THE COLLECTED TALES OF EDWARD, ON MYSTERIOUS STRANGERS, THE HIGHGATE VAMPIRE AND FIVE GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS

Vickie Lester

13 years ago

EDWARD’S TALE – THE FIRST:

Tatty and elegant is a very worthy combination. Its a bit like my house on a good day. As for myself on a good day I am just tatty. I have worked that just pulled through a hedge look into a fine art.

Vickie Lester

Now, that provoked a laugh you might be able to hear clear over the North Pole. May I quote you?

Edward

Yes indeed Vickie quote away. I once met an old tramp on a country road who had the look of tatty elegance to the ninth degree. He had what had once been a good and probably hand made tweed suit on. Instead of a belt his trews were held up by a piece of rough rope knotted around his waist. He wore on his head a dashing tweed hat with a feather in it. He had on some good brown shoes that had seen better days.

He was carrying a brown paper parcel of sandwiches and a small number of leather bound books, with gold tooling of perhaps a hundred years plus vintage. These were tied together with string.

We got talking and he had a cut glass accent that was quite genuine. He was obviously a man of education and breeding to use an old fashioned term.

We chatted for a while whilst we took the same road and then went separate ways. I was never to see him again although he made an indelible impression on me.

There must have been an incredible story there I have always thought. Then again perhaps he was not an old tramp, but the local Lord of the Manor? I am destined never to know.

Vickie Lester

You know, with permission, I might have to start posting beguiling stories from around the world… Yours is so tantalizing. Oh, and I would illustrate it with an image of one of David Inshaw’s paintings!
Edward

Well Thank you Vickie. Glad you liked my little story. It’s quite a few decades old now. The whole encounter did not last long and I cannot remember exactly where I was at the time. I almost certainly was hitchhiking as a student in those days.

I did not walk in step with him for long till we parted on that sunny day long ago, but he has always stayed in my mind. I did not mention, but he offered me a sandwich along the way {which I declined} as he thought I looked hungry.

Yes by all means publish you have my permission.

I have quite a few gleaned along life’s path and with people I have met. I might tell you one someday if it would not bore you of The Countess who lived on a houseboat that often sank and how her cats survived.

Her late brother an Irish/ Norman Lord who alas I never met was an even more interesting character.

I am sure you would have really have liked some of the wonderful eccentrics I have met and treasure in my life.

From your comment I assume you have now had opportunity to look at some of David Inshaw’s work.

EDWARD’S TALE – THE SECOND

Edward

I really liked this. MADONNA LIVED HERE – AND CAUSED A STIR IN BEACHWOOD CANYON | BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD I liked the history of the place as well. Being British I rather enjoy the prospect of ghosts as well. Nothing like a ghost to make you feel at home.

Vickie Lester

People I know have reported ghostly phenomena in houses I’ve lived in — but I think these ether creatures must find me dull — can’t report a peep, a glow, or a slammed door, to save my soul.

.

Edward

Sorry you don’t appear to attract the slightest bit of ectoplasm. There is nothing like drawing up your chair by a nice warm ghost to make one feel right at home.

Personally I have stayed in about five haunted houses with interesting results.

Every so often I take a look at so called ghost hunters courses on the net and wonder should I take one and get a Certificate that says I am the real thing. On the other hand some of the people interested in that sort of thing seem a bit loopy and am I loopy enough? Life is full of hard decisions.

Vickie Lester

Five ghostly encounters??? Oh, this might be another beguiling story from around the world… I read Carl Jung’s account of staying in a haunted house. Fascinating!

Edward

Still on the subject of the supernatural Vickie I once climbed over the wall into Highgate Cemetery supposed home of none other than The Highgate Vampire.

Naturally enough it was er dead quiet and it was a very spooky experience even during the day. I read later that had I departed from the paths I could have fallen into some very shallow and very fragile graves. I remember at the time thinking that if anything happened to me no one would know where I was and I might not be found for a very long time.

The bit that some people know is that is where Karl Marx is buried. It’s a surprise to find out that his remains are not in Russia for many people.

The part that I illegally visited is {or rather was} very overgrown at the time and extremely Gothic. It was quite like wandering through a giant film set all by oneself. I learnt later that I was not far wrong and it had been a natural location for a number of films having a supernatural theme. It was a very vivid experience.

I remember looking through small barred windows in a wheel shaped catacomb section and seeing coffins, one stacked upon the other, in apparently unstable arrangements, some with partially rotted cloth hanging out of them.

With regard to the so called vampire he declined to show himself. Of course the only explanation for that must have been the time of day?

Despite that the legend lives on and two self styled occult experts, one who declares he is a Bishop, continue to fight about who has the real goods on the vampire. All very entertaining I am sure.

The place is genuinely spooky and can easily be Googled for some very Gothic scenes. Oh and apart from its film associations {Hammer Fims?} it has connections with The Pre-Raphaelite Movement.

Off now to polish my chains.

Let’s encourage Edward to tell us about the Countess who lived on a houseboat that often sank, her buoyant cats, and her equally interesting brother!

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