We hear from Maidstone, that
a young gentleman, apprentice to an eminent surgeon and apothecary in that town, was so greatly
affected on seeing the execution of the six malefactors on Saturday se'ennight, that he took a dose of arsenic, and notwithstanding all
possible means were used to expel the poison, he expired in great agonies on the Monday following.
Tuesday 30 June 2015
Promised he would do her no harm
A letter from Liverpool, dated March 14, says, "That on Thursday evening, the 6th instant, a most shocking murder was committed by William Whittle, on the bodies of his wife and two small children, at Farrington, near Preston in Lancashire.
The circumstances related of the affair, are, that the wife having lain in about nine days, the husband came home near ten at night, and observing the nurse in the house carding of cotton, asked her whether she would not go home (as she did not lie in the house) he being desirous of going to bed, to which she replied in the affirmative; as soon as the nurse was gone he went up stairs to his wife, and desired to lie down by her, which she refused, fearing he had some evil design, and immediately jumping out of bed, ran down stairs in her shift into the lane; when he pursued her, and intreated her to return back, promising he would do her no harm, to which she agreed; but she had no sooner entered the house than he knocked her down with an axe, cut off her head and right arm, and ripped up her belly, so that her bowels lay upon the ground; he afterwards went up stairs, and cut off the heads of the two infants, and left them on the bed, with the youngest child's heart by its side.
When he had perpetrated this horrid deed, he immediately went to the constable, (who lived near) and informed him that some person had been at his house, and murdered his wife and children; to which the constable replied, I doubt you are the murderer, and asked him how his hands and stockings came to be so bloody; struck with remorse at the question, he immediately confessed the fact, and was committed to Lancaster gaol on Saturday last, to take his trial at the ensuing assizes."
The circumstances related of the affair, are, that the wife having lain in about nine days, the husband came home near ten at night, and observing the nurse in the house carding of cotton, asked her whether she would not go home (as she did not lie in the house) he being desirous of going to bed, to which she replied in the affirmative; as soon as the nurse was gone he went up stairs to his wife, and desired to lie down by her, which she refused, fearing he had some evil design, and immediately jumping out of bed, ran down stairs in her shift into the lane; when he pursued her, and intreated her to return back, promising he would do her no harm, to which she agreed; but she had no sooner entered the house than he knocked her down with an axe, cut off her head and right arm, and ripped up her belly, so that her bowels lay upon the ground; he afterwards went up stairs, and cut off the heads of the two infants, and left them on the bed, with the youngest child's heart by its side.
When he had perpetrated this horrid deed, he immediately went to the constable, (who lived near) and informed him that some person had been at his house, and murdered his wife and children; to which the constable replied, I doubt you are the murderer, and asked him how his hands and stockings came to be so bloody; struck with remorse at the question, he immediately confessed the fact, and was committed to Lancaster gaol on Saturday last, to take his trial at the ensuing assizes."
A miller's tale
As a young woman was going to speak to her father, who is a miller at the windmill near Sunderland, she happened to go within reach of the sails or wands of the mill, which struck her so violently on the head, as to fracture her skull in several places; and though a surgeon was immediately sent for, who trepanned her, there are no hopes of her recovery: and what makes the case more lamentable is, that she was to have been married next week to an old sweetheart, a sailor, who but a few days before returned from a long voyage, and is now most inconsolable for the melancholy loss of his mistress.
Disguised as an officer
Catherine Nairne, lately tried and found guilty of incest and murder, made this evening her escape out of Edinburgh gaol, in the disguise of an officer. Having been delivered about nine days before of a girl, she was indulged, on account of her weakness, with the quiet and privacy which the nature of her illness required. She desired, however, that her room-door might be left open for the benefit of the air, and being left alone for the night, she took occasion to dress herself in man's apparel, and walking out into the court, and mixing with the strangers that were going out, passed unnoticed by the keepers.
She seems to have been well seconded; for certain information was received at Mr. Fielding's office, that she was at Dover on the Wednesday following, in the dress of an officer, endeavouring to procure a passage for France, which probably she has since obtained.
Some letters from Edinburgh mention the accounts of Mrs. Ogilvie's [sic] escape to be as follows:
There were two rooms allotted to her when lying-in, an outer and an inner room, in the last of which she was brought to bed; after that happened, the under-keeper, or turnkey, visited her once a day to see she was in bed in the inner room; some days before she made her escape, she intreated that the door between the two rooms might be left open all night, for the benefit of air, as she was, or pretended to be, very sickly and weak. This, from a principle of humanity, was complied with; and that afternoon the keeper of the prison, or under-keeper, visited her, drew the curtains, and saw her in bed, when she intreated not to be disturbed till next day at noon, as she was very bad. Immediately after this she had got out of bed, dressed herself in man's apparel, and in the dusk came forward through the two rooms to the outer gate, where the turnkey suspecting no harm, among others, let her pass unnoticed. It does not appear that any person was with her at the time; but the plan being laid, she had immediately taken a post-chaise, and gone off. So that, next day at noon, on entering her room, no person was to be found.
