DREAMS, OMENS, WARNINGS, PRESENTIMENTS, AND SECOND SIGHT.
The subjects here set forth for consideration (by which no slight progress
will be made in exhibiting such facts as serve to unfold and make manifest
more plainly the purpose of this treatise), are very wide in their scope.
A large volume might with no great difficulty be compiled upon each
separate subject; for the examples of remarkable dreams and supernatural
omens which are already on record, are exceedingly numerous,[108] while
the warnings and presentiments of danger and death, which are still often
vouchsafed, have been so notably providential in their purport, that many
of the mercifully-bestowed Glimpses of the Supernatural, brought before
the Editor’s notice, can only be attributed generally to the goodness of
Almighty God, and particularly either to the intercession of His Saints,
the effectual fervent prayers of those still in the flesh, or the direct
intervention of His Holy Angels, the guardians and guides of Christians.
Some dreams, especially those of an ordinary character, appear to consist
of the mere revival of old memories and associations regarding persons and
events which have long passed out of the mind, and seem to have been
forgotten. It is often quite impossible to trace the manner in which, or
the method by which, dreams arise; and certainly many of the facts
connected with them do not appear referable to any coherent principle with
which it may truly be said that man is perfectly acquainted. They are
mysterious; they are strange; they are supernatural. At the same time it
is impossible not to remember how frequently the sacred and divine
writings record examples of dreams, by which the Will of God was directly
made known of old to some of His favoured servants. The case of King
Abimelech, warned against taking Abraham’s wife (whom he had untruly
called his sister), is an early instance in point.[109] So, too, are the
warnings and directions given by Almighty God to Jacob and Laban. The
dreams of Joseph likewise illustrate the principle which may be readily
discovered and comprehended by the help of Scripture, viz. that some
dreams, whatever others may be, are certainly from God, and ought not to
be disregarded. For the Almighty expressly pledged Himself to make known
His Will to His prophets both by dreams and in visions.[110] And it was by
the former that He appeared to Solomon, graciously and mercifully offering
him a response to any request he might make. “Ask what I shall give thee.”
The dreams and visions of Daniel, the Hebrew Prophet, likewise of S.
Joseph of Nazareth, both with regard to the Blessed Virgin and the malice
of Herod; the warning dreams of the Three Eastern Kings; that of Pilate’s
wife, and others equally remarkable, are familiar to us all. So that,
whatever theories may be excogitated by some, it is impossible for
Christians to hold any novel and fantastic ideas, which would sweep away
those links which in dreams and visions may still bind together the
natural with the supernatural, and by which, from time to time, in the
present day, warnings and necessary lessons may sometimes be mercifully
vouchsafed and imparted.
A considerable difficulty has been experienced by the Editor, not only in
testing recent examples which have been brought before him, but in
inducing those who supplied him with them, to allow the use and support of
their names.[111] In the cases to be given, he has spared no reasonable
trouble in their investigation; and, where they are not matters of history
(received and recognized by those who are satisfied with an application of
the ordinary laws of evidence), the reader may rely on the fact that they
have not been embodied in this volume without the most anxious inquiry and
careful sifting of their truth and accuracy.
Thus much as to his purport and intent. Now let the examples of remarkable
dreams be put on record; after a brief reference has been made to the
belief and expressions of opinion of certain early Christian writers,
obviously formulated upon the basis of scriptural assertions and sacred
examples of old.
When the body sleeps, as Tertullian remarks,[112] it takes its own
peculiar refreshment, but that refreshment not being adapted to the soul,
which does not rest, she during the inactivity of the bodily members
employs her own. Then in his treatise “On the Soul,”[113] he proceeds to
distinguish between the hallucination of dreaming and insanity. Dreaming
is agreeable to the course and order of Nature, he maintains; but he
rejects the doctrine of Epicurus, in which dreams are disparaged as idle
and fortuitous. He further expresses his conviction that future honours,
dignities, medical remedies, thefts and treasure have been revealed by
dreams--testimonies to which are both numerous and strong. Many dreams,
specially those which are vain, frivolous, impure, and turbulent, may be
attributed to demons. Others, again, proceed from God or holy angels, as
one portion of prophecy.
Lactantius, in a short passage of his well-known “Tract,”[114] expresses
his conviction of divine agency in dreams. He maintains that the undoubted
testimony of History presents mankind with several most remarkable
verifications of dreams; and he repeats what Tertullian had already
maintained, viz. that part of the economy of prophecy depends upon them.
He holds that Virgil’s evidence may be admitted, that dreams are neither
always true nor always false.
Again, S. Cyprian states that he was divinely instructed in a dream to mix
a little water with the wine for the Holy Eucharist.[115] On the general
subject, S. Basil warns those who may be ready to attribute too great
importance to dreams, to rest contented with the written revelation of
Almighty God in Holy Scripture.[116] S. Bernard, the last of the Fathers,
treats of dreams at great length in his remarkable sermon “On Sleep,”
which is full of sage advice of the same nature as that set forth by S.
Basil; and so does S. Thomas Aquinas, who discusses the subject with
singular breadth, fulness, and system, arriving at the conclusion that it
is unreasonable to deny anything--the truth of which is affirmed by
general experience; and he adds that general experience affirms that
dreams very frequently give indications of coming events; and therefore,
concludes that it is lawful to interpret and endeavour to comprehend
them.[117] But at this point, he goes on to maintain that only those
dreams which are suggested by angels may be investigated and interpreted,
those suggested by demons and evil spirits being left alone. But
unfortunately he provides no criterion by which the one class may be
safely and truly distinguished from the other; nor is it easy to supply
the deficiency.
From another point of view, a thoughtful modern writer[118] has remarked
that “dreams are uniformly the resuscitation or re-embodiment of thoughts
which have formerly, in some shape or other, occupied the mind. They are
old ideas revived, either in an entire state, or heterogeneously mingled
together. I doubt if it be possible,” he continues, “for a person to have
in a dream, any idea whose elements did not, in some form, strike him at a
previous period. If these break loose from their connecting chain, and
become jumbled together incoherently, as is often the case, they give rise
to absurd combinations; but the elements still subsist, and only manifest
themselves in a new and unconnected shape.”
This, and such as this, may be quite true; but yet whatever theories the
scientific may propound which seem to oppose the facts of man’s
experience, will not in the long run command that adhesion which for
awhile they may possibly obtain. And now for examples:
The Dream of the so-called “Swaffham Tinker”[119] is singular, and may
well be here reproduced, because it represents an example of the practical
results of dreaming, which is quite worthy of consideration:--
“This Tinker, a hard-working, industrious man, one night dreamed that if
he took a journey to London, and placed himself at a certain spot on
London Bridge, he should meet one who would tell him something of great
importance to his future prospects. The Tinker, on whom the dream made a
deep impression, related it fully to his wife in the morning; who,
however, half-laughed at him and half-scolded him for his folly in heeding
such idle fancies. Next night he is said to have re-dreamed the dream; and
again on the third night, when the impression was so powerful on his mind
that he determined, in spite of the remonstrances of his wife and the
ridicule of his neighbours, to go to London and see the upshot of it.
Accordingly he set off for the metropolis on foot, reached it late on the
third day (the distance was ninety miles), and, after the refreshment of a
night’s rest, took his station next day on a part of the Bridge answering
to the description in his dream. There he stood all day, and all the
next, and all the third, without any communication as to the purpose of
his journey; so that towards night, on the third day, he began to lose
patience and confidence in his dream, inwardly cursed his folly in
disregarding his wife’s counsel, and resolved next day to make the best of
his way home. He still kept his station, however, till late in the
evening, when, just as he was about to depart, a stranger who had noticed
him standing stedfastly and with anxious look on the same spot for some
days, accosted him, and asked him what he waited there for. After a little
hesitation, the Tinker told his errand, though without acquainting him
with the name of the place whence he came. The stranger enjoyed a smile at
the rustic’s simplicity, and advised him to go home and for the future to
pay no attention to dreams. ‘I myself,’ said he, ‘if I were disposed to
put faith in such things, might now go a hundred miles into the country
upon a similar errand. I dreamed three nights this week that if I went to
a place called Swaffham in Norfolk, and dug under an apple-tree in a
certain garden on the north side of the town I should find a box of money;
but I have something else to do than run after such idle fancies! No, no,
my friend; go home, and work well at your calling, and you will find there
the riches you are seeking here.’ The astonished Tinker did not doubt that
this was the communication he had been sent to London to receive, but he
merely thanked the stranger for his advice, and went away avowing his
intention to follow it. Next day he set out for home, and on his arrival
there said little to his wife touching his journey; but next morning he
rose betimes and began to dig on the spot he supposed to be pointed out by
the stranger. When he had got a few feet down, the spade struck upon
something hard, which turned out to be an iron chest. This he quickly
carried to his house, and when he had with difficulty wrenched open the
lid, found it, to his great joy, to be full of money. After securing his
treasure, he observed on the lid of the box an inscription, which,
unlearned as he was, he could not decipher. But by a stratagem he got the
description read without any suspicion on the part of his neighbours by
some of the Grammar School lads, and found it to be--
‘Where this stood
Is another twice as good.’
And in truth on digging again the lucky Tinker disinterred, below the
place where the first chest had lain, a second twice as large, also full
of gold and silver coin. It is stated that, become thus a wealthy man, the
Tinker showed his thankfulness to Providence by building a new chancel to
the church, the old one being out of repair. And whatever fiction the
marvellous taste of those ages may have mixed up with the tale, certain it
is that there is shown to this day a monument in Swaffham Church, having
an effigy in marble, said to be that of the Tinker with his Dog at his
side and his tools and implements of trade lying about him.”
Among the various histories of singular dreams and corresponding events,
the following, which occurred in the early part of the eighteenth century,
seems to merit being here placed on record. Its authenticity will appear
from the relation; and it may surely be maintained that a more
extraordinary concurrence of fortuitous and accidental circumstances can
scarcely be produced or paralleled:--
“One Adam Rogers, a creditable and decent man of good sense and repute,
who kept an inn at Portlaw, a small hamlet nine or ten miles from
Waterford, in Ireland, dreamed one night that he saw two men at a
particular green spot on the adjoining mountain; one of them a small,
sickly-looking man, the other remarkably strong and large. He then saw the
latter man murder the other, upon which he awoke in great agitation.
“The circumstances of the dream were so distinct and forcible that he
continued much affected by them. He related them to his wife, and also to
several neighbours next morning.
“In some time he went out coursing with greyhounds, accompanied amongst
others by one Mr. Browne, the Roman Catholic priest of the parish. He soon
stopped at the above-mentioned particular green spot on the mountain, and
calling Mr. Browne, pointed it out to him, and told him what had happened
there. During the remainder of the day he thought little more about it.
“Next morning he was extremely startled at seeing two strangers enter his
house at about eleven o’clock in the forenoon. He immediately went into an
inner room, and desired his wife to take particular notice, for they were
precisely the two men he had seen in his dream.
“After the strangers had taken some refreshment, and were about to depart
in order to prosecute their journey, Rogers earnestly entreated the little
man at once to quit his fellow-traveller. He assured him that if he would
remain with him that day he would accompany him to Carrick the next
morning--that being the town to which the travellers were proceeding. He
was unwilling and ashamed to tell the cause of his being so solicitous to
separate him from his companion. But as he observed that Hickey (which was
the name of the little man) seemed to be quiet and gentle in his
deportment, and had money about him, and that the other had a ferocious,
bad countenance, the dream still recurred to him. He dreaded that
something fatal would happen, and wished at all events to keep them
asunder.
