unthatched and stark” Kaighten, where the locals speak only Gaelic, is oc depicted fon any maps, which should serve asa warning, Neither isthe Sop, village’ fast-lowing river, which Tonnison discovered ona walking tour the previous year, noting that it looked to offer decent fishing fora future angling holiday. Exploring downstream, the tro men find that is waters disappear abrupty into the ground, emerging more than amie away in a spray filled chasm concesled in a long: ‘overgrown area of gardens ‘and orchards, An arm of role ‘projects above this abyss "the Pit holding the faintest races of an ancient ‘house, in which Tonnison uncovers the manuserip. As the pair explore the domain they hear a foreboding‘wailing from among the crowded fruit trees, causing them 10 harry back to their ‘amp; they vow never te return to the malevolent vicinity: Over supper in their tent Berroggnog reads aloud from the dusty, partillegible book, and itis this narrative ‘that fils the remainder of the novel's pages, ‘save fora short concluding chapter “Lam an old man. Llive here in this ‘ancient house, surrounded! hy huge, ‘unkempt gardens." Thus begins The House ‘on the Borderland proper, as the story of ‘what befell the mysterious, nameless ‘Recluse’ and his sister, some 70 years or so previous is revealed. Ita novel of two distinct halves the firs, ia which che man's isolated house said by the local country people to have been built by the Devil ~is held under siege by otherworldly humanoid ‘Swine-creatures and the second, a visionary astral journey through the outer reaches of the cosmas toa parallel chelling fn the borderland, set among a vast, alien amphitheatre lke plain overlooked by ‘matdness-inducing mountains that swarm ‘with colossal demonic forms. During this epoch traversing vision the hands of the clock in the Recluse’s study hurry forwards until they area blur ~a scene reminiscent of HG Well’ The Time Machine, book Trodgson himself owned ‘We get hints too within the Fragmented ‘manuscript of the Recluse'ssemispiritwal, Dutalltooabrupt reconciliation with his dead lover inthe so-ealiod "Sea of Slee. ‘his theme is explored further in Hodgson's final novel The Night Land, a kind of heroic (quest of redemptive love set ana dying Earth peopled with vicious entities that ssa the last human survivors. In some ways The House on the Borderland is an unbalanced novel, and yet it works wonderfully. I prefer its beguiling frst half - the swine-creatures the apocalyptic atmosphere of the house straddling two planes, the devastatingly sad fate of the Rechise’s dog Pepper ~ but the uncanniness ofthe imagined secondact journey to the ‘outer reaches of time and the Universe, and the seeming chaos and decrepitude at the heart of existence, is the vital ingredient that elevates the work into cassie of cosmic horton ‘As to what i all means, Hodgson's own inuroduction leaves that up to the individual wader, which is just as well, given there are so many possible interpretations, so many unanswered questions: what. for instance, is the relationship between the desolate dwelling and its tocn on the plain at the periphery ofthe Universe? Wh isthe Recluse’ sister so apparentiy insensible ‘wher’s taking place around her — is there ‘Cabinet of Br Caligar-osque explanation ‘that all the happenings are merely the construct of an unhinged man? And if not this, then wy are the Recluse and his sister impervious to the ravages of time while his dog isnot? Even if Hodgson's editorial {nto is something of a cop-out it's a lever one: “Of the simple, stifily given account of weird and extraordinary matters, [will say little. Tt ies before you. The inner story must be uncovered, personaly, by each reader, aecording to ability and desire.” ‘The novel's end comes with a brutal suddenness, as we read the Recluse’s tailed.off final words. In fae lke that ‘which befalls te island marooned couple {rom “The Voce inthe Night we learn that a‘foul growth’ has also come to affect the Recluse, hough in his case it began ‘witha growing, otherdimensional speck of phosphorescence on his wrist, rather ‘than rampant fungal spores. I can't help ‘wondering whether the spreading cancer on his father’ throat played into these fearful depictions of contagion. NIGHT LAND Despite the modern-day critical acclaim afforded The House on the Borderiand, and the escler praise heaped upon his work by commentators as diverse as Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Bernard Shaw and CS Lewis, Hodgson’s four novels did not sel ‘well The commercial failure of the book he considered is masterpiece, The Night Land, Jed him to abandon the genre, chough not before his publisher Eveleigh Nash browght together the six John Silencesike occult detective tales held written for magazoe in the excellent Carmack the Ghost Finder ‘Hodgson turned to the ocean again for his lst stories, now stripped of the supernatural These were collected, in 1917.08 Grain Gaul Hodgson alo red lectures about the maritime ieiieagrsacen se supplement his meagre writers income ‘he was an outstanding early amateur ‘photographer and used the images he had taken during his far-flung travels in the 1850s co illustrate his talks. Some were soldat the time to periodicals and others, after his death, to the Meteorological Office, including shots of phenomens raeely before captured at sea, such as cyclones, leviathanie waves, fork lightning and the ancora borealis Having relocated to London from Borth «couple of years earlier ~a move he hoped ‘would ignite his earecr as an author ~ in February 1913, aged 35, Hodgson merried Bessie Farnworth, gel he'd knoven fom school in Blackburn, and who now worked fon a women's magazine in the capital, Shortly afterwards, the newlyweds settled in the South of Prance on the Cote d'Azur, ‘where Hodgson continued to plug away at his writing ‘When war was declared the couple roturned to England, Rather than ge back to sea, Hodgson was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. As ‘well as letters and articles about French spies, Hodgson also sent home patriotic poetry. He recovered from a serious head injury suffered after being throen fom his horse in Jone 1916 and rejoined hostilities fon the Western Front. Events might have ‘turned ovt differently i Hodson had not bbeen 50 stoic ~ indeed, usta week before hs death he was briefly hospitalised once again after a heavy German attack. Instead, hhe volunteered as a Forward Observer (FO), the precarious role responsible {or directing artillery fire onto a target; bravery as nothing new for Hodgson, 2s in 1898 he had boon awarded & Royal Homane Society medal for diving into shark: ‘encircled waters off New Zealand to rescue fellow seama Raving managed to survive in his hazardous FO duties until April 1918, Hodeson's good fortune finally expired. A disect hit from a German shell on the 19th ‘of the month, near the village of Kemmel in the borderlands of Belgium, transformed him into fragmentary pieces, lis remains were said 10 be unidentifiable, though helmet bearing the name I W Hope Hodgson was retrieved by French soldiers. “f live and come somehow out ofthis (and certainly, please God, I shall and hhope to,” he had earlier written home, ‘graphically describing the otherworldly dlesolation and destruction of Flanders, “what a ook I shall write sas Tis article isan edited extract from Ghostland: In Search of a Hounted Country by Edward Pamel, published by witiam Collins, REP £16.99. 1-0 EDWARD PARNELL is @ Norfolk based lanter whase frst book, Te Listener, wom the 2014 Rethink New Novels Prize He has ‘alsa writen numero natura history ant consenationrelated articles for magazines and newspapers.LIGHTNING OR LEGENDRY? THE CHASE VAULT MOVING COFFIN MYSTERY REVISITED The moving coffins of Barbados have been a staple subject of books on the unexplained for over a century, and yet no one has so far provided a wholly satisfactory solution to the mystery. BENJAMIN RADFORD argues that we might have been looking in the wrong place... 1 story ofthe restless coffins {ina Barbadian burial vault see PT133:40-44,347:26) was one of the two earliest “unexplained mysteries" that eaight my artention asa teenager (the other being the 1855 Devil's Footprints casein England). 