Loremen Podcast - Loremen S6Ep20 - Ada Freer and the Island Seers

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

The remote islands of Scotland are known to be home to folk with the second sight. Alasdair tells James the story of three gifted seers, each of whom came to a sticky end. (In one case, literally. Barrel of tar, innit?) This is a bumper episode for new ways to exploit the Loremen brand. We're talking a new TV show, a dark reboot of the name Kenneth, and a brand new music genre combining Drum & Bass with the Irish playwright George Bernard-Shaw. And, yes, these ideas are all copyrighted! P.S. Keep listening after the music for a clip from this week's bonus episode, available in full to our Patreons. This episode was edited by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Joseph Burrows - Audio Editor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join the LoreFolk at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/loremenpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi.com/loremen⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check the sweet, sweet merch here... ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.teepublic.com/stores/loremen-podcast?ref_id=24631⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @loremenpod ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/loremenpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.instagram.com/loremenpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.facebook.com/loremenpod⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Lawmen, a podcast about local legends and obscure curiosities from days of yore with me, Alistair Beckett King and me, James Shake Shaft and James. Do you believe in ghosts? Well, depends what you mean definitively by ghosts. Okay, let me put another question to you. Do you believe in psychic powers? Depends what you mean. Okay, okay, okay. Do you believe in Scottish people? Again, it depends what you mean.

Alright, well put on some socks, James, because I'm about to knock them off. What? My tale for you this dark evening is the story of Ada Threer and the island's seers. Hello there, James Shake Shaft. Hello there, Alistair Beckett King. Did you know I was in Hay on W Why the other week for the book festival there? Hay on Why? Well I'll tell you, I am a published author. I've written, have I written the book?

Yes, I've written four actually, as the listener should know by now. Whoa, at the time of recording? Yeah, four and a half, halfway through the fifth one. But hey, I'm not here to plug my books. Well, you should be. Guys, what the irritating advert I recorded and you said that you would add in as an advert is for. Oh, that's going out, but probably...

Great. Is that annoying people? I hope it's not. Sorry. And while I was in Hailmite, I picked up a book, popped into... Do you know how many bookshops they've got there? No. Neither do I.

It doesn't. They've got a bookshop for everything. There's an LGBTQ plus bookshop. There's a murder mystery one. There's like one for magic and wicker and that sort of thing. They've got a bookshop for everything. Is that two different shops? Oh, wicker.

Wicker. Okay. Wicker. Okay. Not like, cause I, cause with the hay vibe, it's like, oh, you're getting very much into your dried grasses. Oh, it's, it dried grasses. Oh, it's very much a woven festival. Yeah. Is wicker is woven?

I believe it's. Reeds? Yeah, I think so. Some kind of grass, long grasses. It must be a grass. Yeah. It's got to be a grass. It's simply Masby grass.

It must be grass. I was looking around the ghosts and supernatural sections of the secondhand bookshops and I picked up The Psychic Detectives by Colin Wilson. Colin Wilson, that name rings a bell. Well, he's quite a widely published author. He wrote about science and philosophy, wrote fiction. Very successful writer, but he also had a serious interest in clairvoyancy and the paranormal. And basically he's a good writer, but essentially he tricked me into buying this book.

What? Because it's more a history of like the Society for Psychical Research from start to finish rather than what I hoped, which was psychics solving crimes. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that real case. And the problem is, because I thought psychic detectivesectives, possible TV spin-off from Lawmen, starring you and me.

Yes, absolutely. What would your catchphrase be? Can I have the simply blank be blank that rhymes or have you now? So an adaptable catchphrase that applies to each episode. Yes, like a format of catchphrase. Yeah. All I can come up with for a psychic detective is, well, well, well, what will be going on here then?

Oh, that's nice. But I actually think the line is what's all this about, which isn't time-based. The problem with the book... What's going on here then? No, it's what's going on here then. What will be going on here then? Yeah, I think that's fine. What will be going on here? It works. It works. Commission us. Psychic detectives. The streaming platforms. Come on.

Yes. Come on. Come on. Gatekeepers. Stop keeping that gate. Stop saying who goes there, friend or foe. It's me, TV's Alastair Beckett King and the internet's James Shake Shaft. Yes. I've flicked onto the Colin Wilson Wikipedia page and I'm a bit stuck because I've just seen that when he left school at 16, Colin Wilson's interests

were switching to literature and his discovery of George Bernard Shaw's work, particularly Man and Superman, was a landmark. And I just can't help but think that that man and Superman were the same person but the man just had glasses on. I think someone was pulling the wool over George Bernard Shaw's eyes. Well, he looks completely different. Oh, I was looking for a Clark Kent. Could you, could you, oh, it's Superman.

