Gobbolino's Christmas Adventure!

Once upon a time, small children everywhere were helped along on their quest to become better readers by a fortnightly magazine called Storyteller! Contained within it's pages were classic children's tales like Gobbolino The Witch's Cat & The Wizard Of Oz, folk tales like Sinbad & Anansi The Spiderman and exclusive tales written specially for the magazine....

Every issue also came with a cassette tape, on on this tape the stories came to life as they were read by actors and celebrities that were familiar to any child watching British children's television, like Brian Blessed, Derek Griffiths, Liza Goddard & Bernard Cribbins to name but a few...

Children could look at the pictures and read along as they listened, learning what the words looked and sounded like...and they were informed to turn the pages of the magazine when they heard the Storyteller, an odd pixie-type fella, ring his bell...

It ran from 1982 until 1985, and as a five-year-old child myself in 1982, I was one of those little kids that the magazine helped hone the reading skills of! I managed to find a whole load of the old cassette tapes in a charity shop a few years back, but sadly the magazines and my own cassettes were lost in a move may years ago....

But thank heavens for the internet, where most things can be found if you know where to look...and not only the pictures and sound, but also in the form of videos on Youtube! Which brings us to today, and the story of how Gobbolino, the Witch's cat, had himself a Christmas adventure that handily allowed me to tenuously link Storyteller to Creepmas and come up with this post! 

So here's the story as it appeared in the Christmas issue of Storyteller 2, along with the video so you can read along with your own little kittens if you have such things!  

(And as always, click to go big!)

Creepmas Spook Sightings Of Yester Year No.1 - The Mid-Knight Bell Ringer & The Non-Spook of Boxley

Yes, I know this is the Black Knight ghost from Scooby Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed, and has nothing to do with the story, but it works well as a depiction of the ghost contained within....okay!? Tch...

Christmas has long been associated with the appearance of spooks and spectres, and it's a favourite time to tell tales of haunted houses and horrific happenings. Many people blame Charles Dickens and his A Christmas Carol ghosts of Christmas for this, but reading old newspapers from back in the day suggests that the Creepmas spirits go back quite a bit further than that, and the darker, longer, colder nights have always created the perfect atmosphere for a good scare...

Having signed up to the British Newspaper Archive back at Halloween, I decided to search their scans for Christmas weirdness, and so here begins another series of Spook Sightings, traditions and rituals and anything else I can find! 

First up is a rather odd story from the Sheffield Evening Telegraph, dated Monday 24th December 1906.....

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"GHOST IN SHINING ARMOUR"

WEIRD CHRISTMAS STORY

 A weird story emanates from Newton Stewart, but though strongly suggestive of a conventional Christmas tale, it is said to be solemnly vouched for inhabitants. 

The other day, it is said, a crowd in the Corn Market was suddenly startled by the appearance of an apparition, which, however, on being addressed by one of the bystanders, immediately disappeared. More, however, was to follow, for next night the whole town, it is declared, was aroused at midnight by the jangling of bells. 

Large numbers of people leaped from their beds, and, following the sound of the bells, they were led to the old castle, where they were confronted by a spectre in shining armour. From his helmet blazed dazzling light, which shed on all around a ghostly green radiance. No one dared approach the armour-plated ghost, and everyone stood wondering what was to happen. Suddenly, however, the spectre vanished, and after waiting for some time the mystified people returned to their homes. Though human rather than supernatural agency is suspected, no little alarm is said to prevail in the district.

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Next up is one of those haunted happenings which quickly become apparent to not be what they seem...this is from The Dover Express And East Kent Intelligencer, dated Saturday December 24th 1859....

MYSTERIOUS NOISES - THE "HAUNTED HOUSE" - 

As Christmas has been, time out of mind, the appropriate season for "ghost stories", we have one to relate.  Mr Dickens's Christmas book is called the "Haunted House," and relates to the mysteries of no less than seven goblins, distributed among as many seperate rooms.  But the main features in all such tales are pretty much alike - "banging of doors, ringing of bells, creaking of boards, and such like insignificances." The chief difference between Mr. Dickens's narrative and ours is, that his is a fiction, and ours perfectly true.  The facts that we have to tell, then, are the following :-

Mr. Martin, of the Ashford road, in Boxley parish, near Maidstone, has, for several weeks past, had his household economy seriously disturbed by a number of mysterious noises, which became pretty regular visitants of an evening. There were violent ringings at the door bell; bangings of the doors; shakings of the window-frames and wainscot; and sounds of feet within and without the house, without anyone professing to be able to account for them.  Footmarks could even be traced across the garden to and from a brick wall about 9 feet high, denoting the path of "the ghost," to and from his nocturnal pastimes.  The thing was very annoying, especially as it was continued long beyond the term of an endurable joke. But how did the thing come about?

