CLIMATE IN WINTER--VISION OF MY FATHER--A WARNING
VOICE--SUPERNATURAL MANIFESTATIONS--THE FALLING ROCK--MY LIFE SAVED
BY MY DOG.
Winter was now come, but a very different atmosphere prevailed to what I
had been used to in my Norfolk home. There I was accustomed to see the
broads and rivers frozen over, and the means of communication by boat
between the various rivers completely stopped. There we dreaded the
marrow-piercing north-east wind which, coming straight across the cold
North Sea from icebound Norway and the frozen Baltic, caused everything,
animal and vegetable, to be cut and chilled, so that frequently both man
and plant succumbed to its penetrating rigour; but here the north or
east wind is not nearly such a dreaded visitor, and it is only on
exceptional days that its biting power is felt.
There nothing seemed to grow during the winter, all vegetation
slumbered, sometimes never to awaken; here in mid winter the primrose
and violet were in full bloom, and on New Year's Day I gathered quite a
posy of garden flowers, including roses and other fragrant flowers.
Snow fell on two or three occasions, but the bright sun dissipated it
very quickly, and the frosts were not at all severe; in fact, were only
of occasional occurrence. These frosts are only severe enough to hurt
one class of persons, and that is the gardeners, who dread a frost
coming after the blossoms are set on the trees. The climate being so
mild the blossom buds burst at a very early period, so that a late frost
coming nips them, then good-bye to the fruit.
Frequently potatoes are here being eaten before the green tops are above
ground in England, which is another proof of the mildness of the
climate. No doubt this mildness and equability of temperature is due in
a great measure to the influence of the Gulf Stream, which keeps the
surrounding sea at an even temperature; the sea in turn tempering the
wind, keeps the thermometer very level.
There is usually a very mild fortnight towards the end of October, which
the natives call "La petite été;" it appears like a return of summer,
and is greatly enjoyed by everyone as the last of the really warm
weather.
In the matter of sunshine England cannot be compared with these islands,
for taking our much-favoured Devonshire, and comparing the hours of
sunshine for December, January, and February, I find that in the Channel
Islands the sun shews its face just double the number of hours that it
does in fertile Devon.
In my garden on January 25th I had peas a foot above ground. How I
should have liked to shew my father these, he would scarcely have
believed his eyes, for April 25th in Norfolk, would not have produced
anything much more forward.
Now, having mentioned my father, I must tell a curious incident which
happened concerning him upon the last day of January. About eight
o'clock in the evening I was sitting finishing a sketch of Creviçhon,
with my dog lying asleep near the fire, when he suddenly half raised
himself, and looking towards the other end of the room commenced to
whine.
I followed his eyes, and there to my astonishment sat my father. He sat
on a stool facing me, with his leg, which was enveloped in a huge
covering, upon another stool. His right hand rested upon the covered
leg, while his left was placed upon his heart. As the dog whined he
looked straight at me, and in his well-known voice said,
"It's all right, Harry, my boy, but it _was_ a shake!"
I stood up to rush to him, but as I rose he melted away, leaving nothing
but the two empty seats. I was staggered, but calm immediately, for I
had read of things of this kind before, and concluded that my father had
met with some accident, and had thus by some unknown means communicated
with me in spirit.
[Illustration: A GHOSTLY VISITANT.]
I knew nothing of the why or wherefore of this wonderful means of
communication between two persons, but judged that in this case it
happened in this wise. My father had met with a severe accident, which
he was probably afraid might have had a fatal termination, that his
thoughts were intent upon me, his absent son. As he intently thought of
me, and how he should like to speak to me, he may have actually spoken
the words to himself, which by some unknown means I heard apparently
fall from his own lips, and in his very voice.
The words assured me of his safety, and therefore beyond taking a note
of the day and the hour, I did not trouble myself much more about the
curious incident.
While on this subject of the apparently supernatural, I will mention one
or two other inexplicable things which occurred to me during my
residence on Jethou.
One night in autumn I could not sleep, so towards dawn got up and
dressed myself, as I had frequently done before, and took a walk round
the island, a distance of over a mile. This proceeding always had the
effect of giving me the desired sleep upon my again wooing Morpheus. On
this particular night my mind was filled with the question, "How can I
keep my fish pond always replenished with sea water?" and as I wandered
on in the dark, knowing the path so well, I was concocting a new pumping
device, when my steps were suddenly arrested by the word "Harry!"
pronounced gently but plainly just behind me. This woke me abruptly from
my reverie, and I turned round quickly, but could see nothing but my
faithful dog at my heels. "Strange, very strange indeed," I thought, and
was about to resume my walk, but there, not four steps away, was the
yawning abyss of La Creux Derrible, into which I should have walked in
another second, and been dashed to pieces on the rocks below. My life
was saved, but by what? Was it a spirit voice or some night bird that in
my abstraction I fancied pronounced my name?[2] Some will say the
latter, but I must maintain that it was a curious thing that this should
happen at precisely the correct instant, just in time to save me from a
violent death. It _was_ a voice, for I recognized it as that of my own
love, Priscilla, who was at the moment two or three hundred miles away.
