POSTSCRIPT

At the last moment before this booklet goes to press, I am able to insert the fact that Hope’s complete innocence has now been clearly established, and he stands before the world as a man who has been very cruelly maligned, and the victim of a plot which has been quite extraordinary in its ramifications. It was at last found possible to get the cover in which the original packet of plates was wrapped, and on it were found unmistakable signs that it had been tampered with and opened. Thus the deductions made in the text from the evidence already to hand have been absolutely justified, and it is clear that the marked plates were abstracted before the packet reached the Psychic College and two ordinary plates substituted, upon one of which Hope produced an “extra.” The conclusion was reached by the acumen and patience of Mr. Hewat McKenzie, but his results were examined and endorsed unanimously by a strong committee, which included, besides myself, Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie, General Carter, Colonel Baddeley, Mr. Stanley de Brath, Mrs. Stobart, Miss V. R. Scatcherd, Mrs. de Crespigny, Mr. H. C. Scofield and Mr. F. Bligh Bond. It now only remains to find out who is the culprit who has played this cunning trick, and it is not difficult to say that the hand which returned the marked plate through the post is the same hand as that which took it out of the packet. A reward has already been offered for the identification of the person concerned. In the meantime it would be unfair to blame the agents of the S.P.R., who may, while trying to trick Hope, have been themselves tricked. Nothing, however, can excuse them from the charge of culpable negligence in failing to examine the wrappers which so clearly tell the story, and which have been kept so long in their possession. As the matter stands, five persons stand as defendants: Mr. Harry Price, Mr. Moger, Mr. James Seymour, Miss Newton, Secretary of the S.P.R., and Mr. Dingwall, Research Officer of that body. If there is someone else in the background who has tricked them, then it is for them to find out who it is. Their negligence has been such that it is difficult to say what atonement can meet it, and it throws a very lurid light upon some of the so-called “exposures” of the past. As one of the oldest members of the S.P.R., I feel that the honour of that body will not be cleared until they have appointed an impartial committee to consider these facts and to determine what steps should be taken.

Arthur Conan Doyle.

November 14th, 1922.

CHAPTER VII
THE GENESIS AND HISTORY OF THE CREWE CIRCLE

By F. R. Scatcherd

Member of the Society for Psychical Research, Co-Editor of the Asiatic Review

Questioned about himself, Mr. Hope said that he was christened “Billy Hope,” and was born at or near Manchester. His first memory is of having scarlet fever when he was four years old. During the fever he used to see all sorts of faces peering at him through the doorway, and became so frightened that he screamed for his father to come and send them away. Now that he knows about clairvoyance, he thinks otherwise of those visions. He lost his mother when he was nine, and remembers little about her. It is a curious fact, as he observed: “I have wished for her picture hundreds of times, and sat for it many a while, and have never yet got it. These things beat me.”

When asked did he grieve much for his mother’s death, he replied that he was brought up in a religious family, his father being a local preacher. Later on Mr. Hope, Senior, lost all his worldly possessions.

“My father was wealthy according to my ideas,” said Mr. Hope. “He had two farms, but late in life lost his money.”

Mr. Hope was well cared for by his mother as long as he had her, and afterwards by his step-mother.

“She was a good woman: and I had an aunt of a religious frame of mind who also kept an eye on me.”

“You must have been a very good little boy,” I said.

“Oh dear, no! I was much the same as the other lads. I played plenty of truant, and once joined a party of seven and ran the schoolmaster round the room. We had agreed beforehand what we would do if he began a-thrashing of us. But don’t put that in, Miss Scatcherd!”

Spirit photography first interested him when he was working at a bleach and dye-works near Pendleton. Being an amateur photographer, he and a comrade agreed to photograph each other one Saturday afternoon. Mr. Hope exposed a plate on his friend and developed it, when they saw a woman standing beside him. The brick wall showed through the figure, there being no background. The sitter, a Roman Catholic, was frightened, and asked how the woman had got on the plate, and did Mr. Hope know her. When Mr. Hope replied that he did not know the lady nor how she got there, the man said it was his sister who had been dead for many years.

Neither knew anything of spiritualism, so they took it to the works on Monday and showed it to their foreman, who happened also to be an amateur photographer, and was “lost in wonder” over it. But there was a fellow worker, a spiritualist, who said it was a spirit photo. The foreman arranged that the experiment should be repeated with the same camera the following Saturday, when not only the identical woman appeared again but with her, her little dead baby.