“However, the humane precautions of Rogers proved ineffectual, for
Caulfield (such was the other’s name) prevailed upon Hickey to continue
with him on their way to Carrick, declaring that as they had long
travelled together, they should not part, but remain together until he
should see Hickey safely arrived at the habitation of his friends. The
wife of Rogers was much dissatisfied when she heard they were gone, and
blamed her husband exceedingly for not being absolutely peremptory in
detaining Hickey.
“About an hour after they left Portlaw, in a lonely part of the mountain,
just near the place observed by Rogers in his dream, Caulfield took the
opportunity of murdering his companion. It appeared afterwards from his
own account of the horrid transaction, that as they were getting over a
ditch he struck Hickey on the back part of the head with a stone, and when
he fell down into the trench in consequence of the blow, Caulfield gave
him several stabs with a knife, and cut his throat so deeply that the head
was observed to be almost severed from his body. He then rifled Hickey’s
pockets of all the money in them, took part of his clothes and everything
else of value about him, and afterwards proceeded on his way to Carrick.
He had not been long gone when the body, still warm, was discovered by
some labourers who were returning to their work from dinner.
“The report of the murder soon reached Portlaw. Rogers and his wife went
to the place and instantly knew the body of him whom they had in vain
endeavoured to dissuade from going on with his treacherous companion. They
at once spoke out their suspicions that the murder was perpetrated by the
fellow-traveller of the deceased. An immediate search was made, and
Caulfield was apprehended at Waterford the second day after.
“He was brought to trial at the ensuing assizes and convicted of the fact.
It appeared amongst other circumstances that when he went to Carrick he
hired a horse and a boy to conduct him--not by the usual road, but by that
which runs on the north side of the river Suir--to Waterford, intending to
take his passage in the first ship from thence to Newfoundland. The boy
took notice of some blood on his shirt, and Caulfield gave him a
half-crown to promise not to speak of it.
“Rogers proved not only that Hickey was last seen in company with
Caulfield, but that a pair of new shoes which Hickey wore had been found
on the feet of Caulfield when he was apprehended; and that a pair of old
shoes which he had on at Rogers’s house were upon Hickey’s feet when the
body was found. He described with great exactness every article of their
clothes. Caulfield on the cross-examination, shrewdly asked him from the
dock whether it was not very extraordinary that he, who kept a
public-house, should take such particular notice of the dress of a
stranger accidentally calling there? Rogers in his answer said he had a
very particular reason, but he was ashamed to mention it. The court and
the prisoner insisted on his declaring it. He gave a circumstantial
narrative of his dream, called upon Mr. Browne, the priest, then in
court, to corroborate his testimony, and said that his wife had severely
reproached him for permitting Hickey to leave their house, when he knew
that in the short footway to Carrick they must necessarily pass by the
green spot in the mountain which had appeared in his dream.
“A number of witnesses came forward, and the proofs were so strong that
the jury without hesitation found the prisoner guilty.
“It was remarked as a singularity that he happened to be tried and
sentenced by his namesake, Sir George Caulfeild, at that time Lord Chief
Justice of the King’s Bench, which office he resigned in the summer of the
year 1760.
“After sentence Caulfield confessed the fact. It came that Hickey had been
in the West Indies two and twenty years, but falling into a bad state of
health, he was returning to his native country (Ireland) bringing with him
some money his industry had acquired. The vessel on board which he took
his passage was, by stress of weather, driven into Minehead. He there met
with Frederick Caulfield, an Irish sailor, who was poor and much
distressed for clothes and common necessaries. Hickey compassionating his
poverty, and finding he was his countryman, relieved his wants, and an
intimacy commenced between them. They agreed to go to Ireland together;
and it was remarked on their passage that Caulfield spoke contemptuously,
and often said it was a pity that such a puny fellow as Hickey should
have money, and he himself without a shilling. They landed at Waterford,
at which place they stayed some days, Caulfield being all the time
supported by Hickey, who bought some clothes for him. The assizes being
held in the town during that time, it was afterwards recollected that they
were both at the Court-house, and attended the whole of a trial of a
shoemaker who was convicted of the murder of his wife. But this made no
impression on the hardened mind of Caulfield, for the very next day he
perpetrated the same crime on the road between Waterford and
Carrick-on-Suir, near which town Hickey’s relations lived.
“He walked to the gallows with firm step and undaunted countenance. He
spoke to the multitude who surrounded him, and in the course of his
address mentioned that he had been bred at a charter-school, from which he
was taken as an apprenticed servant by William Izod, Esq., of the county
of Kilkenny. From this position he ran away on being corrected for some
faults, and had been absent from Ireland six years. He confessed also that
he had several times intended to murder Hickey on the road from Waterford
to Portlaw, which, though in general not a road much frequented, yet
people at that time continually coming in sight, prevented him.
“Being frustrated in all his schemes, the sudden and total disappointment
threw him probably into an indifference for life. Some tempers are so
stubborn and rugged that nothing can affect them, but immediate sensation.
If to this be united the darkest ignorance, death to such characters will
hardly seem terrible, because they can form no conception of what it is,
and still less of the consequences that may follow.”
The record of the following dream is certainly curious and interesting,
and is perfectly well authenticated, coming as it does from the pen of the
gentleman’s son more immediately concerned, who testified as to its
literal fulfilment:--
“In the year 1768 my father, Matthew Talbot, Esq., of Castle Talbot, in
the county of Wexford, was much surprised at the recurrence of a dream
three several times during the same night, which caused him to repeat the
whole circumstance to his lady the following morning. He dreamed that he
had arisen as usual and descended to his library, the morning being hazy.
He then seated himself at his _secrétaire_ to write; when, happening to
look up a long avenue of trees opposite the window, he perceived a man in
a blue jacket mounted on a white horse coming towards the house. My father
arose and opened the window. The man advancing, presented him with a roll
of papers, and told him they were invoices of a vessel which had been
wrecked and had drifted in during the night on his son-in-law’s, Lord
Mountmorris’s, estate close by, and signed ‘_Bell and Stephenson_.’ My
father’s attention was only called to the dream from its frequent
recurrence: but, when he found himself seated at his desk on the misty
morning, and beheld the identical person whom he had seen in his dream in
the blue coat riding on the grey horse, he felt surprised, and opening the
window waited the man’s approach. He immediately rode up, and drawing from
his pocket a packet of papers, gave them to my father, stating they were
invoices belonging to an American vessel which had been wrecked, and
drifted in upon his lordship’s estate; that there was no person on board
to lay claim to the wreck, but that the invoices were signed ‘_Stephenson
and Bell_.’ I assure you that the above is most faithfully given by me as
it actually occurred; but it is not more extraordinary than other examples
of the prophetic powers of the mind or soul in sleep which I have
frequently heard related.”[120]
Another remarkable dream, exceedingly well authenticated by an aunt of the
Editor of this volume, is now set forth in detail and at some length:--
“On the night of the 11th of May, 1812, Mr. Williams, of Scorrier House,
near Redruth, in Cornwall, awoke his wife, and exceedingly agitated, told
her that he had dreamed that he was in the lobby of the House of Commons,
and saw a man shoot with a pistol a gentleman who had just entered the
lobby, who was said to be the Chancellor, to which Mrs. Williams naturally
replied that it was only a dream, and recommended him to be composed, and
go to sleep as soon as he could.
“He did so, but shortly after again woke her; and said that he had the
second time had the same dream; whereupon she observed that he had been so
much agitated with his former dream that she supposed it had dwelt on his
mind, and begged of him to try to compose himself and go to sleep, which
he did. A third time the same vision was repeated, on which,
notwithstanding her entreaties that he would be quiet, and endeavour to
forget it, he arose, being then between one and two o’clock, and dressed
himself.
“At breakfast the dreams were the sole subject of conversation, and in the
forenoon Mr. Williams went to Falmouth, where he related the particulars
of them to all his acquaintance that he met.
“On the following day, Mr. Tucker, of Trematon Castle, accompanied by his
wife, a daughter of Mr. Williams, went to Scorrier House about dusk.
Immediately after the first salutation, on their entering the parlour,
where were Mr., Mrs., and Miss Williams, Mr. Williams began to relate to
Mr. Tucker the circumstances of his dream; and Mrs. Williams observed to
her daughter, Mrs. Tucker, laughingly, that her father could not even
suffer Mr. Tucker to be seated before he told him of his nocturnal
visitation; on the statement of which Mr. Tucker observed that it would do
very well for a dream to have the Chancellor in the lobby of the House of
Commons, but that he would not be found there in reality; and Mr. Tucker
then asked what sort of man he appeared to be, when Mr. Williams minutely
described him; to which Mr. Tucker replied: ‘Your description is not at
all that of the Chancellor, but is certainly very exactly that of Mr.
Perceval, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and although he has been to me
the greatest enemy I ever met with through life, for a supposed cause
which had no foundation in truth (or words to that effect), I should be
exceedingly sorry, indeed, to hear of his being assassinated, or of any
injury of the kind happening to him.’
“Mr. Tucker then inquired of Mr. Williams if he had ever seen Mr.
Perceval, and was told that he never had seen him, nor had ever even
written to him, either on public or private business; in short, that he
never had had anything to do with him, nor had he ever been in the lobby
of the House of Commons in his life.
“At this moment, whilst Mr. Williams and Mr. Tucker were still standing,
they heard a horse gallop to the door of the House, and immediately after,
Mr. Michael Williams of Trevince (son of Mr. Williams of Scorrier),
entered the room and said that he had galloped out from Truro (from which
Scorrier House is distant seven miles), having seen a gentleman there, who
had come by that evening’s mail from London, who said that he was in the
lobby of the House of Commons, on the evening of the 11th, when a man
called Bellingham had shot Mr. Perceval, and that, as it might occasion
some great ministerial changes, and might affect Mr. Tucker’s political
friends, he had come out as fast as he could to make him acquainted with
it, having heard at Truro that he had passed through that place in the
afternoon on his way to Scorrier.
“After the astonishment which this intelligence had created had a little
subsided, Mr. Williams described most particularly the appearance and
dress of the man whom he had seen in his dream fire the pistol, as he had
before done of Mr. Perceval.
“About six weeks after, Mr. Williams, having business in town, went
accompanied by a friend to the House of Commons, where (as has been
already observed) he had never before been. Immediately that he came to
the steps at the entrance of the lobby, he said: ‘This place is as
distinctly within my recollection in my dream, as any room in my house,’
and he made the same observation when he entered the lobby.
“He then pointed out the exact spot where Bellingham stood when he fired,
and where Mr. Perceval had reached when he was struck by the ball, and
where and how he fell. The dress, both of Mr. Perceval and Bellingham,
agreed with the descriptions given by Mr. Williams, even to the most
minute particular.”[121]
The number of records in which it is believed that dreams have been the
means by which murder has been discovered are so considerable; and some
are so well authenticated, that it is impossible, as it certainly would be
presumptuous, to endeavour to set them aside. The murder of Maria Marten
of Polstead in Suffolk, by William Corder, a farmer, in May of the year
1827, is a remarkable example:--
This unfortunate woman was induced to leave her home, and having
accompanied the man who, under the promise of marriage, had betrayed her,
to a certain barn, was there cruelly murdered and buried under the floor.
For nearly twelve months the murder was undiscovered; for Corder, who
remained away, but still communicated with her parents, maintained that
she had married him; that circumstances prevented his bringing her back to
his father’s home: but that in due course they would both come, though it
was implied that they were both on the Continent.
