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Gibbet Hill
A walk out of London becomes an encounter with something difficult to explain. In “Gibbet Hill”, a traveller visits the Surrey countryside around Hindhead and meets three children near a memorial to a murdered sailor. The landscape is real; the unease grows from the way ordinary curiosity gives way to menace. Published in the Dublin Daily Express Christmas supplement on 17 December 1890, the story belongs to Bram’s writing before Dracula. Original newspaper catalogue.
Finding a forgotten story
Its return to readers has two strands. Paul S. McAlduff, working with John Edgar Browning, identified the story in 2016. Brian Cleary later found it independently in the National Library of Ireland’s newspaper collections; the Library announced his discovery in October 2024. The editors’ later account explicitly acknowledges both discoveries. Recognising each contribution gives a fuller picture of how archival research works. Scholarly edition front matter.
The story is worth reading beyond the excitement of its recovery. An observant narrator, an unsettling landscape and the uncertainty between waking and altered perception suggest interests that Bram would develop elsewhere. Its representation of the children also invites scrutiny of Victorian ideas about race and the supposedly mysterious East. These are readings of the story, rather than proof that it was a draft for Dracula. Scholarly edition front matter.
Read the original
The NLI’s announcement links to a digital copy of the newspaper supplement. It lets readers encounter the original publication rather than only a modern account of the discovery.
A new publication
The original newspaper supplement is available through the NLI catalogue. A separate illustrated edition, with Cleary’s discovery account, commentary by Paul Murray and work by Paul McKinley, supports the Rotunda Foundation’s Charlotte Stoker Fund for research into preventing acquired deafness in vulnerable newborn babies. The rediscovery has therefore connected Bram’s writing with a cause that recalls his mother’s advocacy. Original newspaper catalogue.
Sources
McAlduff and Browning: 2025 anthology, introduction and corrected discovery note – McAlduff and Browning, 2025 anthology: introduction and corrected discovery note.
NLI announcement, 19 October 2024 – National Library of Ireland, 19 October 2024.
National Library of Ireland: Daily Express supplement, 17 December 1890 – Daily Express, Dublin edition, Christmas supplement, 17 December 1890; NLI vtls000924296.