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(Ms. found among the effects of the late Richard H. Johnson, Ph.D., curator of the Cabot Museum of Archaeology, Boston, Mass.) 0:00:00 Chapter 1 0:14:57 Chapter 2 0:22:10 Chapter 3 0:41:29 Chapter 4 0:56:44 Chapter 5 ---- 4 inches = 10 cm 7/8 of an inch = 2.2 cm 2 feet = 61 cm Another story, another obscure word that everybody seems to pronounce differently. Once again I went to my physical dictionary from 1984 and went with that. The word? Eridanus. Cingalese is an old spelling of Sinhalese, who are a people native to what was at the time of the writing of this story known as Ceylon, which is today known as Sri Lanka. The pictures used are: Chapter 1: Photo of 55 Mount Vernon St, Boston, MA, by John Phelan, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en). Technically this is the Nichols House Museum, but it is on Mount Vernon Street close to Joy, in the heart of the Beacon Hill district, so it would be very much like what you could expect the fictional Cabot Museum of Archaeology to look like. Chapter 2: Ghatanothoa, by Patrick Phipps, at the Domy Monster Show 2007 used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/). Chapter 3: The Bridewell translation of von Juntz's book, not the Golden Goblin Press edition. Oh well, it's hard enough to find any sort of pictures of it, so beggars can't be choosers. Chapter 4: Screaming mummy, intended to reflect to mummy of T'Yog. Chapter 5: "Scary mummy" by Nyall & Maryanne, under here the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/). Think of it as the petrified mummy of the one intruder. The follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/oa.aspx

Written by Duane W. Rimel, and subsequently revised by H. P. Lovecraft. This feels sadly incomplete. It's an interesting start to a story, but needs to be finished. Perhaps some budding author can do a sequel. The follow along: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Sorcery_of_Aphlar

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 0:18:09 Chapter 2 0:22:54 Chapter 3 0:44:34 Chapter 4 0:54:50 Chapter 5 1:11:26 Chapter 6 1:23:44 Chapter 7 1:31:41 Chapter 8 This story was written as a sequel to "The Silver Key". If you haven't listened to that one yet, you might want to go there first. Apparently the sequel was Price's idea, and Price wrote the first draft of the story. Lovecraft didn't keep much of Price's works, it appears he retained Price's basic plot and themes but rewrote the whole thing in his own style. Chapter 1 also references the events in the story "The Statement of Randolph Carter", so that would be another one to give a listen, whether before or after this narration. It must have been so much more fun to be an author in a time when the solar system had not yet been explored. You could make up whatever crazy things you wanted about the other planets, and there was no harsh reality of observations to spoil your fun. I am always amazed at how many words have obscure pronunciations and nobody seems to agree on how to say them. You'd think with the Internet, things would be made clearer and move towards convergence, but no, that is rarely the case. In today's reading, we have 'olibanum', a synonym for frankincense. I decided to drag out my old (1984!) physical-book dictionary on this one. Only to discover just how awful my vision is getting... But I do have a magnifying glass. Anyways, the pronunciation I used in the reading corresponds to what my dictionary says it should be. If you don't like it, you can take it up with Random House. Oh wait, it's now Penguin Random House. Which is owned by Bertelsmann. There's probably nobody left any more with which to take up any complaints over such an old edition :-P Gotta love words with more than one accepted pronunciation. Rather hilariously, at the start of chapter 3, you can hear me use two different pronunciations of 'neither' IN THE SAME SENTENCE! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!! Even though I caught that in edit, I left it in because it struck me as funny. And in chapter 8, we unfortunately have yet another case of a verboten word. For youtube purposes I blanked out the word entirely. I hate to do it, but blame youtube and their censoriousness. You can find the uncensored version over on bitchute. Normally I'd rather not censor a story and if I had to, I would just make it a bitchute exclusive instead. However, given how long it has taken me to work through this story, I can't have four days of effort with nothing to show for it here on youtube. So, you get a censored version instead. I really hate this part of youtube... The pictures used are: Chapter 1: A crop from the cover page spread from "Weird Tales", volume 5, number 2, published in Feb 1925, for the story "The Statement of Randolph Carter". Chapter 2: The Silver Key, created by Gage Prentiss for Propnomicon, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). Chapters 3 and 4 are freely available wallpaper downloads found on a public domain image search. Chapter 5: The illustration by Harry Clarke from "Tales of Mystery and Imagination", 1923. Chapter 6: The title page illustration by H.R. Hammond as it appeared in Weird Tales, July 1934. It's all wrong, of course - clearly the illustrator never read the story, neither Zkauba nor the bholes look anything like what is shown here, but I had the damnedest time finding *anything* at all to use as an illustration for this chapter, and since this is artwork that appeared with the story in its original publication, that's what you get. Regarding chapters 7 and 8: There were a couple of pictures of Zkauba out there, and Yaddithians in general, but only a couple, and none with permissions of a nature that I could use them here. So you get these rather boring and anti-climatic pictures instead. Sucky. Such is life. Beggars can't be choosers, and all that. To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/tgsk.aspx

