A Map of Precious Stones (Strand Magazine, 1902)

Nothing succeeds like excess, said Mr Wilde; and when you're a Czar, excess comes cheap. Let's hear it for the most impressive bijou of them all.

The Monster of Partridge Creek (Strand Magazine, 1908)

This is probably the most unlikely story ever to appear in The Strand. Originally published in a French magazine called 'Je Sais Tout' (I Know All) in April 1908, it was picked up around the world. The shaggy dinosaur, sadly, was never reported again. However, a thought occurs to me. One of the Strand's most popular contributors was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose tales of Sherlock Holmes and Brigadier Gerard were mainstays of the magazine. Could this yarn of a dinosaur surviving in a remote corner of the world have served as the inspiration for  Conan Doyle's 'The Lost World' which was published four years later?

A Metal Balloon (Strand Magazine, 1898)

Here is an episode from aeronautical history of which I, for one, was totally unaware. I have been unable to discover whether there were any further developments in this direction. Interesting too, to read that Jagels saved his life 'by jumping out of the car just before it reached the earth'. I thought only Bugs Bunny could do that!

Cunning Murrell - A Wizard of Yesterday (Strand Magazine, 1900)

'Cunning' Murrell was the last of what, once upon a time, must have been a fairly populous breed - that of the village wise man. Arthur Morrison, who wrote this article, found out enough about Murrell to publish a full-length book about him, which is now available again through the modern magic of Print On Demand. Murrell relied to a great extent on the ancient divinatory art of geomancy, which the modern new age crowd seems to have forgotten completely. Check it out on Wikipedia.