The Register

BAN-7 The Singer at the Howe & Hound Banshee, of the keening sort — Irish descent, lately of the northern moors

Woodcut portrait: the Singer, mid-song, the house asleep behind her — Her likeness, taken mid-song by the Parish engraver, who did not stay for the end of the song.

Name: She gives none. The register records her as “the Singer at the Howe & Hound.”
Descent: Of the old families of Ireland, who followed their households across the water in the hungry years. Where the family goes, she goes; when the family ends, she sings it out.
Present Trade: Keeps no fixed abode. Sings in taverns for coin, and settles debts of a kind no bailiff will touch. The dying she attends without invitation; the living hire her at their peril.
Note on her Gift: She does not foretell. She is no seer. She knows a death only when it is already at the door — and then she is merely the first to say so aloud. the parish of ———— learned the distinction too late.

Record of Incidents

On the night the North Road lost its head, she was heard at the Howe & Hound, and the room slept, and a sack left with her that did not leave with its owners. See the picture, “A Matched Set”.

Here unfolds the sworn deposition of Wilf Ackroyd, potman at the Howe & Hound, taken before the Clerk.

“I poured for the two gentlemen at the corner. Then she sang the one bar, and I woke with the morning and the cups still full. I have not poured a late hour since. A man should know when a house wants closing.”

Entered in the Register the 14th day of October, 17the last figure is eaten away. Examined & found true — Parish Clerk

DUL-1 The Night Rider of the North Road Headless rider, of the Irish sort — a collector, not a killer

Woodcut portrait: the Rider at the gallop, the head carried at his side, lit — The Rider, drawn from a safe distance. The head sat for the portrait separately.

Name: The Night Rider of the North Road. Older tongues say Dullahan.
Descent: Rode the old roads before there were roads to name. Carries his own head for a lantern; it sees further off the neck than on.
Present Trade: Rides the North Road between dusk and the third cockcrow. Speaks one name only — and whoever owns it is called. Gold turned in his path buys a night’s passage; the paper is here torn — there remains only “…and no false coin, for he weighs it by”.

Record of Incidents

Three nights absent from his round, the parish paper advertised his own head as lost property — a reward offered, the loser himself the advertiser. See the Mercury, No. MCDLXXVIII.
The matter was, in time, settled otherwise. See the picture, “A Matched Set”.

The Mercury advertisement concerning the Night Rider's lost head — His own notice in the publick paper; see the Mercury, No. MCDLXXVIII.

Here unfolds the sworn deposition of a carter, his name withheld, taken before the Clerk.

“I gave him the road and looked at my hands. You do not look at where the head should be. My father told me that, and his father told him, and none of us has ever been called.”

Entered in the Register the 3rd day of October, 1790. Examined & found true — Parish Clerk

CATS-9 Grimalkin Cat-sìth — the fairy cat of the Highlands; nine lives, one shown, eight kept back

Woodcut portrait: both her forms in one sitting — the lady with her pipe, the cat beside the chair, two tails tipped white, an unlit turnip lantern upon the desk — Both her forms, taken in one sitting. Which sat for which, the clerk declines to certify.

Name: Grimalkin. She answers to it only when it suits her.
Descent: Came down from the Scottish hills the way all the old neighbours came: quietly, and to stay. Black, with one white spot on the breast, which the wise do not mention to her.
Present Trade: Keeps the mice from an honest cellar and the secrets of everyone in it. Sits at wakes uninvited. ———— ———— ———— ———— — the clerk thought better of recording her other trade.
Lives Remaining: a figure, wet — the clerk has crossed out and rewritten the figure more times than is comfortable.
Note: On the night of a wake, cover the mirrors and watch the cat, for a corpse unwatched is a corpse she may speak for. BAN-7 works the same road by a different door.

Record of Incidents

this record is not yet opened — “The Cat is Next,” the archive notes, and says no more

Entered in the Register the — day of —, 17—. Examined & found true — Parish Clerk

LEA-1 The Dark-Haired Lady of the Coach Road Leanan Sídhe — the muse of the Irish, who pays for verse in years

Woodcut portrait: the dark-haired lady at the poet's shoulder, the poet writing by candlelight — Taken at the poet’s own request. He wished the moment kept.

Name: She has given four names to four clerks. Each clerk entered it as true. None of the four agree, and none of the four clerks can be asked, for reasons the reader may work out from the table below.
Descent: Of the aos sí of Ireland, by way of every port town with a printing press and a supply of young men who own quills.
Present Trade: Patroness of the arts. Her companions write, paint, and fiddle better than any man in the county — better, some say, than any man alive, which is nearer the mark than they know. She asks no fee. The arrangement settles itself.
Note by the Clerk: The parish does not advise against her company. The parish notes only the arithmetic.

