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This is just all the chapters put together into one upload. If you've been following along the whole time, there is nothing new to hear here. ---- 0:00:00 Chapter 1 0:34:32 Chapter 2 0:57:45 Chapter 3 ---- Sidebotham: this is a real English surname, but I am not sure about the pronunciation. Listening to the handful of American youtubers who actually say the name, they use the pronunciation I used, and since this story is set in the US, that's what we're going with. Sorry to any Brits in the audience who pronounce it differently... Smith & Wesson revolver: for being no later than 1906, this would most likely be a .38 special (introduced in 1899 as the Model 10) or a Model 3 (1870). Some earlier models existed (the Model 1 from 1857 or the Volcanic from 1854), but those would be so old and obsolete by the time of the story that they seem very unlikely. Trivia fact: the Model 10 is the most produced handgun of the 20th century, and still in use today. The Model 3, on the other hand, ceased production in 1915, although that's sufficiently far after the time setting of this story that there is still a good chance the revolver in question is a Model 3. In the last chapter the author starts calling it a pistol instead, which is technically incorrect, but a common error. Ugh. Jehu: the tenth king of the northern Kingdom of Israel since Jeroboam I, noted for exterminating the house of Ahab. Oh wait, that's not the context for this story... Here we use the definition of: a driver of a coach or cab. Apparently King Jehu was noted in the Bible as something of a chariot driver, hence the reuse of the term later on to describe a coachman, especially one who drives very fast and/or recklessly. A Jew named Marx? Seriously? *sigh* I get it, Karl isn't the only Jewish person in the world with the surname of Marx, but he's the one everybody immediately thinks of. By 1906, Karl's works have already had six decades to circulate, and were well known and highly influential at the time, so even then it would have been a name many people would have thought of when presented with the surname of Marx. But we see throughout the story that the author's attitudes towards Jews seems to be very typical for the time. The pictures used are: Chapter 1: a picture by Lindsey Lee of "Awesome hidden door/bookshelf at Vizcaya". So it's not in a Long Island manor house, but it's what I got. Used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/). I tried to find pictures from circa 1900 of lone estates on Long Island in the winter, but there's just nothing out there to that effect that I could find. Had to come up with some other idea, and this is what occurred to me. Chapter 2: "Formal Enough" by Shapooda, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Chapter 3: "Wolfman v Dracula" by Jay Malone, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/). Ok, so Garvey wasn't in werewolf form at the end, and we don't know that Marx is a vampire, but the idea of werewolf vs. vampire struck my fancy while reading this story, so nyah. The follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14471/14471-h/14471-h.htm#chapter9 We never find out if Marx was in any way supernatural. I was half expecting him to end up being a vampire. We're never given any idea one way or the other.

Another story that is not a ghost story despite being in the ghost story section of the book. Guess the editor didn't know what else to do with them. Ah well, it's still an interesting tale even so. Somewhat surprisingly to me, there is a lake in Canada by the name "Skeleton Lake". Creepy. But it's in Ontario, not Quebec. But it's much too close to Georgian Bay of Lake Huron to ever have been a part of Quebec. Certainly not circa 1900. What changes to Quebec's borders there were in the late 19th century were to the northern and eastern borders, not the western or southern borders. What we call moose here in North America, apparently you Brits call an elk? But we have another animal in North America that we refer to as an elk. I suppose it could be considered charming that there is so much confusion in animal nomenclature, but it would be handy to clean it all up so that when a given word was used everybody would have the same thing in mind upon hearing it. Perhaps the worst example of this are the big cats - panther can refer jaguars, leopards, or cougars, yet cougars are unrelated to jaguars and leopards. A black panther can be either a jaguar or a leopard, but not a cougar. A Florida panther is actually a type of cougar. Cougars are also known as pumas, mountain lions (not to be confused with African lions, which are part of the panther genus where cougars are not), or catamounts, in addition to panther. Then there's the bobcat, which is actually a type of lynx. Big cat nomenclature is such an enormous mess. Needs a big ol' reset. Degree of frost: a non-standard unit of measure for air temperature meaning degrees below melting point (i.e. "freezing point") of water. For Fahrenheit, the degrees of frost = 32F - the current temperature Per wikipedia, the term appears frequently in Ernest Shackleton's books South and Heart of the Antarctic, Apsley Cherry-Garrard's account of his Antarctic adventures in The Worst Journey in the World (wherein he recorded 109.5 degrees [Fahrenheit] of frost, –77.5 °F or –60.8 °C) The picture used is a photo of a moose hunting camp (possibly taken by William Morgan Jones, circa 1900). The lake shown is in Quebec, but is Kipawa Lake. The existence of Skeleton Lake was already discussed above, but this is a lake that is in Quebec and is showing a moose hunting camp, with canoes even, so it fits the setting in all but name. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14471/14471-h/14471-h.htm#chapter10

