Sir, the original, whereof this that I have writ, is a true copy, was sent by a minister, living within some few miles of Inverness, to a friend of mine whom I employed to get information for me; as I insinuated before: I have other answers to these queries from another hand, which I purposed to have communicated to you at this time; but I find there will not be room enough for them in this sheet; howbeit, in case you think it fit, they shall be sent you afterward.
In the mean time, I shall tell you what I have had from one of the masters of our college here (a north country man both by birth and education, in his younger years) who made a journey in the harvest time into the shire of Ross, and at my desire, made some enquiry there, concerning the second-sight. He reports, that there they told him many instances of this knowledge, which he had forgotten, except two. The first, one of his sisters, a young gentlewoman, staying with a friend, at some thirty miles distance from her father's house, and the ordinary place of her residence; one who had the second-sight in the family where she was, saw a young man attending her as she went up and down the house, and this was about three months before her marriage. The second is of a woman in that country who is reputed to have the second-sight, and declared, that eight days before the death of a gentleman there, she saw a bier or coffin covered with a cloth which she knew, carried as it were, to the place of burial, and attended with a great company, one of which told her it was the corps of such a person, naming that gentleman, who died eight days after. By these instances it appears that the objects of this knowledge are not sad and dismal events only, but joyful and prosperous ones also: he declares farther, that he was informed there, if I mistake not, by some of those who had the second-sight, that if at any time when they see those strange sights, they set their foot upon the foot of another who hath not the second-sight, that other will for that time see what they are seeing; as also that they offered, if he pleased, to communicate the second-sight to him. I have nothing more to add at present, but that I am, Sir, Your faithful friend,
And humble servant.
II.
**To Mr. JOHN AUBREY, Fellow of the Royal-Society at
**Gresham-College, London. Honoured Sir,
SINCE my last to you, I have had the favour of two letters from you: to the first, dated February 6, I had replied sooner, but that I wanted leisure to transcribe some farther accounts of a second-sighted man, sent me from the north, whereof (in obedience to your desire) I give here the doubles.
May the 4th. 1694.
**A Copy of an Answer to some Queries concerning Second- sighted Men, sent by a Minister living near Inverness, to a Friend of mine.
Query 1.
THAT there is such an art, commonly called the second-sight, is certain, from these following instances.