Episode Four of Season Three! — A Sunday-evening full episode (dropping early today!) IN WHICH —

0:04:25: TERRIFIC REGISTER ARTICLE:

• We hear of a cat who, standing watch over his mistress's freshly-murdered body, bristled and hissed when the murder suspect entered the room!
• Then we hear of an English traveler saved from the Spanish Inquisition by a priest he had befriended.

0:08:20: VARNEY THE VAMPYRE, Ch. 18:

• In this chapter, Admiral Bell and Jack Pringle arrive at the hall and meet the principal players. Mr. Marchdale and Sir Francis Varney appear to have an argument, and Sir Francis punches Marchdale. Admiral Bell wants to see Charles, and although obviously very fond of him, is trying to be severe and demanding an explanation about the vampire thing.

• So — will Admiral Bell put the kibosh on his nephew’s romantic prospects? If he does, what happens with Flora? And why does Sir Francis Varney want so badly to stir up trouble? We'll find out soon!

0:31:50: AN ACCOUNT OF SOME STRANGE DISTURBANCES IN AUNGIER STREET, by J.S. LeFanu:

• In which we learn the source of the ghostly footsteps padding down the stairs at 2 a.m. ... and we hear Tom's account of why he left the Aungier Street mansion so suddenly: he was convinced his life was in immediate peril, from a recurring vision of an evil-faced old man clutching a knotted rope... This is Part 2 of 3 parts (Part 3 will come next Sunday).

PLUS —

• We learn a new Flash song (starting around 0:27:20): "Moll in the Wad," full of fun highway-robber slang (see below). — And ...
• We browse through a few "recipes" for bad literature, published in Punch, the comedy magazine of the 1840s (starting around 0:47:20). — And ...
• We learn a few more Victorian "dad jokes" from good old Joe Miller!

Join host Finn J.D. John. for a one-hour-long spree through the scandal-sheets and story papers of old London! Grab a flicker of blue ruin, unload your stumps, and let's go!

FLASH TERMS USED IN THIS EPISODE:

From intro and outro patter:

• PINKS OF FASHION:
• FLY:
• LUSHINGTONS:
• CRAB-SHELLS:
• PINS:
• DAFFY:
• NOB:
• AUTEM BAWLERS:
• BUGGABOES:

• PIKE OFF: Flee to avoid being caught
• RED WAISTCOAT: Uniform of the Bow-street Runners, London's first police force
• KNIGHT OF THE BRUSH AND MOON: Drunken fellow wandering amok in fields and ditches trying to stagger home

From comedy article in Punch Magazine:

• GAMMON: Literally a game; but in the early-Victorian it meant almost exactly what we mean by "bullshit" today.

From Flash poem, "Moll in the Wad":

• "When the fancy you hunt, the blush and the blunt" — Fancy means "sport" in this context; "blush" is a reference to friendly ladies; and blunt means money.
• "You spank it and sport, and Venuses court" — "spank it" meant to be sporty and stylish.
• "Then there away to Fancy shows/ To sport your odds and your evens you go" — fancy shows are sporting events (boxing, animal fights, etc.); odds and evens may be a reference to the "old one-two" or maybe billiards or roulette.
• "The Fives Court" means the boxing ring (a reference to a "bunch of fives," fingers wadded up in a fist).
• "At sixes and sevens" means in confusion.
• "If you don't get in Chancery somehow, it's odd" — a pun. Chancery-court was where one sued over financial affairs, but when a "miller" (boxer) got his opponent "in chancery," that meant with his arm locked around his neck so that his head might be pummeled with impunity.
• "Then hazard's your bane, and seven's the main" — a reference to the usual sentence for non-capital crimes: seven years' transportation to Australia.
• "You'll be sent up the spout" — hospitalized — "or be laid on the shelf" — transported to Australia.
• "Bang up the prime past" — "bang-up prime" means Absolutely Fabulous. (In the literal sense, not the Edie and Patsy sense.)
• "You goes to the Fleet" — either lodged in Fleet Prison, or murdered and your body dumped in the Fleet River.

EPISODE ART is from Varney the Vampyre, and shows Mr. Marchdale "fighting" with Sir Francis Varney.