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For the rest of the 60s, Titus Crow and De Marigny found themselves involved in
various adventures.  From an encounter with an individual claiming to be Count
Dracula to the breaking of a code nearly two thousand years old, the years
continued to bring them face to face with various supernatural occurrences and
dangers. (29)  By 1968, Titus Crow found himself considered by many to be an
expert in the fields of the occult, amateur archaeology, paleontology,
cryptography, antiques and in particular studies of the works of art by
individuals such as Aubrey Beardsley, Chandler Davies, Hieronymous Bosch and
especially Richard Pickman. (30) 

It was at the start of 1968 that Titus Crow began to investigate the mysterious
disappearance of Sir Amery Wendy-Smith and his nephew which occurred
thirty-five years earlier in 1933.  Sir Amery was considered one of the most
promising explorers of the late 1920s.  His specialization was the African
continent and his declaration that he had discovered a lost city on the eastern
side of the land mass came as a shock to the historical community.  Before Sir
Amery Wendy-Smith was able to publish the results of his findings, however, he
disappeared during a minor earthquake with his nephew following a few days
later in another minor earthquake in Yorkshire.  The coincidence of these two
related men being lost in such similar fashions caused many to see the event as
something of a publicity stunt on the part of the nephew who was a struggling
writer at the time.  Their lengthy vanishing, however, had made the case more
legitimate.
By the end of that spring, Titus Crow claimed to not only have solved the
mysterious disappearance of the Wendy-Smiths, but had also claimed that it was
related to the recent seismic activity at the time and certain ancient
prehistoric monuments.  His correspondence on the topic among his friends
promised to reveal the circumstances behind the disappearances as well as
having an article published on the subject by 1970.  A promise that Titus Crow
would not be able to keep. (31)

It was also during this time that Titus Crow and is friend Henri-Laurent de
Marigny joined with the Wilmarth Foundation of Miskatonic University under the
leadership of Professor Wingate Peaslee.  The Wilmarth Foundation was started
by Albert N. Wilmarth, a professor of English at Miskatonic University in 1937.
 The original purpose of the Foundation was the study and collection of
folklore.  This included not only the recording of certain oral traditions, but
also the collection of written accounts.  The WIlmarth Foundation was unique in
that it approached folklore in a much different fashion than most other
folklore departments around the country.  Firstly, the Wilmarth Foundation was
a pseudo-official entity that was partially supported by the University but
mostly gained its founding from its members.  This allowed the Foundation a
certain amount of freedom in its projects and in its publications while also
giving the Foundation the opportunity to be a vital part of the university's
campus community.  Secondly, the Foundation's approach towards folklore was
different in that he followed Dr. Wilmarth's proposition that all folklore is
based on kernels of truth.  Thus rather than just providing a receptacle for
localized myths and legends, the Foundation would actively investigate such
stories with an eye towards discovering their origins. By the 60s, it was this
dedication to investigating folklore that inspired the Foundation to begin an
interdisciplinary investigation with the psychology department into the notion
of psychic powers. It was also during the 60s that the Wilmarth Foundation made
the forward thinking decision to become an international organization studying
and recording the folklore of various nations.  While the Foundation, and
various other folklore departments, had previously studied foreign instances of
folklore, the Wilmarth Foundation was the first to suggest setting up localized
permanent centers in those nations that would be affiliated with the
Foundation's center in the United States.  It was this move towards expansion
that brought Titus Crow into the Foundation as the first and head member of the
British section of the Wilmarth Foundation. (32)

The summer of 1968 saw Titus Crow as head of the British branch of the Wilmarth
Foundation and as such most of his time was spent in organizational duties. 
Though Crow did have time to involve himself  with an archeology dig site of an
1st century Roman priest, usually such matters were minor in their effort and
only major in their impact. (33)

In the summer of 1969, Titus Crow went on a whirlwind tour of the United
States.  Spending time in such exotic locations as New Orleans, the wilds of
Oklahoma, New York City and, naturally, New England.  Crow was fascinated by
the local customs and his new found friends in the Wilmarth Foundation which
helped pay for the tour. (34) With Titus Crow's return that September, Crow was
in a state of excitement concerning De Marigny's Clock.  Apparently, thanks to
information gained during his stay at the Arkham headquarters of the Wilmarth
Foundation, Crow had discovered similar hieroglyphs as were written upon the
very safe clock he had purchased almost 15 years before.  Crow was also about
to embark on a study of Stonehenge and the Salisbury Plain area. His notes on
this planned study exist only as fragments but what little exist appear to
suggest that Crow was going to place the notion that Stonhenge was built to
keep track of the stars on its head. (34)

None of this projected plans, however, came to pass.  On October 4, 1969, Titus
Crow and Henri-Laurent de Marigny found themselves together at Blowne House at
night during a freak storm.  Within a few hours, the storm managed to not only
uproot several of the ancient trees upon Leonard's Walk Heath, but it also
managed to crack the foundation of the house and cause the roof to collapse in
upon itself.  An investigation the next morning came to the conclusion that
there were no survivors to the disaster. The lack of finding the bodies of
Titus Crow and Henri-Laurent de Marigny was put down to the fire that destroyed
much of the house before morning.  All the remained after the storm struck was
a crumbling brick chimney and charred pieces of lumber.  According to Titus
Crow's will, the remains of Blowne House and the land it was built on were to
become the property of the Wilmarth Foundation.  To this day, Blowne House has
remained empty and Blown House's remaining rubble can still be found amid the
weeds and shrubs. (35)


*************

REFERENCES AND NOTES:

(1) Lumley, Brian "Lord of the Worms" (1983).

