Lightning Daguerreotypes One of the most fortean of lightning freaks is the “lighting daguerreotype,” where pictures are found impressed upon the skin by a bolt from the blue or where a face or figure is mysteriously etched upon a window pane.
Remove Your Hoops: Lightning Freaks There were a number of superstitions about lightning: it was bad luck to burn wood from a lightning-struck tree, oak trees were more likely to be struck than beech, a toothpick from a tree struck by lightning would cure toothache. And certain things would “draw” lightning: Milk in a pail, moist hay, bayonets, a warm horse, an umbrella or fishing rod–and ladies’ hoop skirts.
A small section of my new book, The Victorian Book of the Dead discusses the various names and euphemisms for death, dying, and the afterlife. I invite you to contribute your favorite expressions. Or to perform the Dead Parrot Sketch.
Rainbow Orbs for Luncheon As a Victorian family gathered around the dinner table, the room was filled with colored balls of light, which turned into the likeness of dead relatives.
When the Eddy-stone Light-house burned in 1755, a spry Henry Hall, aged 94, sprang into action to battle the fire. During the fire he was badly injured and was carried home where he gave his doctor a bizarre explanation for his injuries: he had swallowed melted lead from the fire.
Dead Letters: The Epistolary Zombie
The family had seen their beloved husband and father dead and buried–but years later they began to get letters from beyond the grave.
A “Castle of Mystery” in Cleveland, found full of secret passages and rooms, and built on a warren of mysterious tunnels and caves. No, not Franklin Castle.