While this story is listed in the "ghost stories" section of my book, it clearly is not a ghost story. I still liked it regardless. Hopefully you also enjoy it! $10,000 from 1906 could be worth today anything from $336K to $8.1 million. But we've seen several times now instances we could demonstratably prove these inflation adjustments always tend towards the lower end of the range. So call it an even $350K. A useful sum of money! The crime wave hinted at there in New York City around 1900 presumably refers to the Blank Hand (Mano Nera) exortion racket. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14471/14471-h/14471-h.htm#chapter8

to scrape acquaintance: I've never heard this expression before. Is this a British thing? Or just an obsolete thing? Any Brits in the audience care to chime in? on the qui vive: on the alert or lookout. Blackwood has been pretty good so far about not sprinkling any French into his texts. First one so far. Hopefully the last... 12 shillings a week: 12s in 1906, depending on how you do your inflation adjustment, would be between £68 and £670. A google search suggests that you can get cheap hostel lodgings in Edinburgh for something like £18 a night, which is £126 a week, and that's a nightly rate, not a weekly rate, so £68 might be a tad too low, but it's probably not *too* far off from what might be possible today. incarnate: in the flesh; in human form discarnate: having no physical body; incorporeal To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14471/14471-h/14471-h.htm#chapter7 For those of you who have been following along since at least "Zanoni", or are otherwise familiar with that work, who did it better? Blackwood of Bulwer-Lytton? Regardless, it would be interesting to have this story re-told from Smith's perspective. There's a story prompt for any budding young authors out there!

North Devon and Somerset are in the southwest peninsula of England. 12 miles = 19 kilometers The picture used is of North Molton village in North Devon, viewed from SE. From the church at top of the hill the village extends down the ridge to the River Mole. Bampfylde Clump on horizon. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14471/14471-h/14471-h.htm#chapter6

1 mile = 1.6 kilometers Straw is made of grain stalks, hay is made of dried grass or legumes clasp knife: a.k.a. lock-blade knife, having a locking mechanism that locks the blade into its fully opened position The picture used is the interior of the medieval monastic barn at Croxley Green. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14471/14471-h/14471-h.htm#chapter5 On the matter of fear, there is an extremely fascinating video here on youtube by Vsauce, "What is the Scariest Thihng", in which he (eventually, after much meandering in the way of Vsauce) covers the one and only singular thing discovered to date that even people with non-functioning amygdalae show a fear-response to. One thing that will generate fear and panic in every human being regardless. And it's nothing you would ever expect. Go watch it after you finish up here :)

spirit lamp: an alcohol burner, like a weaker version of a Bunsen burner, burning alcohol (i.e. "spirits") rather than natural gas Forth: here, refers to the Firth of Forth "It was four o'clock": to the American audience, it may come as something of a shock, but in the summer, sunrise in the UK is around 4 or 4:30 am. For the British audience, it may be equally shocking to learn that sunrise in North America is, in the summer, more like 5:30 or 6am. Arthur's Seat: an ancient volcano which is the main peak of the group of hills in Edinburgh, which form most of Holyrood Park. It is situated just to the east of the city center, about 1 mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. Holyrood Park: a royal park in central Edinburgh. It has an array of hills, lochs, glens, ridges, basalt cliffs, and patches of gorse. The park was created in 1541 when James V had the ground "circulit about Arthurs Sett, Salisborie and Duddingston craggis" enclosed by a stone wall. The picture used is a late 19th century photo of the exterior of the University of Edinburgh's Old Medical School. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14471/14471-h/14471-h.htm#chapter4

