"I saw how the slimy blackness grew, and the stones fell away round the hole, and there rolled in what seemed a wave, gulfing the men that lay dead or living, struck by fear, till it heaved and lipped over the step like a living tide of slime." - Adrian Ross, 'The Hole Of The Pit' #BookChatWeekly

'Doomed City' by Nicholas Roerich, 1914. #art #artsky #weirdart #fantasyart #weird #landscape #snake

I usually am on a Sunday evening. Dave McKean, of course. #DaveMcKean #AlanMoore #Batman #comics #graphicnovels

Perhaps one for @chriswoodyard.bsky.social?

Death's Laboratory Engraving by E.W. Kemble in 'Collier's' Magazine, 3rd June 1905

I recently bought a number of postcards in a 2nd-hand shop (of megaliths mainly). This one caught my eye - 'Fete De Bacchus', a bas relief in a French cave showing much frolicking round a herm. A little more can be learned of it through the magic of Google. #Classical #Bacchus #Sculpture #Reims

When first seen, the Maen Crwn (on the hills above Penmaenmawr, #Conwy) appears squat but pointed. Only when you're close to does its unusual shape become apparent: more like a capstone placed on its side than a typical pillar. 'Crwn' means round but its not really round either. #StandingStoneSunday

"Something swept with a terrific, rushing noise about the little camp and seemed to surround it entirely in a single moment of time. Defago turned to the woods behind, and with the same stumbling motion that had brought him - was gone." - Algernon Blackwood, 'The Wendigo' #Blackwood #fantasy

"M Zola ... is determined to show that, if he has not genius, he can at least be dull. And how well he succeeds!" - Oscar Wilde, 'The Decay Of Lying'. (Ouch!) #BookWormSat #Naturalism #OscarWilde #Zola

"Before it is possible to gather the harvest of thought and observation the summer has passed, and we must bind the hastily stitched book with the crimson leaves of autumn." - Richard Jefferies, 'Among The Nuts'. Painting by Samuel Palmer #BookWormSat #RichardJefferies #SamuelPalmer #landscape

"And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky and in the mind of man;" - William Wordsworth #BookWormSat

My final post for another excellent #PhantomsFriday (thank you everyone!) and re @folkhorrorrevival.bsky.social: a spectral knight in armour gate-crashes someone's dinner party in an illustration for a story by N K Blisset (Harmondsworth's Magazine, 1898.). #ghost #ghosts #medieval #Victorian

"With her head tucked underneath her arm she walks the bloody Tower" A song first recorded by Stanley Holloway in 1934 and much covered since, about the all-time classic ghost of Anne Boleyn, but do people still see headless ghosts these days? #PhantomsFriday youtu.be/986Ar8iff00

In addition to this entrancing one for #PhantomsFriday, I imagine there will be many Wordsworth quotes for #BookWormSat tomorrow as well.

RT@Skionar #PhantomsFriday

For today's #PhantomsFriday - "Coronation", a personal piece. #fantasy #digitalpainting #darkart #illustration

"Pray for me, O my friends, a visitant Is knocking his dire summons at my door, The like of which, to scare me and to daunt, Has never, never come to me before..." - John Henry Newman (Picture: John Farleigh) #PhantomsFriday #poetry #poetrysky #ghost #gothic

A favourite of mine is a story from an ordinary 1930s semi near #Wolverhampton. Following glimpses of a ghostly woman, a blue eye was spotted peering up from a knot in the floorboards. Moving from side to side, it watched Mrs Nicholls and her son for about 10 minutes, then vanished. #PhantomsFriday

"The ghost of a sad old lady?" Bexhill Observer 5.2.1987. #PhantomsFriday

For #PhantomsFriday and #ForteanFriday Avast, me hearties! It’s #TalkLikeaPirateDay, so here’s a cracking pirate yarn full of wicked deeds, black-sailed ships, and purple prose: "The Pirate-Wrecker and the Death Ship." hauntedohiobooks.com/news/14259/

Police Gazette, July 14, 1894. Despite seeing a spirit grow from child to adult at a Buffalo NY seance, Mrs. J.P. Lyle became sceptical of the proceedings and attempted to seize the supposed spirit. Chaos ensued among the 40 paying attendees, as the fraud was exposed. #phantomsfriday

In 1777 "a gentleman of a particular turn of mind and deeply skilled in the abstruse and sacred science of exorcism" placed an ad in 'The Sketch' to offer his services to those owning property "falling to decay" because they were haunted. "Rooms rendered habitable in six days." #PhantomsFriday

Rumours that Arkwright haunts his 1788 Greyhound hotel are unfounded! landlords in situ between 1978 and 1986 never witnessed any thing but declared there is a secret passage where the clock winding mechanism is located which always had a chilling feeling whenever they wound it up! #phantomsFriday

The Roti Pani restaurant in Willenhall, W. Midlands, is said to be haunted by a ghostly knocking at 9pm every evening, on the door on an upstairs landing. #PhantomsFriday #FolkyFriday #ghosts #hauntings

The Bull's Head pub in Meriden (Coventry) is said to be #haunted by "Fred", a waiter who committed suicide. Also a man is seen in an upstairs bar wearing a tight coat & his hair in a pigtail accompanied by an intense cold sensation.The #ghostly sound of coach wheels is also heard. #PhantomsFriday

I've been working my way through these for the last few days; I read them in the past but by now have forgotten everything. So intriguing and #spooky! #PhantomsFriday #paranormal #ghosts #hauntings #ForteanTimes #unexplained

From The Springfield News Sun, August 22, 199: #PhantomsFriday #FolkyFriday #ghosts

If you're interested in the uncanny and the odd, I'd recommend joining the Forteana forums; forums.forteana.org/index.php Due to AI bots its behind a Cloudflare wall but its worth joining up. #phantomsfriday #fortean #forteana #forteanfriday #forteansky

#PhantomsFriday One Night of the Year (1980) by Tanith Lee, who was born on this day in 1947. Cyrion is a sword-and-sorcery character, private detective, and master of disguise. In this story, a family of ghosts lures him into a sepulchre. To survive, he must solve a 1200-year-old mystery.

