Halloween | Author, Jane Lark's stories

Dressing up in macabre costumes and seeking to frighten others for pleasure has been

Lord Byron

considered as entertainment for centuries. The Victorians loved their gothic reconstructions and the Tudors loved the intrigue of hiding behind masks and dressing up so they could pretend to be someone else. Then the infamous Lord Byron set up his group of wild friends at his ancient, mostly fallen down, Newstead Abbey. There they drank their toasts from the crown of a monk’s skull while playing blind man’s buff with his pet bear. Byron also loved to dress in false monks’ robes and to lead his friends in ceremonies. There is also the picture of him in his Turkish costume which again professes how much he liked to lead fashion and act a part.

: A replica of Byron’s monks’ disguise

: The actual clothing warn by Byron

Byron liked to be one of the ringleaders in shocking others with his macabre behaviour. For instance setting Shelley, his young mistress and her sister to writing ghost stories on a dark stormy night abroad; the tale that became Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. But was Byron really as original as he would have had his friends think? Or was he flattering another man, a man, by his actions, I would guess he revered for achieving shocking acclaim years before Byron.

You may have heard of the Hellfire Club, set up by Sir Francis Dashwood, Lord le Despencer. The Hellfire Club was established long before Byron’s birth. To the left is Dashwood, dressed as both a monk and in eastern attire.

But the similarity in Byron’s behaviour extends not only to his choice of costumes but also his choice of macabre games and there setting.

Sir Francis also loved a mock ceremony and while Byron had inherited his abbey, Sir Francis had rented one solely to host his ceremonies. You can read more about Medmenham Abbey on the board in the picture below.

When the Hellfire Club met the men wore their monks’ robes the women wore masks to cover their identity and they went by pseudonyms.

Byron’s last supper in England, that he ate in the company his closest friends (those who knew his most shocking secrets and overlooked them), is often spoken of. Yet Sir Francis took his ceremonies much further towards the shocking by naming his clubs superiors as twelve men, the apostles. These twelve men wore different robes to those who were deemed inferior. Sir Francis saw himself as the group’s antichrist and toasted the devil.

The distinction of the superior members of the Hellfire club

The members of the Hellfire Club in 1762

Sir Francis began clearing out the tunnels of the former mine in 1748 to create his network of caves. He dug down into a hill beneath his family church and set up his inner temple, where only his apostles might go, 100 meters, exactly beneath, the church. He rented Medmenham Abbey in 1750 probably about the time the caves were also finished and the clubs pattern of macabre ceremonies began.

The Hellfire Club’s gatherings in the caves began in the banqueting hall, where after a dinner, served by Dashwood’s servants, they entertained themselves in the niches about the room. Then the twelve superiors separated themselves from the crowd and walked on through more symbolic tunnels, over an underground stream (the river Styx) to the inner temple where no one knows what they got up to because none of them told the tale.

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The Marlow Intrigues: Perfect for lovers of period drama

The Tainted Love of a Captain #8 – The last episode in the Marlow Intrigues series

The Lost Love of Soldier ~ The Prequel #1 ~ A Christmas Elopement began it all

The Illicit Love of a Courtesan #2

The Passionate Love of a Rake #3

The Scandalous Love of a Duke #4

The Dangerous Love of a Rogue #5

The Jealous Love of a Scoundrel #5.5

The Persuasive Love of a Libertine #5.75 now included in Jealous Love, (or free if you can persuade Amazon to price match with Kobo ebooks) 😉

The Secret Love of a Gentleman #6

The Reckless Love of an Heir #7

Jane’s books can be ordered from most booksellers in paperback

Go to the index

For

the story of the real courtesan who inspired The Illicit Love of a Courtesan,
another free short story, about characters from book #2, A Lord’s Scandalous Love,
the prequel excerpts for book #3 The Scandalous Love of a Duke

Jane Lark is a writer of authentic, passionate and emotional historical and contemporary stories, and the author of a No.1 bestselling Historical Romance novel in America, ‘The Illicit Love of a Courtesan’.Click here to find out more about Jane’s books, and see Jane’s website www.janelark.co.uk to learn more about Jane. Or click ‘like’ on Jane’s Facebook page. You can also follow Jane on twitter at @janelark

We went to Hastings the other week to discover some 1066 facts just for fun, but when we were there, look what I discovered… These ancient cave carvings under the cliffs above the town of Hastings in the UK.

No one knows when this carving was cut, but it’s in an area called the chapel. The natural cave has been especially sculpted to become a wider, arched area, and at the other end is this carving of a vessel; also undated.

In the 1700s the caves the chapel is in were used by violent gangs of smugglers, who owned the coast of Britain in the same way the mafia operated. They would kill any man, or woman, who crossed them, without fear of being caught. One smuggling gang whipped a man to death in an inn for giving their names to the customs officers. Another man was buried alive, and a third thrown down a well, for telling tales on the smugglers. They ruled by fear.

People who work in the caves in Hastings today hear in-explicable sounds, like things being dragged across the chapel floor, and the props used in the caves to dress them for their visitors experience are moved from one cave to another, for no reason, and no one admits they have moved them.

I have written before about the 18th and early 19th century love of gothic tales, and scary places. Well the caves at Hastings were no different. They were dug out further for the use of visitors in the late 1700s, when smuggling died out.

Look at this amazing walk way…

That was the entrance carved into the caves, and a ballroom was carved out too. Can you imagine spending your Halloween dancing in a cold, damp, dark cave?

I don’t have any Halloween stories in my historical books, but if you fancy trying one of my contemporaries, Jason’s and Rachel’s Halloween party scene is FREE. Click on the I Still Love You cover on the righthand side further down to download.