Here's a description of Gilbert Campbell from an Australian newspaper written at the time of his conviction in the literary frauds case.
Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic. : 1869 - 1954), Sat 8 Oct 1892, Page 11
Sir Gilbert Campbell
Sir Gilbert Campbell, Bart., who has
just been sent to prison for 18 months
in England in connection with the literary
and art frauds, was pretty well known in
London to a member of our staff. Tne latter
says: I met Sir Gilbert Campbell
under amusing circumstances. I
was doing the editorial work for a paper
which belonged to a needy aristocratic
gentleman, Colonel A--, a man who had
"plenty of social influence, but no hard
cash," as he once confessed. One day a
card was brought in to me, inscribed
"Sir Gilbert Campbell, Bart." Contributors
with titles were not very common
in Fleet street, and when the office boy
showed him in I conceived no
wish that they should be. He
was a shabby genteel man, with
a bottle-green frock coat, buttoned
across his chest; a tall hat with a
reminiscence of nap still lingering upon it;
and boots that revealed a gape between
the sole and upper of each. He looked
like a bookmaker down on his luck
or a publican deprived of his license. His
face was puffy and flushed.
He sat down and said he had called to
see whether the paper could take a series
of sporting stories from him. I said we
should be glad to consider any contributions
received from his pen. He wanted
a definite promise; but no journalist
would be likely to invite contributions
from a man with whose work he was
not acquainted. He said he would send
something in, and stipulated a very high
price—-more than we were in the habit of
paying. I said we should not pay that
figure. "Oh," said he, but you must
pay something extra for my name." I
replied that a name was not worth as
much as good copy to any paper.
Then he became angry, and his puffy
face became more puffy and more red.
He went on to tell me about his ancestry
and the departed glory of his race. I
asked him how it was that a baronet with
such an illustrious pedigree should be
seeking for work in Fleet street. "Oh,"
he said, in a loud voice, "what the
blankety blank can a blank man do in
these biank times? A man must blank
well live, and if he can't live on his blank
income, he must make money by writing
blank stories for biank papers."
I remarked that if his literary style was
anything like that, I was afraid it was a
trifle too ornate for our columns. He let off
more steam, swore a lot, and
took his departure. He never sent
anything in. I saw him several
times afterwards in Fleet street, looking
seedier each time. He pressed me to have
drinks, but I never happened to be thirsty
and he sought the classic shades of the
Cheshire Cheese, Moonie's [sic], and the ****,
unaccompanied. Later on I saw him
finally arrayed in broadcloth and fine
linen. 1 supposed he had commenced his
literary and art agency then. He found it
more profitable than writing stories—-only
the police stepped in! Poor Sir Gilbert
Campbell!
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In Mandeville Square, Campbell's detective, Matthew Wenlock, lives with his dotty mum who practices a form of cartomancy that has similarities to that described here.
The Book of Days: A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities, Volume 1 (London: W & R Chambers, 1888), Pages 281-284
edited by Robert Chambers
Folk Lore of Playing Cards
Campbell's book includes a section that contains a disturbing level of violence in which a victim's individuality is obliterated.
Gertrude Marlow, daughter of the man whose murder constitutes the mystery of the story, has been wrongly committed to an asylum by her step-mother. One of the inmates is a man who imagines himself to be King Richard II.
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 12 July 1898, Page 4
Chapter XIX. King Richard's Discovery
[...]
"Doctor Parravicini," said Gertrude,
venturing to lay a hand upon the arm of
the keeper of Seldon Retreat, "let me
beg of you to listen to me for a moment.
I feol sure that the unhappy man who
has just left us meditates some awful
deed. His whole manner is fierce and
threatening, and when you came up I
saw a terrible scowl for a momeut upon
his features."
"1 thank you, Miss Marlow," answered
the doctor, in kindlier accents
than he had yet used towards her, "but
will you permit me to be a better judge
of my patients than you are. I have
the most perfect command over them all,
and even had I not the attendants to
support me would overcome them all
with my glance."
He turned away from her, and
endeavored to instil some life into the
listless revellers, but in vain; the dances
were gone through mechanically, the
songs sung without spirit or energy, and
the whole entertainment seemed about
to prove a dismal failure. Gertrude
and Martin remained near the door,
watching the fantastically dressed crowd
moving to aud fro, when suddenly their
attention was attracted by the sound of
a loud voice, and glancing to the spot
from which it proceeded Gertrude saw
the soi distant Richard II addressing a
small crowd of maniacs.
" My trusty lieges," cried he, " I tell
you that the hour has come when you
will be free; aye, and freed by my
hand. Too lung has a felon, aided by
some patent enchantment, detained you
in dismal durance; but now our time of
deliverance has arrived; and I, Richard,
the last of the Plantagenets, shall again
ascend the throne of my ancestors." His
blue eyes flashed, and his long fair
beard seemed to curl with the intensity
of his passion. The crowd of madmen
round him raised a feeble shout, which
at once died sway as Doctor Parravicini
stepped forward and accosted the pseudo
monarch.
"Enough of this," said he, sternly,
"you are disturbing the harmony of the
evening; return to your room at once,
or I shall havo you conveyed there by
force."
For a moment the two men gazed
into each other's faces; but the lunatic
was the first to quail; be stepped back
a pace, and his band stole towards the
breast of his tunic.
"Retire, sir," cried the doctor in an
authoritative tone, placing his hand
upon his shoulder as he spoke.
Just as he did so a shrill scream broke
upon his ear, Lady Montmorency de
Courcy, alias Susan Hoggs, had quarrelled
with one of the other female lunatics,
and had suddenly flown at her and
was tearing her face and hair. The
doctor for a moment took his eyes off
the maniac who stood before him and
turned towards the combatants, and that
moment was fatal to bim. With a wild
yell of "Piers Exton, felon knight, have
I found thee at last!" the madman's
hand disappeared, in the breast of his
tunic, and reappeared again armed with
a kitchen cleaver, which he had somehow
managed to obtain possession of. One
sweep of his muscular arm buried the
weapon in the doctor's brain, who fell at
the feet of his slayer with a deep groan.
As if stirred by some hidden spring, the
crowd of lunatics, male and female,
dashed upon the keepers, not one had a
chance of escape, and death was
inflicted upon them in its most hideous
form by the nails, teeth, and feet of
their insensate assailants. Richard II
stood motionless, with his foot firmly
pressed upon the body of his victim, and
gazed proudly round upon the terrible
scene before him; then as though seized
with a sudden access of ferocity, he
discharged a volley of blows upon the
senseless body beneath him, shattering
the head into one shapeless and
indistinguishable mass. Gazing with grim
approval upon his work, and holding
the gore-stained weapon clutched tightly
io his hand, he strode towards the
shrinking Gertrude.
"Ha!" cried he, with a freeh gleam
of ferocity in his face, "what, another
minion of the accursed Exton still
living!" and raising the cleaver, he
prepared to deal a deadly blow at Martin.
Death appeared to be imminent, and
the poor woman--was in the act of
closing her eyee that they might not see
the coming blow, when the sense of the
immediate peril caused Gertrude to
take a decisive step.
[...]Leave a comment:
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An Australian newspaper in 1898 serialized a detective novel by Sir Gilbert Edward Campbell which had originally appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1888. (Doyle's A Study in Scarlet appeared in the 1887 edition.) Campbell was a defendant in the literary fraud trial of 1892. One of his co-conspirators, "Dr." Charles Monatgue Clarke, had been reported to Scotland Yard in 1888 as a person who matched Hutchinson's description of a man he had seen with Mary Kelly.
The Publishers' Circular, November 1, 1888, Page 1374
Beeton's Christmas Annual 1888
The Mystery of Mandeville Square
by Sir Gilbert Campbell, Bart.
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 29 April 1898, Page 4
Chapter I. Opposing Elements
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 3 May 1898, Page 4
Chapter I. (Continued)
Chapter II. At the Hilarity Theater
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 6 May 1898, Page 4
Chapter II. (Continued)
Chapter III, Cutting the Cards
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 10 May 1898. Page 4
Chapter III. (Continued)
Chapter IV. Waiting for the News
Chapter V. Where Mr. Marlow Was
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 13 May 1898, Page 4
Chapter V. (Continued)
Chapter VI. The Dawn of Suspicion
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 17 May 1898, Page 4
Chapter VI. (Continued)
Chapter VII. At the Inquest
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 20 May 1898, Page 4
Chapter VII. (Continued)
Chapter VIII. Medical Advice
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 24 May 1898, Page 4
Chapter VIII. (Continued)
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 27 May 1898, Page 4
Chapter IX. The "Running Footman."
Chapter X. A Sharp and a Flat
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 31 May 1898, Page 4
Chapter X. (Continued)
Chapter XI. A Munificent Proposal
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 3 June 1898, Page 4
Chapter XI. (Continued)
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 7 June 1898, Page 4
Chapter XI. (Continued)
Chapter XII. The Vanishing Lady
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 10 June 1898, Page 4
Chapter XII. (Continued)
Chapter XIII. The Snare of the Fowler
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 14 June 1898. Page 4
Chapter XIII. (Continued)
Chapter XIV. The Bird is Trapped
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 17 June 1898, Page 4
Chapter XIV. (Continued)
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954) Tuesday 21 June 1898, Page 4
Chapter XIV. (Continued)
Chapter XV. Throwing Down the Gauntlet
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 24 June 1898, Page 4
Chapter XV. (Continued)
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 28 June 1898, Page 4
Chapter XVI. A Striking Situation
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 1 July 1898, Page 4
Chapter XVI. (Continued)
Chapter XVII. The Last of the Plantagenets
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954). Tuesday 5 July 1898, Page 4
Chapter XVII. (Continued)
Chapter XVIII. An Unexpected Clue, link
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 8 July 1898, Page 4
Chapter XVIII. (Continued)
Chapter XIX. King Richard's Discovery
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 12 July 1898, Page 4
Chapter XIX. King Richard's Discovery
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 15 July 1898, Page 4
Chapter XIX. (Continued)
Chapter XX. Playing to Win.
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 19 July 1898, Page 4
Chapter XX. (Continued)
Chapter XXI. Dealing the Cards
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 22 July 1898, Page 4
Chapter XXI. (Continued)
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 26 July 1898, Page 4
Chapter XXII. Wenlock's Trump Card
Chapter XXIII. Charlie Royle Goes Abroad
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 29 July 1898, Page 4
Chapter XXIII. (Continued)
Chapter XXIV. A House of Cards
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 2 August 1898, Page 4
Chapter XXIV. (Continued)
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 5 August 1898, Page 4
Chapter XXV. Second Sight
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 9 August 1898, Page 4
Chapter XXV. (Continued)
Chapter XXVI. Cain
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 12 August 1898. Page 4
Chapter XXVI. (Continued)
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 16 August 1898, Page 4
Chapter XXVI.--Continued
Chapter XXVII. Outward Bound, link
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 19 August 1898, Page 5
Chapter XXVIII. Vision of the Night
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tueday 23 August 1898, Page 4
Chapter XXVIII. (Continued)
Chapter XXIX. Under the Stars and Strips
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Friday 26 August 1898, Page 4
Chapter XXIX. (Continued)
Chapter XXX. Yellow Dog Gully
The Corowa Free Press (NSW : 1875 - 1954), Tuesday 30 August 1898, Page 4
Chapter XXX. (Continued)
Chapter XXXI. Mrs. Wenlock's Opinion
The EndLeave a comment:
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Thanks, Jeff.
Sorry, Scott. This thread does lack any sort of unifying thesis.
Here's a version of a column by Joseph Hatton which mentions the Cutbush story and then goes on the summarize the Howard/Lees story. Hatton knew Dr. Benjamin Howard.
The Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW : 1894 - 1939), Wed 2 Oct 1895, Page 4
Jack the Ripper.
In "Cigarette Papers" contributed by Joseph
Hatton to the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle,
appears the following strange story:—-
Not long ago there appeared, I think it was
in the "Sun," a terribly realistic description
of a criminal lunatic is [sic] confinement. The
man had degenerated into an inarticulate
beast. He was said to be the fiend known
as "Jack the Ripper." The article attracted
no particular attention. It wanted, I suppose
the authority of a leading morning paper to
make any serious impression. In the "Sun"
I fancy, it appeared as a fanciful narrative
from the pen of a clever novelist. It may
have been true, nevertheless, and colour
is given to it by a statement which has
recently been made in San Francisco by Dr.
Howard, an Anglo-American physician not
unknown in London, and who is, I believe, a
member of the Royal College of Surgeons. I
knew Dr. Howard very well at one time, and
always regarded him as a man of intellectual
power. He has been telling the Bohemian
Club of San Francisco a remarkable
story, no other than the true and particular
account of the capture and confinement of
"Jack the Ripper," who turned, out to be
a well-known London Physician, now supposed
to be dead, who, indeed, for the sake
of the profession and for other reasons
was wiped out by a mock death and
burial but who at the present time is under
restriction as a dangerous lunatic. It was,
according to Dr Howard, one Robert James
Lees, a philanthropist and advanced labour
leader and a friend of Mr. Keir Hardie, who
through his extraordinary clairvoyant powers
led, the London detectives to the home of the
murderer. Mr. Lees is mentioned as still
residing at 26 The Gardens, Peckham Rye.
At present he is the leader of "the Christian
spiritualists in Great Britian." A commission
de lunatico inquirendo established the facts
against the criminal who confessed to mental
aberrations during which he lived some other
life and awoke to find himself in strange places
under strange circumstances. Dr. Howard
declares that he was a member of the
commission that sent "Jack the Ripper" to an
asylum for the rest of his days. It is said
that he wili have to answer for the breach of
a vow which he made in common with his
colleagues never to reveal what had passed.
The story is told with remarkable
circumstantiality and a newspaper publishes a
portrait of Mr. Lees, who might well be
interviewed on tho subject. If the narrative with
which he is credited is true it is one of the
most striking of hypnotic revelations.
----endLeave a comment:
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It is interesting to sometimes discover what occurred to various people who are shown in a source. Three (at least) of the performers had sad ends that I know of. William Terriss, who had started with Sir Henry Irving, had developed a following with his public in heroic melodramas, and branched out into actor-managing on his own at the Adelphi Theatre on London's West End. In plays like the Sir Walter Scott-based "Peveril of the Peak", he packed them into his theatre. He became known as "Adelphi Terriss". But in 1897, he was stabbed to death by a mad, deranged and jealous actor named Richard Archer Prince, at the stage door of his theatre. The theatre and that entrance are still there - there have been reports of his ghost being seen around there. Prince was tried for the murder, but found guilty but insane and sent to Broadmoor (Sir Henry Irving, rather disgustedly, said this would occur because Terriss was an actor, not from another profession).Originally posted by TradeName View Post
Ironically, had he lived, Terriss would have been working on a new property of more lasting value than what he performed in. He was approached by George Bernard Shaw for a play, "The Devil's Disciple" to pioneer the role of "Dick Dudgeon" the hero in the ironic comedy. Because of his death, Shaw ended up working with Richard Mansfield - of "Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde" fame - instead .
Two others who met sad ends (around the same time as Terriss, but in another part of the globe, were the acting couple of Arthur Dacre (originally Arthur James) and his wife Amy Roselle, who had also worked with Irving. Dacre was a serious actor, but his style was an acquired taste, and he was not too successful in the British Isles. He and Roselle took an acting troop to Australia, and tried their luck there. But it did not turn, and after the failure of a theatrical benefit for them in Sydney in 1896, Dacre and Roselle were facing poverty. He shot her and cut his throat.
JeffLast edited by Mayerling; 07-20-2017, 03:11 AM.Leave a comment:
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I've read every single post on this thread and I still don't understand any of it.Leave a comment:
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Thanks, Jeff.
Here's a book on stage make-up by C. H. Fox that is a combination of a handbook and a catalogue. It is illustrated with portraits and caricatures of actors in the make-up the author created for them. Some of the material may be considered offensive today.
The Art of Making-up for Public and Private Theatricals (London: C. H. Fox, 1887), link
by Charles Henry Fox
Page 116
Disguises for Detective Business
An article about Fox that mentions his unhappy end.
Stories from the Collections: the curious case of costumier C.H. Fox, link
9th December 2015
By Emma Skinner
A version of one of the newspaper articles mentioned above can ne found on Casebook.
Bucks County Gazette
Bristol, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
24 July 1890, link
THE ART OF MAKING UP
A NOTED WIGMAKER TELLS HOW DISGUISES ARE EFFECTED
Mr. Charles H. Fox, the celebrated wigmaker of Covent garden, has recently explained that he is constantly in the habit of disguising persons for purposes quite unknown to him. Being of opinion that a few more details about his "unholy art" would not be without interest, we dispatched a representative to see Mr. Fox, who went to business at once:
[...]
"During the Jack the Ripper scare I must have had hundreds of customers. At last it got such a big thing, and I took such an interest in the affair, I sent across to Bow Street, and several of my customers were shadowed. One was followed to Mentone and another to New York. They all professed to be amateur detectives, but I fancy some were anything but that, and I even dare to say that the gentleman himself may have passed through my hands more than once. It is quite a common thing for large publicans, who own a number of houses, to disguise themselves and visit their various places to watch and see if there is any shady business going on with their responsible representatives, but I think the majority of my customers are jealous husbands who think it necessary to keep a sharp eye on their wives."Leave a comment:
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Brief note:
Alexander Sullivan was one of two competing Irish-American leaders (the other being his hated rival, Dr. Patrick Cronin) for the leadership of an anti-British Irish-American group, the "Clan-Na-Gael". In 1889 Dr. Cronin was the victim of a major homicide case in Chicago, notorious in that his body was dumped into a sewer manhole by the three killers (who later were sentenced to prison). Sullivan may have been behind the killing. It put a negative droop on Sullivan's later political career.