The mother of the murdered woman, however, about ten months after her
daughter’s death, dreamed that her daughter had been murdered, and buried
under the floor of the barn. So strong and deep an impression did this
make both on her relations and the people of the village, that the girl’s
father and others on April 19, 1828, took up the floor of the barn, where
they discovered the body of the murdered woman in a sack; and not so much
decayed but that obvious marks of violence were perceptible. The body was
successfully identified by the want of two teeth--one on the left side of
the upper jaw, and the other on the right side of the lower. In the
meantime Corder had married, and had gone to live in Essex, where he was
apprehended, tried, and condemned on the strongest circumstantial
evidence. He made a full confession of the murder when in prison, under
sentence of death, and was executed in August, 1828.
The following sets forth how an impressive, vivid, and twice-repeated
dream induced a sailor to go to the place dreamed of, and rescue three
suffering fellow-creatures from a horrible death. It was related to a
Cornish friend, as a matter of fact, by a native of the island of
Alderney, and is quite worthy of being here recorded:--
“Some few years before the erection of those well-known lighthouses called
the Caskets, near that island, an islander dreamed that a ship had been
wrecked near those rocks, and that some part of the crew had saved
themselves upon them. This dream he related on the quay; but the sailors
(although the most superstitious people in the world) treated it as an
idle fancy. Yet the next night produced the same dream, and the man would
no longer be laughed out of it; so he prevailed upon a companion the next
morning to take a boat and go with him to the rock, where they found three
poor wretches half-starved with cold and hunger, and brought them on
shore. This circumstance, and the supposed loss of the ‘Victory’ on this
rock, the islanders give as a reason for erecting three lighthouses
there.”
Still more remarkable perhaps is the following, which, telling its own
story, and abundantly illustrating the reality of the Supernatural, needs
no comment:--
“The Rev. Mr. Perring, Vicar of a parish which is now a component part of
London, though, about forty-five years ago it had the appearance of a
village at the outskirts, had to encounter the sad affliction of losing
his eldest Son at an age when parents are encouraged to believe their
children are to become their survivors; the youth dying in his seventeenth
year. He was buried in the vaults of the church.
“Two nights subsequently to that interment, the father dreamed[122] that
he saw his Son habited in a shroud spotted with blood, the expression of
his countenance being that of a person enduring some paroxysm of acute
pain: ‘Father, father! come and defend me!’ were the words he distinctly
heard, as he gazed on this awe-inspiring apparition; ‘they will not let me
rest quiet in my coffin.’
“The venerable man awoke with terror and trembling; but after a brief
interval of painful reflection concluded himself to be labouring under the
influence of his sad day-thoughts, and the depression of past sufferings;
and with these rational assurances commended himself to the All-Merciful,
and slumbered again and slept.
“He saw his Son again beseeching him to protect his remains from outrage,
‘For,’ said the apparently surviving dead one, ‘they are mangling my body
at this moment.’ The unhappy Father rose at once, being now unable to
banish the fearful image from his mind, and determined when day should
dawn to satisfy himself of the delusiveness or verity of the revelation
conveyed through this seeming voice from the grave.
“At an early hour, accordingly, he repaired to the Clerk’s house, where
the keys of the church and of the vaults were kept. The Clerk after
considerable delay, came down-stairs, saying it was very unfortunate he
should want them just on that very day, as his son over the way had taken
them to the smith’s for repair,--one of the largest of the bunch of keys
having been broken off short in the main door of the vault, so as to
render it impracticable for anybody to enter till the lock had been picked
and taken off.
“Impelled by the worst misgivings, the Vicar loudly insisted on the
Clerk’s accompanying him to the blacksmith’s--not for a key but for a
crowbar, it being his resolute determination to enter the vault and see
his Son’s coffin without a moment’s delay.
“The recollections of the dream were now becoming more and more vivid, and
the scrutiny about to be made assumed a solemnity mingled with awe, which
the agitation of the father rendered terrible to the agents in this
forcible interruption into the resting-place of the dead. But the hinges
were speedily wrenched asunder--the bar and bolts were beaten in and bent
beneath the heavy hammer of the smith,--and at length with tottering and
outstretched hands, the maddened parent stumbled and fell: his son’s
coffin had been lifted from the recess at the vault’s side and deposited
on the brick floor; the lid, released from every screw, lay loose at top,
and the body, enveloped in its shroud, on which were several dark spots
below the chin, lay exposed to view; the head had been raised, the broad
riband had been removed from under the jaw, which now hung down with the
most ghastly horror of expression, as if to tell with more terrific
certainty the truth of the preceding night’s vision. _Every tooth in the
head had been drawn._
“The young man had when living a beautiful set of sound teeth. The Clerk’s
Son, who was a barber, cupper, and dentist, had possessed himself of the
keys, and eventually of the teeth, for the purpose of profitable
employment of so excellent a set in his line of business. The feelings of
the Rev. Mr. Perring can be easily conceived. The event affected his mind
through the remaining term of his existence; but what became of the
delinquent whose sacrilegious hand had thus rifled the tomb was never
afterwards correctly ascertained. He decamped the same day, and was
supposed to have enlisted as a soldier. The Clerk was ignominiously
displaced, and did not long survive the transaction. Some years
afterwards, his house was pulled down to afford room for extensive
improvements and new buildings in the village.
“As regards the occurrence itself, few persons were apprised of it; as the
Vicar--shunning public talk and excitement on the subject of any member of
his family--exerted himself in concealing the circumstances as much as
possible. The above facts, however, may be strictly relied on as
accurate.”
A somewhat similar dream is recorded in the following statement, copied
from the public prints, the fact of which has been authenticated by a
correspondent in Scotland, who furnished the Editor with it. The
paragraph, now to be quoted, appeared some years ago in the “Scotsman”
newspaper, and was quoted in the “Times” of Tuesday, April 25, 1865:--
“The legal proceedings which lately took place in the Sheriff Court of
Clackmannanshire, with regard to the violation of a grave in the
churchyard at Alloa, and the unwarrantable exhumation of the body of James
Quin, had their origin, it is stated, in a remarkable dream of the mother
of the deceased. Young Quin died in September, 1863, and was buried in a
lair in the churchyard, which was purchased by his father from William
Donaldson, the Kirk Treasurer, it being agreed that the price was to be
paid by instalments. About six months afterwards, Robert Blair, the sexton
or grave-digger, took upon himself (without the authority, it would
appear, of Donaldson) to sell the same lair to another person, and to
inter therein a relative of the new purchaser, without, however, at the
time exhuming the body of Quin, the former tenant. Some considerable time
after this the mother of Quin being desirous of erecting a head-stone on
the grave of her son, made some inquiries with that view, in the course of
which she heard something of another person having been buried in his
grave, this having, as she stated, been ‘cast up’ by Blair’s nephew to a
younger son of hers on their way from Sunday-school. But the grave-digger
denied the truth of this story, and managed to pacify her. Feeling,
however, that he had got into a scrape by the lair having been resold, he,
some weeks after Mrs. Quin had interrogated him on the subject, dug up the
body of her son during the night of Thursday, the 23rd of March last, and
reinterred it in the other ground. Now, on that very Thursday night, as
sworn to by Mrs. Quin, at the trial, she had this remarkable dream:--
“She dreamt that her boy stood in his nightgown, at her bedside, and said
to her, ‘Oh, mother, put me back to my own bed.’ She then awoke her
husband, and forgetting in her half-dreaming state that her son was dead,
said to him, ‘Jemmie is out of his bed; put him back into it;’ after which
she fell asleep, and again had the same dream.
“A third time, during the same night, she dreamt that her son was standing
beside her bed; but on this occasion remembering that he was dead, the
figure of the grave-digger was mixed up with that of the boy, and he
appeared to be shoving his spade into the body. Awakening in great
trepidation, and feeling certain that her boy had been taken out of his
grave, she went to the grave-digger and vehemently accused him of having
dug up the body, which, after prevarication, he at last admitted. Hence
arose the action of damages against Donaldson, the Kirk Treasurer, and
Blair, the grave-digger, which being restricted to twelve pounds was
brought in the Small Debt Court. The Sheriff, after a long proof,
assoilzied Donaldson, and found Blair liable in damages, which, the
parties not having settled the same extrajudicially, have since been
assessed at five pounds.”
Another dream, equally remarkable, by which a warning was given, and in a
measure attended to by the dreamer, now follows; although not so weirdly
tragic as that relating to the Perring Family, yet it efficiently serves
to shadow forth the proximity of the spiritual world; and, it may be, in
this example, the direct intervention of a guardian-angel:--
“Some years ago a clergyman named W---- was visiting an old college
friend, Canon Hutchinson of Blurton Vicarage, near Trentham, and being a
good pedestrian, proposed to accomplish his journey home again from
Trentham to Birmingham, which place he desired to reach by ten o’clock one
morning, on foot. In order to do this he intended to leave Blurton at four
o’clock a.m. on a certain day; and so retired to rest the previous evening
at an unusually early hour. During the night he had a vivid and remarkable
dream, which deeply impressed him. He dreamt that whilst he was on his
walking journey between Tamworth and Sutton, upon a very lonely road
enclosed by tall hedges, he heard a rough voice cry out, ‘Ah, Jack, are
you there?’ and looking round saw two exceedingly ill-looking men jumping
down from an elevated part of the bank under the hedge, and alighting
close to him on the path below. Their countenances and suspicious bearing
seemed to bespeak their evil intentions. Presently one of them all of a
sudden presented a pistol at him. The clergyman imagined that he had only
a moment or two in which to commend his soul to God, which he did with
earnestness, when the pistol was fired and his life thus taken away. Here
the dream ended and he awoke. It left an uneasy impression on his mind,
but being naturally of an undaunted spirit, and a firm believer in the
protection of Almighty God, he did not hesitate to leave his friend’s
house at the early period determined on. After walking for about an hour
and a half, and when a few miles from Sutton Coldfield, where all of a
sudden, as regards locality, he realized the minutest details of the
dream, two men coming through the hedge suddenly overtook him. One
addressed the other in the words already set forth. They were in every
particular, even to features, dress, and demeanour, identical with those
whom he had seen in the dream. They accompanied him, keeping close to his
side, and watched him with very mysterious looks. He was deeply startled
and alarmed, but lifted up his heart to God for guidance, direction, and
protection. Soon they all reached a broad and dreary common, upon the
extreme distant edge of which stood a small inn, whither he resolved to go
for refreshment in the hope of shaking off his companions. Here for awhile
they separated; but, on entering the house and asking to be supplied with
tea, he found that the two men had followed him, and were asking for
refreshments likewise. After waiting for some time, he determined on
leaving the inn by a path at its back entrance, which, from knowing
something of the locality, he believed would take him by a nearer way to
Sutton Coldfield. This turned out to be the case; for by his action he
successfully avoided the two tramps, who were afterwards taken up and
imprisoned for some marked offence against the laws of the land.”[123]
A warning of a very similar character may now be narrated, in which the
curious point seems to be that it was given so many years before it was
needed, though its efficiency was fully made manifest when the actual
danger threatened:--
“The Housekeeper of a county family in Oxfordshire dreamt one night that
she had been left alone in the house upon a Sunday evening, and that
hearing a knock at the door of the chief entrance, she went to it, and
there found an ill-looking tramp armed with a bludgeon, who insisted on
forcing himself into the house. She thought that she struggled for some
time to prevent him so doing, but quite ineffectually; and that being
struck down by him and rendered insensible, he thereupon gained ingress
to the mansion. On this she awoke.