It's Superman dressed in a reporter's clothes. I think we've done impressions of George Bernard Shaw on this before. He did speak like that. Yes. But that isn't offensive. Yes. That is what he sounded like. It's simply George Bernard Moore be George Bernard Shaw. It really works as a catchphrase. Let's keep that. So, really the problem with this is,

psychic detection in real life is someone commits a really horrible crime, the likes of which we don't really deal with on Lawmen, and then later on a psychic goes, I see a figure of a man, and then it turns out a man did do the crime. So that's kind of like, yeah, really not very much fun. But the book did introduce me to Juan Ada Goodrich Freer, who was herself a psychic, and she wrote many books in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And one of those books was The Outer Isles. Is this, that's usually dairy and fruit and veg veg and sometimes booze? Of course, this is The Outer Isles in the sense of small islands.

And the book was written in 1920 and it has several accounts of second sight in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Is it like Lionel with Sight Beyond Sight? I don't get the, I don't like Thundercats, sorry. Didn't like it, didn't get Thundercats, sorry. You're a he-man purist. Yeah. Sorry. Didn't like it. You're a he-man purist. Yeah. Wow. It simply may skull be grayskull.

So the Highlands of Scotland and the Islands, as you and I well know, are known for people with the Second Sight. And now I'm going to share the stories of a few Scottish Seers with you. But first of all, have you ever made a frith, James? I made a frith. Have you ever made a frith? No, I don't think so. No, correct answer. You probably haven't.

Is it a type of little river? No, it's not. That's usually a good guess. It's a method of divining the future or finding something that was lost. Ah, simply myth be frith. So if you have a question that needs answering, you make a frith, which is you say a Hail Mary and then you walk Dessel around your house. Sad. Well, I don't know if I'm pronouncing Dessel correctly, but it is a direction.

Oh, okay. Not like shortened from desolate. So it's, it's sad, but on time. It's effectively it's clockwise, but before, we had that direction, but we didn't know what it was called. Hey, that's a really great point, Alistair Beckett King. Sun wise was the direction because in the Northern Hemisphere, that's the direction the sun travels in the sky. So if you follow the sun around a house, you're walking clockwise

around a house. Ah, oh my God. Yeah. Do clocks go backwards in Australia now? Probably. Time is actually moving backwards in Australia. That might have been satirical. I don't know if that was really good bit of satire about Australian politics. Let us know. Well, it is. They do have winter when we have summer. Yeah, they do, don't they? If anyone is in Australia, please have written in about whether time's going backwards there.

If anyone was in Australia, please have been going to write in. So it's a very lucky direction to travel in in Scotland, Dessel, sun-wise, clockwise. So what you do is you say a Hail Mary, you walk clockwise around your house. And then when you get back to your door sill, you quickly, you make a circle with your fingers and thumb and then you look through it. And what you see is kind of the answer to your question. I don't know if you're supposed to see the thing you were looking for or if you see something that is a hint, but they've all got different meanings. So if you happen to see two little straws crossed, making a sign of the cross, that would be good luck.

Right. A man standing up, that's good luck. A woman standing up, very bad. Oh no. Those are the only ones I know. Straw, man, woman. Yeah. The three, the three major food groups. Yeah, straw and a cross, man or woman. Yeah, the three genders.

A quick sidebar, just because I ran into this guy while I was reading Ada's book. One of the people she quotes is the writer Martin Martin. It's simply Martin to Martin. That is just his English name. His Scottish name is Martin McGillie Martin. Much more sensible. He seems to not to have been particularly into folklore. I had a quick look at his book, A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland from 1716. And I just read one tiny thing, which is a little story from Borrera, which I think

might be Borrere or Borrere. I said the same word the same way both times there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't know how to pronounce it. It's a tiny uninhabited island in the St Kilda archipelago, way off the northwest coast of Scotland. St Kilda? I think St Kilda is in Australia as well. Probably so far away from Scotland.

