Mara & Theo Vance request the pleasure of your company at
An adults-only Halloween house party by candlelight. Come masked, stay until midnight, and leave the rest to the dark.
By invitation onlyAdmit two · masked
Kindly reply by Saturday 24 October. 61 of 80 places are already spoken for.
Photo by Antonio Gabola on Unsplash
Every room is lit by flame alone. The electric lights stay off until the last waltz.
Venetian, plague doctor or entirely your own invention. It stays on until midnight.
Six chairs, one medium, no cameras. Sittings are free, and so is the fright.
Every mask comes off at once. Mara has been planning the toast since July.
I · The Dress Code
Masquerade, black tie or beyond. The Great Hall has stood since 1887 and has never once forgiven polyester.
Cover at least your eyes and nose. It stays on until the unmasking at midnight. A basket of spares waits at the Gatehouse, along with a mirror and no judgement.
Black, bone, tarnished gold and blood red. A little ember orange will not be turned away.
Tails, waistcoats, long gowns, lace gloves, Victorian mourning. The garden is cold, so bring a cloak, not a hoodie.
Real or realistic weapons, full-face latex you cannot drink through, and glitter (it never leaves the house).
Choose a persona and we will add it to your reply card. Nobody else will know which one you picked until the parade at eleven.
II · The Midnight Unmasking
At the twelfth stroke every guest removes their mask at once. Mara rings the bell, Theo douses the chandelier, and for one breath you will not know who is standing beside you.
Midnight, Sunday 1 November · shown in your local time
32% of the waiting is over. The invitations went out on 1 October, in black wax.
Some doors in this house open only at midnight.
III · The Order of the Evening
Doors at eight, midnight at twelve, carriages at one. Everything between is candlelit, and nearly all of it is free.
8:00 pm
Coats, cloaks and capes are checked by candlelight. Take your numbered raven-feather token, and a footman will walk you up the carriage drive.
8:30 pm
Mara lights the first taper from her grandmother’s tinderbox and passes the flame from guest to guest until all four hundred are burning.
9:00 pm
Theo ladles the first round in the Great Hall. The spirit-free tonic is poured from the same spout, so nobody holds a lesser glass.
9:30 pm
Madame Verrill takes six chairs at a time. Sittings run until eleven, with a final one at 12:30. Reserve yours.
10:15 pm
The Marrow Quartet plays waltzes, then something sinister. Lessons for the nervous start in the Orangery at ten.
11:00 pm
Walk the long hall in your finest mask. A silent vote, a velvet ballot box, and a bottle of something old for the Most Convincingly Dead.
11:30 pm
Black garlic broth, witch-finger shortbread and a tall black cake. Vegetarian, vegan and nut-free plates are made in advance.
12:00 am
Bell rung, chandelier dark, every mask off at once. Then the toast to those no longer in the room.
12:15 am
Braziers and tartan blankets on the south lawn, with hot spiced cider. Bring a cloak: the garden is cold, and the fog rarely lifts.
1:00 am
The Gatehouse returns your cloaks and calls your ride. Please leave with someone sober, or take the shuttle (details further down).
IV · The Séance Room
Madame Verrill has sat for the Vance family since 1994. She asks that you leave your phone, your watch and your scepticism in the velvet pouch at the door.
Each sitting lasts fifteen minutes. Choose one and we will hold it for you on the reply card.
No photos in the Séance RoomPhones, watches and cameras go into velvet pouches at the door. Anything that glows, ticks or records stays outside.
V · The Apothecary
Tonics, tinctures and the occasional poison, mixed by Theo and the bar team from Gravel & Rye. Free all night. Please sip like someone who is driving home. (Nobody is driving home.)
No. I · Spirited
Aqua Ebria Magna
Dark rum, blood orange, ginger and hibiscus, ladled from the great cauldron through a slow cloud of dry ice.
No. II · Spirited
Sanguis Horae
Bourbon, pomegranate and black cherry, finished with a drop of absinthe and a candy eyeball. Poured only after eleven.
No. III · Spirited
Fumus Spiritus
Smoked mezcal, charred rosemary, lime and ginger beer under a glass cloche. Lift it slowly; the smoke is evidence.
No. IV · Spirited
Vidua Nigra
Gin, blackberry shrub, elderflower and a twist of lemon. Dark as a veil, sharp as a remark at a funeral.
No. V · Spirited
Café Sepulcri
Spiced rum, hot black coffee and brown sugar, with a dusting of cocoa soil. Served in tin mugs from midnight.
No. VI · Spirit-free
Tonicum Belladonnae
Hibiscus, pomegranate, rosemary and tonic. Deep violet, bittersweet and entirely innocent.
No. VII · Spirit-free
Pomum Defunctorum
Warm pressed apple, clove, star anise and orange peel, simmering on the Great Hall hearth all night.
Every spirited preparation is marked with its potency. Spirit-free versions of the punch and the Bloody Hour can be made on request, so ask at the bar.