“She at once mentioned her dream to some of her fellow-servants, and also,
a few days later, to the Master of the House. The latter, smiling,
pooh-poohed it; but remarked that ‘all the greater care should be taken by
the servants to see that the fastenings were secure.’
“As nothing happened for a considerable period, the circumstance of the
dream was soon forgotten; and, as she herself asserts, had altogether
passed away from her mind. However, many years afterwards, this same
Housekeeper was left with two other servants to take charge of an isolated
mansion at Kensington (subsequently the town residence of the family),
when, on a certain Sunday evening, her fellow-servants having gone out and
left her alone, she was suddenly startled by a loud knock at the front
door.
“All of a sudden the remembrance of her former dream returned to her with
singular vividness and remarkable force, and she felt her lonely isolation
greatly. Accordingly, having at once lighted a lamp on the hall
table--during which act the loud knock was repeated with vigour--she took
the precaution to go up to a landing on the stair, throw up the window,
and there, to her intense terror, she saw in the flesh the very man whom
years previously she had seen in her dream, armed with a bludgeon and
demanding an entrance. With great presence of mind she went down to the
chief entrance, made that and other doors and windows more secure, and
then rang the various bells of the house violently, and placed lights in
the upper rooms. It was concluded that by these acts the intruder was
scared away. It turned out afterwards that the lodge-keeper, having left
two children to guard the entrance, they had been terrified into admitting
the tramp into the garden; and that the latter had fastened them into the
lodge, where they were found in a considerable state of alarm by the two
servants on their return home.”[124]
Another example of a warning attended to, which had been given in a dream,
and acted upon immediately afterwards, comes to the Editor on conclusive
evidence of its undoubted truth and authenticity:
A Scotch lady, a relation of the late J. R. Hope Scott, Esq., of
Abbotsford, dreamt that her nephew, a promising young student of the
University of Edinburgh, had been drowned with two companions with whom
he had made an engagement to take an excursion by boat on the Frith of
Forth. So much impressed was she by this dream, that she rose two hours
earlier than usual in the morning, and sent off her man-servant at once to
prevail upon her nephew to give up his engagement. On being pressed he did
so. His companions (who had also been warned not to go,) went without him,
and alone, that is, without an experienced sailor. The boat was capsized
and they were both drowned.
In the case which is now to follow, the warning given, not having been
acted upon at once, came too late. It was narrated to the Editor, _vivâ
voce_, in 1866, by the late Dr. J. M. Neale:--
“In the autumn of the year 1845, one of the maid-servants of the then
rector of Shepperton, a village on the Thames, near Chertsey, dreamed that
her brother, a respectable and steady youth belonging to that place, was
drowned. The dream was singularly vivid. In it she further imagined that
she actually went to search for her brother’s body, and that, after
seeking for some time, she found it at a certain part of the river, which
she knew well, near the brink, and in a particular position. This dream
took place on a Saturday night. When she awoke on the Sunday morning, she
at once acquainted her fellow-servant (who saw how deep an impression the
dream had evidently made), and remarked that she ought at once to obtain
her master’s leave to go home on the morrow, and warn her brother, who
was unable to swim, not to go out on to the river. The leave was given,
and her home was soon reached, but alas! the warning had come too late.
Her brother had gone rowing on the Sunday evening, the boat was
accidentally upset, and he was drowned. The body was not recovered for
some time; nor was it found near the spot where the accident had happened.
But it was found by the poor youth’s sister, lower down the river, and
exactly in the same place and position as had been so forcibly and clearly
prefigured in her impressive dream.”
The following example of a dream which occurred about twenty years ago, by
which the fact of a murder was made known, being likewise well
authenticated and of considerable interest, is now set forth:--
“On Saturday, the 30th of July, 1853, the dead body of a young woman was
discovered in a field at Littleport, in the isle of Ely. The body has not
yet been identified, and there can be little doubt that the young woman
was murdered. At the adjourned inquest, held on the 29th August before Mr.
William Marshall, one of the coroners for the Isle, the following
extraordinary evidence was given:--
“James Jessop, an elderly, respectable-looking labourer, with a face of
the most perfect stolidity, and who possessed a most curiously-shaped
skull, broad and flat on the top, and projecting greatly on each side over
the ears, deposed--‘I live about a furlong and a half from where the body
was found. I have seen the body of the deceased. I have never seen her
before her death. On the night of Friday, the 29th of July, I dreamt three
successive times that I heard the cry of murder issuing from near the
bottom of a close called Little Ditchment Close (the place where the body
was found). The first time I dreamt I heard the cry it awoke me. I fell
asleep again and dreamt the same thing. I then awoke again and told my
wife I could not rest, but I dreamt it again after that. I got up between
four and five o’clock, but I did not go down to the close, the wheat and
barley in which has been since cut.
“‘I dreamt once about twenty years ago that I saw a woman hanging in a
barn, and on passing the next morning the barn which had appeared to me in
my dream, I entered and did find a woman there hanging, and cut her down
in time to save her life. I never told my wife that I heard cries of
“murder,” but I have mentioned it to several persons since. I saw the body
on the Saturday it was found. I did not mention my dream to any one till a
day or two after that. I saw the field distinctly in my dream and the
trees therein, but I saw no person in it. On the night of the murder the
wind lay from that spot to my house.’
“Rhoda Jessop, wife of the last witness, stated that her husband related
his dreams to her on the evening of the day that the body was
found.”[125]
Another case, deeply interesting, and certainly more dramatic in the
nature and importance of the very practical results which followed from
the action taken upon it, than even that already recorded of the Perring
family (for it greatly benefited the living), is now narrated. The
interesting account, which, with the greatest simplicity, and in the
actual words of the persons advantaged, records the plain facts, tells its
own story with considerable power. Frivolous and pointless as are so many
dreams, without intelligible purpose or sequence of action, this is one
which it may be reasonably held can only be explained by a firm belief in
a superintending Providence, in other words in Almighty God, Who, as an
old writer asserts, “sometimes warneth and instructeth in dreams,” and Who
mercifully uses the ministry both of angels and men for carrying out His
Divine purpose:--
“A Gloucestershire gentleman in good circumstances, who for many years had
lived a retired life, quite apart from his relations, some of whom in a
previous year had been cast in a lawsuit with him for the recovery of
certain properties, suddenly died, and, as was supposed, died intestate.
“He had long intended, at the advice of the Rector of the village in which
he dwelt, and with whom alone he was on terms of intimacy, to make certain
provisions by will on behalf of the relations in question, who had lost
much by his successful lawsuit. However, this (as was believed by his
family lawyer, residing in an adjacent country town, who proceeded to
settle his affairs) had not been done; and the whole of his property
consequently seemed likely to go to his heir-at-law, a man of property,
almost unknown to him.
“Five months after his death, however, the Rector of the parish in which
he had lived, had what he termed ‘a waking dream,’ in which he imagined
that the deceased gentleman came to him in sorrow, and solemnly conjured
him to obtain possession of a Will, which had been duly made by him in
London a few months before his decease, and which was in the custody of a
firm of attorneys there, which Will was so drawn as that the relations in
question should greatly benefit by the just and righteous disposition
therein of his property. Imagining the dream to be only a dream and
nothing more, he took no notice of it, and regarded it as the mere result
of his own imagination.
“In about a fortnight, however, the identical dream occurred again--with
the simple difference that the deceased gentleman bore an expression of
deeper grief, and appeared to urge him, in still stronger terms, to obtain
the Will. The Rector was much impressed by this; but on careful reflection
upon the following day, appeared indisposed, on such testimony, to
interfere with arrangements which were then being made for the settlement
of the deceased person’s affairs, on the supposition that he had left no
Will. And consequently he did nothing.
“A third time, however, about eight days afterwards, he had the same
dream, with certain additional details of import and moment. The deceased
person, as the Rector imagined, appearing once again, urged him most
vehemently and solemnly to do as he wished, and to go and obtain the Will.
A conversation took place as it were in the dream, and the clergyman set
forth many cogent arguments why he should not be called upon to undertake
a work, which might not only be misunderstood, but might render him liable
to misrepresentations, if not to trouble and annoyance.
“However, at last he consented, and, in his dream, accompanied the
deceased person to a certain lawyer’s office at a certain number, on a
certain floor in Staple Inn, on the south side of Holborn, where the
drawer in a writing-table was opened, and he saw the packet containing the
Will sealed in three places, with the deceased person’s armorial bearings.
The whole room was before him vividly. It was panelled in oak, picked out
with white and pale green, and over the mantel-piece hung an engraving of
Lord Eldon.
“The Rector awoke, and resolved without delay to do as he was enjoined.
Before proceeding, he mentioned the circumstance of the thrice-repeated
dream to a clerical friend, who volunteered to accompany him to London on
his important errand.
“They went together. Neither had ever been to Staple Inn before; nor did
they know its exact whereabouts. On inquiry, however, it was soon found.
And so was the room and office, with the furniture and print of Lord
Eldon, which had been seen beforehand by the Rector in the dream, to his
intense awe and wonderment. Even the peculiar handles of the
writing-table, which were of brass and old-fashioned, were those which had
been clearly apparent. The identical drawer was opened, and the Will,
secured in an envelope of stout paper and sealed with three impressions,
was found, just as it had been seen in the dream. The lawyer, who at once
gave every facility for inquiry, was a junior partner in the firm which
had drawn it up, and had only recently come to London, from a cathedral
city, where the firm in question had a branch office, on the death of the
chief partner. The Will was found to be good and valid, and was in due
course proved. Under it the relations, who had so suffered by the loss of
their law-suit as to have been almost reduced to penury, obtained their
due. The whole of these facts are vouched for by a friend of the Editor of
this book.”[126]
The following example of presentiment of death is also well authenticated.
It occurred on board one of the ships of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth in
the year 1850. From the MS. account, furnished by one thoroughly able to
give an exact record, the following is taken:--
“The officers being one day at the Mess-table, a young Lieutenant
R----suddenly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away his plate, and
turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table, covering his face with
his hands, and retired from the room. The President of the mess, supposing
him to be ill, sent one of the young men to inquire what was the matter.
At first Mr. R---- was unwilling to speak; but, on being pressed, he
confessed that he had been seized by a sudden and irresistible impression
that a brother he had in India was dead. ‘He died,’ said he, ‘on the 12th
of August at six o’clock, I am perfectly sure of it.’ No argument could
overthrow this conviction, which, in due course of post, was verified to
the letter. The young man had died at Cawnpore at the precise period
mentioned.”
Under the heading of “Singular Prognostication,” “The Times” of April the
17th, 1865, copies from the “Cornish Telegraph” the narrative of a then
recent dream of a young clergyman of the county of Cornwall, which was
almost immediately followed by the accidental death of the dreamer:--
“On Wednesday last, the Rev. Stephen Barclay Drury, an unmarried
clergyman of twenty-six, who has for about twelve months acted as the
curate of Phillack and Gwithian, had a conversation with the brother of
the Rector of those parishes,[127] Mr. Charles Hockin, and related a
dream, which he described as a very singular one, and as having made a
deep impression on him.
“His words were: ‘I dreamt I was to be buried, and I followed my coffin
into the church, and thence to the tomb. I took no part in the service,
and when we came to the tomb, I looked into it, and saw it was very nice.
I then asked the undertaker who was to be buried, and he answered, “You.”
I then said, “I am not to be buried, I am not dead.” The undertaker then
said, “I must be paid for the coffin,” upon which I awoke.’