How deep does this probably all go all the way to Australia? Apparently a Captain Peters, who was a Dutchman, was forced onto Barrera by a storm, and he then offended the locals by building a cockboat on a Sunday. And I just… That ties in very nicely to last week's. I know, Nautical Folk, you've really got to sort this out, because there's very little difference as far as we can tell between a cockboat and a pinnace. I think a pinnace was carried on a ship, whereas a cockboat and a penis. I think a penis was carried on a

ship, whereas a cockboat was towed behind. That's as far as I can tell is the only difference between them. Come up with a different naming system. I've got, imagine having a cockboat and a toad behind. It would offend the locals. Another, another tale from Ada's book is that of the Bran Sir, B-R-A-H-A-N. I think I'm pronouncing it okay. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Bran, it's a place in Scotland. And the Bran Sir was named Canyach Owerth.

The problem is I'm just saying an impression of exactly what the woman on the Learn Gaelic website says. Cognach ower? Cognach ower? I barely know her. Of course, of course, as I'm sure you know, James, that is Gaelic for Dark Kenneth. Oh no. Yeah, a gritty reboot of Kenneth. I think it's gone too far.

Cognach ower was Kenneth Mackenzie in his 1878 book, The Prophecies of the Brandseer, Alexander Mackenzie. Possibly, I don't think any relation. Wait a minute. Mackenzie doesn't mean dark. That's just... No, no. Okay. Just a coincidence, right? I think it means son of Kenzie. Yeah. Sounds... makes sense. Ower. Don't know how to pronounce it. Sorry, Gaelic speakers. That means dark.

It seems that Kenneth's mum, before he had his powers, was walking in a graveyard one night and she saw one of the graves was open and its inhabitant was walking abroad. And so what she did was she laid her staff over the mouth of the grave, knowing that this would prevent the spirit from returning. And after a short time, sure enough, the spirit did return. The image of a fair lady came drifting over the churchyard. I dressed her thus, lift thy distaff from off my grave and let me enter my dwelling of the dead. Kanyakh's mum says, I will, but first you have to tell me how come you stayed out of your grave when all the other

spirits are already safe back in the underground. And she explained that... All tucked up in grave. Exactly. Exactly. They're all tucked up in grave. And she explained that presumably, I think they're visiting their relatives, but she was a Norwegian princess. And so she had to go all the way to Norway. And so it took her a bit longer to get back, which is quite, quite sweet, really. That's fair enough. And she said to the woman, In remembrance of me and as a small reward for your intrepidity and courage, I shall possess you of a valuable secret. Go and find in Yonder Lake a small round blue stone, which give to your son, Kenneth, who by it shall reveal future events.

So that, according to one source, is how Dark Kenneth got a hold of his magic stone and in that version it's blue, but in other accounts it's a stone with a hole in the middle of it that he held up to one eye. Like a hag stone, yeah. I've trained my kids to look for hag stones on the beach now. And so you should. I'm very proud. So they can gain psychic powers. Oh, you want to be careful because by holding it up to one eye he permanently lost sight in that eye. Oh God. Through the stone, he was able to see the future. That

would be an awkward conversation at school the next one. Actually, really, before you try and turn your kids into psychics, you want to hear what happened to Dark Kenneth. He made lots of prophecies, but he saw things a little bit too clearly that, you know, he was speaking the truth and he had to be silenced. There's a couple of different versions of it. In one case, Lady Seifoth asked him what her husband was up to while he was away in Paris. And he was like, yeah, it's not important.

You don't really want to know. And she was like, no, please tell me what he was up to. And he told her that, you know, what he saw, what her husband was getting up to on his own, you know, all his weekend in Paris. And she wasn't very happy with that. Another version of it has him revealing that he thought the guests, the guests at Lord Sleaford's party were more the children of footmen and grooms than the children of gentlemen. Either way, he was plunged into a barrel of hot tar for witchcraft. Oh, I know. Yeah. We'll discourage the hags collecting then. People think they want the truth, but they actually don't.

They want to put someone in hot tar. Speaking of barrel related deaths, let me introduce you to Niven McVicar. Son of a vicar. Not just because that's a lovely name. He is also a Scottish seer. He was the first first reformed minister of Inverary who preached under a rock, according to Ada, and who was famous for one big prophecy about a bloody battle that was going to take place alongside a dike that hadn't been built yet. It's really nasty stuff. I'll read it to you. Excuse me. Oh yeah.

