THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT--"STRAND" CHRISTMAS NUMBER, 1920
Should the incidents here narrated, and the photographs attached,
hold their own against the criticism which they will excite, it is no
exaggeration to say that they will mark an epoch in human thought.
I put them and all the evidence before the public for examination
and judgment. If I am myself asked whether I consider the case to be
absolutely and finally proved, I should answer that in order to remove
the last faint shadow of doubt I should wish to see the result repeated
before a disinterested witness. At the same time, I recognize the
difficulty of such a request, since rare results must be obtained when
and how they can. But short of final and absolute proof, I consider,
after carefully going into every possible source of error, that a
strong _prima facie_ case has been built up. The cry of "fake" is sure
to be raised, and will make some impression upon those who have not had
the opportunity of knowing the people concerned, or the place. On the
photographic side every objection has been considered and adequately
met. The pictures stand or fall together. Both are false, or both are
true. All the circumstances point to the latter alternative, and yet in
a matter involving so tremendous a new departure one needs overpowering
evidence before one can say that there is no conceivable loophole for
error.
It was about the month of May in this year that I received the
information from Miss Felicia Scatcherd, so well-known in several
departments of human thought, to the effect that two photographs of
fairies had been taken in the North of England under circumstances
which seemed to put fraud out of the question. The statement would
have appealed to me at any time, but I happened at the moment to be
collecting material for an article on fairies, now completed, and I had
accumulated a surprising number of cases of people who claimed to be
able to see these little creatures. The evidence was so complete and
detailed, with such good names attached to it, that it was difficult
to believe that it was false; but, being by nature of a somewhat
sceptical turn, I felt that something closer was needed before I
could feel personal conviction and assure myself that these were not
thought-forms conjured up by the imagination or expectation of the
seers. The rumour of the photographs interested me deeply, therefore,
and following the matter up from one lady informant to another, I came
at last upon Mr. Edward L. Gardner, who has been ever since my most
efficient collaborator, to whom all credit is due. Mr. Gardner, it may
be remarked, is a member of the Executive Committee of the Theosophical
Society, and a well-known lecturer upon occult subjects.
He had not himself at that time mastered the whole case, but all he
had he placed freely at my disposal. I had already seen prints of
the photographs, but I was relieved to find that he had the actual
negatives, and that it was from them, and not from the prints, that
two expert photographers, especially Mr. Snelling of 26 The Bridge,
Wealdstone, Harrow, had already formed their conclusions in favour
of the genuineness of the pictures. Mr. Gardner tells his own story
presently, so I will simply say that at that period he had got into
direct and friendly touch with the Carpenter family. We are compelled
to use a pseudonym and to withhold the exact address, for it is clear
that their lives would be much interrupted by correspondence and
callers if their identity were too clearly indicated. At the same
time there would be, no doubt, no objection to any small committee
of inquiry verifying the facts for themselves if this anonymity were
respected. For the present, however, we shall simply call them the
Carpenter family in the village of Dalesby, West Riding.
Some three years before, according to our information, the daughter
and the niece of Mr. Carpenter, the former being sixteen and the other
ten years of age, had taken the two photographs--the one in summer,
the other in early autumn. The father was quite agnostic in the
matter, but as his daughter claimed that she and her cousin when they
were together continually saw fairies in the wood and had come to be
on familiar and friendly terms with them, he entrusted her with one
plate in his camera. The result was the picture of the dancing elves,
which considerably amazed the father when he developed the film that
evening. The little girl looking across at her playmate, to intimate
that the time had come to press the button, is Alice, the niece, while
the older girl, who was taken some months later with the quaint gnome,
is Iris, the daughter. The story ran that the girls were so excited in
the evening that one pressed her way into the small dark-room in which
the father was about to develop, and that as she saw the forms of the
fairies showing through the solution she cried out to the other girl,
who was palpitating outside the door: "Oh, Alice, Alice, the fairies
are on the plate--they are on the plate!" It was indeed a triumph for
the children, who had been smiled at, as so many children are smiled
at by an incredulous world for stating what their own senses have
actually recorded.
The father holds a position of trust in connection with some local
factory, and the family are well-known and respected. That they are
cultivated is shown by the fact that Mr. Gardner's advances towards
them were made more easy because Mrs. Carpenter was a reader of
theosophical teachings and had gained spiritual good from them. A
correspondence had arisen and all their letters were frank and honest,
professing some amazement at the stir which the affair seemed likely to
produce.