“On Sunday morning and afternoon Mr. Drury officiated at Gwithian, and
after the second service remained with the children to practise singing.
“Returning to his lodgings in Gwithian at half-past four, he waited a
little, took with him Thomas à Kempis’ ‘De Imitatione Christi,’ and set
out for a walk, accompanied by a Newfoundland dog. He asked for a bit of
cord, as he might give the dog a dip, and started in his usually cheerful
and happy mood. In an hour and a half the dog returned with the cord
around his neck.
“Mr. Drury was never again seen alive. His absence throughout the night
occasioned no surprise, as he sometimes went to, and slept at Copperhouse,
two miles off.
“On Monday morning a Gwinear miner, in quest of seaweed at low water, near
the rocky shore of Godrevy, saw Mr. Drury’s body in a pool seventy or
eighty yards from the sea.
“An inquest, under the county coroner, Mr. John Roscoria, was held on
Tuesday at Gwithian, when these circumstances were elicited, and a verdict
was returned of ‘Found Drowned.’
“From the facts, however, that Mr. Drury had never shown the least signs
of depression, that he started with the expressed intention of giving the
dog a dip, and that he was very near-sighted, the general inference is
that the unfortunate gentleman slipped on the rocks, was stunned, fell
into the water, and so casually and singularly fulfilled his strange dream
of a few days previously.”
A somewhat similar prognostication was had in the case of Captain Speer,
which may properly be put on record, for, as in the case already narrated,
it turned out to be a true warning of impending death:
Captain Speer, an officer of the 3rd Surrey Militia, and a magistrate for
the county of Surrey,[128] lately met his death under remarkable
circumstances. The “Quebec Mercury” says:--“Captain W. D. Speer passed the
last winter among us. During part of it, he had some fine sport on the
north shore of the S. Lawrence, in company with Captain Knox and
Lieutenant Duthie, of the 10th Royal Artillery. This spring he made a tour
through the States and West Indies, with Major Leslie, R.A., returning
only for a few days, to set out again on what has, alas! proved to be his
last expedition.[129] Strange to say, he stated to several gentlemen, just
before setting out, that he had had a dream in which he distinctly saw a
coffin with the name of ‘W. D. Speer, died June 17th, 1867,’ on it; and in
writing to a lady three weeks previously,[130] he said in a joke that one
reason for addressing her was his own approaching end. The date of his
death is not known,[131] but it must have been on the day he named, or
very near it. It appears that he was going to his cabin on board the
Mississippi steamer, which was at anchor, and somewhere in the
neighbourhood of the Indian disturbances; when in the middle of the night
he was shot dead by a sentry, who omitted to challenge him.”
On this remarkable incident a Letter was written, from which the following
extract may fittingly be put on record here:
“It seems the account of the dream was true, as Major Terry told Mr.
Kempson, that he had heard the letter read in which he [Captain Speer]
related the circumstance. Singular, was it not? I trust it may have taken
some little effect on his mind, but I fear he was not one to attach any
importance to such a warning. However, I do hope he did, for it is so
awful to think of anyone in pure health and spirits being ushered into
Eternity without one moment’s preparation.” From a Letter, dated August
10th, 1867, signed “Anne M. Kempson, Richmond Hill, Surrey, S.W.”
Another example of a warning given in a dream (but neglected) may now be
put on record:
A few years ago a serious accident occurred in the village of Bulmer, in
Yorkshire, to a pic-nic party going to Castle Howard. The party made the
journey in an omnibus, and it seems that the wife of one of the men
hesitated to join the others, and tried to persuade her husband not to go,
because she asserted that she had dreamt a week before that they were in
an omnibus, and were upset on going through a village and greatly injured,
the fright awakening her. The man and his wife however did go; but on
reaching Bulmer, the woman became greatly excited. Not only, she remarked,
was the omnibus that which she had seen in her dream, but the village was
the one in which the accident she dreamt of appeared to happen. The words
were scarcely uttered when the omnibus was upset and a scene of great
confusion resulted. Those on the outside were thrown to the ground with
great violence; one man was rendered insensible by the omnibus falling
upon him, and several sustained rather serious injuries. The woman to whom
the accident was revealed beforehand, was herself badly hurt; but her
husband’s was the worst case, he sustaining a dislocation of an ankle.
Medical aid was quickly procured, the sufferers were relieved, and
afterwards conveyed to their homes. Every incident of the accident seems
to have been pictured in the premonitory dream.
A remarkable presentiment by means of a dream is related in the second
section of the first volume of the “Museum of Wonders,” and is to the
following effect. Though not new, it is so exceptionally curious as to be
quite worthy of reproduction here:--
“A short time before the Princess Natgotsky, of Warsaw, travelled to
Paris, she had the following dream:--She dreamed that she found herself in
an unknown apartment, when a man who was likewise unknown to her, came to
her with a cup, and presented it to her to drink out of. She replied that
she was not thirsty, and thanked him for his offer. The unknown individual
repeated his request, and added that she ought not to refuse it any
longer, for it would be the last she would ever drink in her life. At this
she was greatly terrified and awoke.
“In October, 1720, the Princess arrived at Paris, in good health and
spirits; and occupied a furnished hotel, where soon after her arrival she
was seized with a violent fever. She immediately sent for the King’s
celebrated physician, the father of Helvetius. The physician came, and the
Princess showed striking marks of astonishment. She was asked the reason
of it, and gave for answer that the physician perfectly resembled the man
whom she had seen at Warsaw in a dream; but added she, ‘I shall not die
this time, for this is not the same apartment which I saw on that occasion
in my dream.’
“The Princess was soon after completely restored, and appeared to have
altogether forgotten her dream, when a new incident reminded her of it in
a most forcible manner. She was dissatisfied with her lodgings at the
hotel, and therefore requested that a dwelling might be prepared for her
in a convent at Paris, which was accordingly done. The Princess removed to
the convent, but scarcely had she entered the apartment destined for her,
than she began to exclaim aloud: ‘It is all over with me; I shall not come
out of this room again alive, for it is the same that I saw at Warsaw in
my dream!’ She died in reality not long afterward in the same room, in
the beginning of the year 1721, of an ulcer in the throat, occasioned by
the drawing of a tooth.”
“This dream,” observes Jung Stilling, from whose work the account of it is
transcribed, “proceeded from a good angel, who wished to attract the
attention of the Princess to her approaching end.”
A dignitary of the Church of England, of rank and reputation, courteously
furnishes the Editor with the following remarkable Dream, which occurred
to himself,--alas! so completely fulfilled. Another account of the same,
almost identical in terms, was sent to him from another quarter. But he
prefers putting on record the former:[132]--
“My brother had left London for the country to preach and speak on behalf
of a certain Church Society, to which he was officially attached. He was
in his usual health, and I was therefore in no special anxiety about him.
One night my wife woke me, finding that I was sobbing in my sleep, and
asked me what it was. I said, ‘I have been to a strange place in my dream.
It was a small village, and I went up to the door of an inn, if so it
might be called, though it really was a decent public-house. A stout woman
came to the door. I said to her, ‘Is my brother here?’ She said, ‘No,
sir, he is gone.’ ‘Is his wife here?’ I went on to enquire. ‘No, sir, but
his widow is.’ Then the distressing thought rushed upon me that my brother
was dead: and I awoke sobbing.
“A few days after, I was summoned suddenly into the country. My brother
returning from Huntingdon had been attacked with _angina pectoris_; and
the pain was so intense that they left him at Caxton (a small village in
the diocese of Ely), to which place on the following day he summoned his
wife: and the next day, while they were seated together, she heard a sigh
and he was gone.
“When I reached Caxton, _it was the very same village to which I had gone
in my dream. I went to the same house, was met and let in by the same
woman; and found my brother dead, and his_ widow _there._”
One of the most striking and well-authenticated cases of a Warning given
in a Dream and acted upon, by which a grave temporal danger was actually
averted, remains to be put on record now. The case is related with great
simplicity by one who has carefully investigated the circumstances of both
the dreams; and nothing is required on the Editor’s part, either to
enlarge on any detail of it or to point its moral:--
“Knowing as I do intimately,” writes the correspondent in question, “the
Widow of an Irish clergyman who was warned by a dream of the railway
accident which took place a few years ago at Abergele, in North Wales, I
give you gladly the following particulars:--
“About a fortnight before the accident occurred, my friend, the lady in
question, had a dream in which her husband, who had been dead for three
years, appeared to her, as she thought. This occurred on the night which
followed the day on which she had settled and arranged with some friends
to make a journey by railway. She dreamed that her husband was still
living, and that she and he were walking on the sea-shore of North Wales,
close to which the railway to Holyhead passes, when they came to a
tunnel,[133] from which, all of a sudden, volumes of the blackest smoke
were pouring out, and which became so dense that the sky was quite
overcast. Alarmed at this, they hastily went forward together towards its
mouth, when it seemed to be all on fire; the crackling and roar of which
was quite unusual. In a moment or two the sounds of frantic cries of men
and women wildly shrieking seemed to come from out of the mouth of the
tunnel; and then, as if to add to the horror of what had already appeared,
another train, full of people and at express speed, came up and dashed
through smoke and flame into the tunnel itself. Upon this the lady awoke,
and so deep an impression had the dream made (for it unhinged her for some
days), that she resolved to postpone her journey, which she did. Had she
gone at the time appointed and arranged, she and her friends would have
travelled by the very train--the passengers of which were burnt by the
explosion of petroleum.
“The most curious part of this interesting record has yet to be told. On
the same night upon which this lady had this dream-warning, her own
daughter, a child of nine years of age, who was staying with some
relations nearly sixty miles from home, had likewise a dream, in which she
thought she saw two trains meeting each other on one line of railway, in
one of which her mother was seated, and in the other one of her mother’s
friends (who was to have travelled with her). The trains seemed to be
going at a great rate, and when the collision actually took place, the
child at once awoke. On the following morning she recounted her dream to
her relations: but at the time they took no notice of it, though it formed
the subject of a general conversation regarding dreams. It was only when
(as was afterwards discovered) her mother had possibly escaped the
frightful disaster of a railway accident, and probably a very painful
death, that the fact of her child having had the dream on the night of her
own warning and mentioned it, was specially remarked and noted down.”
A prognostication, or rather a personal Presentiment of impending death,
and that death the result of an accident, will fittingly be recorded
here:--
At the village of Bloxwich, in the diocese of Lichfield, a miner resided,
well known to the person who communicated the following occurrence to the
Editor of this volume:--“One morning in 1872, on his way to the pit’s
mouth, the miner had a strong presentiment that he should be killed at his
work. He returned home, communicated his impressions to his wife (who
expostulated with him for being so fanciful and superstitious), and then
insisted on seeing all his children. They were assembled. He took down his
Prayer Book and Bible, read a chapter from the latter, and afterwards said
some of his accustomed prayers. Then affectionately greeting wife and
children, he went to his work, with the same strange but vivid
presentiment of approaching death upon him; as his wife so clearly
testifies. He had not been at work many minutes when he was suddenly
crushed to death by the fall of a rock.”
These facts are duly authenticated by persons who obtained the account
from the man’s widow on the day of his burial, and have supplied them
directly to the Editor.
