The Ghost Monk
@theghostmonk.bsky.social
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
You know how it is when you're not sure what to post and you end up posting a picture of a Vampire Elephant? Well, that.
(Victor Biegas painted a whole series of himself being molested by grotesque (mainly female) monsters but this is the weirdest. The man had issues).
#Vampire #Elephant #artsky
(Victor Biegas painted a whole series of himself being molested by grotesque (mainly female) monsters but this is the weirdest. The man had issues).
#Vampire #Elephant #artsky
November 26, 2025 at 10:52 AM
The reason why the tiny and ubiquitous wren (Britain's commonest bird) should have been considered King Of The Birds has always eluded me. Left alone on all other days, on Boxing Day boys would hunt it down and then give out its feathers to households in a sacrificial protection rite.
#WyrdWednesday
#WyrdWednesday
November 26, 2025 at 9:09 AM
The reason why the tiny and ubiquitous wren (Britain's commonest bird) should have been considered King Of The Birds has always eluded me. Left alone on all other days, on Boxing Day boys would hunt it down and then give out its feathers to households in a sacrificial protection rite.
#WyrdWednesday
#WyrdWednesday
Was King William II's death while hunting in the New Forest, #Hampshire, an accident, murder - or was it a pre-Christian god-king human sacrifice made to ensure fertility to the land and future prosperity to the people, as has been suggested? (But by whom I've forgotten - Murray?).
#WyrdWednesday
#WyrdWednesday
November 26, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Was King William II's death while hunting in the New Forest, #Hampshire, an accident, murder - or was it a pre-Christian god-king human sacrifice made to ensure fertility to the land and future prosperity to the people, as has been suggested? (But by whom I've forgotten - Murray?).
#WyrdWednesday
#WyrdWednesday
Some stories in the old magazines are surprisingly gruesome. A Bernard Hodgson's short-short story, 'Flies', about miners - who we understand are also murderers - being engulfed by a colossal swarm of flesh-eating insects is especially horrid. (Pearson's, 1906).
#horror #horrorstory #BookChatWeekly
#horror #horrorstory #BookChatWeekly
November 25, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Some stories in the old magazines are surprisingly gruesome. A Bernard Hodgson's short-short story, 'Flies', about miners - who we understand are also murderers - being engulfed by a colossal swarm of flesh-eating insects is especially horrid. (Pearson's, 1906).
#horror #horrorstory #BookChatWeekly
#horror #horrorstory #BookChatWeekly
I'm having a bathroom fitted, which is noisy chaos, so I've been hiding in the sitting room re-watching #Quatermass And The Pit, with headphones on. I'm sure many have already noticed this but when the missile's glowing, the roundels inside look just like the Tardis interior.
#DrWho #DoctorWho
#DrWho #DoctorWho
November 24, 2025 at 1:09 PM
I'm having a bathroom fitted, which is noisy chaos, so I've been hiding in the sitting room re-watching #Quatermass And The Pit, with headphones on. I'm sure many have already noticed this but when the missile's glowing, the roundels inside look just like the Tardis interior.
#DrWho #DoctorWho
#DrWho #DoctorWho
Hijacked by another Monday morning.
(Roland Topor).
(Roland Topor).
November 24, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Hijacked by another Monday morning.
(Roland Topor).
(Roland Topor).
Unusual stained glass in St Chad's Church, Farndon, in #Cheshire, both for its date and subject matter. It was commissioned in about 1660 by #Royalist squire William Barnston to celebrate his success defending the city of Chester from #Parliamentarian forces in 1643-5.
#StainedGlassSunday #CivilWar
#StainedGlassSunday #CivilWar
November 23, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Unusual stained glass in St Chad's Church, Farndon, in #Cheshire, both for its date and subject matter. It was commissioned in about 1660 by #Royalist squire William Barnston to celebrate his success defending the city of Chester from #Parliamentarian forces in 1643-5.
#StainedGlassSunday #CivilWar
#StainedGlassSunday #CivilWar
The Avenue at Avebury, early morning, September 2006.
