THE MEDIUMSHIP OF MRS. GUPPY VOLCKMAN.
The mediumship of this lady is so well known, and has been so
universally attested, that nothing I can write of could possibly add to
her fame; and as I made her acquaintance but a short time before she
relinquished sitting for manifestations, I have had but little
experience of her powers, but such as I enjoyed were very remarkable. I
have alluded to them in the story of "The Green Lady," whose apparition
was due solely to Mrs. Guppy Volckman's presence, and on that occasion
she gave us another wonderful proof of her mediumship. A sheet was
procured and held up at either end by Mr. Charles Williams and herself.
It was held in the light, in the centre of the room, forming a white
wall of about five feet high, _i.e._, as high as their arms could
conveniently reach. _Both_ the hands of Mrs. Volckman and Mr. Williams
were placed _outside_ the sheet, so that no trickery might be suspected
through their being concealed. In a short time the head of a woman
appeared above the sheet, followed by that of a man, and various pairs
of hands, both large and small, which bobbed up and down, and seized the
hands of the spectators, whilst the faces went close to the media, as if
with the intention of kissing them. This frightened Mrs. Volckman, so
that she frequently screamed and dropped her end of the sheet, which,
had there been any deception, must inevitably have exposed it. It seemed
to make no difference to the spirits, however, who reappeared directly
they had the opportunity, and made her at last so nervous that she threw
the sheet down and refused to hold it any more. The faces were
life-size, and could move their eyes and lips; the hands were some as
large as a man's, and covered with hair, and others like those of a
woman or child. They had all the capability of working the fingers and
grasping objects presented to them; whilst the four hands belonging to
the media were kept in sight of the audience, and could not have worked
machinery even if they could have concealed it.
The first time I was introduced to Mrs. Volckman (then Mrs. Guppy) was
at a _seance_ at her own house in Victoria Road, where she had assembled
a large party of guests, including several names well known in art and
literature. We sat in a well-lighted drawing-room, and the party was so
large that the circle round the table was three deep. Mrs. Mary Hardy,
the American medium (since dead), was present, and the honors of the
manifestations may be therefore, I conclude, divided between the two
ladies. The table, a common deal one, made for such occasions, with a
round hole of about twenty inches in diameter in the middle of it, was
covered with a cloth that hung down, and was nailed to the ground,
leaving only the aperture free. (I must premise that this cloth had been
nailed down by a committee of the gentlemen visitors, in order that
there might be no suspicion of a confederate hidden underneath it.) We
then sat round the table, but without placing our hands on it. In a
short time hands began to appear through the open space in the table,
all sorts of hands, from the woman's taper fingers and the baby's
dimpled fist, to the hands of old and young men, wrinkled or muscular.
Some of the hands had rings on the fingers, by which the sitters
recognized them, some stretched themselves out to be grasped; and some
appeared in pairs, clasped together or separate. One hand took a glove
from a sitter and put it on the other, showing the muscular force it
possessed by the way in which it pressed down each finger and then
buttoned the glove. Another pair of hands talked through the dumb
alphabet to us, and a third played on a musical instrument. I was
leaning forward, before I had witnessed the above, peering inquisitively
down the hole, and saying, "I wonder if they would have strength to take
anything down with them," when a large hand suddenly appeared and very
nearly took _me_ down, by seizing my nose as if it never meant to let go
again. At all events, it took me a peg or two down, for I remember it
brought the tears into my eyes with the force it exhibited. After the
hands had ceased to appear, the table was moved away, and we sat in a
circle in the light. Mrs. Guppy did not wish to take a part in the
_seance_, except as a spectator, so she retired to the back
drawing-room with the Baroness Adelma Vay and other visitors, and left
Mrs. Hardy with the circle in the front. Suddenly, however, she was
levitated and carried in the sight of us all into the midst of our
circle. As she felt herself rising in the air, she called out, "Don't
let go hands for Heaven's sake." We were standing in a ring, and I had
hold of the hand of Prince Albert of Solms. As Mrs. Guppy came sailing
over our heads, her feet caught his neck and mine, and in our anxiety to
do as she had told us, we gripped tight hold of each other, and were
thrown forward on our knees by the force with which she was carried past
us into the centre. This was a pretty strong proof to us, whatever it
may be to others, that our senses did not deceive us when we thought we
saw Mrs. Guppy over our heads in the air. The influence that levitated
her, moreover, placed her on a chair with such a bump that it broke the
two front legs off. As soon as Mrs. Guppy had rejoined us, the order was
given to put out the light and to wish for something. We unanimously
asked for flowers, it being the middle of December, and a hard frost.
Simultaneously we smelt the smell of fresh earth, and were told to light
the gas again, when the following extraordinary sight met our view. In
the middle of the sitters, still holding hands, was piled up _on the
carpet_ an immense quantity of mould, which had been torn up apparently
with the roots that accompanied it. There were laurestinus, and laurels,
and holly, and several others, just as they had been pulled out of the
earth and thrown down in the midst of us. Mrs. Guppy looked anything but
pleased at the state of her carpet, and begged the spirits would bring
something cleaner next time. They then told us to extinguish the lights
again, and each sitter was to wish _mentally_ for something for himself.
I wished for a yellow butterfly, knowing it was December, and as I
thought of it, a little cardboard box was put into my hand. Prince
Albert whispered to me, "Have you got anything?" "Yes," I said; "but not
what I asked for. I expect they have given me a piece of jewellery."
When the gas was re-lit, I opened the box, and there lay _two yellow
butterflies_; dead, of course, but none the less extraordinary for that.
I wore at that _seance_ a tight-fitting, high white muslin dress, over a
tight petticoat body. The dress had no pocket, and I carried my
handkerchief, a fine cambric one, in my hand. When the _seance_ was
over, I found this handkerchief had disappeared, at which I was vexed,
as it had been embroidered for me by my sister Emily, then dead. I
inquired of every sitter if they had seen it, even making them turn out
their pockets in case they had taken it in mistake for their own, but it
was not to be found, and I returned home, as I thought, without it. What
was my surprise on removing my dress and petticoat bodice to find the
handkerchief, neatly folded into a square of about four inches,
_between_ my stays and the garment beneath them; placed, moreover, over
the smallest part of my waist, where no fingers could have penetrated
even had my dress been loose. My woman readers may be able better than
the men to appreciate the difficulty of such a manoeuvre by mortal
means; indeed it would have been quite impossible for myself or anybody
else to place the handkerchief in such a position without removing the
stays. And it was folded so neatly also, and placed so smoothly, that
there was not a crumple in the cambric.