The following cases, equally remarkable, are taken from the “Standard”
newspaper:--
“Sir,--I beg to acquaint you of a very singular event which occurred here
yesterday. On Saturday night a villager named Andrew Scott dreamed of
being along the coast on S. Cyrus’ Sands, and finding a man among the
rocks under Whitson Houses. On Sabbath morning after breakfast he cleaned
himself, and told his wife he would go and see if there was anything in
his dream, taking another man with him to whom he made known his errand;
and on arriving at the spot where he expected to find the man, sure enough
there was the drowned man, washing amongst the rocks, just as seen in his
dream. He was taken ashore, reported to the S. Cyrus’ authorities, and
to-day he is to be interred. He is supposed to be one of the men belonging
to the ‘Providence,’ wrecked on Dec. 19. I have the honour to be, sir,
your most obedient servant,
“Daniel Hamilton.
“Johnshaven, Kincardineshire, Jan. 20.”
“At an inquest held on Monday afternoon at James Bridge, near
Wolverhampton, on the body of a collier named Samuel Tinley, who had been
killed in a pit there by a fall of rock strata, it transpired that during
the previous night he awoke, saying he had a ton of rock on his head,
though he had no headache. He was convinced it boded ill, and was
reluctant to go to work. Upon being urged to go by his wife, he went to
his child and saying, ‘Let me have my last kiss,’ went to the pit and was
killed. It was further shown that a cousin of his, who is a close friend,
was returning home from working a night-shift, when he said he saw the
deceased standing before him in the road. Instead of going home to bed he
went to the deceased’s house, to which place the news of the death had
just been brought, but altogether unknown to the cousin.[134] At the
inquest a yet more remarkable case, that had come before the same coroner
in the same locality, was mentioned.”
So much as to examples and records of extraordinary Dreams, Warnings by
Visions, and Presentiments. The subject of Omens may now be briefly
touched upon. An “omen” has been defined to be “a token or sign of good or
ill;” “a boding or foreboding;” “a prognostic.” Some of the following are
of such a character as that they are very suitably considered both in
connection with events already described and with those yet to be
narrated.
It has been forcibly and appropriately remarked, though not perhaps in any
marked or specific Christian spirit, that Omens constitute the poetry of
history. They cause the series of events which they are supposed to
declare to flow into epical unity, and the political catastrophe seems to
be produced, not by prudence or by folly, but by the superintending
destiny.
The case of the Tichborne Prophecy, in connection with the well-known
ancient Dole of that family, is so curious (having been in part recently
fulfilled), that it may not only be set forth in detail, but may
reasonably find a place at this particular part of this book. For the
following version the Editor is indebted to a near connection of the
family:--
“The Tichbornes date their possession of the present patrimony, the manor
of Tichborne, so far back as two hundred years before the Conquest. When
the Lady Mabella,[135] worn out with age and infirmity, was lying on her
deathbed, she besought her loving husband, Sir Roger Tichborne, as her
last request, that he would grant her the means of leaving behind her a
charitable bequest, in a Dole of Bread to be distributed to all who should
apply for it annually on the Feast of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. Sir Roger, her husband, readily acceded to her request by promising
the produce of as much land as she could go over in the vicinity of the
Park while a certain brand or billet was burning, supposing that, from her
long infirmity (for she had been bedridden some years), she would be able
to go round a small portion only of his property. The venerable dame,
however, ordered her attendants to convey her to the corner of the Park,
where, being deposited on the ground, she seemed to regain a renovation of
strength; and to the surprise of her anxious and admiring lord, who began
to wonder where this pilgrimage might end, she crawled round several rich
and goodly acres.
“The field which was the scene of Lady Mabella’s extraordinary feat
retains the name of ‘The Crawls’ to this day. It is situated near the
entrance to the Park, and contains an area of twenty-three acres.
“Her task being completed, she was re-conveyed to her chamber; and,
summoning her family to her bedside, predicted its prosperity while the
annual Dole existed, and left her solemn Curse, uttered in God’s most Holy
Name, on any of her descendants who should be so mean or covetous as to
discontinue or divert it, _prophesying that when such should happen the
old house should fall, and the family name would become extinct from the
failure of heirs male; and that this would be foretold by a generation of
seven sons being followed immediately after by a generation of seven
daughters and no son_.
“The custom thus founded in the reign of Henry II. continued to be
observed for centuries; and our Lady’s Day, the 25th of March, became the
annual festive-day of the family. It was not until the middle of the last
century that the custom was abused; when, under the pretence of attending
the Tichborne Dole, vagabonds, gipsies, and idlers of every description,
assembled from all quarters, pilfering throughout the neighbourhood; and,
at last, the gentry and magistrates complaining, it was discontinued in
1796. Singularly enough, the baronet of that day, Sir Henry
Tichborne,[136] had seven sons, and, when he was succeeded by the eldest,
there appeared a generation of seven daughters, while the apparent
fulfilment of the prophecy was completed by the change of the name of the
late baronet to Doughty, under the will of his kinswoman. (This allusion
is to Sir Edward Doughty, ninth baronet, who inherited the ‘Doughty’
estate, then Mr. Edward Tichborne.)”
Here is the record of a weird and obvious Omen:--
“The Duke of Somerset, the great sacrilegious nobleman of Henry VIII.’s
reign, who worked such mischief and perpetrated such robberies on God’s
poor, is said to have been more than once warned of his coming death upon
the scaffold, by the appearance of a Bloody Hand stretched out from the
panelled wall of the corridor of his mansion; and it is also reported that
the Hand was visible to his duchess as well as to himself.”
And here is the narrative of a remarkable Dream, as well as of a singular
coincidence:--
“Sir Thomas White, Alderman of London, was a very rich man, charitable and
public-spirited. He dreamed that he had founded a college at a place where
three elms grew out of one root. He went to Oxford probably with that
intention; and discovering some such tree near Gloucester Hall, he began
to repair the building of that community, with a design to endow it. But
walking afterwards by the convent where the Bernardines formerly lived, he
plainly saw an elm tree with three large bodies rising out of the same
root; he forthwith purchased the ground, and endowed his college there, as
it is at this day; except the additions which Archbishop Laud made near
the outside of the building, in the garden belonging to the President. The
tree is still to be seen. He made this discovery about the year 1557.”
The numerous tokens of the death of Henry IV. of France, who reigned from
1589 until 1610, are finely tragical. Mary of Medicis, in her well-known
dream, saw the brilliant gems of her crown change into pearls--the
recognized symbols of tears and mourning. An owl is said to have hooted
until sunrise at the window of the chamber to which the King and Queen
retired at S. Denis on the night preceding her coronation. During the
ceremony, it was observed with dread, that the dark portals leading to the
royal sepulchre beneath the choir, were gaping and expanded. The flame of
the sacred taper held by Her Majesty was suddenly extinguished, and it is
said that her crown twice nearly fell to the ground.
An anecdote, which was current during the reign of King Charles I., and
has the support both of Archbishop Laud and Lord Clarendon, is said to
have thrown a sad gloom over the spirits of the royal friends, already
saddened by the fearful pestilence which inaugurated his reign. At the
coronation it was found that there was not in the whole of London, nor
indeed in the whole of England, sufficient purple velvet with which to
make the customary royal robes and the corresponding furniture of the
chair of state and throne. What was to be done? Rigid custom, coming down
no doubt for long generations, possibly from the time of S. Edward,
required that old traditions should be scrupulously observed and carefully
followed. What was needed could not in all probability be had nearer than
Genoa. To obtain it would have caused a delay of several months: and it
was agreed that the solemn anointing and coronation could not be properly
postponed. So it was resolved to robe His Majesty in _white_ velvet, from
which he was known afterwards as “the White King.” But this was the colour
in which victims were arrayed. So many persons maintained that the Council
which had sanctioned such an innovation had unwittingly, perhaps, but
efficiently established an agency of evil; and many more after the King’s
martyrdom recalled the ominous change.
Another Warning, or supposed Warning, of approaching evil vouchsafed to
the King was equally striking and peculiar. It happened a short time
before the disastrous Battle of Newbury, and is thus recorded:--
The King being at Oxford, went one day to see the Public Library, where he
was shown amongst other books, a Virgil, nobly printed and exquisitely
bound. The Lord Falkland, to divert the King, would have his Majesty make
a trial of his fortune by the _Sortes Virgilianæ_, which everybody knows
was not an unusual kind of augury some ages past. Whereupon the King
opening the book, the period which happened to come up was part of Dido’s
imprecation against Æneas, which Mr. Dryden translated thus:--
“Yet let a race untamed, and haughty foes,
His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose;
Oppress’d with numbers in th’ unequal field,
His men discouraged and himself expelled,
Let him for succour sue from place to place,
Torn from his subjects and his son’s embrace;
First let him see his friends in battle slain,
And then untimely fate lament in vain;
And when at length the cruel war shall cease,
On hard conditions may he buy his peace;
Nor let him then enjoy supreme command,
But fall untimely by some hostile hand,
And lie unburied on the barren sand.”
“Æneid,” Book iv. 88.
It is said that King Charles seemed concerned at this accident, and that
Lord Falkland observing it, would likewise try his fortune in the same
manner, hoping he might fall upon some passage that could have no relation
to his case, and thereby divert the King’s thoughts from any impression
the other might have upon him. But the place that Falkland stumbled upon
was yet more suited to his destiny than the other had been to the King’s;
being the following expressions of Evander upon the untimely death of his
son Pallas, as they are translated by the same hand:--
“O Pallas! thou hast fail’d thy plighted word,
To fight with caution, not to tempt the sword;
I warn’d thee but in vain; for well I knew
What perils youthful ardour would pursue,
That boiling blood would carry thee too far,
Young as thou wert in dangers--raw in war!
O cursed essay in arms--disastrous doom,
Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come.”
“Æneid,” Book xi. 230.
Again, as regards the King’s bust, the following record was current and
commonly discussed:--
“Vandyke, having painted the King’s head, in three different attitudes, a
profile, a three-quarters, and a full face, the picture was sent to Rome
for Bernini, the celebrated sculptor, to make a bust from it. This artist,
being exceedingly dilatory over his work, and having had complaints made
to him on the subject, said that there was something so unusually sad and
melancholy in the royal features, that if any stress might be laid on
physiognomy, he was sure that the person whom the picture represented was
destined for a violent end. When the bust arrived in England, the King
being anxious to see it, it was taken immediately to Chelsea and placed on
a table in the garden, whither the King, attended by many, went to
inspect it. While so doing a hawk, with a wounded and bleeding partridge
in its talons, flew over the King’s head, and some of the blood fell upon
the marble neck of the bust, where it remained without being wiped off.
The omen is said to have been marked by many.”
On the day of the King’s burial, when the coffin was borne to S. George’s
Chapel, Windsor, by tried and trusted subjects and servants, it was
carried through a severe snow-storm, and the purple pall was covered with
the whitest snow, thus adding a fresh reason for the title by which His
Majesty had been known.
There were also some remarkable Warnings in the life of the great
Archbishop Laud, some of which were noted down in his “Diary.” For
example, he was elected Head of S. John’s College, Oxford, on the Feast of
the Beheading of S. John the Baptist; and of course, when he as Head of
that college perished by a similar death, this more than remarkable
coincidence was noticed and remembered. Another likewise is certainly
curious. Not long before his martyrdom, on entering his study one day, he
is said to have found his own portrait, by Vandyke, at full length on the
floor, the cord which fastened it to the wall having snapped. The sight of
this warning, as it was regarded, is said not only to have deeply
impressed that great man, whose obvious belief in the Supernatural was
considerable; but also to have brought back to his memory the fact of a
great disaster which occurred to one of his barges, on the very day of his
translation to the See of Canterbury, which boat sank with his coaches and
horses into the Thames.