“I thought this very strange,” said Mr. Hope; “it made me more interested in spirit photography, and I have been dabbling at it ever since. I felt sorry for my mate, he was so scared. When he saw the second result, I thought he would have pegged out” (died of fright).

The Circle used to destroy all negatives. The members did not want anyone to know about their spirit photography, as many people did not want to do business with them, saying it was all the devil’s work. Till the advent of Archdeacon Colley on the scene not a single negative was kept. After a print was taken the negative was destroyed.

Mr. and Mrs. Buxton met Mr. Hope some seventeen years ago at the Spiritualist Hall at Crewe, where Mr. Buxton was organist. After the service Mr. Hope asked Mr. Buxton if he could find one or two friends to form a circle to sit for spirit photography. This was done, and it was arranged to use the next Wednesday evening from eight to nine.

One of the circle of six was a non-spiritualist, but was converted when a picture of his father and mother was obtained. A strange thing is that when all were anxiously desiring a picture, a message appeared on the first plate exposed. This message promised a picture next time, and stated that it would be for the master of the house. The promise was kept several sittings later, when the picture of Mr. Buxton’s mother and of Mrs. Buxton’s sister came on the plate. Mr. Buxton was of the opinion that this was given to do away with the idea of thought photography. They were all thinking of a picture and never dreamed that such a thing as a written message would be given. They have been very persevering, having sat regularly ever since, each Wednesday from eight to nine, securing a picture on an average of one a month at the outset.

There have been many storms before which have broken over the Crewe Circle, but the cause of them has usually been the limited knowledge of the strange possibilities of psychic photography on the part of the sitters and of the public. One of the most notorious of these so-called “exposures” (which really were exposures of the critics’ ignorance) was in 1908, and arose out of Archdeacon Colley’s first sitting. He had heard that the Crewe Circle were simple-looking folk, and this attracted him, so he broke his journey at Crewe and called upon Mr. and Mrs. Hope, who had just lost their eldest daughter. The Archdeacon apologised for having come at such a time, but Mr. Hope sent him on to Mr. and Mrs. Buxton, where he was shown the photos and asked to see the negatives. He was shocked when he heard that they had all been destroyed, and from that time kept all negatives he was able to get hold of. The Archdeacon brought his own camera, loaded at Stockton with his own diamond-marked plates. He kept the plates in his own possession and focussed the camera, which he put up outside the house, although it was raining. Mr. Hope merely pressed the bulb and Archdeacon Colley developed the plates with his own developer. When he held the picture to the light he exclaimed: “My father and my sainted mother!”

Mr. Hope was the first to notice the likeness between “Mrs. Colley” and a picture he had copied about two years ago, and cycled with it to Mr. Spencer, of Nantwich. Mrs. Spencer declared it to be her grandmother, and cried out, “Oh, if this had only come with us how pleased we should have been!”

Mr. Hope then wrote to Archdeacon Colley telling him it could not be his mother, as it had been recognised at Nantwich. The Archdeacon said it was madness to think a man did not know his own mother, and advertised in the Leamington paper, asking all who remembered his mother to meet him at the Rectory, when eighteen persons selected the photograph from several others and testified in writing that the picture was a portrait of the late Mrs. Colley, who had never been photographed.

The Crewe friends heard no more about the matter until the controversy in Light (February 14th, 1914, and subsequent numbers). The extraordinary ignorance, even of the spiritualistic public, on these matters, was revealed by the storm of indignation that burst upon the devoted heads of the Crewe Circle and their supporters. The testimony of such students and scholars as the late Mr. James W. Sharpe, M.A., of Bournemouth, an eminent mathematician and expert authority on all questions of psychical research, did little to allay the outburst. In vain it was pointed out that no fact was better vouched for than the reproduction by “spirit” photographers of well-known pictures and photographs, often true in every detail to the originals. The theory and fact of ideoplasticity were ridiculed just as they are ridiculed to-day by those who should keep themselves up-to-date in physical science, if they wish to judge justly the yet more complex problems of psychical science.

The Society for Psychical Research was as unhelpful as the “man in the street,” so far as its leading authorities were concerned.

To return to the beginning of things: it was on July 16th, 1909, when, in response to a telegram from Archdeacon Colley, I went to Leamington, where I first met the Rev. Prof. Henslow and two members of the Crewe Circle who were on a visit to the Archdeacon. A séance for spirit photography was held. It was disappointing in one sense. Prof. Henslow was told that he would find impressions on certain plates in a sealed packet on the table which was not to be opened for a fortnight.