A man born with only one hand would hold three king's horses and so great would be the slaughter that people would walk dry shod on the bodies of the slain across the ford, that the ravens would drink their full of man's blood and and the river would run with blood, and after that day one would travel in Argyllshire, 40 miles without seeing chimney smoke or hearing a cock crow." Yeah, so pretty intense. What's the chimneys got to? I got confused about the chimneys. Well, I think there's just nobody there. I think the area was so cleared that there'd be no chimney smoke. And for some reason, the cockerels have been killed as well.

Oh. Or they've just fled seeing their chance. They're so scared. Or they're just keeping quiet. Yeah. Lying low. Because presumably you'd set a cockerel like you set an alarm, like you'd get the tower. Yeah, exactly. There's nobody to get up. So there's no point crowing. No. No. I tried to find out if this actually came true. And

I looked at Archibald Campbell's records of Argyle from 1885. And as far as I can tell, the dyke that the prophecy was about didn't exist, but it did get built later. And there's a Ford not far from Inverary Castle, which became known as Athnan and Lan or the Sword Ford, because it seems to be around the site of Garron Bridge near Loch Du. But I can't quite understand how that happens, that you're building a place and you're like, you know, this sounds like the place from that prophecy where that horrible tragedy is going to occur.

So let's name it after the thing that is going to happen. Anyway, it's very confusing. Yes, it is. But one of his prophecies did definitely come true So let's name after the thing that is going to happen in anyway. It's very confusing. Hmm. Yes, it is. But one of his prophecies did definitely come true in a kind of 17th century, maybe final destination, maybe style death. So the Marquis of Argyle said to Niven the seer, what death shall I die? And Niven told him that he was going to be beheaded. Hmm.

Be beheaded. He was going to be beheaded. Be beheaded. He was going to be beheaded. I'm not sure I said the right number of B's there. He was going to be beheaded. He was going to be headed. Yeah. With like, add an extra head. That either means they pop an extra one on top.

It's too many. It's too many. Or just nut him. Just nut him to death. Simply mad behead. Be mad? Behead? It doesn't make any sense.

So, he said he was going to be beheaded. The Marquis didn't like that at all. He said, what death shall you yourself die? And Niven said, I shall be drowned, my lord. The Marquis got an idea, which is a twist on a famous, familiar folk tale story where people know they're going to drown and try not to drown. Marquis seems to have thought if he could prevent Niven from drowning, somehow he wouldn't be beheaded.

Oh. Yeah, that's logical. Because if one of the prophecies doesn't come true, then the other one can't. All prophecies are rendered void. Exactly. So he packed Niven off to a tower with a ghillie or servant to keep an eye on him at all times. One night the drum beat an alarm of fire and the servant ran to see what was the matter. As he did not return soon, the parson attempted to go out and fell from an outside stair into a hog's head for catching rainwater.

When his ghillie returned, he found the parson feet uppermost in the butt and quite dead. I think we just need to translate a little bit. Feet uppermost in the butt and quite dead. I think we just need to translate a little bit. Feet uppermost in the butt? First of all, he fell into a hog's head. Which is a barrel. That's a specific barrel size. It's a size of barrel. And a butt, in this sense, I'm assuming.

It's always the same thing. Yeah. Yep. For a butt. Unless that is what happens when you're headed. You get feet up most in the butt. You end up feet up most in the butt. Yeah. He fell head first into a barrel and he drowned in the barrel. And then his servant came and found his feet sticking out and was like,

this is the one thing we didn't want to happen. So from Niven MacVicar to Miss X, who is none other than Aedad Goodrich Freer, who wrote the book The Outer Isles. Yes, booze. She was something of a seer herself. Oh, like in Spider-Man. Yeah, exactly. Nice. So she came from a noble Highland family and you know as well as I do, James,

that people in the Highlands are often gifted with the second sight. Sight beyond site. Exactly. In the 1880s, around the age of 17, Ada met Frederick Myers, who was one of the top guys at the Society of Sociological Research. Okay, I said that wrong. There were too many sirs. I, David Bowie did. You were reverse-headed. The society of societal research.

I, Harry H. Corbett did that. At the age of 17, Ada met Frederick Myers, who was one of the top men at the Society for Psychical Research. Oh, yes. Well, okay. I say top men. I don't mean that as an endorsement of him. He's not a particularly likable character. He was very attracted to young Ada and to clairvoyant powers and other things about her as well. And they probably began a relationship even though he was married. He was, he was basically a serial philanderer. Nobody really likes this guy.

