M. Retrocognitive Scene

Mrs. A. gives the following account: "In October 1886 my daughter saw in the stone in her bracelet a scene which considerably impressed me, as it was one which I at once identified, while I was absolutely sure that I had never mentioned it to her or to any of my children. She saw a man in a barge-like boat with a very large gun fixed in it, the object of which she could not understand. The man was alone and lying in the bottom of the boat, and this also puzzled her. Waves seemed to get up, and the man rowed extremely hard, as though trying to get to shore. Then she saw him throw himself down motionless on to the low beach, as if dead. Now this plainly refers to a sad crisis in my father's life. He went out duck-shooting alone on a Norfolk Broad, with an opening to the sea. A storm got up, and he was all but blown out to sea. He was a very strong man, and by great exertion he got to land. Then he threw himself down absolutely spent; and the exhaustion of that day was the beginning of an illness which ultimately killed him".

[Another case, which in one sense at least is retrocognitive, is supplied by the Hon. Eric Barrington, and confirmed by Mrs. Barrington. I have also received a concordant account of the crystal-message from Lady Radnor, the hostess on the occasion alluded to].

62 Cadogan Place, O. November 21, 1892.

Two years ago I met Miss A., I think for the first time, at dinner at a friend's house. She told my wife that she had seen standing behind my chair a figure which from her description, though somewhat vague, seemed to be that of a very great friend of mine, an officer who had died about seven years ago on active service. She referred particularly to the attitude assumed by the figure, which was like the one in a photograph I possess of him, but which she had never seen. She knew nothing of this friendship, and the name of the officer was not mentioned to her.

Last summer we met again at the same house, and although in the interval we had become better acquainted with Miss A. and her family, I am not conscious of having ever said anything to her on the subject of my friend. On reaching the drawing-room after dinner I found her looking into a crystal and dictating with extraordinary rapidity a number of letters of the alphabet which were passing before her, and were being taken down by the lady of the house, who had the greatest difficulty in keeping pace with her. When the letters ceased, it was discovered by marking them off from the end that they formed a complete message, of which each word was spelt backwards. Before the letters began to show themselves Miss A. saw in the crystal the same figure that she had seen two years before, dressed in what appeared to be a dark uniform, and in the same peculiar attitude, but I was not in the room when this occurred. As soon, however, as the message was deciphered by our hostess, it became evident that it purported to proceed from the person whose likeness had just been reproduced.

It was addressed, not to me, who was absent from the room when the letters first appeared, but to my wife, and was to the following effect: -

"Ask your husband whether he still remembers T. T. Tell him that I am constantly with him, and that death makes no difference in friendship".

The full surname was given, preceded by a nickname which had been dropped when he grew up, and was only known to those who, like myself, had been intimate with him from childhood.

It cannot be suggested that Miss A. had been in any way impressed by my thoughts, for it was not until I sat by my hostess and helped her to spell out the words of the message that I realised from whom it came, when I was able to explain the meaning of the nickname that had completely puzzled her, though she had been well acquainted with the bearer after he entered the army. Eric Barrington.

This entirely agrees with my recollection of the circumstances. The moment Miss A. described the figure on our first meeting, 1 felt a very peculiar sensation, accompanied by a certainty as to the identity of the person she saw.

Christina Barrington.

[There is a privately printed life of the officer in question, in which an early nickname of his is given. But I find that this nickname is not the same as that shown in the crystal, which was appropriate for recognition by friends of boyhood only].