An account

March 5th, 1885. (239) Some 18 or 19 years ago, I remember calling on a working ^^ jjf maltster, whose employer was living at Lincoln. His employer was ill at / ^j/> / the time, and I asked the man if he had heard from him lately. 'No,' he ' %^* said, ' but I am afraid he is dead.' And on my inquiring why he thought -^■x^'^'-'^- so, he replied that on going out that morning early, he had seen his employer standing on the top of the steps that lead up to the kiln door, as ; c/U ^;; #v plainly as he ever had seen him in his life. HA-w^/il!;:^ It was as he expected : the first news that came reported his .^,y^,t„^^^^— employer's death. ' I have no doubt the man I speak of either saw this appearance, or ' ''*' 'J' \ believed he saw it. i^j» .'• In answer to inquiries, this informant says : — x l v . t March 12th, 1885. ^ Since receiving your letter, I have had the curiosity to look over my old diaries, thinking I might have made a note of the occurrence, and under the date of Thursday, the 22nd of October, 1863, I find the Dead, following : — ' Report of Mr. W.'s death. M. saw his wraith on A Tuesday morning about 5 o'clock.' This difiers somewhat from what I told you in my last letter, for I said that the man had seen the appearance that same morning in which I spoke with him. Here it seems it was two days before. But still he had 58 FURTHER VISUAL CASES [chap. told me before it was known for a certainty that Mr. W. was dead. For you observe the word ' dead ' put in over the y^. This I know from my own habit was put in afterwards. There is no communication between this place and Lincoln, except on the market day, Friday. At that time of year, moreover, the carriers who go to Lincoln would not get back before night, and consequently I should most probably not have learned the certainty of the report until some time on Saturday. Then, instead of making a new note of it, I simply put in the word ' dead ' to show that the report was true when I first heard it. Moreover, I used the Scotch word ' wraith ' instead of ' ghost ' or ' spirit,' as I had an idea that the former word was applied to appearances before death. I observe that the man said ' about 5 o'clock.' Of course, this would be a vague expression for any time up to 5.30, or thereabouts, when the morning would not be very clear perhaps, but sufficiently so to enable one to see an object some 10 or 12 yards oflf,and I am not sure it was quite so much. I cannot say that Mr. W. was dead at the time M. saw the appearance, but he was cert