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Glasgow Hell Club Reprinted from The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain (1886) Pages 101-105 There is a somewhat well-known story of an extremely startling character, related by Mrs. Crowe, under the title “Glasgow Hell Club,” in that chapter of The Night Side of Nature styled “The Future that Awaits Us.” The story, notwithstanding its sensationalism, is declared to be a relation of facts by which a contemporary account was published, but was bought up by the family of the chief actor in the drama. As usual, in such cases, a few copies escaped destruction and the narrative was reprinted and widely diffused. Mrs. Crowe’s version of this “undoubtedly well attested fact” is as follows: “Some 90 years ago, there flourished in Glasgow a club of young men, which, fro the extreme profligacy of its members and licentiousness of their orgies, was commonly called the Hell Club. Besides these nightly or weekly meetings, they held one grand saturnalia, on which each tried to excel the other in drunkenness and blasphemy and on these occasions, there was no star amongst them whose lurid light was more conspicuous than that of young Mr. Archibald B------, who endowed with brilliant talents and a handsome person, had held out great promise in his boyhood and it raised hopes which had been completely frustrated by his subsequent reckless dissipations. “One morning, after returning from this annual festival, Mr. Archibald B---having retired to bed, dreamt the following dream:-- “He fancied that he himself was mounted on a favourite black horse that he always rode, and that he was proceeding towards his own house, then a country seat embowered by trees and sitting upon a hill; now entirely built over and forming part of the city, when a stranger, whom the darkness of night prevented his distinctly discerning, suddenly seized his horse’s reins, saying ‘You must go with me.’ “’And who are you?’ exclaimed the young man with a volley of oaths, whilst he struggled to free himself. ‘That you will see by and by! Returned the other, in a tone that excited unaccountable terror in the youth, who, plunging his spurs ito his horse, attempted to fly. But in vain however fast the animal flew, the stranger was still beside him, till at length in his desperate efforts to escape, the rider was thrown, but instead of being dashed to the earth, as he expected, he found himself falling—falling—falling still as if sinking into the bowels of the earth. “At length, a period being put to the mysterious descent, he found breath to inquire of his companion who was still beside him whither they were going. ‘Where am I? Where are you taking me?’ he exclaimed. “’To hell!’ replied the stranger and immediately interminable echoes repeated the fearful sound ‘To Hell!’ To Hell! To Hell’” “At length a light appeared which soon increased to a blaze, but instead of the cries and groans and lamentings the terrified traveler expected, nothing met his ear but sounds of music, mirth, jollity and he found himself at the entrance of a superb building far exceeding any he had seen constructed with human hands, within too, what a scene! No amusement, employment, or pursuit of man on earth, but was here being carried on with a vehemence that excited his unutterable amazement. There the young and lovely still swam through the mazes of the giddy dance! There the panting steed still bore his brutal rider through the excitement of the goaded race! There the midnight bowl, the intemperate still drawled out the wanton song or maudlin blasphemy! The gambler plied for ever his endless game and the slaves of Mammon toiled through eternity their bitter task; whilst all the magnificence of earth paled before that which now met his view. “He soon perceived that he was amongst old acquaintances whom he know to be dead, and each, he observed was pursuing the object whatever it was that had formerly engrossed him; when, finding himself relieved of the presence of his unwelcome conductor, he ventured to address his former friend, Mrs. D., whom he saw sitting as had been her wont on earth, absorbed at loo, requesting her to rest from the game, and introduce him to the pleasures of the place, which appeared to him to be very unlike what he had expected, and indeed, an extremely agreeable one. But with a cry of agony, she answered that there was no rest in hell; that they must ever toil on at those very pleasures; and innumerable voices echoed through the interminable vaults ‘There is no rest in hell!’ Whilst, throwing open their vest, each disclosed in his bosom an ever burning flame! These, they said, were the pleasures of hell; their choice on earth was now their inevitable doom! In the midst of the horror this scene inspired, his conductor returned, and at his earnest entreaty restored him again to earth; but as he quitted him, he said ‘Remember in a year and a day we meet again.’ “At this crisis of his dream, the sleeper awoke feverish and ill; and whether from the effect of the dream, or of his preceding orgies, he was so unwell as to be obliged to keep his bed for several days, during which period he had time for many serious reflections, which terminated in a resolution to abandon the club and his licentious companions altogether. “He was no sooner well, however, than they flocked around him, bent on recovering so valuable a member of their society, and having wrung from him a confession of the cause of his deflection, which as may be supposed, appeared to them imminently ridiculous, they soon contrived to make him ashamed of his good resolutions. He joined them again, resumed his former course of life, and when the annual saturnalia came round, he found himself with his glass in his hand at the table, when the president rising to make the accustomed speech, began by saying, ‘Gentlemen, this being leap year it is a year and a day since our last anniversary, &c. &c. The words struck upon the young man’s ear like a knell; but ashamed to expose his weakness to the eyes of his companions, he sat out the feast, plying himself with wine even more liberally than usual in order to drown his intrusive thoughts; till, in the gloom of the a winter morning, he mounted his horse to ride home. Some hours afterwards, the horse was found with his saddle and bridle on, quietly grazing by the roadside, about half way between the city and Mr. B.’s house. Whilst a few yards off lay the corpse of his master.” Comment on this weird tale is needless on our part, it would “point a moral” in a far more emphatic manner were the real names given of the young man whose fate it is supposed to describe. |
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