Year: 1861

young gentleman resided with his wild
owed mother and two sisters in the near
neighborbood of Bristol, England. he was
In easy circumstances, respected-well, in
fact, to do in the world-and moreover en-
gagged to be married very shortly. Under
such a state of things, there was nothing
likely to be preyipg upon his mind, but he
was of rather delicate health and nervous
temperament


One morning he came down to breakfast
looking pale, i'll and altogether much agi-
tated. His mother end sisters anxiously and
eagerly inquired the cause. At first he as
sured them that nothing was the matter, but
upon his mothers more urgently pressing
him, he confessed that he had dream which
disturbed and troubled him.


ought to. have stated that he held some
position in the cathedral-was minor canon
or something of that sOrt-and he said that
he had dreamed that he was in the vestry
there, and looking over the register, when,
latest among the entries of burial, he had
read his own name, age, and all correct
There was no mistake the writing was all
clear, fresh, and legible. Well, they laughed
at him, and rallied him, and though he was
evidently much impressed with what he had
seen, after day or two he shook off his
detection and was the same as ever.


Then again he appeared a second time at
the breakfast.table in the same style of nerv-
ousness-only this time worse than before.
Again he was pressed, and again it was O
dream that troubled him. He had been
walking, he said, over the cathedral with
some one, and they had been surprised by
the sight of new monument in most out
of-the-way and unusual place-over the ves-
y.doori they stopped to read it-it was his
own


This time it was O worse matter than
before to conquer his nervous anxiety; but
just as the family thought him shaking off
the effects of this second dream, he one even
ing rushed into the house in a state border
ing upon frenzy, and calling OUT "Where is
itP Where are they2 What have they done
with it2" dropped down in sheer exhaustion
and terror.


AS soon as he could answer their questions,
be told them that there were at that mo-
ment in the house two men with a cofin-a
most remarkable one, covered with red
morocco, thickly studded with brass nails
and with his name upon it-that they had
entered the door the moment before himself
and brushed by him in the lane as he stood
against the wall to allow them, with their
| CHASTITY burden, to pass, when he had dis
| tlnctly seen that the coffin was meant for
himself, and so pursued them into the
house.


No such person could be seen OF heard of.
| No such coffin had been made. 1t was quite
| light in Summer evening, and a public
road. No soul but himself had seen the men
or the cofin-much less touched it; it
seemed altogether delusion of the brain.
| However, as he pressed it, every means were
taken by his family, and large rewards
offered for any information, as they rightly
thought reason and life depended upon dis
pelling the hallucination. 1t was not TO be |
From the bed to which they carried him he
never rose again.


A few days of feverous excitement elapsed,
and he was dead The family in their deep
distress could attend to no matters of bust
ness or money. The undertaken, to whom
the funeral was entrusted, sent home the
most expensive coffin for his own sordid
ends-but it was, strange to say, covered
with red morocco, and studded all over with
brass nails, the name, of course, being con-
spicuous among them. This might have
been the working out of the delusion, from
its coming to the ears of those among whom
previous inquiry had been made. But, the
fact of the monument needed further inter.
probation, for the clergy belonging to the
cathedral, wishing to show every respect
without consulting the family of the de-
ceased, resolved to put up tablet to his
memory, and to their intense surprise his
friends most Unexpectedly found monu-
ment erected in the very unusual place he
had described as its situation in his dreams