The king and the magistrates of that city have offered a reward of 100l. each for her re-caption. The misfortunes of this family are not yet complete; for Alexander Ogilvie was lately, by warrant of the sheriff, committed to the tolbooth, for the alledged crime of bigamy: whose, father (being concerned in the late rebellion) was confined in Edinburgh castle, and broke his neck in making his escape over the embrasures facing Livingston's- yard. His eldest son was taken prisoner at Carlisle, and suffered an ignominious death with the rebels there; and his next son, Mr. Thomas Ogilvie, of East-Miln, husband to Mrs. Ogilvie, was poisoned by her and his brother, Lieutenant Patrick Ogilvie, belonging to the 89th regiment of foot, who were impeached by the said Alexander Ogilvie of incest, and (in part and art) concerned in the murder, both of whom underwent their trials, the issue of which has been related before.
And what adds farther to these melancholy disasters, the mother of this unfortunate family is still living.
She seems to have been well seconded; for certain information was received at Mr. Fielding's office, that she was at Dover on the Wednesday following, in the dress of an officer, endeavouring to procure a passage for France, which probably she has since obtained.
Some letters from Edinburgh mention the accounts of Mrs. Ogilvie's [sic] escape to be as follows:
There were two rooms allotted to her when lying-in, an outer and an inner room, in the last of which she was brought to bed; after that happened, the under-keeper, or turnkey, visited her once a day to see she was in bed in the inner room; some days before she made her escape, she intreated that the door between the two rooms might be left open all night, for the benefit of air, as she was, or pretended to be, very sickly and weak. This, from a principle of humanity, was complied with; and that afternoon the keeper of the prison, or under-keeper, visited her, drew the curtains, and saw her in bed, when she intreated not to be disturbed till next day at noon, as she was very bad. Immediately after this she had got out of bed, dressed herself in man's apparel, and in the dusk came forward through the two rooms to the outer gate, where the turnkey suspecting no harm, among others, let her pass unnoticed. It does not appear that any person was with her at the time; but the plan being laid, she had immediately taken a post-chaise, and gone off. So that, next day at noon, on entering her room, no person was to be found.
The king and the magistrates of that city have offered a reward of 100l. each for her re-caption. The misfortunes of this family are not yet complete; for Alexander Ogilvie was lately, by warrant of the sheriff, committed to the tolbooth, for the alledged crime of bigamy: whose, father (being concerned in the late rebellion) was confined in Edinburgh castle, and broke his neck in making his escape over the embrasures facing Livingston's- yard. His eldest son was taken prisoner at Carlisle, and suffered an ignominious death with the rebels there; and his next son, Mr. Thomas Ogilvie, of East-Miln, husband to Mrs. Ogilvie, was poisoned by her and his brother, Lieutenant Patrick Ogilvie, belonging to the 89th regiment of foot, who were impeached by the said Alexander Ogilvie of incest, and (in part and art) concerned in the murder, both of whom underwent their trials, the issue of which has been related before.
And what adds farther to these melancholy disasters, the mother of this unfortunate family is still living.
Sold his wife
One Higginson, a journeyman-carpenter in the borough, having last week sold his wife to a brother workman in a fit of conjugal indifference at the alehouse, took it in his head to hang himself a few days after, as the lady very peaceably cohabited with the purchaser, and refused to return home at his most pressing solicitations.
Culinary mishap
At Houghton in Buckinghamshire, the maid-servant of Mr. York having gathered some hemlock roots instead of parsnips, boiled them under that mistake; and Mrs. York, with others of the family, having eat of them, Mrs. York soon after died, and the rest were in great danger.
Wished his flesh might rot
One Richard Parsons of Chalford in Gloucestershire, in playing at cards, wished his flesh might rot, and his eyes never shut, if he lost the next game. At night, in going to bed, he observed a black spot upon his leg, from which a mortification soon ensued, and he died in a few days in a very miserable condition.
A circumstantial and authentic account of the memorable case of Richard Parsons, as transmitted in a letter from William Dallaway, Esq; High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, to his friend in London.
ON the 20th of February last, Richard Parsons and three more met at a private house in Chalford, in order to play at cards, about six o'clock in the evening. They played at loo till about eleven or twelve that night, when they changed their game for whist: after a few deals, a dispute arose about the state of the game. Parson's asserted with oaths, that they were six, which the others denied: upon which he wished, 'that he might never enter into the kingdom of heaven, and that his flesh might rot upon his bones, if they were not six in the game.' These wishes were several times repeated, both then, and afterwards. Upon this the candle was put out by one James Young, a stander-by, who says, he was shocked with the oaths and expressions he heard; and that he put out the candle with a design to, put an end to the game.
