"The Pikestaffe Case" by Algernon Blackwood

0:00:00 Chapter I
0:15:54 Chapter II
0:28:07 Chapter III
0:44:26 Chapter IV
0:53:08 Chapter V
1:00:32 Chapter VI

----

I'm having a hard time pinning down the initial publication date for this one. I see a reference to "Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural" published in 1914, but I can't find a table of contents of a physical copy of that book to verify it, and if that's not it, then the next publication date I can find is 1923 in Cassell's Magazine.

Whether 1914 or 1923, either way we can expect references to "The War" would be The Great War, i.e. WW1.

1 guinea = 21 shillings. 4 guineas, or 84 shillings, in 1914 would today be worth something around £500 to £600. The text doesn't specify how often this rental fee is incurred, but that sounds like a monthly rate to me.

Florence Barclay: English romance novelist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Two of her more notable works are "The Rosary" and "The Mistress of Shenstone". When I read that line, without ever having heard of Barclay before this, I guessed it would prove a trashy romance novel, and I was right!

The pictures used are:

Ch 1: "Swan House, 17 Chelsea Embankment in 2011" by George P. Landow

Ch 2: "Edwardian Gentleman" by Emil Fuchs

Ch 3: Photograph of Emmeline Pankhurst by Chicago Matzene, taken in 1913

Ch 4: interior of the Catharine Lodge, in what was then Trafalgar Square (now Chelsea Square, although the owner would say it was located in Brompton)

Ch 5: Victorian Eastlake Partial Ebonized Mahogany Frame Mirror

Ch 6: Photograph of Sir Ernest Glover, 1st Baronet of Arkley take in 1920

To follow along: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Tales_Of_The_Uncanny_And_Supernatural/The_Pikestaffe_Case