1 forget exactly where Ireadit~ probably a Reader’ Digest book of mysteries or another of isk, whieh voracously consumed at the time - but! distinetly recall poring over the story and getting chills imagining what a host or curse would do to me if T crossed it took comfort the fact that Barbados was ar, far away, separated from me by at east ‘one sea, and whatever evil possessed the «coffins was unlikely to pursue me. ‘Asthe years passed the sty faded, replaced by newer and more exciting reports of alien abductions, chupacabras, crop circles, and other fortean high weirdness Itovas a stale, stuffy sort of distant mystery locked in time ~the early 1800s~ though superficially and inevitably rehashed in later ‘books on the unexplained. Despite a handful ofarticles on the story there was nothing new and litle i any follow-up The coffins ‘were long gone, and nothing notable had apparently happened since. Inever bothered ‘tolook into the mystery partly because the West Indies remained just as far awa, and partly because there seemed litle to profitably investigate at this remove ‘Nevertheless, I've since become much ‘more fariliae with folklore and visited the ‘Chase Vault twice over the past few years, rather improbably discovering fresh angles ‘onthe stale ol tale, TWalways.ssumed that the musty mystery, calitying fortwo «centuries in the sweltering Caribbean sun, ‘would always remsin unsolved. Ino longer Delieve that tobe the case. ‘THE CHASE VAULT STORY “There are several versions ofthe famous story (more on that later), but the basic one goes something like this, taken irom The “History of Barbados (1848), by Six Robert Schormbuepke SCALE @ Peer “The coffins were found scattered about, and one of the largest thrown onits side...” ABOVE: An istration showing te con in {heir rigs! postions and now they ner found ‘whan the vault has opened taken fam Rupert T Goulds odetes, 1928. “A strange occurrence took place in the sadjacent chucchyard, the natural cause of ‘which has never been explained. On two occasions, when the death of a member of the family ofthe late Colonel Chase had rendered itnecessary to open the family vault it was found tha the coffins had been removed from their places, and as.no signsABOVE: The Chase vu, armas. BELOW: Solder, traveler anc aur James Eduars Nexander whose 2833 beck Trnéatont Sketches contains what ‘appears tobe te earieetpubished account of the mown cftne of Barbados ‘were observed thatthe vault had been ‘opened without the knowledge of the family, sexcited great astonishment. Before the vault was walled up again, the coffins were restored to thei original position. Shorty afterardsit was requisite vo open the vault again for the admission of a member ofthe family, shen the coffins were found tohave been displaced as onthe former ‘occasion; the family now became anxious ascertain the teuth, and particular pains ‘were taken in securing the wall and fine sand was thrown aver the floor of the vault sothati a person should enteric from ane other part than the usual entrance, marks night be left behind. [Then-governor] Lord Combermere was residing in 1820 in the neighbourhood ofthe church, and having been told of this mysterious circumstance, bhomade unexpectedly an application to the Rector to have the vault reopened, ‘whan to the astonishment of all present, the coffins, to the numberof five or six, ‘were found scattered about, and ane of the largest throven on its side across the passage, sothat,had the door not opened outwards, ‘anentrance could not have been effected except by removing the slabon the tap, ‘which sof immense weight. The private ‘marks made on the provious occasion were ‘undisturbed, and as this was the fourth occurrence af a similar disturbance without the cause being explained, the fi resolved on ‘vault, nd some of them were interred in the parish churchyard. The vault is now empty, and the Rector has since ordered ico he walled up. One of the gentlemen ‘who accompanied Lord Combermere tok sketch ofthe position in which the effins ‘were found, copia of which sre still extant in the island” The earliest published version ofthe story seems to date to an unsouxced passage in J ‘Alexander's 1833 book Transatlantic Sketches, Consulting it an other sources we ean add emoving the bodies from the afew more names dates, and details to this foutline:The vault at Christ Church Parish (Church in Oistins was originally bua for another family the Eliots, but purchased in 1807 by Colonel Thomas Chase, who buried his infant daughter Mary there in Pebruary ‘of the follewing year In 1812, the vault was ‘again opened to accept a second daughter, Dorcas (a rumoured suicide), and the coffins found tebe in disarray. Clone Chase himself was interred there later that same ‘year ~ dying, it is said, ether by hisown hand ‘or killed by slaves fo his brutality. The vault ‘was opened twice in 1816 and again in 1820 toseceive aThomasina Clatk, again withthe ‘same bailing results. It was this ast opening that allegedly drew Lord Combermere to investigate, an event to which Nathan Lucas, a local ehif justice, claimed tohave been 2 firsthand eyewitness iterations including accounts attributed to Lord Combermene, [Nathan Lucas, Reverend Thomas Orderson, and others versions written by Robert ‘Reece, Sirlgernon Aspinall, K Redding ‘author ofa 1860 pamphlet titled Death eds) and others wil spare readers a full accounting of them here, bt reasonably’ ‘comprehensive reviews can be found in ‘works by: Andrew Lang (Death's Deeds: A Located Story, FolleLore, 31 Dec 1907), Brian Ridout (2018), and Rupert T Gould in Oddities (1928) oe 5Theres agreement on the order of interments, nor even on how many coffins the vault eventually held. Details aside, the key conclusion s that the versions are in many ways contradictory and much of the“eredible' information fabricated or simply flee. As Joe Nickell notes: "Although Lucas avowshe was au eyewitness to the last opening, he is forced to rely on the Re Toomas H Orderson’s account ofthe earlier Incidents and Orderson himself several ‘authentic’ aecounts allegedly signed by hiea can be believed) never told the story quite the same way bvice.”* Lucas orginal report considered among the most reliable and Aetailed account ofthe events has never been found (ft existed at all), and was merely atributed to him by an anonymous source. Numerous significant discrepancies between the stories have been noted by many researchers, Brian Ridout in particular does ‘masterful job of comparing versions and tracing fabricetions, noting for example that Death Deas (1860) "is important because itisextravagantly exaggerated and has influenced much that has been writien ipsequentiy". He ooneludes: “Most of the descriptive comments made about the vault in published accountsare more or lessincorrect or unhelpful. The Deadh Deas Portrayals completely imaginary” *There are several drawings of how the coffins were found when the vault was opened, adding sppazent veracity tothe stories, but they aze contradictory and wildlyinaceurateasto scale and other factors, With this background in mind, recently visited Barbados to investigate what I could, both in terms af folklore and to evalvate novel explanation by Ridout recently prapased in the Journal o the Soviet jor ABOVE: A rer view of the Chase Val Poyehical Ressureh.Lintervieweud tour guide (CJ Hinds in Bridgetown, Barbados, ashe rove us othe Christ Church cemetery 10 see the infamous vault. "tsa true story, nd it'snot the frst time something like that has happened in Barbados," he said (more on ‘that Laer), We diseussed the mose eammon explanations along the way. NATURAL EXPLANATIONS ‘The most obvious explanations that one ‘or more unknown people entered the vault and disturbed the coffin. There would however be no motivation; the coffins were ‘unopened, and even ad they been opened, there was nothing of value contained within. Furthermore there was no evidence of say breach of the underground vault, no breaking fof seals or traces onthe ground. Moving the entrance dab would have been a dificult task initself likely requiring a half-dozen ‘people, not to mention lifting and moving heavy, bodyfilled lea-ined coffins within a very tight space. Andall of this would have been done under cover of night without artifical light to avoid detection, on multiple ‘occasions over the course of eight years. Another superticially obvious explanation forthe vault disturbance is some sort of (apparently very localised) earthquake Another natural explanation is that the vaul: became flooded wd re kta So that somehow affected the vault. While earthquakes do occur in Barbados, they are rare, minor, and would likely have been inkod to the (repeated) coffin disturbances. “Another, somewhat mote likely, natural explanation i thatthe vaul beeame flooded and the coffins despite being leadlined and heavy, were nevertheless buavant enough 10 hae fleated into such disarray. This theory was advanced fom at least the 1860s with its advocates noting thatthe Caribbean island is often battered by drenching hurricanes The two possible sources wouldbe storm water or ground water, though both are equally