Midnight supper
Supper arrives at half past eleven from the Crumb & Cobweb Bakehouse, in time to line stomachs before the unmasking.
Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and nut-free plates are made in advance. Tell us on the reply card, and we will hand you the right plate without a word.
VI · The Articles of the House
Seven articles, none of them negotiable, every one of them written after something went wrong.
Article I
Props must be foam, cardboard or blunt. A cane is welcome; a sabre will be politely taken to the Gatehouse for safekeeping, and returned at one.
Article II
Phones sleep in velvet pouches at the door. Everywhere else, shoot freely, but ask before you tag a masked stranger.
Article III
Not on your forehead, not in your hand, not “just for a second”. The footmen have been told to remind you, and they enjoy it.
Article IV
Four hundred candles and a wooden staircase. Tie back long hair, gather loose sleeves, and keep a hand on your cape near the stairs.
Article V
Ask before you touch, take no for an answer, and tell Theo or any footman if something feels wrong. We will walk you out.
Article VI
Hand your car keys to the Gatehouse if you want a drink. Keys are returned only to the sober, with a glass of water and a look.
Article VII
Marrow is twelve, black and in charge. Do not feed him, do not argue with him, and do not sit in his chair, which is every chair.
VII · Finding Hollow Hill
Marrowgate is forty minutes from the city. Your satnav will lose its nerve at Larkspur Cross. Ignore it and follow the pumpkins.
Pack for 9°C and fog. Hollow Hill is always foggy by ten. The Great Hall is warm; the garden is not.
Not to scale. Owls on the gateposts.
From the village take Larkspur Lane north for two miles, past the stone gateposts with the owls on top. Turn into the Lower Meadow, park, and follow the lanterns.
Drop-off and blue-badge parking use the carriage drive. Tell the Gatehouse and a footman will guide you.
These drivers know the lane and will not ask about your costume.
The 14 bus stops at Larkspur Cross, a fifteen-minute walk by lantern. The last bus back leaves at 11:40 pm, so most people take the shuttle: free from the Gatehouse at 12:30, 1:00 and 1:30, running to Marrowgate station.
VIII · The Reply
Replies are by card, as the old etiquette books intended. Mara keeps the list in a velvet book and reads it aloud to the cat.
61 of 80 places claimed. 19 remain. We cap the list at eighty so that the candles always outnumber the guests.
Your reply is stamped and a raven-feather token is held in your name. A confirmation comes by e-mail within a day, and a reminder with directions and the sober-ride list follows on the Thursday before.
IX · Questions, Answered
The practical things, in the order guests ask them.
In the Lower Meadow: sixty spaces, lit by lanterns, a four-minute walk uphill to the Gatehouse. Blue-badge and drop-off parking use the carriage drive. Tell the Gatehouse on 555-0119 and a footman will guide you in.
Yes, at the Gatehouse, free of charge. Coats, cloaks, capes, umbrellas and any prop you cannot dance with. You will receive a numbered raven-feather token; please do not lose it, as the ravens keep records.
Book one of the three sober-ride numbers in the directions above, or take the free Night Owl Shuttle from the Gatehouse at 12:30, 1:00 or 1:30. If you drove and drank, hand over your keys at the Gatehouse and collect them in the morning. Six guest rooms are available for those who would rather stay.
Yes. Tick the +1 box on your reply card and give us their name. Both of you must be 18 or over, and masked. We are sorry, but there are no walk-ins at the door: the candles are counted.
Tell us on the reply card. The kitchen cooks vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and nut-free plates in advance, and the drinks list marks everything that contains alcohol.
18 and over, with photo ID if you look suspiciously young. Every Vance since 1887 hangs in the hall in oils, and none of them care for children at parties after dark.
Step-free entry is by the carriage drive and a ramp into the Great Hall. The Library is a lit quiet room with chairs and no music. Tell Mara about mobility, sensory or seating needs on the reply card and she will arrange them without fuss.
The house is the party, so only the embers in the garden depend on the weather. If it rains, the braziers move under the loggia and the cider moves with them. Dress for fog either way.
Everywhere except the Séance Room. Please keep masked guests’ faces out of anything you post until after the unmasking, and ask before you tag anyone.
Your hosts
We have thrown this party since 2014, the winter the heating broke and we lit every candle in the house. It has never been warm since. Come in, be somebody else for a night, and tell no one.
Mara & Theo
P.S. Bring nothing but yourselves. If you must bring something, bring a candle stub for the old tin by the Great Hall door. Every year there is one more.
XIII · Sealed until midnight
You found the door that opens only at the stroke of twelve.
Every year Mara lights twelve candles in the Great Hall. The thirteenth is hidden, and it burns for whoever finds this page. Snuff all thirteen below to learn the word that opens the final séance sitting.
Thirteen candles burn.
The word is
LARKSPURWhisper it to Madame Verrill at the Séance Room door during the 12:30 sitting, and the thirteenth chair is yours. There is always a thirteenth chair.
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