An account

My father. Lieutenant W. C. B., was in command of a gunbrig stationed to keep off slavers on the West Coast of Africa, in 1834. In the October of that year, he was alone in his cabin when he noted distinctly, as he thought, my mother appear to him. He noted down the circumstance in his logbook,^ giving time and date ; but the effect on his mind was so great that on his return to England at the close of the year from ill-health, he called for a file of the Times directly he landed in Portsmouth, and looked to the month in question, and there found that my mother had died that very night that the appearance came to him, but which he had no means of learning earlier, owing to the difiiculty of communication by letter in those days. We find from the Times obituary that our informant's mother died on October 11, 1834. (581) From Mr. E. Stephenson, School House, Market Weighton, Yorkshire. His mother's signature, attached since the account was placed in its present position, makes it really first-hand. November 25th, 1884. I am master of the boys' school and organist of the parish church at Weighton. My mother's maiden name was Jane Cooling. Several years ago (about 10 or 12) she told me a remarkable story which sank deeply into my mind. I got her to tell me the whole of her story again, and it was exactly the same as that she had told years before. I cross-questioned her, but always got the same answers. My mother is 65 years of age. Her mind is quite clear and her memory very good. The affair happened when she was about 16 or 17 years old, and she maintains that even yet she can see (in imagination) her brother as fairly as she saw him then. The following is the story, which I have recently taken down carefully from her own lips. Having subjected my mother to some very close questioning, I feel sure that you may depend upon the statements being trustworthy. Henry Cooling, the brother of Jane Cooling, was a sailor, and had gone on a long voyage. Jane was living in Hull in the house of Mr. Kitching, Mytongate. There was a large cupboard in the house, which was on a kind of landing, approached by two or three steps. Just as she was about to go up to it, she saw distinctly, about 5 p.m., her brother 1 See Vol. i., p. 161, note. 534 SUPPLEMENT. ' [chap. Henry standing in front of the door. His eyes were fixed on her for a short time, and then he disappeared towards the left. He was dressed in his seaman's drawers and shirt. The strings of his drawers were loose ; his feet were bare ; his hair was untidy ;