But Ada went on to write for the SPR's proceedings, which was their regular publication under the name Miss X. You're what? Miss X. Yeah, what? Miss X. Yeah, what? Anyway, sorry, it doesn't really work. And she talked about the various demonstrations she'd made of her psychic abilities. I'm reading from Colin Wilson's book now. She claimed that she had been able to obtain, by looking into a crystal, an address she had destroyed and located a lost key and a

missing medical prescription. Everyone at the society agreed that such an attractive and refined young lady must be trustworthy. So she became a regular correspondent with the SPR, was involved in quite a big scandal. So up in Perthshire, there was a place called Balachin House. Yeah. Like if you were in trouble with an Irishman. If you were telling off a house. You could give that house a Balachin.

If George Bernard Shaw was annoyed about a house. So a Mr. Joseph Heaven was staying there. He was renting it. What a collection of names, by the way. Preempt in the name. Well, I think for some reason, this is not his given name. His given name was Cielo. It was Spanish, which means heaven.

But presume for some reason it's been translated into English. Joseph Heaven, the heavens, he and his family were staying there. His wife and daughter were terrified by, would you like to guess? Heavens above? If only it were that good. It's mysterious bangings. The same thing that happens at every haunting. Yeah.

Okay. So we've got a house with quite bad plumbing and a mysterious ghost of some kind. Either way, Joseph Heaven wasn't particularly afraid, but his wife, Signora Heaven, presumably, insisted on leaving. And word reached the SPR that there was a new, a new ghost in town. And they set up an investigation into the haunting, masterminded by Ada. Eventually in 1899, she was going to publish a book called The Alleged Haunting of Balachin House. Although, although it's to keep it anonymous, they had blanked out the B, so it's just B dash. Oh, looks like a swear.

Yeah. It's like the alleged haunting of... ...Bloody... ...Monger. House. House. So, the SBR went about this in a very clandestine way. Lord Bute paid for the investigation and one Colonel LeMisuria Taylor rented the house

saying that he wanted to take it for grouse shooting. Yeah. They're like, well, it's been a very naughty house. I realized that I've made it sound like the house is coming along with him as he goes shooting. I didn't mean that. We've told it, we've, you know, it's been naughty, but we've told it off. So yeah, yeah.

If you don't start by having yourself, there'll be no grouse shooting. And then the SBR moved in and started their investigations. And there are many conflicting accounts from the people who stayed there. Ada seemed to find a lot of evidence of ghosts. Others didn't find that much evidence. The butler's account is perhaps the most impressive. Would you like me to read it to you in full? Yes, please. Yes.

In case any casting agents are listening. In the character of a butler. I was going to do English. What would you like me to read it to you in full? Yes, please. Yes. In case any casting agents are listening. In the coach of a butler. I was going to do English. What would you like? Where would you like the butler to be from? Yeah, I think an English butler sounds right, doesn't it? He describes the sensation that came over him before a ghost made a sound. When watching, I always experienced a peculiar sensation a few

minutes before hearing any noise. I can only describe it as like suddenly entering an ice house and a feeling that someone was present and about to speak to me. So after one night of chasing noises with the gentleman and trying to work out if they came from the water pipes, he turned in. I then retired to my bed, but not to sleep, for I had not been in bed three minutes before I experienced the sensation as before. But instead of being followed by knocking, my bed clothes were lifted up and let fall again first at the foot of my bed but gradually coming towards my head.

I held the clothes around my neck with my hands, but they were gently lifted in spite of my efforts to hold them. I then reached around me with my hand, but could feel nothing. This was immediately followed by my being fanned, as though some bird was flying around my head, and I could distinctly hear and feel something breathing on me. I then tried to reach some matches that were on a chair by my bedside, but my hand was held back, as if by some invisible power. Then the thing seemed to retire to the foot of my bedside, but my hand was held back as if by some invisible power. Then the thing seemed to retire to the foot of my bed.

Then I suddenly found the foot of my bed lifted up and carried around towards the window for about three or four feet, then replaced to its former position. All this did not take, I should think, more than two or three minutes, although at the time it seemed hours to me. Just then the clock struck four and being tired out with my long nights watching, I fell asleep. At that point you fell asleep? At that point, it's what would happen I think after the most terrifying supernatural experience

of your life. You would just immediately fall asleep without even getting out of bed. Absolute definite proof of ghosts and potentially an afterlife. Yep. Let's wrap the podcast up right here. Done. So did you just slough a gavel down, James? Yes.