Register of Known Companions

Companion	Trade	Acquainted	Died	Aged	Remarks
T—— M——, of Cork	poet	1749	1756	29	four volumes in seven years; the fourth reckoned his best
J—— F——, of Bristol	painter	1757	1761	26	portraits said to breathe; his last, of a lady, unfinished at the mouth
E—— W——, of the parish	fiddler	1762	1766	24	played at the Howe & Hound; the room wept on request
H—— C——, of York	poet	1767	1774	33	his widow burned the seventh volume unread; she is thought wise
————	engraver	1788	the column is blank; the ink was ready	—	current. Works quickly.

One man of the parish, a wool merchant with no verse in him, is recorded to have refused her company in 1754. He lived to seventy-eight, prosperously. Nothing he made is remembered.

Entered in the Register the 9th day of May, 1771, at the third attempt; the first two entries are struck through, in a hand very like her own. Examined & found true — Parish Clerk

VAM-1 Mr. Ruthven Vampire — an old gentleman of the parish, in good standing

Woodcut portrait: Mr. Ruthven at the Tuesday market, under his umbrella, considering a tomato — His Tuesday custom, drawn from across the square. The engraver kept the distance professional.

Name: Mr. Ruthven. The first of his kind entered in this Register, which he notes with some satisfaction.
Descent: Old. The clerk asked how old. The gentleman smiled and asked after the clerk's family, and the matter was allowed to rest.
Present Trade: A gentleman of independent means. Attends the market on Tuesdays, under an umbrella, and is particular about his tomatoes. Pays promptly, tips the stallholders, and has never once been late for an appointment. The parish has no complaint on record.
Note by the Clerk: The Mercury lately mistook him, in print, for Death buying apples. The gentleman is understood to have taken the comparison as flattery, and the correction as a courtesy.

Record of Incidents

the remainder of this record is sealed by order of the Registry, the seal dated in advance

Entered in the Register the 2nd day of March, 1754. Examined & found true — Parish Clerk

WLF-1 Aldous Werewolf — registered, licensed, and of exemplary habits

Woodcut portrait: Aldous in his wolf shape, seated at the desk over his ledger, quill in hand, his shirt folded on the stool — The fifteenth of the month, as entered. The accounts do not wait.

Name: Aldous. He offered a surname; the clerk's predecessor did not take it down, and Aldous has been too polite to raise the matter since.
Descent: Of the old affliction, by bite or by blood; the Register does not pry.
Present Trade: Keeps to himself, keeps his accounts square, and keeps, on the fifteenth of every month, to a locked room of his own arranging — at his own request, at his own expense, with the key on a nail outside the door, where he cannot reach it.
Note by the Clerk: The Register says the fifteenth. The moon, some months, says otherwise. The Register is aware of the discrepancy, and has chosen not to pursue it. The neighbours are advised to do the same.

Record of Incidents

None. The parish wishes its men were half so regular.
a second page is sewn shut; the thread is new

Entered in the Register the 15th day of August, 1783 — a date he chose himself, and smiled at. Examined & found true — Parish Clerk

GLT-1 The Big Man A made man — made, not born; the Register is advised the distinction matters

Woodcut portrait: the Big Man in the lane, timber on his shoulder, the neighbours doffing hats — Taken from below, there being no other angle.

Name: He was asked. He considered the clerk for some while, and the clerk has entered the question as withdrawn.
Place of Birth: Not applicable.
Manner of Making: ———— ———— ———— ———— ————
Arrived: The year is not entered. The roof he arrived through has been mended.
Present Trade: Carries what other men cannot. The yards pay him day-rates and ask no questions, which suits all parties. He is a man of few words and kept promises, and the stone he splits does not argue either.
Expert Testimony: A housemaid of the parish, asked for her assessment of the gentleman, observed that “being born, it really does make all the difference.” The Register has entered this under expert testimony, there being no better authority available.

Record of Incidents

Came down through the roof of a great hall one night, uninvited, whereby a ceremony then in progress was not completed. Left on foot, with a young lady, by the door — the Register notes the courtesy. See the picture, “The Unquiet”.

