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Authors: Sarah Rayne
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pattern did start to emerge. Walter had apparently left Calvary at the beginning of 1940 – there was a note from someone called Edgar Higneth, written from there
in March 1940, saying, ‘We are missing you greatly, but our loss is the army’s gain.’ So Walter must have offered his services to the medical corps shortly after the outbreak of
the Second World War, which suggested he had cared more about helping the living than about psychic research, at that stage of his life at any rate.
There were medical journals – Georgina wondered if these might be of any interest to medical schools – and a couple of postcards, apparently from prison staff, one of them asking
Walter if the army made him wear woolly bedsocks, or whether he had found a better way of keeping warm at night, haha, and one or two scrappy notes from people Georgina thought must have been
prisoners. ‘Wishing you well, and thanks for everything, Dr Kane,’ said one.
There were seed catalogues in English and German, and a couple of brochures for sales of antique furniture in London and also in Lucerne. The dates tallied with the purchase of the Swiss house,
so it looked as if Walter had been stocking his garden and also his rooms. Georgina had a sudden strong wish to see the house he had bought and the things he had put into it.
But other than the indication that Walter had liked good furniture and presumably been able to afford it, there was nothing that opened up his life. He was as much of a mystery as ever.
Extract from
Talismans of the Mind
, by C. R. Ingram
It is likely that even without the spectacular unmasking that finally took place amid such tragic and bizarre circumstances, Bartlam and Violette Partridge would not have
flourished very far into the nineteen twenties. To some extent, most of us are products of our own era, and these two were classic products of theirs.
The details of their unmasking are reasonably well documented, but what happened to their clients? To ladies such as the one who wrote the letter reproduced below? Did they seek out other
vultures who would fasten onto their sensibilities, their griefs and their bank balances? The authenticity of this letter cannot be verified, nor has it been possible to trace the full name of the
sender, since she only signs her Christian name. But it does give a few more details about the machinations in the house in North London.
November 1917
My dear Bartlam and Violette
I must begin by thanking you for last evening’s Meeting. For the first time since the news of his death in France, I felt my beloved boy close to me again, and the manifestation we saw
as we sat around the table was a truly moving experience. It was unmistakably him, and I see now that you were right to counsel me to be patient: to wait until I had attended three or four
Meetings, and until the three of us and the other friends in the Circle, knew one another better. How true it is that those of us who seek to go beyond this life must be properly attuned.
My husband makes no objection to my attending your Meetings, and I shall do all I can to persuade him to accompany me in the near future, although he is, of course, extremely busy.
You referred to some degree of financial embarrassment when last we met. Between such friends as we have become I should not like to think that lack of funds might hinder your work. Vita, my
dear, you have been such a sympathetic friend and such a willing listener to my memories of my dear boy, that I hope you will not find it tactless of me to send you the enclosed bank draft.
Please do accept it in the spirit in which it is sent, and use it in whatever way will best benefit your work.
Until our next Meeting,
I am your very dear friend and admirer
Clara
There is no means of knowing how much money the trusting Clara sent or how it was used, although it’s likely that Bartlam’s wine merchants benefited quite heftily.
There is no means of knowing, either, how
in March 1940, saying, ‘We are missing you greatly, but our loss is the army’s gain.’ So Walter must have offered his services to the medical corps shortly after the outbreak of
the Second World War, which suggested he had cared more about helping the living than about psychic research, at that stage of his life at any rate.
There were medical journals – Georgina wondered if these might be of any interest to medical schools – and a couple of postcards, apparently from prison staff, one of them asking
Walter if the army made him wear woolly bedsocks, or whether he had found a better way of keeping warm at night, haha, and one or two scrappy notes from people Georgina thought must have been
prisoners. ‘Wishing you well, and thanks for everything, Dr Kane,’ said one.
There were seed catalogues in English and German, and a couple of brochures for sales of antique furniture in London and also in Lucerne. The dates tallied with the purchase of the Swiss house,
so it looked as if Walter had been stocking his garden and also his rooms. Georgina had a sudden strong wish to see the house he had bought and the things he had put into it.
But other than the indication that Walter had liked good furniture and presumably been able to afford it, there was nothing that opened up his life. He was as much of a mystery as ever.
Extract from
Talismans of the Mind
, by C. R. Ingram
It is likely that even without the spectacular unmasking that finally took place amid such tragic and bizarre circumstances, Bartlam and Violette Partridge would not have
flourished very far into the nineteen twenties. To some extent, most of us are products of our own era, and these two were classic products of theirs.
The details of their unmasking are reasonably well documented, but what happened to their clients? To ladies such as the one who wrote the letter reproduced below? Did they seek out other
vultures who would fasten onto their sensibilities, their griefs and their bank balances? The authenticity of this letter cannot be verified, nor has it been possible to trace the full name of the
sender, since she only signs her Christian name. But it does give a few more details about the machinations in the house in North London.
November 1917
My dear Bartlam and Violette
I must begin by thanking you for last evening’s Meeting. For the first time since the news of his death in France, I felt my beloved boy close to me again, and the manifestation we saw
as we sat around the table was a truly moving experience. It was unmistakably him, and I see now that you were right to counsel me to be patient: to wait until I had attended three or four
Meetings, and until the three of us and the other friends in the Circle, knew one another better. How true it is that those of us who seek to go beyond this life must be properly attuned.
My husband makes no objection to my attending your Meetings, and I shall do all I can to persuade him to accompany me in the near future, although he is, of course, extremely busy.
You referred to some degree of financial embarrassment when last we met. Between such friends as we have become I should not like to think that lack of funds might hinder your work. Vita, my
dear, you have been such a sympathetic friend and such a willing listener to my memories of my dear boy, that I hope you will not find it tactless of me to send you the enclosed bank draft.
Please do accept it in the spirit in which it is sent, and use it in whatever way will best benefit your work.
Until our next Meeting,
I am your very dear friend and admirer
Clara
There is no means of knowing how much money the trusting Clara sent or how it was used, although it’s likely that Bartlam’s wine merchants benefited quite heftily.
There is no means of knowing, either, how
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