Witching Hill

by E.W. Hornung

This Elibron Classics edition is a reprint of a 1913 edition by Bernhard Tauchnitz, Leipzig.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Literature, Ebooks

170 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1913

About the author

Ernest William Hornung known as Willie, was an English author, most famous for writing the Raffles series of novels about a gentleman thief in late Victorian London.

In addition to his novels and short stories Hornung wrote some war verse, and a play based on the Raffles stories was produced successfully. He was much interested in cricket, and was "a man of large and generous nature, a delightful companion and conversationalist".

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

Oddity. The author of Raffles gives us a linked set of stories with brawny young man and ailing intellectual confronting an ancient evil in which the brawny young man doesn't believe (and never starts believing, jeez mate). Not really sure what Hornung was doing with this and it's less exciting than it should be, but good Boer War England atmos.

[Randal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm very glad I stumbled upon this book, if only for the character of Uvo Delavoye, who I found to be extremely likeable.

Witching Hill is essentially a collection of loosely connected mystery stories with a hint of the supernatural, each starring Delavoye and Gillon as a kind of Holmes and Watson pair. It is interesting to note that E.W. Hornung was the brother-in-law of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Each of the stories takes place in Witching Hill housing estate, built on the old grounds of a country estate formerly the sight of much decadence and depravity centuries before. The stories are all intertwined by the suggestion that the mysteries and murders are the result of sinister influences from the "old man of the soil," the long-deceased wicked Lord Mulcaster.

Mr. Gillon, a young man and clerk of the housing estate, meets Uvo Delavoye, one of Mulcaster's distant descendents. Delavoye is recently returned and recovering from a tropical disease, leaving him much idle time to wonder about the many odd goings-on at Witching Hill. He places the blame of the bizarre happenings firmly at the feet of his devilish ancestor, Lord Mulcaster. Delavoye spends the next few years trying to prove this fact to Gillon, an inveterate skeptic who, despite suicides, robberies, attempted murders, and arsons, refuses to believe in any supernatural cause.

This is one of those odd little gems that you can find in the public domain if you look hard enough. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes early 1900s mystery stories with a heavily English flavor.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the Project Gutenburg edition. This has to be one of the most unusual books I've ever read! There are several smaller stories told within the scope of the main story, and one of those was so sweet that I have already reread it. It wasn't enough for me to consider him a new favorite author, but I will definitely consider reading more of his works. Don't let the title fool you, though; it's not a ghost story, but the name of a place.

[George · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written in 1913, this is a story composed of several episodes involving possible supernatural explanations taking place in a newly developed residential community out of an estate whose ancestor was a very unsavory character. An present day relative believes the events are connected to this person while his friend doesn't.

[Ian B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the digitalized version of a Hodder and Stoughton edition from 1914, complete with illustrations. Running my eye down the list, I felt pretty sure I’d enjoy myself. We get ‘I saw a bedizened beauty go mad before my eyes’ and ‘Trying to tug the fierce moustache out of his mild face’ and ‘A heavy blackthorn held in murderous poise’ amongst others. I was right; I did.

Set at the turn of the twentieth century, the story is concerned with strange phenomena on what we would now call a ‘new build’ housing estate (‘crude red bricks and tiles… a place for crabbed age and drab respectability’). Our heroes are Gillon, the clerk to the estate, the brawny product of a minor public school, and his new friend Uvo Delavoye, more of a thinker and lately returned in ill health from Egypt. During their investigation of the odd events, ‘Gilly’ holds to a materialist or coincidental explanation and Uvo to the baleful influence of his wicked ancestor Lord Mulcaster, former owner of the land. Given that the two young men encounter drunkenness, adultery, madness, suicide and attempted murder, Witching Hill has a sort of Peyton Place meets Edgar Allen Poe flavour, along with a touch of Sherlock Holmes thrown in for good measure.

A shame that these were the only adventures of Gillon and Delavoye, but I suppose the formula was a fairly limited one and does occasionally falter. No matter: recommended if you’re drawn to this kind of thing; and once again I was struck by how well, in terms of characterization and scene-setting, an author of mere ‘popular fiction’ wrote at this period.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Read in the Project Gutenberg copy, which is free of typos.) Interesting concept, especially for something supernatural: events in a collection of houses newly built on an old estate seem to parallel events in earlier times. The episodic structure works well. Hornung hedges his bets by the end, though, which is a bit of a disappointment.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new (1913) housing estate is built on land once owned by a debauched and diabolic aristo. Modern renters succumb to influence, which is combated by rental agent and his friend, a descendant of the old devil.

Hornung's light touch is perfect.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I believe I've read all of E.W.Hornung's books now and this is the least engaging. There are a few surreal scenes I enjoyed, such as viewing a dinner party apparently happening in the past.

[Ethan]

DNF at 39%. Not bad but simply not engaging my interest