He was awake, and it was in the day-time.
This puts me in mind of a dream of old Farmer Good, a neighbour of
mine at Broad-Chalk, who being ill, dreamt that he met with an old
friend of his, (long since deceased) by Knighton Ashes (in that
parish) who told him, that if he rose out of his bed, that he would
die. He awaked, and rose to make water, and was immediately seized
with a shivering fit, and died of an ague, aged 84.
The Lady Viscountess Maidstone told me she saw (as it were) a fly of
fire, fly round about her in the dark, half an hour before her lord
died: he was killed at sea, and the like before her mother-in-law
the Countess of Winchelsea died, (she was then with child).
A Dutch prisoner at Wood-bridge, in Suffolk, in the reign of K.
Charles II. could discern Spirits; but others that stood by could
not. The bell tolled for a man newly deceased. The prisoner saw his
phantom, and did describe him to the Parson of the parish,* who was
with him; exactly agreeing with the man for whom the bell tolled.
Says the prisoner, now he is coming near to you, and now he is
between you and the wall; the Parson was resolved to try it, and went
to take the wall of him, and was thrown down; he could see nothing.
This story is credibly told by several persons of belief.
* Dr. Hooke, the Parson of the parish, has often told this story.
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