From MISS ESTELLE STEAD
During the last seven or eight years I have had several sittings with the Crewe Circle, and can state truly that I have always found both Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton most anxious to have me examine the dark room, the camera, the slides, the room in which the photographs were taken, and had I wished to examine anything else I am sure they would have agreed to my doing so.
At some sittings I have had no results, whilst at others the results have been excellent.
The very first time I visited Crewe I bought a box of plates in London and took it with me. Mr. Hope never handled the box at all excepting in my presence, and we obtained two excellent pictures of my father. During that same visit I bought a box of plates in Crewe, neither Mr. Hope nor Mrs. Buxton had any idea at which shop I bought it. I sealed the box and took it with me to 144, Market Street. I held it in my hands until we, Mr. Hope, Mrs. Buxton, Mr. Harry Walker, at whose house I was staying, and myself—were seated round the table. I then placed the box on the table, where it remained visible to all, as the room was well lighted by gas, whilst we held the little service usually held by the Crewe Circle. We all then placed our hands under and over the box and held it in this way for a little while. I then placed the bottom of the box against Mrs. Buxton’s forehead and then held it between my hands whilst instructions were given, through Mr. Hope, to the effect that I should go into the dark room with him, unseal the box myself, take out the bottom plate and the plate next to it. I was told to take particular note as to which was the bottom plate. I was instructed to develop the two plates in Mr. Hope’s presence, but not to allow him to touch them until I had developed them. Note, the box was not unsealed until we went into the dark room, and the plates were never exposed to the light at all.
Nothing appeared on the bottom plate, nor was there any sign of fogging. On the other plate were two messages, one in Archdeacon Colley’s handwriting and one in Mr. William Walker’s handwriting, together with a faint outline of my father’s face.
About one year after receiving the above I went up to Crewe with Miss Scatcherd. I had previously, without saying a word to Miss Scatcherd or anyone, made an engagement with my brother Will, who passed over in 1907, to meet me there and give his picture if he could manage to do so. Miss Scatcherd thought I wanted a picture of my father or a message from him. I do not think either Mr. Hope or Mrs. Buxton knew of my brother’s existence, and even if they did they certainly had no means of getting hold of his photograph. I took my own plates from town. On the very first plate exposed my brother’s face appears between Miss Scatcherd and myself.
During a visit the Crewe Circle paid to the “W. T. Stead” Bureau in Baker Street in 1919, at my father’s request I took my mother to have a sitting with them without advising them beforehand as to who it was I was bringing. I took my own plates, put them in the slides myself and stood over Mr. Hope whilst he developed the plates after the sitting. On the plate exposed on my mother alone there appears a very good picture of my father.
(Signed) E. W. Stead.
5, Smith Square, S.W. 1.
The Evidence of MRS. ELLEN JONES, OF KEMPSTON
(Mrs. Jones relates how on two occasions she obtained an excellent likeness of her deceased husband. The second photograph referred to shows a remarkable likeness on comparison with a normal photograph.)
I had a sitting at Crewe, about four years ago, and again this last March. Success attended both sittings. The March sitting took place in my own house; Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton stayed with us a couple of days and we got a photo with three “extras” on one plate. We consider the last one a perfect likeness of my husband just as he was before his last illness. The first was very good, only rather too much like what he was at the time of passing over, so, you see, it was rather painful, but a truthful likeness. My son was with Mr. Hope the whole time he developed the plates. He knows quite a lot about photography, and we used our own plates.
(Signed) Ellen Jones.
Rees Cottage, Kempston, Beds.
From THE REV. G. VALE OWEN
I have had several sittings with Mr. Wm. Hope and Mrs. Buxton at Crewe. I will briefly relate one experience.
In 1910 I was just dropping off to sleep when I saw, in the far corner of the room, a beautiful girl’s face smiling at me. It slowly disappeared sideways behind a screen. I wondered who the owner was. It was slightly oval, radiant with joy, and the eyes were laughing at me with just a touch of roguish enjoyment at my perplexity. There was a certain efflorescence permeating it, a light which did not proceed from an exterior object, but which seemed to be one with the substance of which the face was composed. But it was not a mask. It was a living face.
About eight years later I saw the same face again, this time about six inches from my own. On this second occasion there came into my mind, as if intentionally projected there, the name “Ruby.” Ruby is my daughter who passed away at the age of fifteen months in 1896.
In August, 1917, my wife and I paid a visit to the Crewe Circle. On one of the negatives appeared the face I had already seen clairvoyantly. It was not full-face, as I had seen it on the two previous occasions, but in profile. This disposes of the theory that it might have been a thought-form of my own.
Later on, we were having a talk with this spirit-child of ours in our own home at Orford, and I took the opportunity to ask her if it was she who had managed to get her picture on the plate at Crewe. Her reply was: “I don’t know, daddy. I was there and tried to. I should love to have done it. Did I?” My answer was that I was satisfied that she had done so.
I also asked her why it was in profile and she said it was in order that she might shew her hair. Even when she passed away as a baby her abundant light-brown hair was an exceptional feature. On the photograph it was also conspicuous.
I am satisfied that the picture is the likeness of my daughter Ruby. We have received more than one description of her as she appears in the spirit life and this portrait tallies with these descriptions.
I am at one with several of my friends who have sat with them in their conviction that there is no trickery used by these mediums in the production of results obtained.
On all my visits to Crewe I have been struck with the transparent honesty and earnestness of both Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton. The only conclusion to which I can come is that they are out for the sole purpose of helping others with their rare gift, at great cost to their own comfort and convenience. Personally I am grateful to them for their self-sacrificing service.
(Signed) G. Vale Owen.
Orford Vicarage, Warrington.