"The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, first published in The Contemporary Review in 1910.
| "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by M.R. James | |
 "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" was collected in More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1910 | |
 Text available at Wikisource | |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
| Publication | |
| Published in | The Contemporary Review |
| Publication date | 1910 |
Plot summary
editIn the framing device for the story, the unnamed narrator reads an obituary published in The Gentleman's Magazine in the early nineteenth century for The Venerable John Benwell Haynes, D.D., the Archdeacon of Sowerbridge and Rector of Pickhill and Candley, who died suddenly at his home in the cathedral close of Barchester. Dr. Haynes had succeeded to the Archdeaconry in 1810 upon the death of his predecessor, Archdeacon Pulteney. While cataloguing manuscripts in a library of the University of Cambridge, the narrator happens across a tin box labelled "Papers of the Ven. Archdeacon Haynes. Bequeathed in 1834 by his sister, Miss Letitia Haynes." Granting the narrator permission to examine the contents of the box, the librarian notes that the former master of the library had forbidden the box to ever be opened. The narrator examines the contents of the box, and receives permission from the librarian to publish a story based on them, provides he anonymises the people in question.
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The choir of Barchester Cathedral in the narrator's time is described as "a very bare and odiously furnished place", with modern stalls and a metal and marble screen designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. 100 years prior, the choir was significantly more elaborate, with "classical" stalls and a wooden altar screen.
Haynes is very talented and performs the duties of his office with great zeal, however he is haunted by the carved figures in the stalls of Barchester Cathedral.[1]
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The narrator concludes that Dr. Haynes had arranged the murder of Dr. Pulteney, but is unclear of the role the carved figures from the stall played in Dr. Haynes' death. Visiting a museum in Barchester, the narrator learns from the curator that an elderly residents of Barchester had obtained a fragment of the carved figures from a wood-yard; he found a scrap of paper inside the carving, which he gave to the curator. The paper reads:
"When I grew in the Wood
I was water'd wth Blood
Now in the Church I stand
Who that touches me with his Hand
If a Bloody hand he bear
I councell him to be ware
Lest he be fetcht away
Whether by night or day,
But chiefly when the wind blows high
In a night of February."
"This I drempt, 26 Febr. AO 1699. John Austin."
Publication
edit"The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" was first published in volume 97, number 35 of The Contemporary Review in 1910. Later that year, it was collected in James' book More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. It has since been anthologised many times.
Adaptations
editGerald Heard's novel The Black Fox, published in 1950, is an occult thriller inspired by "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral".[2]
The story was adapted by Lawrence Gordon Clark for BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas as The Stalls of Barchester. Airing on BBC1 on 24 December 1971, it starred Robert Hardy as Archdeacon Haynes.[3][4]
A dramatized narration of the story with Christopher Lee as James was produced by BBC Scotland in 2000 as part of the series Christopher Lee's Ghost Stories For Christmas, adapted by Ronald Frame.[5]
On 19 December 2018, a radio drama adaptation titled The Haunting of MR James. The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral by Neil Brand aired on BBC Radio 4. It starred Mark Gatiss as M. R. James and Sean Baker as Archdeacon Haynes.[6]
References
edit- ^ James, M.R. (1993). Collected ghost stories (Repr. ed.). Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth. pp. 146–159. ISBN 1853260533.
- ^ Pardoe, Rosemary (2001). "The James Gang": Meddling with Ghosts: Stories in the Tradition of M. R. James. London: British Library. pp. 267–87. ISBN 0-7123-1125-4.
- ^ "The Stalls of Barchester". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 August 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
- ^ "A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Stalls of Barchester". Radio Times. No. 2, 510. 18 December 1971. Retrieved 1 May 2025 – via BBC Genome Project.
- ^ "Christopher Lee's Ghost Stories for Christmas: The Stalls of Barchester". BBC. Retrieved 26 December 2024.
- ^ "MR James - The Haunting of MR James 3. The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral". BBC Online. Retrieved 1 May 2025 – via BBC Genome Project.
External links
edit
The full text of "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" at Wikisource- An omnibus collection of James's short fiction at Standard Ebooks
The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral public domain audiobook at LibriVox- "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- A Podcast to the Curious: Episode 13 - "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral"
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