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The Ghost Monk

@theghostmonk.bsky.social

1.2K followers 420 following 1.9K posts

Enthusiast of British (mainly) ghostlore, folklore and vintage ghost and weird fiction. Collector of old magazines. Also keen on prehistoric monuments, old churches and suchlike. Am decidedly Q. All scans/photos my own (unless stated). Runs #PhantomsFriday

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 14m

There are, sadly, numerous cases of such barbarous behaviour and superstition almost throughout the 19th century (though this is a late and egregious example).

The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 19m

For #WordlessWednesday

Firs and autumnal trees a reflected in a pool in the Clocaenog Forest in Denbighshire, North Wales.

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 44m

In 1876 an old woman named Peg Grover was repeatedly ducked in a pond because, for no reasons given, she was believed to be a #witch. The death of a girl in the village, near Newport (in Wales?), was blamed on her, giving louts the excuse to have some fun... Luckily, Peg was rescued.
#WyrdWednesday

An illustration from 'The Illustrated Police News' from July 1, 1876. It shows a number of yokels with a rope draped round the branch of a tree with an old woman on the end of it, soaking wet and being pulled out of a pond. She is reaching out in supplication, but the young yokels using the rope are clearly enjoying themselves. The caption reads 'Attempt to Drown a Supposed Witch'.

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 1h

A witch sails off through the woods in this illustration by Barry Wilkinson for #WyrdWednesday.
#witch #witches #witchcraft #illustration

The trunks of narrow trees are in the foreground of this black and white illustration. In the background can be seen a big old house and the tiny silhouette of a witch on a broomstick is flying out of one of the windows.

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 12h

Something tells me you and I, Paul, are using our keyboard PCs to write this stuff. I hesitate to suggest it in your case: but in my case it's because I'm really, really old.

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 12h

I have the 1960 second print of this: the last of the Pan horrors with a red spine. If yours reads 'First published 1959' but doesn't add in smaller type 'Second print 1960', it's worth a lot of money.

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Reposted by The Ghost Monk

Chris Woodyard @chriswoodyard.bsky.social · 1d

#31daysofgraves #13 Skeleton
The monument for Elizabeth Benson, obit 1710, in St Leonard, Shoreditch. Carved by Francis Bird, it shows two gleeful skeletons holding a shroud, vigorously ripping apart the tree of life.
www.speel.me.uk/chlondon/stl...

Carving of two skeletons holding a shroud and tearing a tree in half

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 12h

With Christ's Entry Into Brussels' on the wall, I think.

The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 12h

That'll do it. Although it might have been a write-o for 'dog'. (I've just made up the word write-o; I think I shall patent it).

The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 12h

Wow.

Reposted by The Ghost Monk

𝙰𝚗𝚍𝚢 𝙿𝚊𝚌𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚔 💀☕🍂🎃 @andy-paciorek.bsky.social · 9d

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 12h

I see it's dangerous to exceed the recommended dose. That'll be down to the linseed.

The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 12h

I'm wondering what its barking at - in three different directions. Plutonian zombie attack, I reckon. And why does a book like this need THREE different editors?

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 12h

I thought this was the stuff jealous ladies in Victorian melodramas chucked in their rivals' faces.

The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 12h

Bloody hell, that was well spotted! I had to go back to the book itself and even then it didn't exactly leap out at me.

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Reposted by The Ghost Monk

Matthew King @matthewkingart.bsky.social · 1d

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 17h

'Satanic Invocation' (1909) by Josef Vachal.
#artsky #weirdart #magick #blackmagic #satanism

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 17h

That rings a bell!

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 19h

Hercule Poirot confronts a suspect in 'The Second Gong' by Agatha Christie. The illustration is by Jack M Faulks, scanned from a 1932 edition of The Strand Magazine.
#Poirot #HerculePoirot #AgathaChristie #detection #vintagecrime

A young woman in an elegant gown of the 1930s backs up against a wall but looks defiantly at Poirot, whom we only see from the rear, with slicked-back hair (his moustache is just visible). Several look on at the scene.

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 19h

I think I've just got a crap keyboard!

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 22h

I love the cover of my 1965 Pan paperback of Lady Cynthia Asquith's 'Second Ghost Book'. There's no artist credit unfortunately. It's both charming and spooky, even though the back cover bills the contents as 'Macabre and Horrific' (which to be fair, several are).
#31DaysOfHalloween #BookChatWeekly

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 23h

it's possible, of course. I'd have expected Harper to have at least mentioned 'a famous author', for example. He states that the locals didn't take much credence in the yarn: the overall impression is that it's folkloric. But, reading on, I'm beginning to take RTH more seriously.

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 23h

Fourth and last of the old postcards of tombs at Carnac. This one is Le Mane Remor (obviously that e on Mane should have an accent on it but I can't for the life of me work out how to add one!).
#TombTuesday #Neolithic #dailymegalith #Brittany

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 1d

I have to admire Hopkins' hutzpah. He claims the story (part of the Warbleton Priory screaming skulls legend) was told to him by Rudyard Kipling, who had 'forbade him to mention his name' (he died in 1936). But the tale also appears in Harper's 'Haunted Houses' (1907), so this might just be a fib.

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The Ghost Monk @theghostmonk.bsky.social · 1d

@buchanan.today Aha! "When the wall [at Rushlake Green] was being demolished some time about 1820 a workman put his pick into the corner of a recess and a flat stone came away disclosing a human head, and, at the same moment, an enormous toad jumped out of the hole."
@drpaullee.bsky.social #ghosts

Part of the artwork of the dust jacket of 'Adventures With Phantoms' by R Thurston Hopkins (1946). It shows a toad (highlighted in green) squatting on a skull (highlighted in pink).

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