The Unresolved Ledger of Eldritch Hall

Eldritch Hall, a prominent Victorian residence built in 1860, was the home of Sir Marcus Thorpe, a key figure in the mid-century rail boom. The house served as the private, regional clearing office for the Thorpe Rail Company until 1885, when Thorpe’s entire fortune vanished following a massive, undisclosed financial scandal. The house was seized and immediately sealed. The financial core of the mystery centers on the Rail service accountant, Mr. Arthur Fiennes, who managed the immense daily flow of funds and cargo documentation. His professional records—the ticket receipts, pocket ledger audits, and cargo tallies—should have provided a definitive trail for Thorpe’s transactions. Instead, the surviving archive is an exercise in contradiction, with large, systematic blocks of documentation entirely Missing and the few remaining records pointing to an Unresolved financial manipulation that predates the scandal.

The Unresolved Pocket Ledger

The Rail service accountant’s daily routine required rigorous balancing of his pocket ledger audits against the official cargo tallies and collected ticket receipts. The discovery of the final, unbalanced pocket ledger audit, with its subsequent pages deliberately torn out, is highly significant. It proves that a massive, documented financial failure occurred before the official collapse, and that the record of its resolution was actively suppressed. Furthermore, the cargo tallies—the signed documents confirming the quantity and value of goods shipped—are entirely Missing for the same period. The cargo tallies were the assets that should have backed the transactions recorded in the pocket ledger audit. Their absence, coupled with the shredded ledger, confirms a strategic, Unresolved records purge. The only surviving documents are the few scattered ticket receipts, which are insufficient to reconstruct the full scope of the missing funds.

The Missing Cargo Tallies