In 1892, newspapers began circulating a story about a dying spiritualist who planned to have himself enclosed in a large glass cylinder, connected to telegraph equipment, so his entrapped ghost could communicate definitive proof of life after death. #PhantomsFriday braegrosz.com/2025/09/12/g...

The soul of bad Sir John Wynne, who oppressed his tenants in the 16th C, was trapped in the pool beneath the Swallow Falls (Rhaeadr y Wennol) in Betws-y-Coed, #Conwy, 'there to be punished, purged, and purified of the foul deeds' he'd done. If you can't get at an aristo in life... #PhantomsFriday

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), was a hit show for Lew Grade’s ITC in 1969-1970. As a team of private investigators, Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt) and Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope) had a unique advantage: Hopkirk was dead, and only Randall could see and talk to his ghost colleague. #PhantomsFriday

Medium Eusapia Palladino (the woman in the background) levitates a musical instrument during a séance at the home of Baron von Schrenck Notzing, circa 1909. #PhantomsFriday

The Cellar Bar at the Arts Centre in Stamford is a peculiarity. Its either one of the most haunted locations ever - or it's just a mundane beer and events venue. Who do we believe? #phantomsfriday #ghosts #hauntings

El Escorial Monastery (Madrid, Spain) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to the legends, the spot on which the monastery stands is the location of one of the gates of Hell. The place is steeped in supernatural legends, including ghost stories. (1/4) #PhantomsFriday

The 15th C Hall-i-the-Wood, #Lancashire, was taken off the Royalist family who'd owned it for generations and given to a Parliamentarian instead. One ancestor is still so angry over this that he has a habit of riding his horse noisily up and down the staircase (invisibly). #PhantomsFriday #folklore

A cute ghost for #PhantomsFriday

Mrs Tulliver and her pet cat Seamus are among the ghosts that haunt the Snickleway Inn in York. Mrs Tulliver is sometimes seen sitting quietly at the bar and Seamus the cat is felt rubbing his way among the legs of unsuspecting customers. #BookologyThursday #PhantomsFriday 📸 Kenneth Barker

Why are there so many #ghost Cavaliers in #folklore, I ask myself? The Civil War was one of the most violent and psychologically damaging periods in British history but where are the Parliamentarian #ghosts? Are Cavaliers just more romantic or is it some sort of #folktale snobbery? #PhantomsFriday

Two phantom black dogs were reported to wander Pill Lane in Little Compton. They are believed to be the ghost of a Mrs Pardington. No information in my sources about who Mrs P. was but nearby there is a field called Pardington’s Close. #PhantomsFriday #SpectralHounds

At the top of Dollar Glen in the Ochils is Maiden Castle, a fairy hill. A piper was taken inside the hill to play to the gathered assembly. They welcome him, he plays all night, then finds himself alone by the dark silent hill. He returns home a stranger- 100 years have passed. #PhantomsFriday

"There are so many #ghost stories out there to discover!" Please feel free to add them to the #PhantomsFriday feed tomorrow. Use the hashtag to post anything ghost-related, be it #folklore or recent accounts; art; poems; fiction or non-fiction. #ghosts #legend #legends #supernatural #paranormal

Not book-related but a painting I'm just fond of. 'The Cherry Pie' by Pierre Bonnard, 1908. The soulful, hopeful eyes of the dog peering at the treat a few inches from his nose are delightful. #BookologyThursday #Bonnard #FrenchArt #artsky

"Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet." - Colette (Painted by Jacques Humbert) #BookologyThursday #BookChatWeekly

Sometimes pets are just pets... but sometimes they might be something else. #BookologyThursday

#WyrdWednesday Skrzyńsko Parish Church, Poland, was said to be home to a giant spider that lived in the attic above the dining room. It's venom dripped down onto the priests food & poisoned several of them, so the townsfolk investigated the attic & discovered & killed it. 🖼️ Fritz Schwimbeck (1920)

#WyrdWednesday 'The Entomologist's Dream' by Edmund Dulac (1909) depicts a man looking on as a kaleidoscope of resurrected butterflies escape the pins holding them in their specimen boxes and fill the air once again 🦋

Final post for #WyrdWednesday: something barmy from Boris Dolgov. (No idea where it comes from, I'm afraid, it's just one of the very many weird pics I've harvested from numerous forgotten sources over the years. Perhaps someone can tell me?). #weird #weirdart #illustration #fantasyart #insects

A giant venomous centipede-thing called 'The Black Viri' kills a bad man in a cave on a South Seas island. The heroine, Vaiti, creation of Beatrice Grimshaw, looks on unbothered - it was she who lured the bloke to the monster's lair! (Also from Pearson's, 1907.) #WyrdWednesday #monsters #horror

Also from Pearson's in 1904: 'The Great White Moth' by Fred M White. The insatiable fashion for white plumes in hats - driving the egret almost to extinction - inspires fortune hunters to go somewhere jungly to seek out a fabled critter with lovely white plumes. Things do not go well. #WyrdWednesday