From G. H. Darwin to Emma Darwin [late November 1873?]

I have made an engagement to go with him to the same place again (61 Lambs' Conduit St) at Xmas. One pays 2^s/6^d only & Myers says that it is inconceivable that a man who is such a consummate actor as the medium must be if an imposter, & so marvellous a conjuror, sh^d. consent to go on for such a wretched pay. M. had hold of a spirit hand wh. came vertically downward from the ceiling & also saw some extraordinary `spirit lights'. It appears that Sedgwick gave up a whole vacation once to going to séances & I think is almost convinced that there is something new in it; & this is a good deal from a man of such excessively sober judgment. We talked a good deal about it & Myers (senior) said he knew a Man at Caius who was a wonderful medium but who had much difficulty with his exams. So that his parents partic^ly wished him not to medionize until after his degree. However at about 9.45 Myers started off to fetch him & came back with him at 10.15. The 2 myers & Gurney & he sat round a small table & it soon began to rock about & to answer questions by means of rocking— All the questions were asked on the supposition of the real presences of spirits, but the answers were all great rubbish. They then began rapping & the raps were certainly remarkable & I put my ear down on the table & heard hard clear raps coming apparently from right under my ear wherever I moved it— this is however a thing on wh one may easily be deceived

The Medium Woosenam is certainly a wonderful actor if an impostor, for I never saw anyone less constrained & natural; & if he produced the raps it was very remarkable for I watched his hand & feet intently & didn't see a muscle move & at one time his head was touching his nearer hand when the raps were coming loud & distinct from underneath. There was this point however wh made the thing very unsatisfactory, that the top of the table was loose & one c^d, tho' not easily, produce raps by moving it, but then the motion of the top was quite visible & when my head was resting on it there wasn't the slightest perceptible motion. The table wondered about the room with these men's hand on it, but I observed that all the motions were in a direction wh. might have been caused by Woosenam— tho' he certainly did it without the slightest apparent effort. Per contrà there were feeble raps when he wasn't touching the table at all & when only the 2 Myers & Gurney were at it. There was a good example of how worthless an impressible man's evidence may be; in answer to a question the table rapped out d e c e p d I think & in 1/2 a min. afterwards Gurney said it had spelt deceit only spelling it deceipt The answers to the questions are not really worth relating they were such trash. We afterwards got another table, but the raps were very unsatisfac. & c^d hardly be distinguished from the scraping of the legs of the table on the carpet. On the whole the only thing wh. impressed me at all were the raps under my ear & that is rendered almost nugatory by the fact that the table c^d. be made to rap. Wooseman on several occasions said he was hardly touching the table; nor he was, but I fancied I noticed that immediately before the palms of his hand seem resting on the table— this he said they ought to do, so that I don't mean it was surreptitious only it is a little suspicious his directing attention to the lightness of the touch, if he changed his position in doing so.

Will you let me have this letter back sometime as in case I go to any more séances I sh^d like to have a record of my first impressions altho' there was so little remarkable.

Did you read Snow's review of the Fair Haven in the Spec. it was the most unintelligible mystical thing I ever read. Butler says he thought it must have been written by the deceased John Pukard Owen (his own hero in the F. H) himself!

Yours affectionately | G H Darwin