Presently, upon this, they adjourned to another house, and there began a fresh game, when Parsons and his partner had great success. Then they played at loo again till four in the morning. During this second playing, Parsons complained, to one Rolles, his partner, of a bad pain in his leg, which from that time increased. There was an appearance of a swelling, and afterwards the colour changing to that of a mortified state. On the following Sunday he rode to Minchin Hampton, to get the advice of Mr. Pegler the surgeon in that town, who attended him from the Thursday after February 27. Notwithstanding all the applications that were made, the mortification increased, and shewed itself in different parts of his body.
On Monday, March 3. at the request of some of his female relations, the clergyman of Bisley attended him, and administered the sacrament, without any knowledge of what had happened before, and which he continued a stranger to till he saw the account in the Gloucester Journal. Parsons appeared to be extremely ignorant of religion, having been accustomed to swear, to drink, (though he was not in liquor when he uttered the above execrable wish), to game, and to profane the Sabbath, though he was only in his 19th year; after he had received the sacrament, he appeared to have some sense of the ordinance; for he said, 'Now I must never sin again; he hoped God would forgive him, having been wicked not above six years, and that whatever should happen, he would not play at cards again.'
After this he was in great agony, chiefly delirious, spoke of his companions by name, and seemed as if his imagination was engaged at cards. He started, had distracted looks and gestures, and in a dreadful fit of shaking and trembling, died on Tuesday morning, the 4th of March last; and was buried the next day at the parish-church of Bisley. His eyes were open when he died, and could not be closed by the common methods; so that they remained open when he was put into the coffin: from this circumstance arose a report, that he wished his eyes might never close; but this was a mistake; for, from the most creditable witnesses, I am fully convinced no such wish was uttered; and the fact is, that he did close his eyes after he was taken with the mortification, and either dosed or slept several times.
When the body came to be laid out, it appeared all over discoloured or spotted; and it might, in the most literal sense, be said, that his stem rotted on his bones before he died.
Mr. Dallaway, having desired Mr. Pegler, the surgeon, to send him his thoughts of Parsons's case, received from him the following account:
"SIR,
You desire me to acquaint you, in writing, with what I know relating to the melancholy case of the late Richard Parsons; a request I readily comply with, hoping that his sad catastrophe will serve to admonish all those who profane the sacred name of God.
February 27 last, I visited Richard Parsons, who I found had an inflamed leg, stretching from the foot almost to the knee, tending to a gangrene. The tenseness and redness of the skin was almost gone off, and became of a duskish and livid colour, and felt very lax and flabby. Symptoms being so dangerous, some incisions were made down to the quick, some spirituous fomentations made use of, and the whole limb dressed up with such applications as are most approved in such desperate circumstances, joined with proper internal medicines. The next day he seemed much the same; but on March 1 he was worse, the incisions discharging a sharp foetid ichor (which is generally of the worst consequence.) On the next day, which was Sunday, the symptoms seemed to be a little more favourable; but, to my great surprise, the very next day, I found his leg not only mortified up to the knee, but the same began anew in four different parts, viz. under each eye, on the top of his shoulder, and on one hand; and in about twelve hours after he died. I shall not presume to say there was any thing supernatural in the case; but, however, it must be confessed, that such cases are rather uncommon in subjects so young, and of so good an habit as he had always been, previous to this illness."
[This was almost certainly a case of septicaemia a century before its discovery].
A circumstantial and authentic account of the memorable case of Richard Parsons, as transmitted in a letter from William Dallaway, Esq; High Sheriff of Gloucestershire, to his friend in London.
ON the 20th of February last, Richard Parsons and three more met at a private house in Chalford, in order to play at cards, about six o'clock in the evening. They played at loo till about eleven or twelve that night, when they changed their game for whist: after a few deals, a dispute arose about the state of the game. Parson's asserted with oaths, that they were six, which the others denied: upon which he wished, 'that he might never enter into the kingdom of heaven, and that his flesh might rot upon his bones, if they were not six in the game.' These wishes were several times repeated, both then, and afterwards. Upon this the candle was put out by one James Young, a stander-by, who says, he was shocked with the oaths and expressions he heard; and that he put out the candle with a design to, put an end to the game.
