This episode, Mike and Will grab their literary toboggans and gallop joyously out into the snow, only to be hit in the face by a terrifying fictional snowball in the form of Louisa Baldwin’s The Real and the Counterfeit!

Big thanks as ever to Debbie Wedge for providing the readings for this episode. Looking for a last-minute Christmas gift to please the M.R. James fan in your life? Why not head over to Debbie’s Redbubble store and pick up an awesome Jamesian Wallop, Barchestering, or No Diggin’ ‘Ere t-shirt?

Show notes:

1. More on Louisa Baldwin in our last episode
   We covered The Weird of the Walfords back in the summer, and included a lot more biographical details about Louisa Baldwin.
2. Long Galleries (wikipedia)
   A lot of the action in this story takes place in a long gallery, a popular architectural feature of many stately homes in England.
3. George’s banjo (authorama.com)
   Like Lawley in this story, George in Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat was also a keen banjo player, much to the displeasure of his friends. Similarly, in Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, Bertie’s insistence on playing the banjolele is what finally drives Jeeves to leave Bertie’s service (albeit temporarily).
4. Other haunted abbeys (nearlyknowledgeablehistory.blogspot.com)
   In this episode, Mike mentions a number of old houses in England that are, like Stonecroft, said to be haunted by ghostly monks.
5. Tobogganing at Funchal (carreirosdomonte.com)
   The city of Funchal in Madeira is famous for providing toboggan-like basket rides from the Mount Church on the hill, down into the town.

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Who would win in a fight between a man and a bed? Find the answer to this question and more in our new episode on The Weird of the Walfords by Louisa Baldwin! Also, if you like emotionally-repressed Victorian husbands, you will not leave disappointed.

Show notes:

• Louisa Baldwin (1845–1925) (Wikipedia)
  Louisa was a member of an illustrious family who included Rudyard Kipling and Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.
• ‘The Shadow on the Blind, and Other Stories’ (Google Books)
  You can read this story and others form the same volume on Google Books.
• Royal beds in English history (wikipedia)
  There are a number of stately homes in England with similar legends about royalty spending a night in a specific bed, for example Sawston Hall in Cambridgeshire.
• Wyrd (wikipedia) 
  The ‘Weird’ of the Walfords is actually a ‘wyrd’, an old English term meaning fate or destiny.

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