“Miss L. and her mother were for fifteen years my most intimate friends; they were ladies of the highest intelligence and perfectly truthful, and their story was confirmed by one of the servants, the other I could not trace.
“Miss L., some years before I made her acquaintance, occupied much of her time in visiting the poor. One day as she walked homewards she felt cold and tired and longed to be at home warming herself at the kitchen fire. At or about the minute corresponding to this wish, the two servants being in the kitchen, the door-handle was seen to turn, the door opened, and in walked Miss L., and going up to the fire she held out her hands and warmed herself, and the servants saw she had a pair of green kid gloves on her hands. She suddenly disappeared before their eyes, and the two servants in great alarm went upstairs and told the mother what they had seen, including the green kid gloves. The mother feared something was wrong, but she attempted to quiet the servants by reminding them that Miss L. always wore black and never green gloves, and that therefore the ‘ghost’ could not have been that of her daughter.
“In about half an hour the veritable Miss L. entered the house, and going into the kitchen warmed herself at the fire; and she had on a pair of green kid gloves which she had bought on her way home, not being able to get a suitable black pair.
“G. Wyld, M. D.”
The next case is from Dr. Wm. M. Buchanan, 12 Rutland Square, Edinburgh.
He writes:—
“The following circumstance took place at a villa about one and a half miles from Glasgow, and was told me by my wife. Of its truth I am as certain as if I had been a witness. The house had a lawn in front of about three or four acres in extent, with a lodge at the gateway distinctly seen from the house, which was about eighty yards’ distant. Two of the family were going to visit a friend seven miles’ distant, and on the previous day it had been arranged to take a lady, Miss W., with them, who was to be in waiting at a place about a mile distant. Three of the family and a lady visitor were standing at one of the dining-room windows waiting for the carriage, when they, including my wife, saw Miss W. open the gate at the lodge. The wind had disarranged the front of a pelisse which she wore, which they distinctly saw her adjust. She wore a light gray-colored beaver hat, and had a handkerchief at her mouth; it was supposed she was suffering from toothache to which she was subject. She entered the lodge to the surprise of her friends, and as she did not leave it, a servant was sent to ask her to join the family; but she was informed that Miss W. had not been there, and it was afterwards ascertained that no one except the woman’s husband had been in the lodge that morning.
“The carriage arrived at the house about ten A. M., and Miss W. was found at the place agreed upon, in the dress in which she appeared at the lodge, and suffering from toothache. As she was a nervous person, nothing was said to her about her appearance at the gate. She died nine years afterwards.”
Sometimes an apparition seemingly intended for one person is not perceived by that person, but is seen by some other person present who may be a stranger to the agent or person whose image is seen. The following case is in point. It is from Mrs. Clerke, of Clifton Lodge, Farquhar Road, Upper Norwood, S. E., and also belongs to Mr. Gurney’s collection:—
“In the month of August, 1864, about three or four o’clock in the afternoon, I was sitting reading in the verandah of our house in Barbadoes. My black nurse was driving my little girl, about eighteen months or so old, in her perambulator in the garden. I got up after some time to go into the house, not having noticed anything at all, when this black woman said to me, ‘Missis, who was that gentleman that was talking to you just now?’ ‘There was no one talking to me,’ I said. ‘Oh, yes, dere was, Missis—a very pale gentleman, very tall, and he talked to you and you was very rude, for you never answered him.’ I repeated there was no one, and got rather cross with the woman, and she begged me to write down the day, for she knew she had seen some one. I did, and in a few days I heard of the death of my brother in Tobago. Now the curious part is this, that I did not see him, but she—a stranger to him—did; and she said that he seemed very anxious for me to notice him.