The Miser of Marcham Park - Revisited

The Miser of Marcham Park - Revisited

December 18, 2025 · 15 min · Season 5

About this episode

The episode revisits an early recording about Charles Dickens and the inspiration behind one of his characters, John Elwes.

This week on Tales we enter the vaults to revisit - and re-record - one of the five early episodes still on here that was recorded on my cheap, starter microphone. (We’ll knock the other four off next year in mid-season breaks.) With Christmas just around the corner this seems as good a time as any to follow a young Charles Dickens around Canongate Graveyard in Edinburgh Scotland looking for ghosts… And we meet the man who - most likely - influenced one of his most famous characters - John Elwes, The Miser of Marcham Park. Apologies for the break between parts one and two of The Tichborne Claimant. I’m hoping to get that out in the last week of December. Sources this week include: Sorry all I never took down any of my sources for this at the time of the original. In revamping the piece though I referred to This BBC Article.This Mercat Tours blog postThis Edinburgh Enquirer article by David ForsythThis BBC piece on Robert FergussonAnd this piece on Fergusson from Roderick Watson at Scottish Poetry LibraryThis piece from the Royal College of Physicians on Dr Andrew DuncanVery rare for me, I referred to Wikipedia for more on Dr Andrew DuncanThis piece on Giusto Fernando TenducciAnd…

More episodes of Tales of History and Imagination

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Tales of History and Imagination podcast page.