645. But there are other cases where a man's phantasm is seen in a place where there is no special reason for his appearing, although these places seem always to lie within the beat and circuit of his habitual thought.

In such cases there are still possible circumstances which may give reason to think that the apparition is causally connected with the apparent agent. The phantasm of a given person may be seen repeatedly by different percipients, or it may be seen collectively by several persons at a time; or it may combine both these evidential characteristics, and may be seen several times and by several persons together.

Now considering the rarity of phantasmal appearances, considering that not one person in (say) five thousand is ever phantasmally seen at all; the mere fact that a given person's phantasm is seen even twice, by different percipients (for we cannot count a second appearance to the same percipient as of equal value), is in itself a remarkable fact; while if this happens three or four times we can hardly ascribe such a sequence of rare occurrences to chance alone. I cite almost in full the case of Mrs. Hawkins {ne'e Eden, daughter of the late Primus of Scotland), from Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 78.

Mrs. Hawkins writes from Beyton Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds, as follows: -

March 25th, 1885.

I send you my cousins' accounts of my apparition.

I have also sent you the account of my next appearance, which unfortunately cannot now be related by the eye-witness.1

Again, a third time one of my little sisters reported that she had seen me on the stairs, when I was seven miles off; but she might so easily have been mistaken that I have never put any faith in that appearance. Then I was about twenty.

1 This account - omitted here - is related by Mrs. Hawkins herself and refers to her apparition having been seen in her own home in 1847 by the nursery-maid, now dead.

For many years after that these appearances seem to have entirely ceased, but in the autumn of 1877 I was seen in this house by my eldest son, then aged twenty-seven, who may, I hope, give you his own account of it.

Lucy Hawkins.

Mrs. Hawkins prefaces her cousins' accounts thus: -

The event described in the enclosed accounts took place at Cherington, near Shipston-on-Stour, in Warwickshire, the residence of my uncle, Mr. William Dickins, who was for many years chairman of Quarter Sessions in the county. The ladies who saw the appearance are two of his daughters, one of them a little older than myself, the other three or four years younger. I was then just seventeen.

The only mistake that I can discover in either of the accounts is that Mrs. Malcolm says I had been hiding with her "brother," whereas I had really been all the time with her sister, Miss Lucy Dickins - a fact of no importance, except that she (Miss D.) might (if necessary) bear witness that I had really been with her all the time in the washhouse, and so could not have been near where I was seen.

I remember we were all somewhat awed by what had happened, and that it broke up our game. I myself quite thought it was a warning of speedy death; but as I was not a nervous or excitable girl, it did not make me anxious or unhappy, and in course of time the impression passed off.

Writing to Mrs. Hawkins in September 1884, Miss Dickins said: -

Georgie [Mrs. Malcolm] is coming here on Friday, and I propose then to show her your letters, and Mr. Gurney's, and that we should each write our impressions of what we saw independently, and see how far they agree, and we will send the result to you. It is all very fresh in my memory, and I can at this moment conjure you up in my mind's eye, as you appeared under that tree and disappeared in the yard. I even recollect distinctly the dress you wore, a sort of brown and white, rather large check, such as was in fashion then, and is now, but was in abeyance in the intermediate years.

Shortly afterwards Miss Dickins wrote: -

Cherington, Shipston-on-Stour. September 29th, 1884.

I send the two accounts which Georgie and I wrote about your apparition. We wrote them independently, and so I think they are wonderfully good evidence, as they tally to almost every particular, except the little fact that I thought she joined me in searching the yard for you, and she thinks not - but that has nothing to do with the main fact of the story, our entire belief that we saw you in the body.

In the autumn of 1845, we were a large party of young ones staying in the house, and on one occasion were playing at a species of hide-and-seek, in which we were allowed to move from one hiding-place to another, until caught by the opposite side. At the back of the house there was a small fold-yard opening on one side into the orchard, on the other into the stableyard, and there were other buildings to the left. I came round the corner of these buildings, and saw my cousin standing under some trees about twenty yards from me, and I distinctly saw her face; my sister, who at the moment appeared on the other side, also saw her and shouted to me to give chase. My cousin ran between us in the direction of the fold-yard, and when she reached the door we were both close behind her and followed instantly, but she had entirely disappeared, though scarcely a second had elapsed. We looked at one another in amazement, and searched every corner of the yard in vain; and when found some little time afterwards, she assured us that she had never been on that side of the house at all, or anywhere near the spot, but had remained hidden in the same place until discovered by one of the enemy.