The police were applied to on the subject, and suspicion at first lighted on the servant.  She, however, was an exceedingly demure and even a pious body, terribly frightened herself at what was occurring, and relying confidently on having brought to the family "a two years' character from her last place."  The police, nevertheless, are not much given to romance, and they are very incredulous as to supernatural knocking at doors, bell ringing and footprints in high-walled gardens.

The mystery was entrusted for elucidation to Sergeant Featherstone, K.C.C., who, as a preliminary, placed a dispersed guard of constables all round the house as a corps of observation.  A policeman was also sent to the premises, not in the expectation that anything would occur while he was present, but to lull suspicion of any reserve being on the watch when he should depart.  He left about 9 o'clock, and shortly afterwards the back-door began to shake furiously.

The police on duty concluded from that "the ghost" was domiciled on the premises, and Sergeant Featherstone promptly taxed the servant girl with being the "mysterious visitor," in her own person.  After a little pretended indignation at such a charge, then some evasions and excuses, she "owned the soft impeachment," confessing that her object had been to divert attention from the late visits of some of her own favoured followers, and to preserve the good character which she had previously acquired.  The subsequent enquiries of Sergeant Featherstone brought some other circumstances to light, which show that the "character" was by no means deserved, but that the servant was, in fact, a precious hypocrite.  Her wages have been paid to her friends, and the delinquent has been sent home to her parents, who reside at Tenterden.

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What I took from that last story is that I must track down "Mr. Dickens's Christmas book" Haunted House, as it sounds like it'll be a good read!  But yeah, it just goes to show that people back in ye olden times weren't always jumping to conclusions that such occurrences were necessarily supernatural.

Hope you enjoyed reading this though!? I'll obviously be posting a few more, so keep your eyes peeled for those, and I'll see you back here tomorrow for more Creepmas craziness! Laters, stuffers! 

Creepmas 2017!

Blimey! I was so burned out after the Countdown To Halloween and 'real life' stuffs that I completely forgot to get started with this year's Creepmas celebrations! I've just been added to the roster over at the Creepmas hub though, so starting tomorrow I'll get on with celebrating the remaining days and getting revenge on Christmas trying to creep it's way into Halloween!

To see the other participants and enjoy what they're all posting, just click on either of the Creepmas badges in this post, or the one which has appeared at the top right of my blog...over there, look...yes, that one! 

Anyway, expect the usual gift ideas, comic scans, TV shows, movies, etc. that you'd normally see on here but with a more Creepmassy feel, if I can mange to find some of that ilk anyway, having completely forgotten to prepare!! But aye, tomorrow it shall begin a proper, so come back then!!

Spook Sightings Of Yester Year No.6 - The Big Border Cat-Dog

Originally I was going to post a much bigger collection of various odd-things that have happened to me over the years, but then with being at college yesterday and generally being a bit burnt out after a long month of posting, I've decided to save some of those tales for next year's Countdown....

I did however promise to tell you about my own potential Black Shuck sighting in a previous post, so I'll go ahead an do that to wrap up this Halloween's spook sightings!

It all began with a trip to my Auntie Peg's house where my brother and I were going to stay the night with our cousin Lorraine. They lived in a spooky old house in the Scottish Borders called Langton Kennels, which is maybe where the person in charge of the dogs for Langton House Estate lived back when the grand old house itself still existed. But Langton House was demolished in the 50s, leaving behind a few of the surrounding houses of which this was one...

As you can see from the picture, it was quite a spooky place indeed, and had a path in the back garden that led to a forest, and a nearby saw-mill cut wood from the forest trees. Also nearby was a plant nursery, and there were lots of old walls and remnants of the old estate dotted around to make the place even more interesting to explore....

All of which has nothing really at all to do with the story, other than to give you an idea of the sorts of settings I used to hang around in! The whole place felt like something out of a horror movie, but not in a bad way...if that makes sense? It had an air of familiarity about it even if you were visiting for the first time, and although the house was welcoming and likable it also had a sense of the past around it, and when the sun went down its close proximity to the woods, big giant saws and freaky old walls added to its spooky atmosphere, which as a group of kids in the 80s brought up on late-night-horror TV, we all loved!