Presently, upon this, they adjourned to another house, and there began a fresh game, when Parsons and his partner had great success. Then they played at loo again till four in the morning. During this second playing, Parsons complained, to one Rolles, his partner, of a bad pain in his leg, which from that time increased. There was an appearance of a swelling, and afterwards the colour changing to that of a mortified state. On the following Sunday he rode to Minchin Hampton, to get the advice of Mr. Pegler the surgeon in that town, who attended him from the Thursday after February 27. Notwithstanding all the applications that were made, the mortification increased, and shewed itself in different parts of his body.
On Monday, March 3. at the request of some of his female relations, the clergyman of Bisley attended him, and administered the sacrament, without any knowledge of what had happened before, and which he continued a stranger to till he saw the account in the Gloucester Journal. Parsons appeared to be extremely ignorant of religion, having been accustomed to swear, to drink, (though he was not in liquor when he uttered the above execrable wish), to game, and to profane the Sabbath, though he was only in his 19th year; after he had received the sacrament, he appeared to have some sense of the ordinance; for he said, 'Now I must never sin again; he hoped God would forgive him, having been wicked not above six years, and that whatever should happen, he would not play at cards again.'
After this he was in great agony, chiefly delirious, spoke of his companions by name, and seemed as if his imagination was engaged at cards. He started, had distracted looks and gestures, and in a dreadful fit of shaking and trembling, died on Tuesday morning, the 4th of March last; and was buried the next day at the parish-church of Bisley. His eyes were open when he died, and could not be closed by the common methods; so that they remained open when he was put into the coffin: from this circumstance arose a report, that he wished his eyes might never close; but this was a mistake; for, from the most creditable witnesses, I am fully convinced no such wish was uttered; and the fact is, that he did close his eyes after he was taken with the mortification, and either dosed or slept several times.
When the body came to be laid out, it appeared all over discoloured or spotted; and it might, in the most literal sense, be said, that his stem rotted on his bones before he died.
Mr. Dallaway, having desired Mr. Pegler, the surgeon, to send him his thoughts of Parsons's case, received from him the following account:
"SIR,
You desire me to acquaint you, in writing, with what I know relating to the melancholy case of the late Richard Parsons; a request I readily comply with, hoping that his sad catastrophe will serve to admonish all those who profane the sacred name of God.
February 27 last, I visited Richard Parsons, who I found had an inflamed leg, stretching from the foot almost to the knee, tending to a gangrene. The tenseness and redness of the skin was almost gone off, and became of a duskish and livid colour, and felt very lax and flabby. Symptoms being so dangerous, some incisions were made down to the quick, some spirituous fomentations made use of, and the whole limb dressed up with such applications as are most approved in such desperate circumstances, joined with proper internal medicines. The next day he seemed much the same; but on March 1 he was worse, the incisions discharging a sharp foetid ichor (which is generally of the worst consequence.) On the next day, which was Sunday, the symptoms seemed to be a little more favourable; but, to my great surprise, the very next day, I found his leg not only mortified up to the knee, but the same began anew in four different parts, viz. under each eye, on the top of his shoulder, and on one hand; and in about twelve hours after he died. I shall not presume to say there was any thing supernatural in the case; but, however, it must be confessed, that such cases are rather uncommon in subjects so young, and of so good an habit as he had always been, previous to this illness."
[This was almost certainly a case of septicaemia a century before its discovery].
Fell into a hollow way
On Friday se'ennight as a poor man was returning from Wolverhampton to his own house on Wedgfield-Heath, a place about two miles from that town, it is thought he was so bewildered in the snow, that he fell into a hollow way, where he perislied; he was found last Tuesday, and when discovered had one eye picked out, and was otherwise much disfigured by the crows: he has left a wife and seven children.
What a fair he had made
Last week at Hereford fair, a boy was sent to it to sell a cow, which he did, for more money than the master ordered. The boy, going into a public house, and bragging to a neighbour what a fair he had made; a highwayman being in the house overheard him, followed him a mile out of town, and gave him a lift on horseback
but about two miles farther told him, he must have the money he sold the cow for; on this, the boy slipt off the horse, and ran, and the highwayman, dismounting, ran after him; and, on overtaking him, the boy pulled the money out of his pocket, and strewed it about; and while the highwayman was picking it up, the boy seized the horse, and rode home. Upon searching the saddle-bags, there were found twelve pounds in cash, and two pistols loaded.
The horse is worth about fourteen pounds.
The horse is worth about fourteen pounds.
Bit by a mad dog
The following melancholy accident happened at Carpentras in the district of Avignon. An inhabitant of that place had married his daughter, and the wedding being passed with the usual merriment, the new married couple were conducted to their apartment. The next day, as neither of them made their appearance, after waiting till it was very late, a person was sent to call them; but as nobody answered, and the window-shutters being open, they got a ladder and looked in at the window, when they found the young woman dragged upon the floor all over blood, and the husband tearing her with his teeth, and devouring her. It is impossible to express the horror which such a shocking spectacle must occasion.
