My father was riding the only white horse that was out that day.
Louisa Bourne.
H. M. Bourne.
The second signature was added later, with the words: "This was written by my sister and me together."
Miss H. M. Bourne enclosed the above in the following letter to Mrs. Dent, to whom we are indebted for the case:—
Weston Subedge, Broadway, Worcestershire, May 21st, 1891.
My Dear Mrs. Dent,—Louisa has asked me send you the enclosed account of the impression she, the coachman, and I had of seeing papa on Paddy in the hunting-field. It was on the 5th February 1887 it happened, and in March the same year, when I was out walking alone, I thought I saw papa and Paddy stop at a little plantation of his close to, and look at the wall, which had fallen in [in] one part. He then appeared to ride a few yards towards me, but afterwards turned round and went back past the plantation and out of sight. When I went in I asked him if he had not seen me, and why he turned back, when it transpired he had not been past that plantation all day, but had ridden home another way. He said it must have been some one else on a white horse, and asked where I was when I saw him, and then, not before, it dawned on me that it was utterly impossible to see either plantation or wall from where I was. Since then I have often been along the same road, and stood, and looked, and wondered how it was I so distinctly saw the broken wall and papa on the white horse; a turn in the road makes my having really done so quite impossible. I am sorry I cannot give you the exact date of this: I know it was in March 1887, but cannot remember the day, except that it was not on the 5th. The other "experience" is, I always think, far more interesting, as having been seen by three, and also from the fact that Paddy was the only white or grey horse in the hunting-field that day; so that unbelievers could not say it was some one else on a white horse that we had mistaken....
Nina M. Bourne.
Mrs. Sidgwick writes:—
February 25th, 1892.
I saw Miss H. Bourne and her father this afternoon. Miss Bourne told me the stories of her seeing her father, first with her sister, and later by herself, and signed the account which she and her sister had, she says, made out together about it. The groom who saw the figure at the same time has since been dismissed, and cannot be asked for his evidence. Canon Bourne remembers hearing of the matter the day it happened. The groom rode up to the ladies as they were looking, and said: "The Canon is beckoning, Miss, and I think you had better go to him; his horse looks as if he had had a fall" (that is, muddy). The figure was beckoning to them with their father's usual (and peculiar) gesture. He is a heavy man, and his white horse, adapted to carry weight, was quite unlike any other horse in the neighbourhood. Every one agrees as to the impossibility of mistaking the horse. The horses of the neighbourhood were well known to the neighbourhood in general and to the Miss Bournes in particular, as they were at that time constantly out with the hounds. The incident seems quite unaccountable.