rusticated: suspension or expulsion from school (this word being most commonly associated with Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham). half a million (in pounds - recall Blackwood is British) in 1916, the year of publication, depending on how you care to do your inflation adjustment, would be worth in the range of £36 million to £334 million! Even at the low end, that's a lot of quid! An American City - unnamed, but clearly, as we find out at the end of the story with the Wall Street reference, New York City. diggings: British slang for living quarters. Americans are more likely to be familiar with the shortened form of "digs". "western drawl" - eh? There's a southern drawl. Mid-westerners are considered by most Americans to have no accent, or a neutral accent. Westerners, I'm not even sure what that is supposed to be. Surely not the Great Plains states. West coast states aren't noted for a drawl, although a few notable west coast accents do exist. Not sure what a western drawl is supposed to be. Weird. Indeed, as the west was settled by a variety of peoples from the eastern US, from the south (i.e. Mexico), and the west (i.e. Asia), there really wasn't time enough, certainly not by 1916, for a distinct regional accent to have developed, it's just a random collection of different people with different accents. Hmmm... But some sort of accent was written into at least some of the landlady's dialogue, so I tried to play off it as best I could. I certainly wasn't going to try German accents for Otto and his father. There was no such accent written into the text, and while I probably could have pulled it off, I felt it would have been too distracting. And if I didn't pull it off well after all, it would be down right insulting. I was tempted to translate the relevant dialogue into German, but then most listeners would be lost so I left it in English after all. The picture used is the interior rooms of an Old Law apartment, n.d. NYC Municipal Archives Collection. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14471/14471-h/14471-h.htm#chapter3

maskinonge, a.k.a. muskellunge: a large North American pike (Esox masquinongy) that can weigh over 60 pounds (27 kg). I have no idea what the pronunciation is supposed to be and couldn't find any example of it, everybody these days seems to just call it muskellunge. I mean, I can find a bunch of French language videos using the word, presumably the Quebec variant of French, but English speakers seem to have abandoned the word. loon: a type of bird that when at rest floating on the water may look a good deal like a duck, but you will never mistake its call for that of a duck! -40F is also exactly -40C! 6 inches = 15.25 centimeters 200 yards = 183 meters The picture used is a cottage on Rainy Lake Island in Ontario. Although that's way over on the west side of Ontario, while Montreal and Toronto are over on the east side, so it can't be the lake in the story, but it is a cottage on an island in a lake surrounded by forest, so it still thematically fits quite nicely. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14471/14471-h/14471-h.htm#chapter2

A good old fashioned ghost story! Pity I didn't put this on the menu back in November for Halloween. We aren't actually told where this story takes place, but given that Blackwood is from Kent county, England, it seems safe to say it is somewhere in England, and somewhere in Kent would be a good bet. The setting is clearly a coastal town, and Kent has a ton of coastline! Well, it appears his hometown of Shooter's Hill was eventually absorbed into London and is no longer part of Kent today, but back in 1869 it still was. The picture used is of an allegedly haunted house in London. Actually rather hard to find pictures of haunted houses in English cities that even slightly approximate the description given in this story. This is decent enough - at least it has steps up to the front door, but no balcony. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14471/14471-h/14471-h.htm#chapter1