I prepared to say good-bye, when Mr. Hope said he would like to do something for the visitor from London. “The friends say that if the lady can remain the night they will give her a test.” I replied that the only test of interest to me was one that would convince my fellow-members of the Society for Psychical Research. The mediums insisted, but I refused to stay unless Prof. Henslow also remained and took charge of the proceedings.

“Sir, do stay!” pleaded Mr. Hope. “There are five of us—you, the Archdeacon, Mrs. Buxton, Miss Scatcherd and myself. You must buy five plates from your own photographer. Each plate must be put into a light-tight envelope and worn by the sitter, with the sensitised surface next to the person, until the séance. It will not take long to fetch the plates and bring them back to us. Thus we shall have an hour to wear them before the séance this evening. It is the only way to get them magnetised so as to have immediate results. You can each develop your own plate to-night and then Miss Scatcherd will know whether the friends have kept their word.”

Prof. Henslow good-naturedly agreed and drove off with the Archdeacon to purchase the plates. I remained with Mrs. Buxton and Mr. Hope. Within an hour the Archdeacon returned with four plates put up as directed. Professor Henslow had gone home to dinner wearing his plate in a wood slide contrived by Archdeacon Colley. Mrs. Buxton and I tucked ours inside our blouses and Mr. Hope placed his in that trouser-pocket which has aroused such evil suspicions in the minds of investigators. We remained together until Prof. Henslow joined us. It was full daylight. We sat round the table when Mr. Hope asked:

“What do you want, Miss Scatcherd? A face? A message? What shall it be?”

“You forget my conditions; Prof. Henslow must decide. Let him choose,” I replied.

Prof. Henslow said he did not care what came so long as the same thing appeared on all the plates. It was a remark worthy of the speaker, conveying, as it did, a most crucial test, in view of the fact that he had never let his plate out of his own keeping. The usual séance was held.

Prof. Henslow developed his plate first. I developed mine under Archdeacon Colley’s supervision, then Mrs. Buxton and Mr. Hope developed theirs.

The results are of interest. The Archdeacon did not wear a plate so as to leave “more power for the others.” Mr. Hope’s plate was blurred. The tablet on Prof. Henslow’s was identical in outline with Mrs. Buxton’s and mine, both of which were sharp and clear, but Mrs. Buxton’s was the best. Mrs. Buxton had been with me the whole time, and her six-months-old baby had never left her arms.

The message addressed to Prof. Henslow was appropriate, but the writing was so microscopically fine that we could not read it that night. Mr. Hope was very disappointed. “Never mind,” he said, “when we get home we will ask the guides to give it us again!” He and Mrs. Buxton were leaving by the early morning train. The Archdeacon had charge of the negatives and had promised to let us know as soon as he had deciphered the message.

The mediums did not like their lodgings, so slept at my hotel. I saw them off in the morning, before any of us knew what the message was. A day or two later I received from the mediums a duplicate of the message not yet known to them or to myself. But this time the writing was large enough to be read by the naked eye. As Prof. Henslow had requested, the same thing had come on all the plates in differing degrees of distinctness.

This was my first experience of a Crewe skotograph, and it was decisive. As I wrote in the Psychic Gazette from notes submitted to Archdeacon Colley at the time, and afterwards read by Prof. Henslow when published, no suspicions could fall either on the mediums, Archdeacon Colley or myself, as not one of us had had the chance of tampering with Prof. Henslow’s plate, nor could Prof. Henslow and his photographer have prepared a series of plates for an occasion on which they had no reason to have reckoned.

I wrote a minute account of these early experiments, according to the strictest psychical research methods, and left it with Mr. Wallis, the then editor of Light. He did not publish it, and when I returned to England it could not be found. This incident is briefly recorded by Prof. Henslow in Proofs of the Truths of Spiritualism, pp. 224-7.

Fig. 16.—Photomicrograph by Major R. E. E. Spencer of portion of Archdeacon Colley’s signature taken from letter written during his lifetime. (See p. 84.)

Fig. 17.—Photomicrograph by Major R. E. E. Spencer of portion of Archdeacon Colley’s signature on psychograph appearing after his death. Compare with Figs. 2. and 16.

Fig. 18.—Photograph of Mr. Wm. Walker with message in the handwriting of Mr. W. T. Stead. (See p. 87.)

Fig. 19.—Mr. and Mrs. Harry Walker and two friends with psychic likeness of Mr. Walker’s father. Compare with Fig. 18.