In Part 2, dive deeper into Peter Beckford's world through his practical kennel management, medical treatments, and surprisingly compassionate approach to animal welfare. Discover his architectural designs for the perfect kennel (complete with strategically placed posts for dogs to urinate on), and explore 18th-century veterinary medicine where the line between cure and poison was often just luck.

From sulfur and whale oil mange treatments to mercury-based remedies that could kill the patient, witness how Beckford navigated cutting-edge medical knowledge with genuine care for his hounds. Experience his harrowing account of a river crossing gone wrong, a heart-wrenching tale that reveals the true depth of his attachment to his pack.

But beneath the sporting gentleman lies a complex figure funded by Jamaican sugar plantations and enslaved labor—a man who could name every hound yet remained detached from the human suffering that supported his passion. As hurricanes destroyed his fortune and family troubles mounted, Beckford's contradictions become even more stark.

This episode explores the beautiful language and elevated writing style that captivates modern readers, while honestly examining the uncomfortable realities of privilege and the genuine human connections that transcend time through shared obsession.

Part 2 of a 2-part series on the book that inspired Vices and Volumes.

This is the origin story of Vices and Volumes, the book that started it all. When Avril's "aggressive browsing" in a Westport bookshop led to an encounter with enthusiastic American tourists, a chance comment about doing a podcast on old books planted the seed for this entire series.

Enter Peter Beckford's "Thoughts on Hunting" (1781), a book that has remained continuously in print for over 240 years. Part literary masterpiece, part practical manual, Beckford's work transformed hunting from mere sport into high art. But this isn't just about fox hunting—it's about an Oxford-educated gentleman who could "bag a fox in Greek and find a hare in Latin," whose defensive response to a scathing anonymous critic created one of the most entertaining instructional books ever written.

Discover how Beckford managed staff with military precision, the complex hierarchy of huntsmen and whippers-in, and his surprisingly compassionate approach to animal care. Experience his thrilling fictional hunt sequence that reads like an 18th-century action movie, complete with poetry from William Somerville and breathless chase scenes.

This episode contextualises controversial historical practices while celebrating Beckford's literary genius and the serendipitous bookshop moment that launched a podcast.

Dive into William Cobbett's 1829 "Advice to Young Men" and discover the most entertainingly bizarre marriage advice ever committed to paper. This wasn't just any elderly gentleman pontificating from his armchair—Cobbett was a man who'd been sued for libel multiple times, imprisoned for two years, exiled twice, and who once dug up Thomas Paine's bones for a heroic reburial that... never actually happened. The bones were still in his possession when he died.

Learn how to judge a woman's character by watching her eat a mutton chop (decisive biting reveals industry), why the speed of her footsteps reveals her capacity for love (sauntering girls make cold-hearted mothers), and what "maw-mouthed" women reveal about their fitness for marriage. Discover Cobbett's peculiar definition of "sobriety" (hint: it's not about drinking), witness the scandalous "HE SHA'N'T" incident that horrified him, and explore his stern warnings about wives who dare to argue.

But here's where it gets fascinating: this same man who demanded absolute wifely obedience also spent eight hours barefoot throwing stones at Philadelphia dogs so his wife could sleep, rushed home during thunderstorms because she was frightened, and helped with domestic tasks that would have been considered beneath a gentleman's dignity. Through the extraordinary love story of William and Anne Reid—from their meeting in frozen New Brunswick to her return of 150 untouched guineas after four years—witness the contradictions at the heart of Georgian marriage.

This episode explores physiognomy and the "science" of reading character from physical signs, the rigid gender roles that masked enormous female power in household management, and how one radical reformer who championed the poor could simultaneously insist on absolute male household authority. It's a world both fascinatingly different and oddly familiar to our own.

Features extensive quotations from "Advice to Young Men" (1829) and explores the extraordinary life of one of England's most colorful political writers.

In Part 2 of The Devil's Dominion, enter the witch-finder's world where every shadow hides evidence of evil and pet cats prove diabolic conspiracy. Discover how Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed "Witch-Finder General," professionalized witch-hunting through systematic methods that transformed East Anglia into a killing ground.

Explore the supernatural signs that marked someone as a witch: the "witch's marks" where familiar spirits supposedly suckled blood, the demonic servants with names like Pyewacket and Vinegar-Tom, and the ritual incantations that could kill from a distance. Learn how Lady Fowlis's poison-making, Alison Pearson's fairy consultations for healing, and weather magic against the Scottish crown became evidence of cosmic conspiracy.

But the darkest revelation comes through examining the systematic torture that transformed innocent people into confessed servants of Satan. From Scottish thumb-screws and "boots" that crushed bones, to sleep deprivation that induced hallucinations interpreted as familiar spirit visitations, discover how learned professionals designed procedures that reliably produced supernatural confessions while maintaining appearances of legitimate investigation.

Through accounts from the 1847 London Journal, witness how shape-shifting accusations connected injured cats to wounded women, how the swimming test drowned the innocent while "proving" the guilty floated, and how King James VI took "great delight" in extracting weather magic confessions. These weren't primitive cruelties but sophisticated techniques that created their own evidence through physiological and psychological destruction.

Part 2 of a 2-part series on the supernatural evidence and systematic torture of witch persecution.

Content Advisory: Contains detailed historical accounts of torture methods, systematic violence, and the persecution of vulnerable populations, particularly women.

