<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1491" style="border: 0; margin: 8px;" title="coachhouseandstreetsign" src="http://strangeattractor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/coachhouseandstreetsign.jpg" alt="coachhouseandstreetsign" width="400" height="300" />

[Photo by Tony of <a href="http://www.killyourpetpuppy.co.uk" target="_blank">Kill Your Pet Puppy</a> on a visit to the deathplace of master magus Aleister Crowley, or what's left of it.]

A<a href="http://www.21stcenturyradio.com/articles/03/1001231.html" target="_blank"> memoir</a> by Rodney Davis, THE LAST DAYS OF ALEISTER CROWLEY, THE GREAT BEAST, AT HASTINGS, in which he recalls meeting Kathleen 'Johnny' Symonds, the Great Beast's landlady in his final years.

<em>Despite his unenviable reputation and the fact that he insisted on greeting everyone with injunction 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law', the Great Beast proved a popular addition to the Netherwood household. He had considerable charm, a pleasing personality and was very erudite, which helped make him a good companion and a stimulating talker. He had many long conversations about all manner of subjects with Vernon Symonds.</em>

<em>Crowley joined Hastings Chess Club, where 'nobody ever beat him', and he also took the time to tutor the Symonds's nephew Roland, who later became a priest, in Latin. He sometimes went for walks along The Ridge, where on sunny days he would often stop and lean against a lamp post and hold his hands palms upwards to the sun, and he patronised a health hydro there named Riposo...</em>

<em>[Johnny] poignantly recalled that 'there was a film in Hastings called The Wizard of Oz, and he told me he would very much like to see it. But I said, "It wouldn't interest you at all, it's a children's thing." So he didn't go!'</em>

Read the full piece <a href="http://www.21stcenturyradio.com/articles/03/1001231.html" target="_blank">here</a>