(MS. Found in a Time Machine) The names are all code - it might be entertaining to re-record this with the names below substituted in for what is in the text. But regardless, this is extremely esoteric and not very impactful as a result, at least not to me. I'm not very happy with my recording here, but given how unsatisfying this story is anyways, I can't be bothered to redo it, even allowing that it is so short. Glossary of Names-Ed. Two-Gun Bob-Robert E. Howard Knockout Bernie, the Wild Wolf of West Shokan-Bernard Austin Dwyer, of West Shokan, N.Y. Bill Lum Li-William Lumley Wladislaw Brenryk-H. Warner Munn D. H. Killer-David H. Keller M. Gin Brewery-Miles G. Breuer A. Hijacked Barrell-A. Hyatt Verrill G. A. Scotland-George Allan England Frank Chimesleep Short, Jr-Frank Belknap Long, Jr. The Effjoy of Akkamin-Forrest J. Ackerman Mrs. M. Blunderage-Margaret Brundage (artist for Weird Tales) Mr. C. Half-Cent-C. C. Senf (artist for Weird Tales) Mr. Goofy Hooey-Hugh Rankin (artist for Weird Tales) W. Lablache Talcum-Wilfred Blanch Talman Horse Power Hateart-Howard Phillips Lovecraft M. le Comte d'Erlette-August Derleth (author of Evening in Spring) J. Caesar Warts-Julius Schwartz H. Kanebrake-H. C. Koenig (employed by the Electrical Testing Laboratories) H. Wanderer-Howard Wandrei Robertieff Essovitch Karovsky-Robert S. Carr Teaberry Quince-Seabury Quinn Malik Taus, the Peacock Sultan-E. Hoffmann Price Sing Lee Bawledout-F. Lee Baldwin Ivor K. Rodent-Hugo Gernsback Rev. D. Vest Wind-Unknown Klarkash-Ton-Clark Ashton Smith Windy City Grab-Bag-Weird Tales W. Peter Chef-W. Paul Cook Smearum & Weep-Dauber & Pine Samuelus Philanthropus-Samuel Loveman Mr. De Merit-A. Merritt (author of The Dwellers in the Mirage) Wurst's Weekly Americana-Hearst's American Weekly The pictures used is from the 1971 match-up of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, i.e. The Fight of the Century! To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/bec.aspx