I just bumped a laptop charger. Okay. Was it a ghost? I let me have a nap. You're immediately honkshoeing. Yes. So still, it's a pretty scary account, even if I am a little bit skeptical of it. But before, before Ada could publish her book, the scandal broke out.

One of her guests, a man named Jay Callender Ross. Jay Callender Ross? Jay Callender Ross. I don't know what his first name was. Okay. We can only assume his full name was Joey Chandler Ross. I don't know what his first name was. We can only assume his full name was Joey Chandler Ross. He wrote a letter to the Times basically saying that the whole thing was nonsense. He'd been there, the house wasn't haunted, it was all Ada Frears doing, and it didn't even have a

reputation for being haunted among the locals. It just had a reputation for housing Roman Catholics. Right. Which are not ghosts. Yeah, they had like a big joke. You know, it's like, it's not even ghosts, just Roman Catholics. Hilarious late 19th century gag. I suppose like popes with all the clothes, they got a bit of a ghost vibe. They might. You could easily mistake. I don't think anyone was saying the pope was there, James. But yes, you could, Pope or Ghost, possible segment on a quiz show. André Yes. What about a Ghost Pope?

Jason So the owner of the house was quite understandably upset to discover the house had been rented under false pretenses, because nobody wanted to rent a house that was reputed to be haunted. And now everyone had heard it because it was in the times and there was a big back and forth. So people were writing in saying, no, it is haunted. And now everyone had heard it because it was in the Times and there was a big back and forth. So people were writing in saying, no, it is haunted. And people were writing in saying, no, it isn't haunted. And that account from the Butler, it was one of the letters sent into the Times. So the SPR was very embarrassed by all of this. One of the scandalous things being that Myers had been staying at the house with a young woman who wasn't his wife or Ada, just another young woman. So they were keen, the SBR was keen for it all to just sort of go away and nothing, you know, not to say anything about it. But

in spite of that, Ada went ahead and published The Alleged Haunting of House and went on to write many other books, including The Outer Isles, and she eventually went to America and married a German American and died in 1931 at the age of 56. Oh. And 74. Huh? Wait, what? Yeah, what's that? What's that? What's that coming over the horizon? Is it a twist? Yeah. Is that a twist, James? I think so. Yeah, flipping right, it's a twist. Yeah. Her death certificate says she was 54, and her husband believes she was two years

younger than him. In fact, she was 74 and was 16 years older than him. What? Yeah, this sounds like a case for the psychic detectives. Yeah. Which one of you mugs is a ghost? I'm now imagining it more like the Sweeney. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're tough detectives. Yeah. They're not like, yeah. Extra sexy police. ESP. Just driving around in the 70s. They're rough up a ghost. They probably got a network of grass ghosts. Yeah. So what?

Wait, what? Almost everything the world knew about Ada Goodrich Freer was a lie. She wasn't born in 1870, she was born in 1857. So, she was about 30 when she met Myers the first time. Okay, that makes that relationship slightly less problematic. Which makes his horrible behaviour more age-appropriate. Yeah, but still. But he didn't know. Yeah, it's still bad. It's still bad.

He was aiming for inappropriate. Fortunately, it turned out to be slightly less bad than it sounded. But he didn't know. Yeah, it's still bad. It's still bad. He was aiming for inappropriate. Fortunately, it turned out to be slightly less bad than it sounded. But he didn't do anything to set that up. Her name wasn't Ada Goodrich Freer. It was just Ada Freer. She added the Goodrich. And she wasn't descended from Highland Knobs. She was the daughter of a vet from Leicestershire. The accounts of her clairvoyance were all just sort of self-reported, so she could easily have faked them. In the houses, she always seemed to be wherever the ghosts were making noises.

Sometimes she'd go to bed with the same area of the house as other people, and they'd come down for breakfast saying they'd heard nothing. And she'd say, oh, there's noises all night. Well, that's quite a spooky thing, isn't it? If one person heard the noises. Very spooky that the ghosts could only be heard in her room. Yeah. And there were reports that she faked a table tipping and got caught. How could she react to that though?

