[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR, — In case you would
desire to publish any further records of experiences connected with the above subject (which appear
to be not uncommon) I send you the following two which }hive occurred to myself.
The first was in 1860 or 1861—I forget which—at the Ranger's House, Blackheath, where I was spending the Easter holidays with some friends. I was thirteen or fourteen years of age at the time, and one of the sons of the house was of about the same age as myself. It had been arranged that he was to go out for a ride on his pony after luncheon. I was not to ac- company him, and, having seen him ride off from the front door in company with the coachman, who was also riding, I took a book and lay down on a sofa placed in an inner hall communicating by an open doorway, or entrance, with the outer ball. I had been reading for about a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes when I heard the sound of horses' feet on the gravel outside : the front door opened and the boy ap- peared. I shouted to him, " Hullo! Back again so soon—what's up ?" He passed me, smiling, but without answering, and I heard his footsteps running up the staircase beyond towards his bedroom. As I was interested in my book, I thought no more about him until about an hour had passed. I then again heard the footsteps of horses, and for a second time the boy entered the house by the front door. Then, being not a little astonished, I questioned him as to how he had got out of the house again without my having seen him,pass, and my surprise was not lessened by learning that he had not come back to the house at all, that this was his first return to it after a pleasant ride of an hour's duration, and this statement was corroborated by the coachman.
The second instance occurred about five or six years ago, as follows :—I was anxious to speak to our station-master, and walked to the railway station (about a mile off) in company with my grown-up son. (The latter did not know the station- master by sight.) The station-master's house stands close to the railway line—on the same side that we were approaching, and opposite to the station buildings—while the goods station is further away, and on the same side as the station. On reaching the line I saw the station-master crossing it from the station and walking towards his house, which he entered by the front door. He was about 100 yards off when I first saw him, and he was wearing his uniform coat and cap. My son also saw him, and we walked along the line to his house without farther delay. On inquiry there we learnt from his wife that he was not at home; but, persisting that we had that moment seen him entering, she was persuaded to make a search through the house and round at the back of it, with, however, no result except blank astonishment on our part. On crossing the line we eventually found the station-master at the goods shed, where he had been engaged for, as he said, a considerable time, and had not been near his house all the
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