Entered in the Register the — day of ————, the year left open at his request. Examined & found true — Parish Clerk

HOW-1 The Barrow-Bride Haugbúi — a bride of the old howe on the moor; the quiet sort

Woodcut portrait: the Barrow-Bride at her table before the howe door, veiled, a bone hand signing the ledger as an instalment is received — An instalment received at the howe door. The hand that signs is the one that keeps the book.

Name: Her married name was never taken, the ceremony being — see below. Her maiden name is with her people, and her people are with her, in the howe.
Descent: Of the howe-folk, who keep to their mounds and their bargains, in that order.
Married: The ceremony is entered as postponed. The Register does not record for how long, the column being too narrow.
Present Trade: She is paying off a debt contracted in life. The instalments are regular. The Register has inspected the ledger and found it kept better than the parish's own.
Note by the Clerk: The neighbours speak well of her. The Register notes that this is rare, and that they mean it.

Record of Incidents

None brought to the parish. Complaints concerning the howe are, in any case, to be lodged at the howe, during daylight, by the brave. See the picture, “The Unquiet”.

Entered in the Register late in the last century; the precise year is weathered off the page, as such years are. Examined & found true — Parish Clerk

REV-1 The late Lord ————, of the Hall Revenant — lately, and repeatedly, of this parish

Woodcut portrait: the late lord's portrait in the gallery of the Hall, memorial cards upon the table — His portrait, from the gallery of the Hall. The likeness is said to be exact, and to mind it.

Standing: In life, a lord, and therefore not registered — persons are not registered. The parish is pleased to report that the difficulty has since resolved itself.
Died: More than once. The sexton's rates reflect this.
Present Body: Destroyed, 1790, by a caller without an appointment. Status: awaiting filing.
Character: Punctual to the minute, patient to the decade, and exact in the collection of what is owed him. His butler, asked how long the household had waited on his lordship's account, replied that his lordship had waited forty years, and was not a man to grudge a few days more.

Record of Incidents

His plot in the churchyard holds a row of stones, all of one name and none of one date. The sexton keeps the row weeded, and has left room, this being cheaper than surprise. See the picture, “The Unquiet”.

Entered in the Register the 4th day of December, 1790 — the first entry he did not attend in person. Examined & found true — Parish Clerk

No. ——— “Jack — of the Lantern, of the Wisp, of whatever door will have him” application for registration · refused

Application Refused

In the Matter of an Application for Registration

The applicant presented himself as “Jack — of the Lantern, of the Wisp, of whatever door will have him,” and sought a licence and a number, as the law provides for the uncommon sort.

The application is REFUSED, on the following grounds, entered by the clerk:

— That the applicant cannot be assigned to any registered lineage, being, by his own account, turned away at both the gates below and the gate above, and thus of no established kind this office recognises;

— That the register requires, for every soul entered, a date on which it may reasonably be expected to die, and the applicant could supply none, having here the paper is burnt through, the edges charred;

— That a man who cannot be buried cannot be registered, for the two offices share a ledger.

The applicant, on being refused, is recorded to have thanked the clerk warmly, taken up his lantern, and remarked that he “would call again.” He has not been seen since — see the picture, “A Matched Set” — though a small light has been noted, more than once, at the edge of the moor on nights the office was working late.

Filed under matters unresolved. — Parish Clerk

SPR-1 “The Leaping Terror of Moorshire” Kind unknown — the number stands reserved; nothing has come to claim it

Woodcut: two villagers on the night lane look back, lantern raised, as an exceedingly tall silhouette clears the rooftops, a trace of blue flame behind it — Plate drawn from the description of two witnesses, who disagreed on everything but the height.

Unregistered · Sightings Only

Status: Unregistered. He has not called at the office. The office, in fairness, has not called on him either.
Description: A man-shaped figure, exceedingly tall. On this single point every witness agrees, and on no other point whatsoever.
Manner: Clears hedgerows at a bound, and rooftops the same way. Keeps to the lanes and the moor road after dusk. Has never once been met on a morning, which the parish takes as the one courtesy on record.
Of the Blue Flame: It is said he breathes a blue fire. The Register enters this as rumour, the Register not having stood close enough to certify it, nor intending to.
Weaknesses & Proper Precautions: The accounts contradict one another on every particular, and not one is proven. A notice is posted by the church door advising the parish against testing any of them in person.

Record of Sightings

Seventeen sightings stand entered since Michaelmas last, by persons of good character and poor colour. No injury stands proven against him. The fright of the parish is, however, a matter of record, and grows.

Not entered in the Register. This page is kept notwithstanding, ruled and ready, that the number may not be wanted twice. — Parish Clerk

Kept Apart · The Unregistered