There was an Omen attached to the ancient Ferrers family, of Chartley Park
in Staffordshire. The large possessions of this family were forfeited by
the attainder of Earl Ferrers, after his defeat at Burton Bridge, where he
led the rebellious barons against Henry III. The Chartley estate having
been settled in dower was alone reserved and handed down. In the Park is
said to be preserved an indigenous Staffordshire cow, small in stature, of
sand-white colour, with black ears, muzzle, and tips at the hoofs. In the
year of the Battle of Burton Bridge a black calf was born; the downfall of
the house of Ferrers happening at the same period gave rise to the
tradition, which to this day is said to be commonly current through
observation of past events, viz., that the birth of a parti-coloured calf
from the wild herd in Chartley Park is a sure omen of death within the
same year to a member of Lord Ferrers’ family. By a noticeable coincidence
a calf of this description has been born whenever a death has happened of
late years in this noble family.[137] The decease of the late Earl and
Countess, of his son Lord Tamworth, and of his daughter, Mrs. William
Joliffe, as well as the deaths of the son and heir of the present
nobleman, and his daughter, Lady Frances Shirley, has each been preceded
by the birth of an ominous calf. In the spring of the year 1835 an animal
perfectly black was calved by one of this weird tribe; and it was soon
followed by the death of the amiable Countess.
The Omen connected with the ancient gentle family of Oxenham, co.
Devon,[138] may now be suitably referred to. The following, describing it,
is copied from a rare and ancient pamphlet:[139]--“In the parish called
Sale Monachorum, in the county of Devon, there lives one James Oxenham, a
gentleman of good worth and quality, who had many children, one whereof
was called John Oxenham, a young man in the vigour, beauty, and flower of
his age, about 22, who was of stature comely and tall, being in height of
body sixe foote and a half, a very proper person.... This young gentleman
fell sicke, who being visited by many of the neighbours during the time of
his sickness, departed this transitory life on the 5th day of September
1635, to whom, two days before he yielded up his soul to God, there
appeared the likeness of a Bird with a white breast hovering over him.”
The pamphlet in question states that the White Bird also appeared
previously to the deaths of Thomasine, Rebecca and Thomasine the
younger,[140] facts formally testified to, on the oaths of divers
eyewitnesses before the Lord Bishop of Exeter (Dr. Joseph Hall).
In Howell’s “Familiar Letters,” a communication dated “July 3, 1632,”
states that the writer saw, at a stonecutter’s shop in London, a marble
monument commemorating several examples of this curious omen; and gives
the following as the inscriptions:--
“Here lies John Oxenham, a goodly young man, in whose chamber as he was
struggling with the pangs of death, a Bird with a White Breast was seen
fluttering about his bed, and so vanished.
“Here lies also Mary Oxenham, the sister of the said John, who died the
next day, and the same apparition was seen in the room.
“Here lies hard by, James Oxenham, the son of the said John, who dyed a
child in his cradle a little after, and such a Bird was seen fluttering
about his head a little before he expir’d, which vanish’d afterwards.”
At the bottom of the stone there is:--
“Here lies Elizabeth Oxenham, the mother of the said John, who died
sixteen years since, when such a bird with a white breast was seen about
her bed before her death.”[141]
Then come the following remarks:--
“To all these there be divers witnesses both squires and ladies, whose
names are engraven upon the stone. This stone is to be sent to a town hard
by Exeter where this happen’d. Were you here, I could raise a choice
discours with you hereupon. So hoping to see you the next tirm, I rest,
etc.”
From an old MS. letter of the eighteenth century, written on the fly-leaf
of a copy of Howell’s book already referred to, it seems that the
appearance of the omen was regarded as a fact at that period. The Letter
dated “December 29th, 1741,” contains the following statement:--
“I have received an answer from the country in relation to the strange
Bird which appeared to Mr. Oxenham just before his death, and the account
which Dr. Bertie gave to Lord Abingdon of it, is certainly true. It first
was seen outside the window, and soon afterwards by Mrs. Oxenham in the
room, which she mentioned to Mr. Oxenham, and asked him if he knew what
bird it was. ‘Yes,’ says he, ‘it has been on my face and head, and is
recorded in history as always appearing to our family before their deaths;
but I shall cheat the Bird.’ Nothing more was said about it, nor was the
Bird taken notice of from that time: but he died soon afterwards. However
odd this affair may seem, it is certainly true; for the account was given
of it by Mrs. Oxenham herself: but she never mentions it to anyone unless
particularly asked about it; and as it was seen by several persons at the
same time, I cannot attribute it to imagination, but must leave it as a
phenomenon unaccounted for.”
My friend, the Rev. H. N. Oxenham, of this family, writes to me A.D.
October, 1874, as follows:
“The tradition about the White Bird has certainly existed for so long a
time--I believe for centuries--in our family, that I have every reason to
believe there are well-authenticated accounts of its appearance before the
death of the head of the family; and that certainly a white Bird was seen
at the window a few days before my late uncle’s death (who was the head of
the family) last Christmas” [_i.e._ in 1873].
Here a singular account of the possession of a charm, or amulet, and of a
Curse connected with it, may be fittingly set forth:--
“The family of Graham of Inchbrachie, county Perth, are said to possess a
small blue, uncut stone, set in an antique ring, of which the following
story is told. Some two centuries ago, as the Head of the Family was
passing by a hill near or at Crieff, he discovered a large crowd, presided
over by one of the Campbells of ----, preparing to execute a witch. On
approaching the crowd, he found that the unhappy victim (who had for some
years lived in a rocky cave, still known by her name), was none other than
his old nurse, Katherine Nivens. Charged with witchcraft, she had been
condemned and was about to be executed. Graham, addressing the mob, urged
them to prevent Campbell from carrying out his purpose. In acknowledgment
of his generous help on her behalf, the poor creature threw him a small
blue stone like a bead, which she had kept in her mouth, and desired him
to keep it for her sake; adding that as long as it was preserved in his
family good fortune should ever attend them; while to the Campbells of
---- (whom she solemnly cursed), she predicted that there never should be
born an heir male, and cited him to appear before God’s judgment-bar,
where justice should be done.[142] The strange feature in the story is
that (as a correspondent avers) _both promise and prediction have turned
out to be true_. The stone is said to be an uncut sapphire. Other Scotch
families possess similar amulets or charms: amongst these the
Macdonald-Lockharts of Lee in the county of Lanark.
The sound of the Beating of a Drum is said to betoken death to a noble
Scotch family--one which has been a staunch, good old loyalist clan for
centuries, and suffered sorely for having been “leal and true” to their
Royal House and their own consciences. Some years ago the then head of it
was paying a visit in England, when, one day, sitting outside in the
garden with the lady of the house, his lordship exclaimed suddenly,
“Listen! here comes a band of music.”
“Music!” she replied, “oh, impossible.”
“Oh, don’t you hear it? it is coming this way.”
“No, I hear nothing.”
“Listen!” he retorted; “don’t you hear the Drum?”
She assured him that there was nothing, that it was a fancy, and that no
band of music could come near enough to the house to be heard, on account
of the unusual extent of the grounds and park.
On this the nobleman turned pale, and becoming much agitated, remarked
that he felt sure it must be the sound of the family “Drum,”--an omen that
always preceded death, and feared that something had happened to one of
his relations.
The next post brought him the sad and melancholy news of his wife’s
unlooked-for death, through giving birth prematurely to a child.
The origin of this omen, as far as the Editor can discover, appears to be
unknown.
In another family of rank a female figure, dressed in brown clothes,
appears as a warning of death. To the members of an old knightly family in
the West of England there always comes, before the death of its chief, the
sound of a heavy carriage with many horses driven round the paved
courtyard of the Elizabethan mansion.
It is equally notorious that in a certain noble English family, the form
of a spectral head appears as a sign of death to any member of it, and
invariably so, when the chief of it dies,--a fact which the Editor has
been assured of in writing (A.D. 1872) from a member of a junior branch of
the same.
To another family, living in the East of England (of the rank of gentle
people), appears an Omen, equally, if not more disagreeable. The
appearance of a spectral Black Dog is also a portent of death. About
twenty years ago, A.D. 1853, the then head of the family married, and
though he himself (by no means superstitious) could not reject the
tradition of the unpleasant omen, having heard so much about it on its
previous appearance, he said nothing to his wife. Some years afterwards,
in 1861, their eldest child was taken ill. The illness, however, (as the
physician asserted,) was slight, and not at all likely to prove dangerous;
so little, in truth, was this anticipated that there were several persons
staying in the house at the time. Just before dinner was announced one
evening, the wife of the head of the family asked to be excused for a
moment or two, while she looked into the night nursery to see how the sick
child was. She went, but returned almost immediately, saying, “Darling
---- is fast asleep; but there’s a large black dog lying under the bed; go
and drive it out.” The father, at once calling to mind the omen, was
sorely terrified. He went at once to the sick room. Neither under nor near
the bed, nor (as was afterwards discovered) on the premises, was there, or
had there been, any dog, but the poor child’s sleep was found to be the
sleep of death.
To revert to Omens in general. There is a widely-spread and singular
prejudice, (which with many is deeply rooted,) that if thirteen people sit
down to dinner one of them, at least, shall die within a year.[143] It
seems to have originated from the fact of Judas having been the thirteenth
at the Paschal Feast, when our Lord instituted the Holy Sacrament.
Again, Friday has from time immemorial been considered an unlucky
day;[144] because the Crucifixion of our Blessed Saviour took place on
that day--a day of fear and trembling, of darkness and of earthquakes--a
day of awe, when even some of the Pagan oracles were silent, and
indications of the decay and weakening of their powers were by their
impotence made manifest. Plutarch in his book on the “Cessation of
Oracles,” makes mention of the voice which, near Paxos, the pilot of a
vessel heard in the spring of the nineteenth year of the Emperor Tiberius,
crying out, “Great Pan is dead.” Now we know that in the spring of that
year, and possibly on the afternoon of that very day, our Divine Lord
overcame death by dying, conquered Satan, and opened the gates of
everlasting life to mankind. Can we be surprised that after that victory
on the first Good Friday, the power of the Evil One was largely and surely
curbed?
Second Sight, indications of the existence of which have already been
given, appears to be a power or property of seeing beforehand events which
are still in the future, and such sight claimed by several[145] is said
to belong to many persons in Scotland. In a “Description of the Western
Isles,” a popular writer of the last century somewhat amplified the
definition. He maintained as follows: “The Second Sight is a singular
faculty of seeing an otherwise invisible object, without any previous
means used by the person that sees it for that end; the vision makes such
a lively impression upon the seers, that they neither see nor think of
anything else, except the vision, as long as it continues; and then they
appear pensive or jovial, according to the object which was represented to
them.” He further points out generally that when persons gifted with
Second Sight “actually behold something unusual, the eyelids of the person
are erected, and the eyes continue staring until the object vanish.” In
the case of a certain person in the Island of Skye, “when he sees a
vision, the inner part of his eyelids turns so far upwards, that after the
object disappears, he must draw them down again with his fingers.” The
same writer maintains that the property of Second Sight does not
necessarily descend in a family, as some persons hold and assert. “I know
several parents,” he writes, “who are endowed with it, but their children
not, and _vice versa_; neither is it acquired by any previous compact.
And, after a strict inquiry, I could never learn from any among them that
this faculty was communicable any way whatsoever.”
Several volumes have been written on the subject, and examples almost
without number provided.
