Old Hall, New Hall by Michael Innes: A Review

Colin Clout returns to the University (Old Hall) from which he had received his first degree in English literature. He had since received yet another degree from Oxford, and now was in desperate need of a job. On his way to visit his old professor, Dr. Gingrass, Colin encountered a woman who for him was an incredible of vision of perfection. He took her for a tour of Old Hall, and she departed without giving him her name.

Colin's meeting with Gingrass gave him hope for two positions; the salaries from these two would enable him to live in scholastic poverty. The first was a lecturer in Literary Form. The second was the Alderman Shufflebotham Award which was given by the Council. The recipient of this award was to write a biography of a deceased eminent native of the city. Colin feared that this would take away time from his research on Franz Kafka and the Tradition of Symbolic Fiction, but he definitely needed the money. When he received the award, he learned that he was to write a biography of Sir Jocelyn Jory,  the owner of Old Hall in the early nineteenth century, who was noted for his scientific attainments. He could also include information about other members of the family, but not Edward Jory who was Jocelyn's younger brother. Edward was to be totally excluded from mention. All of this met with the approval of his great grandson, Sir John Jory who resided at New Hall which had become the family home after they departed the larger Old Hall.

Colin met with members of the Jory family, and discovered that there was a family dispute still going on about a wager that had been made between Jocelyn and Edward. It seems that Jocelyn was a collector of tombs, burial sites, catacombs, and other such death related materials. Indeed, he was building a mausoleum at Old Hall  to house his collection. Edward was a collector of more lively objects such as lovely young women. They had a wager that each would present the prime example of their collections, and there would be a judgement on who had the best. Here definite information about this event ended. It was speculated that Jocelyn had located a burial with a wealth of gold and jewels and had brought them to Old Hall but this had never been located. It was also speculated that Edward had located a woman of incredible beauty, but this had never been proved.

Here is the mystery for Colin to solve, but he was not the only one trying. There were descendents of both Jocelyn and Edward present and Colin found that the woman that he had fallen in love with on his first day was Olivia Jory, a descendent of Edward. There also George Lumb, a very intelligent  young man who was cataloging the library at New Hall, and who was also very interested in Olivia.  There was Professor Milder from America who was writing a history of 19th century searches for tombs.

All this leads to a jolly search for treasure by some very eccentric people. This is fun read as Innes makes fun of old families and modern academics. This book was originally published in 1956. It is currently available both in paperback and in a Kindle edition.