JeffLeave a comment:
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An ad for a book in the vein of Robert Anderson's The Coming Prince (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1881), but this book is much more specific in giving dates.
Daily News (London, England),Wednesday, November 7, 1888; Issue 13287.
Page 1, Column 2
ONLY ONE MORE ELECTION of PRESIDENT
of the UNITED STATES will be held (namely in November,
1892, four years hence before the Second Advent of Christ
in the air takes place on THURSDAY, March 5, 1896, as a Bridegroom
to raise deceased saints, and to translate 144,000 watchful
living Christians to heaven without dying (1 Thessal. iv., 16, 17;
1 Corinth, xv., 51; Rev. xii., 5; xiv., 1-6). Then after nine months
of great religious revivals and Gospel preaching, from March to
December, 1896 (Rev. vi., 2; xiv., 6), the Red Horse of red Republican
war goes forth; taking peace from the earth for eight months,
until August, 1897, when Napoleon the Antichrist reigns for forty-two
months, unitl Jan.,1901, as Emperor of ten democratic kings
of the ten kingdoms of Caeser's Roman Empire--vis., Britain,
France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Greece, Egypt, Syria, Turkey,
and Balkan States (Rev. Vi., 4; xiii., 5; xvii., 12-16; Dan.
vii., 25; 2 Thess. ii., 3) Christ's advent on the earth as an
Avenging Judge to destroy Antichrist and the wicked will be on
Thursday, April 11, 1901, the last day of Passover Week, which will
be exactly 45 years distant (1335 minus 1290 in Daniel xii., 11, 12)
from the Crimean War Treaty of Peace on the last day of Passover
week in April, 1856, and will be 2,345 years distant from
Artaxerxes' command to Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem Passover
Week, Nisan B.C. 445 (Daniel viii., 14; ix., 25, xii, 11,12; Neh.
ii).--See "forty Coming Wonders," with fifty pictures (price Two
Shillings), published by J. Snow, 2, Ivy-lane, Paternoster-row,
London.
---end
An edition of the book advertised.
Forty Coming Wonders: Between 1890 and 1901 (London: Christian Herald, 1887), link
by Michael Baxter
Baxter had been predicting the end of the world for over twenty years at this point, making revisions to his time-line as required.
Louis Napoleon, the Destined Monarch of the World (Philadelphia: James S. Claxton 1866), link
by Michael Paget Baxter
The Coming Battle (London: 1866), link
by Michael Paget Baxter
Coming Wonders Expected between 1867 and 1875 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1867), link
by Michael Baxter
A posthumous edition.
Forty Prophetic Wonders: Predicted in Daniel and Revelation (New York: Christian herald, 1918), link
by Michael Paget BaxterLeave a comment:
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I don't want to make too much of this, but an odd letter to the editor caught my attention.
The Daily News (London), November 6, 1888, Page 6, Column 6
The things that seemed odd to me were that "the children" was in quotes, that the author seemed to imply some personal contact with "the head of the police", and the signature "GOGMAGOG".
The signature seems to be a reference to two wooden statutes in the Guildhall which represent characters from a mythical story of the settlement of Britain.
Gog and Magog: The Giants in Guildhall; Their Real and Legendary History (London: James Camden Hotten, 1859), link
by Frederick William Fairholt
Pages 6-11
In the old days when the inventions of the Monkish Chronicler, or the still more fanciful Romancist, or Minstrel Bard, were seriously listened to as history; it became part of the popular belief that the original name of London was New Troy, and that it was founded by Brute or Brutus, the younger son of Anthenor of Troy; who, when thay city was sacked by the Greeks, fled to Italy, and founded the city of Pavia, from whence his son in search of new conquests, voyaged around the Spanish and Franch coasts, obtained the aid of the Gauls to invade Britain, and landed in the port where now Southampton stands.
Let us now see by whom he was opposed. Caxton, in his Chronicle of England, seriously prints, what the old authors as seriously wrote, about the first peopling of this island. It is to this effect. The Emperor Dioclesian had three and thirty self-willed daughters, of whose management he was at last relieved by obtaining for them as many husbands. But the ladies did not pleasantly submit to the rule of their lords, and agreed among themselves to regain their lost liberties by each cutting her husband's jthroat. The deed was effected, and the Emperor their father, driven to despair of managing so refractory a family, to punish their crimes, and rid himself of their presence, sent all to sea in one vessel with half a year's provisions. After long sailing they reached an island, which they made their residence, and named Albion, after the name of the eldest lady. The Evil One, who never lost sight of them, created visionary husbands for these ladies, who became the mothers of "horrible giants," and they ruled in the land until the advent of Brutus.
We now arrive at "the veritable history" of our Guildhall Giants, included in his invasion, as thus given in the history of the Trojan wars, sold cheaply to the people as late as 1735. The Giant son of the above lady in this version names our Island.
"Brute, having thus got footing in Britain, was preparing to improve the same, when Albion, who had named this island after his own name,-—by which it is sometimes called at this day,—-having intelligence thereof, raised his whole power, being men of a gigantick stature, and vast strength, and bearing for their arms huge clubs of knotty oak, battle axes, whirlbats of iron, and globes full of spikes, fastened to a long pole by a chain; and with these encountering Brute, a bloody battle was fought, wherein the Trojans were worsted and many of them slain, and their whole army was forced to retire.
"Brute hereupon considering the disadvantage between his men and the giants, devised a stratagem to overthrow them, digging in the night a very long and deep trench, at the bottom impaling it with sharp stakes, and covering it with boughs and rotten hurdles, on which he caused to be laid dried leaves and earth, only leaving some firm passages, well known to his men by particular marks.
"This being done, he dared the giants to a second battle, which Albion readily accepted; and the fight being begun, after some dispute, Brute seemed to retire; whereupon the giants pressed on him with great fury; and the Trojans retiring nimbly beyond their trench, made a stand, and ply'd them with a shower of darts and arrows, which manner of fight they were unacquainted with, whereby many of them were slain. However, Albion encouraging his men to come to handy strokes with their enemies, they rushed forward, and the vanguard immediately perished in the trenches; and the Trojans continuing to shoot their arrows very thick, the giants were put to flight, and pursued into Cornwall; where, in another bloody fight, Albion was slain by Brute, fighting hand to hand; and his two brothers, Gog and Magog, giants of huge stature, were taken prisoners and led in triumph to the place where now London stands, and upon those risings on the side of the river Thames, founded a city, which he called Troy-novant, or New Troy, and building a palace where Guildhall stands, caused the two giants to be chained to the gate of it, as porters. In memory of which it is held that their effigies, after their deaths, were set up as they now appear in Guildhall."
Pages 13-15
In the old tragedy of Locrine, once attributed to Shakespeare, the same story is detailed, and "stately Troynovant" mentioned as the principal city of Albion, and the burial place of Brute, or Brutus, after his life of adventure. The victory over the giants is alluded to by him in the first scene of this play, where he details the history of his wanderings from Troy, until
"------- ------- upon the strands of Albion
To Corns haven happily we came,
And quell'd the giants, come of Albion's race,
With Gogmagog, son to Samotheus,
The cursed captain of that damned crew."
The name therefore of one of these giants has been split into two, and we now call one Gog and the other Magog. The names originally were Gogmagog and Corineus. The name is still preserved in its purity as a designation to the Gogmagog hills in Cambridgeshire. The oldest figure in our Guildhall is supposed to represent Gogmagog, the younger Corineus.
Corineus is one of the principal characters in the tragedy just quoted, and one of the two brothers of Brutus who are companions in his wanderings and his fortunes, thus narrates his own prowess:
"When first I followed thee, and thine, brave King,
I hazarded my life and dearest blood,
To purchase favor at your princely hands,
And for the same in dangerous attempts,
In sundry conflicts, and in divers broils,
I shew'd the courage of my manly mind:
For this I combated with Gathelus,
The brother to Goffarius of Gaul;
For this I fought with furious Gogmagog,
A savage captain of a savage crew;
And for these deeds brave Cornwall I receiv'd,
A grateful gift given by a grateful King;
And for this gift, this life and dearest blood
Will Corineus spend for Brutus' sake."
Now as every national hero in the old time was popularly endowed with gigantic stature, these figures appear to represent the conqueror and the conquered. Their dress, too, would seem to warrant this supposition; as Gogmagog is armed in accordance with the old tale, while Corineus is habited after the Roman mode, as conventionally depicted at the time of their manufacture.
----end
Fairholt references this work.