Anyway, like I said, this has little to do with this story other than that is where we were headed for the night. After getting picked up by my Auntie Peg, we drove to my Granny Kirk's house, where she had collected together bags of old clothes that my brother, cousin and I were to try on, see if any fitted us, and then take any that did away..

I remember being annoyed about this, because we discovered that my Auntie had nipped to my other cousin's house beside my Gran's to watch the second part of the V  mini-series which was being aired on TV that night, and my brother and I had really wanted to see the resolution of the alien baby cliffhanger! This is a very handy point to remember because it means that with the wonders of modern technology and old TV guides, we can accurately date the sighting to August 1984 ...

So after an hour or two of trying on clothes, the ones we were keeping were bundled up and put into black bags, and placed in the back seat of my auntie's car. Us three kids went into the boot of the car, which had been converted into a caged-off dog area so my auntie's dogs could go in the back without clambering over into the back seat. We didn't mind this at all, as it was quite fun to be caged off in our own little space where we could pretend to be dogs, or prisoners of aliens, or whatever else our imaginations could come up with.

 Finally we set off along the old hill road, over the Lammermuirs towards Langton. It always seemed to be a road that was covered in fog, and visibility was often poor with drivers only being able to see a couple of feet in front of them, and tonight was one of those nights!  A bit further along the road, when we were up in the hills and chatting away amongst ourselves, we suddenly saw something at the side of the road....

As I remember it, there were two gleaming eyes and a set of big sharp pointy teeth snarling back at me from the dark, and a faint outline of a big dog-shaped creature attached to them! It clearly wasn't happy about us being there and passing it, and we were clearly all shocked into quietness by it's appearance....

My Auntie drew the car to a sudden stop, muttered something about escaped Pumas, and then opened her door and jumped out of the car, leaving the door wide open as she wandered off into the fog....

"Here puss, puss......here kitty......" her voice got quieter and quieter as she got further away.....

Now I know what you're thinking. This is not necessarily the first thing that would occur to any normal person to do upon sighting a big snarling hell-beast at the side of the road on a foggy night! But my Auntie Peg is no normal woman...born and raised in the remote border hills between England and Scotland, I struggle to think of anyone tougher, man or woman, and more able to handle themselves against a hound from hell or alien big cat! Also, by her logic, we were pretty safe behind the cage in the back of the car, so any incoming pumas or shucks wouldn't be able to easily get at us....

A puma is what she believed it to be, and indeed knew a man locally who kept such beasts,  and so she thought that it might have been one of his that had escaped and thus not quite as dangerous maybe as it would have been if it was a totally wild cat. This explains her willingness to go into the fog, but whether or not it was a good idea, I'll leave for you to decide!

For my cousin, brother and I sitting in the back of a car with the door wide open, and a potential devil hound or hungry feline roaming about outside, it was more than a little scary! After a minute or two though, Peg appeared back saying she couldn't see anything and whisked us off to Langton so she could make some calls to enquire about missing big cats.

I definitely remember it being more dog like than cat like, but the opinions vary, and as a memory from a seven year old brain being recalled from a forty year old one, the details are a bit sketchy! My brother remembers it having a sort-of more squashed in face, therefore making it more cat like, although I guess depending on where we were sitting, we would all see it a bit differently.....But we had all definitely seen something snarling at us from the side of the road that was bigger than usual, noticabley angry and totally out of place! I do also seem to remember it looking very black, and as the actual existence of black pumas is somewhat contentious, especially running wild in Scotland, this makes deciding what it actually was a bit trickier....

Phone calls were made, but no-one was missing any big cats. I can't really remember much more being said about it at the time, although the story would sometimes be recalled when we all got together, and even recently my cousin mentioned it on Facebook, so we can all still remember it and it clearly made an impact on us.

My Auntie Peg's theory of escaped Pumas makes even more sense when you take into account that it was far from the first sighting of big cats in the Lammermuir Hills, with may sightings of alleged Pumas going back several years. One such sighting is chronicled on the Scottish Big Cat Trust site, and so here's a transcript of that as it appears there....

"Report from Ronnie Patterson

The Beast of Lammermuir

Sheep stalking at Garvald, June 1982

On a Sunday morning early in June 1982, Mr Thomas Catleugh from Garvald, East Lothian, saw what seemed to be a puma stalking sheep in a field at Garvald Mains Farm.

