SHOW NOTES — for — MINISODE 34 (Season 5)

(April 23, 2026)

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• 00:45: THE TERRIFIC REGISTER: An account of how a mysterious and persistent knocking turned out to be, mayhap, a ghostly notification of approaching death.
• 05:20: EARLY VICTORIAN GHOSTLY SHORT STORY, to-wit: THE GHOST AND THE BONESETTER, by J.S. LeFanu: In this episode, a bonesetter — a countryman who has developed the knack for repositioning broken limbs so that they can heal — is called upon to watch his squire’s castle while the squire is away. He is very reluctant, because everyone knows the squire’s deceased father likes to descend from his portrait in the parlour in search of whiskey to drink. ... Sure enough, the old squire steps out of the painting as soon as it’s fairly dark. But he has a very unusual request to make of our narrator ….
• 35:40: SHE DREAMED HER MOTHER'S MURDER: A short ghost story from the scrapbook of Charles Lindley, Viscount Halifax: A lady had a vivid dream of a man murdering her mother in her bed. She was very unsettled, but when the same dream recurred the following night, she determined to go see her mother and make sure she was OK. When she arrived, the door was opened by her mother’s butler … who she recognized as the murderer in her dream ….
• 40:45: SOME STREET POETRY on the topic of ghosts, death, and ruin. In this case, we have an early English translation of DER TOTENTANZ, by J.W. von Goethe, which the anonymous translator has titled “The Skeleton Dance.”

GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:

• AUTEM DIVERS: Pickpockets who work the congregations at religious meetings.
• ANGELICS: Young maidens in their prime.
• KNIGHTS OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: Drunken fellows running amok in fields and ditches late at night, trying to stagger home.
• SHERRY OFF: Run away. From the nautical term, "Sheer off."
• FLATS: Suckers.
• GET FLY TO THE FAKEMENT: Get wise to the swindle.
• MOABITES: Bailiffs.
• PHILISTINES: Also means bailiffs.
• CRAPING COVES: Hangmen.
• YE OLD STONE PITCHER: Newgate Prison.
• PADDINGTON FAIR: Execution day at Tyburn, which is in Paddington Parish. Paddington is also a pun, as “pad” was a flash word for “thief” or “robber.”
• BRUSH OFF: Leave. Note this phrase means something slightly different today.

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