868 B. From the Journal S.P.R., vol. ix. pp. 280-84.

The following case was sent to us by Dr. H. D. R. Kingston, of Macra, Eltham, Kent, an Associate of the S.P.R. Of the narrator, Mr. F. Hodgson, he says:-

Mr. F. Hodgson was then (1889) a photographer at Wynberg. He had at one time been employed as photographer to the Challenger expedition during part of the voyage, and he had also gone in the same capacity with Mr. Palgrave on a Commission to Great Namaqualand and to Damaraland.

I have copies of many of the photographs he then took, the negatives of which are the property of the Colonial Government. I found him a careful and competent man in developing some scientific photographs of my own, and also particularly intelligent, and I should say perfectly trustworthy as a witness. You will see that he has made up the case with some care . . .

Henry D. R. Kingston, M.D.

The narrative was enclosed in a letter to Dr. Kingston, dated Wynberg, July 1890, and is as follows:-

Statement re curious manifestations in house of Mrs. Kamp, beginning on night of June 14th, and still continuing, though greatly diminished in power.

On Saturday night, June 14th, 1890, Alida Sophia Kamp, widow, residing in Wolfe Street, Wynberg, her daughter, Sophia Alida Kamp, and Catherine Mahoney, who resides in the same house, retired to rest at a little before I I p.m., and, from the time of retiring to rest until that of rising, were unable to sleep on account of strange and unearthly noises, for which they could find no explanation, although they instituted a rigorous search for the cause. The noises, as they described them to me next morning, resembled the dragging about of chairs in their bedrooms and the dragging about of heavy boxes over an uneven floor in the loft over their heads. This loft, which I know, having been in it, contains absolutely nothing which could account for the noises, even had there been any one upstairs to drag anything it contained about; but owing to the way in which this loft is fastened up, it would have been quite impossible for any one to enter it. I could not on the Sunday morning, from their description of what they had heard, find any rational solution of the mystery, and, at their request, consented to occupy one of the bedrooms that night (Sunday, 15th).

Before retiring, however, I suggested that we should hold a seance in the room in which I was about to sleep. This was agreed to, and we formed a circle consisting of Christian Kamp (son of Alida Sophia Kamp), Alida Sophia Kamp, Catherine Mahoney, and myself, and Janet Kamp, wife of Christian Kamp (seating ourselves around a small table). The table very shortly showed an inclination to move about, and in fact did sway about considerably, but this was all we could obtain, so we dropped the sitting.

We, however, decided after deliberation to hold a seance in the adjoining bedroom, but this time Catherine Mahoney declined to sit, so that we had only [four] out of the former [five] sitters. The results were, however, better, as we soon had distinct raps and at once asked the communicating influence to rap three times if it could communicate its name to us if we established an easy code. The three raps came at once, and I (who acted as conductor) then asked it to give one rap at each letter forming its name on my going audibly through the alphabet. The result was L E W I S, which caused Mrs. A. S. Kamp to think it was her departed husband, whose name had been Louis. This hypothesis, however, I was not inclined to accept, as I thought her husband, if present, would not have wrongly spelt his name. We, however, could not get the influence to change his orthography, so we had to proceed to ask if it would spell out any message by the same code, to which three raps responded, and we again proceeded. The result was T O W A R N, at which stage of the proceedings Mrs. Kamp showed signs of great uneasiness, thinking the message was a warning of her coining death, and being still persuaded that her late husband was communicating.

As I did not know positively to the contrary, and was afraid some unpleasant communication was about to be given, we dropped the seance, I intending to resume it at some future time with sitters not related to the family.

Shortly after we all retired to our beds, and I kept a candle burning in my room until past midnight, as I had an interesting novel to read. I then blew it out and was asleep in a few minutes. Shortly after 2 a.m. (Monday) I was awakened by the sound of a chair being dragged over the floor of the room in which I slept, followed almost immediately by a sound as of some very heavy body being dragged about in a room overhead (a very loud noise which would have awakened anybody). Miss Kamp then called out from the adjoining room, which was only divided from mine by a wooden partition, "Do you hear the noise? What can it be?" Just after she had spoken I heard a sound like a half full box of matches falling on the floor. I decided it was about time to get up and investigate, so sprung out of bed and felt for the matchbox in the candlestick and [found] it was not there. I had carefully placed it there on going to bed and was at a loss to account for its disappearance. I had some others, however, in the pocket of my waistcoat, and knowing where I had hung this garment I went to it, and taking the matches out of the pocket, struck a light and lighted the candle. I then found the other box of matches lying on the floor about two feet from the candlestick.

It seemed to me also that a chair in the room occupied a somewhat different position to what it had done when I fell asleep, but of this I could not be sure; but, to be sure whether it moved again, I placed some empty scent bottles, which I found on a shelf, one against each leg of the chair. I then went to sleep again, and on again waking found the chair had been moved quite four inches to the N.W., as all the legs were away from the bottles I had placed against them. Of course, as regards the falling of the matchbox and the actual change of position of the chair, I can only give you my unsupported testimony, but those who slept in the next room will be able to testify to having heard the apparent moving of the chair in my room before they heard me jump up to investigate. This occurred on Sunday night, June 15th.