Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-12-17
A Strange Dream.

In the winter of 1S35-'36, schooner
was frozen up in the upper part of the
Bay of Fundy, close to Dorchester,
which is nine miles from the river Pc
dendiac. During the time of her deten-
ton she was entrusted to the care of a
gentleman of the name of Clarke, who
was recently captain of the schooner
Julia Hillock, trading between New
York and st. Jago de Cuba. Captain
Clarke's paternal grandmother, Mrs.
Ann Dave Clarke, to whom he was
much attached, was at that time living,
and, so far as he knew, perfectly well.
She was residing at Lyme Regis, Dor
setshire.
On the night of the 18th of February,
1856, Captain Clarke, then on board the
schooner referred to, had dream of SO
vivid character that it produced
great impression upon him. He dreamed
that being at Lyme Regis, he saw pass
before him the funeral of his grand
mother. He took note of the chief per-
sons who composed the procession, OBJ
served who were the pail bearers, who
were the mourners, ard In what order
they walked, and distinguished who
was the officiating pastor. He joined
the procession as it approached the
churchyard gate, and proceeded with it
to the grave. He thought in his dream
that the weather was stormy, and the
ground wet, as after a heavy rain; and
he noticed the wind, being high, blew
the pail partly off the coffin.
The graveyard which they entered
the old Protestant one, in the centre of
the town-was the same in which, as
Captain Clarke knew, their family
burying place was. He perfectly re-
membered its situation; but, to his sur
prise, the funeral procession did not pro-
coed thither, but to another part
of the churchyard, at some distance
There he saw the open grave, partially
filled with water, as from rain, and
looking into it, he particularly noticed
floating in the water two drowned field
mice.
Afterward, as he thought, he con
versed with his mother, and she told
him that the morning had been so tenn
pestuous that the funeral, originally APP
ferrod until four.
He remarked, in reply, that it was a
| fortunate circumstance, for, as he had
lust arrived in time to join the process
sion, had the funeral taken place in the
i forenoon, he could not have attended il
at all.
i This dream made SO deep an impress
sion on Captain Clarke, that in the
morning he noted Down the particulars
of it and the date. Some time afterward
there came the news of his grandmoth-
er's death, with the additional particu
lars that she was buried on the same day
on which he, being in North America
had dreamed of her funeral.
When, four years afterward, Captain
Clarke visited Lyme Regis, he found
that every particular of his dream min
utely corresponded with the reality.
The pastor, the pail bearers, the
mourners, were the same persons he hao
seen. Yet this, it may be said, might
have been naturally anticipated. But
the funeral had been appointed for ter
o'clock in the morning, and in conse-
quence Of the tempestuous weather, anC
the heavy rain that was falling, it had
been delayed until four in the after
noon.
His mother, who attended the funeral
distinctly recollected that the high vino
blew the pail partially off the coffin.
In consequence of wish expressed
by the old lady shortly before her death
she was buried-not in the buryina
place of the family-but at another spo
selected by herself and to this spo
Captain Clarke, without any indication
by the family or otherwise, proceeded a
once, as directly as if he had been pres
ent at the burial
Finally, on comparing notes with ths
old sexton, 1t appeared that the heavy
rain of the morning had partially filled
the grave, and that there were actually
found in it two field mice dro wned.