The Shadow on the Blind & Other Stories

by Louisa Baldwin, Lettice Galbraith, David Stuart Davies (Series Editor)

The late Victorians had an insatiable appetite for the macabre and sensational: stories of murder and suspense, ghosts, the supernatural and the inexplicable were the stuff of life to them. The two writers in this volume well represent the last decade of the nineteenth century, and are of interest in themselves as well as for their contribution to the chilling of the Victorian spine. Mrs. Alfred Baldwin attempted as a child to contact her dead sister through a séance, and took to writing when stricken by a mysterious illness six weeks after marriage. She was also the mother of the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. Lettice Galbraith is herself no less mysterious than the stories she wrote. She appeared on the literary scene in 1893, published a novel and two collections of stories in that year, a further story ( The Blue Room ) in 1897, and then nothing more. Readers of 'The Empty Picture Frame', 'The Case of Sir Nigel Otterburne', 'The Trainer's Ghost' and 'The Seance Room' will recognise the Victorian spirit at its finest.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Weird Fiction, Classics, Fiction, Supernatural, Mystery

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1895

About the author

Sometimes credited as "Mrs Alfred Baldwin."

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book--which presents the individual works of two distinct late Victorian authors of supernatural fiction--is a package deal, and, like most package deals, it is hard to evaluate.

Louisa Baldwin--better known as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's mother and Rudyard Kipling's aunt--is not a very good writer. Her ghost story plots are hackneyed, their developments unoriginal, and she narrates them in a style stuffed with unnecessary adjectives that tell the reader what to feel and when to be scared. Her tone is that of a kindly grandmother who wishes to entertain the young children in her care with ghost stories, but must continually assure them that all this stuff is "nothing but make-believe." I have the feeling I would have liked the lady if I had met her, but I have no wish to read anything else she has written--ever. "The Real and the Counterfeit"--a story about a group of public school boys vacationing in a haunted abbey turned manor house--is the best of a bad lot.

Lettice Galbraith--probably a pseudonym, since nothing else whatsoever is known about her--is something else entirely. Her stories are well written, filled with more than a few terrors and an even greater amount of action and suspense. She seems to understand the professions and milieu she writes about (the clergy, the law, painters and their models, horse racing)and wastes few words in telling her taut tales. "The Case of Lady Lukestan," "The Trainer's Ghost" and "A Ghosts Revenge" are all excellent ghost stories, and I wouldn't minding reading them again.

(1 star for Louisa plus 3 stars for Lettice divided by 2 equals 2 stars.)

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mrs Alfred (Louisa) Baldwin (1845–1925) was one of the remarkable daughters of Reverend George Browne MacDonald, a Wesleyan Methodist Minister. Her eldest sister, Alice, was the mother of Rudyard Kipling. Another sister, Georgiana, married the artist Edward Burne-Jones, whilst her elder sister, Agnes, married another artist, Edward John Poynter, who painted the portrait of Louisa shown here. Louisa married the industrialist Alfred Baldwin, and their only son, Stanley Baldwin, went on to become the British Prime Minister. Her lifelong interest in the supernatural began when she was just a child, when she attempted to contact her sister during a séance. She began writing novels for adults and books for children during the early years of her marriage, but none of them did terribly well. Her first supernatural tale, ‘The Weird of the Walfords’, appeared in Longman’s Magazine in November 1889, and ‘The Shadow on the Blind’ was published in The Cornhill Magazine in September 1894. Mrs Baldwin published only one collection of supernatural tales, and these days she is all but forgotten.

The Shadow on the Blind and Other Ghost Stories was first published by J. M. Dent & Co. in 1895. It contains: 'The Shadow on the Blind', 'The Weird of the Walfords', 'The Un-canny Bairn', 'Many Waters Cannot Quench Love', 'How He Left the Hotel', 'The Real and the Counterfeit', 'My Next-Door Neighbour', 'The Empty Picture Frame', and 'Sir Nigel Otterburn's Case'.

