“Just around the corner in Newgate is my new premises, the Hidden Detective Agency, named on account of its location hidden within the hustle and bustle of the new marketplace nearby. This area now occupies the former location of the old slums and, coupled with its close proximity to the Shambles, I feel offers a certain mystery which supports my pursuits. I am partial to a cup of sugared mint tea while looking out of my first floor bay window at sunset. I find a nice strong Moroccan blend from a traditional berrad stimulates the enquiring part of my mind, along with a pipe of my special tobacco. Above the Tudor buildings and canopies of the market stalls I can see the tower of St Sampson’s Church. For the last few evenings I have been using my lantern to illuminate the area outside my window and have noticed a strange phenomenon - ghostly lights appearing to slowly and gradually come alive around the area which stay illuminated until sunrise. Tonight I think it is time to investigate fully this unusual phenomenon.

I have erected my clockwork lantern on Silver Street, just across from St Sampson’s Church, its purple light bathing the area with an unusual glow and making the Golden Statue of the church’s namesake glitter above. To my right I see a figure shambling towards me and high above its head there seems to be a glow. As it draws nearer it stops for a moment and a second ghostly light appears in the area above revealing several figures going about their business as though it were a busy market day. Each one is shrouded and seems somehow disconnected to the others in both time period and interaction. The figure proceeds to head once more in my direction with the light which he seems to have created remaining behind him. As he draws nearer it occurs to me that he looks like a lamplighter, shrouded in grubby attire. Above his head atop a long thin pole glows a taper with the strangest light I have ever seen and, as he passes, more shrouded figures seem to appear in his wake. As he approaches the end of Silver Street he pauses and slowly and carefully eases his taper upward. As he does so a street light, not previously there, appears and its light bursts into life with a ghostly glow. In that instant a figure appears below which looks to me to be a roman legionary on guard. It would seem that this lamplighter summons these long lost souls with his ghostly lights to once again walk the streets of the City.

There was a tale told by a Miss Agatha Graunt and her companion Willamina who I interviewed, of how she was walking along Church Street after a “brief” stop at the Mail Coach Inn and was suddenly surrounded by a host of Roman soldiers fighting ferociously with barbarians as the battle raged around them. This scene was interrupted by a horse and cart carrying potatoes to the market and, in the blink of an eye, the scene of battle disappeared. I thought at the time that Agatha might have been at the gin as she had a tendency to repeat herself and decided to enquire about the spiritual powers of her neighbour Mildred who has the “sight”. Willamina was unable to speak and merely stood and swayed gently like a tree in a breeze, her eyes glazed and gazing into the distance. Perhaps there was some truth in the tale after all and maybe the Romans were in this area guarding something or someone of importance. I will have to investigate this matter further. Perhaps paying a visit to the Mail Coach Inn would be the perfect starting point.”