Historical dream account · English · published source text
The Opal beneath the Copper-Beech Leaf
Horace G. Hutchinson
Dreams and Their Meanings (1901) · 1901 edition, chapter VI, printed pp.230–231; PDF pages 242–243; original scan leaves 246–247
Dreamer identified by the source: Flora Stuart
Read in your language or share a constellation ↗
" In the early autumn of 1864, my father (the late Captain Wm. Campbell) was living at Snettisham, Norfolk. We had a croquet party. Among the guests was a young man, George Gambier (nephew of the late artist Mr. Gambier Parry), at the time an agricultural pupil of the late Mr. Charles Preedy, agent on the Hunstanton estate. As Mr. Gambier was about to mount his horse and ride home, he suddenly said, ' I have lost the opal out of my ring. I would not have done this for the world ; it belonged to my father. I remember seeing it as I rang the bell on arriving, so that it must have dropped out since I came here.' We all set to work to hunt for the stone by walking up and down the lawn in line, but without success. " There were two copper-beech trees, one just on the lawn near the house, the other a little further back, above the embankment made in laying off the lawn, but spreading a little over it. In the early morning I dreamed I saw the stone shining under a leaf that had fallen from the tree, close to the edge of the bank. I saw the whole scene vividly, the dew drops sparkling in the sun, and the stone, in my dream. I woke so much impressed by my dream that I at once got up and dressed and went out. It was about six o'clock on a lovely morning. I went out by the garden door directly on to the lawn, and walked up to the tree, seeing everything as in my dream, and found the stone without further looking, just under the leaf as I had seen it.
Source & context
A sleep-dream recollection reproduced in the 1901 edition’s chapters compiled by an unnamed collaborator, mainly from earlier Society for Psychical Research material. The quoted waking follow-up and supernatural interpretation are historical claims by the source, not independently verified events.
Flora Stuart, reported in Horace G. Hutchinson, Dreams and Their Meanings (London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green and Co., 1901), 1901 edition, chapter VI, printed pp.230–231; PDF pages 242–243; original scan leaves 246–247. Primary witness: original 1901 edition at Internet Archive. The compiler, dreamer, and separately credited earlier recorder are distinguished. Editorial title and navigation themes added; no generated narrative or new translation.
The publication year is not the dream date. No exact dream date or present-day person location is inferred. Dates printed in the narrative remain source wording.
Public domain in the United States (1901 edition) ↗
The original English 1901 edition is public domain in the United States by expired publication term; Archive metadata reports NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT. No new Archive license or Public Domain Mark grant is asserted. The linked NoC-US statement describes the US-only rights basis; blanket worldwide clearance is not asserted. Hutchinson’s own writing and named or unidentified contributors are distinguished; no contributor is assigned the compiler’s death date. Named or initialled historical contributor as printed; contributor death date not established here. US publication-term basis is used, not Hutchinson’s death year..
Source locator and text provenance
1901 edition, chapter VI, printed pp.230–231; PDF pages 242–243; original scan leaves 246–247
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Whitespace/linewrap normalization, witnessed end-of-line dehyphenation, and listed scan-verified OCR repairs only. No dream narrative, person, event, translation or stylistic rewrite added.
- Account text SHA-256
- ef86c32371442fc2d8c62de2a59ebff9f2809b02cbaa490dc19b269f24e26e41
- Source file SHA-256
- 40a41bb112104c3680401c260e060fde498bfe84e41f4394ee28e47f7e827b5f
Content notes
- Lost object
- Claimed clairvoyance
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.