#StandingStoneSunday #Neolithic #megalith #Wiltshire
#StandingStoneSunday #Neolithic #megalith #Wiltshire
November 23, 2025 at 9:12 AM
The Avenue at Avebury, early morning, September 2006.
#StandingStoneSunday #Neolithic #megalith #Wiltshire
#StandingStoneSunday #Neolithic #megalith #Wiltshire
"It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."
- Arthur Conan Doyle, 'The Copper Beeches'
#BookWormSat #SherlockHolmes
- Arthur Conan Doyle, 'The Copper Beeches'
#BookWormSat #SherlockHolmes
November 22, 2025 at 11:54 AM
"It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."
- Arthur Conan Doyle, 'The Copper Beeches'
#BookWormSat #SherlockHolmes
- Arthur Conan Doyle, 'The Copper Beeches'
#BookWormSat #SherlockHolmes
"It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration;"
- Wordsworth
#BookWormSat #poetry #RomanticPoets #poetrysky
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration;"
- Wordsworth
#BookWormSat #poetry #RomanticPoets #poetrysky
November 22, 2025 at 11:01 AM
"It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration;"
- Wordsworth
#BookWormSat #poetry #RomanticPoets #poetrysky
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration;"
- Wordsworth
#BookWormSat #poetry #RomanticPoets #poetrysky
Another spooktacular #PhantomsFriday yesterday. The Ghost Monk humbly thanks you.
(Painting of St Francis In His Tomb by de Zurbaran)
(Painting of St Francis In His Tomb by de Zurbaran)
November 22, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Another spooktacular #PhantomsFriday yesterday. The Ghost Monk humbly thanks you.
(Painting of St Francis In His Tomb by de Zurbaran)
(Painting of St Francis In His Tomb by de Zurbaran)
This drawing by John Hookham from Harry Price's 'Poltergeists Over England' is intended to illustrate that poltergeist activity often centres round young girls. But I find it an especially creepy image. One can almost imagine the girl turning round to welcome it...
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts
November 21, 2025 at 2:53 PM
This drawing by John Hookham from Harry Price's 'Poltergeists Over England' is intended to illustrate that poltergeist activity often centres round young girls. But I find it an especially creepy image. One can almost imagine the girl turning round to welcome it...
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts
Llanrahaedr-yng-Nghinmeirch, #Denbighshire, (which is easier to pronounce than you might expect) is/was haunted by the #ghost of the wicked local squire Dafydd Salusbury. #Folklore states that his damned spirit can be heard groaning as he rides invisibly round and round the village.
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
November 21, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Llanrahaedr-yng-Nghinmeirch, #Denbighshire, (which is easier to pronounce than you might expect) is/was haunted by the #ghost of the wicked local squire Dafydd Salusbury. #Folklore states that his damned spirit can be heard groaning as he rides invisibly round and round the village.
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
My tatty copy of the 1943 first edition of 'Nine Ghosts' by R H Malden. A slim volume rather overlooked in its day, and perhaps still is. A friend of M R James, Malden writes a very humble intro - but 3 or 4 of the 9 stories are at least as good as any other rivals of the master.
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
November 21, 2025 at 11:52 AM
My tatty copy of the 1943 first edition of 'Nine Ghosts' by R H Malden. A slim volume rather overlooked in its day, and perhaps still is. A friend of M R James, Malden writes a very humble intro - but 3 or 4 of the 9 stories are at least as good as any other rivals of the master.
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
An extract from one of UK ghostlore's most compelling documents: the journal of John Mompesson, whose home in #Wiltshire was plagued by a #poltergeist in the 1660s. Incidents here include his daughter being "heaved up" out of bed and the spook "seeming to blow and pant like a dog."
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
November 21, 2025 at 10:20 AM
An extract from one of UK ghostlore's most compelling documents: the journal of John Mompesson, whose home in #Wiltshire was plagued by a #poltergeist in the 1660s. Incidents here include his daughter being "heaved up" out of bed and the spook "seeming to blow and pant like a dog."
#PhantomsFriday
#PhantomsFriday
One of the creepiest illustrations among the many by Felix Kelly that enhance Joseph Braddock's classic 1956 book 'Haunted Houses'.