Ancient Mysteries Described: Especially the English miracle Plays (London: 1823), Pages 262-276
by William Hone
XI. The Giants in Guildhall
A later article.
The City of London School Magazine, September, 1882, Pages 105-109
A Paper on Giants in General and Gog and Magog in Particular
October, 1882, Pages 129-134
A Paper on Giants in General and Gog and Magog in Particular
by I. GollanczLeave a comment:
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Another interesting person connected with the Chicago Times-Herald in 1895 was editorial writer Margaret F. Sullivan, wife of the Irish leader Alexander Sullivan. I'm not sure if she was there when the R. J. Lees article appeared (4/1895).
The Ridpath library of universal Literature (New York: Fifth Avenue Libray Society, 1899), Vol XXII, Pages 85-86, alternate link
SULLIVAN, Margaret Frances, an American
journalist, a native of Tyrone, Ireland, was
brought to this country in infancy. Having
received a classical and general education in public
and private schools at Detroit, she entered the
profession of teaching, which she abandoned for
journalism, becoming an editorial writer on the
daily press of Chicago, and, on occasion, for the
New York Sun and Boston Herald, her topics including
international affairs, tariff, finance, and the
arts. She was one of the editorial cabinet of the
Chicago Herald, and at times acted as chief of the
editorial staff of the Times-Herald. She wrote a
number of the articles in the supplemental volumes
of the American edition of the Encyclopedia
Britannica. She has contributed to the Century
Magazine, Lippincotts, the North American Review,
and other periodicals, American and foreign.
She was married in 1874 to Alexander Sullivan.
In 1889 Mrs. Sullivan was sent as special cable
correspondent of the Associated Press to the
Universal Exhibition, Paris, and, at the inaugural, was
the only foreign correspondent admitted to the
hall reserved for officials and diplomats, being
honored with a seat in line with President Carnot.
Her first dispatch of 6,000 words, depicting the
opening scene, and characterizing the exhibitioa
ia general, and, at weekly intervals, four
subsequent ones of 3,000 words each, descriptive and
critical, devoted to the several great departments,
were printed in all the leading newspapers of the
United States, and commanded approval in Europe.
Mrs. Sullivan has published Ireland of Tosday (1881),
and with Mary E. Blake, Mexico, Picturesque, Political,
and Progressive (i888).
----end
Daily True American (Trenton, NJ), June 12, 1889, Page 2
Notes from the Capital
Certain Persons Recently Made Unpleasantly Prominent
Alexander M. Sullivan--
His Literary Wife--
The Killing of Principal Hanford--
Women WHo Can Keep Secrets--
Prominent Men Who Have "Doubles."
by Walter Wellman
WASHINGTON, June 6,--Alexander Sullivan, of Chicago is well known in
Washington, where he sometimes appears on business connected with Irish
affairs or his law practice. Sullivan is a remarkable man. About 40 years old,
he has a face smooth and bright like that of a boy. His eye is very keen, and
posesses the quality when fixed upon one of making obvious the man's force of
character and wonderful strength of purpose. He is always calm and well
poised, and even in the heat of a court trial or of a fierce struggle in Irish
conventions or secret society was never known to lose the cool and almost cruel
equanimity which is his predominant outward trait. He has a striking gift
for diplomacy and intrigue, and in his time has played a most important part
in the Irish agitation, which assuredly is the remarkable thing of its sort in
this century, possessing, as it does, more pertinacity and continuity of purpose,
and unfortunately some of the bloodthirstiness as well as the self sacrificing
spirirt of the Anarchist movement in Russia. For several years Sullivan has
been the head and front of Irish agitation in America. It is well known that
he has been the brain or idea impelling power of nearly all the
recent activities in that direction in this country. As president of the
Irish National League of America he was close to Parnell, and is personally known
to all the great agitators on the other side of the water. Mr. Sullivan resigned
the presidency of the National league to take part in the presidential campaign
of 1884, being a strong admirer and warm friend of Mr. Blaine. He took
the ground that he had no right to participate in a political campaign while
acting as president of an orgainization which embraced men of all parties. Perhaps
his friendship for Blaine arose in the fact that he was born in Mr. Blaine's
state of Maine. He was also a friend of Horace Greeley's and left the Republican
party to support the Greeley movement in 1872. Before that he had
stumped the state of Michigan for the constitutional amendment giving negroes
the right of suffrage, and was an active Abolitionist. As a lawyer he stands high
in Chicago, and as a man and citizen is well respected, though by many thought
dangerously zealous in the Irish cause and somewhat prone to carry his points
at all hazards. Whatever troubles his connection with Irish agitation may lead
him into, the fact will remain that he is a strong, a remarkable man, one who in
the romantic era would have ruled the state or overturned a dynasty.
Not less remarkable than Sullivan himself is his wife, Margaret. She is a woman
of broad culture, and one of the most brilliant writers in America. Her husband
earns eight or ten thousand dollars a year as a lawyer, and this is supplemented by
his wife's income from her pen, surely as much more. In the field of art or
literary criticism she is the foremost writer in Chicago or the west, and for
some time has written the foreign and many other editorials in two or three
leading papers of Chicago. Her word pictures of the national conventions of
1884 and 1888 attracted attention the country over, and she used her wonderfully
facile pen on the inauguration of President Harrison and the welcome to
Mr. Blaine in New York harbor. She does what probably he husband dare
not do, travel in Great Britain and Europe, and thence she has sent some
remarkable letters.
She is now in Paris writing cable letters to the New York Associated Press,
and some of her descriptions have become the theme for innumerable editorials
on both sides the Atlantic. Some years ago she interviewed Gladstone and
described his home life in a manner which made her name known wherever
the English language is spoken. Though a woman of refined feelings and delicate
manners, she has a head for practical affairs as good as that of her husband.
Alexander Sullivan never takes an important step without first consulting his
wife. She is every bit as much a diplomat as he, and Secretary Blaine once
said id she were a man he would like to send her as minister to one of the
capitals of Europe.
That a woman can keep a secret no longer needs exemplification, since women
lawyers, physcicians, journalists and politicians are playing so important a part
in modern activities with mouths closed as tightly as those of their brethern, but if
deomnstration were needed it could be found in the case of Mrs. Sullivan. When Patrick
Egan discovered the information which led to the expose of the forger and perjurer Pigott
he at once consulted Mr. Sullivan. In a few days four persons, and only four, knew
that Pigott was standing over a volcano whose eruption would be heard around
the world. These four were Sullivan, Egan, a Chicago Catholic priest, who
carried a packet to Parnell in London, and Mrs. Sullivan. After the priest had
sailed from New York, with the precious packet containing the evidence strapped
to his body, one other person was intrusted with the secret. This one, Benjamin
Harrison by name, kept it well, but no better than did the woman, for
during four weeks not a soul but these five on this side the Atlantic, and not
more than half a dozen of the other side, knew aught of the impending sensation.
Eight or ten years ago [1876] Mrs. Sullivan was a teacher in the public schools of
Chicago. A fellow teacher [Francis Hanford], a principal of the school, was said to have made
some uncomplemenatary remarks about Mrs. Sullivan. These remarks reaching
her ears, she called upon her husband for vindication. With his wife Mr. Sullivan
called at the home of the principal, where the parties to the dispute met upon the
lawn. Some words followed, and then blows, resulting a few seconds later in
the shooting and killing of the principal by Sullivan. From the prominence of
the parties this affair created a sensation scarcely second in interest to the Cronin
case, and the trial was closely followed by all the people of the city. Mr. Sullivan
was acquitted on the ground of self defense. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan have no
children, and are much devoted to each other.
[...]
----end
The Review of Reviews, Volume 11, June, 1895, Pages 646-665
Chicago Newspapers and Their Makers
by Willis J. Abbot
Pages 653-654
THE "TIMES-HERALD" AND THE "EVENING POST."
