Chapter 1
The Start of the Journey
1931
ROSEHALL
THE HAUNTED ROOM
TALES OF ADVENTURE
1932
VISIONS OF ELI
1932-1933
CINEMATIC ESCAPE
1934
THE ABANDONED COTTAGE
LITERARY ENCOUNTER
THE DERELICT MILL
1939
J. M. DENT
1931
8
YEARS
TALES OF ADVENTURE
Underwood attends a talk at the local gospel hall in Letchworth by Sir Wilfred Grenfell,
and is enchanted by tales of adventure
in far-off lands...
Wilfred Grenfell (1865-1940)
Title page of Adrift on the Ice Pan by Wilfred Grenfell, an autobiographical account of his harrowing experience of becoming trapped on a small drifting piece of ice while crossing a frozen bay by dog-team on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland.
“I listened, fascinated as he related some of the superstitions and charms then common in Labrador…”
Newfoundland - a large Canadian island off the east coast of the North American mainland.
‘Grenfell of Labrador’, as he was known, was a famous physician and medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. He helped the poor with food, clothing and medical care.
“He told a story of a haunted house where the occupants moved in the middle of the fishing season.”
“They said a spirit
had appropriated their dwelling
by night…”
“…so they moved by day,
when the spirit was asleep,
to another spot...”
“Even after all these years,
Grenfell’s phrases linger in the memory.”
“ ‘I have long ceased to deny things
just because I cannot explain them...’ ”
“ ‘I have seen the accident called death many times,
but I never saw any reason to believe in the death of the personality…’ ”
“I particularly recall one incident he described which involved his meeting a person…
“...whom he later found to be dead at the time he had met him...”
“It was little wonder that his experiences interested me,
for years later I learned that he had been a member
of the Ghost Club.”
Early members of the Ghost Club.
The Ghost Club was established in order to enquire into Spiritualism, a movement based on the belief that departed souls can interact with the living,
and to investigate the supposedly supernatural phenomena demonstrated by mediums and magicians
- for example by conducting an inspection of the ‘Spirit Cabinet’ used by the Davenport Brothers.
A Spirit Cabinet is a medium’s makeshift enclosure,
within which spiritual phenomena is purportedly made
'actual' or real.
The brothers claimed to be able to 'contact the dead' via their ‘cabinet’.
Underwood discusses the Ghost Club.
