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b"The Earlier Service by Margaret IrwinThe Earlier Service is a tale of what happens in a remote English church late at night. A Listener suggested I record The Earlier Service by Margaret Irwin.\\xa0I hunted it down via the internet and found it in an anthology called Bloodstock, published in 1978 by Ian Henry Publications in 1978.\\xa0I believe the collection was initially published in 1953.Bloodstock is split into three sections: Stories From Ireland (five stories here); Uncanny Stories (four stories) and two ungrouped stories: Mrs Oliver Cromwell and Where Beauty Lies.\\xa0Margaret Irwin doesn\\u2019t include any biographical information in this book so I had to go looking elsewhere.As usual, Wikipedia came up trumps and I gave them $2 for their great work.\\xa0Margaret Irwin was born in Highgate, London in 1889, and she died in 1967 in London also.\\xa0Her father was an Australian from Perth and her mother was English and her mother\\u2019s father was a colonel in the 16th Lancers, a British Cavalry regiment. She was brought up by her uncle in Bristol after her father died.She started writing professionally in the 1920s and specialised in historical fiction, particularly the Elizabeth and early Stuart periods. As well as historical novels she did ghost stories and two fantasy novels, one about a time slip and the other about a wizard\\u2019s daughter.She married a book illustrator who did the covers for some of her books. \\xa0The Earlier ServiceThe story seems to hark back to a different England: a rural England of evensong and churchgoing that no longer exists. We have examples from the work of R H Malden and M R James of country vicars going about their business in rural parishes where they and the doctor and the solicitor are the only educated and literary people but where they service and minister to the illiterate throng.\\xa0Most country churches now in England are dead or dying and this therefore is a picture of a world that once was and is no longer.The story begins with the rector\\u2019s family going to church. It\\u2019s dad\\u2019s job so it is the daughters\\u2019 duty to go to each service. The younger daughter Jane has developed an irrational fear of the church, though at the beginning, neither she nor we know why.\\xa0There is some hint that that gargoyles on the church spire are stretching out their necks to get into her room, but that is not what\\u2019s happening and is just a little spooky detail thrown in to create atmosphere rather than foreshadowing proper.In the same way the\\xa0bits of dried black stuff on the church door is said to be the skin of flayed heathens. Imagine torturing people just because they don\\u2019t think the same things you do. How awful.\\xa0I\\u2019m glad we\\u2019re not like that now.When I was young,\\xa0I used to collect plastic figures of crusaders. In films they were great heroes, but apparently they are the bad guys now.\\xa0In any case, the crusader is a great defender in this story. I\\u2019ve been to lots of churches with tombs in them with knights and ladies in relief. There was a chapel near Chilingham Castle that I used to take my ghost tours to, usually in the middle of the night. It was always so cold and it was easy to believe in that quiet, chill atmosphere, that they might come back to life.\\xa0But of course this is a witchcraft/satanism story. In the old days the two were thought to be the same thing. Of course this is what happened to the old pagan gods\\u2014they became demons.Jane sees the little dark man with the sharp object in his hand. Of course this is the old Giraldus atte Welle who was defrocked for demonism back in the day. It seems her mother gets a hint of it, but doesn\\u2019t see it as clearly as Jane. This is probably because she is not thSupport the showVisit us here: www.ghostpod.orgBuy me a coffee if you're glad I do this: https://ko-fi.com/tonywalkerIf you really want to help me, become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/barcudMusic by The Heartwood Institute: https://bit.ly/somecomeback\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices"