It’s 1893 in York, a city most haunted. Notorious Victorian ghost hunter, Professor Matthias Jeremiah Braithwaite, has gone missing. His diary, documenting his exploration of the city in search of paranormal activity, has been discovered. Could this explain the mystery of his disappearance?
"I happened upon an old friend from university days whilst in a drinking den I like to frequent. The “Board Tavern” on Grape Lane was not the place one would expect to find “Archie” - Viscount Archibald Peacock Fitzwilliam. Run by Miss May, a formidable landlady with the build of a bare knuckle fighter and the fearsome reputation to accompany it, the inn is the haunt of rogues, scoundrels, and ladies of ill virtue. The street is a notorious location, known locally as “Grope” Lane and historically by a less salubrious name, which I, as a gentleman cannot repeat.
Archie was in high spirits, often the best time to gain his favour. His family owned extensive property within the city, renting these as dwellings and to local businesses, similar in fact to the activities of my family in their seat at Ripon; perhaps explaining our bonhomie. We came to sit in a corner at a small gaming table on the first floor where it was less raucous, except when there was a dispute over a game of chance. Leaning forward in a conspiratorial way, Archie told of his difficulties within the street known as The Shambles, being predominantly a street of butchers and taverns frequented by common folk. The stench of blood from slaughtered animals could be quite heady on a summer’s day and therefore only the low born gave patronage to the bars there.
He told me tales of noises heard by the tenants, the sound of fiddles playing jigs into the night and glimpses of shrouded figures dancing and spinning to the music in the street. Strange accounts of a riderless bicycle, of perambulators moving of their own accord, of ghostly figures loitering in doorways and of course the tale of the ghost I named “Horace” who surprises passing strangers. The incidents had increased in frequency over recent years and townsfolk had begun to complain.
Archie viewed these tales as “poppycock” believing his tenants were bargaining for reduced rent, and was more concerned with the excuses rather than their plight. Although aware of my interest in such super natural matters Archie was uninterested in hiring me to investigate and so our conversation changed to other matters and we decided to play a game of “Brag”. Famously inept at gambling, Archie was often taken advantage of in such circumstances, not that as a gentleman I would do such a thing. When our conversation returned to property, Archie talked of his plans to demolish a slum area to the rear of the Shambles and convert some of the buildings to business premises and offices. He mentioned a property in Newgate which piqued my attention, a location at the top of the street away from the stench of the Shambles, and near to what I have come to consider the focus of “unexplained” activity in the City. It sounded like a property which could suit my needs very well. Archie was having a good turn of luck and as I had imbibed several glasses of the establishment’s rather questionable “brandy” I was feeling less gentlemanly towards gaming. Within short measure Archie was at a disadvantage and the cards did not fall his way, not due to any underhand behaviour on my part, but because Archie was a clumsy, obvious player and in a state considerably worse than my own. A small debt was amassed and with Archie looking somewhat puzzled and resigned to his losses we began to discuss how he might settle his debt.
A few short weeks after this meeting I located to my new business premises at 2 Newgate just yards from the unusual activity on the Shambles. Archie had leased me the property at a considerable discount and the promise of a bottle of the finest Scotch whisky he could lay his hands on. To my offer of investigating the complaints of his tenants, he again he uttered “poppycock.”
Thus Professor Braithwaite’s Agency for the investigation of the Unusual, The Unknown and The Uncanny now has a home.
My first week of work in the offices of my new premises were undisturbed by any unusual activity. I visited The Shambles late at night with my clockwork lantern and once espied a small glowing figure which could have been a cat or dog but it disappeared so rapidly that I was unable to discern its provenance, otherwise my efforts bore no real fruit. However upon the second week whilst at work on my journal I heard the distant sounds of a jig played on a fiddle. The hair on my neck began to stand and I made rapidly for the door grabbing my lantern in haste.
The Shambles was brightly illuminated by a large crescent moon and as I turned the handle on my lantern, flickers of shrouded forms came into view and the buildings and their signage somehow altered, The Neptune Inn became The Fortune Inn and Pierce Clothes Dealer became a purveyor of funeral shrouds. Several windows and doorways held glimpses of watching figures. In the centre of the street, spinning and twirling, a pair of shrouded ghosts were dancing a jig to the darkest, almost disjointed sounding fiddle music. One bore an embroidered rose and the other figure had chequered patches upon his shroud, henceforth they shall be known as “Blossom” and “Basil”. It was then I spotted the bandaged faced man as he stepped forward to take a seat in the open window of the butchers shop, resting his arm on the “shammel” or shelf at the bottom of the window, holding a jewel encrusted goblet. His head was framed by the empty butcher’s hooks above and the glowing jewelled pendant around his neck. Reaching inside a pocket he brought forth a deck of cards, shuffling them with his white gloved hands, seeming to look at me whilst dealing the cards. As he placed the fourth card down … the figures and scene vanished and, unnerved, I was left alone on The Shambles."
The image is available in five formats:
Monochrome - a black & white print in a black mount
Colour - a colour print in a black mount
Monochrome Limited Edition - a larger mounted print which has been hand signed by the artist and numbered from an edition of 1893 - the year of the Professor's disappearance.
Enchanted Edition - a larger mounted print where the ghostly images glow under black light
Enchanted Limited Edition - a larger mounted print where the ghosts and many other background details illuminate under black light. The mount is hand signed by the artist and numbered from an edition of 1893 - the year of the Professor's disappearance!
The UV details are hand painted onto the print - each image will be slightly different. A black light torch/ lamp is required to view the ghostly glow - a regular torch will not work.
In his diary, the Professor recorded the discovery of the ghostly glow with his magic lamp. The diary entry, printed on parchment effect paper, is included with each artwork.
"What Devilry is this? My sketches and impressions of these unworldly beings have been enchanted by some form of witchcraft. It seems a ghoulish hand has been at work mimicking my own and changing the very nature of my picture. Viewed using a strange light purchased on my adventures in the Far East, an unnatural glow emanates from the very soul of the spirit I have drawn. It is my belief that this light will let me see into this world of spirits beyond our own - it will require much further study and experimentation.”
Would you like your picture framing? Our favourite frame choices for this picture are Small Linear Black and Wide Distressed Black. The prints are framed on demand in the gallery's workshop - if the print is in stock, we can frame it! Do contact the gallery if you need help with framing, as we stock many other frames.
© The Artist