00:00:00 Chapter 1 00:38:27 Chapter 2 I was uncertain whether all the Dutch names should get Dutch pronunciations or Afrikaans pronunciations, as they can be quite different. In the end I went with Afrikaans, or as best I understood it, anyways. Feel free to note corrections in the comments for my future reference. The authors of this story, rather unfortunately, felt the need to use a word in this story too naughty for youtube. Three times. I recorded it as written, and have posted that version over on Bitchute if you want to go find my channel over there. Otherwise, for purposes of youtube, I replaced the verbode woord with "Africans", but did not specifically re-record the passages in question to fit the word in seamlessly, so when you hear the word "Africans" and it doesn't sound like it fits cleanly in with the neighboring words, that's my drop-in replacement to censor to forbidden word rather than bleeping it out with a noise effect. It's a shame that I can't trust youtube to give me a pass for reading out of a historical text, but I am not willing to endure the hassle of fighting youtube management over an insane policy. All the more insane since despite the fact that they have banned some creators for using the word, I sometimes get advertisements where the word is used freely and frequently. Why advertisers can use it without problem, but content creators will get kicked off the platform for using it, is impossible to understand, but such is the madness of youtube management. It's amazing what youtube considers to be, or not be, advertiser friendly for content creator monetization purposes, given what advertisers themselves put into ads that yotube gladly accepts for play on their platform. Anyways, enough editorializing... The pictures used is of a Tsetse fly, provided by Oregon State University under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/). To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/wd.aspx

It's almost a poem, only not. It probably should have been reworked into a poem. Missed opportunity. I had no idea how Laen was intended to be pronounced, I could come up with a half dozen possibilities. *sigh* To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/sm.aspx

Personally I felt this one was weak. It had some interesting ideas, but failed to develop them in an interesting way. I rather came to the impression after Yalden had passed through the second cave and was passing through the narrow corridor, that he had really entered the mouth and was going down the esophagus, and the reason the Anathas didn't appear to be at home in the cave is because Anathas *was* the mountain in which the "cave" (his mouth) was located. I was actually disappointed at the conventional ending. Boo! But hey, at least this is a short story that is actually short, so there's that. The pictures used is 'Shoggoth, from Lovecraft´s "At the Mountains of Madness"', Illustration by Pahko. Used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en). Although the picture is actually of a shoggoth, it strikes me as being a good candidate for what the Wizard-Beast might look like. Might even be, for all we know. The only clear inconsistency is that the shoggoth in the picture has more than seven eyes. And yet, it is possible where the number seven is used in the text, that could just be the number that were visible to Yalden, and perhaps there were more he couldn't see. We'll never know! To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/hwb.aspx

0:00:00 Chapter 1 0:36:48 Chapter 2 Alienist is an old-fashioned word for psychiatrist. I couldn't even begin to guess what accent Orabona should have. We are only told he has an accent, and that he is "dark-skinned". But "dark skin" could mean anything from the olive of a Middle Easterner to the medium brown of southern India, to the darkest black from the heart of Africa; "dark" is a relative term, not an absolute one. Given that the setting is London in the early 20th century, all we can say is that he is "dark" relative to an Englishman, which isn't helpful at all. For those of you who are familiar with London, the streets mentioned in this story are all real. If you live there, or have plans to visit there, consider trying to follow along some of the paths mentioned! :-D Well, I have absolutely no idea if those parts of London are safe, so do your diligence first, but if they can be traveled safely, it could be fun to do so. The pictures used are, for chapter 1: Madame Toussad's in London, and for chapter 2: "The Horror in the Museum" by PeterSzmer, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/hm.aspx

I've actually been to Lake Placid! Twice! To do the Ironman there! It is beautiful country, but I never came across a village named "Mountain Top". I've been as far north as Au Sable Forks, since the bike course went up that way the first time I was there, and most of the way to Black Brook the second time, and of course Wilmington for the northwestern corner of the course. Regardless, from Au Sable Forks or Black Brook, there's only another 40 or 45 miles you can go before hitting the border with Canada, and google maps doesn't seem to know any place called "Mountain Top" in New York (or Vermont, since you're also close to the Vermont border at that point), so either it was made up for the story, or it has over the past 100 years been absorbed into some other locality and lost its original name. Towards the end there, there is a reference to Route 2, and there is a US Route 2 that is in NY all the way up at the Canadian border, for about a mile, and then passes into Vermont. As best I can determine, US 2 was built on or before 1922, and the story was written in 1932, so that checks out. US 2 starts by branching off from US 11 in Rouses Point, and that is the only inhabited place it passes through in New York state, as it immediately goes off over the water (is that Lake Champlain at that point, or still considered the Richelieu River? The wikipedia page for Rouses Point suggests it is Lake Champlain right there, but the entry for US Route 2 says Richelieu River, so who knows!) and into Vermont. New York State Route 2 is way over by Albany, so it's not referring to that. So I guess what they call Mountain Top in this story is Rouses Point in reality? Rouses Point goes all the way back to the 18th century, while this story can assumed to be set in the early 20th century, so there's no reconciliation to be had, unless it's a colloquial name for a nearby unincorporated part of the county. Of course, it turns out that that part of New York state is extremely flat - no mountains to be seen anywhere for there to be a mountain top! Which is a problem for the setting of the story which is said to be a mountainous area... Ah well, looks like the authors made up a name without knowing the reality of the locale, and so this is what we get. As to Sugarloaf Mountain in the Catskills, there are, unfortunately, several mountains named Sugarloaf in that part of the Appalachians, so no way to know where exactly the author had in mind as there are no additional points of reference beyond that. Not that it matters, if they gave as much care and attention to locales here as they did for "Mountain Top"... :-P The picture used is one of my own pictures taken while I was at Lake Placid. I could have, and probably should have, featured a picture of a statue of some sort, whether or a man or a dog, but I decided I wanted to show off one of my own pictures :) To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/ms.aspx

IT'S A TRAP!! Ok, obvious joke done, it is interesting to see the occasional detail of how life used to be. The sounding of a gong, for example, to indicate when a given class period was over. I remember when I was in school there was an electric buzzer that was sounded over the PA system. How did your school do it? To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/trap.aspx Funny thing: while recording this, I thought I was doing an unusually good job of it, yet in edit, it was probably the single most error-riddled recording I have made to date. Isn't it weird how it can seem so right while you're doing it, and only in review be determined to be so wrong? Most of the errors were of such a trivial nature that if you aren't reading along with the text, you'd never know there was an error, using 'a' instead of 'the' (or vice versa) kind of mistakes, but I do read along with the text while I'm editing, so I am aware of them myself. I do sometimes leave an error or two like that in a recording just because I can't be bothered, but when there are so many, you just gotta fix them. What a bother!

This story was written by Adolphe de Castro in 1891 and subsequently revised by Lovecraft in 1930 before being published in Weird Tales. Some racial language in this one that was in common use a century ago but not so nice to use now. Ah well, it's a historical text, and I am not going to modify it, just know that the language used is the author's own and naught to do with me. The reference to the president's private car makes the modern reader initially think of a limousine or Rolls Royce similar luxury vehicle. But you need to remember the story is set in 1889, and was written in the 1890s, so no, by "car", the author means train car, not an automobile. Funny thing how use of words changes over time like that! The picture used is the interior of a Pullman train car, from the Chicago Historical Society. Upholstered seats that face each other, in a first class train car, as described in the text. Fancy! Of course, the Pullman Company was an American company, not a European one, but clearly they made "European style" train cars, so that's what you get. It was hard enough finding pics of old-time first class train cars with upholstered back-to-back seats, so just gotta go with whatever can be found. To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/ee.aspx

Bishop supplied the story idea and some notes, paying Lovecraft to flesh it out in 1928. It was then published under Bishop's name in Weird Tales in 1929. Some racial language in this one that was in common use a century ago but not so nice to use now. Ah well, it's a historical text, and I am not going to modify it, just know that the language used is the author's own and naught to do with me. Otherwise, if you can get past that, it's a pretty good tale with a nice, horrific ending! A quart is just shy of a liter (0.95 liters). The pictures used is the copy of an image from a sandstone disk found at Carthage, Alabama. To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cy.aspx