I mean, what could you do to show your displeasure of faking a table tipping? You got to, you got to put it back up again in order to flip the table, presumably. But she, but she was the faker. So it would be, it would have been one of the people being the fake ease who would have been upset and would have flipped the table. Then then she would have been annoyed at being, you know, people accusing her. So she left to put the table back again, that again. And then someone's just annoyed at the table, get a flip the whole time. So they're going to have to reset it. And then someone's just annoyed at the table, get a flip the whole time. So they're gonna have to reset it and then... Can we stop flipping tables? He says flipping a table.

This ballackin' table. And I think perhaps the worst thing I've read that she did, most scandalously of all, her reports into Scottish folklore that she wrote for the SPR were plagiarised from unpublished research that she had borrowed from a father, Alan Macdonald. Father Alan, Donald, son of Donald. Yes. Whoa. That's confusing lineage.

For what he was a father, he was a vicar. He was the father Alan, the son of the Donald. He was a vicar and an amateur folklorist in Scotland. People were quite upset when they discovered she'd just been publishing his research. His research? I don't know which one to say. I don't know. Me neither. I don't mind fooling the weirdos at the SPR, but I do think still in an old vicar's work. No, we've gone too far, Edda.

Son of a vicar. The folklorist Alexander Carmichael wrote in 1901, We hear from various sources that Miss Freer is not genuine, and some call her a clever imposter. I never got my wife to believe in her. In London, it is said that one society after another, and one man after another, have thrown her off. A bit of 10th century sexism there at the end.

Yeah. Bad enough that she fooled everyone, but she did it in a very woman fashion. So an interesting character. She got away with it. Yeah. Yeah. Till the death certificate. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. She, she, she fooled him. So that's the story of Ada Freer and the Ireland Seers. James, would you like to score Ada Freer and the Scottish Seers. James, would you like to score Ada Freer and the Scottish Seers? Or the Island Seers? I forgot what I called it. Do you want to score it? Ada Freer and the Island Seers, yes please.

Are you ready for the scores, James? Absolutely. My first category is supernatural. Now, nobody said the butler was lying. Nobody said that. Nobody said that. Was it Ada Freer in an the butler was lying. Nobody said that. Nobody said that. Was it Ada Freer in an elaborate butler outfit? I do. Honestly, honestly, I think it probably was.

I've no evidence for that. But we don't have a name for that butler. And I think that might not be real. But my official position for the purposes of the podcast is that it is real. Ghosts Exists, five out of five. Well, you can't get 5 out of 5 for one. A ghost doing kids know kids. But that's not the only supernatural instance. We've got making a frith. Frithin. I did like the frithin. Yeah, you like a frith?

And that guy knew that he was going to get drowned, get two legs up the brad. Yeah, I think that's what it said. Yeah. Yeah. He predicted his own death. The Brian Sear, there was a ghost in that story. And a magic stone. Yeah. So I think it is actually a three. Oh, okay.

All right. But Edith Freer did do quite a lot to subtract ghostly credibility. My second category for you is names. Yes. May I remind you of Martin Martin? Yes. Thank you very much. Who only appeared in the episode because his name was Martin Martin.

Martin Martin and Niven McVicar. Niven McVicar? That was such a good one. Dark Kenneth. Dark Kenneth. And Balachin. Balachin House. And Mr. Joseph Heaven.

Mr. Joseph Heaven. Mr. Joseph. And if they lived in a flat and you lived underneath them, you would get to say Heaven's above all the time. And they did move out of the house. So they might've moved into an upper flat. So that could have happened. And stomped about a bit.

Yeah. There was so many. Ada Freer and the Ireland Seers. Great name. And Ada Freer and the Ireland Seers. Great name. Ada Freer and the Ireland Seers. You can see here. George Bernard Shaw doing a little version of George Holland. Was that George Bernard Shaw's hootenanny? We filmed it in June.

They filmed them all in the 19th century. Just guess what was going to happen. No, George Bernard's show lived into the 20th century. Sorry, I'm sure he did. Sorry, listener. Yeah, because he's recorded quite accurately. Obviously, some people were recorded before the 20th century. Yeah, film was invented in the late 19th century.

And audio recordings too. Before that, yeah. But I think they just didn't have any bass. I think they didn't have the ability to record bass. That's why everyone sounds thin and reedy. Yeah, that is why you can't dance to any recordings of George Bernard Shaw. It's just drum George. It's just drumming. But that has confused me. But I still think it's five out of five. It absolutely has to be. That's great.

