{"id":2763,"date":"2016-09-06T14:11:07","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T14:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=2763"},"modified":"2020-06-28T11:06:44","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T11:06:44","slug":"casting-the-prunes-flaxman-low-triumphant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/casting-the-prunes-flaxman-low-triumphant\/","title":{"rendered":"Casting the Prunes: Flaxman Low Triumphant!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you like Holmes, M R James, strange investigations, Victorian ghost tales and genuine vodoun? Today, dear listener, we re-visit a classic literary character \u2013 Flaxman Low<\/strong>. We have the original illustrations for Low’s adventures, and we muse on a tale by writer\/publisher Barbara Roden<\/strong><\/span>, one which manages to include both Flaxman Low and Sherlock Holmes whilst at the same time following up on elements of an M R James<\/strong> story. We also found an 1899 observation of vodoun ritual in practice written by one of the Low authors. Too much to ignore.<\/p>\n

\"flaxman<\/a><\/p>\n

Rather than mutter for a couple of minutes and then say, Oh, and here’s a link or two which might be of interest, we therefore present some new oddities and a much revised Flaxman Low article illustrated by drawings from 1899, by B E Minns<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0 while back we delved into the issue of Sherlock Holmes pastiches and wilder re-imaginings of the Great Detective (see our article\u00a0 shades of sherlock<\/a>)<\/em>. And we hedged our bets by saying that we liked straight, canonical Holmes adventures, but that sometimes a really well-written excursion into the supernatural could work. In the process, we mentioned The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes<\/em> (ed. John Joseph Adams<\/strong>, 2009), but had only dipped in and out of that anthology.<\/p>\n

\"51Bef2GEZQL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Then we came across this review, entirely by accident, on Goodreads:<\/p>\n

The Things That Shall Come Upon Them (Barbara Roden)<\/h5>\n

\u201c…this story should be taken as the model for Holmes-meets-Occult kind of adventures… But more importantly, in this story Sherlock Holmes does NOT do anything that goes against the canonical template of his thoughts & action, and the supernatural element is presented with its chilling moments and menace through the interpretations of the events as done by Flaxman Low… And the topping is that the story actually ties up a few loose ends in one of the greatest horror stories of all times (clue: the most-anthologised story by M.R. James).\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This story was originally published in the Gaslight Grimoire<\/em> anthology in 2008. In the introduction to the tale in Improbable Adventures<\/em>, the author says:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story setting \u2013 Lufford Abbey \u2013 former home of Julian Karswell of M R James’s classic ‘Casting the Runes’ \u2013 came after I watched, with our son, the film version of ‘Casting the Runes’, Night of the Demon, and found myself wondering what happened to Karswell’s home after he died in somewhat mysterious circumstances, in France. The involvement of a ‘Dr Watson’ in James’s story was a gift from the writing gods.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"from<\/a>
from that wonderful film ‘night of the demon’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

THE THAMES HORROR and Other Adventures of Sherlock Holmes<\/em>, four of Barbara Roden’s Holmesian tales including the above, is also available from Amazon and Calabash Press:<\/p>\n

thames horror from calabash<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

thames horror on amazon uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Since we last Flaxman-ed, the British Library has made many of its archive images available on-line, and we were delighted to find B E Minns’ illustrations for the 1899 edition of the Low stories in there, so we had to put them on show as well.<\/p>\n

\"b<\/a>
b e minns self-portrait 1928<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Minns looks rather like M R James in this one.<\/p>\n

Warning: There are occasional spoilers below.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Flaxman Low, Vaydoux and Sloths<\/h1>\n

That acute observer, M R James, said of the stories which follow:<\/p>\n

\u201cK and Hesketh Prichard’s ‘Flaxman Low’ is most ingenious and successful but rather over-technically ‘occult’\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

We think it’s fair to say that if you are called Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard<\/strong> (1876-1922) and nicknamed ‘Hex’ at school, you ought to do something interesting with your life. The fascinating HVH-P did not let anyone down.<\/p>\n

\"'hex'\"<\/a>
‘hex’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He hunted for (probably) extinct giant sloths in South America, helped counter German snipers on the Great War, played a mean game of cricket and explored the world. Through Trackless Labrador<\/i> is one of his, for example, and he is supposed to have brought back some of the first reports of vodoun from the interior of Haiti. He could have been invented for the Boy’s Own Library.<\/p>\n

\"flaxman<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1899, Prichard was the first white man to cross the interior of the black island republic since 1803, and wrote very prejudiced book about it called Where Black Rules White<\/em>. The nasty politics of the period (and basic humanity aside), it does include a chapter on Vaydoux (voodoo, vodoun), where he describes practices he saw for his own eyes:<\/p>\n

\"'funeral<\/a>
‘funeral in hayti’ 1890s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAs she danced she cleared her throat and spat with a noise like artillery coming into action. The huge black woman in the centre droned on, and to the drum-beat was added the chink of a key on metal. The Mamaloi quickened in her sinuous dancing. The heat was terrific; humanity sweltered there. And over all presided a portrait of the German Emperor, whose eye I seemed to catch at this juncture.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Papaloi, a small and filthy old man, crouched at one side, as the Mamaloi caught the cock from the hands of the big woman, and, holding it by the neck, flung it over her head and shoulder. Her face was distorted with frenzy; round and round she twisted, accompanied by a swifter measure of the same dead song. She laid the cock upon the heads of the worshippers and began to whirl more and more rapidly to the hurrying, maddening drumming. Suddenly she straightened her arm, spun the cock round and round, its flapping wings beating impotently upon the air. A snowstorm of feathers floated up as she stood with rapt eyes and bared teeth, twirling; then she flung up her hand, and the headless body flew over her shoulder.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHer excitement was horrible; she pressed the bleeding neck to her lips, and, when she slowly withdrew her hand, stood for an instant fixed and immovable, her lips and teeth stained red.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

With his mother Kate O’Brien Ryall Prichard<\/strong>, ‘Hex’ wrote a series of occult detective stories. She also accompanied him on some of his travels, but that’s another matter.<\/p>\n

The Flaxman Low adventures were attributed to E and H Heron<\/strong>, probably because the printers couldn’t fit both their full names on the covers. Published 1898-99, there were twelve stories in total, stories which brought his character onto the occult detective roll of honour. These tales are interesting, unusual and come with a twist of the new science of psychology (these are the 1890s, remember). But wait…<\/p>\n

\"flaxman<\/a><\/p>\n

We re-read the Heron family, and realised that this stuff is, in fact, nuts. Enjoyable, but nuts. The detective himself is \u201cone of the leading scientists of the day\u201d,<\/em> whose real name is not disclosed. He is also an accomplished sportsman, and a record-breaking hammer-thrower, strong and lean with a high forehead, long neck and thin moustache. We learn this early on, which gets us all a-quiver and ready for the horrors.<\/p>\n

And boy did we have trouble picking which horrors to feature. So much gold in a shallow river. We have rarely felt so dumbfounded when we put a book down. Here are two of Flaxman Low’s encounters and discoveries, to give you the idea:<\/p>\n