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The Ghost Monk

@theghostmonk.bsky.social

In 'Lensters End' by Mrs E Newman, the #ghost of an 18th C squire forces a man into his cobwebby old library to find a missing will hidden between the pages of a book. The will rights a wrong the bad-tempered squire had made at the end of his life. Published in The Strand in 1895.
#PhantomsFriday

In a spooky, cobwebby room the figure of a man in 18th century riding attire is standing within a table, which reveals that he is a ghost. He is pointing to some papers on the table which a man in an ulster and derby hat is examining.

November 14, 2025 at 2:34 PM

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Emily Brand

@emilybrand.bsky.social

Regency-era Lord Byron fangirls (& boys):

'That beautiful pale face is my fate'
'the sweetest countenance I ever beheld'
'Byron's countenance is a thing to dream of'
'Lord Byron's head is, without doubt, the finest in our time'

Victorian memorabilia:

19th-century gilt portrait of Lord Byron, looking birdlike, jowly and distinctively unattractive

November 14, 2025 at 10:13 AM

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Eugene McCann

@ejmccann.bsky.social

East Van crows

A black & white photo of three crows, perched in a line atop a decorative streetlight banner. Look all tough coz they are.

November 14, 2025 at 4:12 AM

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ΜΑΝΟΣ ΤΡΑΧΙΑΣ™

@trahias.bsky.social

John Atkinson Grimshaw (British, 1836–1893)
"Under the Moonbeams", 1882.
Oil on Canvas, 46 × 35.9 cm.
Private Collection.
#art #painting #painters #BlueSkyArt

November 14, 2025 at 5:00 AM

Ruins of Despair

@ruinsofdespair.bsky.social

'It is a most noble ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits; there is a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows.'

Mina Harker describes the Whitby Abbey in her diary in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Lady Hilda? See Alt-text for more.

#PhantomsFriday #gothic #booksky

Postcard by Judges Ltd., Hastings
Circa 1915. A black-and-white photograph of the ruins of Whitby Abbey, with stark contrast.

One of the — apparently multiple — ghosts of Whitby Abbey is the founder and first Abbess, Lady Hilda. She can be seen in the highest window on the north side of the abbey on dark, stormy nights, gazing longingly out to sea.

Hilda is known as Hilda of Whitby, and she's a saint. Her feast day is 17, 18, or 19 November, depending on the church.
According to the legend, Hilda turned snakes to stone. This helped to explain the ammonite fossils on Whitby shore. The ammonite genus Hildoceras is named after St. Hilda.

It's said that sea birds dip their wings in honor of her as they fly over the abbey.

November 14, 2025 at 7:40 AM

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Betty Jiang

@bettyjiang.bsky.social

I had the honor of making this painting for Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein.

November 13, 2025 at 5:36 PM

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derek (evil)

@derky.bsky.social

A mysterious visitor on the roof

Very very blurry cat silhouette on a rooftop at night. There is one star visible. The cat is heading straight for it. What will they do with it?

November 13, 2025 at 3:36 AM

Ruins of Despair

@ruinsofdespair.bsky.social

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

– Lord Byron

#poetry #gothic #romanticism #books #booksky

View of Venice by Thomas Edwin Mostyn (1864–1930)
A woman stands in a garden at night and looks over the water towards a city.

November 13, 2025 at 8:32 AM

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Mao and the Sparrows

@maoandthesparrows.bsky.social

A cloud bank rolls into Ontario cottage country in the Rideau Lakes region. The massive formation blots out the light on the agitated river waters and dwarfs the opposite forested shoreline.

November 13, 2025 at 5:54 AM

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sanctorium.bsky.social

@sanctorium.bsky.social

The poetry of earth is never dead.

Keats

November 13, 2025 at 6:45 AM

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Jay Troyer

@gr8flbluejay.bsky.social

Julius von Klever, Russian-Baltic German (1850-1924), Woman Walking Down the Road through the Trees, 1887, oil on canvas, 53.5 x 37.5 cm, Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn City

November 12, 2025 at 5:51 PM

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Nina Antonia

@ninaantonia13.bsky.social

A tour of the mysterious Dr. Phene's house in Chelsea, 1912, which was brimful of antique oddities. A scholar & collector, it was said that there was a mortuary for cats in the walls & that Queen Victoria had visited. After his death, the ornate abode was demolished in 1920, tho' his legend lingered

November 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM

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AlTheColorsOfTheDark💀🦇🪦

@afizgig.bsky.social

#DailyBat 🖤🦇🖤

A silhouette of a cute bat hanging upside-down from a tree branch.

