Stoneground Ghost Tales 1912 Front cover

Edmund Gill Swain (19 February 1861 – 29 January 1938) was an English cleric and author. As a chaplain of

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, he was a colleague and contemporary of the scholar and author

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English medievalist scholar and author who served as provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936) as well as Vice-Chancellor of the Univers ...

, and a regular member of the select group to whom James delivered his famous annual Christmas Eve reading of a ghost story composed specially for the occasion. Swain collaborated with James on topical skits for amateur performance in Cambridge, but he is known best for the collection of ghost stories he published in 1912, entitled ''The Stoneground Ghost Tales''. He also wrote a history of

Peterborough Cathedral Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew, and formerly known as Peterborough Abbey or St Peter's Abbey, is a cathedral in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in the United Kingdom. The seat of the Church ...

Biography

Swain was born in

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, and educated at

Manchester Grammar School The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) is a highly Selective school, selective Private_schools_in_the_United_Kingdom, private day school for boys aged 7-18 in Manchester, England, which was founded in 1515 by Hugh Oldham (then Bishop of Exeter). ...

and

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

, where he studied Natural Sciences. He was ordained deacon in 1885 and priest in 1886 at Rochester. After six years as a

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

Camberwell Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...

, he was appointed

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

of King's College, where M. R. James was already the Dean and a renowned scholar. Swain, like James, lived in rooms in the college during his time there, and his duties included teaching younger boys at the college's choir school. A number of James' acquaintances later published ghost stories in the Jamesian style, notably

E. F. Benson Edward Frederic Benson (24 July 1867 – 29 February 1940) was an English novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and short story writer. Early life E. F. Benson was born at Wellington College (Berkshire), Wellington College in Berkshire, ...

and his brother

A. C. Benson Arthur Christopher Benson, (24 April 1862 – 17 June 1925) was an English essayist, poet and academic, who served as the 28th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He wrote the lyrics of Edward Elgar's ''Coronation Ode'', including the words ...

, and R. H. Malden, whose first such story was written in 1909. Swain himself lived and worked in Cambridge until 1905, when he accepted the

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

of Stanground, near Peterborough, which was in the gift of his old college, Emmanuel. As "Stoneground", the parish and Swain's own church of

St. John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

became the setting for his volume of ghostly stories published in 1912. He and Malden have been described as the first two important imitators of James. Swain was vicar of Stanground from 1905 to 1916, followed by a seven-year ministry in the rural parish of

Greenford Greenford () is a large town in the London Borough of Ealing in West London, Greater London, London, England, lying west from Charing Cross. It has a population of 46,787 inhabitants. Greenford is served by Greenford station, Greenford Stati ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, and ended his church career at

, where he served in a variety of roles including Honorary Canon, Librarian and Precentor. He died in Peterborough on 29 January 1938. A door in Peterborough Cathedral and awards for cathedral choristers are named in his honour.

''The Stoneground Ghost Tales''

''The Stoneground Ghost Tales'' (W. Heffer & Sons Ltd, Cambridge, 1912) is a collection of nine short stories set in and around a church and parish on the edge of

The Fens The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system o ...

in eastern England. The protagonist, the Rector of Stoneground, the Reverend Roland Batchel, is a kindly, humane bachelor and amateur

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic si ...

, not unlike Swain himself. The stories' style emulates that of James,Margaret Drabble and Jenny Stringer
"Ghost Stories"
''The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature'', 2003. Accessed 4 September 2010. although they have been described as lacking "the unsettling, anarchic malevolence" of James' own supernatural stories, and the book itself was dedicated to James. Some of the stories have been published frequently in anthologies since their first publication, but the whole collection was republished in 1989 as ''Bone to His Bone: The Stoneground Ghost Tales of E.G.Swain'' by Equation, with an additional six stories about Stoneground and Mr. Batchel by the author David G. Rowlands, and again in 1996 by

Ash-Tree Press Ash-Tree Press is a Canadian company that publishes supernatural and horror literature. The press has reprinted notable collections of ghostly stories by such writers as R. H. Malden, A. N. L. Munby, L. T. C. Rolt, Margery Lawrence, and Ele ...

Other writing

*''The Story of Peterborough Cathedral'' (R. Tuck & Sons, London, 1932)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Swain, E. G. 1861 births 1938 deaths Writers from Stockport People educated at Manchester Grammar School Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge 20th-century English historians English architectural historians English short story writers English horror writers British ghost story writers King's College, Cambridge