He recalls. "The animal was about twenty inches high with a long body and a tail measuring about three feet. It was dark grey in colour and I noticed a dark sheen along its back. As I watched, the animal neared the sheep, moving very stealthily crouching down on its forelegs. The sheep moved away and it lay down where it had been. Its large rounded ears lay back on its head and its jaw constantly opened and closed. I have never seen an animal with such a deep jaw, the way it studied the sheep I was sure I was going to see a kill. I was less than forty feet away and I had a very good view, but as I am not all that quick on my feet, I thought by the time I warned anyone it would be away."

Mr Catleugh had hoped that a car would pass so that he could ask the driver to inform the police, but none did. After about an hour the animal walked away, Mr Catleugh told the farmer, Gavin Hamilton, who called the police and the SSPCA. The area was searched but without success.

A few days later, a monk at the nearby Nunraw Abbey reported that he had seen the animal run across open fields. Mr John Williamson of the SSPCA was certain that a puma was at large, he then said: "A sheep was killed last weekend and I have not seen a carcass like that before. Previous evidence linked to the latest story makes me believe that a puma is in the district."

June 1982"

So what did we see that night? A big cat that has been roaming around for ages? A local dog that had wandered off and was angry at being lost? A ghostly Black Shuck warning us about some form of impending doom? Some sort of collective mistaking of a particularly vexed sheep?

I guess we'll never know the answer. We never saw any sign of it ever again, although rumours still persisted about roaming big cats for a good few years afterwards. A few years passed and my Auntie and Uncle moved from Langton too, meaning we no longer get to experience the freaky splendor of that place anymore either, although my Auntie and cousin still live nearby...

Whatever it was, it certainly makes for an interesting story I'm sure you'll agree. And as I've said before it's one of many such weird happenings that have occurred to my family and I over the years, so if you come back in say...oh, about 11 months.....I'll have a few more tales to tell!

Cinema Of Stuff Presents...A Double Bill Of Dracula!

HOUSE OF DRACULA!

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THE RETURN OF DRACULA!

(Just had time to put together this quick Cinema Of Stuff post...pop back to the blog tomorrow for some more spook sightings and maybe some more Gruesome Games...We can still post spooky stuff, 'cause we have two Days Of The Dead to celebrate too! )

Horror Stars Haunt My Youtube!

Here's another selection of Radio & TV shows starring some of my favourite Horror Stars! Managed to put this together quite quickly, but I'd best be off to college now! Just in case I don't manage to post anything else today, have a Happy Halloween! But hopefully I'll squeeze another couple of posts in when I get back!

Anyway, enjoy these horrific treats!

Peter Lorre in Mystery In The Air - Horla!

Boris Karloff's Thriller - Parasite Mansion!

Bela Lugosi in Suspense - The Doctor Prescribed Death!

Vincent Price & Peter Cushing in The Price Of Fear - The Man Who Hated Scenes!

Dracula Graphic Novel read by Christopher Lee!

Invitation To Horror!

Happy Hallowe'en!

It's here at last, and so after a last bout of posting today I can finally spend my time reading all the other blogs taking part in the Countdown in a bit more depth and wallow in the splendid spookiness of my favourite festival!

That's after I get back from my college course, of course! I'm wondering if I go dressed as a Creature From The Black Lagoon and build a bonfire in the middle of the college hall they'll have a problem with it? Hmm, might be worth a shot....

Anyway, I'm going to try and get a few posts done today regardless...we'll see how I feel after I get back.....but here's one to be starting with, and it's another trip to the Digital Comic Museum!

Today's tale has a twist that I definitely didn't see coming after a fairly generic story that starts with a group sheltering from a storm in a nearby mansion......

It appeared in Holyoke Publishing's Suspense Comics 004, dated June 1944, and features Pencils and Inks by Jack Alderman...

Weird huh!? Those guys names sound oddly familiar.....

Anyway, thanks go to rangerhouse who uploaded these scans to the museum for me to find in the archives!

Ok, stay tuned and hopefully there'll be some more posts later today! See you later, stuffers!

Historic Hallowe'en!

So I mentioned the other day in a comment that I had signed up to the British Newspaper Archive website, that lets you browse hundreds of old British newspapers, and includes a handy search function to help you find what you're looking for.

