450 words, 2 minutes read time.
31) “Nut Bush Farm” by Charlotte Riddell
Plot:
Our hero, Jack, was injured in some undisclosed way at his job. His father-in-law advised him to take a farm to convalesce. Jack thinks that’s just the thing to do.
After some disappointments, he comes across Nut Bush Farm and rents it out from the eccentric Miss Gostock. She wants a deposit. The former tenant, Mr. Hascot, was a good farmer, but he left her in the lurch. He deserted his wife and family, withdrew his money from the bank, and ran off with a serving girl.
Jack hears the farm is haunted, though. Not that he believes in ghosts, but this means he has to hold off bringing his wife and his son until he can deal with the rumors. “Nervous” Lucy and “delicate” Teddy don’t need any of that nonsense.
In the meantime, he gets down to farming, that is, telling the farmhands what to do. His sister Lolly comes up to help decorate.
One day, she comes back from an outing along the Beech Walk, an area the help avoid. She’s upset. She’s seen a man who didn’t so much walk as glide. People seem to walk right through him. At one point, he stopped and beckoned to her.
Thoughts:
While there are few surprises here, I liked this gothic-y ghost story. The bad guys get their comeuppance in a suitably if unexpected way (albeit with innocent bystanders). The scene where the ghost appears is scary, though the ghost itself is not threatening.
One of the delights is the characterization of Miss Gostock, the landlady. She uses unladylike language, drinks brandy in the morning instead of tea like civilized people, and doesn’t mind a bit of manual labor. Even Jack’s sister Lolly, when she “buttonholes” Jack, is more than a sidekick.
The piece is a little long. It is also a 19th-century work written with a sense of class and race that fits that time and place.
Having said that, it is a fun old-fashioned ghost story. I liked it.
This story can be read here:
This story can be listened to here: (1:43:55)
Bio: Charlotte Riddell (1832-1906), AKA Mrs. J. H. Riddell, was an Irish-born British author, now best known for her supernatural writings and haunted house tales. She wrote at least fifty-six books, novels and short stories under various pseudonyms. Most of her books deal with business and finance. Her most successful book was George Geith of Fen Court (1864), a City novel, that is, a novel where the city itself becomes a character.
Title: “Nut Bush Farm”
Author: Charlotte Riddell (1832-1906)
First published: Weird Stories, 1882
Length: novelette
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