No person could have actually been in the position where she appeared, as the window in question is about 30 feet above the ground.

The nearest buildings to the window referred to are the Infantry Barracks opposite, about 300 yards distant. Behind where I sat is a conservatory, which was examined by me, as well as the front window, immediately after the occurrence. There was no person in the conservatory. [It was unused in the winter.] The nearest buildings to it are the officers' stables, over which are the staff-sergeants' quarters, about 50 yards distant.

The occurrence made little if any impression upon me, though it impressed others who were in the room. All present had been drinking very little wine; and the dinner had been very quiet.

It has just occurred to me that I may be wrong as to the time of the year, and that the occurrence may have taken place about 15th October or about 15th March. Cecil Norton.

Mr. Atkinson wrote:-

Erchfont Manor, Devizes, August 31st, 1885. The appearance of a woman which I saw pass the mess-room window at Aldershot seemed to be outside, and it passed from east to west. The mess-room is on the first floor, so the woman would have been walking in the air. There has been a very nice story made out of it - like most other ghost-stories, founded on an optical illusion.

Mr. Gurney added:-

Captain Norton's viva voce account made it tolerably clear, in my opinion, that the case was one of hallucination, not illusion. He further mentions that both Mr. Atkinson and he were "satisfied that the face and form of the woman seen were familiar," though they could not at the moment identify the person. Captain Norton afterwards felt sure that the likeness was to a photograph which he was in the habit of seeing in the room of the veterinary surgeon of the regiment, representing the surgeon's deceased wife in bridal dress. Oddly enough, this man was at the time, unknown to his friends, actually dying, or within a day or two of death, in the same building. But Mr. Atkinson recalls nothing about the photograph; and the coincidence is not one to which we can attach weight.

Since the publication of the account in Phantasms we obtained from two of the officers who were present at the time their recollections of the incident. The letters relating to this were printed in the Journal S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 76, from which I proceed to quote. Lieutenant Beaumont, in answer to a written request for his recollection of the alleged apparition in the 5th Lancers' mess-room at Aldershot, writes; -

Hillside, Burgess Hill, Sussex, March 10th, 1897.

I well remember the incident you refer to, and shall be pleased to tell you the circumstances as I recollect them.

It must have been in 1876, and in October, I fancy. It so happened that on the night in question there were very few officers present at the mess dinner - so far as I can recollect only Norton, E. the veterinary surgeon, Dr. Atkinson and myself, who, being orderly officer, sat at the end of the table. It was, I think, towards the close of the dinner, the servants having retired and we were smoking and chatting, when I was much struck with the expression on the faces of my brother officers, who appeared to be gazing in amazement at something behind me. At first I thought it was some joke, but they each of them seriously described what they had seen, viz., a figure of a woman in white, who passed silently through the room, coming, as it were, from the ante-room and going behind me through the door opposite. It was impossible to doubt, from their faces at the time, that there was something extraordinary happening. I afterwards asked them seriously about it, and Surgeon-Major Atkinson, who was a long way the senior, and a hard-headed man, assured me that he had certainly seen the apparition, and he seemed much impressed. The others were equally confident, and assured me there was no chaff about it.

It was frequently alluded to afterwards in a joking way, but I believe that all those present thought it "uncanny".

I must tell you that none of us had imbibed more than a glass or two of claret, and it was a most exceptionally quiet evening at mess.

I think E. died not long after. . . . Montmorency Beaumont.

This letter having been shown to Captain Norton, he wrote that Lieutenant Beaumont was mistaken in supposing that Mr. E. was present on the occasion. He also sent us a sketch (reproduced in the Journal) of the position of the officers, which agrees with his own earlier account, but not with the present recollections of Lieutenant Beaumont. The discrepancy, however, is of comparatively slight importance.

The second officer whose testimony has been obtained, Lieutenant-Colonel Williams, writes:-

Rockfields, Hereford, March 8th, 1897.

I am afraid I can give you very little information on the subject; it is so many years since the affair took place that I have nearly forgotten all about it All that I remember is that one night when we were a very small party at mess, some time during the dinner, I think just before beginning dessert, I noticed Dr. Atkinson looking in rather a peculiar way at the window at the top of the room, and I think my brother-in-law [Captain Norton] said to him or he said to Captain Norton, "Did you see it?" There was some little joking about it at the time, and on asking my brother-in-law after dinner what he really had seen, he told me that he had seen a lady in a white dress and dark hair cross the window on the outside. Hugh P. Williams.

Mrs. Atkinson, the widow of Surgeon-Major Atkinson, in answer to a letter asking if her late husband had ever spoken to her on the subject of the apparition at the mess-table of the 5th Lancers at Aldershot, writes:-

Erchfont Manor, Devizes, March 11th [1897].

It is quite true that my husband saw the appearance at Aldershot in 1877; he often told me about it. They were in the North Cavalry Barracks [Captain Norton states that there were no North Cavalry Barracks at Aldershot, but that it was in the West Cavalry Barracks] at Aldershot, and were at mess in the mess-room, which is on the first floor, a great distance from the ground. There is no balcony outside or even a ledge (I believe). My husband and Captain Norton were the only two sitting facing the window, when they saw the figure of a woman go slowly by. They were much astonished and told the others, and there was much excitement about it. Shortly after the veterinary surgeon died, and on going through his papers either my husband or Captain Norton found the photograph of the woman they had seen from the mess-room window. I think they both recognised it. It was not known that the veterinary surgeon was married. The appearance was never in any way explained.

M. A. Atkinson.

A tablet in All Saints' Church, Aldershot, gives the date of death of Mr. E., veterinary surgeon, 5th Lancers, as January 3rd, 1876. This shows that the date when the apparition was seen was probably about Christmas time, 1875, as both Lieutenant Beaumont and Mrs. Atkinson confirm Captain Norton's impression that the incident occurred shortly before Mr. E. died.