I've been having lots of fun looking for old spook sightings and weird events, some of which I'll post next year (or maybe even in the Creepmas Countdown!), but I thought it would also be fun to do a search for Halloween and see what it came up with!

Here then, is a selection of some of the stuff I've discovered so far...which contrary to what I've read some places online, proves we've been dressing up, making lanterns from turnips and pumpkins and doing all the traditional Hallowe'en stuff we still do nowadays, for a very long time indeed!

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First up is a poem, printed in the Coleraine Chronicle, November 8 1851, titled 'Gay Hallowe'en'.......

SONGS FOR THE SEASON

No.1

GAY HALLOWE'EN

I

Hallowe'en! How it gladdens the heart and the brain,

To see the old festival coming again!

Like hope to the heart that affliction has bow'd -

Like rainbow o'erarching the gloom of the cloud, -

Like a vision - it comes to console us while mirth

Has exorcised care from the bosom of earth;

And pleasure and joy, like twin-angels, are seen,

Descending to gladden and cheer Hallowe'en

II

The School boy's proud eye - Oh! no longer it looks

In anger and sulkiness over his books;

No, - the streamlet re-echoes, while dancing along,

The fervour and mirth of his laugh and his song.

As soon as day dawn o'er the vale he espies,

With his comrades at morn to the greenwood he flies;

And till even smiles down on the landscape serene,

The nuts are a-gathered for gay Hallowe'en.

III

The furrows that Time's rugged finger had traced

On the brow of old age, Hallowe'en has effaced!

And the joy and the smiles that so gladdened of yore - 

Are they gilding those wrinkles and furrows once more?

Yes, years are forgotten, and gray hairs, and pain,

And the heart of three score is young - playful again!

As in youth it had sported, and played on the green,

It sports now as merry on gay Hallowe'en

IV

We're told that old Rome, the sage mistress of earth, 

Had her deity - guardians to watch o'er the hearth;

Her Lares presiding o'er hearthstone and flue -

And why should not we have our deities too! - 

Let mirth be enshrined then, and friendship and love!

And with these three Divinities guarding the scene - 

Whose heart will not throb upon gay Hallowe'en!

V

Higher still, to shut out the night's gathering gloom,

Pile the fire on the hearth till it roar through the room!

Gather round - gather round, for with dainties the board

Fit for epicures feast is abundantly stored :-

The apples are baked, and the child and the sire

Are watching the nuts cracking loud in the fire :- 

And the proud little dames in amazement have seen

The face of their lovers on gay Hallowe'en!

VI

We care not - not we - altho' gried do it's worst,

In saddening the heart that affection has nurs'd :-

Let the world we despise fling its arrows of wrath - 

Life's tempest its shadow to darken our path :-

There are moments that still to the heart can recall

Emotions of pleasure to brighten them all!

Bright moments from care that we fail not to glean,

Such as light our fireside upon gay Hallowe'en!

                                   MOIRA

From "Mave (*or possibly Mare*) Roe's Round Room",

November, 1851

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There's a few festivities mentioned in that poem, getting apples ready for 'dooking' and roasting nuts on the fire to see future husbands, for instance...and here's another snippet from the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, dated Wednesday October 30th 1929, that elaborates on these a little!

HALLOWE'EN

Suggestions for To-morrow's Party.

A Hallowe'en party can be a delightful and simple affair, entailing no very elaborate preparations or expense. And the usual fun and frolic on the night when witches and marlocks (*surely they mean Warlocks?*) are believed to walk abroad is as much enjoyed by the grown-ups as by the children.

On that night everyone is a child again and enters with zest into the time honoured games. When Hallowe'en comes round I see a picture of a great old-fashioned farm kitchen with white scrolled flags and a strip carpet here and there. And on the hearth a clipping rug with "Home Sweet Home" in bright red across it.

We children regarded it as a work of art when we helped to make it in the long winter evenings before wireless and gramophones and other modern distractions (*hehe...like Wifi and I-phones!*) were even dreamed of.

When I say children of any age, I mean from seven to 70 and over. In those days the master of the ceremonies was a very old man - at least, he seemed that to us with his snow white hair and beard. We screamed with delight when he dived for apples and came up with the beard dripping wet every time. And we would have cried with disappointment if Mr. Philip could not have come to our Hallowe'en party. Like many more men devoted to children, he was a bachelor.