Early in 1895 Mr. [James W.] Scott, with the aid of a few powerful financial friends, purchased the Chicago Herald and the Evening Post from John E. Walsh. At the same time Henry W. Hawley, a young and successful journalist, who had made a notable record as proprietor of the Denver Times, purchased Adolf Kraus' interest in the Chicago Times and became sole proprietor of that paper. Under the joint management of Messrs. Kraus and Hawley the Times had made great gains in circulation and prestige, but was still unprofitable. The idea of consolidating the two newspapers occurred to Messrs. Scott and Hawley at almost the same moment, and was swiftly carried into effect, Mr. Hawley becoming managing editor of the Times-Herald. The combination was quickly shown to have been a wise one. The new paper was put at a stroke on a par with Chicago's model—-the Tribune—-and the marked gain in its advertising receipts showed the favor with which the move was regarded by the business community. But, as so frequently happens, the issue showed that ambition realized was for Mr. Scott only the prelude to the end for him of all things earthly. Six weeks after attaining that for which he had striven for years—-the ownership of a great morning daily—-he died suddenly in New York, whither he had gone for rest too long delayed. A week later Chicago was electrified by the news that H. H. Kohlsaat, a lifelong active Republican, had bought the consolidated papers, thus leaving the Democrats of Chicago and the whole Northwest without an organ. The issue of this singular enterprise is still in doubt, and it is not too much to say that the whole world of journalism is watching for its outcome. In business life and as proprietor of the Inter-Ocean Mr. Kohlsaat gave abundant evidence of audacity. Some of his big real estate "deals" dazzled veteran Chicago speculators, and his expedients in pushing the Inter-Ocean to the front were the wonder of the newspaper community. Never, however, did he essay anything so audacious as the editorship of the great Democratic daily of the Northwest. Himself a strong Republican, an earnest advocate of protection, a close friend and supporter of Governor McKinley, he can scarcely complain if Democrats receive with doubt his protestations that the Times-Herald is to be purely independent under his management, and await proof. Many of the difficulties in Mr. Kohlsaat's situation will be overcome by the force of his personality. Few men enjoy more wide popularity; few stand so well with the business community, none have been more popular wiih their associates and employees. Possessing in a notable degree many of the best qualities of Mr. Scott, who was his close friend from their schoolboy days together in Galena, Mr. Kohlsaat is—-if the question of politics be waived—-the fittest man to succeed to Mr. Scott's editorial chair.
The editorial staff of the Times-Herald is to-day second to none in Chicago. The managing editor, Cornelius McAuliffe, is a marvel of industry and a paragon of discretion. He conducted the Evening Post from the day of its foundation until the day when H. W. Hawley retired from the managing editorship of the Times-Herald. Of Mrs. Margaret F. Sullivan, the chief editorial writer, fitting characterization is made elsewhere in this article, as also of Mrs. Holden—-known widely by her pen name "Amber." Maj. Moses P. Handy and Miss Kate Field are among the special writers who have been added to the staff since Mr. Kohlsaat's accession to power. Walter Wellman, the Washington correspondent of the Times-Herald, is a veteran in its service and has carried its banner in such remote regions as the Arctic zone, whither he went in search of the Pole, and the Windward Islands, where he sought for the first landing place of Columbus. The places of less prominence, but equal value to the paper, are all creditably filled by men who accept cheerfully the hard lot which compels the sacrifice of personal identity to the service of the paper.
Page 664
WOMEN IN CHICAGO JOURNALISM.
Many women have made notable successes in Chicago journalism. One of the most widely known of them is Mrs. Margaret F. Sullivan, a lady of Irish birth, the wife of Alexander Sullivan, the widely known lawyer and Irish politician, and now an editorial writer on the Times-Herald. Mrs. Sullivan's first journalistic experience was upon the old Evening Post under Dr. C. H. Ray, who had been impressed by some editorials she had been contributing through a third party, and offered her a position without ever having seen her or even having suspected that the writer of such vigorous articles on abstruse themes was a woman. In turn she wrote for the Tribune, the Times and the Herald, being engaged by Horace White, Wilbur F. Storey and Martin J. Russell--all skilled editorial writers themselves, whose commendation is as convincing a stamp of approval as could be desired. Mrs. Sullivan reported the opening of the Paris exposition of 1889 for the Associated Press and was the only woman and only press representative on the floor of the Beaux Arts Building that day. She also supplied the New York Tribune with letters from Paris and, when the exposition had become an old story, went over to London to do the Parnell trial for the New York Sun. Besides constant newspaper work she has written two books, "Ireland of To-day" and, in collaboration with Mary E. Blake, "Mexico, Picturesque, Political and Progressive." Perhaps the highest compliment ever paid a newspaper writer was the inclusion of Mrs. Sullivan's unsigned report of the Chicago Republican convention of 1884 in the first edition of Bryce's "American Commonwealth" as the most graphic picture possible of an American political convention.
No woman writer of Chicago has so large a personal following as Mrs. M. E. Holden, "Amber," who has been called "the Fanny Fern of the West and the B. F. Taylor among women." She is a native of Hartford, N. Y., near the Vermont boundary line. Her father was a Baptist clergyman of remarkable eloquence. 1' Amber" first attracted attention by a series of brilliant letters in the Chicago Evening Journal. Her work for that paper continued until she transferred her pen to the Herald, where she now, under the title of "Musings," continues to write bright, cheering, chatty thoughts that help to lighten the hearts of thousands of women readers. Miss Frances E. Willard wrote of "Amber:" "She has bubbled up and over into a thousand sparkling pages; strewn charming metaphors with positive recklessness, and given a tone of home life and a color of warm hearth glow to all her scenes that must purify and comfort every one who reads." The late James W. Scott said once to the writer that the writings of " Amber " brought more correspondence into the office than any other feature of the paper, and that omission of her matter was always productive of a great volume of those protests from subscribers by which an editor is apt to gauge the popularity of a regular feature.
----end
Alexander Sullivan figures prominently in Henri Le Caron's account of his career as a spy for Robert Anderson.
Twenty-five Years in the Secret Service: The Recollections of a Spy (London: William Heinemann,1892), link
by Henri Le Caron
It's an odd coincidence that a dispatch about the death of le Caron says that he had been living under the name Dr. Howard.
New York Times, April 3, 1894, PDF link
Le Caron Had a pension
London, April 2.--Major Le Caron, the
British Governemnt spy, who died yesterday,
ever after the close of the proceedings
of the Parnell Commission, before
which he gave testimony, received an annuity
of £1,000 from one of the interests
which endeavored to prove the charges
against the Irish leader. He resided
in kensington under the name of Dr.
Howard, and was guarded day and night
by detectives to prevent his assassination
by those whose hatred he earned by his
testimony against Parnell and his associates.
It is understood that his life was insured
for a large sum under the agreement
by which he entered the witness box
against Parnell. The immediate cause of
his death was an internal tumor.
----endLeave a comment:
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Bram Stoker wrote a novel which incorporated a version of Francis Bacon's bi-lateral cipher into it's plot about a hunt for Spanish treasure. Here's a review which gives away much of the plot:
The Saturday Review, September 6, 1902, Page 303
*The Mystery of the Sea." By Bram Stoker. London: Heinemann. 1902. 6s. It is amiable on Mr. Stoker's part to give readers their full money's worth of mysteries, but the result is that his story is rather overcrowded. First of all we have a good deal of second-sight, item a buried treasure, item an old castle with secret passages, item the Spanish-American war, item a once-aboard-the-lugger-and-she's-mine episode; finally, of all things in this and the next world, Francis Bacon's bi-literal cipher! They are dovetailed together with great ingenuity, but the promise of the supernatural in the opening chapters is not sustained, and it is a distinct anti-climax to find that an innocent fisherman is drowned at Lammas-tide in fulfilment of an old Gaelic prophecy only in order that the lover of an American young woman may find and fail to keep a treasure lost in the Spanish Armada. There is further a Hebridean witch with a very odd habit of speaking in Lowland Scotch of the Kailyard school. As for the cipher (which is apparently used by a Spaniard of the Armada to express a narrative in modern English), it is enough to make Francis Bacon turn in his grave at Stratford-on-Avon to find his system enabling a young lady who is being kidnapped through secret passages to make messages in the dust of ages with her toes. In spite of all, the first half of the story moves slowly. The supernormal is used once with real effect, when the hero by resting his hand on the dead witch's eyes can see the initial steps of a tragedy in a mist-enshrouded ship. But on the whole Mr. Stoker is hardly justified in framing such colossal machinery to produce results more simply attained by less ambitious sensationalists.
----end
Stoker's novel contains a series of appendices elaborating on the protagonist's ideas about condensing Bacon's cipher. There's a mention of yet another book about Bacon and Shakespeare.
The Mystery of the Sea: A Novel (New York: Doubleday, Page, 1902), link
by Bram Stoker
Appendix A, Pages 457-463
Page 463
"It will probably be proved hereafter that more than one variant and reduction to lower dimensions of his biliteral cipher was used between himself and his friends. When the secrets of that " Scrivenry" which, according to Mr. W. G. Thorpe in his interesting volume, "The Hidden Lives of Shakespeare and Bacon," Bacon kept at work in Twickenham Park, are made known, we shall doubtless know more on the subject."
Appendix B, Pages 464-467
ON THE REDUCTION OF THE NUMBER OF SYMBOLS IN BACON'S BILITERAL CIPHER
Appendix C, Pages 468-470
THE RESOLVING OF BACON'S BILITERAL REDUCED TO THREE SYMBOLS IN A NUMBER CIPHER
Appendix D, Pages 471-475
ON THE APPLICATION OF THE NUMBER CIPHER TO THE DOTTED PRINTING
A link to the book mentioned by Stoker.