improbable. ts not obvious from photographs, but the vault andthe Christ Church cemetery are near thetop ofa hll, notin valle, and rain would runoff in all directions long before filling the vault. During an especially sustained heavy rain afew inches of water might appear in the vault, butt would likely drain out soon thereafter, asthe terrain is mostly porous coral himestone. As for groundwater, Joo Nickell quotes the Chief Engineer of the Waterworks Department of Barbados, who explains: "For flooding tobe areal possibility the vault ‘would have to bene more than a few feet above sea level. I the vault were lacated. ‘mote than 10f [3m] above sea level, chen {Hooding could not have been the cause.” Tnany event, one would expect that burial vaults at lower elevations on the island (such as those in Saint Pilip, Saint Lucy and Soint Michael parishes) would be routinely flooded, and ths phenomenon well erento undertakers across Barbados. Furthermore, this theory would not explain the extensive displacement ofthe coffin; given ther size ‘and number and the very small space they‘ccupiod (not t mention the 2.6.5) high curved ceiling preventing significant shifting ‘onthe Zeaxis) its far more likely that the coffins would float and then resettle in mone orless the same postions. ‘Someave suggested that gases escaping from the decomposing corpses could somehow cause the collins to move. Thisis implausible for many reasons, including that escaping gases might perhaps cause a coffin to erack ‘pen, but the vessel would neither explode nor jostle, except pethaps momentarily and uunnoticeably as the pressure escaped justas a carbonated drink doesnt jump out of your hand when you open the rab). ‘Lastly some have suggested that lighting right somehow have moved the coffins Barbados, like many Caribbean islands, is subject to frequent hurricanes at times accompanied by lightning strikes. Attempting toaddress the lack of plausible mechanism by which lightning would move the coffins, Brian Ridout recently advanced this theory in the Journal of the Sociers fr Prychical Research. le states that the electric current created by a Jighining strike could be responsible forthe nuysery; the electrical energy “will spread away from the point of lightning strike ina series of concentric cirles losing power asit travels and inducing strong magnetic field. “The magnetic effect has been detectable up to 40m [130ft| from the point of strike in desert soils. I the cuvent reaches a lead coin then cw nducw.a magnetic field, which will be a dipole. creating a positive and a negative end tothe coffin, Because the coffins were all aligned the same way, the induced charges at the head ends and at the feet ends would have been similar for each, The effect would only last fora fraction ofa second hecanse lead does not hold a magnetic field, but during that fraction ofa second like charges will opel and unlike charges will attract. the coffins ‘were small or unstable then they would move asfar as there was room todo 0." Ridout acknowledges that theres no evidence that an electricity conducting pole vas anywhere near the Chase Vault in 1820, but suggests thatthe nearby church roof might have been hitThe church structure thacexisted during the eurly 1800s is long _gone, but Ridout notes that 21936 source affirms tha the eurrent church was bail upon the foundations ofits predecessors, and thus thatthe Chase vault will aay have been close to the bell tower atthe west en Despite the many assumptions, unknowns, and caveats inherent in this hypothesis, endeavoured to investigate this idea as best could. consulted a physicist, who saw no glaring errors bur suggested more information ‘would be usefal to asessits validity situation L addressed with my oasie visit. Oneimportant messurement missing from ‘iden’ calealations was her far the Chase ‘Vaults fom the (existing) founéatioa, From the nearest foundation corner (ar the tallest point on that side ofthe church) othe vault is about 40ft (12m, Ridout notes that an electric current can ABOVE: Cis Church Parish Church, Oistns, wh the vault inthe foreground be detected up to 40m (1304 from a strike under some circumstances but merely being detected isa very low bar indeed ‘The question of whether it could be strong. snovgh to plausibly create a dipole powerful ‘enough to violently jolt the coffinsis another matter entirely Accurately gauging electrical conductivity through substrate isa fraught and imprecise task; indeed, “Earths surficial ‘materials cover a wide rango of electrical conductivity values, Bedrock alone can vary from conductivities of 10 to 100 siemens per metro in certain massive sulphide Aeposits and graphite zones down to 0.00001 siemens per metre for certain unweathered igneous rocks and carbonates, a span of seven orders of magnitude. These are rough guides, however —depending on factors lige weathoring state, porosity. and water ‘content, itself Linked to porositythese values can change drastically, Water also vaties considerably in conductivity depending on its tate and ionic content ~salt water can [be highly conductive] while fresh water [eg.rainwater which would accompany an clecrical storm is less conductive. Further complicating the picture are overbunten, soil, vegetation, and anthropogenic infrastructure” = The eference to “anthropogenic infrastructure” is espocially relevant inthis case; the church grounds are not a uniform surface through which a current would travel but instead have steps, pathways, vegetation, and so on,as well asthe other vaults. In fet, counted at least a dozen ‘Similar wnultson the westside of the church, ‘where the Chase Vault islocated, within about the same radius of the church; these ‘would potentially have been just as affected by lightning strike asthe Chase Vault If Ridout'shypothesisis correct, presumably one or more ofthe other, similarly siruated (andlightning vulnerable) vaults would also demonstrate a similar mysterious disarray Should Ridout wish totes his explanation, he could seek to have them opened, or scanned with ground: penetrating rd w= ATINVESTIGATING THE VAULT Because the Chase Vault is accessible and ‘open to the public it mav yield paysical cluesto confirm or refute parts ofthe le ‘Though che mysterious events happened some two centuries ago, the vault has by all accounts been preserved more o less as ‘twasin the 1800s, with afew notable and easily identified exceptions The interior bricks, for example, are original and would likely reveal physical evidence of such acts asheavy lead coffins being violently tossed ‘bout inside a small vault. Brian Ridovt debunked one of the «common claims about the vault ane ilhstrated inthe book Death Deeds that the entrance tothe vault (a key part ofthe story) hua sloping sides. Tho ‘stone against the sloping side’ became part of the mythology and is mentioned in Aspinall (1912) and Gould (1828) even though both authors inckude a photograph ofthe vaul showing thatthe story isimpossible. There are no sloping sces and the burial chamber is ‘mostly subterranean.” ‘There slittle or noevidence that a stone slab was ever placed onthe val’ horizontal entrance; writers have taken great pains todescribe its nearly impossible weight (requiring sx or seven straining men to ‘move it) but an examination of the lip and ledges ofthe vault (both onthe surface ofthe current slab and beneath it) show no telltale damage, gouges, or deep scratches which ‘would inevitably result from a hugo stone slab being laced (and replaced) over the vault, ‘The interior walls and ceiling are Lined ‘with ed bricks and stone, which are in excellent condition for their age (protected fasthey are from sn ind rain) ye reveal no sign atal of ang significant forces being applied to them: The universal detail ofthe ‘ead lined coffins being heavy undermines the veracity ofthe legend, especially given the tight quarters ofthat vault. Had the «coffins moved so dramatically (spun 90 or 180 degrees in some accounts) their corners ‘would surely have struck the bricks and left many marks, Yet an examination af the bricks reveal itl if any damage other than some salt seepage and discoloration The vault interiors, thankfully, vandalism froe— ppethaps because of the reverence locals have Tor the church andor the power ofthe vaults ‘Once the natural explanations have been dliscegared, that of eourse leaves us with the supernatural ones, and in that event one {sas goodas another: anything from ghosts {Caribbean duppies) tw curses, gremlins, and psychokinetic energy could have moved the collins, ad there is exaetly equal evidence forany of those. Some supernatural ‘explanations may however, point usin the ‘ight direction because they draw