My dead diary – Sunday 7th February
By rjnewlyn
- 4084 reads
A dull, grey day after the rain. Sheltered most of the night in the Brompton catacombs, passing the time with a crypt-wraith who had stories to tell about the Victorian dissenters there. Apparently they still congregate from time to time, but disapprove of the new arrivals in the cemetery and are telling anyone who cares to listen that the neighbourhood is not what it was. The wraith moves on to some old gossip about our mutual friend Mrs X being seen in company with a Wardour Street spectre, but then two zombies from the south plots arrive with a jar of home-brew and I don’t remember much more.
I drift down to the river at Hammersmith this afternoon because someone says you’ve been spotted there. I guess it’s worth a try, although over a century has passed since our last meeting. I don’t know what I could say to explain what happened; perhaps the whole thing’s hopeless but I won’t let it go. Anyway, the pubs are full of Knightsbridge vampires and there’s no sign of you so I beat a hasty retreat. It’s pouring again now and I can feel the floodwaters rising – time to head for higher ground.
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Time indeed, has no hold.
Time indeed, has no hold.
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Great sepia tinged snapshot
Great sepia tinged snapshot of the insomniac dead and smouldering centuries old love story. nineteenth century feel-- the use of slightly archaic 'spectre.'
I cycle through Brompton cemetery on my way to work and yes there are even a few homebrew wraiths at it in the wintry mornings--amazing how the graves are fenced off, the dead like the living hate each other and demand privacy-- as for the family mausalea and the serpents entwined around the inverted torches on the gates to the catacombs--- enough to make you undead yourself on the spot.
Maybe a tour of the other cemeteries? magravine road in hammersmith? Mortlake the emporia of crematoria--- and that one in Barnes where Richard Burton (of 10001 arabian bottoms) is buried with a ladder leading up to his crypt and a little light that comes on... delicious
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I can almost smell rain on
I can almost smell rain on stone and ancient spirits in the air. Highly evocative,
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so nice to see another piece
so nice to see another piece from you - I love these little journeys into your other world
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