Thus the matter stood after my meeting with Mr. Gardner, but it was
clear that this was not enough. We must get closer to the facts. The
negatives were taken round to Kodak, Ltd., where two experts were
unable to find any flaw, but refused to testify to the genuineness
of them, in view of some possible trap. An amateur photographer of
experience refused to accept them on the ground of the elaborate and
Parisian coiffure of the little ladies. Another photographic company,
which it would be cruel to name, declared that the background
consisted of theatrical properties, and that therefore the picture was
a worthless fake. I leaned heavily upon Mr. Snelling's whole-hearted
endorsement, quoted later in this article, and also consoled myself by
the broad view that if the local conditions were as reported, which we
proposed to test, then it was surely impossible that a little village
with an amateur photographer could have the plant and the skill to turn
out a fake which could not be detected by the best experts in London.
The matter being in this state, Mr. Gardner volunteered to go up at
once and report--an expedition which I should have wished to share had
it not been for the pressure of work before my approaching departure
for Australia. Mr. Gardner's report is here appended:
_5 Craven Road, Harlesden, N.W.10, July 29, 1920._
It was early in this year, 1920, that I heard from a friend of
photographs of fairies having been successfully taken in the North
of England. I made some inquiries, and these led to prints being sent
to me with the names and address of the children who were said to
have taken them. The correspondence that followed seemed so innocent
and promising that I begged the loan of the actual negatives--and two
quarter-plates came by post a few days after. One was a fairly clear
one, the other much under-exposed.
The negatives proved to be truly astonishing photographs indeed, for
there was no sign of double exposure nor anything other than ordinary
straightforward work. I cycled over to Harrow to consult an expert
photographer of thirty years' practical experience whom I knew I
could trust for a sound opinion. Without any explanation I passed the
plates over and asked what he thought of them. After examining the
"fairies" negative carefully, exclamations began: "This is the most
extraordinary thing I've ever seen!" "Single exposure!" "Figures have
moved!" "Why, it's a genuine photograph! Wherever did it come from?"
I need hardly add that enlargements were made and subjected to
searching examination--without any modification of opinion. The
immediate upshot was that a "positive" was taken from each negative,
that the originals might be preserved carefully untouched, and then
new negatives were prepared and intensified to serve as better
printing mediums. The originals are just as received and in my keeping
now. Some good prints and lantern slides were soon prepared.
In May I used the slides, with others, to illustrate a lecture given
in the Mortimer Hall, London, and this aroused considerable interest,
largely because of these pictures and their story. A week or so later
I received a letter from Sir A. Conan Doyle asking for information
concerning them, some report, I understood, having reached him from a
mutual friend. A meeting with Sir Arthur followed, and the outcome was
that I agreed to hasten my proposed personal investigation into the
origin of the photographs, and carry this through at once instead of
waiting till September, when I should be in the North on other matters.
In consequence, to-day, July 29, I am just back in London from one of
the most interesting and surprising excursions that it has ever been
my fortune to make!
We had time, before I went, to obtain opinions on the original
negatives from other expert photographers, and one or two of these
were adverse rather than favourable. Not that any would say positively
that the photographs were faked, but two did claim that they _could_
produce the same class of negative by studio work involving painted
models, etc., and it was suggested further that the little girl in
the first picture was standing behind a table heaped up with fern and
moss, that the toad-stool was unnatural, that in the gnome photo the
girl's hand was not her own, that uniform shading was questionable,
and so on. All of this had its weight, and though I went North with as
little bias one way or the other as possible, I felt quite prepared
to find that a personal investigation would disclose some evidence of
falsity.
[Illustration: ELSIE IN 1920. STANDING NEAR WHERE THE GNOME WAS TAKEN
IN 1917]
[Illustration: FRANCES IN 1920]
[Illustration: A. FRANCES AND THE FAIRIES
Photograph taken by Elsie. Bright sunny day in July, 1917. The "Midg"
camera. Distance, 4 ft. Time, 1/50th sec. The original negative is
asserted by expert photographers to bear not the slightest trace of
combination work, retouching, or anything whatever to mark it as
other than a perfectly straight single-exposure photograph, taken in
the open air under natural conditions. The negative is sufficiently,
indeed somewhat over-exposed. The waterfall and rocks are about 20
ft. behind Frances, who is standing against the bank of the beck. A
fifth fairy may be seen between and behind the two on the right. The
colouring of the fairies is described by the girls as being of very
pale pink, green, lavender, and mauve, most marked in the wings and
fading to almost pure white in the limbs and drapery. Each fairy has
its own special colour.]
