C. Sir Joseph Barnby Writes As Follows

November 1892.

I was invited by Lord and Lady Radnor to the wedding of their daughter, Lady Wilma Bouverie, which took place August 15, 1889.

I was met at Salisbury by Lord and Lady Radnor and driven to Longford Castle. In the course of the drive, Lady Radnor said to me: "We have a young lady staying with us in whom, I think, you will be much interested. She possesses the faculty of seeing visions, and is otherwise closely connected with the spiritual world. Only last night she was looking in her crystal and described a room which she saw therein, as a kind of London dining-room. [The room described was not in London but at L., and Miss A. particularly remarked that the floor was in large squares of black and white marble - as it is in the big hall at L, where family prayers are said. - H. M. Radnor.] With a little laugh, she added, 'And the family are evidently at prayers, the servants are kneeling at the chairs round the room, and the prayers are being read by a tall and distinguished-looking gentleman with a very handsome, long grey beard.' With another little laugh, she continued: 'A lady just behind him rises from her knees and speaks to him.

He puts her aside with a wave of the hand, and continues his reading.' The young lady here gave a careful description of the lady who had risen from her knees".

Lady Radnor then said: " From the description given I cannot help thinking that the two principal personages described are Lord and Lady L., but I shall ask Lord L. this evening, as they are coming by a later train, and I should like you to be present when the answer is given".

That same evening, after dinner, I was talking to Lord L. when Lady Radnor came up to him and said: "I want to ask you a question. I am afraid you will think it a very silly one, but in any case I hope you will not ask me why I have put the question?" To this Lord L. courteously assented. She then said: "Were you at home last night? " He replied, "Yes." She said: "Were you having family prayers at such a time last evening?" With a. slight look of surprise he replied, "Yes, we were." She then said: "During the course of the prayers did Lady L. rise from her knees and speak to you, and did you put her aside with a wave of the hand?" Much astonished, Lord L. answered: "Yes, that was so, but may I inquire why you have asked this question?" To which Lady Radnor answered: "You promised you wouldn't ask me that!"

F. One more incident in connection with the extraordinary powers of this young lady remains to be noted. Whilst looking in her crystal during one of the days I spent at Longford, she described, amongst a number of things unnecessary to mention, a room which appeared to her to be a bedroom. She appeared to be viewing the room from just outside the open door, for she said: "If there be a bed in the room it must be behind the door on the left;" in any case the room was a long one and the end of it was occupied by a large window which formed the entire end of the room. She added: " There is a lady in the room, drying her hands on a towel." She described the lady as tall, dark, slightly foreign in appearance and with rather "an air" about her. This described with such astonishing accuracy my wife, and the room she was then occupying at a hotel at Eastbourne, that I was impelled to ask for particulars as to dress, etc. She stated that the dress was of serge, with a good deal of braid on the bodice and a strip of braid down one side of the skirt. This threw me off the scent, as before I had started for Longford my wife had expressed regret that she had not a serge dress, with her.

My astonishment, therefore, was great on returning to Eastbourne to find my wife wearing a serge dress exactly answering to the description given above. The sequel to this incident comes some sixteen months later on, when my wife and I attended a performance given by the Magpie Minstrels (a society of musical amateurs) at Princes' Hall, Piccadilly. We arrived early, and after placing my wife in a seat I moved about the room speaking to friends here and there. In the course of ten minutes or so, Lady Radnor and Miss A. entered the room. During the greetings which ensued, Miss A. called my attention to a standing figure, saying: "You will remember my seeing a lady in her bedroom while looking in my crystal; that is the lady I saw." That was my wife! I only need add that she had never seen my wife. Joseph Barnby.

Lady Barnby writes as follows in corroboration of the incident relating to her own dress: -

9 St. Georgés Square, S.W. Saturday, November 12, 1892.

The account about me and my dress is remarkable as being out of the general course of things in this way: I had been remarking to Sir Joseph that it was a mistake to come to the seaside without a serge dress, that being a material particularly suited for wear at the seaside, but I added: "I do not think there is much use in ordering one now, as Madame D. will be gone for her holiday, it being August." Sir Joseph left the next day for Longford, and I wrote to Madame D., telling her to make me this gown. She got the letter Tuesday [August 13, 1889], and in the marvellously short time by Saturday, I received my gown. Then again, it is not usual in a hotel to have onés bedroom door open when one is occupying the room, but the reason for it on this occasion was the fact that I was to meet Sir Joseph on his return from Longford [Tuesday, August 20] (as a surprise in this new serge gown) and having no clock in our bedroom, which was at the end of the corridor, with my daughter's room at an angle to ours, where she slept with her maid, I - thinking I was somewhat late for meeting the train - opened the door to call to the maid to tell me the time as I washed my hands standing at the washhand-stand in a line with the open door.

I do not suppose I have ever done such a thing at a hotel before or since. Edith Mary Barnby.

[These dates have been confirmed by Lady Barnby from her diary. Lady Barnby also tells me that her nurse confirms the little incident of the wearing of the serge dress first on August 20. The crystal-scene, therefore, seems to have anticipated a certain definite moment, which happens to have been well remembered.