Episode 75 – The Traveller by R.H. Benson

A Podcast to the Curious - The M.R. James Podcast

This episode explores some ecclesiastical terrors in R.H. Benson’s ‘The Traveller’. It was ‘too ecclesiastical’ for M.R. James, but will Mike and Will find something to enjoy in this tale of perturbed priests, creepy confessionals and historical haunting?

Thanks to our reader for this episode Debbie Wedge!

Show notes:

• Robert Hugh Benson (catholiceducation.org)
  Benson was ordained a priest by his Archbishop father in 1895 before sending shockwaves through the church by converting to Catholicism in 1904, the year after this story was published.
• The Light Invisible by R.H. Benson (Gutenberg)
  The volume that this story appears in can be read in full online at Project Gutenberg.
• Frederick Rolfe (wikipedia)
  Benson’s close friendship and literary collaboration with the eccentric Frederick Rolfe (the self-styled ‘Baron Corvo’) threatened to derail Benson’s religious career.
• Thomas Becket (wikipedia)
  Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. During his life he quarreled with King Henry II over the rights of the church, and was made a saint after his death.