Hellfire, Damnation and Benjamin Franklin
June 17, 2013 4:38 PM   Subscribe

Dead men tell some tales - a visit to the Hellfire Caves, home of one of the most infamous Hellfire Clubs.
posted by Artw (9 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite


 
(Not actually a comics post.)
posted by Artw at 4:39 PM on June 17, 2013 [3 favorites]


Good post. Thanks, Artw.
posted by homunculus at 6:29 PM on June 17, 2013


Hmm, available for children's parties.
posted by 445supermag at 7:11 PM on June 17, 2013 [2 favorites]




That was fascinating. The author has a wonderfully settling tone. Suspect he'd be a delightful person to discuss Hidden England.
posted by artof.mulata at 8:31 PM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


It’s my mother the psychonaut’s birthday this weekend

Ain't it the truth.
thanks for the read

posted by QueerAngel28 at 10:15 PM on June 17, 2013


(Not actually a comics post.)

Then what of the Phoenix Society? Hmmm?
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:54 AM on June 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


I heard them referenced in Blackadder but didn't know they were real. What fun to be in a Naughty Hellfire club. Thanks!
posted by rotifer at 10:40 AM on June 18, 2013


Hooray! I visited the Hellfire Caves last year. They're good cheesy fun, and very atmospheric—as is the nearby Dashwood Mausoleum.

My favourite (though almost certainly apocryphal) story about the caves is the practical joke John Wilkes played on the Earl of Sandwich:
[Wilkes] had contrived the night before to bring into his cell a great Baboon which he had provided for the occasion. When the brotherhood retired to their cells after dinner, to prepare for the ceremony, he availed himself of the office of keeper of the Chapel, which he then filled to convey this creature, dressed up in the phantastic garb, in which childish imagination cloths devils, into the chapel, where he shut him up in a large chest, that stood there to hold the ornaments and utensils of the table, when the society was away. To the spring of the lock of this chest he fastened a cord, which he drew under the carpet that was on the floor to his own seat, and there brought the end of it through a hole, made for the purpose, in such a manner that he could readily find it; and by giving it a pull, open the chest, and let the Baboon loose, whenever he pleased, without being perceived by the rest of the company.

When the time came, Wilkes jerked the cord and out popped the baboon which jumped on to the shoulders of Lord Sandwich, cried out: 'Spare me gracious Devil: spare a wretch who never was sincerely your servant. I sinned only from vanity of being in the fashion; thou knowest I never have been half so wicked as I pretended: never have been able to commit the thousandth part of the vices which I have boasted of ... leave me therefore and go to those who are more truly devoted to your service. I am but half a sinner...'
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 5:27 PM on June 19, 2013 [1 favorite]


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