851 A. From Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. pp. 44-48.

The following account, dated Thornes House, Wakefield, January 30th, 1893, is signed by Lady Mabel Howard; her husband, Mr. Henry Howard, of Greystoke Castle, Westmoreland, attesting the facts which lie within his cognisance. Some corroborations, and some comments of my own, are added in brackets.

1. I began to write automatically every now and then when a young girl, as some relations of mine were in the habit of doing so. I do not, however, remember any of the messages until I was eighteen, when one day a girl friend asked me as a joke, "Who wished to marry her?" My pencil wrote two initials which had no meaning for me. The girl was very angry, as though the writing implied that she was fated to marry this man. She told me nothing; but some years afterwards a man with these initials told me that he had wished to marry this lady at just that time. [The transference of an idea latent in the agent's mind - to the exclusion of the idea which he wishes to have transferred - is, of course, a frequent phenomenon in these experiments].

2. Some time after my marriage (1885) there was a burglary at Netherby Hall, in Cumberland, a few valuable jewels being stolen. The robbers were caught three or four days later, but the jewels were not found. Next Sunday [apparently November 1st, 1885, see below], I was asked by some friends to write where the jewels were. I wrote, "In the river, under the bridge at Tebay." This was very unlikely, and had never been suggested, so far as I know, by any one. Every one laughed at this; but the jewels were found there. [The Hon. Mrs. C. J. Cropper, of Tolson Hall, Kendal, corroborates as follows, in February 1893: "We were staying at Greystoke just after the capture of the Netherby burglars, and some questions about the burglary were answered by Lady Mabel's pencil. I am absolutely certain that in answer to the question 'Where are the jewels?' the pencil wrote 'In the river.' I think that in answer to a further question it added 'Under the bridge,' but I am not so certain of this. I am perfectly certain that it went on to say that the fourth man, who never was caught, was then 'in Carlisle,' and that it also gave his name. (The fourth man was some time after suspected to have been a local man. - M. H.) My husband, who was also present, is quite sure about the words ' under the bridge.' - Edith E. Cropper."]

[From the Carlisle Express and Examiner, October 31st, 1885, it appears that two of the burglars were captured at Tebay Station. The guard saw them conceal themselves in a truck, and telegraphed in advance for assistance. The third man escaped, but seems to have crept back to the train, for he was subsequently caught at Lancaster, as he was quickly making for a London train. It was not in the least known where the jewels were (a fourth man having got away), and the finding of the first jewel near Tebay Station, close to the water side (reported in same paper November 7th), was accidental. This discovery, of course, caused search to be made in the river, where the jewels were found "near the railway bridge," more than a month later. (Same paper, December 19th.) There can, I think, be no doubt that the writing was on November 1st. Lady Mabel Howard, writing from Lyulph's Tower, Penrith, May 5th, 1893, is quite certain of this: "It was immediately after the men were caught, and before any jewel at all was found.

This all will assert - the Bullers, Croppers, my brother and husband - for all five of us were local people, and looking out for every fresh detail about it, and only the capture had taken place when the pencil wrote."]

3. On the same night I wrote that my sister would be engaged to be married in September 1887. At the end of September 1887 she became engaged to a gentleman of whom there had been no idea at the time. [It is, of course, conceivable that the prediction, known to this lady, may have influenced the date of the event].

4. At nearly the same date some connections of mine who had let a house, the lease of which was expiring, were expecting to hear whether any damage had been done, but did not speak of any particular possibility. I wrote that nothing was injured except a particular table in a particular spot. Next day they heard that this particular table, and this alone, had been injured.

[Miss Buller corroborates and expands this statement as follows:-

36 Green Street, Park Lane, W., April 26th, 1893.

The following incident happened when I was staying at Greystoke more than a dozen years ago [discrepancy as to date], but I have often told the story since, and to the best of my recollection the facts were these:-

On being asked what damage our tenants had done, Lady Mabel Howard's pencil replied: "They have broken the table and a chair," and added, "the table has been mended." On reaching our house and asking the same question of our housemaid, she replied that a table in the drawing-room (the only one of its kind) had been broken, but had been mended, and one of the kitchen chairs had been broken. Nothing else in the way of furniture had been injured. Henrietta J. Buller].

5. Shortly afterwards I went for some winter months to St. Moritz. For some reason or other the answers were particularly good there. One day a lady living in quite a different part of the huge hotel, and on the fourth floor, while we were on the first floor, missed a valuable object which she had bought as a prize for tobogganing. I knew nothing of the circumstances, but my hand wrote that the object had been taken by a light-haired young waiter called Richard. I knew of no such waiter, as he had nothing to do with our part of the hotel. But on mentioning this answer to the lady in question she said that there was in fact a young light-haired waiter called Richard who waited on her floor; and that she had suspected him. My hand had written where the object was hidden; but the lady would not have search made.

6. A Mr. Huth, who was staying at our hotel, was leaving the next day for Paris, and had arranged to dine the day after with a friend, a young doctor attached to the Embassy in Paris, from whom he had just received an invitation. He asked me to predict something about his journey. My hand wrote words to this effect: "You will have an accident on your journey; and you will not see your friend, and you cannot see him." He derided this, as the arrangement with the friend had just been made. As he went to Chur next day by sleigh his sleigh was overturned, and his journey was thus delayed for a day. When he got to Paris he found that his friend was dead.

[Mr. Huth independently corroborates and adds to this account as follows:-

Oakfield Lodge, Huddersfield, April 16th, 1893.

In March 1889 I was staying at St. Moritz (Engadine), where I met with a very serious accident tobogganing. Although still crippled, I decided to return home, and on the morning of my departure the weather was brilliantly fine. I asked Lady Mabel Howard's pencil, more in joke than anything else, what sort of a journey I should have. The pencil promptly replied that I should have an awful journey and meet with an accident. I then asked whether I should meet and dine with any friend in Paris. I asked this question because I had arranged to dine with a friend of mine, a Dr. Davies, who was living there, to talk over some theatricals he was to get up at the British Embassy. The pencil at once replied that I should neither meet nor dine with any one I knew. Knowing of my arrangement and incredulous as to this reply, I repeated my question, with the same result. I then asked what day I should get back to England, having decided in my own mind to return on the Friday. The pencil at once answered "On Thursday".

On the summit of the Julier Pass the weather suddenly changed from bright sunshine to a perfect hurricane of wind, snow, and sleet, which completely blinded us, and the snow was so thick we could not see ten yards in front of us. Our driver missed the track, the sleigh upset, and we were all thrown out on to the snow, and it was three hours before we were in comparative safety. On my arrival in Paris I found no word from my friend Dr. Davies, and on inquiry at his rooms I learnt that he had died from typhoid fever ten days previously. I neither dined with nor met any one I knew whilst in Paris, and I returned to England a day sooner than I had intended in consequence of my friend's death, and it was only upon my arrival in London that I remembered it was Thursday, the day foretold by the pencil. Harry Huth].

7. In 1888 another girl friend of mine asked when she was to be engaged to be married. My hand wrote: "In March 1890." She became engaged in that month to a man of whom there had been no idea at the time. [The lady in question, Mrs. Lawson, writing from Greystoke Castle, February 1893, confirms and enlarges this statement as follows: "I was at Greystoke in February 1888, and Lady Mabel Howard was writing with her pencil, which said that I should be engaged to be married in March 1890, and it also said that I should not be married until the following year. I was engaged to be married on March 27th, 1890, and it was all settled that I should be married within six weeks; but most unforeseen circumstances arose, and my marriage did not take place until April 1891. - Camilla Lawson."]