'Twixt two worlds : a narrative of the life and work of William Eglinton

CHAPTER VI.
PRIVATE SEANCES AND SPIRITUALISM AT HOME
R. EGLINTON now found himself fully occupied. He received invitations from
various parts of the country. These, as far as his London appointments
would allow, he readily responded to, and in due course made another visit
to Cardiff, proceeding from thence to Worcester on his way back to London.
At the first-named place he had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Rees Lewis,
who cordially invited him to attend a seance with Mr. George Spriggs, an
excellent medium, who has since made such a reputation for himself at the Antipodes.
On his return to London he gave a seance (Spiritualist, December 7th, 1877) to Mr. Alfred
Russel Wallace, the distinguished naturalist, Mr. William Tebb, and Mr. W. W. Clark,
of Dorking, all of whom were very much pleased with what they saw, and united in describing
the sc'aticc as perfectly satisfactory. Mrs. Anna Wilkes, the friend of Mrs. Nichols, also supplemented
her previous testimony to the phenomena by another account of equally wonderful
marvels she had seen.
A good case of direct writing is related as having occurred about this time by Dr. Nichols,
who had removed from Malvern to 32, Fopstone Road, Earl's Court, S.W. It occurred on the
9th September. " At a seance last night, in the presence of three other persons and Mr.
Eglinton, the materialised form of 'Joey' made in our presence about twenty yards of white
drapery, which certainly never saw a Manchester loom. The matter of which it was formed
was visibly gathered from the atmosphere, and later melted into invisible air. I have seen at
least a hundred yards so manufactured. Then 'Joey' said, 'Dr. Nichols, I have got into a
great row about that Greek, which you transcribed imperfectly.' He then selected two small
slates from a pile of new ones lying on the mantel-shelf, and handed them to me to be cleaned. I
rubbed them both thoroughly, and so did each of the three others—one of them using a wet cloth.
'
Joey
' then borrowed my knife, whittled a piece of slate pencil, bit off a piece of it, and placed
it between the two slates, and then carefully wrapped up both in a piece of newspaper. This
was all done in the centre of the small room, quite away from the medium, and in plain sight
of all. Then, at his request, I moved my chair forward, and sitting facing 'Joey' held one
corner of the slates with my left hand, as he did the other corner with his right, and I laid
the fingers of my right hand on the fingers of his left. Instantly we heard the sound of writing
on the slates. In a few moments three little raps told us the writing was done, and I pushed