October 22, 2025 at 1:38 PM

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John McCafferty

@jdmccafferty.bsky.social

A strange 'sea monster' (squidlike?) caught by fishermen on the North Sea between Scheveningen and Katwijk, #otd 12 Nov 1661. (Rijksmuseum)

November 12, 2025 at 8:51 AM

Ruins of Despair

@ruinsofdespair.bsky.social

Shelley's 'Queen Mab' is a political utopia disguised as a fairytale. The fairy queen shows the sleeping Ianthe visions of the past, present, and the future.

The first two are plagued by oppression, injustice, and suffering, caused by monarchies, commerce, and religion.

#WyrdWednesday #poetry

Background image: J.M.W. Turner, 'Queen Mab's Cave' 1846. A rather impressionistic landscape painting by a Romantic Era painter.
Text:
Nature rejects the monarch, not the man;
The subject, not the citizen; for kings
And subjects, mutual foes, forever play
A losing game into each other's hands,
Whose stakes are vice and misery.
P.B. Shelley, 'Queen Mab' 1813

November 12, 2025 at 6:39 AM

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Rachel Deering

@racheldeering.bsky.social

Goodnight.
🖼️ The Ghost Story, Louis Wain.

A painting by Louis Wain, titled The Ghost Story. It depicts an anthropomorphized scene where numerous cats are gathered indoors for a storytelling session.
On the left, a large black cat dressed in dark clothing stands animatedly, gesturing with one paw extended and its mouth open as if mid-speech. A group of approximately twenty other cats, varying in size, sit on the floor and on a bench, listening. Some cats are young kittens sitting on the floor in the foreground. Others are older, seated on a bench or chairs, some wearing clothing like jackets or dresses. The room features framed portraits on the wall, a small table with a vase of flowers, and a window letting in light from the left. Small objects resembling books or boxes are on the floor. The artist's signature, "Louis Wain," is visible in the bottom left corner.

November 11, 2025 at 9:55 PM

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Re3o

@re3o.bsky.social

Autumn fog in the forest
#photography #monochrome #ClassicMono #bnwphotography #bnw #blackandwhite #landscape #forest #tree #EastCoastKin

Black-and-white photograph of a forest shrouded in fog.

November 1, 2025 at 10:03 AM

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ᴍᴀʀsʜᴀ ᴇsᴛᴇs

@marshadraws.bsky.social

𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲

November 11, 2025 at 5:51 PM

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Clare Bryden

@clarebryden.bsky.social

Whoever wrote the plaque mis-spelled 'Pioneer in Computer Programming'

#ALD25 @adalovelaceday.bsky.social

Ruins of Despair @ruinsofdespair.bsky.social · 4d

The coffins of Lord Byron and his daughter, Ada Lovelace, in the tomb beneath the chancel within St Mary Magdalene Church in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

Video with still images:
youtu.be/oexha02WoMs...

#TombTuesday #gothic #romanticism

A photograph of two old, deteriorated coffins.

A closeup of a coffin with a crown on top of it. The plaque reads:

The Right Honble
AUGUSTA ADA
Wife of
WILLIAM EARL of LOVELACE
and only Daughter of
GEORGE GORDON NOEL
LORD BYRON
Born 10th Dec’r
1815
Died 27th Nov’r
1852

November 11, 2025 at 4:11 PM

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Phil Watson

@frenchmegaliths.bsky.social

In the early 1900s the 18m long allée couverte of Coat-Mez in Trévou-Tréguignec (Côtes-d’Armor) was being re-used as a barn by a smartly dressed dairy farmer judging from this card by Emile Hamonic in St-Brieuc. #TombTuesday.

November 11, 2025 at 8:41 AM

Ruins of Despair

@ruinsofdespair.bsky.social

The coffins of Lord Byron and his daughter, Ada Lovelace, in the tomb beneath the chancel within St Mary Magdalene Church in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

Video with still images:
youtu.be/oexha02WoMs...

#TombTuesday #gothic #romanticism

November 11, 2025 at 12:12 PM