The Hidden Lives of Shakespeare and Bacon and Their Business Connection (London: 1897), link
by William George Thorpe
Thorpe proposes that Shakespeare ran gambling "hells" for different classes of gamblers, and loaned money to Bacon because Bacon was in a position to steer work to Shakespeare's troupe of actors. Bacon also held a deer-poaching charge over Shakespeare's head. Bacon finally repaid Shakespeare, who was able to retire to Stratford-on-Avon. Bacon also ran a "scrivenry," where scribes were employed making copies of reports from spies on the continent, political tracts and the plays of Shakespeare.
Thorpe doesn't argue that Bacon wrote the plays.
Thorpe makes citations to this 7 volume documentary biography of Francis Bacon.
The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon Including All His Occasional Works, Volume 1 (London: Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, 1861), link
by James Spedding
The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon: Including All His Occasional Works, Volume 2 (London: Longmans, Green, 1890), link
by James Spedding
The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon Including All His Occasional Works, Volume 3 (London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1868), link
by James Spedding
The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon Including All His Occasional Works, Volume 4 (London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1868), link
by James Spedding
The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon: Including All His Occasional Works, Volume 5 (London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1869), link
by James Spedding
The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon Including All His Occasional Works, Volume 6 (London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1872), link
by James Spedding
The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon: Including All His Occasional Works, Volume 7 (London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1874), link
by James Spedding
In volume 4, Spedding summarizes a murder case in which Bacon acted as prosecuting attorney.
Pages 289-294
It was about this time, and in the middle of some serious quarrels between the Scotch and English which the King had had much trouble in pacifying, that it became his duty to put the law in force against a Scotch nobleman who had procured the murder of an English fencing master. On the 11th of May [1612] a fencing master, named Turner, while drinking with two Scotchmen, servants of Lord Sanquhar, was shot dead by one of them. The man who fired the shot got away, but the other was taken, and being examined let out enough to raise a suspicion that their master had been an accessary. Whereupon a proclamation was immediately issued, offering large rewards for the apprehension both of the master and the man. Lord Sanquhar in the mean time, either trusting to his rank, or thinking that no evidence could be produced to connect him with the deed because his dealings had only been with the man who had escaped, gave himself up and stood upon his innocency. But he had cast up his account too soon. Another of his servants who had undertaken the deed, but lost heart and fled, was still in England, and being caught before he could get away, gave evidence which left no doubt of his master's complicity: and shortly after the actual murderer was taken in Scotland and brought up to London. After this it was useless to persist in denials, and Sanquhar confessed everything. The motive of the murder was resentment for a bodily injury inflicted by accident five years before. Turner, in fencing with Sanquhar, had unluckily put out one of his eyes. It does not appear that, at the time, any charge was made or any suspicion entertained of unfair play. But after recovering from the wound and travelling in France (where I suppose he found that the disfigurement told as a disgrace), Sanquhar returned to England with a deliberate purpose of revenge. To kill Turner with his own hand appears to have been his first intention; but having sought in vain for an opportunity to do it himself without risk of detection, he accepted the offer of two of his countrymen who undertook to do it for him; and in the mean time took the precaution, for his own safety, of crossing the Channel again, and waiting to hear what happened. Finding after a while that his friends had failed him, he returned again to England, and resorted to his servants; two of whom jointly undertook the work. And when again one of these thought better and fled, the other offered to do it alone. And so at last it was done.
It would be difficult to imagine a case of a murder more deliberate or more cowardly, or in which the privilege of anger and hot blood could be pleaded with less justice. How it can be supposed that he believed himself to be acting in accordance with the laws of honour, even as interpreted in that duelling age by courts of honour, I cannot understand. At any rate the "honour" which required or allowed the deliberate murder in cold blood, behind the back, and by another man's hand, of one who had meant to do no injury, was a kind of honour with which King James had no sympathy; and though Sanquhar was a Scotchman and a nobleman, and likely enough to find sympathizers among his countrymen after the fact, as he had found accomplices before, he was at once handed over to the King's Bench as a man charged with procuring murder. He was indicted on the 27th of June, pleaded guilty, and made a full confession. After which, according to the practice in such cases, and before the passing of sentence, something was said by the counsel for the prosecution [Bacon] as to the nature of the case. [...]
----endLeave a comment:
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Van Helsing: "Can you tell me how the Indian fakir can make himself to die and have been buried, and his grave sealed and corn sowed on it, and the corn reaped and be cut and sown and reaped and cut again, and then men come and take away the unbroken seal and that there lie the Indian fakir, not dead, but that rise up and walk amongst them as before?”
A version of the story which says only one crop of corn was reaped.
New Views of Matter, Life, Motion and Resistance (London: E. W. Allen, 1879), Page 209
by Joseph Hands
332. Parallels to the magnetic sleep.—-1st, The Trance. The celebrated Colonel Townshend could pass into this state whenever he pleased. The Dervishes or Fakirs, were in all ages known to accomplish this feat. See the case reported by Captain Wade, who witnessed with many others the disinterment of a Fakir alive after having been buried in a recent vault which had been covered with earth for ten months, and over which had been sowed and reaped a crop of corn. I myself knew a Mr. Joyner of Berkeley, who saved his aunt from being interred. The lady was in her coffin, but knew all that was transpiring, even to hearing the bell ring out for her funeral; but it so happened that whilst her nephew was looking at the hand—-she succeeded—-aided by his touch, in moving the finger, which subsequently led to her removal from the coffin, followed afterwards by resuscitation. Miss Joyner lived many years after this occurrence. It should be here mentioned that thousands of individuals are yearly buried alive, for we have no positive test for death, save through the nose, when decomposition has set in. 2nd, The magicians, soothsayers and witches of olden times, by narcotics and other means produced a cataleptic state of body resembling death, from which when partially waking their prophetic faculties were exercised. 3rd, Chloroform produces a senseless sleep. In all these cases clairvoyance was often induced, which now and then ensues under the use of chloroform and the employment of nitrous oxid or laughing gas.
----end
An account of the burying fakir with a long footnote.
The Court and Camp of Runjeet Sing (London: Henry Colburn, 1840), Pages 123-129
by Lord William Godolphin Osborne
6th June.—The monotony of our camp life was broken this morning by the arrival of a very celebrated character in the Punjab, and a person we had all expressed great anxiety to see, and whom the Maharajah had ordered over from Umritsir on purpose.
He is a Faqueer by name, and is held in extraordinary respect by the Sihks, from his alleged capacity of being able to bury himself alive for any period of time. So many stories were current on the subject, and so many respectable individuals maintained the truth of these stories, that we all felt curious to see him. He professes to have been following this trade, if so it may be called, for some years, and a considerable time ago, several extracts from the letters of individuals who had seen the man in the upper provinces, appeared in the Calcutta papers, giving some account of his extraordinary powers, which were, at the time, naturally enough, looked upon as mere attempts at a hoax upon the inhabitants of Calcutta. Captain Wade, political agent at Loodhiana, told me that he was present at his resurrection after an interment of some months, General Ventura having buried him in the presence of the Maharajah and many of his principal Sirdars; and, as far as I can recollect, these were the particulars as witnessed by General Ventura :—-After going through a regular course of preparation, which occupied him some days, and the details of which are too disgusting to dilate upon, the Faqueer reported himself ready for interment, in a vault which had been prepared for the purpose by order of the Maharajah. On the appearance of Runjeet and his court, he proceeded to the final preparations that were necessary, in their presence, and after stopping with wax his ears, nostrils, and every other orifice through which it was possible for air to enter his body, except his mouth, he was stripped and placed in a linen bag; and the last preparation concluded by turning his tongue back, and thus, closing the gullet, he immediately died away into a sort of lethargy. The bag was then closed, and sealed with Runjeet's own seal, and afterwards placed in a small deal box, which was also locked and sealed. The box was then placed in a vault, the earth thrown in and trod down, and a crop of barley sown over the spot, and sentries placed round it. The Maharajah was, however, very sceptical on the subject, and twice in the course of the ten months he remained underground sent people to dig him up, when he was found to be in exactly the same position, and in a state of perfectly suspended animation. At the termination of the ten months, Captain Wade accompanied the Maharajah to see him disinterred, and states that he examined him personally and minutely, and was convinced that all animation was perfectly suspended. He saw the locks opened, and the seals broken by the Maharajah, and the box brought into the open air. The man was then taken out, and on feeling his wrist and heart, not the slightest pulsation was perceptible. The first thing towards restoring him to life was the forcing his tongue back to its proper position, which was done with some little difficulty by a person inserting his finger and forcibly pulling it back, and continuing to hold it until it gradually resumed its natural place. Captain Wade described the top of his head to have been considerably heated ; but all other parts of the body, cool and healthy in appearance. Pouring a quantity of warm water over him constitutes the only further measure for his restoration, and in two hours' time he is as well as ever.
