An account

As to the case of William Jackson, his daughter did endorse it to me as noted in the quotation marks, but I destroyed her letter, never dreaming of a Society for Psychical Research, and I do not know now where to find her. The family evidently knew that the grandson had died, but kept that knowledge from the dying man. The information I received from the wife of Mr. Town Councillor Myers, of Hull. Miss Jackson is since deceased. We learn that Mr. Jackson died on Jan. 12, 1876. [The central incident in a case of this type seems reasonably explicable by thought-transference from one of the bystanders (cf. case 379) — though many would of course be unwilling to regard the vision of the other relatives ■ as purely subjective. I have referred more than once to the difiiculty of making quite sure that a piece of important news, which is abroad in a household, has not reached ears for which it was not intended.] VOL. II. 2 L 2 516 SUPPLEMENT. [chap. (559 and 560) From Mr. Hickman Heather, Postmaster of Retford. The evidence in the first case is second-hand, but in the second is on a par with first-hand (Vol. L, p. 148). ,, February 18th, 1885. In my early boyhood I have frequently heard the following story from both my parents. I may preface the story by saying that, in 1835, my father, Thomas Heather, was a miller, occupying a windmill in Westthorpe Fields, in the parish of Southwell, his house being at Westthorpe, about one mile distant from the mill. My grandfather, John Heather, occupied a farm under the late Sir Richard Sutton, at Goverton, in the parish of Bleasby, about 3 miles distant. My father, who had been working his mill until past midnight, locked up his mill and went home. On his way the apparition of his mother crossed his path, and was so clearly seen that he marked the dress, one which had been commonly worn, and on his arrival at home he at once reported the circumstance to [his wife] my mother, saying that ' he had never seen his mother more plainly in his life.' Early next morning, a man rode in with the sad news that my grandmother had been found dead in her bed. A second case occurred under my own notice, although the apparition was not seen by me. In the year 1854, my father, who then lived at Goverton, Bleasby, was building a house and a yard for pigs. The building and the yard were on a slope. My father was standing at the lower end with his arms resting upon the wall ; the entrance to the house from the yard was directly opposite, and was open, the door not having been hung. I was in the farmyard at some little distance, but having a clear full view of my father and the building, when I was startled by my father exclaiming, ' Jack, just see what your Uncle Ned is doing in the pigsty.' I at once went, although I knew it to be impossible that my Uncle Ned could be there, he being seriously ill at the time. Having searched the place, my father told me that he had distinctly seen my uncle cross the doorway, and would scarcely believe that he was not to be found inside. In about a couple of hours, a messenger brought the tidings that my uncle had died. I beg to add that in the case of my grandmother there was no previous illness, she having gone to bed in apparently perfect health.