1690 In
1690, the
English county of
Suffolk is wracked with a fear of
witches. Many women are accused of casting spells and causing mayhem. One such accused is Mrs. Mothersole. The only evidence of her witchcraft are eyewitness accounts by Sir Matthew Fell, the owner of a local
seat named Castringham. Outside his bedroom window grows a monstrous
ash tree, where on moonlit nights he would supposedly see Mrs. Mothersole climbing the trunk and snipping branches with a dagger. Despite her pleas, she is found guilty and hanged. Before the
noose is pulled, she dully intones "There will be guests at the Hall." She is buried in the local graveyard. A few weeks later, Sir Matthew and the local
vicar are walking by the ash tree at dusk when they spy a creature in the branches that disappears before they can get a good look. As it is a warm night, the squire leaves his window open. The next day, he is found dead in bed with a severe look of pain and terror on his face. Though a
postmortem is performed, no cause of death is found. The coroner, Mr. Crome, impulsively carries out the
sortes biblicae, reading
Luke 13:
7, ("Cut it down");
Isaiah 13:20 ("It shall never be inhabited"), and
Job 39:30 ("Her young ones also suck up blood"). Sir Matthew's son, Sir Matthew II, inherits Castringham and refuses to stay in his father's bedroom. Over forty years pass and he passes away in
1735. When the family plot in the local graveyard needs to be expanded to fit his remains, Mrs. Mothersole's resting place is exhumed to make room and her coffin is found to be empty. The locals are puzzled as to who could have
robbed the grave.
1754 |thumb Sir Matthew II's son, Sir Richard, inherits the seat and also refuses to stay in the supposedly cursed bedroom. In
1754, however, he grows tired of the alternate chamber he chose, as it is cold and smoky. He orders the housekeeper to move his bed into the room where his grandfather died decades previously. That night, he keeps his window closed but hears something scratching on it. The next day, he is visited by the grandson of the vicar from over sixty years ago, now a vicar himself. They chat about Sir Matthew's death and discover an old Bible of his, where he wrote down his desire for the ash tree to be felled. Sir Richard assures the vicar a man from the village will come the next day and dispose of it. That evening, several guests arrive for a weekend visit. Talking to the
Bishop of Kilmore, Sir Richard remarks on the strange scratching noises from the window the night previously, blaming the sounds on branches scraping against the glass. The Bishop says this is impossible, as the branches don't reach the window. They conclude it was rats that climbed the ivy. Sir Richard carries out the
sortes biblicae, reading
Job 7:21 ("Thou shalt seek me in the morning, and I shall not be"). After dinner, everyone retires to their rooms. In the middle of the night, something climbs through Sir Richard's open window and bites him. The next morning, he is found dead in bed and the guests congregate to discover the secret of the tree. A
gardener climbs a ladder and peeks into a hollow in the center, seeing something that causes him to drop his lantern in alarm and set the tree ablaze. The guests watch in horror as countless large, venomous
spiders crawl out of the hollow on fire, before dying on the lawn. An investigation beneath the tree reveals a cavernous spider's nest containing the withered
skeleton of a woman (presumably the remains of Mrs. Mothersole), dead for at least fifty years. == Publication ==