"Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance" is a

ghost story A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature'' ...

by British writer

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

, included in his 1911 collection '' More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary''.

Plot summary

Mr Humphreys has recently inherited an estate in Wilsthorpe,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. There he learns about the mysterious death of his uncle, the previous owner, and the history of the strange maze and temple situated beside his new home.

Adaptation

The story was adapted for television as part of the

ITV Schools ITV Schools (full name: Independent Television for Schools and Colleges) was the educational television service set up in 1957 by the Independent Television Authority, broadcasting learning programmes for children ages 5 to 18 across ITV-affil ...

educational strand in 1976. This production is available on DVD as an extra on the Network DVD of the 1979 ''

ITV Playhouse ''Playhouse'' is a British television anthology series that ran from 1967 to 1983, which featured contributions from playwrights such as Dennis Potter, Rhys Adrian and Alan Sharp. The series began in black and white, but was later shot in colour ...

'' production of ''

Casting the Runes "Casting the Runes" is a short story written by the English writer M.R. James. It was first published in 1911 as the fourth story in ''More Ghost Stories'', which was James' second collection of ghost story, ghost stories. Plot summary Mr. Edward ...

''.

References

External links

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Full text of "Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance"A Podcast to the Curious
Episode 15 – Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance Short stories by M. R. James 1911 short stories Horror short stories {{1910s-horror-story-stub