(239) "Some 18 or 19 years ago, I remember calling on a working maltster, whose employer was living at Lincoln. His employer was ill at the time, and I asked the man if he had heard from him lately. ' No,' he said, ' but I am afraid he is dead.' And on my inquiring why he thought so, he replied that on going out that morning early, he had seen his employer standing on the top of the steps that lead up to the kiln door, as plainly as he ever had seen him in his life.

"It was as he expected: the first news that came reported his employer's death.

"I have no doubt the man I speak of either saw this appearance, or believed he saw it".

In answer to inquiries, this informant says: -

"March 12th, 1885.

"Since receiving your letter, I have had the curiosity to look over my old diaries, thinking I might have made a note of the occurrence, and under the date of Thursday, the 22nd of October, 1863, I find the follow-Dead. ing: - 'Report of Mr. W.'s death. M. saw his " wraith" on Tuesday morning about 5 o'clock'.

"This differs somewhat from what I told you in my last letter, for I said that the man had seen the appearance that same morning in which I spoke with him. Here it seems it was two days before. But still he had told me before it was known for a certainty that Mr. W. was dead. For you observe the word 'dead' put in over the Λ. This I know from my own habit was put in afterwards. There is no communication between this place and Lincoln, except on the market day, Friday. At that time of year, moreover, the carriers who go to Lincoln would not get back before night, and consequently I should most probably not have learned the certainty of the report until some time on Saturday. Then, instead of making a new note of it, I simply put in the word ' dead ' to show that the report was true when I first heard it. Moreover, I used the Scotch word 'wraith' instead of 'ghost' or 'spirit,' as I had an idea that the former word was applied to appearances before death.

"I observe that the man said ' about 5 o'clock.' Of course, this would be a vague expression for any time up to 5.30, or thereabouts, when the morning would not be very clear perhaps, but sufficiently so to enable one to see an object some 10 or 12 yards off, and I am not sure it was quite so much.

"I cannot say that Mr. W. was dead at the time M. saw the appearance, but he was certainly dead at the time he told me of it, otherwise I should not have inserted the word 'dead' where I did.

"I may add that Mr. W. had formerly lived in this village, and I had known him well. He had gone to live in Lincoln only a short time before his death. His malt kiln was his only means of providing for his wife and family - five or six young children - and he had been in the habit of coming over to see how things went on, twice a week. There is nothing more natural than that his thoughts (and they must have been very anxious thoughts) should have been fixed on that one place".

The following is the percipient's own account: -

" Ridley's Yard, North Gate, Newark, Notts., March 16th, 1885. "I have received your letter asking me to forward you what I said about my dear Mr. Wright, for he was a very good master. I said I saw him standing on the steps,.with one hand on the handrail; my light went out, and I saw no more, and he died, and I hope he is at rest. That was at 4 o'clock in the morning, before he departed from us.

" J. Merrill".

In answer to inquiries, Mr. Merrill adds, on April 6, 1885: -

"I am very sorry to let you know that I do not remember the date that dear Mr. Wright died, but I think it was the latter end of 1863. I looked my old books over, but, with the trade being carried on in the same way, I have nothing to go by. I saw him as plain as in the middle of the day, for he stood just the same as he did when he came at noon, looking on to the house for me to go to him. I never saw anything before, to my mind." [The last sentence is in answer to the question whether the above was his only experience of a hallucination].

We find from the Register of Deaths that Mr. Wright died on Oct. 22, 1863, of "gastric fever." The apparition therefore took place two days before the death, but no doubt at a time of critical illness. In conversation, Mr. Merrill's wife stated that she remembered laughing at her husband's account of his strange experience when he returned home. Neither of them seems to have then connected the apparition with the idea of death.

The following case was written down by our valued helper, Miss Porter, from the account of Mrs. Banister, of Eversley, mother of the percipient, Mrs. Ellis, of Portesbery Road, Camberley, who has signed it as correct.

"August 5th.

(240) "In September, 1878, I, then residing in York Town, Surrey, three times during the day distinctly saw the face of an old friend, Mr. James Stephenson, who I afterwards heard died that day in Eversley, five miles off. I saw it first about half-past 10 in the morning; the last time it was nearly 6 o'clock. I knew him to be ill.

(Signed) "Mary Ellis".

A memorial card shows that Mr. Stephenson died on Sept. 19, 1878.

Mr. Stephenson had not been on friendly terms with Mrs. Banister or her daughter; but Mrs. Banister, by his desire, went to see him just before his death. [Mr. Gurney states in reply to criticism by Professor Peirce1 that "There had been no 'reconciliation' between the percipient and the dying man; nor was she aware of her mother's visiting him." - Ed].

In answer to inquiries, Mrs. Ellis says: -

"I told my husband, and a young man, whose name is Swiney, at the tea-table the same afternoon, and after leaving the table to go into another room I saw it again - which was the last time. I did not hear of Mr. Stephenson's death until the next day, nor did I know that he was so near death. My husband remembers it well, but the children were then too young to notice such a thing. I have never seen anything like it before or since, and I hope I never shall again. "MARY Ellis".

1 Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research, 1888, vol. i., 297.

Mr. Ellis writes: -

"I quite well remember my wife speaking of the figure that she had seen during the day. The next day we heard of Mr. Stephenson's death.

"E. J. Ellis".

Mr. Herbert Swiney, writing on September 29th, 1885, from Tregar-then House, Romford Road, Forest Gate, says that he only faintly recollects the matter.

If correctly reported, this case presents two of the rarer features which are common to telepathic and to purely subjective hallucinations; the fragmentary nature of the percept - a face only - and the repetition after an interval of some hours.1

The next case must be reckoned as one of non-recognition, as the resemblance between the phantasm and the person who died was not remarked until the fact of death was known. The narrator, Mr. S. J. Masters, of 87, Clifford Crescent, Southampton, will hardly be accused of excessive sentimentality.

"December 14th, 1882.