A VERY STRANGE STORY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 514, 12 January 1870, Page 3

A VERY STRANGE STORY.

Commenting upon the death of Mrs Charles Matthews (the mother of the now-living distinguished comedian, and widow of the eminent actor who departed this life thirty-four years ago), the Era tells a strange story as to the courtship and marriage of the deceased lady. The first wife of Mr Charles Matthews, sen., was Miss Strong, the daughter of a physician at Exeter. In 1801 she exhibited symptoms of a decline, and one evening towards the close of her brief life Mrs Matthews sent her husband to request that Miss Jackson, for whom she had some time before conceived a warm regard, would visit her on the following day. When the young actress arrived, Mrs Matthews, propped up in bed, maintained a lively conversation till her husband came in, who was delighted to find her thus able to sit up and talk. She told him her cheerfulness was the result of considerations which had induced her to arrange the interview. Avowing her conviction that no human skill could prolong her life, she adverted to her affection for Miss Jackson, and to that young lady's unprotected state ; and then taking her hand and that of Mr Matthews, and pressing both to her own feverish lips in a solemn manner, conjured them to take compassion on her anxiety, and pledge themselves to become man and wife after her death. Their agitation was extreme. Mr Matthews expostulated with his wife for placing him in such a dilemma, and Miss Jackson, throwing herself upon her knees, besought the pardon of the dying woman for her refusal to comply, representing the impossibility of her affiancing herself to a man for whom she entertained no warmer feiling than that of friendship. She then quitted the chamber, followed by Mr Matthews, who implored her nofc to harbour a suspicion that he had been aware of his wife's intention, which he attributed to something like a delirium produced by her feverish state. In the following May, Mrs Matthew's illness terminated in death, and for some time after that event a natural degree of distance was observed between the widower and Miss Jackson. By degrees, however, the mutual coldnesss wore off, and a feeling of regard was growing up between them, when a circumstance occurred still more remarkable than the dying woman's appeal. Mr Matthews' account of his impressions was as follows : — "He had gone to rest after a very late night's performance at the theatre, finding himself too fatigued to sit up till his usual hour to read ; but, after he was in bed, he discovered — as will happen when persons attempt to sleep before their accutomed time — that to close his eyes was an impossibility. He had no light, nor the means of getting one, all the family being in bed, but the night was not absolutely dark, it was only too dark for the purpose -of reading j indeed, every object was visible. Still he endeavoured to go to sleep, but his eyes refused to close, and in this state of restlessness he remained, when suddenly a slight rustling, as if of a hasty approach of something, induced him to turn his head to that side of the bed whence the noise seemed to proceed, and there he clearly beheld the figure of his late wife, in her habit as she lived, who, smiling sweetly upon him, put forth her her hand as if to take his, as she bent forward. This was all he could relate, for, in shrinking from the contact with the figure he beheld, he threw himself out of bed upon the floor, where the fall having alarmed the house, his landlord found him in a fit. On his recovery, he related the cause of the accident, and the whole of the following day he remained extremely ill, and was unable to quit his room." The remarkable fact is tbat at the exact hour at which Mr Matthews was thus affected a vision of the same kind occurred to Miss Jackson. " The same sleepless effect," she says, " the same cause of terror, had occasioned me to seize the bell-rope in order to summon the people of the house, which, giving way at the moment, I fell with it in my hand upon the ground. My impressions of this visitation, as I persisted it was, were exactly similar to those of Mr Matthews. The parties with whom we resided at the time were perfect strangers to each other, and living widely apart, and they recounted severally to those about them the extraordinary dream, for such it will be called, although my entire belief will never be sliaken that I was as perfectly awake as at this moment. These persons repeated the story to many before they were requested to meet and compare accounts. There could, consequently, be no doubt of the facts, and the circumstance became a matter of much general interest among all those who knew us." Atter such a sympathy between the widower and the friend of the departed wife, it was not surprising that the dying request should be fulfilled. On the 28th March, 1803, Miss Jackson became the wife of Mr Matthews.