In John Aubrey’s “Miscellanies”[146] is recorded a remarkable escape from
death of Dr. William Harvey, the celebrated discoverer of the circulation
of the blood through Second Sight:--“When Dr. Harvey, one of the
Physicians’ College in London, being a young man (in 1695), went to travel
towards Padua, he went to Dover with several others, and showed his pass
as the rest to the Governor there. The Governor told him that he must not
go, but he must keep him prisoner. The Doctor desired to know ‘for what
reason? how he had transgressed?’ ‘Well, it was his will to have it so.’
The pacquet boat hoisted sail in the evening, which was very clear, and
the doctor’s companions in it. There ensued a terrible storm, and the
pacquet boat and all the passengers were drowned. The next day the sad
news was brought to Dover. The Doctor was unknown to the Governor both by
name and face; but the night before the Governor had a perfect vision of
Dr. Harvey in a dream, who came to pass over to Calais, and that he had a
warning to stop him. This the Governor told the Doctor the next day. The
Doctor was a pious, good man, and has several times directed this story to
some of my acquaintance.”
The following, from a rare and curious volume of the last century,[147]
containing nearly two hundred cases, authenticated mainly by ministers of
the Scotch Establishment, is a good example:--
“Alexander Macdonald, of Kingsborough (when living in the possession of
Aird, in the remote end of Trotternish), dreamed that he saw a reverend
old man come to him, desiring him to get out of bed, and get his servants
together, and make haste to save his fields of corn, as his whole cattle,
and his tenants’ cattle also, had got out of the fold, and were in the
middle of a large field behind the house. He awaked and told his wife,
with whom he consulted whether he would rise or not; and she telling him
it was but a dream, and not worth noticing, advised him to lie still,
which he obeyed; but no sooner fell asleep, than the former old man
appeared to him, and seemed angry, by telling Mr. Macdonald (then of
Aird), he the old man was very idle, in acquainting him of the loss he
would or had by this time sustained by his cattle, and seemed not to heed
what he said, and so went off. Mr. Macdonald awaking the second time, told
his wife, but she would not allow him, and ridiculed him for noticing the
folly of a confused dream; so that, after attempting to get up, he was, at
his wife’s persuasion, prevailed upon to lie down again; and falling
asleep, it being now near break of day, the old gentleman appeared to him
a third time, with a frowning countenance, and told him he might now lie
still, for that the cattle were now surfeited of his corn, and were lying
in it; and that it was for his welfare that he came to acquaint him so
often, as he was his grand-uncle by his father; and so went off. He
awaking in about an hour thereafter, arose and went out, and actually
found his own and his tenants’ cattle lying in his corn, after being tired
of eating thereof; which corn, when comprised, the loss amounted to eight
bolls of meal.”
Two quite recent cases of Second Sight are here given, and are each
somewhat remarkable. Both have been furnished to the Editor by those who
knew the cases, and the accuracy of each has been vouched for by trusty
and courteous correspondents.
The first has reference to the murder of a policeman at Cardiff:--“An
inquest was formally opened on the body of William Perry, a constable of
the Cardiff police force, who was fatally stabbed on Tuesday by a butcher,
named Jones. The medical evidence went to show that the murderer was in a
very excited state at the time, but was neither insane nor suffering from
_delirium tremens_. The further hearing was adjourned. The ‘Western Mail’
says:--The deceased man Perry was a well-known and very efficient officer.
He joined the borough police force on the 5th of July, 1865, and from that
time had always conducted himself in a praiseworthy manner, having
attained to the position of a first-class constable some time ago.
Previous to 1865 he was employed in the Merthyr division of the county
police. He was 36 years of age. The superstitious will probably feel
interested in the following story, which our reporter heard last night
from the lips of the widow herself. Strange as it may seem, it is no less
strange than true; and mournful as the circumstance is in itself, those
who believe in the efficacy of dreams as prognosticators of future events,
will perhaps derive some gratification from it. On Sunday night Mrs. Perry
(who resides at Melrose-cottage, Heath-street, Canton), had a dream, which
but too faithfully predicted the sad tragedy of yesterday. In the midst of
her sleep she saw, to use her own words, a large crowd following her
husband down the Cowbridge-road, in the direction of the Westgate hotel,
where the murder was committed. She saw, in the horror of her dream, a
knife plunged into the breast of her husband, and drawn out again,
blood-stained and grimy, by some cruel but unknown hand. She saw, too,
the murdered form of her husband borne away, and little thought, when
brooding over her awful dream, that it was a ‘dark presage,’ and the
precursor of what was soon to be a terrible reality. The dream occasioned
her great uneasiness, but she mentioned it to no one until the dreadful
tidings of her husband’s death reached her yesterday morning, when the
circumstance forced itself vividly upon her recollection.” (A.D. 1873.)
The second example is equally remarkable:--“A singular case of Second
Sight is reported from the neighbourhood of Marlborough. A labourer named
Duck, employed by Mr. Dixon, of Mildenhall Warren Farm, was in charge of a
horse and water-cart on the farm, when the animal took fright and knocked
him down. The wheel went over his chest, and the injuries he received were
such that his death occurred shortly afterwards. However, the singular
part of the story remains to be told. Duck resided at Ramsbury, and
immediately after the accident Mr. Dixon despatched a woman to acquaint
his wife of the fact. On arriving at her home the messenger found her out
gathering wood; but shortly afterwards a girl who was her companion
arrived, and, without being told of what had occurred, volunteered the
statement that ’Ria (Mrs. Duck) was unable to do much that morning, that
she had been very much frightened, having seen her husband in the wood.
Shortly afterwards Mrs. Duck returned, without any wood, and, being
informed by a neighbour that a woman from Mildenhall Woodlands wished to
see her, ejaculated immediately, ‘My David’s dead, then.’ Inquiry has
since been made by Mr. Dixon of the woman, and she positively asserts that
she saw her husband in the wood, and said, ‘Holloa, David, what wind blows
you here, then?’ and that he made no reply. Mr. Dixon inquired what time
this occurred, and she replied about 10 o’clock, the hour at which the
fatal accident took place.” (A.D. 1874.)
Before this chapter is closed, the following account, which created the
deepest impression in the town and neighbourhood of Devizes, is embodied
in terms which plainly enough set forth its point and purpose. It is an
awful example of God’s summary judgment, recorded by the local authorities
both as a memorial of the Supernatural and as a warning to all:--
“The Mayor and Corporation of Devizes avail themselves of the stability of
this building [the Market Cross,] to transmit to future times the record
of an awful event which occurred in the Market Place in the year 1753,
hoping that such record may serve as a salutary warning against the danger
of impiously invoking Divine vengeance, or of calling on the Holy Name of
God to conceal the devices of falsehood and fraud:
“On Thursday, the 25th of January, 1753, Ruth Pierce, of Potterne in this
county, agreed with three other women to buy a sack of wheat in the
market, each paying her due proportion towards the same. One of these
women, in collecting the several quotas of money, discovered a deficiency,
and demanded of Ruth Pierce the sum which was wanting to make good the
amount. Ruth Pierce protested that she had paid her share, and said: _She
wished she might drop down dead if she had not._ She rashly repeated the
awful wish; when, to the consternation and terror of the surrounding
multitude, she instantly fell down and expired, having the money concealed
in her hand.”
The narrative of this solemn event was by order of the authorities
recorded on a tablet and hung up in the Market house (a row of sheds near
the Cross). When the building was taken down, Mr. Halcombe, who kept the
Bear Inn, in order that the remembrance might not be lost, caused it to be
inscribed on the pediment of a couple of pillars which stood opposite his
inn, supporting the sign of the Bear.
The sign was removed in 1801, and a few years after Lord Sidmouth having
presented to the town the New Cross, which forms the central ornament of
the Market Place, the Mayor and Corporation “availed themselves,” to use
their own language, “of the stability of the new structure to transmit to
future time a record of the awful death of Ruth Pierce in hope that it
might serve as a salutary warning against the practice of invoking the
Sacred Name to conceal the devices of falsehood and fraud.”
And now to conclude this portion of the subject. Each example already
recorded has, no doubt, told its own story sufficiently well. Some cases
may appear to certain minds to be as trivial as they certainly are, to
others, marvellous and inexplicable; other examples, again, cannot fail to
leave a deep impression on the reader, as well from the remarkable
character of the presentiments and dreams themselves, as from the
reasonable testimony by which their truth is supported by persons of
repute and credibility. The Editor has intentionally avoided the making of
comments, either prolix or the reverse, preferring to present to the
reader each recorded narrative, as received or obtained by himself,
without dissertations, theories, or explanations.
END OF VOL. I.
CHISWICK PRESS:--PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS,
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.
GENERAL INDEX.
A Discerner of spirits, i. 81
Abimelech’s dream, i. 210
Aerolites, i. 24
After-vision of a suicide, ii. 75
Alexander Macdonald’s dream, i. 285
Amulet of the Grahams, i. 277
---- of the Macdonald Lockharts, i. 278
Ann Thorne bewitched, i. 194
Apparition at Ballarat, ii. 61
---- at time of death, ii. 59
---- in the Jewel House, ii. 105
---- near Cardiff, ii. 114
---- of a college friend, ii. 71
---- of a crow, ii. 131
---- of a dying father, ii. 58
---- of a dying lady to her children, ii. 64
---- of a father to his son, ii. 58
---- of a friend, ii. 60
---- of a sister, ii. 59
---- of a son to his mother and another, ii. 73
---- of an officer, ii. 10
---- of Dr. Ferrar’s daughter, ii. 25
---- of Philip Weld, ii. 51
---- of Rev. W. Naylor, ii. 7
---- of S. Stanislaus, ii. 51
---- seven years after death, ii. 71
---- to a gentleman, ii. 119
---- to a lady and her child, ii. 113
---- to a lady and her child, ii. 117
---- to a sentry, and his death thereupon, ii. 108
---- to Lord Brougham, ii. 68
---- to Lord Chedworth, ii. 35
---- to Mr. Andrews, ii. 41
Apparitions at Oxford, ii. 209
Arrowsmith, Trial of Rev. E., i. 91
Arrowsmith’s Hand preserved, i. 95
Authentication of Lamb’s cure, i. 96
Barony of Chedworth, ii. 34
Belief in God universal, i. 5
Benediction, The principle of, i. 90
Beresford apparition, The, ii. 11
Bird, The Spectral, ii. 128
Bisham Abbey, Ghost at, ii. 91
Bishop Joseph Hall on temporal punishment, ii. 89
Bishop Ken’s hymn, ii. 82
Blessing and cursing, Power of, i. 90.
Bosworth’s testimony, Mr. T., ii. 146
Bridget Bishop accused of witchcraft, i. 198
Bull of Pope Innocent VIII. against witchcraft, i. 162
Captain William Dyke, ii. 22
Cardan, Jerome, i. 282
Case of Annie Milner, i. 169
---- of Martha Brossier, i. 165
Catharine Campbell accused of witchcraft, i. 197
Catholic claim to exclusive use of exorcism, i. 163
Causation, The law of, i. 3
Chamber, John, on “Judiciall Astrologie,” i. 200
Charles I., Omens concerning, i. 267, 271
Charles Ireland bewitched, i. 186
Chevalier’s testimony concerning Spiritualism, Mr., ii. 180
“Christ is coming” quoted, ii. 136.
Christian Shaw bewitched, i. 197
Christian writers on the Supernatural, i. 31
Christianity, Morse on the decline of, ii. 137
Citation, Remarkable case of, i. 90
Club, The Hell-Fire, ii. 207