He is apparently about thirty years of age, with a disagreeable and cunning expression of countenance. We had a good deal of conversation with him, and he volunteered to be interred for any length of time we pleased, in order to convince us that he is no impostor. We took him at his word, and he is to be buried on our arrival at Lahore, and to remain underground during our stay there, which will probably be three weeks or a month; and though he complains that the period is too short, and that it is hardly worth his while to undergo all the trouble of the preparation, if he comes out alive I will willingly give him credit for being able to remain a hundred years if he chooses it.
He states that his thoughts and dreams are most delightful, and that it is painful to him to be awoke from his lethargy.
His nails and hair cease growing, and on his first disinterment he is for a short time giddy and weak, but very soon recovers his natural health and spirits. His only fear whilst in his grave is that of being attacked by insects, which he obviates by having his box suspended from the ceiling.*
[Footnote:]
* On my return to Simla, accident placed in my hands the appendix to a medical topography of Loodhiania, by Dr. Mc Gregor, of the Home Artillery, by whose permission I have extracted the following account of one of the former interments and resurrections of the Faqueer:—-
"A Faqueer who arrived at Lahore engaged to bury himself for any length of time, shut up in a box, and without either food or drink. Runjeet naturally disbelieved the man's assertions, and was determined to put them to the test. For this purpose the Faqueer was shut up in a wooden box, which was placed in a small apartment below the middle of the ground; there was a folding door to his box, which was secured by a lock and key. Surrounding this apartment there was the garden house, the door of which was likewise accordingly locked, and outside the whole, a high wall, having its doorway built up with bricks and mud. In order to prevent any one from approaching the place, a line of sentries was placed, and relieved at regular intervals. The strictest watch was kept up for the space of forty days and forty nights, at the expiration of which period the Maharajah, attended by his grandson and several of his sirdars, as well as General Ventura, Captain Wade, and myself, proceeded to disinter the Faqueer. The bricks and mud were removed from the outer doorway; the door of the garden house was next unlocked, and lastly that of the wooden box, containing the Faqueer; the latter was found covered with a white sheet, on removing which, the figure of the man presented itself in a sitting posture; his hands and arms were pressed to his sides, and his legs and thighs crossed. The first step of the operation of resuscitation consisted in pouring over his head a quantity of warm water; after this, a hot cake of otta was placed on the crown of his head; a plug of wax was next removed from one of his nostrils, and on this being done, the man breathed strongly through it. The mouth was now opened, and the tongue, which had been closely applied to the roof of the mouth, brought forward, and both it and the lips anointed with ghee; during this part of the proceeding, I could not feel the pulsation of the wrist, though the temperature of the body was much above the natural standard of health. The legs and arms being extended, and the eyelids raised, the former were well rubbed, and a little ghee applied to the latter ; the eyeballs presented a dimmed, suffused appearance, like those of a corpse. The man now evinced signs of returning animation, the pulse became perceptible at the wrist, whilst the unnatural temperature of the body rapidly diminished. He made several ineffectual efforts to speak, and at length uttered a few words, but in a tone so low and feeble as to render them inaudible. By and by his speech was re-established, and he recognised some of the bystanders, and addressed the Maharajah, who was seated opposite to him, watching all his movements. When the Faqueer was able to converse, the completion of the feat was announced by the discharge of guns, and other demonstrations of joy. A rich chain of gold was placed round his neck by Runjeet, and ear-rings, baubles, and shawls were presented to him. However extraordinary this feat may appear, both to Europeans and natives, it is difficult, if not impossible, to explain it on phrenological principles. The man not only denied his having tasted food or drink, but even maintained that he had stopped the function of respiration, during a period of forty days and forty nights. To all appearance, this long fasting had not been productive of its usual effects, as the man seemed to be in rude health, so that digestion and assimilation had apparently proceeded in the usual manner; but this he likewise denied, and piously asserted, that during the whole time he had enjoyed a most delightful trance. It is well known that the natives of Hindostan, by constant practice, can bring themselves to exist on the smallest portion of food for several days, and it is equally true, that by long training, the same people are able to retain the air in their lungs for some minutes ; but how the functions of digestion and respiration could be arrested for such a length of time appears unaccountable. The concealment of the Faqueer during the performance of his feat, so far from rendering the latter more wonderful, serves but to hide the means he employs for its accomplishment, and until he can be persuaded to undergo the confinement in a place where his actions may be observed, it is needless to form any conjectures regarding them. It is well known to physiologists that the heart beats and the function of the lungs is performed, even after an animal's head has been removed; but to suppose for an instant, that the functions of the body can be performed for any length of time, without a supply of fresh arterial blood, which necessarily implies the action of respiration, is absurd, and though in cases of asphyxia, from drowning and hanging, or the inhalation of noxious gases, both circulation and respiration cease for a time; still there is a limit to this, beyond which life becomes extinct, and no power with which we are acquainted is able to recall it. My own opinion is, that the man enjoyed the functions of respiration, circulation, and assimilation, in a degree compatible with the existence of life, and that by long training he had acquired the art of retaining the air in the lungs for some minutes during the time he was being shut up, and when he was again exposed. How he managed to get a supply of food and drink I by no means wish to hazard a guess. It is said that, previous to undergoing the confinement, this man gradually overcomes the power of digestion, so that milk received into the stomach undergoes no change. He next forces all the breath in his body into the brain, which is described as thereby imparting the feeling of a hot coal to the head; the lungs now collapse, and the heart, deprived of its usual stimulus, to use a homely phrase, 'shuts up shop.' Having thus disposed of digestion, assimilation, respiration, and circulation, all the passages of the body are next stopped, the legs and thighs are crossed, the hands and arms are pressed to the sides; in short, the man presents the same appearance as when his box was opened. However childish this may all appear, the explanation was quite satisfactory to the good people of Lahore. The same individual exhibited at Jessulmere with success; an account of his feat there is given in Lieut. Boileau's work, lately published."
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Link to an earlier account.
The Lancet, May 13, 1837, Pages 257-259
ACCOUNT OP A MAN WHO WAS BURIED ALIVE FOR A MONTH, AND THEN EXHUMED ALIVE.
By H. M. Twedell, Esq., Bancoorah, East Indies.
Book with a section on the fakir.
Observations on Trance; or, Human Hybernation (London: John Churchill, 1850), link
By James Braid, MRCS
Another book by Braid.
Magic, Witchcraft, Animal Magnetism (London: John Churchill, 1852), link
By James BraidLeave a comment:
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I'm not sure what Bram Stoker's attitude toward spiritualism was. Sometimes he said to have been a member of the occult society, the Golden Dawn.
Stoker wrote a non-fiction book which describes some prominent occult figures as impostors.
Famous Imposters (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1910), link
by Bram Stoker
In Dracula there's a passage where Van Helsing is preparing Dr. Seward to accept the existence of vampires which contains a few references to odd events.
Dracula (New York: Doubleday, 1897)
by Bram Stoker
Pages 178-180
"Can you tell me why, when other spiders die small and soon, that one great spider lived for centuries in the tower of the old Spanish church and grew and grew, till, on descending, he could drink the oil of all the church lamps?"
"We all know—-because science has vouched for the fact—-that there have been toads shut up in rocks for thousands of years, shut in one so small hole that only hold him since the youth of the world."
"Can you tell me how the Indian fakir can make himself to die and have been buried, and his grave sealed and corn sowed on it, and the corn reaped and be cut and sown and reaped and cut again, and then men come and take away the unbroken seal and that there lie the Indian fakir, not dead, but that rise up and walk amongst them as before?”
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The giant spider was mentioned in Notes and Queries.
Notes and Queries, July 21, 1894, Page 49
SPIDERS.—The following paragraph is copied
from the Sporting Magazine for September, 1821.
Are the statements therein pure fiction? If not,
can any one tell me how much we may safely believe?
A spider weighing four pounds is indeed
a heavy tax on the reader's credulity :—
"The sexton of the church of St. Eustace, at Paris,
amazed to find frequently a particular lamp extinct
early, and yet the oil consumed only, sat up several nights
to perceive the cause. At length he discovered that a
spider of surprising size came down the cord to drink
the oil. A still more extraordinary instance of the same
kind ocurrcd during the year 1761, in the Cathedral of
Milan. A vast spider was observed there, which fed on
the oil of the lamps. M. Morland, of the Academy of
Sciences, has described this spider, and furnished a
drawing of it. It weighed four pounds, and was sent to
the Emperor of Austria, and is now in the Imperial
Museum at Vienna."—P. 289.
ASTARTE.
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A link to an the magazine cited above.
Sporting Magazine, September, 1821, Page 289
An earlier version of the story.
The Monthly Magazine (London), March 1, 1814, Page 144
The sexton of the church of Saint Eustace at Paris, amazed fiequtntly to find a particular lamp extinct early, and yet the oil consumed, sat up several nights during the summer of 1732, in order to discover the cause. At length he detected a spider of surprising size, which came down the cord to drink the oil.
