745 B. From Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 178. The following narrative was sent to us with the true names, but with a request to conceal them, and some local details, on account of the painful nature of the incident described. Our informant, whom I will call Mrs. M., writes under date December 15th, 1891.

Before relating my experience of having seen a ghost, I should like my readers thoroughly to understand that I had not the slightest idea that the house in which my husband and I were living was haunted, or that the family residing there for many years before us had had any family troubles. The house was delightfully situated [etc.]. The house being partly new and partly old, we occupied the old part for our sleeping apartments. There were two staircases leading to them, with a landing and window, adjoining a morning sitting-room. One night on retiring to my bedroom about 11 o'clock, I thought I heard a peculiar moaning sound, and some one sobbing as if in great distress of mind. I listened very attentively, and still it continued; so I raised the gas in my bedroom, and then went to the landing window of which I have spoken, drew the blind aside; and there on the grass was a very beautiful young girl in a kneeling posture before a soldier, in a general's uniform, sobbing, and clasping her hands together, entreating for pardon; but, alas ! he only waved her away from him. So much did I feel for the girl, that without a moment's hesitation I ran down the staircase to the door opening upon the lawn, and begged her to come in and tell me her sorrow.

The figures then disappeared ! Not in the least nervous did I feel then; - went again to my bedroom, took a sheet of writing-paper and wrote down what I had seen. [Mrs. If. has found and sent us this paper. The following words are written in pencil on a half sheet of notepaper: "March 13th, 1886. Have just seen visions on lawn:- a soldier in general's uniform, - a young lady kneeling to him. 11.40 p.m."] My husband was away from home when this event occurred, but a lady friend was staying with me, so I went to her bedroom and told her that I had been rather frightened with some noises; - could I stay with her a little while? A few days afterwards I found myself in a very nervous state; but it seemed so strange that I was not frightened at the time.

It appears the story is only too true. The youngest daughter of this very old, proud family had had an illegitimate child; and her parents and relatives would not recognise her again, and she died broken-hearted. The soldier was a near relative (also a connection of my husband's); and it was in vain she tried to gain his - the soldier's - forgiveness. [ In a subsequent letter Sir X. Y.'s career is described. He was a distinguished officer].

So vivid was my remembrance of the features of the soldier that some months after the occurrence, when I happened to be calling with my husband at a house where there was a portrait of him, I stepped before it and said: "Why, look! There is the General!" And sure enough it was.

In a subsequent letter Mrs. M. writes:-

I did see the figures on the lawn after opening the door leading on to the lawn; and they by no means disappeared instantly, but more like a dissolving view, viz., gradually; and I did not leave the door until they had passed away.

It was impossible for any real persons to act such a scene. . . . The General was born and died in [the house where I saw him]. ... I was not aware that the portrait of the General was in that room [where I saw it]; it was the first time I had been in that room. The misfortune to the poor girl happened in 1847 or 1848.

Mrs. M. then mentions that a respectable local tradesman, hearing of the incident, remarked: "That is not an uncommon thing to see her about the place, poor soul! She was a badly used girl".

Mr. M. writes as follows, under date December 23rd, 1891:-

I have seen my wife's letter in regard to the recognition of Sir X. Y.'s picture at--. Nothing was said by me to her on the subject; but knowing the portrait to be a remarkably good likeness I proposed calling at the house [which was that of a nephew of Sir X. Y.'s], being anxious to see what effect it would have on my wife. Immediately on entering the room she almost staggered back, and turned pale, saying - looking hard at the picture - "Why, there's the General!" . . . Being a connection of the family, I knew all about the people, but my wife was then a stranger, and I had never mentioned such things to her; in fact, they had been almost forgotten.

This case may remind us of Gurney's description of a somewhat similar vision (that quoted in 733 B), a suggesting the survival of a mere image, - what I have termed a veridical after-image, - of past events or emotions with no active counterpart in the present. We are, indeed, always uncertain as to the degree of the deceased person's active participation in post-mortem phantasms, - as to the relation of such manifestations to the central current of his continuing individuality. But it is in dealing with these persistent pictures of a bygone earth-scene that this perplexity reaches its climax. They may, as I have already said, be the mere dreams of the dead; - affording no true indication of the point which the deceased person's knowledge or emotion has really reached.