Join host Corinthian Finn, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John 18th Baron Dunwitch,* for a one-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of early-Victorian London!

This show cycles through four themes over a month-long cycle, one show per week. As today is the first Sunday of the month, this is the SIXPENNY SPOOKIES theme show, featuring a Victorian ghostly shortstory, a chapter of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and other ghostly tales!

For COMPLETE SHOW NOTES, including art and links to resources, see ⁠⁠pennydread.com/discord.⁠⁠

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IN TODAY'S "SIXPENNY SPOOKIES" EPISODE:

• 01:45: HAUNTED ENGLAND: The legend of Cumnor Place, supposed to be haunted by the spirit of Lady Amy Dudley, murdered so that her husband could woo Queen Elizabeth I.
• 11:55: VICTORIAN GHOSTLY SHORT STORY, to-wit: THE PHANTOM COACH, by Amelia B. Edwards (1864): A barrister gets lost on a winter day while out grouse hunting on a north-England moor. He wanders past dusk, gets caught in a dreadful snowstorm, and then luckily meets a local man who reluctantly offers him shelter for the night. The man tells him of the wreck of the night mail coach, nine years before … the same coach that our hero is determined to flag down and ride home on. When the snow stops, the barrister goes to catch the coach … but there's something strange about this coach ...
• 40:00: GHOSTLY POETRY, to-wit: Part One of CHRISTABEL, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1797): A baronet’s daughter, Christabel, goes into the woods to pray for her beloved, and there finds a strange, beautiful woman named Geraldine (rhymes with “pine”). She brings the stranger home, but strange signs soon appear that portend that Geraldine is some kind of evil spirit ….
• 56:05: DRACULA, by BRAM STOKER (1897), Chapter 7: The chapter starts with a newspaper cutting in which the correspondent describes a terrible and sudden storm which swept upon Whitby. Amid the storm, a schooner appeared, running before the wind with full sails set. It surged into the harbour and slammed into the beach behind, and as soon as it struck, a great black creature — apparently a dog — leaped to shore and raced away, never to be seen again. The newspaper writer raced to the scene with a crowd of locals, and found the ship completely empty of crew save for one man who had been dead two days — the captain, who had tied himself to the wheel with a crucifix. In his pocket, carefully rolled up and inserted into a corked bottle, was a remarkable document, the last thing he wrote before he died …
• 1:25:20: LORD HALIFAX’S GHOST BOOK: A spooky apparition of a man with the face of a corpse, who appeared at his home at the moment of his untimely death abroad.

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• COLLEGIATES: (ibid) Inmates in a prison or gaol.
• CONVEYANCERS: (ibid) Receivers of stolen goods.
• KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: (ibid) Drunken fellows running amok in fields and ditches late at night, trying to stagger home.
• CORINTHIAN FINN (ibid): This nickname is a reference to Corinthian Tom, the rakish hero of Pierce Egan’s Life in London; or, or The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn Esq. and his Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom (1821) and the original Tom of “Tom and Jerry” fame. A “Corinthian” was a sporting man of rank and fashion.
• CHAFFING-CRIB (ibid): A room where drinking and bantering are going on.
• NOGGEN OF LIGHTNING: (ibid) Quartern (1/4 of an Imperial pint) of gin.
• BITE YOUR NAME IN IT: (ibid) Take a big drink.
• FLOORERS: (from outro patter) Criminals who knock people down in the streets to be “rescued” by their confederates, who pick their pockets as they do.
• OVERSEERS: (ibid) Prisoners in a pillory.
• BRIXTON DANCING-ACADEMY STUDENTS: (ibid) Prisoners sentenced to help work the tread-mill at Brixton Prison.

There are more! But we're out of space. For the complete glossary of flash-cant terms, plus art for various show elements, see ⁠pennydread.com/discord⁠.