"Dooking for apples" as the game is called on the north side of the border is always riotous fun, and due preparations should be made for it. A waterproof sheet spread over the carpet is a good idea, and another is a couple of waterproof bibs for the performers - one large and one small. These fitted with strings to tie round neck and waist. The tub, placed in the centre of the sheet, should be half filled with water, and apples of a moderate size chosen. Rosy ones and with the stalks removed, of course.

APPLES

A competition may be arranged and players paired off to dive for apples together. This makes great fun, and the one who secures most apples in a specified time - five minutes or so - scores. At the end of the "dooking" a prize is given, or better still, two - one for ladies and the other for gentlemen.

The prize is a well earned one, for until one has tried to fix one's teeth in an apple, continually bobbing away in the water with exasperating persistence, it is impossible to know how strenuous a business it is.

Sometimes as a substitute for the tub of water the apples are fixed on strings and hung up. But this is not nearly as much fun as the "dooking" process.

Then there are blindfolding games. A variation of the old favourite, blind man's buff, is to provide three or four players with an apple each, and when the blind man grabs one, it's possessor is in turn blindfolded.

THE FUTURE

Three soup plates are placed on a table in the following order : - The first an empty plate, the second containing clean water, and the third muddy - a burnt match will do the trick quite well. Then the blindfolded one is led up to the table to try his or her fortune by dipping fingers in one or other of the plates. The empty one means an unwedded life, the clean water marriage with a young man or maiden, and the third foretells that the bride or groom will be a widow or widower.

Roasting nuts is another fortune-telling game. The players pair off, a boy and a girl, placing a nut for each in front of the fire. The nuts are watched with breathless interest; for if they jump apart, the affair will come to an end. But if the nuts settle down to roast together it means an engagement with a happy ending. Great nonsense of course, but also great fun.

 Illustration to Robert Burns' poem Halloween by J.M. Wright and Edward Scriven

No party nowadays is complete without a dance at Hallowe'en or any other time. and in the intervals, if there is a garden where the homely cabbage is grown, couples may choose a cabbage stalk, in the dark, of course.

In his poem on Hallowe'en Burns says - 

"To burn your nuts and pu' your runts

"And haud your Hallowe'en."

Runts, rendered in plain English, is a cabbage root, and according to the superstition, on the shape of the one chosen depends the grace and the beauty, or the lack of either, of the husband or wife to be !

The girl with many admirers will be able to make a choice if she eats an apple at midnight before her looking-glass. Then the face of the man she will eventually marry will look over her shoulder.

An old lady I know declares it did happen in her case. And as a result of prying into the future she went off in a dead faint.For she did see the face of the man she married a year later and whom she did not meet until later. And she has lived to tell her Hallowe'en adventure to her great grandchildren.

        A.W.S.

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These few pictures from The Dew Drop : A Monthly Magazine For The Young (1873) tell us about turnip lanterns, which is what I always used to have as a nipper before everybody started buying Pumpkins! I didn't get these from the archive, my brother found them and stuck them on Facebook so I nabbed them from there! :)

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Even Queen Victoria used to get in on the act of celebrating Hallowe'en, as this article on "The Queen's Hallowe'en" from The Morning Post, November 6th 1871 tells us!

CELEBRATION OF HALLOWE'EN AT BALMORAL CASTLE. -

The old Scottish festival of "Hallowe'en" was celebrated at Balmoral Castle with unusual éclat. The demonstration has come to be known in Balmoral and throughout the district as "The Queen's Hallowe'en;" and in accordance with the royal desire, and following the custom of past years, most of the people, both on the Balmoral and Abergeldie estates, turned out on Tuesday night, and formed a torchlight procession, which had a picturesque and imposing appearance.

Those who came from the east side of Balmoral met at the entrance to the grounds to the east of the Castle, where the torches were lighted. The Balmoral contingent, including the servants, ghillies, and the tenants on the west side, met at Mr. Grant's, and lighted their torches there.

This party, headed by Mr. Ross, her Majesty's piper, then began their march towards the Castle, while the party from the east side marched past the front of the Castle, and on by the carriage drive through the lawn to meet those from the west.

When the two parties came in sight of each other and joined their forces the sight was very fine. There were altogether 180 to 200 torch bearers; and her Majesty, with several other members of the royal family, viewed the scene with evident pleasure and satisfaction.

