Cobweb Hall

Figure 1. Nellie Baxter, Marion A. Mason, and Annie Mackie. Cobweb Hall, headpiece. Headpiece, Autumn 1895. The Evergreen Volume 2, p43, Ryerson University Library Archives and Special Collections. Public Domain.

 

Cobweb Hall is a clever piece, that was likely used to draw in a new audience to Celtic culture, part of the Scottish Revival. It’s unconventional method of writing is quite symbolic of this fusion of an old tale in a new publication and form. Indeed, this fits perfectly with the theme of the Evergreen, a new advent-garde publication that is illuminating an old cultural tradition. The added component of the horror popularity in the Victorian era makes it the perfect storm for this publication, and to reach a large audience.

 

Figure 2. Nellie Baxter, Marion A. Mason, and Annie Mackie. Cobweb Hall, tailpiece. Tailpiece, Autumn 1895. The Evergreen Volume 2, Ryerson University Library Archives and Special Collections. Public Domain.

 

Bibliography

Claes, Koenraad. The Late-Victorian Little Magazine. Edinburg University Press, 2018.

Grilli, Elisa. “Funding and the Making of Culture: The Case of the Evergreen (1895-1897)”. Journal of European Periodical Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 2016.

Leith, Dick. “Tense Variation as a Performance Feature in a Scottish Folktale”. Language in Society, vol. 24, no.1, 1995. pp. 53-77 Cambridge University Press.

MacDonald, Paul. The Fin-De-Siecle Scottish Revival. Edited by Michael Shaw, Edinburg                  University Press, 2019.

Mighall, Robert. A Geography of Victorian Gothic Fiction: Mapping History’s Nightmares. Oxford              University Press, 2003.

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