They immediately broke open the door, but too late to save the poor woman, who was quite dead, and almost torn to pieces. They were at a loss to know to what to attribute this shocking catastrophe, but the footman of the new-married man recollected that his master had some time before been bit by a mad dog, which they were convinced must be the cause of it.
They thought it expedient to shoot the unhappy man, which was done upon the spot.
They immediately broke open the door, but too late to save the poor woman, who was quite dead, and almost torn to pieces. They were at a loss to know to what to attribute this shocking catastrophe, but the footman of the new-married man recollected that his master had some time before been bit by a mad dog, which they were convinced must be the cause of it.
They thought it expedient to shoot the unhappy man, which was done upon the spot.
He lost his road
As Mr. Bainbridge of Bolton, near Lancaster, was attempting to cross the Seven-mile sands, in a thick fog, he lost his road, and wandered about till the flood-tide came in and surrounded him; he killed his horse galloping backwards and forwards, to escape the tide; and was fortunately taken up (after floating on the surface of the water about five hours) seated on the dead horse, motionless, and benumbed with cold, by two youths, belonging to the sloop Providence, from Milnthorp, then riding at anchor (since arrived), who towed him with their boat to the side of the vessel, hoisted him with a tackle on board, rolled and rubbed his body, and finding some appearance of life, stripped him, and clothed him with dry cloaths, and applied some brandy and water to his mouth, which, with great difficulty, they got down his throat. Life visibly returning, they carried him in their beat to a public-house, where, after putting him in a warm bed, he recovered in a few hours.
Cut off his fingers and toes
We hear from Whitehaven, that a few days ago a man in that town having some difference with his son, decoyed the lad into a neighbouring wood, and after putting an instrument into his mouth, to prevent his cries being heard, cut off his fingers and toes, and left him tied fast to a tree; a person passing that way some time after, released him, but by loss of blood he expired soon after.
Two guineas to her apothecary
At Warwick, Mrs. Abbots, a widow lady of that town, who by her will left a legacy of two guineas to her apothecary, on condition of his cutting through the skin of her throat after her decease; to proceed no further, if she bled; but, if she did not bleed, to cut quite through her wind-pipe; both which operations her maid, agreeable to her promise, saw punctually executed, and thereby entitled herself to a very handsome legacy.
Monday 29 June 2015
Let down an iron pot
To prevent the many accidents that happen in cleansing foul wells through the badness of the vapour lodged at the bottom of them, the following method has been discovered and recommended by Mr. Millington, of the city of Worcester. Let down an iron pot, with a few ounces of gunpowder in it, to the surface of the water; then toss a shovel full of live coals into the well, some of which will probably fall in the pot, and set the powder on fire, the explosion of which will effectually dispell the noxious damps, and thereby render it safe for workmen to go down into it.
Infernal medicine
Mark Fisher, the master of the workhouse at Bluntisham, in Huntingdonshire, and several of the poor under his care, being troubled with the itch, he mixed a quantity of arsenic, Roman vitriol, glass, and soap, into an ointment, and anointed himself and five women with it. But this his infernal medicine proved so violent, that himself, and two of the women soon died of it, leaving the other three in a very deplorable condition.
Conduct in life
At Ludlington,in Lincolnshire, Mr. Wedd having made a seizure for rent on Mr. Howard, a school-master, and expostulating with him on his way of life, was answered by the application of a loaded gun to his breast, which Howard instantly discharged. Some lucky circumstance, however, having prevented the mischief intended, Howard retired to his closet, and cut his own throat in such a manner as to divide the wind-pipe; notwithstanding which he wrote, the same night, a large skin of parchment, full of directions to his sons for their conduct in life. He died the next day, or the day following, and the coroner's inquest brought in their verdict felo de se.
Sunday 28 June 2015
I think not
A woman in Piccadilly was lately delivered of a boy three feet in length, and weighing 27lb.
Uncommonly wily
This time twelvemonth, a wild beast began to make its appearance in the south of France, especially in the Vivarais and Gevaudan, so uncommonly wily, as seldom to attack any but children, or women when he could meet them alone, and of such uncommon speed, as to be seen in the same day, in many and very distant places, so as to prevent people's travelling, and greatly obstruct all country business heretofore carried on by children or single persons.
Several parties of dragoons having been sent against him to no purpose, the king, in February last, offered a reward of six thousand livres for killing him; and even public prayers were put up in several churches to be delivered from this terrible animal, which the coming up of the corn now rendered it almost impossible to discover or pursue, without doing more damage than could be apprehended from the creature itself, whom several traps had been laid for to no purpose, and many of the dragoons, by dressing themselves in women's apparel, had in vain endeavoured to entice to a fair engagement.
