W. H. D. Rouse
speaker
684 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 1 Aug
W. H. D. Rouse’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
work i should say not i went one night to a bedroom where a couple of little boys were sleeping and i started in with a few groans and then half materialized myself so that i could just be seen one of the kids sat up in bed and nudged the other and said say i do believe there's a ghost in the room and the other said hold on don't scare him let's get the radio set and see if it'll go right through him
they both hopped out of bed as brisk as bees and one called downstairs dad we've got a ghost up here we don't know whether he's just an emanation or partially material we're going to stick radio into him believe me continued the ghost that was all i waited to hear electricity just knocks me edgeways
he shuddered then he went on well it's been like that ever since nowhere to go and nothing to haunt i've tried all the big hotels railway stations everywhere once i tried to haunt a pullman car but i had hardly started before i observed a notice quiet is requested for those already retired and i had to quit
well then i said why don't you just get immaterial or dematerial or whatever you call it and keep so why not go away wherever you belong and stay there that's the worst of it answered the ghost they won't let us they haul us back these spiritualists have learned the trick of it and they just summon us up every time they like they get half a crown apiece for each materialization but what do we get
the ghost paused and a sort of spasm went all through him gall darn it he exclaimed they're at me now there's a group of fools somewhere sitting round a table at a christmas eve party and they're calling up a ghost just for fun a darned poor notion of fun i call it
i'd like to like you but his voice trailed off he seemed to collapse as he sat and my dressing-gown fell on the floor and at that moment i heard the ringing of the bells that meant it was christmas eve midnight and i knew that the poor fellow had been dragged off to work
part two of a christmas miscellany twenty twenty three by various authors mr pepys's christmases from the powder of sympathy by christopher morley
christmas being the topic suppose we call upon mr samuel pepys for testimony the imperishable diarist had as keen a faculty of enjoyment as any man who ever lived he wrote one of the world's greatest love stories the story of his own zealous inquisitive jocund love of life surely it is not amiss to inquire what record be left as to the festival of cheer
on seven of the nine christmases in the diary mr pepys went to church sometimes more than once though when he went twice he admits he fell asleep the music and the ladies finery were undoubtedly part of the attraction very great store of fine women there is in this church more than i know anywhere else about us is his note for christmas sixteen sixty four
but in that generously mixed and volatile heart there was a valve of honest aspiration and piety one can imagine him sitting in his pew on christmas sixteen sixty one he nearly left the church in a huff because the verger didn't come forward to open the pew door for him
his alert mind giving close attention to the sermon of his favorite mr mills busy with sudden resolutions of virtue and industry yet happily conscious of any beauty within eyeshot the giving of presents was not a large part of christmas in those days in sixteen sixty two mister gowden gave pepys a great chine of beef and three dozen of tongues but this had its drawbacks
pepys had to give five shillings to the man who brought it and also half a crown to the porters drink and food were the important part of the festival at christmas sixteen sixty mister and mrs pepys with tom pepys as guest enjoyed a good shoulder of mutton and a chicken
this was a brave christmas for mrs pepys she had a new mantle we must remember that the fair elizabeth though already married five years was then only twenty years old not all mrs pepys's christmases were as merry as that i fear on christmas sixteen sixty three she was troubled by anxious thoughts
my wife began i know not whether by design or chance to inquire what she should do if i should by any accident die to which i did give her some slight answer but shall make a good use of it to bring myself to some settlement for her sake
why haven't the ingenious life insurance advertisers made use of this telling bit of copy christmas sixteen sixty eight seems to have been poor mrs pepys's worst but perhaps it was only her natural feminine frivolity that caused the sadness samuel says dinner alone with my wife who poor wretch sat undressed all day till ten at night altering and lacing of a noble petticoat
this noble petticoat was perhaps to be worn at the play they attended the next day women pleased what a pleasant christmas card that scene would make mrs pepys sitting neglige over the niceties of her needlework with samuel beside her making the boy read to me the life of julius caesar
but we do not get as the current phrase is mrs pepys at all if we think of her as merely the irresponsible girl for at christmas sixteen sixty six we read lay pretty long in bed and then rose leaving my wife desirous to sleep having sat up till four this morning seeing her maids make mint spies
ah we have no such mince-pies nowadays mrs pepys's mince-pies were evidently worthy the tradition of that magnificent delicacy for at christmas sixteen sixty two when elizabeth was ill abed samuel records with an evident touch of regret that he had to send abroad for one
which brings us back to the christmas viands in sixteen sixty two besides the mince pie from abroad he dined by my wife's bedside with great content having a mess of brave plum porridge and a roasted pullet
we are tempted to think sixteen sixty six was samuel's best christmas parson mills made a good sermon then home and dined well on some good ribs of beef roasted and mint spies only my wife brother and barker and plenty of good wine of my own and my heart full of true joy
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