Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
A hard man was Ralph Strang, seventh Earl of Beden, but it was not until he purchased a 12-horsepower Napier motor-car that the villagers really began to consider him possessed of a devil... The story begins at 00:01:20
Narrated/performed by Simon Stanhope, aka Bitesized Audio. If you enjoy this content and would like to help me keep creating, there are a few ways you can support me (and get access to exclusive content):
* Occasional/one-off support via Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/bitesizedaudio
* Monthly support on Patreon: patreon.com/bitesizedaudio
* Donate via PayPal: paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=HMMUWZ7URN26A
* Visit my Bandcamp page to hear more of my performances of classic stories, and you can purchase and download high quality audio files to listen offline: bitesizedaudio.bandcamp.com
* Become a Bitesized Audio Classics member on YouTube, from $1 / £1 / €1 per month:
youtube.com/c/BitesizedAudioClassics/join
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:20 Lord Beden's Motor
00:35:20 Credits, thanks and further listening
About the author:
John Burland Harris-Burland (1870–1926) was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, and educated at Sherborne School in Dorset. His father, Major General William Burland Harris-Burland, was a decorated hero of the Crimean War (1853–56), but John was excluded from a military career by childhood ill-health and instead chose to study theology and pursue a career in the church; he studied at Exeter College, Oxford, from 1892. His literary career began at Oxford, where he won the Newdigate Prize for English Verse in 1893 and went on to edit the 'Isis' magazine. After graduation he worked for a short time as an actor.
Harris-Burland began to compose short fiction for magazine publication in the late 1890s. His first novel, 'Dacobra, or the White Priests of Ahriman', was serialised in 1902 and published in book form in 1903. Later works included 'The Black Motor-Car' (1906), 'The House of the Soul' (1909) and 'The Secret of Enoch Seal' (1910). In total he produced around 30 novels before his death in 1926, aged 55.
'Lord Beden's Motor' is one of his earliest works, having first appeared in The Strand Magazine in December 1901.
Recording © Bitesized Audio 2025.
A hard man was Ralph Strang, seventh Earl of Beden, but it was not until he purchased a 12-horsepower Napier motor-car that the villagers really began to consider him possessed of a devil... The story begins at 00:01:20
Narrated/performed by Simon Stanhope, aka Bitesized Audio. If you enjoy this content and would like to help me keep creating, there are a few ways you can support me (and get access to exclusive content):
* Occasional/one-off support via Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/bitesizedaudio
* Monthly support on Patreon: patreon.com/bitesizedaudio
* Donate via PayPal: paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=HMMUWZ7URN26A
* Visit my Bandcamp page to hear more of my performances of classic stories, and you can purchase and download high quality audio files to listen offline: bitesizedaudio.bandcamp.com
* Become a Bitesized Audio Classics member on YouTube, from $1 / £1 / €1 per month:
youtube.com/c/BitesizedAudioClassics/join
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:20 Lord Beden's Motor
00:35:20 Credits, thanks and further listening
About the author:
John Burland Harris-Burland (1870–1926) was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, and educated at Sherborne School in Dorset. His father, Major General William Burland Harris-Burland, was a decorated hero of the Crimean War (1853–56), but John was excluded from a military career by childhood ill-health and instead chose to study theology and pursue a career in the church; he studied at Exeter College, Oxford, from 1892. His literary career began at Oxford, where he won the Newdigate Prize for English Verse in 1893 and went on to edit the 'Isis' magazine. After graduation he worked for a short time as an actor.
Harris-Burland began to compose short fiction for magazine publication in the late 1890s. His first novel, 'Dacobra, or the White Priests of Ahriman', was serialised in 1902 and published in book form in 1903. Later works included 'The Black Motor-Car' (1906), 'The House of the Soul' (1909) and 'The Secret of Enoch Seal' (1910). In total he produced around 30 novels before his death in 1926, aged 55.
'Lord Beden's Motor' is one of his earliest works, having first appeared in The Strand Magazine in December 1901.
Recording © Bitesized Audio 2025.
