It appears that the death actually occurred at about 2 P.M. in England, which was, allowing for the difference in longitude, about nine hours before the dream.
In the next case the dream is of a more unusual character. The figure of the agent appears to have stood alone, whilst the impression made was such that the percipient is uncertain whether to class his experience as a dream or a vision. Indeed, in the absence of dream-background, and in the life-like appearance of the figure, the dream bears a striking resemblance to a waking hallucination.
No. 57.—From CAPTAIN R. E. W. CAMPBELL
(2nd Royal Irish Fusiliers).
"ARMY AND NAVY CLUB, PALL MALL, S.W.,
February 21st, 1888."I have much pleasure in enclosing you an account of a remarkable dream which occurred to me in the year 1886, together with three other accounts of the same, written by officers to whom the facts of the case are known. You are at liberty, in the interests of science, to make such use of them as you please.
"I was stationed at the Depôt Barracks, Armagh, Ireland, on the 30th November 1886, and on the night of the same date, or early in the morning of the 1st December (I cannot tell which, as I did not refer to my watch), I was in bed in my room, when I was awakened by a most vivid and remarkable dream or vision, in which I seemed to see a certain Major Hubbersty, late of my regiment, the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers, looking ghastly pale, and falling forward as if dying. He seemed to be saying something to me, but the words I could not make out, although I tried hard to understand him. The clothes he had on at the time appeared to me to have a thin red thread running through the pattern. I was very deeply impressed by my dream, and so much did I feel that there was something significant in it that on the 1st December, when at luncheon in the mess, I related it to three brother-officers, telling them at the same time that I felt sure we should soon hear something bad about Major Hubbersty. I had almost forgotten all about it when, on taking up the Times newspaper of the following Saturday on the Sunday morning following, the first thing that caught my eyes was the announcement of Major Hubbersty's death at Penzance, in Cornwall, on the 30th November, the very date on which I had the remarkable dream concerning him.
"My feelings on seeing such a remarkable fulfilment of my dream can be better imagined than described. Suffice it to say that on the return from church of Messrs. Kaye and Scott I asked them to try and recollect anything peculiar which had happened at luncheon on the 1st December, when, after a few moments' deliberation, they at once recounted to me the whole circumstances of my dream, as they had heard them from my lips on the 1st December 1886. On seeing Mr. Leeper a few days afterwards at his father's house, Loughgall, Co. Armagh, he at once remembered all I had told him about the dream on the 1st December, on my questioning him about it. I, of course, can assign no possible cause for the remarkable facts related, as apart from the difference of our standing in the service, the late Major Hubbersty and I were in no wise particularly friendly to one other, nor had we seen very much of each other. I had not seen him for eighteen months previously. A very curious fact in connection with the dream is that it occurred to me in the very same room in the barracks as Major Hubbersty used to occupy when stationed at Armagh, several years previously."
In answer to an inquiry, Captain Campbell writes, on February 29th, 1888:—
"I do not dream much, as a rule, and cannot recall to my mind ever before having had a dream of a similar nature to that dreamt by me about the late Major Hubbersty."
Mr. A. B. R. Kaye, Lieutenant Third Royal Irish Fusiliers, writes on August 20th, 1887, from 62 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin:—
"I was stationed in the barracks, Armagh Depôt, Royal Irish Fusiliers, in November and December 1886. On the 1st of December at lunch there were present Lieutenant R. E. W. Campbell (2nd R.I.F.), Lieutenant R. W. Leeper (2nd R.I.F.), Lieutenant T. E. Scott (4th R.I.F.), and myself. During our conversation Major Hubbersty's name was mentioned, and Campbell told us that he had a dream about him the night before, how he had seen a vision of Major Hubbersty looking very pale and seeming to be falling forward, and saying something to him which he could not hear; also, he (Campbell) told us he was sure we would hear something about Major Hubbersty very soon.
"On the following Sunday, when Scott and I returned from church and went into the ante-room, Campbell, who was there, asked us both to try and remember anything peculiar that he had told us on the 1st. After a little time, we remembered about the dream, and he (Campbell) then showed us the Times newspaper of the day before, containing the notice of Major Hubbersty's death, at Penzance, on November 30th, 1886, the same date as that on which he had the dream; also, I remember, he (Campbell) told us that in his vision he seemed to see the clothes which Major Hubbersty had on, and that there was a red thread running through the pattern of the trousers."
The two other friends mentioned by Captain Campbell, Messrs. Leeper and Scott, have written letters to the same effect.[91]