Bear in mind this story was set during WW1. Mr. Begbie: I'm guessing this is Harold Begbie, a journalist and author born 1871, died 1929, so exactly in the right time frame to be a critic of Machen. Indeed, it appears he wanted to believe the "Angels of Mons" stories were actually true, and didn't much appreciate Machen disclaiming their veracity. This myth of the Russians has been referenced by Machen in a number of his WW1 stories, but as an American over a century later, I have to say I am completely unfamiliar with it. So I finally went and looked it up: In the opening months of the First World War, a rumour spread across the United Kingdom that Russian soldiers [cossacks?] - identified by the "snow on their boots" - had landed in Scotland en route to the Western Front. Now it appears there were some Russians in Britain in 1916, I believe for some sort of artillery trials, but this rumor supposedly dates back to 1914. I see one claim of some troops being asked where they were from and one said "Ross shire", in northern Scotland, which could have been misheard as Russia. Whatever the case may be, it's an odd rumor. Eddis: A rather curious surname I've never heard before. (Recall at the time this story was written, it was normal to refer to men by their surname instead of given name.) Apparently it is an actual English name meaning "son of Edward". Manavon: there is a place in Wales spelled Manafon, which I take to be the same place. It is towards the west of Wales, in Montgomeryshire, in the county of Powys, but not quite on the coast. The 1901 census was only 501 people, today down to more around 300, so a very small place. Tremaen: Apparently more commonly spelled today as Tremain, another real place! continuation school: a type of high school for students at risk of not graduating at the normal pace. It has the same graduation requirements as a conventional high school, but with a more relaxed and flexible pace of learning. "The Camp": We heard this locale referred to at least once before in another Machen story, and here it is again. Still can't find any specific reference to it in reality, but unlike most of Machen's stories, in this story the locations seem to be real, so I'm guessing there is such a place that at least a hundred years ago was known by this name. No idea if it still is known by this name today, but maybe once upon a time at least. Doctor Duthoit is a bit of a recurring character in Machen's work. I seem to recall hearing the name before, but can't recall now which story. But there is an entire story by Machen that I haven't yet done entitled "Dr Duthoit's Vision". The picture used is an old postcard of Mwnt Church (Eglwys y Grog (Holy Cross Church)) & beach. It reminds me of "the Camp", but apparently at the time was known instead as "the Mount". Ah well, it'll have to do. To follow along: https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700381h.html

The West End of London during this time period would have been very fashionable and posh. tout: in this context: one who solicits patronage. This word has two pronunciations, so if you'd use a different one, know mine is still an accepted one. (I didn't look it up before hand and upon initial recording tried it several ways, including both of the accepted ways, so I had my choice of which way to go with it, but didn't really know if one was more accepted than the other, as this is not an American English word, it appears to be entirely a British English word, so I really had no guess either way.) baize: a coarse, typically green woolen material resembling felt, used especially for covering pool, snooker, and billiard tables. £10,000 in 1916, depending on how you do your inflation adjustment, would be anywhere from £721,000 to £6.7 million. Let's just call it £1 million. A tidy sum to be sure. £50,000 obviously is 5x or at least £3.6 million. And that's PER YEAR for a lawyer of the day! *boggle* High Court of Bow: It appears Bow is a parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, county of Middlesex? There appears to have been some form of court there, a debt-court at least, and seemingly a county court, if that's different, but the idea of a "High Court of Bow" is likely a fiction from our author. Unless it is normal in England to refer to a county court as a high court? When it comes to the legal system, while the US system may derive from the English system, it is not identical to it. Indeed, the two systems have drifted noticeably apart over the past 250 years... Arrah and begorrah: 'Arrah' is an expression of disbelief or wonder, while 'begorrah' means 'by God'. Urban Dictionary gives an entry for "arah begorrah!" as "a majorly boggerish Irish term used as a reaction to surprising or dreadful news." Although I'm not sure what a proper Irish pronunciation would be. The picture used is "Der Tod des Dichters Pietro Aretino" (The Death of the Poet Pietro Aretino) (1854) by Anselm Feuerbach. In 1556, Pietro Aretino is said to have died of suffocation from laughing too much. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#jokes

