"(244) In the year 1870, I went one morning from my then home, in Clifton, to order various eatables for the day. On my way, I saw coming towards me, on the same side of the street, J. E. H., a male cousin. To avoid meeting him, I went across to the other side, and walked into a fishmonger's shop, and watched him pass on. I remained in the same place, looking into the street, and I saw him (or it) pass back again. I felt so annoyed at the idea of J. E. H. being in Clifton that I hurried home to tell my wife that I had seen J. E. H., and that he was evidently making inquiries as to our residence, and would certainly be here directly. I stayed at home all that morning, but J. E. H. never appeared.

"The next day, or day after, I received a letter from a son of J. E. H., telling me his father had died the very day I had seen the apparition.

"H. M. Arthur Owen".

In answer to inquiries, Mr. Owen says: -

"I have ascertained from the widow of J. E. H. that he died Tuesday, November 2nd, 1869, not as I wrote to you, 1870, between 2 and 3 p.m. I saw, as I believe to this moment, J. E. H., certainly before noon on that day. My wife can testify to the fact of my having seen J. E. H. before I heard of his death, as I went back to my house to tell her J. E. H. was in Clifton, and she must expect to see him any moment".

Mrs. Owen corroborates as follows: -

"I perfectly recognise the circumstance detailed to you by my husband of his having, as he thought, seen J. E. H. walking in the streets of Clifton; indeed, he came home on purpose to prepare me for his coming to our house, and the whole day we were expecting he would appear.

"M. Owen".

[Major Owen has had no other hallucination, and his sight is excellent. In conversation, Mrs. Owen described J. E. H.'s figure to Mr. Podmore as unmistakable; very tall and thin, with small black eyes and a very small head].

1 See among cases [in the present edition] 146, 194; also Mr. Cooper's " ambiguous "case, p. 327. In case 197 there had been a promise on the side of the person who died.

[Four other somewhat similar cases of persons seen in the street - Nos. 245, 246, 247, 248 - are here omitted.] The next case is from Mr. T. H. Carr, of 1, The Terrace, Carlton Hill, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds.

"February 18th, 1886. (249) "I cannot make you fully understand the case unless you are acquainted with the Friends' Meeting House premises. In passing through the front gate, the Meeting House is on the left, and my house, the first of 5 terrace houses, up a few steps on the right hand; but they stand back a few feet at the end of a high wall. And on account of the height of this wall we could only just see the top part of the head and hat of any gentleman coming.

"It was when I was standing at my front window on Christmas Day, 1884, that I saw the head of a gentleman walking up the yard which I thought was Daniel Pickard coming up, but on getting nearer I saw that the hair was whiter than Daniel's; and on looking again, I thought it was the head and hat of Mr. X. But to see him right, I thought he would think me rude to be standing close to the window and watching him turn the corner, so I walked backwards a couple of paces, expecting to see him pass close to the terrace. But, to my surprise, he vanished in a moment, and I saw no more. I was struck with the affair, and took out my watch, and it was just 4 o'clock.

"A couple of hours after, B. Geddard, the caretaker, came down the yard, and said, ' Hast thou heard that Mr. X. is dead?' I said, 'No; when has he died?' He replied, ' To-day at 4 o'clock'.

"Thomas H. Carr".

We find from a newspaper obituary that Mr. X. died on December 25th, 1884, after an illness of less than a week.

In answer to inquiries, Mr. Carr adds that for distant objects his eyesight is excellent; that he has never on any other occasion experienced any sort of hallucination of the senses; and that, though he knew Mr. X. to be ill, he had no idea that the illness was serious.

The following corroboration is supplied by Mr. and Mrs. Coates, of 156, Waperton Road, Bradford, who were with Mr. Carr at the time: -

"June 23rd, 1886.

"We shall only be able to confirm the statement of Mr. T. Carr. So far as we can remember, while we were sitting in the room, T. C. came from his chair to the window, and, while looking out of the window, he made the remark, ' Ah, there is [X.] coming to see us,' and stepped back from the window, waiting to hear a knock at the door, which, however, did not come. T. C. remarked that he must have gone up the yard, and looked at the clock to see what time it was. We afterwards heard that at the time we thought [X.] was in the yard, he was just about dying.

"Charles Coates. "Annie Coates".

In conversation, Mr. Coates gave the time as about 4 p.m., and spoke of Mr. Carr's consulting his watch.

It was impossible to judge of this case without an actual observation on the spot. Mr. Carr's house stands in an enclosure which is divided from the street by open railings; and nobody would be walking along the line which the figure appeared to be taking, unless he were coming to the small row of houses of which Mr. Carr's is the first - in which case his whole figure would be visible in a very few seconds after the upper part of it came into view. To disappear as it did, the figure would have had to retire by the way that it came, but closer to the wall. Mr. Carr was perfectly familiar with the aspect of Mr. X., who used frequently to come to see him, and whose head and tall hat were quite sufficient to distinguish him from other people known to enter this private enclosure. The broad brim of the hat was peculiar; and Mr. X. also walked with a peculiar droop of the head. Moreover, the fact that at the first moment Mr. Carr took the person he saw for some one else, and then corrected his judgment, shows at any rate that his recognition of Mr. X. was not that of a mere hasty glance. He was extremely startled by the sudden disappearance of his friend, and at once hurried out to see what could have become of him, but no one the least resembling him was in view.

The incident perplexed and disturbed him at the moment far more than the words "I was struck with the affair" might seem to imply.

[The next case - 250 - is omitted].