This story was written by Adolphe de Castro and subsequently revised by Lovecraft before being published in Weird Tales. 0:00:00 Chapter 1 0:14:06 Chapter 2 0:44:56 Chapter 3 0:53:30 Chapter 4 1:20:26 Chapter 5 The portrayal of newspapers as slime who fabricate stories is hardly unique to this tale. Poe has similar complaints decades earlier in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt". And of course, Mark Twain and Thomas Jefferson made their famous quips about the news being nothing but lies. We even have an exemplary case in our own life time, back in 2003, when the New York Time's Jayson Blair had to be fired after being caught red-handed publishing complete fabrications as if they were real news. Other recent examples exist, but the point remains: this is not something Lovecraft (or de Castro) just made up to enhance the story, it was, and is, a real problem. 'Alienist' is an outdated term for psychiatrist. Personally I enjoyed this ending to the story. A bit of a twist, definitely very Lovecraftian. The pictures used in order of appearance: Chapter 1: San Quentin Penitentiary Chapter 2: Amastigotes in a chorionic villus. From TDr database from WHO. Credit line: WHO/TDR/El-Hassan. Used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). Also knows as visceral leishmaniasis, or kala-azar, or... "black fever". Yep, it's a real disease. Although it was first identified in India, not Tibet. Ah well, this probably wasn't the disease the author had in mind anyways, he probably thought he was inventing a new, fictitious disease. Chapter 3: Photograph of the California State Capitol taken in 1890 by Winfield J. Davis. To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/lt.aspx

Both authors used pseudonyms, with "Elizabeth Neville Berkeley" being Jackson and "Lewis Theobald, Jun." being Lovecraft. Although Lovecraft actually wrote the entire text, but Jackson is credited since it was based on a dream she had experienced. 360 lbs = 163 kg 5 x 3 inches = 12.7 x 7.6 cm To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/gm.aspx

Another story where the accents of some of the characters are written into the text. I'm not entirely sure what accent they are supposed to represent. The Ramapo Mountains are in northeastern New Jersey and southeastern New York, and being that I am originally from New Jersey, albeit central NJ, that kind of accent is certainly not common place in my lifetime. But, this story is set roughly a hundred years ago, so maybe it's not entirely out of the question. To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/tbb.aspx

There is no annotations or other meaningful background or information relating to this tale that I can readily find. Which leaves the whole thing massively open to interpretation. So what do *you* think happened to Blake at the end? I was a bit unsure about the pronunciation of 'Simeon'. And indeed, there seems to be at least two pronunciations in use for the name. I went with what seems to be the more common pronunciation. The pictures used is of a Belgian soldier injured by a flamethrower in 1914. War really sucks, doesn't it? :( To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/ddb.aspx

Well this one is pretty gruesome... The pictures used is "The Ghoul-Gate" by micadew, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/). To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/ld.aspx

This story may be Eddy's work, but it definitely feels like it has a lot of Lovecraftian influence! As best I can figure, all the locations in this story are made up. Mayfair, Glendale, the Potowisset, the Cataqua. None of it appears to really exist that I can tell. That last one, there is a word 'Chautauqua', but that is the name of an adult education movement in the early 20th century, not a river or other locality. Even today Maine is fairly sparsely populated, and a hundred years ago its population was almost half what it is today, so I can believe it was easier at the time to just make up names than to figure out real places. Anyways, the only name there that is any trouble is Potowisset, but since that is not a real name, in Maine or anywhere else, I'm not too worried about the pronunciation I used. To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/ge.aspx

You can really tell this one is not a Lovecraft creation. It's not even obvious what his contribution was to this one, but his name is linked to it, so you get to suffer it. And this was written when Eddy was 28 and married; I would have thought it written by a nerdy 18 year old virgin... :-P For tabourette, apparently it is acceptable (in English) to pronounce the t's, or to not do so (in the French manner). The pictures used is "Exhibit in the Arppeanum, Helsinki, Finland." by Daderot. To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/as.aspx

