Page:Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1904).djvu/75



was about the first year or so of my intimacy with Rossetti that table-turning, spirit-rapping, planchettes, and spiritualism under its many phases had taken hold of society, and provided the trifles of the day. Whether Rossetti had any real belief in spiritualism, or whether he wanted to persuade himself that he had, I can hardly say. He was of a highly imaginative nature, and everything that appertained to the mystic had a strange fascination for him. In spiritualism he took an interest for some time; he went to all the private seances to which he happened to be invited, and now and again would give me an account of some of them, when such well-known mediums as Mrs. Guppy,89 Mrs. Fawcett,90 and Daniel Home,91 and others were present. The result of witnessing the performances of these professionals was that Rossetti thought that he, too, would have little seances at home, and from time to time Whistler, Bell Scott, and a few other friends would meet together at Cheyne Walk to have their own experiences