upon local lore and legends LORE AND LEGEND Folklore, tint category of explanation for the Chase Vault stony neither areal) ‘natural vent nor real) supernatural one has heen largely neglected in previous research. Al these hypotheses put the cart hefore the horse in that they assume that the Chase Vault story i substantially rue as ‘old, Before atvempting to explain something ‘we must frsthe sure there is something ‘twesplain, We need not puale over the ABOVE: The itvor walls and cng othe aut ae lined wth fed bik an stone, in exoent cond ‘on for her age and stone signs of damage rm the movement of Heavy, eadined otis. particulars of how the coffins could have ‘moved by themselves inthe sealed vault i there's no real evidence they ever did. ‘The various accounts of eventsat the (Chase Vaule are confused and contradictory, asnoted earlier This would be less of @ problem if contemporary corroboration could bbe found. Afterall the ovents wore alloged to hhave caused considerable consternation and fear throughout the island. Yet researchers hhave found! absolucely nethingin church records, enspapers, of other sources that suggest anything unusual or mysterious happened at the Chase Vault at anytime ‘Nickell notes that an 1842 book by Isaac Orderson, the rector’sown beather, about historical Bachados “contained not the slightest roference tothe Barbados coffins mystery”. Furthermore, aceording to Ridowt, an 1866 record of the events, appearing in Memoirs and Correspondence of Vint CComermere,sehich should have een ‘important, as written after Combermere’s death by his wife, and isa rehash of the (“imaginary’} Death Deeds story, with only afew words altered... have searched his official correspondence, reained in the National Archive, bt there isn mention of the event.” The complete lack of reference tosuch a remarkable series of events over the cours of eight wears (1812 to 1820) in any published records s perhaps as great a iystery as the moving coffins themselves, ‘The evidence that the whole story is ‘fictional account isoverwhelming. At every tum itis plagued by exaggerations, inrefutable errors and ireconcilable contradictions. Even the staunchest advocate of the Chase Vault ystery readily admits that at least some, if not much, of the story ssembellished and wrong a varios particulars. The issue isnot that somewhere Amid the confused and contradictory welter fofdemonstrable embellishments, :umours, and third-hand sources there's genuine unsolved aystery involving restless coffins. ‘The Chase Vault story does not merely comiain legends itis ef legent. Inthe cary 1980s Joe Nickell assembled literary evidence that Freemasons were involved in the legend, Ridout, while acknowledging that some ofthe prominent people involved were probably Masons, ‘writes that “The difficulty in finding a natural cause has ed wo the suggestion that the derangement of coffins never happened and the likely perpetrators ofthe charade ‘vere Freemasons. We ae informed (Nickell, 1982) tha the story is loaded with Masonic symbolism, bur this must be viewed with caution... ymbols should not be confused vith facts..Orderson's epitaph on his ‘memorial stone recallshis fervent piety and stisdifficulttoimagine him conniving in the eviction ofthe Chase faalyso that their wut could he used for Masonic ria” But this mischaracterises Nickell who neither claimed nor suggested that Orderson anyone else was “conniving inthe eviction of the Chase family so that their vault could8016 Hs ivestigaion complete the author emenies om the Yau bbe used for Masonic ritual," The fact that ‘aneay version of the Chase Vault story is arguably infused with Masonic allegory signifies nothing more than that whoover recorded tha particular version was versed, in Freemasonry and added those clements to ‘a preexisting legend while retelling it~ more on tha presently ‘Regatdless of whether or not the Chase ‘Vault coins genuinely moved, why do people~and Bajans in particular belive they moved? To CJ Hinds it was ‘not surprising thatthe Chase dead were disturbed, because, ashe told me, the “family fought in life and they fought in death And the only way to separate the fighting, inthe end, vas to puc them in diferent parts of the church cemetery..They were dabbling inblack arts, and it weno the graves ‘with them. They were fighting amongst ‘homselvos in life over the and, over monet, relations ~it was alivays problems swith that family, and they tookit directly to the grave” ‘This “in death asin ife”flldori theme ‘of course holds a moral Tesson for those who hhearand repeat it get along with you family don't quarcel with neighbours, and so on. ‘Note that Barbados s refered toby Hines as ‘morally upright, Christan (i, Anglican) nation to whom evil was introduced from elsewhere in the form ofthe wicked Chase family. wasreminded of another Caribbean ‘thos legend I investigated in nearby ‘Jamaica ~ Annie Palmer, the White Witeh of Rose Hal (see FT239:44-49), another story of, ‘cruel and quarrelsome family schooled ia black magic that had come fom elsewhere. (Colonel Chase like Palmer f the Rose Hall ‘Plantatioa,is sai 1 have been especially cruel to his slaves and family.) OTHER RESTLESS COFFIN LEGENDS The Chase Vault story is only oneof several legends perhaps ahal-dozen or more involving mysteriously moving coffins in supposedly sealed vaults around the word, Lang recounts an ideatical tae from June 1844 regarding a Lutheran cemetery in Aheensburg, on the island of Oesel inthe Baltic Sea, adding that despite considerable investigation no evidence of such happenings was ever discovered, and that the “disturbances precisely parallel” those ddeseribed atthe Chase Vault: “It will be observed thatthe Oelsen and the Barbados tales ave precisely similasin every respect” Lang describes another ease in Suffolk, England, referenced by a Sir James Clete in 1833, Infact we need not visit the British Iles or the Baltic to find other identical legends; though the Chase Vaultis the most famous mystery on Barbados, the same thing ‘happened only about seven miles (L1km) to the north, inthe parish of St Thomas. involved a Welshman named William Asygell Williams who moved tothe island in the 1600s, and his familys moving coffins. Records dare the Williams family walt 0 at least 9 January 1742, demonstrating tht the Williams Vaule preceded the Chase Vault by atleast 60 year. nis 1928 book Barbus Diocesan Histor, ‘Cannon Reece refers to a report noting that “rather common featuneamong Barhados Tegendsis the erratic bohaviour in vaults of lead and copper eotins There sof course the famoas Christ Church story [aswell as| three or four other stories" (quoted in Ridout,2018).Evenasolitary story of such a seemingly singular event would be curious, bt out or five such stores about restless coffins on such a singe small sland is. remarkable indeed. ‘Understood in contest the mystery ofthe ‘Chase Vault isneither trie nor hoax, natural nor supernatural; itis instead precisely what itappears to be: aleyend.Some writers have intentionally embellished the tale, passing off Getional details as fat, but theres rnoevidence that anyone (Freemason or otherwise) intentionally created or hoaxed the tale from whole clot instead, they did ‘what all humans do when they hear a good story: they retold and changed it in the process, emphasising and adding different elements according to their beliefs and agendas It's served its purpose for orer a century providing fodder for mystery lovers ‘while reminding Bajansto be kind to each other. NoTES {Robert Schombuig, The Mistery of Barbados Comprising a Geographical and Stestia! Deserioton ofthe slona.o Shetc of he istnco! Developments since the Setiement ‘and an Aesount oft Geo.gy and Noto Productos, London: Leng, Brown, Green ‘and Londmans, 1848, 2 Joe Nickel, Barbados’ restless coins lai to rest, Fe, 85:4 (pil, PpSOG, Part, 35:5 (ay), pp7s-85, 1862, 2 Bran Rid, “Research Note: An Anata Review ofthe Chase Vault Mystery at Chit (Cure, Bufbodos” Journal ofthe Society for Pajtica Resco, 82:4, 09210280, 2038. 