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts #haunted #illustration
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts #haunted #illustration
November 21, 2025 at 9:17 AM
One of the creepiest illustrations among the many by Felix Kelly that enhance Joseph Braddock's classic 1956 book 'Haunted Houses'.
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts #haunted #illustration
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts #haunted #illustration
In 'The Treasure Of the Tombs' by F Britten Austin (The Strand 1921), adventurers seek to rob of its gold a Mesopotamian tomb in a cliff only accessible by plane. However, a supernatural force starts pushing their plane off the ledge its parked on. They only just get away - minus its treasure.
November 20, 2025 at 1:07 PM
In 'The Treasure Of the Tombs' by F Britten Austin (The Strand 1921), adventurers seek to rob of its gold a Mesopotamian tomb in a cliff only accessible by plane. However, a supernatural force starts pushing their plane off the ledge its parked on. They only just get away - minus its treasure.
The Norman doorway into the little sandstone church of St Edith's, #Cheshire, showing the diagnostic chevron design.
#AdoorableThursday #Norman #medieval #medievalsky
#AdoorableThursday #Norman #medieval #medievalsky
November 20, 2025 at 12:51 PM
The Norman doorway into the little sandstone church of St Edith's, #Cheshire, showing the diagnostic chevron design.
#AdoorableThursday #Norman #medieval #medievalsky
#AdoorableThursday #Norman #medieval #medievalsky
One of the many Black Dog #ghosts of British #folklore haunted Peel Castle on the Isle of Man. It seemed tame and the garrison became quite used to it. But one night a drunken soldier followed it into its lair, a dark tunnel. He came out again gabbling in terror - and fell down dead.
#WyrdWednesday
#WyrdWednesday
November 19, 2025 at 1:59 PM
One of the many Black Dog #ghosts of British #folklore haunted Peel Castle on the Isle of Man. It seemed tame and the garrison became quite used to it. But one night a drunken soldier followed it into its lair, a dark tunnel. He came out again gabbling in terror - and fell down dead.
#WyrdWednesday
#WyrdWednesday
In 'The Black Hands' by Albert Bigelow Paine (Pearson's Magazine, 1903), a white American wakes up to find his skin has turned black. His fiance rejects him and he experiences racial prejudice first-hand. A clumsy device perhaps but well-intentioned and no doubt controversial in 1903.
#WyrdWednesday
#WyrdWednesday
November 19, 2025 at 11:31 AM
In 'The Black Hands' by Albert Bigelow Paine (Pearson's Magazine, 1903), a white American wakes up to find his skin has turned black. His fiance rejects him and he experiences racial prejudice first-hand. A clumsy device perhaps but well-intentioned and no doubt controversial in 1903.
#WyrdWednesday
#WyrdWednesday
A storm cloud looms over one of the ramparts round the vastest hillfort in #Wales, Penycloddiau, in the Clwydian Range. Taken last summer, I really thought I was going to get heavily p*ssed on, but it passed over and did so on the other side of the hills instead.
#HillfortsWednesday #IronAge
#HillfortsWednesday #IronAge
November 19, 2025 at 10:11 AM
A storm cloud looms over one of the ramparts round the vastest hillfort in #Wales, Penycloddiau, in the Clwydian Range. Taken last summer, I really thought I was going to get heavily p*ssed on, but it passed over and did so on the other side of the hills instead.
#HillfortsWednesday #IronAge
#HillfortsWednesday #IronAge
In Robert Barr's 'A Game Of Chess' (Pearson's Magazine, 1900), a madman punishes a man he believes cheated in a match by forcing him to act as a pawn on a chequered floor - one false move and he's electrocuted. I feel sure this idea has been used since but I can't remember by whom.
#WyrdWednesday
#WyrdWednesday
November 19, 2025 at 9:38 AM
In Robert Barr's 'A Game Of Chess' (Pearson's Magazine, 1900), a madman punishes a man he believes cheated in a match by forcing him to act as a pawn on a chequered floor - one false move and he's electrocuted. I feel sure this idea has been used since but I can't remember by whom.
#WyrdWednesday
#WyrdWednesday
