A WOLD NEWTON PRIMER! Article written by Win Scott Eckert

Win Scott Eckert © 2005-2010
Farmerphile no. 1
Christopher Paul Carey and Paul Spiteri, eds., Michael Croteau, publisher, July 2005

“A Nova of Genetic Splendor”

By Win Scott Eckert

On December 13, 1795, at 3:00 p.m., a meteorite came plunging to the earth, landing near the English village of Wold Newton. The impact site became part of the local folklore in the countryside of the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Pieces of the Wold Cottage Meteorite(1) are held at the London Natural History Museum, and in 1799, Edward Topham built a brick monument to commemorate the event:

On this Spot, Dec. 13th 1795

fell from the Atmosphere

AN EXTRAORDINARY STONE

In Breadth 28 inches

In Length 30 inches

and

Whose Weight was 56 Pounds

THIS COLUMN

In Memory of it

was erected by

EDWARD TOPHAM

1799

History also records that several people observed the object in the sky. “Topham’s shepherd was within 150 yards of the impact and a farmhand named John Shipley was so near that he was forcibly struck by mud and earth as the falling meteorite burrowed into the ground.” (Wold Cottage, < http://fernlea.tripod.com/woldcottage.html>). A contemporaneous account observes that:



Several persons at Wold Cottage, in Yorkshire, Dec. 13, 1795, heard various noises in the air, like pistols, or distant guns at sea, felt two distinct concussions of the earth, and heard a hissing noise passing through the air; and a labouring man plainly saw (as we are told) that something was so passing, and beheld a stone, as it seemed at last, (about 10 yards, or 30 feet, distant from the ground), descending, and striking into the ground, which flew up all about him, and, in falling, sparks of fire seemed to fly from it. Afterwards he went to the place, in common with others who had witnessed part of the phaenomenon, and dug the stone up from the place where it was buried about 21 inches deep. It smelled, as is said, very strongly of sulphur when it was dug up, and was even warm, and smoked. It was said to be 30 inches in length, and 28 ½ in breadth, and it weighed 56lb. (“Remarks concerning Stones said to have fallen from the Clouds, Both in these Days and in ancient Times” by Edward King, Esq. F.R.S. and F.A.S, The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1796, p. 845.)What many historians fail to adequately record is the presence of eighteen other persons in the  immediate vicinity at the time of the Wold Newton meteor strike. We know about these eighteen people through the extraordinary and singular work of one historian. This historian, in fact, has engaged in a rather in-depth treatment of the subject in two scholarly biographical tomes. However, and despite the fact that this historian’s biographies are often appropriately shelved in the Biography section of libraries, his revelations are generally regarded as “fictional.”

The historian to whom I refer, of course, is Philip José Farmer, and the biographies of which I speak are Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke and Doc Savage: His
Apocalyptic Life. In the course of his researches into the life of Lord Greystoke, Farmer extensively traced the Jungle Lord’s ancestry, and came to discover that the Ape-Man was closely related to several other august historical personages. The nexus of this relationship was the Wold Cottage meteor strike in 1795.

As Farmer uncovered, seven couples and their coachmen “were riding in two coaches past Wold Newton, Yorkshire.... A meteorite struck only twenty yards from the two coaches.... The bright light and heat and thunderous roar of the meteorite blinded and terrorized the passengers, coachmen, and horses.... They never guessed, being ignorant of ionization, that the fallen star had affected them and their unborn.” (Tarzan Alive, Addendum 2, pp. 247-248.)

The eighteen present were(2):

Coach Passengers-14
• John Clayton, 3rd Duke of Greystoke, and his wife, Alicia Rutherford – Tarzan
• Sir Percy Blakeney, and his (second) wife, Alice Clarke Raffles – The Scarlet Pimpernel
• Fitzwilliam Darcy, and his wife, Elizabeth Bennett – Pride and Prejudice
• George Edward Rutherford (the 11th Baron Tennington), and his wife, Elizabeth Cavendish – The Lost World
• Honoré Delagardie, and his wife, Philippa Drummond – Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond
• Dr. Siger Holmes, and his wife, Violet Clarke – Sherlock Holmes
• Sir Hugh Drummond and his wife, Lady Georgia Dewhurst – Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond


Coachmen-4
• Louis Lupin – Arsène Lupin
• Albert Lecoq – Monsieur Lecoq
• Albert Blake – Sexton Blake
• 1 unidentified by Farmer

The meteor’s ionized radiation caused a genetic mutation in those present, endowing many of their descendants with extremely high intelligence and strength. As Farmer stated, the meteor strike was “the single cause of this nova of genetic splendor, this outburst of great detectives, scientists, and explorers of exotic worlds, this last efflorescence of true heroes in an otherwise degenerate age.”(3) (Tarzan Alive, Addendum 2, pp.230-231.)

In addition to Tarzan and Doc Savage, Farmer concluded that influential people whose lives were chronicled in popular literature were part of the “Wold Newton Family,” including Solomon Kane (a pre-meteor strike ancestor); Captain Blood (a pre-meteor strike ancestor); The Scarlet Pimpernel (present at meteor strike); Harry Flashman; Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis Professor Moriarty (aka Captain Nemo); Phileas Fogg; The Time Traveler; Allan Quatermain; A.J. Raffles; Professor Challenger; Arsène Lupin; Richard Hannay; Bulldog Drummond; the evil Fu Manchu and his adversary, Sir Denis Nayland Smith; G-8; The Shadow; Sam Spade; The Spider; Nero Wolfe; Mr. Moto; The Avenger; Philip Marlowe; James Bond; Lew Archer; Travis McGee; and many more.

In the time since Mr. Farmer conducted his groundbreaking genealogical research, many researchers have followed in his footsteps. In future columns we will present more ruminations on Mr. Farmer’s landmark research, as well as delve into the continuing investigations of those whom he inspired.

Additional Sources:
Coogan, Dr. Peter M., Win Scott Eckert, and Chuck Loridans. “Literary Archaeology and Parascholarship,” Comics Arts Conference, San Diego Comic-Con International, July 22, 2004.

Eckert, Win Scott. An Expansion of Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe, aka The Wold Newton Universe, http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp2.htm

Farmer, Philip José. Tarzan Alive, Doubleday, 1972; Popular Library, 1976; Playboy Paperbacks, 1981; Bison Books, 2006 (forthcoming).
--- Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Doubleday, 1973; Bantam Books, 1975; Playboy Paperbacks, 1981.

UK & Ireland Meteorite Page, < http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/meteorites/C18.HTM>
　


(1) The meteorite is named after The Wold Cottage, the house owned by Edward Topham, who was a poet, playwright, landowner, and local magistrate. Apparently Magistrate Topham was instrumental in the Wold Cottage meteorite’s role in promoting worldwide acceptance of the fact that some stones are not of this Earth. The Wold Cottage is still privately owned, and is currently the site of a micro-brewery where one can procure the local brew, Falling Stone Bitter.

(2) It has since been revealed, by researchers inspired by Farmer’s original discoveries, that there were several more persons present that fateful day, not named by Farmer. I will restrict myself herein to Farmer’s original findings, and will address those of later researchers in future columns.

(3) Of course, not all the Wold Newton Family members were heroes. Some turned the genetic advantages with which they had been blessed toward decidedly nefarious pursuits