The Ghost Monk

Colour version of John Tenniel's illustration of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Alice In Wonderland.

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, but you can't help that," said the Cat. "We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."
#LewisCarroll #BookChatWeekly #booksky #fantasy

A skull, it jaw open, sits on a plinth in front of a book of sheet music.

A skull enjoying a good sing-song in Salvatore Rosa's 'Vanitas'.

#artsky #gothic #skulls #weirdart

And this was 30 years after the previous illustration. Slow indeed, as you say.

A woman i a big red bonnet shows with distaste a microscope slide revealing various hideous creatures floating within it. The water is described as 'Monster Soup'.

I used part of this picture to illustrate a story on Friday. It's actually a #satire from 1828 aimed at 'The Thames Water Companies' regarding the murky and diseased water 'being doled out to us'. Shocking to think much the same complaints are being made 200 years later.
#historysky #ThamesWater

Thanks for the info!

Artwork of Stonehenge in the Bronze Age with long shadows and silhouettes of many people standing in groups outside it. It is stated to have been published by Ministry Of Public Building and Works.

I picked up this post card for 20p at a boot sale. It's undated but on the back it states: 'S.1. Stonehenge, Wiltshire. Stonehenge from the east, as it might have appeared in the final phase of its construction, about 1400 BC. From a drawing by Alan Sorrell. Crown Copyright.'
#StandingStoneSunday

'Double Shaman Drummer' by Nelson Tarikkiruq, carved from a whale vertebra in 1989.

#shamanism #Inuit #folkart #artsky #magic #folklore

Ah, but what about 'The Embalmer'?

Only in Bungay would you find Black Shuck playing a ukelele with comedian Adam Buxton

FANTASTIC.

Gosh, yes! The amount of stuff I see on BlueSky that is new to me but shouldn't be new to me is becoming embarrassing.

Boscawen-un stone circle, #Cornwall, in September 1990. I believe all this bracken has been removed now. The sign-posting was poor and any neglect meant it was more peaceful - it felt left in peace. We were the only people there for the entire time. It remains a favourite.
#StandingStoneSunday

I was looking for this when I did my post about the 'Warrior Knight Of The Blood Red Plume' at Rhuddlan Castle. Could not for the life of me remember what it was called - and I could have pinched it off you all the time.

Ooh, I like that picture.

'Monster, monster!'

Happy 1st of August!
Welsh folklore tells us to beware the humble cabbage this month:
"The old people used to say that if you desired to die you should eat cabbages in August."
The perfect excuse not to eat your greens... 🥬💀
#Wales #Folklore

I'm so ashamed.

If I spiked you, you'd know you'd been spoken to.

He probably called in at the jail bait shop on his way.

The interesting article below explores the possibility of homosexual themes in Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde. And it adds another male author of weird fiction to the might-have-been-gay list. But it omits to mention Markheim, another RLS tale of a mysterious double and a double life of crime. #booksky

I don't but I shall check it out. Thanks for the tip-off.

I'm glad I started it!

I didn't tag this one #BookWormSat either. Losing it today.

A striking pussy cat by Oriel Malet.

#cat #Caturday

A grinning Mr Hyde walks over a small girl writhing on the ground. The caption reads: 'The man trampled calmly over the child's body.'

Is 'The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' magical realism? Perhaps not, but like its near contemporary 'The Picture Of Dorian Gray', it does introduce a fantastical element to explore societal ills. The illustration here is by Gillet.

The Old Hall, Fairies by Moonlight; Spectres & Shades, Brownies and Banshees. circa 1875 Painting.

‘She herself is a haunted house. She does not possess herself; her ancestors sometimes come and peer out of the windows of her eyes and that is very frightening.’ ~
Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
#BookWormSat
🖼️ John Anster Fitzgerald

I've never heard that, but I agree with it. I'm trying to remember who said 'A man's library is a sort of harem.' Although I'd prefer a library to a harem, but that's just me.

That was supposed to be for #BookWormSat but I pressed the button just too quickly. I truly am a fool.

A medieval woodcut of a man in a big wooden chair. He is wearing round glasses and for some reason has a brush in his hand. He is surrounded by books. It was captioned 'The Book Fool. "I have the first place among fools... I possess heaps of volumes that I do not open".'

Hands up all those who has heaps of volumes they have not opened? Yep, me too. I'm proud to be the one of the 'first among fools'.

I forget to repost this lovely thing. Apologies, Maud.