Having once attacked seven boys, the eldest not eleven, and seized on one of them, the three eldest, by beating him with sticks armed at the end with iron, obliged him to part with his prey; but not till he had bit off part of the child's cheek, which he devoured in their presence. He then seized another of the children, but his companions pursued him to a marsh, where he sunk up to the belly, and they belaboured him so, that he let go the child, who, though under his paw, received but one wound in his arm and a scratch in his face. At length, a man coming up to their assistance, the animal thought proper to retreat. These children were rewarded by the king, and ordered to be provided for.
At last, after having devoured more than fifty women and children, he was, on the 20th of this month, discovered in the wood of Pommieres, by monsieur Antoine de Beauterme, a gentleman of a distant province, remarkable for his skill and boldness in hunting, and the goodness of his dogs, who had come of himself to the assistance of tne terrified country, and shot by him in the eye at the distance of about 50 paces. But, though the creature fell on receiving the wound, he soon recovered himself, and was making up to M. de Beauterme with great fury, when he was shot dead by the duke of Orleans's game-keeper, named Reinhard.
Several inhabitants of the Gevaudan, who had been attacked by him, having all declared him to be the same animal, which had caused such terror and consternation in that country, M de Beauterme set out with the body for Versailles in order to present it to the king.
This animal was 32 inches high, 5 feet 7 1/2 inches long, 3 feet thick; and weighed 130lb. The surgeons, who dissected him, say, that he was more of the hyena than the wolf kind. He had forty teeth, whereas wolves have but twenty-six. The muscles of his neck were very strong; his sides so formed, that he could bend his head to his tail; his eyes sparkled so with fire, that it was hardly possible to bear his look; his tail was very large, broad, thick, and bristled with black hair; and his feet armed with claws, extremely strong and singular. When killed, he sent forth a very disagreeable stench. In his body, several sheep's bones were found.
The king ordered him to be embalmed, and stuffed with straw; and to remain in the custody of young monsieur de Beauterme.
The accounts received of this animal were for a long time considered by many persons in England as a mere allegory, contrived to represent the state of popery and protestantism in France.
Several parties of dragoons having been sent against him to no purpose, the king, in February last, offered a reward of six thousand livres for killing him; and even public prayers were put up in several churches to be delivered from this terrible animal, which the coming up of the corn now rendered it almost impossible to discover or pursue, without doing more damage than could be apprehended from the creature itself, whom several traps had been laid for to no purpose, and many of the dragoons, by dressing themselves in women's apparel, had in vain endeavoured to entice to a fair engagement.
Having once attacked seven boys, the eldest not eleven, and seized on one of them, the three eldest, by beating him with sticks armed at the end with iron, obliged him to part with his prey; but not till he had bit off part of the child's cheek, which he devoured in their presence. He then seized another of the children, but his companions pursued him to a marsh, where he sunk up to the belly, and they belaboured him so, that he let go the child, who, though under his paw, received but one wound in his arm and a scratch in his face. At length, a man coming up to their assistance, the animal thought proper to retreat. These children were rewarded by the king, and ordered to be provided for.
At last, after having devoured more than fifty women and children, he was, on the 20th of this month, discovered in the wood of Pommieres, by monsieur Antoine de Beauterme, a gentleman of a distant province, remarkable for his skill and boldness in hunting, and the goodness of his dogs, who had come of himself to the assistance of tne terrified country, and shot by him in the eye at the distance of about 50 paces. But, though the creature fell on receiving the wound, he soon recovered himself, and was making up to M. de Beauterme with great fury, when he was shot dead by the duke of Orleans's game-keeper, named Reinhard.
Several inhabitants of the Gevaudan, who had been attacked by him, having all declared him to be the same animal, which had caused such terror and consternation in that country, M de Beauterme set out with the body for Versailles in order to present it to the king.
This animal was 32 inches high, 5 feet 7 1/2 inches long, 3 feet thick; and weighed 130lb. The surgeons, who dissected him, say, that he was more of the hyena than the wolf kind. He had forty teeth, whereas wolves have but twenty-six. The muscles of his neck were very strong; his sides so formed, that he could bend his head to his tail; his eyes sparkled so with fire, that it was hardly possible to bear his look; his tail was very large, broad, thick, and bristled with black hair; and his feet armed with claws, extremely strong and singular. When killed, he sent forth a very disagreeable stench. In his body, several sheep's bones were found.
The king ordered him to be embalmed, and stuffed with straw; and to remain in the custody of young monsieur de Beauterme.
The accounts received of this animal were for a long time considered by many persons in England as a mere allegory, contrived to represent the state of popery and protestantism in France.
