426 



The evidence I have submitted has particularly referred to 

 professional diviners, but the following exceedingly interesting 

 letter is from one who has only practised the art as an amateur. 

 The writer is Mr. Frederick Webster, who is engaged in the 

 estate office at the Queen's Home Farm, at Osborne, and his 

 testimony is endorsed by Mr. A. Blake, Her Majesty's Steward, 

 whom I have long known and esteemed. Mr. Webster says : — 



" Mr. Little has asked me to write you an account of how I 

 first found that I possessed the power to find water by means of 

 the ' dowsing ' or ' divining rod,' and the eflFects produced at 

 the time of using it and afterwards. 



" Until I saw John MuUins, of Colerne, Wilts, who was 

 engaged by the Earl of Jersey, in the dry summer of 1 884, to 

 find water on his estate at Middleton Stoney, Oxfordshire, I had 

 not seen the dowsing rod, nor had I even heard of it, but whilst 

 MuUins was there I was induced, amongst many others in the 

 village, to try and see if it worked with me, when I was greatly 

 surprised to find that it would, but I was the only one that it 

 did turn up with. 



"The twig can be either nut or white thorn, and in shape 

 like the large letter 'V.' The two branches are held between 

 the two first fingers and thumbs of each hand, with the bottom 

 of the twig pointing to the ground ; then the performer walks at 

 a steady pace, and when nearing a spring there is a sensation 

 in the arms and wrists like a slight shock from an electric 

 battery, which gradually increases in force until you get directly 

 over the spring, when, if the spring is a strong one, the end of 

 the twig which was pointing to the ground will suddenly rise 

 and point upwards, but if the spring is weak it will only rise 

 gradually. Some people imagine that the performer forces the 

 twig «p with his fingers, but it can be easily proved that this is 

 not the case, for if the end of one of the branches or forks of 

 the twig is broken off, all but the bark, and the performer holds 

 the piece that is broken in one hand, and the other branch in the 

 other hand, the twig will turn up the same as before. 



