Among contemporaries who have recorded precognition of the result of a race may be mentioned Miss Violet Tweedale. In Ghosts I have Seen she relates a curious story that implies a subconscious guess reaching a medium telepathically.

The author wrote that she and her husband when living near Newmarket drove by appointment one day to a neighbour's house to meet Miss Catherine Bates, who had written a book called Seen and Unseen. Miss Bates was known to the author's husband as "a well-known psychic" and he suggested asking her who was going to win the Cambridgeshire. They were just seated in their carriage, ready to depart after the visit, when the author remembered the suggestion, and called out to Miss Bates and her friend, standing in the doorway of the house, "Tell me, what's going to win the Cambridgeshire." Violet Tweedale continues:

The answer was prompt and clear: 'Marco to win and ----- for a place.' (I regret I cannot remember the name of the second horse.)

My husband was much pleased with this tip from so well known a psychic; and we backed Marco to win and ---- for a place, for all we were worth. I wish I could remember the odds. I only know they were long.

The event came off, and I wrote at once to Miss Bates, warmly thanking her for doing us such a good turn. Her reply astounded us. She had not heard me put any question and knew nothing about racing.

Her hostess was equally ignorant upon the subject, but she did hear me put the question, though she heard no answer. Both coachman and footman heard my question and listened eagerly for the reply. They heard none. Where did that answer come from?

Tweedale's whole memoir is full of entertaining anecdotes and character portraits from the late Victorian era. She met Victoria, stayed with the Gladstones, knew Robert Browning and Madame Blavatsky, knew suffragettes and Russian revolutionaries, found one of Jack the Ripper's victims next door...

Tweedale's quite matter-of-fact about her sensory divergence--as much so as Joan Grant in her books. On several occasions Tweedale mistakes spirits for corporeal people, and meets other spiritualists with the same problem. She was Scottish, and second sight ran in the family; among Scots she didn't have to hide it in the closet! She treats Anglo culture's blind materialism as mere colonial arrogance.

I know the feeling.

--Chris Wayan--

SOURCE: The Dream World by Rodolphe L. Megroz, p.277-8. His source was Ghosts I have Seen by Violet Tweedale (p.23 (of 62) in Hoopla e-reprint, 2017.)

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