Talk:Witching Hill

Review by the Nation, 13 May 1913

 * The inventor of "Raffles" has written fiction of a more serious order, but has doubtless found his "lay," commercially, in the tale of mystery. He has by no means exhausted his ingenuity in that field. These stories of enchanted ground are novel and amusing. "Witching Hill" is not under a curse; it is haunted by no visible ghost; but every inch of it is under the malign influence of a wicked old lord who has made its acres infamous long before it came to be cut up 1 into villa sites and promoted to an elegant suburban quarter. The young land agent who lives on the premises and has the care of them, tells the tales. His duties bring him into official contact with all the villa-dwellers, and the fact that he is a gentleman makes for friendly relations with some of them. One, Ugo Delavoye, is the exponent and, in a sense, the patron of the mystery. He is a descendant of the wicked lord, knows every detail of his unsavory story, and reads the events of the hour in the light of the past. He has barely taken quarters in a Witching Hill villa when his suspicions are roused. Strange things happen: one by one the new incumbents of the land pay tribute to the old. The pious old baronet who has bought the manor house becomes a secret debauchee. One tenant commits suicide, another takes to drink, a third goes mad, and so on. Delavoye himself barely escapes with honor, and by "standing up to" the dead old scoundrel and beating him on his own ground finally lays the ghost, and makes of Witching Hill a more comfortable, if less romantic dwelling place for well-meaning persons. The tales are what the editors of the cheap magazines call "top-notchers," in their kind.