Shell Grotto: England's Mysterious Underground Seashell Chamber

18th century is not “very old, even by English standards”, it’s practically modern - these are almost certainly Georgian follies.

It used to be one of my favourite sites for weird DIY stuff. At some point in the mid 2010s I guess ad revenue tanked and social media killed their business model, and it made sense to cash in on their underground zine-y brand to hawk affiliate links, sponsored content, e-courses and clickbait. Sad but understandable. Around the same time I found the same vibe in other disparate places: The Cracked podcast (I still enjoy Jason Pargin's stuff) listening to Mark Frauenfelder's Cool Tools podcast, which is now called Recommendo, which carries on the affiliate link stuff and scratches that gadget itch. And the DIY and tinkering vibe is a huge part of HN.

I got a worn copy for $4.50 this afternoon.

Point is to consider prose in Stoker's series as the tertiary correspondence.