COINCIDENCES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:]
81R,—With your permission I propose to relate a dream I had in the house in which I now write, which involved a
singular coincidence. I shall begin by stating the following. circumstances. There was a gentleman whom I shall call A, whose residence was several hundred miles distant from mine. I had been acquainted with him for many years, but I only knew him to speak to. I never was in his house nor he in mine. I never corresponded with him by letter or other- wise. He was not old, and I believed him to be in perfect health. Nothing whatever had occurred to recall him to my mind. Yet I dreamt I was sending him a present of game,—some grouse and blackcocks. I saw the groom starting on horseback with the parcel to send by our local steamer. Then I saw a woman I did not know stop the man in the avenue, and say to him, "You need go no farther, Mr. A is dead."—" Nonsense," said the groom, "he is not dead."—" He is dead," replied the woman; "and I myself saw him die last night." Thereupon I awoke, and thought to myself, "What an absurd dream !" But I was startled when the Scotsman arrived two days after, and I found that Mr. A had actually died during the night of my dream. Of course I look upon this as a mere coincidence, and nothing more, but surely it was a singular one.—I am, Sir, &c., R. S. S.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." J
SIR,—The parties to the following narrative were personally known to me, and I furnish their names to you in authenti- cation, but "in confidence," because the survivor of them being in a distant land, I cannot at this moment have his consent to publication. Dr. S. and his brother, natives of S., in Yorkshire, were pupils together in a school away from their home. One term, the brother being ill, Dr. S. went alone to the school. He was summoned home upon his brother's death, but was not informed of the death, or indeed of any change in his brother's health. As he neared the home Dr. S. saw his brother looking at him from behind a. tree in the orchard, and at once went to meet him there. The brother moved to another and another tree, continually evading the meeting, till Dr. S., wearied and perhaps vexed with the untimely sport, gave up the pursuit and turned to enter the house. At the door his mother met him, and he exclaimed, "Mother, Jem's in the orchard !" She hushed him, and replied, "My dear John, Jem is upstairs in his bed.
He has just died! "—I am, Sir, &c., JULIAN MORETON.
[To THZ EDITOR or Tar BrEcrAroR.9 Sin,—I have always thought the following, which happened many years ago, a very pretty coincidence. My husband and I always wrote to each other every day when absent from each other. On one of these occasions I told him in my daily letter how I had taken up a new book late the evening before, "The Semi-detached House," and had been so much amused by it that I had sat up until I finished it, and regretted only that he had not been with me when I read it. In his letter of corresponding date he said he had been very late the night before, having taken up a new book, "The Semi-detached House," and been so much amused that he- had read it through. "Get it at once. I am only sorry I
read it without you."—I am, Sir, &c., DEBORAH LYDE.
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