Penny Dreadfuls, 1867 · page 285 of 300
Roving Jack, The Pirate Hunter — page 285: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Analysis of Page This is a text page from a Victorian penny dreadful serial (No. 39), featuring an engraved illustration at the top and serialized narrative prose below. The page contains the chapter heading "The Cleugh a Dhoil; or, Devil's Glen" from "Roving Jack, the Pirate Hunter." The narrative describes Jack Sheppard traversing a haunted Scottish moor and introduces a mysterious solitary lighthouse keeper called "Omadhaun" (Gaelic for "madman"), who supposedly tends the beacon to atone for a shipwreck years earlier that killed all aboard except himself. The text reveals the keeper subsequently discovered a hidden chamber accessed through a cavern, leading to the lighthouse itself—a discovery that appears to shock him upon recognition.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ROVING JACK, THE PIRATE HUNTER. OA THE CLEUGH A DHOIL; OR, DEVIL’S GLEN. The spot he was traversing was in extremely bad fame, and each evening was asserted to be invested by supernatural beings. As the moon became obscured by a black cloud, Jack Sheppard at once called to mind the terrific incidents of the region that surrounded him. In fact, though naturally a brave man, they pre- sented themselves with a readiness which he felt to be somewhat dismaying. The dreary moor, upon which he stood, was called the “ Cleugh a Dhoil,” or Devil’s Glen. It was bordered on the west by the sea and rocks its principal headland being surmounted by a column of unhewn granite, which served for the purposes of a light-house. This structure, for some period, had been inhabi- ted by a solitary person, called ‘ Omadhaun,” a term, signifying in the Erse, or Irish tongue, “‘ mad- man.”’ The only occupation of this individual, saving the cultivation of a piece of ground that surrounded his lonely abode, was supplying with oil the signal lamps, which, like the fire of the ancient’s, was never extinguished. Report gave out that this mysterious man was incited to his duty by being himself a sufferer by shipwreck. No. 39. It was said he had left the country of his birth with an only child to seek fortune in the Bermudas. The vessel in which he had embarked was wrecked on the coast adjacent through the negli- gence of the keeper omitting to light the beacon at the usual hour, Of the ill-fated ship which had foundered, he alone escaped death. By a miracle the wretched father reached the ‘shore, and discovered a cavern. Here he lived for a time in misery, and cut off from all commerce with the world. A single spring of water, and the bounties of the deep supported nature, and continued to give life to the exile, while remaining in his singular dwell- ing. One day, while exploring the same, he came upon a fissure of the rock that disclosed a reticle of wood- work. He passed through the aperture, and, removing some of the planks, found himself in a gloomy chamber, Ascending a flight of stairs another chamber met his view. The recluse instantly recognised it as the one occupied by the guardian of the light-house, whom