Eritivaria is a fictional place. Wasn't sure how to pronounce that first 'a' though, but since it's fictional it's not a big deal. Indeed, most of the references appear to be fictional: Hatzgurh, Gilgianza. At least I can't find any real world references for them. The yellow emperor having purple porcelain is a strange thing. Ming vases are notable for their blue, not purple (and is why most of the porcelain "china" you see also uses blue). As the Emperor's title suggests, yellow would be the imperial color in East Asia, not purple, so not sure why Dunsany went with purple here. It doesn't fit with the color of fine china or the imperial color of China. Hmmm... (Yes, I know purple is the royal color in western kingdoms, but so what?) The picture used is of the banquet hall at Stirling Castle. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#exiles I would suggest the final sentence there wasn't really necessary, and actually detracted from the conclusion. Ah well.

Over is a real place in Cambridgeshire! Stavlokratz appears to be a fictional character, indeed a fictional surname. I assume it's meant to sound Slavic? No idea if my pronunciation is convincingly Slavic or not, but it's what you get :-P Snyth appears to be a fictional surname? Not sure if that 'y' should have a long or short sound to it. Obviously I finally settled on making it sound like Smith, given the variant spelling of Smith as Smyth but which still has the same pronunciation in both forms. £1 in 1916 might be worth anywhere from £72 to £669 today, depending on how you do your inflation adjustment; probably closer to £72 for our purpose. That's a decent wager. Will certainly buy you plenty of drinks! The picture used is of Edward Sergeant in Hastings, although in 1929 or 1930, so a bit later than our story, but we can still imagine it being Stavlokratz there in 1916 or so. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#gambit

chimahalk: doesn't appear to be a word as far as I can find. If you recognize it, leave a comment below. As it doesn't appear to be a real word, there's no way to guess what the pronunciation might be. Especially the 'ch'. Oh well. Should have given us a guide to its pronunciation, but since authors adamantly refuse to do so, they have to suffer wrong pronunciations. Their fault, they have no one to blame but themselves :-P I used the pronunciation that matches the start of the word 'chimera'. The picture used is "The Giant and the Dwarf" by Alfred Henry Forrester, a.k.a. Alfred Crowquill. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#plash

The picture used is "Tower of Séguret's castle ruine" by XenonX3. Séguret being a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, built during the 11th century. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#tower

Belgrave Square, per wikipedia: is a large 19th-century garden square in London. It is the centrepiece of Belgravia, and its architecture resembles the original scheme of property contractor Thomas Cubitt who engaged George Basevi for all of the terraces for the 2nd Earl Grosvenor, later the 1st Marquess of Westminster, in the 1820s. Most of the houses were occupied by 1840. The square takes its name from one of the Duke of Westminster's subsidiary titles, Viscount Belgrave. The village and former manor house of Belgrave, Cheshire, were among the rural landholdings associated with the main home and gardens of the senior branch of the family, Eaton Hall. Today, many embassies occupy buildings on all four sides. Bethany: a town in Palestine (home to Lazarus) built on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives. There is another site known as Bethany in Jordan, where John the Baptist is believed to have baptized Jesus, but there is no obvious mountain connection to it like there is with the town on the Mount of Olives. The picture used is A picture of Westminster taken by scientist Sir Norman Lockyer in 1909 from a helium balloon. Unfortunately Belgrave Square didn't make it into this picture. Nor, I suppose, the outskirts of London at all. But it does show just how big London had grown there early in the 20th century. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#escape

The picture used is not a photoshop, it's a real pic taken in New Zealand, posted on reddit by the user nondeliciousfiller. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#equator

