avement, and then, smiling and debonnair, Home
was with them again. Another marvel immediately followed. At Home's
request Lord Dunraven closed the window out of which the medium was
supposed to have been carried by the spirits, and on returning observed
that the window had not been raised a foot, and he did not see how a man
could have squeezed through it. "Come," said Home, "I will show you."
Together they went into the next room.

"He told me," Lord Dunraven reported, "to open the window as it was
before. I did so. He told me to stand a little distance off; he then
went through the open space, head first, quite rapidly, his body being
nearly horizontal and apparently rigid. He came in again feet foremost,
and we returned to the other room. It was so dark I could not see
clearly how he was supported outside. He did not appear to grasp, or
rest upon the balustrade, but rather to be swung out and in."

To Lord Dunraven and Lord Crawford again was given the boon of
witnessing another of Home's most sensational performances, and on more
than one occasion. This may best be described in Lord Crawford's own
words, as related in his testimony to the London Dialectical Society's
committee which in 1869 undertook an inquiry into the claims of
spiritism.

"I saw Mr. Home," declared Lord Crawford, "in a trance elongated eleven
inches. I measured him standing up against the wall, and marked the
place; not being satisfied with that, I put him in the middle of the
room and placed a candle in front of him, so as to throw a shadow on the
wall, which I also marked. When he awoke I measured him again in his
natural size, both directly and by the shadow, and the results were
equal. I can swear that he was not off the ground or standing on tiptoe,
as I had full view of his feet, and, moreover, a gentleman present had
one of his feet placed over Home's insteps.... I once saw him elongated
horizontally on the ground. Lord Adare was present. Home seemed to grow
at both ends, and pushed myself and Adare away."

The publication of this evidence and of the details of the mid-air
excursion provoked, as may be imagined, a heated discussion, and
doubtless had considerable influence in inducing the famous scientist,
Sir William Crookes, to engage in the series of experiments which he
carried out with Home two years later. This was at once the most
searching investigation to which Home was ever subjected, and the most
signal triumph of his caree