Twelve beautiful Tartar girls
The khan of the Tartars has lately had an audience of the grand signior at Constantinople, when the sultan caused him to sit at the grand visier's right hand, immediately under the royal throne. The
khan presented the grand signior with twelve beautiful Tartar girls, and in return, received six Arabian horses, richly caparisoned. The motive of his journey is not known.
khan presented the grand signior with twelve beautiful Tartar girls, and in return, received six Arabian horses, richly caparisoned. The motive of his journey is not known.
Sixty three of them were shot
Letters dated this day twelvemonth, from Truxillo, about fifty miles from Vera Cruz, in Mexico, bring a most shocking account of the mountain Mano Blanco, in that neighbourhood, opening and throwing out flames, inflamed matter, and black stones, some of great sizes. As
there never was a volcano there before, it terrified the inhabitants to such a degree, that a great number died of the fright.
Many people were destroyed, with 118 Indian huts. Lions, tygers, deer, &c. left the forests, and came for refuge into the town, where sixty three of them were shot in the streets.
Many people were destroyed, with 118 Indian huts. Lions, tygers, deer, &c. left the forests, and came for refuge into the town, where sixty three of them were shot in the streets.
Beheaded at Constantinople
On the 12th of April last, the grand vizier was beheaded at Constantinople; after his head was exposed three days. The grand signior seemed inclined to save him: but nothing could satisfy the divan and populace, but his death; so enraged were they against him, for not quelling in its infancy a revolt in Georgia, occasioned by
the Georgians refusing to yield the usual tribute of their finest girls to the seraglio.
Killed by a cannon ball
A blacksmith at Redriffe, sitting at dinner with his family, was killed by a cannon ball, from a cannon which the people of a neighbouring foundery had put into the furnace without examining
whether it was charged or not.
whether it was charged or not.
Saturday 27 June 2015
Punishment according to the manner of the ancient Scythians
Some time ago a man at Carnor, about two leagues from Carlstadt in Transylvania, who had been a
few months married to a young woman of eighteen, of whom he was exceeding jealous, having taken some exceptions to her conduct, locked himself up one evening with her and her mother; he then stripped his wife, and having fastened her to the wall with wooden pegs, he cut off her ears, nose, and two breasts, and drove a stake into her belly. He then cut open her side with a knife, and not finding her heart, which he wanted, opened her other side, from which he took it out.
He then loosened the poor wretch, laid her on the ground, to which he fastened her with three pegs, and afterwards laid himself down by the dead body; and, as if the being satiated with barbarity produced the same effects with drunkenness, he fell into so profound a sleep, that his mother-in-law, who expected the same fate, easily opened the doors, and escaped into the neighbourhood, where she gave an account of the shocking scene she had been witness to.
Upon this, proper persons were dispatched, who seized him while still asleep,
The punishment inflicted on him was, according to the manner of the ancient Scythians, proportioned to so unheard of a crime.
The wretch was conducted on foot to the gallows, where he was stript; after which his nose, ears, and the flesh of his breast were torn off with hot pincers. He was to have had his eyes plucked out, but this was omitted, because from a schismatic he became a Catholic. He was then fastened to the tail of his own horse, and dragged three times round the gallows; after which his two hands were cut off, one after another, by slow and deliberate strokes. His head was then cleaved; and his breast being opened, his heart taken out, and cut into several pieces. At last his limbs were nailed to the gallows, so low, that the dogs and wild animals might reach them; and they were in fact devoured before night.
This wretch bore those severe torments with incredible firmness and resolution.
On the same day a neighbour of this inhuman wretch was taken up for cutting off his wife's breast, from a like principle of jealousy.
He then loosened the poor wretch, laid her on the ground, to which he fastened her with three pegs, and afterwards laid himself down by the dead body; and, as if the being satiated with barbarity produced the same effects with drunkenness, he fell into so profound a sleep, that his mother-in-law, who expected the same fate, easily opened the doors, and escaped into the neighbourhood, where she gave an account of the shocking scene she had been witness to.
Upon this, proper persons were dispatched, who seized him while still asleep,
The punishment inflicted on him was, according to the manner of the ancient Scythians, proportioned to so unheard of a crime.
The wretch was conducted on foot to the gallows, where he was stript; after which his nose, ears, and the flesh of his breast were torn off with hot pincers. He was to have had his eyes plucked out, but this was omitted, because from a schismatic he became a Catholic. He was then fastened to the tail of his own horse, and dragged three times round the gallows; after which his two hands were cut off, one after another, by slow and deliberate strokes. His head was then cleaved; and his breast being opened, his heart taken out, and cut into several pieces. At last his limbs were nailed to the gallows, so low, that the dogs and wild animals might reach them; and they were in fact devoured before night.
This wretch bore those severe torments with incredible firmness and resolution.
