Scottish Tales Of Terror (1972)

[Gloomy Sundae]

'Angus Campbell' [R. Chetwynd-Hayes] (ed.) - Scottish Tales Of Terror (Fontana, 1972)

Introduction - 'Angus Campbell'

Angus Stewart - Brown God In The Beginning
Robert Louis Stevenson - The Body-snatcher
Simon Pilkington - The Inheritance
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Shona And The Water Horse
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Silver Mirror
W. S. Morrison - The Horns Of The Bull
Sir Walter Scott - Wandering Willie's Tale
Ronald Duncan - Consanguinity
John Connell - The House In The Glen
John Keir Cross - The Lovers
Dorothy K. Haynes - The Head
Eileen Bigland - The Lass With The delicate Air
John Nicholson - Sawney Beane And His Family
James Hogg - The Brownie Of The Black Haggs

[Gloomy Sundae]

Robert Louis Stevenson - The Body-snatcher: Fictitious account of the Burke and Hare murders. Edinburgh, 182-. Fettes, a medical student of some promise, is assigned the duty of paying the Resurrection Men who deliver corpses out back of the dissecting rooms for Dr. K— to distribute among his classes. It is soon obvious to Fettes that many of the “subjects” did not die of natural corpses - one such, ‘Jane Galbraith’ (Burke victim Mary Patterson) is his drinking partner of the previous day - but he’s imposed upon by star pupil Wolfe “Toddy” McFarlane to keep his suspicions to himself as no good can come of pointing the finger. McFarlane has good reason to silence him, for he too is a murderer. When a man named Gray insults him in a bar, he delivers his body to Fettes and bribes him to keep his mouth shut. The pair go into business together, digging up bodies from neighbouring churchyards until the night they receive their come-uppance following their exhumation of a farmer’s wife at Glencorse.

W. S. Morrison - The Horns Of The Bull: "But sons, if either of you leaves his island for the blood of the other, my curse will strike him ... and his brother will triumph over him" - so says the dying elder of the Isle of the Lamb. The two sons, Orm and Iain, have loathed each other all their lives so their father leaves Orm the Isle of the Lamb and Iain the neighbouring Isle of the Bull to prevent them killing each other the minute he's dead. Orm, the more war-like and devious of the pair, rules his people with black magic and terror while his brother lives as a hermit. You have probably already deduced who is responsible for triggering the final conflict and who prevails in a story that has more to do with folklore than terror.

John Nicholson - Sawney Beane And His Family: Sawney Beane and his clan snatch innocent travellers, drag them back to their cave then pickle and eat them. “In the conflict the poor woman fell from behind him, and was instantly butchered before her husband’s face, for the female cannibals cut her throat, and fell to sucking her blood with as great a gust, as if it had been wine”. This exciting and incredibly gory history is usually credited to Captain Charles Johnson, although it probably wasn’t new when he included it in his General History Of The Most Famous Highwaymen, etc. (1734). It’s even been suggested that ‘Johnson’ was Daniel Defoe.

R. Chetwynd-Hayes - Shona And The Water Horse: “I will come for you and we will dream together beneath the loch.”

A man claiming to be the Water Horse of legend comes down from the moors to warn Reverend Angus Buchanan that the Devil is abroad and is heading for the village to claim the souls of the congregation. He must convince his flock to paint white crosses on their doors and shun all strangers. The Reverend wisely discards this obvious madman’s advice and throws him out, but not before that worthy has made a promise to his daughter, Shona.

That night, a beggar-woman arrives at the Kirk seeking shelter …

John Keir Cross - The Lovers: Dunblane. James Gemmell adored his wife and when she died he couldn't bring himself to have her buried in the local kirkyard. Eight years later, Andrew, a young electrician is working at the house. Gemmell is at first reluctant to allow him into the kitchen where a beautiful woman sits stock-still in a chair. All the time he's there the woman neither talks or moves a hair and there's an odd clinical smell in the room. Afterwards Andrew believes he's seen a ghost - which is maybe just as well as the truth is far worse.

Dorothy K. Haynes - The Head: A thief is tethered to the kirkyard wall by his neck, pelted with filth and left to bake in the sun until nightfall. One thoughtful fellow decides he might like some company - and impales the decapitated head of an Englishman on a spike directly before his line of vision. The dead head may have once belonged to an enemy, but when a fly lands on the bloodless face and begins crawling into the glazed eye, the thief is moved to compassion. Grimly effective and among my favourite of Haynes' stories.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The Silver Mirror: "What dire deed could it be that has left its impress there ...?" : Told in diary form. An accountant working all hours on an important criminal case is disturbed by the drama being played out in his antique mirror. At first the only distinct figure is that of a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties, high forehead, chestnut hair, brown eyes ablaze with rage and horror. The next night the narrator can clearly discern another image, that of a man he doesn't like the look of clinging to her skirt. And so it goes on until he bears witness to one of the most infamous murders in the annals of Scottish history.

[Calenture]

Consanguinity by Ronald Duncan: From The Fourth Ghost Book, this is a beautifully erotic, sophisticated study of a woman's incestuous desire for her brother, which she deliberately chanels into a more socially acceptable relationship. Michele Slung also used the story and insists that a single reading is not enough to perceive wholly Duncan's design.