Lot 249 by Arthur Conan Doyle

From Classic Ghost Stories by Tony Walker

September 4, 2026 · 1h 52m · Season 7

About this episode

The episode discusses 'Lot 249' by Arthur Conan Doyle, exploring themes of mummies and supernatural occurrences in a 19th-century setting.

This was a request, but fitted in with my current interest in mummies. Read my full notes on the history of the Egyptian Mummy in Horror here: https://www.classicghost.com/blog/the-egyptian-mummy-in-horror/ Old College, Oxford, in the last years of the nineteenth century. A young medical student named Abercrombie Smith shares a stair with a fellow he barely knows — a brilliant scholar of Eastern languages, whose rooms are crowded with the relics of a dead civilisation, and whose company he has been quietly warned against. Something is wrong with the sound that comes through the wall at night: a low, monotonous muttering, the same words over and over, in no language Smith can place. Enemies begin to suffer, one by one, in ways that leave no mark and no explanation. And in the corner of that cluttered room stands a thing purchased at auction, numbered like an item in a catalogue, upright, ancient, and — Smith is almost certain — not quite as still as it should be. "Lot No. 249" was written by Arthur Conan Doyle and first published in Harper's Magazine in September 1892. Doyle is best remembered as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but he wrote extensively in the supernatural and…

People in this episode

Host: Tony Walker

Topics covered

mummies
supernatural
horror
19th century literature
mystery

Keywords

mummies
Arthur Conan Doyle
Lot 249
supernatural
horror
Oxford
19th century

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harper's Magazine

Books & works: Lot 249

Places: Old College, Oxford