things I noted a Latin inscription on a tablet in one of the walls.
There seemed to be an invisible guide showing me over the place, who
then pointed out a long low house opposite the abbey, and said: "This is
the house of the clergyman of the abbey"; and I was then taken inside
the house and shown a number of antique-looking rooms. Then I came to
myself, and found I was sitting at my writing-table in Norwood. I had,
however, a clear recollection of the place I had seen, but no idea where
it was, or indeed whether any such place really existed. I also
remembered a portion of the Latin inscription, which I at once wrote
down in a note-book, as my curiosity was aroused.

As I have said, I had no reason at that time to suppose I should ever
go to Scotland, but some weeks later I was invited to lecture in
Edinburgh. Another visitor in the house where I was a guest there, was
the wife of the County Court Judge of Cumberland, and I showed her and
our hostess the part of the Latin inscription I had retained, and
suggested that perhaps it might exist somewhere in Edinburgh. However
nothing answering to what I had seen was to be found, so we relegated
the whole thing to the region of unaccountable fancies, and thought no
more about it. The Judge's wife took her departure before me, and kindly
invited me to spend a few days at their residence near Carlisle on my
return journey, which I did. One day she drove me out to see Lanercost
Abbey, one of the show-places of the neighbourhood, and walking round
the building I found in one of the walls the Latin inscription in
question. I called Mrs. ----, who was a little way off, and said: "Look
at this inscription."

She at once replied: "Why! that is the very inscription we were all
puzzling over in Edinburgh!"