Imagine this: the year is 1626. The exact date is problematic – it typically doesn’t snow in late March/early April, a detail necessary for our tale, but suspend a little disbelief for now, you’ll need a lot more later – regardless, there is plenty of snow on the ground. You and your friend – appropriately named Dr. Winterbourne – are in the middle of a heated debate:

Everyone knew that salt preserved meat. But what about ice? Could cold temperature slow the natural process of decay?

Your companion laughs at your silly idea, and you respond by ordering the carriage driver to halt. You happen to be in North London, Highgate Hill specifically, and there are plenty of farmers in the area. The two of you find an elderly woman willing to sell you a chicken; you then proceed to gut it and fill it with snow.

After plucking the carcass, you stuff it in a bag, line it with more snow, and then bury the bag.

Good chap, you’ve just discovered refrigeration.

You’ve also caught a death of a cold.

*

Another friend of yours, friend, the Earl of Arundel, has an estate in Highgate. You choose to convalesce here. The Earl is out and about, so you write him the following note:

My very good Lord,—I was likely to have had the fortune of Caius Plinius the elder, who lost his life by trying an experiment about the burning of Mount Vesuvius; for I was also desirous to try an experiment or two touching the conservation and induration of bodies. As for the experiment itself, it succeeded excellently well; but in the journey between London and Highgate, I was taken with such a fit of casting as I know not whether it were the Stone [ed: kidney stones], or some surfeit or cold, or indeed a touch of them all three. But when I came to your Lordship’s House, I was not able to go back, and therefore was forced to take up my lodging here, where your housekeeper is very careful and diligent about me, which I assure myself your Lordship will not only pardon towards him, but think the better of him for it. For indeed your Lordship’s House was happy to me, and I kiss your noble hands for the welcome which I am sure you give me to it. I know how unfit it is for me to write with any other hand than mine own, but by my troth my fingers are so disjointed with sickness that I cannot steadily hold a pen.

Bacon, Francis (1825–1834). Montagu, Basil (ed.). The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England. Vol. 12. London: W. Pickering. p. 274.

In coming centuries, many will credit you with coining the phrase “Scientia est Potentia”, Knowledge is Power (we know for sure you said “ipsa scientia potestas est” (‘knowledge itself is power’) in your Meditationes Sacrae (1597). Yes, you wrote that.

You wrote a lot of things.

A whole lot…

Here’s what you published before you died:

• Notes on the State of Christendom (1582)
• Letter of Advice to the Queen (1585–6)
• An Advertisement Touching the Controversies of the Church of England (1586–9)
• Dumb shows in the Misfortunes of Arthur (1587–8)
• A Conference of Pleasure: In Praise of Knowledge, In Praise of Fortitude, In Praise of Love, In Praise of Truth (1592)
• Certain Observations made upon a Libel (1592)
• Temporis Partus Maximus (‘The Greatest Birth of Time’; 1593)
• A True Report of the Detestable Treason intended by Dr Roderigo Lopez (1594)
• The Device of the Indian Prince : Squire, Hermit, Soldier, Statesman (1594)
• Gray’s Inn Christmas/New Year Revels: The High and Mighty Prince Henry, Prince of Purpoole (1594–5)
• The Honourable Order of the Knights of the Helmet (1595)
• The Sussex Speech (1595)
• Maxims of the Law (1596)
• Essays (1st ed., 1597)
• The Colours of Good and Evil (1597)
• Meditationes Sacrae (1597)
• Declaration of the Practices and Treasons attempted and Committed by the late Earl of Essex (1601)
• Valerius Terminus of the Interpretation of Nature (1603)
• A Brief Discourse touching the Happy Union of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland (1603)
• Cogitations de Natura Rerum (‘Thoughts on the Nature of Things’, 1604)
• Apologie concerning the late Earl of Essex (1604)
• Certain Considerations touching the better pacification and Edification of the Church of England (1604)
• The Advancement of Learning of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human (1605)
• Temporis Partus Masculus (‘The Masculine Birth of Time’, 1605)
• Filum Labyrinthi sive Formula Inquisitionis (1606)
• In Felicem Memoriam Elizabethae (‘In Happy Memory of Queen Elizabeth’, (1606)
• Cogitata et Visa de Interpretatione Naturae (‘Thoughts and Conclusions on the Interpretation of Nature’, 1607)
• Redargiutio Philosophiarum (‘The Refutation of Philosophies’) (1608)
• The Plantation of Ireland (1608–9)
• De Sapientia Veterum (‘Wisdom of the Ancients’, 1609)
• Descriptio Globi Intellectualis (‘A Description of the Intellectual Globe’) (1612)
• Thema Coeli (‘Theory of the Heavens’, 1612)
• Essays (2nd edition – 38 essays, 1612)
• Charge… touching Duels (1614)
• The Masque of Flowers (performed by Gray’s Inn before the King at Whitehall to honour the marriage of the Earl of Somerset to Frances Howard, Countess of Essex, 1614)
• Instauratio Magna (‘Great Instauration’, 1620)
• Novum Organum (‘New Method’, 1620)
• Historia Naturalis (‘Natural History’, 1622)
• Introduction to six Natural Histories (1622)
• Historia Ventorum (‘History of Winds’, 1622)
• History of the Reign of King Henry VII (1622)
• Abcedarium Naturae (1622)
• De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623)
• Historia Vitae et Mortis (‘History of Life and Death’, 1623)
• Historia Densi et Rari (‘History of Density and Rarity’, 1623)
• Historia Gravis et Levis (‘History of Gravity and Levity’, 1623)
• History of the Sympathy and Antipathy of Things (1623)
• History of Sulphur, Salt and Mercury (1623)
• A Discourse of a War with Spain (1623)
• An Advertisement touching an Holy War (1623)
• A Digest of the Laws of England (1623)
• Cogitationes de Natura Rerum (‘Thoughts on the Nature of Things’, 1624)
• De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris (‘Of the Ebb and Flow of the Sea’, 1624)
• Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral (3rd/final edition – 58 essays, 1625)
• Apophthegms New and Old (1625)
• Translation of Certain Psalms into English Verse (1625)
• Revision of De Sapientia Veterum (‘Wisdom of the Ancients’, 1625)
• Inquisitio de Magnete (‘Enquiries into Magnetism’, 1625)
• Topica Inquisitionis de Luce et Lumine (‘Topical Inquisitions into Light and Luminosity’, 1625)