This story was published under several other names, like "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" and "Entombed with the Pharaohs". It was originally credited to Harry Houdini, so we can consider this one a ghost writing rather than a collaboration. Personally, this is the type of story I was hoping to get a lot more of when I first started reading Lovecraft! Mycerinus is a Hellenized version of the name Menkaure, and holy smokes, for the life of me I could not figure out the correct pronunciation of it. Multiple recordings on youtube disagreed, the various translation tools online disagreed, so what am I supposed to do with it? I have no idea! Ugh, why does this kind of confusion exist?! It may be a relatively obscure word, but the phonetics of the Greek language are not obscure, so how is there no agreement on it? Well, I'm sure I butchered many an Arabic word besides, so I shouldn't rant overly much about the one Greek word that is used only one time in the story when I could rant about so many other words. Like 'sambuke'. Oy, these Old Time English-speaking authors and their love of foreign words in their writing... Hell, I had the damnedest time correctly pronouncing 'Khephren', always trying to say 'Khephran' instead. No idea why my mind kept converting that final 'e' to an 'a', but I just kept doing it over and over and over. Very infuriating! I wouldn't even be surprised if at least one instance of the 'a' pronunciation managed to slip past in editing and and make it into the release version. Ah well. If you hear it, let me know in the comments :-P Tarbush = fez. Fez is a far more fun word to say :D Minnehaha? I'm an American and even I didn't recognize that one, but it comes from one of Longfellow's poems, "The Song of Hiawatha" and is the name of one of the female native American characters in the story. To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/up.aspx

The picture used is the eye of an oarfish, by Phil Hastings, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/hmb.aspx

Somehow, not Nyarlathotep. Boo! The tale was credited to "Elizabeth Berkeley" (Jackson) and "Lewis Theobald, Jun" (Lovecraft). Lovecraft wrote the entire text, but Jackson is also credited since the story was based on a dream she experienced. The picture used is of Storm Gertrude lashing the Silverdale shore, by Karl and Ali, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/). To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/crc.aspx

In the original publication of the story, Lovecraft was credited as "Henry Paget-Lowe". It would appear that 'caduceus' has at least two different pronunciations, although it may be an American vs. English difference? Or maybe it's an English vs. Latin difference? I used the non-American pronunciation, whatever it turns out to be. That was my first best guess at what it should be, and I only looked into after recording, during edit, to determine if I had to rerecord that bit due to wrong pronunciation, but no, I left it as is since it is a valid pronunciation, even if not the common American one. 'Cyane', 'Atlantides', 'Corycian', 'Astraea', etc. - so many of these Greek names are so obscure to the modern American audience that nobody knows how to pronounce them any more. I tried listening to several other narrations of this story and there was no consistency at all in the pronunciations. Ugh. The picture used is the fresco "The Parnassus" by Raphael, done between 1509 and 1510. To follow along: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/pg.aspx

0:00:00 Chapter I 0:16:29 Chapter II 0:29:44 Chapter III 0:53:03 Chapter IV ---- Battle of Sidney Street occurred in January 1911. King George V was coronated on Jun 22, 1911. So that was a rather bothersome way to say the first half of the year 1911... The J.H.V.S. Syndicate was also mentioned in Machen's story "Opening the Door". As is the case of Campo Tosto of Burnt Green. Interesting that he has a sort of continuity between stories with these bits. The pictures used are: Chapter 1: "Abstract Painting #1" by Zelgeon, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). Chapter 2: "Fantasy Landscape" by AtTheSpeedOf, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). No water, no person, but I feel like it does more or less capture the essence of the paintings being described? Chapter 3: "Houses of Parliament in the Fog" by Claude Monet, oil on canvas, 1903 Chapter 4: the so-called "Apeman of the Amazon", from 1937

0:00:00 Chapter 1 0:39:13 Chapter 2 1:06:14 Chapter 3 ---- The pictures used are: Chapter 1: "Merchant Taylors' School, Suffolk Lane, London", etching by William Sheppard, 1815 Chapter 2: "Looking across the valley to the Black Mountains in Wales" by Neil Howard, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/). Chapter 3: Court No. 1, in the Old Bailey as rebuilt in 1907. We don't know what year the trial took place, but if Last's bottles of port were from 1892, and that was presumably from his time before taking the tutoring job, and then at the end of the story he is now an old man, it seems safe to assume the trial happened after 1907, not before, and so the image for the post-1907 renovations of the Old Bailey. Pre-1907 images are available, but not applicable. To follow along: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0607681h.html#1