And now I'm thinking of pitching a musical genre, which will be DGBS. I would like to hear a remix of recordings of George Bernard Shaw as the drop on German bass tracks, please. I don't have the technical skills to do that. And I'm not going to ask AI. My next category, the Miss X files. Oh, you're what? Which, saying it aloud sounds a lot saucier than my intentions.

Well, Ada's name was Miss X and, you know, we're working through her body of work, the Miss X files. But I didn't mean it to sound so saucy. But also, you know, the psychic insectives, that's a bit like X-Files. You and me, we're quite like, we're quite like the X-Files from X-Files. Uh, well, I'm going to have to give it a massive score because I wanted to get commissioned. Yeah. Yeah.

You've really got to let people know that there's an audience there saying, we want Shake Shaft and ABK solving supernatural mysteries nightly. Gatekeepers? You gatekeepers? Open those gates now. Maybe just open the smaller gate within the larger gate. Or even just slide back the little shutter in that gate and stick your face right into it so that we can talk directly to you.

Yeah, yeah, come on. Come on, gatekeeper. Five out of five, absolutely. For the Miss X-Files, to you. Yeah, come on. Come on, gatekeeper. Five out of five. Absolutely. For the Miss X-Files. Thank you. And my final category, The Dark Ken Rises. What a prophetic superhero-y episode it has been, James.

We've got so many prophecies. Yes. We've got violence, bloody violence. We've got man and Superman. We've got man and Superman. We did have man and Superman. Man with glasses and then after, and then later Superman. Yeah. By George Bernard Shaw.

Definitely two different people. And the Thundercats, I think. Whoever they are. There were the Thundercats in there with Sight Beyond Sight. Wow. Yeah. That's all come together. Cause yeah, Niven, Martin, Martin, they sound like Batman villains.

Yeah, alliterative. Yeah. Do I mean alliterative? Yeah, their names are the same initial. Yeah. Martin Martin, he could be a Marvel character. Yes. And yeah, I think George Bernard Shaw could have played Bane as well.

What a lovely voice. What a lovely, lovely voice. I'm Gotham's reckoning. I don't know if I'm more afraid of offending Tom Hardy or George Bernard Shaw fans. I do think Tom Hardy might be slightly better in a fight than George Bernard Shaw. Or George Bernard Shaw fans. What if Tom Hardy is a George Bernard Shaw fan? Would that make him more annoyed or less? I hope he would just be flattered by the comparison. It's got to be five out of five for the Dark Ken Rises. I think also every episode of The Psychic Detectives would end with us catching the ghost and it going, you'll never take me alive.

Yeah. Cause it's a ghost, but you've forgotten about maybe we would probably be getting coffee and we'll just have a little chuckle about that. Yeah, you're right. I guess the ghost was right. We didn't take him alive. It's very hard to freeze frame in a podcast. Sounds like your phone's died.

Just please understand that James and I were clinking mugs of coffee together and freeze framing there. Yeah, I did it. I did it again. I froze frame again. Well, there you have it, James. Proof, fifth proof, be needy. But if you do want to hear some of the stuff that was not in the podcast, you can go to

the podcast. I'll put it in the description. I'll put it in the description. I'll put it in the description. I'll put it in the description. I'll put it in the description. I'll put it in the description. I'll put it in the description. I'll put it in the description. I'll put it in the description. I'll put it in the description. Proof if proof be needy.

But if you do want to hear some of the stuff that was no doubt cut out, definitely an offensive Scottish joke by me. Some of it will definitely have been cut out. Then please join us at patreon.com forward slash lawmen pod. And you can also get access to the law folk discord and you can meet other like-minded Lorefolk. And thank you very much to Joe for editing this episode. And thank you very much to all the people that actually already do support us on patreon.com forward slash lawmenpod.

If you like hearing me doing funny voices, I have books and audiobooks. If you like this podcast to a point, and that point is when I start speaking, you will love Alistair's audio book. Did you see in the discord people were sharing a life hacks from the Guardian? One about cleaning a sieve. Did you see that? Cleaning the sieve. Yes. And the life hack was put it in the dishwasher. It's not a life hack. That's an appliance.

It was basically put it in the dishwasher or just clean it. Just wash it carefully with water and a brush. It's like, what do you think I was doing? I don't have a dishwasher. Do you think I just rubbed it on a dog's face? What do you think I was doing? Have you thought about washing your sieve? Yes. That is how I was trying to wash it until I read this life hack. With great expectations. I was very disappointed with all of those articles and Charles Dickens' book, Great Expectations.