But how could _she_ know of my danger?
It may strike the reader as strange, and it is _strange_, I will allow;
but on another occasion my life was saved in a remarkable manner. One
afternoon late in the winter, after a heavy fall of rain, I was sitting
near the brink of the granite cliff on the west side of the island,
making a sketch of some rock masses in the glow of the ruddy setting
sun, when "Begum" became suddenly restive, and rubbed several times with
his head against my leg, looking up into my eyes at intervals. Then he
would walk away, looking round as if wanting me to follow and see
something (a proceeding he had often done before); but being busy I did
not give way to his solicitations, and went on working. This did not
please him, for he now took hold of my coat sleeve, and gave me a tug,
with his eyes at the same time fixed on mine; so, to oblige him, I rose,
and went after him to see what wonder he had to shew me. Contrary to his
usual custom he appeared to have nothing for me to see, but seemed
pleased to have me follow him, shewing his joy by wagging his tail, as
if he would wriggle his body in two, and looking up into my face over
his shoulder to shew his pleasure. As I had nearly finished my sketch I
thought I would humour him, and avoid taking cold by sitting too long in
the cool atmosphere among the damp rocks. With this thought in my mind I
turned round to fetch my colours and sketch, when suddenly near the top
of the island a large block of granite, about the size of a thirty-six
gallon barrel became detached, and commenced a downward career, crashing
all before it in its course. I paused and watched it, waiting to see it
bury itself with a mighty splash in the sea.
It descended in leaps and bounds with increasing velocity, till, with a
final rise it launched itself upon the very stone on which I was sitting
a minute before, and with a sharp crash broke it completely in two,
hurling the pieces and itself the next instant into the sea!
My sketch went with the rocky seat, and but for the intervention of my
dog I should have been _killed_ first and drowned _afterwards_. My
colours, lying on the ground a foot away, were uninjured.
What is the interpretation of this? It might be said that the previous
heavy rains had loosened the rock, and the warm sunshine having swelled
the mass of the earth beneath, had overbalanced it, and thus nearly
brought about a catastrophe. But what of the dog's warning? It was
_strange_, that is all the solution I can give. As a Norfolk labourer
once said to me when I was pumping him upon the subject of superstition,
"Master, there's more things about than we knows of about both by day
and night."
Perhaps there are, and if they are _things_ of _good_, so much the
better. We know of hypnotism, psychic force, spiritualism, thought
reading, and other occult sciences which appear to produce nothing very
grand as results for _good_, but who shall say there is not some
"Guiding Good" which can (even against our wills) warn us, or sway our
minds in a given direction or in some way influence our movements, by
means _outside ourselves_?
Sometimes after dark, with a half gale blowing, I have fancied all kinds
of things were about, of which the eye or ear might get indistinct
glimpses, and with the wind sighing and moaning among the trees and
rocks and my solitary life also taken into consideration, was this to be
wondered at.
Solitude gives latitude for an imaginative mind to expand itself, and
for one shut up by himself as I was, trifles are frequently made
prominent, simply because there is nothing greater to attract one's
attention and thought.
The wind sweeping among the rocks in a gale, will at times, form at it
were, notes or peculiar noises, which will, with other sounds of
rustling branches, the cry of wild fowl and the beat of the sea on the
shore, all taking place concurrently, cause the listener to imagine he
hears voices. Again, who has not, when walking by a noisy babbling
brook, where it falls among rocks and other impediments in a quiet
place, heard as he has thought voices as of persons conversing at a
distance? Many trout-fishers will have heard these sounds, and know the
reason of their being heard; they can fully explain the cause, but I
doubt if they could explain the curious experiences related in this
chapter.
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FOOTNOTE:
2: I am aware that these things are but trifles to the
Theosophists and Esoteric Buddhists, who profess to project their astral
bodies, and play many other hocus pocus tricks of transmitting voices
and articles to immense distances. They may therefore be able to explain
these phenomena, I cannot; still I have the belief that there is some
spirit-force which can and does act as a medium between distant persons
who are in sympathy with each other.
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