The First Ghost Hunter?

For today's Halloween post, I offer you another trip down memory lane. You know my love for All About Ghosts, the Usborne book that helped me grow a taste for the macabre when I was a young child. It fuelled my imagination and my desire to read horror stories, it also gave my brothers and I some inspiration for our own make-belief games. As we needed heroes as well as villains, we were happy to discover that British folklore had provided one as a model: the Reverend Dodge. Details on the picture. Dodge may have been one of the earliest ghost hunters, the spiritual ancestor of Abraham Van Helsing, Martin Hesselius, the lesser known (and personal favourite) Baron Vordenburg and so many others. I found fairly little on the Reverend online, but I have not searched much yet. Pretty much all I know about him comes from that small section in All About Ghosts. Still, I always thought he was a badass. I think he became the inspiration for many "player characters" of our games, particularly this one. I promise myself that I will learn more about him for next year's countdown to Halloween. I wonder if there are horror stories written about him. If there are none, someone should write one. Or many more.