The Ash-Tree E-Book

M.R. James

• Herausgeber: SAMPI Books
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 26

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

At Castringham Hall, Sir Matthew Fell condemns a reputed witch, Mrs. Mothersole, who warns, "There will be guests at the Hall." Soon after, Sir Matthew is found dead in his bed, blackened and twisted, with no clear cause. Decades later, his descendant Sir Richard dies the same way in the same west room beside a great ash tree. When the tree is burned, monstrous, hairy spiders pour out—and a woman's desiccated corpse is found within.

Leseprobe

The Ash-Tree

M. R. James

SYNOPSIS

At Castringham Hall, Sir Matthew Fell condemns a reputed witch, Mrs. Mothersole, who warns, “There will be guests at the Hall.” Soon after, Sir Matthew is found dead in his bed, blackened and twisted, with no clear cause. Decades later, his descendant Sir Richard dies the same way in the same west room beside a great ash tree. When the tree is burned, monstrous, hairy spiders pour out—and a woman’s desiccated corpse is found within.

Keywords

Witchcraft, Curse, Spiders

NOTICE

This text is a work in the public domain and reflects the norms, values and perspectives of its time. Some readers may find parts of this content offensive or disturbing, given the evolution in social norms and in our collective understanding of issues of equality, human rights and mutual respect. We ask readers to approach this material with an understanding of the historical era in which it was written, recognizing that it may contain language, ideas or descriptions that are incompatible with today's ethical and moral standards.

Names from foreign languages will be preserved in their original form, with no translation.

THE ASH-TREE

Everyone who has travelled over Eastern England knows the smaller country-houses with which it is studded—the rather dank little buildings, usually in the Italian style, surrounded with parks of some eighty to a hundred acres. For me they have always had a very strong attraction: with the grey paling of split oak, the noble trees, the meres with their reed-beds, and the line of distant woods. Then, I like the pillared portico—perhaps stuck on to a red-brick Queen Anne house which has been faced with stucco to bring it into line with the “Grecian” taste of the end of the eighteenth century; the hall inside, going up to the roof, which hall ought always to be provided with a gallery and a small organ. I like the library, too, where you may find anything from a Psalter of the thirteenth century to a Shakespeare quarto. I like the pictures, of course; and perhaps most of all I like fancying what life in such a house was when it was first built, and in the piping times of landlords’ prosperity, and not least now, when, if money is not so plentiful, taste is more varied and life quite as interesting. I wish to have one of these houses, and enough money to keep it together and entertain my friends in it modestly.