Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/431

Rh I must again thank Mr. Alleyne for all the trouble he has taken.

I am also grateful to Miss Alice Johnson, Secretary of the Society for Psychical Research, for notes on the identity of the two Barons Guldenstubbé. I am not sure as to which of them wrote the book on "Direct" (not automatic) writing. Miss Johnson informs me that Baron Buxhoewden, in a recent letter to Mr. Solovovo, mentions that old people at Oelsen remember the disturbances of the coffins. The "casual water" theory is now in some vogue, I may add that, as no traces of disturbance of the walls, floor, or roof of the vault were found at Barbadoes, I cannot adopt the theory that enemies of the Chase family caused the trouble. Nor can I admit, as the cause, gas emanating from the coffins. Why should only the Chase coffins be so violently gaseous? Any influx of casual water, again, would leave unmistakable traces of its presence

—Since this paper was printed, Mr. Forster Alleyne has renewed his researches in the true spirit of the historian. He has been rewarded by finding a complete autograph record by Mr. Lucas, who, in some accounts, is mentioned as having been present at the final opening of the vault by Lord Combermere, and this record is countersigned by the Rev. Dr. Orderson, Rector of Christchurch, Mr. Lucas, a member of the Parliament of the island, begins by quoting the case at Staunton, Suffolk, from The European Magazine of 1814. He says that, when he and Lord Combermere, with others, had discussed the Barbadoes case on April 18, 1820, they walked straight to the vault, and had it opened, finding wild confusion among leaden coffins but not in those of wood. He denies that there was