The lengthy journey completed, I reached a quaint, old-world
village in Yorkshire, found the house, and was cordially received.
Mrs. C. and her daughter I. (the girl as shown playing with the gnome)
were both at home to meet me, and Mr. C., the father, came in shortly
afterwards.
Several of the objections raised by the professionals were disposed
of almost at once, as, a half-hour after reaching the house, I was
exploring a charming little valley, directly at the rear, with
a stream of water running through, where the children had been
accustomed to see and play with the fairies. I found the bank behind
which the child, with her shoes and stockings off, is shown as
standing; toad-stools exactly as in the photograph were about in
plenty, quite as big and hearty-looking. And the girl's hand? Well,
she laughingly made me promise not to say much about it, it is so very
long! I stood on the spots shown and easily identified every feature.
Then, in course of eliciting all that one could learn about the
affair, I gathered the following, which, for the sake of conciseness,
I set out below:
Camera used: "The Midg" quarter-plate. Plates: Imperial Rapid.
Fairies photo: July 1917. Day brilliantly hot and sunny. About 3 p.m.
Distance: 4 feet. Time: 1-50th second.
Gnome photo: September 1917. Day bright, but not as above. About 4
o'clock. Distance: 8 feet. Time: 1-50th second.
* * * * *
I. was sixteen years old; her cousin A. was ten years. Other
photographs were attempted but proved partial failures, and plates
were not kept.
_Colouring_: The palest of green, pink, mauve. Much more in the
wings than in the bodies, which are very pale to white. The gnome is
described as seeming to be in black tights, reddish-brown jersey, and
red pointed cap. He was swinging his pipes, holding them in his left
hand and was just stepping up on to I.'s knee when A. snapped him.
A., the visiting cousin, went away soon after, and I. says they must
be together to "take photographs." Fortunately they will meet in a few
weeks' time, and they promise me to try to get some more. I. added
she would very much like to send me one of a fairy flying.
Mr. C.'s testimony was clear and decisive. His daughter had pleaded to
be allowed to use the camera. At first he demurred, but ultimately,
after dinner one Saturday, he put just one plate in the Midg and gave
it to the girls. They returned in less than an hour and begged him to
develop the plate as I. had "taken a photograph." He did so, with, to
him, the bewildering result shown in the print of the fairies!
Mrs. C. says she remembers quite well that the girls were only away
from the house a short time before they brought the camera back.
Extraordinary and amazing as these photographs may appear, I am
now quite convinced of their entire genuineness, as indeed would
everyone else be who had the same evidence of transparent honesty and
simplicity that I had. I am adding nothing by way of explanations
or theories of my own, though the need for two people, preferably
children, is fairly obvious for photography, in order to assist in
the strengthening of the etheric bodies. Beyond this I prefer to leave
the above statement as a plain, unvarnished narrative of my connection
with the incidents.
I need only add that no attempt appears ever to have been made by the
family to make these photographs public, and whatever has been done in
that direction locally has not been pressed by any of them, nor has
there been any money payment in connection with them.
EDWARD L. GARDNER.
I may add as a footnote to Mr. Gardner's report that the girl informed
him in conversation that she had no power of any sort over the actions
of the fairies, and that the way to "'tice them," as she called it,
was to sit passively with her mind quietly turned in that direction;
then, when faint stirrings or movements in the distance heralded their
presence, to beckon towards them and show that they were welcome. It
was Iris who pointed out the pipes of the gnome, which we had both
taken as being the markings of the moth-like under-wing. She added
that if there was not too much rustling in the wood it was possible
to hear the very faint and high sound of the pipes. To the objections
of photographers that the fairy figures show quite different shadows
to those of the human our answer is that ectoplasm, as the etheric
protoplasm has been named, has a faint luminosity of its own, which
would largely modify shadows.
To the very clear and, as I think, entirely convincing report of Mr.