2 Sevarah ters have eer neorect, information about the ewan ofthe Chase Nault Ridout cams that “the vault ison 3 prominence abot 100% above se2 level,” and Fike ters an estimate of "some 250th is occ the entrance i at about 2108 above sea level os measured by Phone SPS, 5 James Berd, “Geological Elects on Ughining ‘Stike Disirbutions’, Masters tes, King Abaulah Univesity of Science and Technoigy 2016. Aula at hips semaiischola eryr0116573904322¢85cc0C157LO514C7 ‘aorapet 65 James Brandow (Ed), Genealogies of Bados Fame: from Corbbeana and The Jour of the Barbados Museum ond Mtn! Soe, ature, Marland: Clear Company, 1983, © BENINMN RADFORD is author of dozen ors0 books, ntuding Tracking the (Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact Fiction, and Folklore, Bad Clowns, and ‘mast recenty Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spins, He f alonatime FF conirbutor, a member af the American Fokiore Society and curenty conosts ¢ podcast called ‘Squaing the Strange’Brought to you from the team behind Viz Comic, Britain’s third or fourth funniest magazine. Possibly fifth. PCTS Pat Ae STA css cae Rel aime ce Bete cis Possibly some bad ones.FORUM fo" ‘SEND FORUM SUBMISSIONS TO: THE EDITOR, FORTEAN TIMES, PO BOX 71602, LONDON E17 00D, LK, OF TO DRSUTTONGFORTEANTIMES.COM Turn to paragraph 400 Spectral Stathers (Book 45),in ‘whieh the her is pursued across worlds by a mysterious, tentacled, Lovecraitin nemesis in search of the wondrous Aleph. The series even got to grips with various ‘mathematical and philosophical concepts, tormenting the reader ‘with logical paradoxes, recursive Joops,and complex critical paths. ‘Many books like Chasis of Mal ice( Book 30) —have avery small number of meandering routes to secessful completion, An excop- tionis the extraordinary Scorpion ‘Samp (ook 8),which creates world witha stating degree of feeedom of movement and RYAN SHIRLOW recalls the heyday of Fighting Fantasy, when he was the hero in his own fortean adventure... his magazine has recently featured reappraisals of some iconic British books, films and TV shores from the 1970s and 80s (see FT35430-37,379:38- 48, 381:3643).Key pieces of our pop cultural history. from Bagpuss to The Wieker Man, are undergoing revival, with a new generation action,allowing the reader wore dlscovering the shared worlds visit areas and pursue alternative these texts evoked, and pechaps | pollergeists),mediaval bestiaries | medizval worlds and used these goals, Such non linear play might the mirrorthey hold uptoour | (golams,gangoyles, ogres) and tointroduce-a mumber of adul >ecommon enough in modern times. But there hasbeen amajor | classical history (the Hydra,the themes. their teenage read console games but remainsan ab- gapinthose nostalgicroviewsof | Minotaur,the Harps)-They frecly ship. Dead of Night (Book 40) solutoly remarkable achievement theera,Fora generation of prow. | purloined the folk bogies of these | explored religion, faith, and a ina pocket sized paperback book forteans,itywasthe interactive’ | islands(leprechauns banshees, terrifying plague, Both Phantome witha very base set of rules. Fighting Fantasy novelpof Steve | hags) and other cultures dragons, | of Far (Book. 28) and Night Drago The series was undeniably ‘eckson and lan Livingstone geniesclementals)and threw "| (Book S2)saw the reader progress a product oftstime; despite that First introduced us tothe ina few real animals oftenin through aspiritual dream world. some notable exceptions, tisis rmonsters,mythology language | giantymutated orsupernatural | Completing Sige ofSardath (Book largely a Western and very white and concepts of forteana By form cryptids, wild men,lycan- | 49)required you tomasterthe fantasy universe; perhaps the real choosing yourroutethrough the | thropes).And,of course,there basics of alchemy and brew the mysteryis what allthe women ‘numbered paragraphs, and witha | wererdinary humans in their | coereet potions. The player starts were up to, as they don't feature bitofhelpfrom aluckydicerell, | many guises (pirates, guards, Creature of Havoc (Book 24) with much inthe action, cropping up pou could be the her of your awa the mother ofall hangovers, and only in the form of the occasional Treen adventure Slouly dlomersnoranembar | estald wit or el scene ‘The computer games of the ‘employed them.A handful of the —_rassing tattoo from the night ‘There have been various attempts timesre sea viewed trough | Yooksevendevedint science ie: | afte, ut the fact that they have torelaunch the franchise oer the Apeiimotfondrenembrance as | tion femuringrobts space trvel | heen tnsformetino ahideous | years with The Fast Shins} Chale SecninChatleBiookerssecent | andvenegade eacicengineers. | repullan beast wide conse! | Hlgson publishing the band new Black Mirorhic*andrsnateh, | " Thocarlytnokforexample | over dhelractnsJustasinthe | adventrw The tex Dat in Yenihecapabliesof these | CtaddofChaweBook2)bmwea | avenge staged youcan gradually | 2018 Butinour hightech wield ames werelinited theylacked | surreal fartalefeh withthe | restore your higher functions ty | game books hare become a nox Thelusharwork purple pre, | reader exploring dungeonsor | releangaveresofsaced even ge lootnote. mala that ature and picketed porbiityand | casleswhich don’ ene make | pint guide oreatingthe adder frteans wil indand Gah thelr MordabiltyoftheseTinlegreen | senseandare populated with | rifledhabit laden Propacy | monsters in larious Col rather tole Atshelrpeak, he Fghsng | vweirdandwhimal nis that | (Bol 42)simlarlypacesthe than inthe walshumbed pages of Fintaynovelssoldover au | caneitherbelporbiader you. | Yeadcharacterinafuguestate, a yellowing paperback loncopisinteatinaly aerss | arelythey have retsineda_ inwhich they mnt slow piece esl SDriinal ilespublshed | unique snd disturbing charmall | togetherwhathas happened to | FURTHERREADING ‘by Puffin, and launched what ‘their own. House of Hell (Book 10) themor risk being trapped in an Penecchnvenrlgtn deere Interbecame the GamesWerk- | isan unusual Hammer Horror | endleseyle of encaraton. | 4tof ting Prt come. shopWarhammer empire. Today | homage,with the player attempt. Secret organisations and Neriguenea racer they ae largely forgotten. ing to escape froma haunted conspiracies featureregularly. | srecengmmatnuad pgasokcors SuctinginBRZwithTie | mansonfullatmodemday Devil | Foteans might recegiz the Warokof Frew feuncainthe | worshippers Sngprtion behind the Rosy Chale © Ry SHORLOW/s @ musian series authorsrinsakedigh | "Thelaterargubly dashes, | ice cultinMonrunner(Bodk 8) ondccasona/vntet cent Fancy eves onc hobbit, mod- | books eed bulldmore Poll waldsandaltematere-| | workin undercover os ct emule Gaupueszombies, | latemallyconistem andlogely | aliesareexporediaheinspxed _Senentandfate of ov.FORUM A bang on the head drives and feelings, and felt less need to follow cultural and societal narms, ‘The classic example of frontal lobe damage took place on 13 September 1848, when anexplosion sent a 13Tb, 1% MARK GREENER explains how traumatic brain injury can change personality, creating serial killers and even vampires. inch diameter iron rod tearing through the head of Phineas Gage, until then a 25yearold favourite respectable, responsible and Character inthe Sixties Barman TV series is Williom Omaha MeEleoy His origin may have seemed unlikely - bang on the head transforms the mild mannered Professor of Egyprology at Yale University intothe archillain King To, nild-mannered ral worker‘The 3ft7in rod travelled SOft after leaving his snl, Remarkably he survived (see FT38:30, 25818 19) But after the cident, Gage became, his doctor John Harlow commented, “ital” and “irreverent”, with litle played with undisguised relish by deference for is fellows” Victor Buono —but psychotic and Gage indulged “inthe grossost antisocial behaviour after head profanities", which wasnt is habit bofore the accideat, and, Harlow recounted, became “impatient of restraint oF advice wien it conics with his desires”. Tis friends and acquaintances said he was “no injuries sno joke. Bangs on the bonce have led 1 violent crime, serial killing and even a rather tragic cave of vampirism, ‘A38-yearold “neatly _sroomed” biological male “wearing female atire® went to longer Gage”. Its a common an Emergency Department in ABOVE: Prineas Gage. otopephec Hoan the ro that ore thous his skal, theme. Relatives of people: Flovida with a selfinflicted cut || BUILDING Ac” FORTEAN LIBRARY COTO) Mesa laa Cee tae WI Who remembers Charles Berlta those days? If you dont he was all over the place (in more ways than one) in the 1970s and for much ofthe '80s,confecting books about Alanis, resurrecting the Roswell Incident ~ which now refuses to dio ~and ‘laborating on the Bermuda Triangle (see No.3 (FT368:5657] in this series), as well as dabbling in ancient astronautics and the hunt for Noal's Ark. Actual historians and other interested parties hold Beri’ finding’ in rather low esteem ~even to the point of saying he invented stuff~so you may be wondering why’ we feature one of his best-known books here. I's here partly because Berlitz had a knack, and a ‘ery profitable one, for gathering all kinds of odds and ends about various allegedly ‘mysterious events shat otherwise would probably have linguished in old magarines ‘anc, by damning them together with some fresh research, turning them into