Episode 91 – Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley

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

In the first episode of Season 4 ^tm, Mike and Will are delighted by Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley, a tale of crypts, clergymen and crikey, what is that in the dog’s mouth?

Big thanks to Jim Moon for allowing us to use extracts from his excellent reading of the story. You can listen to the whole thing over on the Hypnogoria podcast feed.

Show notes:

• Mary Cholmondeley (Victorian Fiction Research Guides)
  You can learn more about Mary’s life and work in this article, or for a briefer summary, try wikipedia.
• Temple Bar Magazine (Wikipedia)
  This story first appeared in the April 1890 edition of Temple Bar magazine, a literary periodical that ran for nearly fifty years.
• ‘The Dead’ by Mathilde Blind (Poetry Nook)
  The two lines quoted at the start of this story come from this poem by 19th century British author and poet Mathilde Blind.
• The Dark Triad (Wikipedia)
  During this episode Mike describes the character of Blake as possessing at least two of the personality traits that make up the Dark Triad, a psychological theory of personality first described by Delroy L. Paulhus and Kevin M. Williams in 2002.
• History of Charnel Chapels (Rothwell Charnel Chapel Project)
  In this story we discuss the crypt at Wet-Waste-on-the-Wold church as being more of a charnel house.
• Bartleby the Scrivener (Wikipedia)
  Blake’s repeated use of the phrase “I’d prefer not to…” put us in mind of Herman Melville’s famously work-shy clerk Bartleby!
• Asaph (wikipedia)
  In this story, the vicar is locked in an ongoing arguement with a neighbouring clergyman about the meaning of the word ‘Asaph’. Dry stuff, but if you are interested there is a summary of the different opinions on this matter on Wikipedia.
• Fists of fear: severed hands in films – ranked! (theguardian.com)
  Here’s a fun listicle of movies where, like in Let Loose, a severed hand returns to cause havoc. A special mention should go to the our personal favourite, the ‘hand’ scene from Evil Dead 2!
• Gelert the Faithful Hound (NationalTrust.org.uk)
  Here’s another famous example from legend of a faithful dog who was killed by his master after a tragic misunderstanding. #RIPBrian
• Women’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890-1940 (Handheld Press)
  We quoted a line from Melissa Edmundson’s introduction to this anthology, ‘[Let Loose] predates James’s stories if haunted churches and crypts, so that it could be legitimately said that James’s stories were in the style of Mary Cholmondeley’.