S. F. D.

I well remember the incident of your "fetch" appearing to us. I believe I wrote down the details at the time, but do not know what has become of that record, so must trust to my memory to recall the circumstances, and do not fear its [not] being faithful though nearly forty years have passed.

We were playing our favourite game of Golowain, which consisted in dividing into sides at hide-and-seek, the party hiding having the privilege of moving on from place to place until they reached the "Home," unless meanwhile caught by the pursuing party.

As I stood towards the end of the game, as a seeker, in the orchard, I saw you, who belonged to the opposite party, stealing toward me. As your dress was the same as your sister's and there was the possibility of my mistaking you for her, who was on my side, I shouted her name, and she answered me from the opposite side of the wood. I then gave chase, and you turned, and looked at me laughing, and I saw your face distinctly. But at the same instant, Nina, also my friend, but your enemy, appeared round some corner, and being still nearer to you than I was, I left the glory of your capture to her. She was close upon you as you fled into a cow-yard. I was so sure your fate was sealed that I followed more slowly, and hearing the bell ring, that, according to the rules of our game, recalled us to the " Home," I went on there, to find Nina upbraiding you for having so mysteriously escaped her in this cow-yard.

In astonishment you said you never had been near the place. Of course I supported my little sister in her assertion; whilst our brother supported you, saying he had been hiding with you, and that, being tired, you had both remained hidden in one place until the bell warned you that the game was over - that place being a washhouse in a distinct part of the premises from the cow or fold-yard, into which we believed we had chased you.

G. M. (née Dickins).

In answer to inquiries, both Miss Dickins and Mrs. Malcolm say that they have never had any other experience of visual hallucination.

The following account is from Mrs. Hawkins's son: -

June 20th, 1885. In the autumn of 1877, I was living at my father's house, Beyton Rector)', Bury St. Edmunds. The household consisted of my father, mother, three sisters, and three maid-servants. One moonlight night I was sleeping in my room, and had been asleep some hours, when I was awakened by hearing a noise close to my head, like the chinking of money. My waking idea, therefore, was that a man was trying to take my money out of my trousers pocket, which lay on a chair close to the head of my bed. On opening my eyes, I was astonished to see a woman, and I well remember thinking with sorrow that it must be one of our servants who was trying to take my money. I mention these two thoughts to show that I was not thinking in the slightest degree of my mother. When my eyes had become more accustomed to the light, I was more than ever surprised to see that it was my mother, dressed in a peculiar silver-grey dress, which she had originally got for a fancy ball. She was standing with both hands stretched out in front of her as if feeling her way; and in that manner moved slowly away from me, passing in front of the dressing-table, which stood in front of the curtained window, through which the moon threw a certain amount of light.

Of course, my idea all this time was that she was walking in her sleep. On getting beyond the table she was lost to my sight in the darkness. I then sat up in bed, listening, but hearing nothing; and, on peering through the darkness, saw that the door, which was at the foot of my bed, and to get to which she would have had to pass in front of the light, was still shut. I then jumped out of bed, struck a light, and instead of finding my mother at the far end of the room, as I expected, found the room empty. I then for the first time supposed that it was an "appearance," and greatly dreaded that it signified her death.

I might add that I had, at that time, quite forgotten that my mother had ever appeared to any one before, her last appearance having been about the year 1847, three years before I was born.

Edward Hawkins.

[In answer to inquiries, Mr. E. Hawkins says: - ] I can assure you that neither before nor since that time have I ever had any experience of the sort.

I quote several other cases of repeated apparitions in the Appendices to this section. Mr. Gorham Blake's case in Phantasms of the Living (vol. ii. p. 86), should also be consulted.

Impressive as is the repetition of the apparition in these cases, it is yet less so to my mind than the collective character of some of the perceptions. In Mrs. Hawkins's first case there were two simultaneous percipients. In one of Mr. Blake's cases there were two; and in Canon Bourne's first case (645 D) there were three percipients.