In 'The Shadow on the Blind', Mr Stackpoole, a cheerful and energetic man of sixty years of age who likes to do up old houses, takes a fancy to Harbledon Hall, which has stood empty for seven years. When the old sexton tries to warn him that the previous tenants left in a hurry, 'as if they was running away from the plague', and that ghosts were at the bottom of things, Stackpoole is not put off, despite his wife experiencing a feeling of depressed foreboding. Despite hearing more tales of ghosts once he has taken on the house, he is sure that no spectres will haunt its passages, as he has installed electric lights and banished all dark corners where spooks may once have been thought to lurk. But has he?

The narrator of 'The Weird of the Walfords', Humphrey Walford of Walford Grange, destroys a much hated oak bed that has served his family as deathbed for ten generations. He is hell bent on its complete destruction, but allows his carpenter, Gillam, to salvage two or three beautifully carved panels, as long as he himself never has to set eyes on them again. Then he locks up the hated death chamber, and it remains so until a few years later, when his new wife, unaware of the room's history, insists on using it as her sitting room.

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[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anthology comprising two volumes of ghost stories written by women at the turn of the century.

Ultimately a rather mediocre and bland collection, with Galbraith's offerings slightly more engaging, but still not particularly worthwhile.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Victorians seemed to have an insatiable appetite for anything
macabre and out of the ordinary, ghost stories and tales of
supernatural occurrences rose to the height in popularity, séances
and communing with the dead proved popular after dinner entertainments.
Wordsworth mystery series is succeeding in bringing to light many
forgotten writers whose stories still have the power to grip. Louisa
Baldwin always had an interest in the supernatural and once attempted,
as a child, to contact her dead brother through a séance.
So many of the stories have elderly people "of severe and cheerless
aspect" opening rusted doors, gloomy houses given eerie glows as
the hero arrives late at night in the middle of a thunderstorm.
Baldwin's tales are well written but with none of them giving me the
scare that I found in E. Nesbit's book of tales of terror. Among
her better stories were "The Uncanny Bairn" about a Scottish farmer's
child gifted with second sight. Both "The Shadow on the Blind" and
"The Real and the Counterfeit" have the notion of ghosts being
sneered at by disbelievers who feel that in these days of electric
lighting ghosts are now a thing of the past - poor blind fools!!!
The latter story is quite good about a practical joke gone horribly
wrong.
Lettice Galbraith is even more obscure - appearing on the literary
scene in 1893 she wrote a couple of collections in that year, the
story "The Blue Room" (also in this book) in 1897, then vanished.
Her stories are a lot more meatier than Baldwin's although "The
Missing Model" is a let down - a young woman appears at an artist's
studio in time to be his inspiration for a painting he hopes will
restore his reputation but one gentleman in the crowd looks like
he has seen a ghost!! On the other hand "The Ghost in the Chair"
is a Faustian tale about a man who sells his soul to the Devil in
return for his safety in an incoming business deal. And "In the
Séance Room" a really gritty story that has everything. An
unscrupulous mesmerist kills a former mistress so he can marry into
society. The only thing he believes in is the foolish gullibility
of society women but things take an uncanny turn and his wife uses
the powers he has taught her to get to the bottom of his ghastly
secret.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories by two writers: Louisa Baldwin (mother of Stanley) and the unknown Lettice Galbraith. I am tempted to describe the stories as "boilerplate" with obvious plotlines and little by way of twists. The Galbraith stories are stronger than the Baldwin ones. This is a worthwhile read for devotees of classic English supernatural literature, but I would not place it in the same league as Le Fanu, James etc.

[Jeff Adamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Victorian ghost stories are simply the best and this collection is excellent

A really good collection of some classic Victorian ghost stories. Several were new to me which is a real bonus.

[Jeff Hobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read so far:

The shadow on the blind --3
The weird of the Walfords--3
The uncanny bairn--3
Many waters cannot quench love --3
How he left the hotel --2
The real and the counterfeit --3
My next-door neighbour --3
The empty picture frame --2
Sir Nigel Otterburne's case--3

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains some of the best ghost stories I read in a long time!!!

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful reprint but on the whole the stories don't stray far from the Victorian traditions of the genre.

[Nada Mohamed · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate classics and I hate old english as well

[Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

kept me intertained and for the first time I cried when I finished a book