Uncanny Atlas
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Claimed sighting

Lord Brougham's vision in the bath

WhereThis has no location, and never had one.
DoorSomeone Who Was There
Our judgementObscurity 3 of 6

From his bath, Henry Brougham saw his friend G--- sitting calmly on a chair. He wrote the whole thing down at once, dated 19 December.

Henry Brougham and a friend he calls only G--- once made a pact written in their own blood, he says in The Life and Times of Henry Lord Brougham. Whichever of them died first would appear to the other and so settle their doubts about life after death.

Andrew Lang quotes what followed in The Book of Dreams and Ghosts. While taking a bath, Brougham saw G--- sitting on a chair, looking steadily at him. He could not say how he got out of the water. When he came to, he was lying on the floor and the figure was gone. He was shaken enough to write the whole thing down at once, with the date, 19 December, and every detail while it was still clear to him.

From the primary source
"On the chair sat G---, looking calmly at me. How I got out of the bath I know not, but on recovering my senses I found myself sprawling on the floor. The apparition, or whatever it was that had taken the likeness of G---, had disappeared. . . . So strongly was I affected by it that I have here written down the whole history, with the date, 19th December, and all the particulars as they are now fresh before me."
Andrew Lang (1897), Project Gutenberg ebook #12621, The Book of Dreams and GhostsRead the source →
Also told in
The one rule

Every entry says what kind of claim it is.

Claimed sightingSomeone reported seeing it. The entry records the report and takes no side.
FolkloreA story carried by a community, with no single origin to point at.
Hoax, provenMade up to fool people, and exposed. The test is intent: the maker wanted it believed.
FictionMade openly as fiction. If people later believed it, the entry tells that story; the label stays.
DisputedSomething happened. What it was is still argued over by the people who've studied the record.
Religious traditionHeld as doctrine by living believers. Not ours to grade.
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