A still more .extraordinary instance of the sume kind, occurred during the year 1751, in the cathedral of Milano. A vast spider was observed there, which fed on the oil of the lamps. M. Morand, of the Academy of Sciences, has described this spider, and furnished a drawing of it. His words are: Le corps, couleur de suie, arrondi, terminé en pointe, avec le dos et les pattes velues, pesoit quatre livres. This spider, of four pounds weight, was sent by M. de Stainville to the Emperor of Austria, and placed in the Imperial Museum. Who has seen it? Is it not a mutilated scorpion?
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This seems to derive from an entry in a catalogue of manuscripts held by the Lyon library.
Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque de Lyon, Volume 1 (Paris: 1812), Pages 459-460
By A.F. DELANDINE
Celle qui porte le n.9 33 , par M. Morand, de l'Académie des sciences , rapporte deux faits singuliers. En 1732, le marguiller de l'église S. Eustache à Paris , étonné de trouver toujours la lampe éteinte et l'huile consommée , fit le guet pendant une nuit, vit UBft araignée qui descendent le long de la corde et venoît boire l'huile. Cette nourriture avoit tellement détendu les fibres et la peau de son corps, que celui-ci avoit pris un volume énorme. En 1751, on en découvrit une semblable dans le dôme de l'église de Milan, se nourrissant de l'huile des lampes, et dont le corps, couleur de suie , arrondi ,- terminé en pointe , avec le dos et les pattes velues , pesoit quatre livres. M. de Stainville l'envoya à l'empereur d'Autriche. M. Morand décrit cet insecte monstrueux , et en envoya le dessin à l'Académie.
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Google Translation of the above:
M. de Morand, of the Académie des Sciences, reports that there are two singular facts. In 1732, the marguiller of the church of St. Eustace in Paris, astonished at finding the lamp still alive and the oil consumed, watched over the night, saw the spider descending along the rope, and came to drink the " oil. This food had so relaxed the fibers and skin of his body, that the latter had taken an enormous volume. In 1751 a similar was discovered in the dome of the church of Milan, feeding on the oil of the lamps, and whose body, soothed, rounded, finished in a point, with the back and hairy legs , Weighed four pounds. M. de Stainville sent him to the Emperor of Austria. M. Morand describes this monstrous insect, and sent it to the Academy.
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There are too many stories of toads found sealed in rocks to know which one Stoker was referring to. Here's one from Birminghamr.
The Analyst, October 1835, Pages 147-149
BIRMINGHAM PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION.
[...]
A paper read to the Society by Mr. Wickenden, "On the Nonpermeability of Glass by Water," is given in another part of the present number; and the last communication read to the members in this Session, was by Mr. Russell; it was "An account of a Toad, found alive, imbedded in a solid mass of new red sand-stone." As hitherto when facts of this kind have been brought before the public, they have been received with the greatest incredulity, we give the depositions of those who were present when the animal, in this instance, was discovered; and we may add that the block of sand-stone, together with the toad, may be seen at the rooms of the Philosophical Institution, in Cannon Street.
The following is a copy of the depositions:—-
During the progress of the excavation through the Park Gardens, at Coventry, on the line of the London and Birmingham Railway, at about nine o'clock in the morning of the 16th of June, 1835, the workmen were engaged in removing the material to the depth of 11 feet from the surface, the upper portion of the excavation consisting of, first, a stratum of soil, 18 inches thick; then a mixture of sand and clay, 3 feet thick; and the remaining depth of 6 1/2 feet consisting of masses of new red sand-stone, sound and perfectly formed, somewhat severed by backs and fissures, but still in large solid masses, obliged to be worked away by means of iron bars and wedges, and very frequently blasted by gun-powder.
Two of the workmen, John Horton and Thomas Tillay, having, by means of an iron-bar, loosened from the solid mass, near the bottom ot the said 11 feet, a piece of rock about 18 inches long, 15 inches broad, and 5 inches thick, it was lifted up by Horton, and thrown by him towards the waggons which Were in waiting to receive the excavated material and convey it to the embankment which was forming across the valley of the river Sherborne. The piece of rock, however, did not alight in the waggon, as was intended, but fell by the side of it, upon the bottom of the new-formed excavation, and was by the fall broken nearly through the centre into two parts, which lay upon the ground, about an inch asunder. Thomas Tillay immediately took up one of the fragments and threw it into the waggon, and was on the point of taking up th° other when his attention was arrested by the sight of a load in a cavity or cell in the face of the remaining fragment, and, instead of taking it up, he kicked it with his foot, which caused it to fall out upon the ground: he then called to his companion, and told him that he had found a toad in the stone. Horton having joined him, they examined the fracture of the other piece of rock, and found there a corresponding cavity; so that when the pieces were put together, although the stone was to all appearance perfectly solid, yet there was an oval or egg-shaped hole in the centre.
The other workmen, to the number of 30 or 40, soon collected to examine the toad. Its colour, when first seen, was a bright brown; in the space of ten minutes, however, it gradually lost its brightness, and the bright brown became almost a black. The animal seemed to labour under a severe oppression, as from heat or weight, or both combined, and gasped frequently. It was rather under the usual size; but it was plump, and apparently in good condition. During the day it remained in the possession of the men who found it, and was seen by many persons, and was often exposed to the sun and the warmth of the hand. The head appeared slightly injured, supposed to be occasioned by the breaking of the stone.
About four o'clock in the afternoon I visited the works, the toad was shewn to me, and I fitted one piece of stone upon the other, while the toad was in the recess, and found that the rock fitted closely, and observed no appearance of an opening, or fissure of any kind into the cavity, the stone on everv side appeared perfectly solid and sound. A portion of the cavity was much more rounded and smooth than the other, being, as I suppose, the lower side upon which the toad had rested. Throughout the whole cavity there was a thin black deposit, or lining; but this was more visible on that side which was more rounded, and there were evident marks where this lining was scratched off, as by the claws of the toad.
The cavity was 3 inches long and 11 inches broad: the two pieces of stone, with the toad in them, were brought to my office that evening; and I endeavoured, by closing the fracture of the stone with clay, to exclude the heat and air as much as possible, in the hopes of keeping it alive as long as I could; this I succeeded in doing for more than three days. During this time, however, it was frequently exposed, as there were many persons who were desirous of seeing it; but it seemed to be gradually wasting away: the injury in its head also became much worse, and doubtless hastened its decay: it lived, however, nearly four days from the time of its discovery.
(Signed) THOMAS L. GOOCH,
Resident Engineer to the London and Birmingham Railway Company,
Wc, the undersigned, John Horton and Thomas Tillay, declare that the above statement, so tar as regards ourselves, is true.
(Signed) JOHN HORTON, Navigator, X his mark.
(Signed) THOMAS TILLAY, Navigator, X his mark.
(Witness) BARNARD DICKENSON, Engineer.
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Interesting, Jeff.
Here's a brief notice of Gurney's death.
The Athenaeum, June 30, 1888, Page 827
MR. EDMUND GURNEY.
WE regret to announce the death by misadventure of Mr. Edmund Gurney, author of ‘The Power of Sound’ and other works. The deceased, who was born about 1847, was the son of the Rev. Hampden Gurney, sometime Rector of Marylebone, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which college he became a Fellow. His large work, above mentioned, on the philosophy of music, may be said to have attained a standard position, and it has been more discussed in Germany than in England. Its singularly acute exposure of many current fallacies in musical theory and criticism was combined with much original and constructive thought and deep musical feeling. Mr. Gurney was also the principal author of ‘Phantasms of the Living,' and was widely known as the energetic hon. secretary of the Society for Psychical Research, of which society, indeed, he may be said to have been the mainspring. Mr. Gurney's latest publication, two volumes of essays, collected under the title of ‘Tertium Quid,” was recently noticed in these columns. The deceased suffered from obstinate sleeplessness and occasional neuralgia, prompting recourse to opiates, though he was in full social and literary activity. He succumbed to an overdose of chloroform, incautiously taken when alone at an hotel at Brighton. The body was identified by a letter, found in his coat, inviting a friend to join him in the business on which he had visited Brighton. He was a man who attracted very strong attachments, and he will be deeply mourned.
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A collection of essays by Gurney.
Tertium Quid: Chapters on Various Disputed Questions, Volume 1 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1887), link
by Edmund Gurney
Tertium Quid: Chapters on Various Disputed Questions, Volume 2 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1887), link
by Edmund Gurney
A later work by F. W. H. Myers.
Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death, Volume 1 (London: Longman, Green, 1903), link
by Frederic William Henry Myers
Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death, Volume 2 (London: Longman, Green, 1904), link
by Frederic William Henry MyersLeave a comment:
Leave a comment: