5.18: Choked by the fingers of a chain-rattling corpse! — Haunted by a child’s ghost? — The clergyman’s unpleasant pupil. (Segment 4 — The “Sixpenny Spookies.”)
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5.18: Choked by the fingers of a chain-rattling corpse! — Haunted by a child’s ghost? — The clergyman’s unpleasant pupil. (Segment 4 — The “Sixpenny Spookies.”)
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About this listen
SHOW NOTES
— for —
MINISODE 18 (Season 5)
(February 25, 2026)
"THE SIXPENNY SPOOKIES"!
- For COMPLETE SHOW NOTES, including art and links to resources, see pennydread.com/discord.
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IN TO-DAY'S "SIXPENNY SPOOKIES" EPISODE:
- 00:45: THE TERRIFIC REGISTER: Screams awakened the traveler, and running to investigate he found the fingers of a corpse, shackled with chains, locked around the throat of his companion!
- 05:15: EARLY VICTORIAN GHOSTLY SHORT STORY, to-wit: MISS JEROMETTE AND THE CLERGYMAN, by Wilkie Collins, Part 2 of 3 parts: After the narrator’s brother’s love affair with Miss Jeromette has been going on in secret for some time, his dying mother begs him to leave off the law and enter the church, and he promises he’ll do it. Obviously carrying on an extramarital with a secret French girl is one thing for a law student, but quite another for a divinity student. He goes to her house, sadly and regretfully, resigned to break it off….
- 28:30: A SHORT GHOST STORY from the scrapbook of Charles Lindley, Viscount Halifax: “Head of a Child.” Guests in the manor of Sutton Verney complained they’d wake up in the night with the feeling of a child nestled in bed with them. It got so nobody would stay in that room; finally, the owners demolished that wing … and thereby learned its secret.
- 30:45: A FEW SQUEAKY-CLEAN DAD JOKES from the early-1800s' most popular joke book: "Joe Miller's Jests; or, The Wit's Vade-mecum."
GLOSSARY OF EARLY-VICTORIAN SLANG USED IN THIS EPISODE:
- VADE MECUM: Latin for "hand book."
- JOE MILLER: A player at Drury-lane, in the early 1700s, who was famous for a Leslie Nielsen style of stone-faced comedy. Mr. Miller was always so serious (and don’t call him Shirley) that he was hilarious on stage. When he died leaving some dependents uncared-for, the jestbook was created by Joe’s friends as a sort of inside joke, as a fundraiser to support his bereaved family.
- KIDDIES AND KIDDIESSES: Flash fellows — basically, early-1800s hep cats.
- SHERRY OFF: Run away.
- FLATS: Suckers.
- GET FLY TO THE FAKEMENT: Get wise to the swindle.
- BUMS: Bailiffs.
- CRAPING COVES: Hangmen.
- YE OLD STONE PITCHER: Newgate Prison.
- PADDINGTON FAIR: Execution day at Tyburn, which is in Paddington Parish. Paddington is also a pun, as “pad” was a flash word for “thief” or “robber.”
- BRUSH OFF: Leave. Note this phrase means something slightly different today.
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