Lat. 23 N. Long. 4 E: That's in southern Algeria, in the Sahara Desert. Cape St. Vincent: the southwesternmost point of Portugal and of mainland Europe. Margate: in this case, surely the coastal resort in county Kent, UK Gale: a strong wind, which even as early as 1810 was measured on the "Beaufort scale" of "moderate" (28-33 knots), "fresh" (34-40 knots), "strong" (41-47 knots), and "whole" (48-55 knots). in a hundred yards they could only turn their ship four yards from her course: for you metric types, just sub in meter for yard and that's close enough for our purpose here (1 yard is a touch more than 0.9 meters) knots are not a unit you land-lubbers know what to make of, so, for the numbers we're given throughout the text: 1 knot = 1.151 mph, or 1.852 kph 2 knots = 2.30 mph, or 3.7 kph 3 knots = 3.45 mph or 5.55 kph 10 knots = 11.51 mph, or 18.52 kph 18 knots = 20.71 mph, or 33.34 kph Ship's bells: bells are struck every 30 minutes of a 4 hour watch. Thus two bells could be 1 am, 5 am, 9 am, 1 pm, 5 pm, or 9 pm. So in the case where they are eating breakfast, it must be either 5 am or 9 am, probably 5, although in the circumstances they were in, they may well have slacked off and gotten into the habit of starting their day later rather than earlier. But I'd still probably go with 5 am. Horse gaits: Walking is the slowest speed for a horse, roughly 4 mph (7 kph). A trot is a fair bit faster at 8 mph (13 kph). Then the canter ~15 mph (21 kph), and the gallop at 25+ mph (40+ kph). A normal walking pace for a camel is 3 mph (5 kph), that's only 2.6 knots. But it appears that a camel can be expected to manage in the ballpark of 100 miles per day (86 or 87 "knots" - why the author uses that word as a measure of distance I cannot understand, as it is clearly a measure of speed...). Shard attributes 84 knots to a camel, which it turns out is entirely reasonable. But also, slightly less than what they are capable of, which is no doubt why he ran into the trouble he did. The strange long muskets were most likely moukahla, a type made and widely used in North Africa from the 17th through 19th centuries. They were very long (6 feet, or 2 meters), and very large caliber (0.67, or 17 mm). epaulment: a barricade of earth like a rough parapet used mainly as cover from flanking fire. From the French word épaulement: a shoulder movement performed by turning the body from the waist upward and bringing one shoulder forward and the other back If we go south east from 23°N 4°E to the Niger River, we end up at the village of Bourem, Mali on the river, which is roughly 500 miles in a straight line. At 84 knots per day, that's ~96 miles, which they sustain for 7 days, for 692 miles. So they must not have gone a straight line, but ended up probably somewhere further westward, closer to Timbuktu, which no doubt would have been your main navigation point in that time period. 10 fathoms: 60 feet (18 meters). Normally fathoms is used to indicate depth of water, this is literally the first time in my life I have heard it used to measure a distance on land. Bizarre. But then given the misuse of knot as a unit of distance, I rather fancy Dunsany doesn't actually know anything about sailing and boats and such, and is just throwing around some random words he heard one time. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#story

lift: as used in this story, the British term for an elevator The picture used is of a slum in Paris circa 1907. Probably similar to the area where this shop was located. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#bureau

There is a Bergh Apton in Norfolk, about 10 km southeast of Norwich. Once upon a time, there were two neighboring villages, one called Bergh, the other called Apton, which merged to form a single village of the combined name Bergh Apton. But yeah, there really is (or was) a place in England called Apton. Of course, you probably wouldn't pass by that locale on your way to the Midlands... I mean, it's not impossible, it's only a little bit out of the way, but does feel unlikely. Slod, on the other hand, is not so obviously a place in England. The word 'slod' does exist in certain dialects of English, being the past tense of slide, but as a place name? I can't find it. If you know of such a place, leave a comment below! The picture used is an illustration for the story by Sidney Sime To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#black

1 yard out in a hundred miles - you metric types can read this as 1 meter out in 160 kilometers. The picture used is an illustration for the story by Sidney Sime To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#secret