Now, here’s what was published posthumously:

• New Atlantis (1627)
• Sylva Sylvarum, or Natural History (1627)
• Certain Miscellany Works (1629)
• Use of the Law (1629)
• Elements of the Common Laws (1629)
• Operum Moralium et Civilium (1638)
• Dialogus de Bello Sacro (1638)
• Cases of Treason (1641)
• Confession of Faith (1641)
• Speech concerning Naturalisation (1641)
• Office of Constables (1641)
• Discourse concerning Church Affairs (1641)
• An Essay of a King (1642)
• The Learned Reading of Sir Francis Bacon (to Gray’s Inn) (1642)
• Ordinances (1642)
• Relation of the Poisoning of Overbury. (1651)
• Scripta in Naturali et Universali Philosophia (1653)
• Scala Intellectus sive Filum Labyrinthi (1653)
• Prodromi sive Anticipationes Philosophiae Secundae (1653)
• Cogitationes de Natura Rerum (1653)
• De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris (1653)
• The Mirror of State and Eloquence (1656)
• Opuscula Varia Posthuma, Philosophica, Civilia et Theologia (1658)
• Letter of Advice to the Duke of Buckingham (1661)
• Charge given for the Verge (1662)
• Baconiana, Or Certain Genuine Remains Of Sr. Francis Bacon (1679)
• Abcedarium Naturae, or a Metaphysical piece (1679)
• Letters and Remains (1734)
• Promus (1861)

And some people ardently believe you wrote some – or maybe all – of the works of William Shakespeare. In addition, you hobnobbed with Queen Elizabeth and her successor, James I (of King James Bible Fame). In time, James would make you his Attorney General and the Lord Chancellor of England.

Unfortunately, politics was as dicey then as it is now. Your position as Lord Chancellor ended in disgrace, in 1621. And so, five years later, you’re following one of your true passions, natural philosophy, the precursor to what we now call science.

Which leads you with Dr. Snowbourne on a wintry trip to Highgate, where you will attempt to prove that you can preserve meat by freezing a chicken.

You will die very shortly after, and as of this writing, you have not left behind any spectral traces, or made any whispers from the Other Side, or given any ghostly appearances.

Your Spirit is decidedly scientific, in absentia.

Not so your chicken’s…

You are Sir Francis Bacon, and and you left the ghost of your chicken out in the cold for nearly 350 years.

This, dear readers, is the tale of the Ghostly Frozen Chicken of Highgate:

*

Pond Square is a suburb of Highgate, and is the place where it’s believed Bacon carried out his experiment. People have reported seeing this Fowl Foul ever since – all the way until 1970, when Highgate would be invaded by a far more ghoulish presence –the High Gate Vampire, and the subsequent War of the Magicians, but that’s a different story altogether.

There have been at least 20 sightings since the start of the 20th century, nearly 300 years after the both the Bird and the Bacon shed their respective mortal coils.

The chicken was reported to spook local RAF Airmen during World War II. Little old ladies have not been exempt, nor have couples making out (the last sighting, reported in 1970, was by a young pair trying to do just that). Walkers-by, bikers-by, drivers-by; all kinds of people have insisted they’ve seen a half plucked chicken, often running in circles, at least once accompanied by the sound of a carriage (presumably Bacon’s); a chicken which then vanishes into thin air as mysteriously it appeared.

*

Science is Power – okay, Francis. That’s pretty cool.

And hey, maybe you really were Bill Shakespeare.

Thank your for refrigeration, that’s pretty nifty.

But for all your accomplishments, your varied achievements, your many laudable successes, I think it’s best to end with a poem from Pip Wilson:

“Against cold meats was he insured?

For frozen chickens he procured —

brought on the illness he endured,

and never was this Bacon cured.”

*

Revenge is a dish best served cold;

Off in the distance, I think I hear a chicken clucking maniacally…

And so ends the tale of Francis B. and the Ghost of the Frozen Chicken…