731 A. From the Journal S.P.R., vol. vii. p. 173. The following case was sent to us by Mrs. Browne, of Bidston, Alleyn Road, West Dul-wich. The first narrative is extracted from an account privately printed a few months after the events occurred.

Haylett House, Surbiton, July 1891.

Newbray Hall was drowned off Start Point, Devon, during the great storm of March 9th, 1891, his vessel, the Marana, being one of the many which were lost at that spot.

He had had the offer of two or three vessels, including the Marana, and came home on the 28th February, to consider what he should do, and discussed the matter at considerable length on Tuesday evening, the 3rd March, with his father and Captain Byng, an old naval friend. The deceased slept at home on Wednesday and Friday, and stated that he would return to dinner on the Saturday, but he did not do so, and on Monday morning his mother received a letter from him stating that he had sailed the previous day in the Marana.

On Monday evening the storm took place, and on the Tuesday or Wednesday night following, Miss Annie Hall, aged twenty-seven, the sister of the deceased, dreamt that she saw her brother on a raft apparently composed of loose planks of wood, and he appeared to be swimming. On the same or subsequent nights she had other dreams, in which she saw her brother lying in a room, but she was unable to say whether alive or dead. This all took place before any news had been received of the loss of the Marana, and Miss Hall related her dreams immediately to Mrs. Syms, aged forty, who had lived with the family as cook for about ten years. On Friday night a telegram was received at Surbiton from the owners stating that the Marana had been wrecked, and on the Saturday morning Mr. Wood, who was in the employ of the deceased's father, went down to Devonshire, and having ascertained that the body of the deceased had been recovered, and was lying in a house at Prawle, South Devon, he identified it, and brought it to Brookwood for burial.

Matters remained in this position until the 16th June, when Mrs. Hall and her daughter went to the house at Prawle in which the body had been placed, and Miss Hall at once positively identified the room as the one she had seen in her dreams. Upon going to the spot also where the body had been found, a large number of railway sleepers were observed, which had been washed up from the wreck, and, as can be seen from a photograph, have very much the appearance of a raft such as that described in the first dream.

The sister's dreams, so far as can be ascertained, accurately represented the events which took place in connection with the death of her brother.

Miss Hall wrote to Mrs. Browne:-

Blenheim Lodge, Surbiton, July 4th, 1895.

My brother Newbray sailed on Sunday, March 8th, 1891, in the Marana, a small steamer, as he had to fill up six months before he could pass as captain; then he was going in the P. & O. I had no idea Newbray was going to sail so soon, but we were to meet him in London on Saturday, March 7th, but he didn't come. On Sunday mother had a letter to say they were sailing that morning and he couldn't get away. I wrote him a long letter on Monday [the] 9th, and in the afternoon went to see a girl friend in Kingston, but I felt so ill and depressed that I didn't stay very late. It was about 4.30 when I went into the market-place to take the omnibus home. When I was standing waiting, a fearful gust of wind and snow seemed to blow, especially round me, - that was about the time the ship struck, - though the storm was getting very bad indeed. Newbray and I were so devoted that 1 felt he was in some awful trouble. When I got home I gave up a concert I was going to, as I felt so ill and anxious. I didn't dream anything on the Monday, but on Tuesday I dreamt that I saw him on a raft made up of loose planks of wood, and he appeared to be swimming.

On the same and following nights I had other dreams, and in one particular one I saw him lying on the floor in a room with a slanting roof; he looked very still and white, but I couldn't tell if he were alive or dead. I could tell the room was in the country somewhere, as I could see it was whitewashed and they had red flowers in the windows. I told our old cook, Mrs. Syms, who had been with us ten years, when she came up with my tea. On Friday we got a telegram to say the Marana was wrecked. On June 16th mother and I went to the house at Prawle where they had taken his poor body. As soon as I got in I went upstairs to the room, as I knew it at once from my dream, and pointed out to mother the spot where he lay. The woman in the house couldn't understand it, as I had never been there. My dream was accurate in every detail, even to the low long windows, and the most wonderful thing was that I dreamt the dream the night he was taken to the cottage. His body was found amongst railway sleepers that looked just the same as I saw them in my first dream, so in every respect my dreams represented accurately the events which took place in connection with my brother's death. I had never been to South Devon, and never heard of Prawle. He was twenty-five and I twenty-seven when he died.

We were most devoted. Annie Hall.

The following note was written by the servant to whom Miss Hall related her dreams at the time:-

Blenheim Lodge, Surbiton.

Miss Hall told me about her dreams when I took her bedroom tea in before she was up. Mary Syms.

Mrs. Hall writes:-

Blenheim Lodge, Surbiton, July 12th. I beg to say that my daughter, Annie Hall, described the room at Prawle to me before we visited the place, in fact so distinctly that on entering the room I was struck with the resemblance and turned to my daughter for confirmation.

E. O. Hall. Miss Hall writes further:-

Blenheim Lodge, Surbiton, July 12th, 1895. The dreams were of conditions actually existing, just as it was happening to my brother Newbray, not prophetic. I have never had any other dreams in my life. And I can only conclude that I had these because my brother and I were so devoted.

See also a case given in the Journal S.P.R., vol. v. p. 239, where a man while boating sees in the water a vision of the soles of two stockinged feet, which he recognises as those of a friend. The friend is drowning three miles off at the time.