Gardner's, let me add the exact words which Mr. Snelling, the expert
photographer, allows us to use. Mr. Snelling has shown great strength
of mind, and rendered signal service to psychic study, by taking a
strong line, and putting his professional reputation as an expert upon
the scales. He has had a varied connection of over thirty years with
the Autotype Company and Illingworth's large photographic factory, and
has himself turned out some beautiful work of every kind of natural
and artificial studio studies. He laughs at the idea that any expert
in England could deceive him with a faked photograph. "These two
negatives," he says, "are entirely genuine, unfaked photographs of
single exposure, open-air work, show movement in the fairy figures,
and there is no trace whatever of studio work involving card or paper
models, dark backgrounds, painted figures, etc. In my opinion, they are
both straight untouched pictures."
A second independent opinion is equally clear as to the genuine
character of the photographs, founded upon a large experience of
practical photography.
There is our case, fortified by pictures of the places which the
unhappy critic has declared to be theatrical properties. How well we
know that type of critic in all our psychic work, though it is not
always possible to at once show his absurdity to other people.
I will now make a few comments upon the two pictures, which I have
studied long and earnestly with a high-power lens.
One fact of interest is this presence of a double pipe--the very sort
which the ancients associated with fauns and naiads--in each picture.
But if pipes, why not everything else? Does it not suggest a complete
range of utensils and instruments for their own life? Their clothing
is substantial enough. It seems to me that with fuller knowledge and
with fresh means of vision these people are destined to become just as
solid and real as the Eskimos. There is an ornamental rim to the pipe
of the elves which shows that the graces of art are not unknown among
them. And what joy is in the complete abandon of their little graceful
figures as they let themselves go in the dance! They may have their
shadows and trials as we have, but at least there is a great gladness
manifest in this demonstration of their life.
A second general observation is that the elves are a compound of the
human and the butterfly, while the gnome has more of the moth. This may
be merely the result of under-exposure of the negative and dullness
of the weather. Perhaps the little gnome is really of the same tribe,
but represents an elderly male, while the elves are romping young
women. Most observers of fairy life have reported, however, that there
are separate species, varying very much in size, appearance, and
locality--the wood fairy, the water fairy, the fairy of the plains, etc.
Can these be thought-forms? The fact that they are so like our
conventional idea of fairies is in favour of the idea. But if they move
rapidly, have musical instruments, and so forth, then it is impossible
to talk of "thought-forms," a term which suggests something vague and
intangible. In a sense we are all thought-forms, since we can only
be perceived through the senses, but these little figures would seem
to have an objective reality, as we have ourselves, even if their
vibrations should prove to be such that it takes either psychic power
or a sensitive plate to record them. If they are conventional it may
be that fairies have really been seen in every generation, and so some
correct description of them has been retained.
There is one point of Mr. Gardner's investigation which should be
mentioned. It had come to our knowledge that Iris could draw, and had
actually at one time done some designs for a jeweller. This naturally
demanded caution, though the girl's own frank nature is, I understand,
a sufficient guarantee for those who know her. Mr. Gardner, however,
tested her powers of drawing, and found that, while she could do
landscapes cleverly, the fairy figures which she had attempted in
imitation of those she had seen were entirely uninspired, and bore no
possible resemblance to those in the photograph. Another point which
may be commended to the careful critic with a strong lens is that the
apparent pencilled face at the side of the figure on the right is
really only the edge of her hair, and not, as might appear, a drawn
profile.
I must confess that after months of thought I am unable to get the
true bearings of this event. One or two consequences are obvious. The
experiences of children will be taken more seriously. Cameras will be
forthcoming. Other well-authenticated cases will come along. These
little folk who appear to be our neighbours, with only some small
difference of vibration to separate us, will become familiar. The
thought of them, even when unseen, will add a charm to every brook
and valley and give romantic interest to every country walk. The
recognition of their existence will jolt the material twentieth-century
mind out of its heavy ruts in the mud, and will make it admit that
there is a glamour and a mystery to life. Having discovered this, the
world will not find it so difficult to accept that spiritual message
supported by physical facts which has already been so convincingly put
before it. All this I see, but there may be much more. When Columbus
knelt in prayer upon the edge of America, what prophetic eye saw all
that a new continent might do to affect the destinies of the world?
We also seem to be on the edge of a new continent, separated not by
oceans but by subtle and surmountable psychic conditions. I look at the
prospect with awe. May those little creatures suffer from the contact
and some Las Casas bewail their ruin! If so, it would be an evil day
when the world defined their existence. But there is a guiding hand in
the affairs of man, and we can but trust and follow.