highly readable, seminal summaries of the ‘case’; and so he became a ‘name’ in Fortean, circles This particular book stands as a fine example of his technique. And it’ also ‘here because i's an excellent, not 1 say egregious, instance ofthe art of avoiding the obvious conclusions from your research and so maintaining the ancient eraft of _mystery-mongering, Welcome, then, tothe Philadephia Experiment, ‘The core ofthe story of what the legend ‘on the book's cover calls “the top-secret ‘World War experiment that shattered ‘the barriers of possibility” is easly enough told. In October 1943, while at sea ‘witha convoy, the destroyer escort USS Eldridge, DE173, displacement 1.646 tonnes fully laden, was seen by sailors aboard the SS Andrew Pusureth, to disappear into invisibility. Later that month, the ldridge was docked in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Various pieces of secret equipment were placed on beard. Then the ship vanished again ~2ap-~now you see it, ‘now you don't. From out of nowhere it then appeared inthe water next tothe Liberty ship SS Andrew Furaseth (her ain), docked in Norfolk, Virginia, some 200 miles (320km) away (Liberty ships were mass-produced, 14,000ton ships, builtin the USA to. British design to carry cargo, troops and prisoners of arin the convoys ‘of World War IL. After afew minutes, the Bldridge disappeared again, and reappeared at its mooring in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. According to the original source, the US Navy considered the experiment a success, but for one drawback: the effects ‘onthe crew. fair few went mad. A couple spontaneously combusted went into the ran), and bummed for 18 days. Two went toa bar with their shipmates and just. disappeared. Another, in font of his wife and children, walked through a wall in his ‘quarters and was never seen again, Others ‘were found dead, embedded in the ship's i Philadelphia XU Cd rico oulie4 and william Moore ‘ull-The whee hing was hase on some aspect of Einstein's unified field theory and directed by a DrFranklinReno. ‘Botore cogitating onthe difclties vith even this truncated account — which Aifficlties Beste and Moore don’ adress se shoul se where tall come from. ‘i 1955,Borns K Jessup published The Case or she LEO, in whieh he argued bis case that UFOs were propelled by some ind of antigravity device. Jesup hada rmastersdegree inasteophysies,and had ‘worked on but not completed a PAD thesis, ‘Somehow for some years, he is sad to have become involved in various archeological ‘expeditions but seems tohave spent most of his ie selling automobile parts, while ‘writing books and lecturing on UFOs. Not longafter the paperback of The Cas jor the UFO came ut, Jessup had aleter from Carlos Miguel Allende, that Berlitz and ‘Moore deseribe as “written in a rambling, scraely hand in several differen eypes of colours of pencil and pen,and in very od style. Capitalisations appeared in ‘the midst of sentences, words were oddly ‘used and misspelled, and punctuation, ‘whece employed at all, seemed almost ‘whave been thrown in as some sort of afterthought Entize phrases were frequently underscored in different colours of iak.” Anyone evea remotely familiar with publishing will secognse the type, respond appropriately (Oh dear noc another mutter) and consign the epistl tothe circular filing cabinet. Not so Berlit and Moore, andi certainly not Jessup Heasked for ‘more details Theve arrived in May 1956, inthe same hapharard stle, but this time signed Cari M Alen’ There weren't realy ny more details, but Allen rather rashly suggested he would remember everything it siven a dose of sodium pentothal and then hypnotised, inthe then-common i mistaken belief that “The mind does NOT ever forge, "Notreally, As you know” Just before le signed of, Allen wheeled back o Jessup's fayourite subject ~ propulsion systems: “Pechaps already, the Navy has used this accident of transport co build our UFO’. IKis@ logical advance fom any standpoint.” Depending on your logic, of course ‘Meanwhile, Allen had sent — anonymously a heavily annotated copy (writing in several shades of pink, according to one account) of Jessap's book tothe officer commanding the Office of Naval Research, Admiral N Furth this ‘name was aetually Frederick R Furth, and he was arear admiral. t's unlikely Furth ever saw this, but three ot his ‘underlings ~ USMCMajor Dareell Ritter, (Cdr Geonge Hoover USN, and Capt. Sidney Sherby USN~ did. They were working on satellite technology, but also interested in antigravity research according to Berlitz ‘and Moore The trio seem to have takenAllen's ramblings seriously, as they summoned ‘Jessup to Washington ‘discuss them:and Jessup recognised Allen’ inimitable style. Sothey ‘wanted 0 see his letters. ‘They then arranged for the lerters and Jessup's bool with Allen’ annotations Cinred ink) to be retyped in their entirety; the result, ‘with an introduction by Hoover and Sherby, was ‘mimeographed and spiral bound and 127 copies were run off= published ~by a ‘defence contractor the Varo Manufacturing ‘Company of Garland, Texas. Ths the weir saga eame, more or less, int the public domain. But not many people knew about it, and for years it was mostly the subject of ‘rumour and speculation. Berlitz and Moore then meander into discussion ofthe last few years of Jessup's lie, which ended in suicide in April 1958. Apart from an excursion into the life ot Thomas Townsend Brown (1905-85), hho ‘thought he was on the way to creating an antigravity machine but wast) thats ‘almost the last we hear of any identifiable ‘human, Instead we have a series of “informants’ masquerading under cover ‘of pseudonyms. Allen mentioned that the ‘Experiment had been carried out under the direction of "my friend Dr Frankin ‘Reno” which turns out tobe a combination ‘of he names of two small towns near where ‘Allen grew up. Moore manages to tack this individwol down and interviews him, giving hima further pseudonym, ‘Dr Rhinehart (Given that the authors say this character died“ litle more than year" before they Finished the book, one has to suppress various cynical thoughtsas to why they bothered maintaining the cover. The alleged ‘Rhinehart’ lives in some undisclosed ou ‘oftheway place and keeps interrupting the ‘conversation with Moore to peer out ofthe window ar the street, presumably looking formen in blacksit doesn't seem o occur to either of them thatthe MIB might ark ‘atthe back ofthe house. Nearly needless to say, Rhinehart, in a vague, prolix and roundabout way, kid. confiems Berlitz ‘and Moore's judgement that Carl Allen vas cescentialy telling the truth ‘Tobe fair, thoy also address Allen's confession of a hoax to Jim Lorenzen of the ‘Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), whieh oceured “inthe privacy ‘ofa parked automobile” in Tucson, Arizona in June 1968, According tothe ‘authors this was “revenge” onthe Varo ‘company for publishing, sans permission or remuneration his annotations on Jessup's book; but they carefully note that Allen ‘confesses only that some oi those notes are “dhe erazyest [si] pack of lies I ever wrote”. Whereas “Allende's confession purposely falls short of saying that [his account of the Philadelphia Experiment iveli wasa THERE ARE BOOKS OF WHICH THE BACKS AND COVERS ARE BY “AR THE BES PARTS.” ain ewe end hoax." The impudent Mandy Rice Daviesis perhaps the best person 1 respond to that ‘The authors see what they want to see, and they are not beyond quoting their several anonymous correspondents and proceeding carefully to ignore the implications of ‘what they're saying. For instance ‘Colonel 2B writes: “It ismy educated guess that the allegations contained in [the Allende) letters regarding seccet experiments were hoaxes of some sort. Yet..this information i caucus to some ofthe actual circumstances of scr experiments (of ‘anmuch less dramatic character)" The authors also manage to overlook a rather Tange cluein what zoologist ~and Bests collaborator in researching Atlantis and the Bormuda Triangle —Dr J Manson Valentine tells them: “The experiment...had been accomplished by using navaltype magnetic generators, known as degaussors, which ‘were ‘pulsed at resonant frequencies so as to'createa tremendous magnetic field on ‘and around a docked vessel?” Thisis accurate as far asit goes. egaussing wasa crafty British wheeze, employed in World War I (and ever since) to neutralise ship's magneticfield and make itundetectable to magnetic mines, which wore crafty German wheero.The Royal [New Zealand Navy seems tohave heard a ‘whisper ofthe Philadelphia Experiment,as ‘their museum website (hetpvinarymuseum, comldegaussingships which includes ‘fascinating account of the serendipitous ‘nove: The uss eine, eat sein ths photo discovery of just such a German mine ia November 1939) sas plainly: “It could be said that degaussing, correctly dane, makes ashup ‘invisible’ tothe ‘sensor of mageticmines, ‘but the ship remains visible tothe human eye, radar, ‘and underwater listening devices” Perhaps more to the point, the technique ‘was operational in time 19 degauss some 400 vessels befoze they joined the Dunkirk evaeuation foils so there was nothing new about itin autumn 1943, Moore and Berit aren't interested, but here seems tobe the seed frm which Allen grew his fantasy of USS Eldridge disappearing from not nace, but twice. ‘Now consider that claim, First, the US acy is supposed tohave sent the Fldvidge with a load of secret machinery on convoy day, potentially atthe mercy of German Ueboats,and tested its invisibility kit in ‘broad daylight. Does that sound sensible? One ofthe key aspects ofthe convoy system was that ships remained in sight of one another. Apart from the implausibity of the intial proposition itis surely passing strange that only Car Allen anda handful bf others seem to have noticed the Bridge vanish, And then theres the 216stroag ‘rex who supposedly went bonkers or were otherwise sorely indisposed. Neither Allen nor Reitz and Moore seem te hare wondered who drove the ship home, or anything about transfecring a necessiry ‘er erew from another warship, or ships. ‘Then consider the Eldridge’ teleportation from the Philadelphia Yard to Norfolk and back. Does anyone mention the watery ruckus that plucking at leas 1,700 tonnes of ship from the ogzin would make, or the effect of the sudden displacement of said 41,700 tonnes of water when it plonked itself bbackin Philadelphia? No. By asking such elementary questions the holes in Berlitz and Moore's research and in their account, soa become visible. And asithappens, {crewmembers (and the ship's Iog) maintain that, actualy the Eldridge never did dock inPhiladelphia anyway. Oh. For what's worth, even John Keel thought Allen was schizoid, As we said earlie the book should be wad for iis mystery mongering rechniqae for whatit doesnt explore as much a for what it claims. And if you want to know ‘more, we highly recommend Andrew H Hochheimer’s web pages (ownde173.com, which will tll you just about everything you reco knows. Happy reading! Charles Berit and William Moore, The Philadelphia Experiment: Project ivisibitiy, Grosset & Dunlap, USA / Souvenir Press, UK.1979ae Mnf | ico ama Pd 3 ae Tifa EXCLUSIVE MUG when you subscribe COR NUL a tel mele fix of strange phenomena, curiosities, prodigies and portents delivered direct to your door. © Exclusive FREE Fortean Care bre) ae Reo ee ee eles Oat eee eC Pea ears ror €ea)rifimes Ir \ . ( YOURS FREE! SUBSCRIBE TO Forteanlimes TODAY! Call +44(0)330 333 9492 (oa i QUOTING OFFER CODE P1705PREVIEWS / BOOKS x ‘SEND REVIEW COPIES OF BOOKS 70: BOOK REVIEWS, FORTEAN TIMES, PO BOX 2409, LONDON NWS 4nP, UK. XY Round and round in (stone) circles... A misreading of Neolithic and Stonehenge-related literature results in this attractive alt archaeology book failing to deliver on the subtitle’s proto-Druidic healing mission. And there are some howlers. Wisdomkeepers of Stonehenge ‘The ving brates and Healers of Mogae culture ta ie This book falls betneen so ‘many soos that its legs are smashed The central premise, only seriously discussed inthe Jest 30 pags, is that Neolithic stone cices were built bo fo, proto Druids 0 that the exact date ~indeed, time of da (or, ‘nore likely tine of stars, starry ight) ~ could be determined. ‘Why? So that medicinal herbs could be clleced when a their ‘most yotent. This secret group, drt thelr restricted breeding programme, produced the red- hired (ACHR bearing, slighty more cancer prone) Cette Druids of popular myth. Brahmindke, they were protected and set part rom the reso the popaation {or mllennia 6 miraculous lysis, cers, keepers ofthe Jote ecen the éminones rss Johind the quarelsome, nriad ruler ofroa Age Briain, With the onslauaht of Christianity, they ld Britain co survive in Teeland onto return onthe collapse of the Western Roman Enpire and finally sete. in Biddulph east of Crewe Aldhough it reads lke a proposal for an Alan Garmer novel the books promise to diseose hidden Stonehenge related Colic arcane knonledge {theirherbal cue for cancer seems to have been Tot) is ben To travel hopefully better than to arive, Ob, that itwere. The majority ofthe paperbacks a populist often euphemisms for dumbed- iowa) stra aceount of the prehistory of the British Isles. This recounting of the ‘Journey of British natives! tribes’ limps along well ‘uodden paths; itis dated, often inaccurate and based ‘on secondary~ even tertiary ~ sources. tis superfluous. In the last half decade, thore has been a shelfoad of popular ‘books on British prehistory and Stonehenge (like the Beano of old, there isa Stonehenge ‘book every Christmas), by literate, competent professional archaologiss who have dug the sites. number ofthese ace ‘writen with enough speculation tokecp most New Agers happy and colleagues bemused. Tlowever, Wisdomksepers is damaged by a background level of misreading/misonderstanding ofthe literature. Even worse, ‘most ofthat literature is ‘od ‘The text repeatedly states that the Stonehenge stone sockets were lined with animal bones to settle the stones, that all stone extraction is quarrying (British Neolithic quarrying in the strict sense is probably quite rare), the precision and continued effective use of earbon-14 dating are downplayed in favour of ‘more recent techniques hike rehydroxplation, which is still to be rigorously tested. “Almost all vha is weitten about tae Chalelithi to Early Bronze Age - especially in ‘Wessex — is confused, sith every ‘culture’ being tagged to an inflax of a new ‘ribe’. Hence all new ‘cultures’ are due to invasions of nev folk, the weasel word hese being ‘invasion’ I is sabering that 10-15year old texts (many of which are cited and used by Phillip) are row dated and ‘wrong’ the pace of change in Neolithic (and Stonehenge) studies is “The best chapter is Phillips’s succinct debunking of ley lines, especially Wessex ones.” asconising, and if a novel idea survives five years, its doing ‘well Indeed the fall impact of the recent DNA work is yet t0 ‘ome, as academic ramparts ave both built and breached. "There are howlees. The Stonehenge bluestones are “a particular type ‘of dolerite known as plagioclase feldspar". Plagiocase feldspars are a ‘mineral group nota rock type, (They are the most abundant ‘minerals in the Barth’s crust and so widespread that igneous rocks are classified on their precise ‘composition, “In theie natural state, metals are contained in silicate rocks known as ores. ‘To extract them, you need to neat the rocks tothe specific temperatures at which the metals melt They can thea pour ‘out ofthe rock which remains solid”, There follows sentences about the element silicon ‘that are equally confused and inrelevant, Native silicon does not exist within the Earths ‘rust, so its melting point has no significance in the smelting ‘of metals. Technically, some of the frst sentence is true (though not his definition of an ore) but the second two are nonsense. Had (archaeo)metallurgy been fa simple as he supests, the ‘Neolithic would have been very short and mankind would new be extinct or living throughout the Solar System, if not beyond. (the probable sequence might hnave been Farly Neolithic, couple of really hot bonfires, Iron Age, Nuclear Winter/Alpha ‘aur. This, or something similar, has been a plodine for many good sci-fi novels ‘Not alls bad. Ironically for an alternative book, the ‘est and clearest chapter is Phillips's competent and suecinct debunking of ey lines, especialy ‘Wessex ones. However, the very ‘bes thing in the book is the 30 ‘or so photographs, often new views of familiar sies, by Deborah Cartwright. These are fine, atmospheric and excellently reproduced, truly impressive and quite ‘unexpected, ‘A fevourte displacement is doing online tests such as“Are you a psychopath?” (law scores are so disappointing), so somewhere there must be one for authors ~‘Are you an alternative archaologist - giving a grid ‘with term that should be employed and ticked off Many are obvious, commonplace and Tong lasting (Atlantis; Mu; the Pyramids; Nazca and ley lines; ‘Machu Picchu (but never Chan Chan; Stonehenge (mandatory); Orion's Belt; selstices; Apollo; ‘the Dogon etc ~the ist is long and all too familiar), bat others are nev (Blick Mead, the Hadron. Collider, Denisovans) and some are yet to appear (Reich and his DNA work). Alongside are the cenuless lists of cited experts authorities It must be salutatory for'maiastream’ academics that any low at being named in print in this typeof literature is 100 often tempered by the irritation of being misunderstood, misquoted and intellectually abused. Where is the #MeT0o for befiddled academics? Continue overleafREVIEWS / BOOKS Stuff of dreams After a decline in popularity, taxidermy has retumed triumphant and at its exuberant best = ‘ vmcidery dsplys rom Taxidermy Tonvich sum, wth sorely ean toed Viren natal sesceeins sry elle tobe American eh co TR ‘Museum of Natural History, ‘hose dioramas form the ‘Time was that taxidermy pinnacle of elessical taxidermy was considered out of date | He explores imerios that use and embarrissing redolent | taxidermy as core elements, of decaying 1th century from Calle Abbey with its time country housesand*Great | earped 19th century rooms, White Hunters’ its specimens | 10 the modern homage to the tut of place in the era of cabinet of curiosity, Malplaquet conservation and clean House, and adventurous interior Scandinavian-tyle interiors. | designs that show that bright Even the Natural History ‘modern homes and taxidermy “Museum shunned it from are not natura enemies. There the 1970s tothe 1990s, hen | isan exploration of taxidermy ‘systematic redsplay freaks and fakes (see replaced much of their FMM6S1) anda capter taxidermy with didactic on anthropomorphic interactive displays. taxidermy such as Walter ‘Times change. Over Poicers delightful and the last 20 years there slightly spooky; see has beon a transformation | FT306:56-41) Kitten Tea Paty, ‘pinion, and taxidermy is bothof which should delight beck.The Museum's touring _mostforteans,as well asneon exhibitions, once headlined zoomorphicitoms like elephant’s } by animatronic dinosaurs, foot umbrella stands, which now lead with imaginative are more ofan acquired taste exhibitions with mounted But where this book shines specimens a thet heart. is in ooking at commercial Artists, meanwhile, areusing taxidermy andits use in art taxidermy as. crucial part and fashion. The commercial oftheir practice, taxidermy chapter encompasses both its courses are thriving, and use in advertising and retail stuffed animals are the design and the promises of ultimate hipster accessories, taxidermy dealers, such asthe There are new, less pungent, gorgeous Deyrolle shop in Pais, methods of preservation, a now returned wits former culture ofethical specimen _gloty after being gutted by sourcing and even day courses firea decade ago. The art and where you can make your Jashion chapter emphasises own anthropomorphic mouse how modern taxidermy has ‘mount to tae home. Teapt into new realms, with Teisthisnew culture that is artist ike Polly Morgan predominantly documented in producing works of beauty, Alexis Turner’ sumpruously nd designers ike the mc ‘lustrated book.A renowned missed Alexander McQueen taxidermist himsel,Turner integrating taxidermy into their iswell placed t9 explorethe collections Turner's book is 2 joysof taxidermy. He givesa jewel, enormously saisfing, brief but thorough overview | informative and fascinating, of tsevolution, rise fall and avisual feast attesting ro the resurrection, and then goes _vibrant renaissance ofan art on to explore the madern| ‘once consigned tothe dustbin taxidermy scene There is of history, look at those museums Stuart Cooley that sill have magnificent tO Continued from previous page ‘Though Wisiomkeapers and Phulips tick all the alternative archeology boxes in this literate ‘and gentle read, they failto deliver on the promise ofthe title, But that is par forthe course, Rob Wer tok Dark Emerald Tales Foor, Legends, Dark Histon and Hauntings Of ireland fi sey Ree This eollection covers the ancient Irish gods and goddesses (the ‘Morrigan, Boar, Aoibhel, Crom Dui, Lagh); mythical chatacters, suchas Oisin and Fionn, and the eyeles oftheir tales; and the harbingers of death banshees, hhelounds and the dullshan). ‘The narrative swiftly moves on to the 5th century wizard Earl of Kildare, Gerald Fitzgerald, ‘who studied metallurgy, alchemy And more atcane subjects betore returning to Kilkea Castle, where the was eaten by aeat after transforming himself into a bird, “Those with an interest inthe {acy realm are well served by short pieces on changelings, fairy shock troops (malevolent spirits sinking boats fought off with ion), aie she (soul reaping black cat) and, of ‘course, leprechauns. They are descended from the Tuatha Dé anaan and come in 57 efferent varieties ranging from Leinster (dow profile, likes honey) 10 Ulscer (good poet, hurler), Connacht (hardworker, reclusive) and Munster (extrovert, hard ‘drinker, Ghosts, vampices, ‘werewolves and demons all pop up. The werewolves of Ossory ‘wore cursed by an abbot but a priest gave one the last rites in 1182, supposedly documented in 1183 report to Rome. FT readers | will be keen to learn about (Charles Fortin Kinsale and its Lady in White, the ghost ofa woman who committed ‘suicide there sfter finding the compses of her husband and father. Other haunted sites:in Cork include the tao, St Finbarr’s Hospital and Carr's Hill Cemetery (ghosts of Famine If you want a haunted pub in Dublin, you're spoiled for choice: The Gravediggers (near Glasnevin Cemetery, old haunt of grave robhers); Brogans of Dame St (next to the Olympia, theatrical ghosts}; Mulligans| of Poolbeg St (frequented by poltergeists); the Lord Edward in Christchurch Place (haunted by the ghost ofthe United Irishman}; and the Brazen ead, which dates to 1198 but is haunted by Robert Emmett Anentertaining guide to Ireland's dark side let down by sloppy layout. Still, it should appeal to tourists Pairc 0 Corin tok The Newton Papers ‘The Strange and True Odyssey of Isaac Newton's Manuscripts Ssrah Oy 1n 1936, Sotheby's auetioned ‘manuscripts written by Isaac Newton. John Maynard Keynes purchased 38 lots and later collected others bought there by booksellers. Inthe two centuries since Nevrton’s death, the fewr people offered “brie, troubled slimpses" of the manuscriprs “worked hard to conceal their contents", notes Dry. ‘The auction brought Newtnn's “hidden’ side into the open. He was politi: his unpublished work inchided 14 million words on theology and biblical ‘luronology; one milion on science; 350,000 on alchemy and related subjects (FT383:66), ‘and 150,000 on eoinage ana the Mint. Classifying another hal-2-million words proved dificult, Scholars realised that the diverse elements were “intricately interwoven", linking ior example, ‘natural and magica laws ‘The manuscripts survival vas, largely, happenstance. "Neston became Master of the Roval Mint in 1898, His ovemment securities and other investments were sorta some £2.5 million in today’s currency, Catherine Barton ~his housekeeper and the daughter of his halfsister~ married John Conduit. In many ays, we have him to thank for preserving Neyrton's manuscripts.‘Their daughter married Viscount [ymington, whose san became the 2nd Bar of Portsmouth. The family became the custodians cof Newton's manuscripts, whieh they allowed few to see, ‘The Sth Earl the wonderfully spamed Isaac Newton Wallop ~ donated the scientific papers to Cambridge University in 1872, (fy great-grandfather Isaac Newton Greener, born at the other end ofthe socal scale five years before Wallop's bequest, ‘worked asa tamer in Gateshead, ‘Was Tsaae Newton’ an unasual name?) The th Earl sold the remaining manuscripts o fund Seath duties and his divorce In this delightful book, Dry introduces a east of compelling characters, such asthe American investor Roger Babson (see FT220:48-50), who made a fortune predicting the Well Street Crash using an analysis based on Newton's third Law of motion. For every action, there isan equal and opposite reaction.) Babson credited Isaze, Dry notes, “with providing the basis for his successful business formula”, Meanwhile, his wife collected Neveton’s manuscripts, providing the basis of an {important American collection. ‘When Babson was a boy, bis sister die! in a simming accident, which he later blamed on gravity that “came up and seized her lke a dragon and brought her to the bottom”. Alter his grandson also tragically éroomed, Babson cane 0 believe gravity was responsible fora “host of ills" including broken bones (an “inability t counteract Gravity ara critical moenent"), tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments (gravity, be believed, draws water and air laden with disease into the valleys and houses), and even ea cone ern“Stephen King can keep his maniacally grinning clowns — Soon made this reader get out of bed to check the windows were closed” Saturday Paper Pee era eRe eee ‘beautitul detailing of events will draw you into a Oe dons aa od Re) ahd Find us at: HO OUT NOW! BOO cre a