# Professor Parkins — Short Fiction character guide

> Professor Parkins in Short Fiction by M. R. James.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Parkins

**First appearance:** 0006-oh-whistle-and-i-ll-come-to-you-my-lad

## Snapshot

A plucky, Protestant-minded professor whose seaside golfing holiday turns into amateur archaeology, then something far less explicable among the buried ruins.

## Who they are

Parkins arrives at Burnstow intending to improve his golf and oblige a colleague by inspecting the site of a former preceptory. His defining trait is pluck—a brisk, rational confidence that he can handle whatever he stumbles across, whether it is Colonel Wilson's lurid temper or a half-buried foundation. That confidence is exactly what the story will test, as his casual curiosity about the mounds and cavities near the links draws him toward discoveries he never meant to make.

## In the story

### [Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_35_se/chapters/oh-whistle-and-i-ll-come-to-you-my-lad)

The protagonist, a precise and scholarly professor of Ontography, who comes to Burnstow to improve his golf game and investigate a Templar preceptory.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_35_se/characters/parkins
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_35_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_35_se/characters