This feels like a weird mix of North American and Mesoamerican things. The hazard of an Irishman writing a story about native American... Wigwams are characteristic of northwestern tribes, as are totems, but gold idols and the other goodies they looted all sound far more Central or even South American. The name Loma doesn't sound to me very indian at all, although I grew up on the east coast where I suppose we should expect the languages spoken were noticeably different from those of the west coast tribes. Although... the Algonquian language family did extend very far westward, it appears, so maybe not so radically different after all? But I can't say with any certainty either way. And mules? They aren't native to North America, so this story must be set in a time after European contact. But I've never heard of Native Americans adopting mules. Horses absolutely, but mules? I mean, maybe? But it's not something they are noted for. I would expect to the extent natives did adopt mules, it was likely more common in Mexico and points further south, not so much in what would become the United States or Canada. But maybe I'm wrong, I'm hardly an expert on the mule. If you know your history of the mule in the Americas, leave a comment below! The picture used is an illustration for the story by Sidney Sime. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#loma My book version of this story was so bad, by the second paragraph it had devolved into literal gibberish. I had to give up and print out the online version of the text to read from instead. How utterly shameful. But even then, although the text is clear enough, there are quite a few sentences that feel incomplete, or syntactically wrong. Maybe I just didn't understand how to parse them, I struggle parsing a lot of Dunsany's sentences, but this felt like an unusually poorly written story at a grammatical level. The plot and themes are still interesting, the technical aspects of the writing are the problem here.

"Long porter" doesn't seem to be a specific thing? So I guess it's just a porter who is "long", i.e. tall? I guess? It's a very strange term, to be sure. So what's a porter? Obviously we're not talking about the alcoholic beverage here, no, in this context a porter is a person stationed at a door or gate to admit or assist those entering. There are several other jobs of the same title, but in this story it is this job. ling: I would have thought this to be calluna vulgaris, a.k.a. heather, but then he says "ling and heather and bracken", suggesting ling is not heather. If you know what it might be, please leave a comment. The picture used is of the Potala Palace in Lhassa, by Royonx, used here under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en). Lhassa is the highest city in the world, so it's the best analog I could think of for Tong Tong Tarrup. Plus Tibetan architecture is very unique in the world, and for most people it is not a familiar style, so it is going to look unworldly to many people. Although the Potala Palace is probably famous enough that a lot of people would recognize it, or at least find this image familiar even if they couldn't specifically put their finger on it, but still, it's a great picture of a great structure. And would you believe, at my work, there's a project manager who is actually from Tibet! Born and raised there! At a previous job I had a co-worker who was from Nepal. What are the odds, for being in the USA, that I have worked with anybody from these Himalaya nations, much less more than one? *boggle* Although the more alert among you will note this picture does include some trees, and we're not suppose to see any more green plants by this point in the journey, so small inconsistency there. Oops. To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#porter

Some references to the original "Book of Wonder"! Gotta love it. You can find the story "Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller" here on my channel, along with the rest of "The Book of Wonder". If you enjoy these stories from "The Last Book of Wonder", definitely go check out that playlist as well! Lord Castlenorman also appears in some stories from that first book. Bond Street - a real street in the West End of London home to very prestigious and upscale fashion retailers, including a number of jewelers like Tiffany's and Asprey. Grosvenor: A real noble family (dating all the way back to the time of William the Conqueror), and one of the richest families in Britain, owning a surprisingly large amount of the property in London. And yet, in this story, we are told that the Grosvenor family is NOT English? *boggle* Yes, it is originally Norman French, but they came over to England in 1066, so you can't get much more English than that. And Campbell? I mean ok, Campbell is Scottish, not English, but how would they not speak English? As a big time businessman in London, surely English would be a language they could speak quite well, even if not to perfect native level of fluency. What a very strange thing to suggest neither of these people speak English. Guinea: in 1916, the year this book was published, a guinea would be worth 21 shillings. Depending on how you care to calculate it, 1 guinea in 1916 would be worth on the order of £75 to £700 today. Even at £75, for a bottle a wine that's going to be a pretty good wine. A crown would be 5 shillings, so a half-crown would be 2/6. So that half-crown is going to be in the range of £9 to £80 today. Which, rather curiously, is still in the ballpark of prices today for Cuban cigars! £100,000 in 1916 is a whopping enormous sum, rating in today in the range of £7 million to £67 million! The picture used is an illustration for the story by Sidney Sime To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13821/13821-h/13821-h.htm#bird