Thomas Brand Hollis at The Hyde, Ingatestone with Mary Shelley and M R James

Frankenstein and Oh, Whistle and I’II Come to You, My Lad – The Hyde, Ingatestone and the gothic/ghost story connections As a final thought on the exhibition, can I firstly address those who are disappointed that there is no direct Walt Disney connection to The Hyde. I lived most of the early part of my life in the village just next to Disney Close, and I never thought of any Walt Disney cartoon connections when thinking of the road name or the old owners of The Hyde although I did think that the North Lodge, at the top of Little Hyde Lane opposite The Grange, was actually The Little House in The Flower Pot Men. Have a look next time you’re passing and see if you agree. I always found the Little House a bit spooky:

“...and I think the little house knew something about it! Don’t you?” – first produced in 1952, the year of my birth!

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However, having indentified the William Godwin connection with Thomas Brand Hollis I will mention his daughter Mary Shelley (1797-1851). Mary was born in August 1797, her mother Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1759-1797) dying shortly after her birth from complications. Mary and Godwin had only married that March, both of them having reservations about the institution of marriage. In 1814 the young daughter eloped with the poet Percy Shelley. In May 1816, Mary, Shelley and Claire Claremont, her step-mother’s daughter, left England for Geneva. They stayed sometime at the Villa Diodati with Lord Byron who was Claire’s lover, and Dr Polidori, Byron’s physician. It was here, on 16 June, during that terrible summer, that the group had a ghost-story writing contest and Mary started to write Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. Mary and Shelley returned to England in September. On 26 December 1816, John Disney Senior died at The Hyde.

On the 30th December, Mary and Shelley were married in London. Mary’s famous novel was published in 1818:

Whilst reading the ghost story Oh, Whistle, and I’II Come to You, My Lad by M R James (1862-1936) I noticed a character called “Disney”, described as “a person of antiquarian pursuits” which could well be James using a reference to John Disney Junior (1746-1857), who is buried with his wife in the large tomb behind Fryerning Church. He founded the Disney Professorship of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge and the Fitzwilliam Museum holds several of the Greek and Roman artefacts from The Hyde collection, gifted in 1850: "I might walk home to-night along the beach," he reflected--"yes, and take a look--there will be light enough for that--at the ruins of which Disney was talking. I don't exactly know where they are, by the way; but I expect I can hardly help stumbling on them....Our Professor, however, if he felt something of this mean desire, was also truly anxious to oblige Mr. Disney. So he paced with care the circular area he had noticed, and wrote down its rough dimensions in his pocket-book. Then he proceeded to examine an oblong eminence which lay east of the centre of the circle, and seemed to his thinking likely to be the base of a platform or alter. At one end of it, the northern, a patch of the turf was gone--removed by some boy or other creature feræ naturæ...”

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M R James often told his ghost stories at Christmas, by the fireside at King’s College, Cambridge, and they have become a part of the Christmas ghost story tradition. The BBC has made several films of his stories over the years. A new version of Oh, Whistle, and I’II Come to You, My Lad was made in 2010 starring John Hurt, but the most famous, which is still shown, is that from 1968. Directed by Jonathan Miller, it is in black and white and still very, very frightening:

So I am afraid there is no Mickey Mouse or Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, not even a rather neglected Fantasia. Instead we have a monster made from various body parts and Michael Hordern being chased across an East Anglian beach by bits of old cloth on some poles, which is actually uncannily effective. This is real hiding behind the groyne, or sofa, and “checking under the bed before you go to sleep” stuff.

Next time you are walking up the New Road and Little Hyde Lane late on a winter’s afternoon, when it is getting dark, forget about Walt and just remember Shelley’s monster and James’ phantom. Have a Happy Christmas!

Robert W Fletcher 18 December 2011.

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