5.14: The mysterious Miss Jeromette. — The ghost’s return after 20 years. (A Sixpenny Spookies segment.)

SHOW NOTES

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EPISODE 14

(The fourth of four linked episodes aired February 15, 2026)

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Join host Corinthian Finn, a.k.a. Finn J.D. John 18th Baron Dunwitch, for a one-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of old London!*

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"THE SIXPENNY SPOOKIES" segment (No. 4 of 4):

• 00:30: THE TERRIFIC REGISTER: God’s judgement on a bishop who became cruel to his congregation.
• 02:05: EARLY VICTORIAN GHOSTLY SHORT STORY, to-wit: MISS JEROMETTE AND THE CLERGYMAN, by WILKIE COLLINS, Part 1 of 3 parts: We open on our narrator’s brother reading a book about famous criminal trials, when his brother, a clergyman, sees the one he’s reading about. The defendant was acquitted in the trial — but the brother knows with absolute certainty that the man was guilty of the charge. How so, the narrator asks? Instead of answering, the brother asks if the narrator believes in ghosts … and then agrees to tell his story if the brother will promise to let the story be revealed only after his death.
• On his deathbed, then, he beckons to the narrator and tells him he may now share his strange tale ….
• 19:15: A SHORT GHOST STORY from the scrapbook of Charles Lindley, Viscount Halifax: “Here I am again!” — a story of a most persistent, if rather ineffectual, haunt.
• 25:25: 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 FLASH TERMS 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.
• TIP YOUR RAGS A GALLOP: Run away as fast as you can.
• GRABS: Police and magistrates.
• THE TOUCH: Getting arrested.
• HELL CATS: Dangerous ladies who frequent the “hells” (gambling dens).
• BLACKLEGS: Professional gamblers who cheat to win.
• SPEELING-CRIB: A gambling den.
• RUM TE TUM WITH THE CHILL OFF: Most emphatically excellent.

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* The Barony of Dunwitch is located in a deep forest glade west of Arkham (where, as H.P. Lovecraft put it, “the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut; there are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.”) Actually it is a good 3,000 miles west of Arkham. It is not to be confused with Dunwich, the English seacoast town that fell house by house into the sea centuries ago, or Dunsany, the home until 1957 of legendary fantasy author Edward J.M.D. Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany.