(241) "Last Easter Sunday, I was retiring to bed, just after 11 o'clock, and had stepped off the stairs on the landing that led to my room (my parents' bedroom door being in front of me, about 10 or 12 ft., and my door being about 2 ft. to the right, so that I had to pass it to get to my room). I saw their bedroom door was open, and I was riveted to the spot by seeing standing in the room doorway in front of me, a figure of a female; although I could not distinguish the dress, I could plainly see the features, and especially the eyes. I must have stood there at least 20 seconds, for my mother, hearing me stop suddenly before reaching my room, at last opened the door (below) and asked what was the matter. I then came downstairs and stopped with them till we all retired together. The figure collapsed when my mother called upstairs, and the light I held in my hand shone through the doorway to the opposite wall, which had been obscured by the figure, as if it had had a tangible body.

"It was not till the following Wednesday that my mother, on reading the mid-weekly local paper, saw the death of a young lady with whom I had once kept company for a short time. On inquiry, I found she died about the same time as I saw the apparition. I feel convinced it was her, for the eyes had the same expression, although I could not recognise her at the time; not having seen the girl for quite six months, I had almost forgotten her existence. She died in decline, which accounts for her not being about the town before her death. "ST Masters".

We find from the Register of Deaths that the death took place on March 5, 1882. This was a Sunday, but not Easter Sunday. The mention of the Wednesday paper seems also to be a mistake; as the death does not appear in the Wednesday issue of either of the two bi-weekly Southampton papers, though it appears in the Saturday issue of one of them, on March 11th. These mistakes are not important. For even apart from Mr. Masters' observation of the coincidence at the time, Easter Sunday seems a very unlikely day to have been named, if the experience had really fallen on a week-day; and if it fell on a Sunday, there is no reason to doubt that it fell on the Sunday before the announcement of the death - i.e., on the day of the death.

1 As to the first point, see p. 393, note; as to the second, etc p. 278.

The narrator's mother corroborates as follows: -

"1 remember, perfectly well, the circumstance, and the effect it produced on my son at the time. He is not of a nervous disposition, nor a believer in anything at all approaching Spiritualism, as we all belong to the Church. His father and I thought it might betoken the death of some near friend or relative, having heard of such things, but never had seen so direct an appearance ourselves.

"Elizabeth Masters".

[Mr. Masters has reason to think that the young lady's attachment to him had continued. He reports that on more exact inquiry, he finds the death to have occurred within a quarter of an hour of the apparition - probably after rather than before it. Asked if he had ever experienced any other hallucinations, he replied in the negative].

The next case is one of the most singular in our collection. It is from Mrs. Clerke, of Clifton Lodge,Farquhar Road, Upper Norwood, S.E.

" October 30th, 1885.