On the evening of the same day a telegram was received announcing the unexpected death of Mrs Morse at 9.15 on the evening of Friday, 16th July.
A prominent Chicago journalist, Mr F. B. Wilkie, reported that his wife asked him one morning in October 1885, while still engaged in dressing, and before either of them had left their sleeping-room, if he knew anyone named Edsale or Esdale. A negative reply was given and then a "Why do you ask?" She replied: "During the night I dreamt that I was on the lake-shore and found a coffin there, with the name of Edsale or Esdale on it, and I am confident that someone of that name has recently been drowned there." On opening the morning paper the first item that attracted his attention was the report of the mysterious disappearance from his home in Hyde Park of a young man named Esdale. A few days afterwards the body of a young man was found on the lake-shore.
This case was carefully investigated and authenticated by Dr Hodgson, and bears some unusual features.
Of dreams that may be reasonably regarded as telepathic the following is a striking example. It is contributed to "Phantasms of the Living" by a Mrs Hilton—a lady engaged in active work, and not in any respect a "visionary."
"234 Burdett Road, E.
"April 10th, 1883.
"The dream which I am about to relate occurred about two years ago. I seemed to be walking in a country road, with high grassy banks on either side. Suddenly I heard the tramp of many feet. Feeling a strange sense of fear I called out: 'Who are these people coming?' A voice above me replied: 'A procession of the dead.' I then found myself on the bank, looking into the road where the people were walking five or six abreast. Hundreds of them passed by me—neither looking aside nor looking at each other. They were people of all conditions and in all ranks of life. I saw no children amongst them. I watched the long line of people go away into the far distance, but I felt no special interest in any of them, until I saw a middle-aged Friend, dressed as a gentleman farmer. I pointed to him and called out: 'Who is that, please?' He turned round and called out in a loud voice: 'I am John M., of Chelmsford.' Then my dream ended. Next day when my husband returned from the office he told me that John M., of Chelmsford, had died the previous day.
"I may add that I only knew the Friend in question by sight and cannot recollect ever speaking to him.
"Marie Hilton."
About a year later Mrs Hilton experienced a dream of a similar kind, again coincident with the death of an acquaintance seen in the phantom procession. It is worth noting "remarks Mr Gurney," that these dreams—for all their bizarrerie—seem to belong to a known type.
In another category of phenomena belong precognitive dreams in which certain events, especially deaths, are foretold. Mr Alfred Cooper, of 9 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, W., states, and his statement is attested by the Duchess of Hamilton, that:
"A fortnight before the death of the late Earl of L——, in 1882, I called upon the Duke of Hamilton in Hill Street to see him professionally. After I had finished seeing him we went into the drawing-room where the Duchess was, and the Duke said to me: 'Oh, Cooper, how is the Earl?'
"The Duchess said: 'What Earl?' and on my answering: 'Lord L——,' she replied, 'That is very odd. I have had a most extraordinary vision. I went to bed, but after being in bed a short time, I was not exactly asleep, but thought I saw a scene as if from a play before me. The actors in it were Lord L——, in a chair, as if in a fit, with a man standing over him with a red beard. He was by the side of a bath, over which bath a red lamp was distinctly shown.'
"I then said: 'I am attending Lord L—— at present; there is very little the matter with him; he is not going to die; he will be all right very soon.'
"Well, he got better for a week and was nearly well, but at the end of six or seven days after this I was called to see him suddenly. He had inflammation of both lungs.
"I called in Sir William Jenner, but in six days he was a dead man. There were two male nurses attending him; one had been taken ill. But when I saw the other the dream of the Duchess was exactly represented. He was standing near a bath over the Earl, and, strange to say, his beard was red. There was the bath with the red lamp over it, it is rather rare to find a bath with a red lamp over it, and this brought the story to my mind.
"The vision seen by the Duchess was told two weeks before the death of Lord L——. It is a most remarkable thing. This account, written in 1888, has been revised by the late Duke of Manchester, father of the Duchess of Hamilton, who heard the vision from his daughter on the morning after she had seen it.
"Mary Hamilton.
"Alfred Cooper."
Mr Myers adds:
"The Duchess only knew Lord L—— by sight, and had not heard that he was ill. She knew she was not asleep, for she opened her eyes to get rid of the vision, and, shutting them, saw the same thing again.
"An independent and concordant account has been given to me (F. W. H. M.) orally by a gentleman to whom the Duchess related the dream on the morning after its occurrence."