718 A. From Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iii. p. 92. The writer of the following account is Colonel--, a well-known Irish gentleman, but we are not allowed to publish his name. He writes from Arthur's on March 1st, 1885:-

Some sixteen years since Mrs.-- said to me, "We have some people staying here all next week. Do you know any person I could get to sing with the girls?"I suggested that my gunmaker, Mr. X., had a daughter with a fine voice, who was training as a public singer, and that if she, Mrs.--, liked I would write to X. and ask if he would allow her to come down and spend a week with us. On my wife's approval I wrote, and Miss X. came down for a week, and then left. As far as I know, Mrs.--never saw her again. Shortly after I called on X., thanked him for allowing his daughter to come to us, and said we were all much pleased with her. X. replied: "I fear you have spoilt her, for she says she never passed so happy a week in her life." Miss X. did not come out as a singer, but shortly after married Mr. Z., and none of us ever saw her again.

Six or seven years passed away, and Mrs.--, who had been long ill, was dying, in fact she did die the following day. I was sitting at the foot of her bed talking over some business matters that she was anxious to arrange, being perfectly composed and in thorough possession of her senses; in fact she was right, and my solicitor, who advised that the step she wanted to be taken was not necessary, was wrong. She changed the subject, and said, "Do you hear those voices singing?" I replied that I did not; and she said, "I have heard them several times to-day, and I am sure they are the angels welcoming me to Heaven; but," she added, "it is strange, there is one voice amongst them I am sure I know, and cannot remember whose voice it is." Suddenly she stopped and said, pointing straight over my head, "Why, there she is in the corner of the room; it is Julia X.; she is coming on; she is leaning over you; she has her hands up; she is praying; do look; she is going." I turned but could see nothing. Mrs.--then said, "She is gone." All these things I imagined to be the phantasies of a dying person.

Two days afterwards, taking up the Times newspaper, I saw recorded the death of Julia Z., wife of Mr. Z. I was so astounded that in a day or so after the funeral I went up to -- and asked Mr. X. if Mrs. Z., his daughter, was dead. He said, "Yes, poor thing, she died of puerperal fever. On the day she died she began singing in the morning, and sang and sang until she died".

Last year I saw mentioned that some person or persons were collecting remarkable ghost stories, and I wrote to Mr. Z. telling him shortly what I have now written at length. Mr. Z.'s answer was that I had described . . . accurately the scene of his wife's death. . . .

Colonel-- adds later:-

Mrs. Z. died on February 2nd at six or thereabout in the morning, 1874.

Mrs.-- died, February 13th, 1874, at about four in the evening. I saw notice of Mrs. Z.'s death on February 14th. Mrs.-- never was subject to hallucinations of any sort.

We received later the following letter from Mr. Webley, called above "Mr. Z.":-

84 Wenman Street, Birmingham, May 18th, 1885.

In reply to your letter, I shall be happy to give you the information asked for. My wife died on 2nd February 1884 [1874], about 5.30 a.m. The last hours of her life were spent in singing. I may say notes came from her within ten minutes of her decease; and beautiful as her voice was, it never appeared so exquisitely beautiful as this. Henry Webley.