Scythrop is a character from Nightmare Abbey, a comic novel by Thomas Love Peacock (1818). He is based on the poet Shelley. Being of a moody and melancholy temperament, he has chosen one of the abbey’s towers for his own, hence the title of the blog.

Nightmare Abbey is described thus:

a venerable family-mansion, in a highly picturesque state of semi-dilapidation, pleasantly situated on a strip of dry land between the sea and the fens, at the verge of the county of Lincoln.

A local connection, then.

Here are some choice quotes from the novel:

A report that a mermaid had been seen ‘sleeking her soft alluring locks’ on the sea-coast of Lincolnshire, had brought him in great haste from London.

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‘Shall I bring your dinner here?’

‘Yes.’

‘What will you have?’

‘A pint of port and a pistol.’

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‘I am doomed to be the victim of eternal disappointments; and I have no resource but a pistol.’

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Raven appeared. Scythrop looked at him very fiercely two or three minutes; and Raven, still remembering the pistol, stood quaking in
mute apprehension, till Scythrop, pointing significantly towards the dining-room, said, ‘Bring some Madeira.’

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