Her Majesty - whose health is now so much improved that she was able to drive out and witness the junction of the two miniature armies to the west of the Castle - came back to the Castle at walking pace, and remained for fully an hour an interested spectator of the proceedings. After the torchbearers had promenaded for some time, the torches were heaped in a pile on the roadway a little to the west, and in full view from the windows of the Castle. Empty boxes and other material were soon added, and in a short time a splendid bonfire blazed famously, a gentle breeze helping to fan the flames. Her Majesty, the Prince and Princess Louis, the Princess Beatrice and the ladies and gentlemen of the suite then retired indoors, and took up positions at the windows to see the rest of the merrymaking.

Dancing was begun with great vigour round the bonfire to the strains of Mr. Ross's bagpipes, and refreshments were served to all and sundry by Mr Collins, sergeant-footman. The demonstration culminated in a vehicle containing a well got-up effigy of the Hallowe'en witch being drawn to the fire by a band of sturdy Highlanders. The "witch" had a number of boys for a guard of honour, headed by the piper, and in the rear came Mr. Cowley, her Majesty's jäger, whose workmanship the effigy was. The boys, who each carried a blazing torch, set up a ringing cheer, and at a given signal Mr. Cowley and a ghillie pitched the effigy into the flames amid tremendous cheering, the royal party from the windows having a good view of the "wrinkled hag o' wicked fame."

The fire was kept up for a long time with fresh fuel, and when all had danced till "they could almost dance no longer," the health of her Majesty was proposed by Mr. Cowley, and responded to with the utmost enthusiasm, accompanied by three times three rounds of vociferous cheering. Later on in the evening the servants and the others about the Castle enjoyed a dance in the ghillie hall. The ball broke up at an early hour on Wednesday morning. 

Dundee Advertiser

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Anyway, this post is already way longer than I intended, so I'll leave you with another poem, this one from way back in 1780....it's in Scots dialect, so guid luck wi' understanding it!  Again, I stole this from my brother's Facebook post, so no idea where he dug it up from...but enjoy!

Hallowe'en

OF a' the festivals we hear,

Frae Handsel-Monday till New Year,

There's few in Scotland held mair dear

For mirth, I ween,

Or yet can boast o' better cheer,

Than Hallowe'en.

Langsyne indeed, as now in climes

Where priests for siller pardon crimes,

The kintry 'round in Popish rhymes

Did pray and graen;

But customs vary wi' the times

At Hallowe'en.

Ranged round a bleezing ingleside,

Where nowther cauld nor hunger bide,

The farmer's house, wi' secret pride,

Will a' convene;

For that day's wark is thrawn aside

At Hallowe'en.

Placed at their head the gudewife sits,

And deals round apples, pears, and nits;

Syne tells her guests, how, at sic bits

Where she has been,

Bogle's ha'e gart folk tyne their wits

At Hallowe'en.

Grieved, she recounts how, by mischance,

Puir pussy's forced a' night to prance

Wi' fairies, wha in thousands dance

Upon the green,

Or sail wi' witches over to France

At Hallowe'en.

Syne, issued frae the gardy-chair,

For that's the seat of empire there,

To co'er the table wi' what's rare,

Commands are gi'en;

That a' fu' daintily may fare

At Hallowe'en.

And when they've toomed ilk heapit plate,

And a' things are laid out o' gate,

To ken their matrimonial mate,

The youngsters keen

Search a' the dark decrees o' fate

At Hallowe'en.

A' things prepared in order due,

Gosh guide's! what fearfu' pranks ensue!

Some i' the kiln-pat thraw a clew,

At whilk, bedene,

Their sweethearts by the far end pu'

At Hallowe'en.

Ithers, wi' some uncanny gift,

In an auld barn a riddle lift,

Where, thrice pretending corn to sift,

Wi' charms between,

Their joe appears, as white as drift,

At Hallowe'en.

But 'twere a langsome tale to tell

The gates o' ilka charm and spell.

Ance, gaen to saw hampseed himsel,

Puir Jock Maclean,

Plump in a filthy peat-pot fell

At Hallowe'en.

Half filled wi' fear, and droukit weel,

He frae the mire dught hardly speel;

But frae that time the silly chiel

Did never grien

To cast his cantrips wi' the Deil

At Hallowe'en.

O Scotland! famed for scenes like this,

That thy sons walk where wisdom is,

Till death in everlasting bliss

Shall steek their e'en,

Will ever be the constant wish of

Jockie Mein.

(Hallowe'en by John Mayne, 1780)