Enter the darkest chapter of legal history, where witch trials transformed courtrooms into instruments of systematic terror. Part 1 of this two-part series explores how the pursuit of witches corrupted entire legal systems, abandoning every principle of justice to hunt invisible enemies.

From Salem's witch trials using spectral evidence that made defense impossible, to the Malleus Maleficarum's witch-hunting manual that created papal-sanctioned "commissions of fire and sword," witness how learned professionals deliberately corrupted judicial institutions to prosecute witchcraft. Discover King James VI's personal supervision of witch torture sessions, Richard III's theatrical use of witchcraft accusations for political murder, and the gendered violence that made women 80-90% of all witch trial victims.

Through accounts from the 1847 London Journal, explore how witch-hunting created "objective" evidence from shape-shifting accusations, how Scottish witch trials became royal entertainment, and how these prosecutorial innovations persisted into the Victorian era when fishermen still sought to draw witches' blood for protection.

This episode examines the systematic techniques developed specifically for witch prosecution—spectral evidence, enhanced torture, presumption of guilt—and how these innovations abandoned traditional legal protections as "obstacles" to hunting supernatural criminals. The witch-hunter's toolkit created frameworks for systematic persecution that could be revived whenever new enemies required elimination through judicial channels.

Part 1 of a 2-part series on how witch-hunting transformed European and American legal systems.

Content Advisory: Contains historical accounts of torture, execution, and systematic violence, particularly against women.

Reading only of "Legends of the Banshee" from Fairy legends and traditions of the south of Ireland by Thomas Crofton Croker 1838.

The tale follows Charles McCarthy, a young Irish Catholic nobleman from an old family with a hereditary banshee. In 1749, at age 24, Charles was living a dissolute, drunken lifestyle when he fell gravely ill with fever. He appeared to die, but suddenly revived and claimed he had experienced a divine vision where he was judged before God. A guardian saint interceded for him, securing three years to repent and reform his ways.

Charles completely changed his behavior, becoming religious and temperate. However, as his 27th birthday approached (the end of his three-year reprieve), family and friends had largely forgotten or dismissed his vision as delirium.

On the night before his birthday, Mrs. Barry and her daughters were traveling to Spring House for a wedding celebration when they encountered a banshee - a tall, thin woman in white pointing toward Spring House while making terrible screams and cries.

Upon arrival, they discovered that Charles had been accidentally shot in the leg by a mentally disturbed young woman who had intended to kill James Ryan (who had seduced and abandoned her). Though initially thought minor, the wound became infected due to poor treatment. Charles died before sunset on his 27th birthday, exactly as he had predicted from his vision three years earlier.

The story serves as a traditional Irish tale combining elements of supernatural warning (the banshee), divine judgment, redemption, and fate.

When a fox's midnight raid on Avril's henhouse leads to an 1847 issue of The London Journal, she discovers the haunting world of the Irish Banshee—the spectral woman whose wail announces death to ancient Irish families.

Journey from a moonlit encounter with nature's night raiders to the supernatural folklore that has captivated Ireland for centuries. Explore the tragic tale of Charles MacCarthy, who received a divine warning of his death yet couldn't escape his fate, and witness the Banshee's terrifying appearance to the Barry family on dark country roads.

But the Banshee isn't alone—discover how death omens manifest across Europe, from Scotland's phantom horsemen to Germany's mourning women and Wales' window-tapping hags. Through Victorian accounts, family letters, and folklore collections, uncover how these supernatural traditions served both as warnings and comfort in an age before modern communication.

This episode weaves together personal experience, historical sources, and folklore to reveal why these spectral heralds have endured across centuries, bridging the gap between the living and the dead.

Features readings from The London Journal (1847), Thomas Crofton Kroker's Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1838), and other 19th-century sources.

The freeloading Captain Dunn's 1886 Fishing Adventure Through Victorian Ireland

What started as an embarrassingly juvenile book purchase—motivated by a peculiar horn-shaped fishing device—becomes a delightful journey through Victorian Ireland with one of its most charming rogues.

Meet Captain John Joseph Dunn, writing under the pseudonym "Hi Regan," whose 1886 fishing guide "How and Where to Fish in Ireland" reveals far more than just angling advice. Follow this cashiered military officer, debtor's prison alumnus, and perpetual charmer as he transforms his obsession with Irish waters into literary gold.

From moldy book rescues to railway maps missing modern counties, discover how Dunn navigated Ireland's waterways while dodging creditors. Explore his fishing wisdom (including Victorian midge repellent recipes involving paraffin), his tactical hotel reviews, and his encounters with Irish landlords and constables.

But there's more to this blackguard than meets the eye—learn how his passion for Irish independence, his role in the Home Rule movement, and his gift for storytelling created a fishing guide that's still in print today. Plus, discover the surprising literary legacy of his feminist daughter, who became far more famous than her roguish father.

Features readings from "How and Where to Fish in Ireland" (1886) and explores the social history of Victorian Ireland through the eyes of its most endearing scoundrel.

oin Avril Clinton-Forde on delightful adventures through old books from Ireland. Each episode of Vices & Volumes explores vintage texts (1700s-1920s), reading fascinating passages and uncovering the stories behind them. From Victorian etiquette disasters to Irish banshees, eccentric travelers to servant psychology - if it's in an old book, it's fair game. Whether you're seeking history, curiosity, or relaxation, discover forgotten knowledge with someone who gets genuinely excited about 200-year-old household guides.