Did Robert Browning expose Daniel Dunglas Home as a fraud?

I did look at both Robert Browning's and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's letters describing the seance. Unfortunately I think they may still be in copyright in the USA, as they weren't published until 1933 and 1929 respectively. But there's nothing in either of them about a phantasm of Mrs Browning's child, or about Browning seizing Home's foot or any other part of his anatomy. The couple did witness the appearance of "spiritual hands" and Browning's letter describes how he was touched by something on his knees and hands, but though he was promised that he would be allowed to hold one of the spirit hands in his own, the promise wasn't kept.

Clearly, nothing like what was described after Browning's death by his son and by Frederick Greenwood really took place. That's not to say that Browning believed the phenomena were genuine. Clearly he believed they were fake, though he also says he couldn't explain how some of them were done.

I did look at both Robert Browning's and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's letters describing the seance. Unfortunately I think they may still be in copyright in the USA, as they weren't published until 1933 and 1929 respectively.

I've just realised that I was being unnecessarily cautious. The letters are certainly out of copyright in the UK, so they can be made available at an org.uk email address for British participants. Or, of course, for anyone else willing to take the responsibility of satisfying themselves that the material is out of copyright in their jurisdiction. Please follow the links below for photos of the published text of the letters.

(1) Robert Browning's letter, from William Lyon Phelps's article "Robert Browning on Spiritualism" in the Yale Review for Autumn 1933, pp. 129-135.
http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/test...28-129.jpg
http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/test...30-131.jpg
http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/test...32-133.jpg
http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/test...34-135.jpg

(2) Elizabeth Barrett Browning's letter, from Leonard Huxley's "Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Letters to her sister, 1846 to 1859", 1929, pp. 218-221.
http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/test...18-219.jpg
http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/test...20-221.jpg

I recently found a copy of D.D. Home's Incidences in my Life.
A good portion of the book involves the author attempting to deal with the sort of criticism, that was leveled  by Browning.
Fairly effectively  in my opinion.

I recently found a copy of D.D. Home's Incidences in my Life.
A good portion of the book involves the author attempting to deal with the sort of criticism, that was leveled  by Browning.
Fairly effectively  in my opinion.

The book is also freely available online:

Incidents in My Life - D.D. Home
Incidents in My Life - D.D. Home (PDF version)

Incidentally, I edited the Wikipedia page on Home to reflect the information posted on this thread. The previous version had stated as fact the stories about Browning having grabbed Home's foot during the seance. Given the reputation of Wikipedia, I had half expected my editing to be "reverted", but it hasn't happened yet. One would hope the facts in relation to this alleged incident are clear enough, though I'm afraid bias has often proved strong enough to overcome facts in the past.

There's an article about Daniel Dunglas Home by Brent Swancer on Mysterious Universe:
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2020/01/t...niel-home/

Quite often I find the articles posted on Mysterious Universe too credulous. But it seems very strange that anyone would first write this:
"Yet for all of the criticism of Home and his alleged powers, it seems that no one was ever able to figure out how he actually did it, and no one was ever able to successfully replicate any of his “tricks.”"
And then in the following parapgraph write this, without a word of further explanation:
"In more modern times it has come to light that Home was in fact caught cheating on several occasions in private, and that these were simply not reported on publicly ..."

Surely this damning evidence would be worth at least a reference for any reader who wanted to find out more, even if Swancer didn't want to include such interesting material in his article? I tried to post a comment asking for details, but often my comments on that site seem to vanish into the ether.

(Edit: I only hope he doesn't have Browning's alleged exposure in mind!)

There's an article about Daniel Dunglas Home by Brent Swancer on Mysterious Universe:
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2020/01/t...niel-home/

Quite often I find the articles posted on Mysterious Universe too credulous. But it seems very strange that anyone would first write this:
"Yet for all of the criticism of Home and his alleged powers, it seems that no one was ever able to figure out how he actually did it, and no one was ever able to successfully replicate any of his “tricks.”"
And then in the following parapgraph write this, without a word of further explanation:
"In more modern times it has come to light that Home was in fact caught cheating on several occasions in private, and that these were simply not reported on publicly ..."

Surely this damning evidence would be worth at least a reference for any reader who wanted to find out more, even if Swancer didn't want to include such interesting material in his article? I tried to post a comment asking for details, but often my comments on that site seem to vanish into the ether.

(Edit: I only hope he doesn't have Browning's alleged exposure in mind!)

Someone was kind enough to send me a copy of a paper by Count Perovsky-Petrovo-Solovovo from the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research in 1930, in which he discusses some allegations that Daniel Dunglas Home had been caught cheating. It's available here (at page 247):
http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/...930-31.pdf

Some of this material is included in the Wikipedia article on Home, which also mentions allegations by a Mr Merrifield (apparently = Frederick Merrifield, the father of Margaret Verrall) concerning a seance held at the same place and in the same month as the one Browning attended. The Wikipedia article quotes a secondary source, but Merrifield's accounts in the Journal of the SPR are also available online:
http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/...l_1889.pdf (page 120)
https://archive.org/details/journalofsoc...6/mode/2up

It's interesting that several of these allegations concern Home using his feet, like the spurious story about Browning. Wikipedia says Merrifield also claimed to have seen Home using his feet, but I can't see that in his accounts. Nor does he actually talk about the "spirit hand" being a "false limb", but only says that whatever supported it was continuously connected to Home's arm.

As for Brent Swancer's statement about Home having been privately caught cheating, apparently that comes from a statement by Gordon Stein, quoted in the Wikipedia article.

Some of this material is included in the Wikipedia article on Home, which also mentions allegations by a Mr Merrifield (apparently = Frederick Merrifield, the father of Margaret Verrall) concerning a seance held at the same place and in the same month as the one Browning attended. The Wikipedia article quotes a secondary source, but Merrifield's accounts in the Journal of the SPR are also available online:
http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/...l_1889.pdf (page 120)
https://archive.org/details/journalofsoc...6/mode/2up

Someone kindly pointed out to me a further article by G. Zorab, published in the Journal of the SPR in 1971, which casts doubt on Mr Merrifield's interpretation of what he saw, on the basis that - as attested by Mrs Browning [see links above] - at the same place and in the same month Home was producing "spirit hand" manifestations which couldn't be explained by the crude means he suggested.

The same person kindly pointed out that Eric Dingwall's book "Some Human Oddities: Studies in the Queer, the Uncanny and the Fanatical" (1962) is available at the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/SomeHumanOddities

One of the chapters is on Home, and it includes some more information about the attitudes of the Brownings towards him. It also discusses the question of Home's possible homosexuality. Dingwall later discovered that the rumoured "mystery of inquity" connected with Home had nothing at all to do with homosexuality, but concerned an allegation that he had failed to pay for a fur coat. Some details about that in a review by Dingwall of Trevor H. Hall's 1984 book about Home are available online:
http://files.afu.se/Downloads/Magazines/...d%2013.pdf

Among the other chapters in Dingwall's book that people here may find interesting is one about St Joseph of Cupertino, the 17th-century flying friar.

(Edit: I think it's clear from Dingwall's account (by implication) that it's a very long time since anyone in the world of parapsychology has taken seriously the story of Home's exposure by Browning. It seems a good example of the reliance of some sceptics on old and unreliable secondary sources.)