(2) Lumley, Brian "Inception" (1987).  Also see Von Braun, Peter "St Magnus and
Titus Crow: A Historical Inquiry" (1998) for the argument that the church used
by the Crow family was indeed St. Magnus Church.

(3) Lumley, Brian "Lord of the Worms" (1983).

(4) Lumley, Brian "The Horror at Oakdeene" (1977)

(5) Titus Crow to Wingate Peaslee, 12 September 1961.

(6) Lumley, Brian "Billy's Oak" (1970) & Lumley, Brian _The Burrower's Beneath_
(1974).

(7) Lumley, Brian "Lord of the Worms" (1983) & Taylor, Evan "The Ainsworth
Folly" (1988).

(8) Lumley, Brian "Lord of the Worms" (1983)

(9) Lumley, Brian "Name and Number" (1982) & Lumley, Brian _The Burrower's
Beneath_ (1974).

(10) There seem to be two different theories as to why Crow never finished his
doctoral degree in archeology.  There are those which suggest that Crow came to
the realization that any career he might make in his field would never
correspond enough with his own interests to make it worth the effort.  Years
spent behind a desk writing papers on orthodox topics for small minded journals
didn't appeal to him. Others have suggested that Crow's childish interest in
the occult kept Crow from developing the discipline necessary for success in
academia.  More than likely, both sides of the debate are right.  Whether the
condemnation rests on the establishment or the man depends, one would guess, on
where one's own interests lie.

(11) Lumley, Brian "Concerning Titus Crow" (1987).

(12) Sklar, D. _The Nazis and the Occult_.

(13) Lumley, Brian "Lord of the Worms" (1983).

(14) Detwiller, Dennis et al.  _Delta Green_ (1997),  Lumley, Brian "Name and
Number" (1982)

(15) Lumley, Brian "Lord of the Worms" (1983).

(16) Arthur Binglow, "A Modern Magus!" _The Sun_ 20 May 1917. Carstairs wrote a
letter asking for an apology for taking several statements he'd said during an
informal get together in London out of context. The short apology hidden in the
next edition of the newspaper was the last piece written by that reporter
before dying from an electrical accident at his home the following day.

(17) Lumley, Brian "Concerning Titus Crow" (1987). It should be pointed out
that there are those that feel that Crow never received any money from
Carstairs' estate but instead his sudden wealth prior to the 1960s was a result
of a family inheritance.

(18) Lumley, Brian _Preface to 'An Item of Supporting Evidence"_ (1987).

(19) Lumley, Brian "De Marigny's Clock" (1971).

(20) Lumley, Brian "Billy's Oak" (1970).

(21) Lumley, Brian "The Caller of the Black" (1971).

(22) Lumley, Brian "The Viking's Stone" (1977).

(23) Lumley, Brian "An Item of Supporting Evidence" (1970). Crow was also the
author of other less controversial pieces of fiction such as "The Failings of
our Future King," "When the Dead Awake," and "Rain of Blackness" among others.

(24) Lumley, Brian "Concerning Titus Crow" (1987).

(25) Lumley, Brian "The Fairground Horror" (1976).

(26) Lumley, Brian "Billy's Oak" (1970).

(27) Lumley, Brian "Name and Number" (1982), Lumley, Brian "Introduction to
_The House of Cthulhu_" (1984), Staplehurst, Graham "Ancient & Modern" (1986).

(28) Lumley, Brian "Name and Number" (1982).

(29) Lumley, Brian "Titus Crow vs. Dracula" (1975). This item was a script
submitted to Marvel's black and white Dracula Lives comic book magazine, which
ran in the early 1970s. The story was never published due to the cancellation
of the series just before the Titus Crow story was released.

(30) Lumley, Brian "Concerning Titus Crow" (1987).

(31) Lumley, Brian _The Burrower's Beneath_ (1974).

(32) Lumley, Brian _The Burrower's Beneath_ (1974) Also see, Price, Robert M.
"Wilbur Whateley Waiting" (1987)

(33) Mooney, Brian "The Tomb of Priscus" (1994).

(34) Lumley, Brian _The Burrower's Beneath_ (1974), Lumley, Brian "Name and
Number" (1982), Lumley, Brian "The Black Recalled" (1983), Lumley, Brian _The
Transition of Titus Crow_ (1975).

Thanks go to Daniel Harms' _The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana_ without which this
brief sketch would have gone untried.