On the same day a neighbour of this inhuman wretch was taken up for cutting off his wife's breast, from a like principle of jealousy.
Close call
A few days ago Mrs. Merrit, in Bull and Mouth street, aged between 60 and 70, after being laid out as dead two or three days, shewed some symptoms of life, and is since perfectly recovered. This is one instance, among many, of the great danger there is of killing people in good earnest by stripping, and laying them out; and, what is still more shocking to think of, burying them alive, by commiting them too hastily to their coffins. Putrefaction is the only sure sign of death in many cases.
The original Fagin?
At an examination of four boys, detected at picking pockets, before the lord mayor, one of them, admitted an evidence, gave the following account.
A man, who kept a public house near Fleet-market, had a club of boys, whom he instructed in picking pockets, and other iniquitous practices. He began by teaching them to pick a handkerchief out of his own pocket, and next his watch, by which means the evidence, at last, became so great an adept, that he got the publican's watch four times in one evening, when the master swore that his scholar was as perfect as one of twenty years practice. The pilfering out of shops was the next art.
In this, his instructions to his pupils were, that at such chandlers, or other shops, as had hatches, one boy should knock for admittance for some trifle, whilst another was lying on his belly, close to the hatch, who, when the first boy came out, the hatch remaining on jar, and the owner being withdrawn, was to crawl in, on all fours, and take the tills, or any thing else he could meet with,
and to retire in the same manner.
Breaking into shops by night was the third article; which was to be effected thus. As brick walls under shop-windows are generally very thin, two of them were to lie under a shop window as destitute beggars, asleep, in appearance, to passers by; but, when alone, were with pickers to pick the mortar out of the bricks, and so on, till they had opened a hole big enough to go in, when one was to lie as if asleep before the breach, till the other accomplished his purpose.
A man, who kept a public house near Fleet-market, had a club of boys, whom he instructed in picking pockets, and other iniquitous practices. He began by teaching them to pick a handkerchief out of his own pocket, and next his watch, by which means the evidence, at last, became so great an adept, that he got the publican's watch four times in one evening, when the master swore that his scholar was as perfect as one of twenty years practice. The pilfering out of shops was the next art.
In this, his instructions to his pupils were, that at such chandlers, or other shops, as had hatches, one boy should knock for admittance for some trifle, whilst another was lying on his belly, close to the hatch, who, when the first boy came out, the hatch remaining on jar, and the owner being withdrawn, was to crawl in, on all fours, and take the tills, or any thing else he could meet with,
and to retire in the same manner.
Breaking into shops by night was the third article; which was to be effected thus. As brick walls under shop-windows are generally very thin, two of them were to lie under a shop window as destitute beggars, asleep, in appearance, to passers by; but, when alone, were with pickers to pick the mortar out of the bricks, and so on, till they had opened a hole big enough to go in, when one was to lie as if asleep before the breach, till the other accomplished his purpose.
Misplaced loyalty?
Some time ago, a negro at Lisbon, named Firmien da Costa, gave the following most surprising instance of fidelity and affection.
Hearing that his master, Emmanuel Cabral, was taken up for killing a soldier, he quitted the woods to which he had fled for refuge, and voluntarily surrendered himself into the hands of justice, declaring that he alone was guilty of the assassination, and that his master was innocent.
Accordingly, the master, after a long examination, appearing innocent, he was set at liberty, and thenegro hanged.
Hearing that his master, Emmanuel Cabral, was taken up for killing a soldier, he quitted the woods to which he had fled for refuge, and voluntarily surrendered himself into the hands of justice, declaring that he alone was guilty of the assassination, and that his master was innocent.
Accordingly, the master, after a long examination, appearing innocent, he was set at liberty, and the
Jewish marriages
Some time before the [Polish] diet closed, on a false report being spread, that an act had passed in it prohibiting the Jews from marrying under thirty years of age, all the Jews were in such a hurry to marry their children before the law could take place, that even the children at the breast were not permitted to be undisposed of.
Bigamy
At this sessions Sarah Lane, otherwise Sarah, wife of William Merchant; otherwise Sarah, wife of Thomas Flint; otherwise Sarah, wife of Thomas Morgan; otherwise Sarah, wife of Adam Steadman; was indicted for bigamy, to which she pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to be branded in the hand.
She had before been indicted for shop-lifting, and acquitted; but on her trial for bigamy, it was expected that many thefts would have appeared, to prevent which she artfully pleaded guilty.
She had before been indicted for shop-lifting, and acquitted; but on her trial for bigamy, it was expected that many thefts would have appeared, to prevent which she artfully pleaded guilty.
Suffocated by the damp
A melancholy accident lately happened in a town called Birr, in Ireland. About six hours after a hole had been opened to clean a pump, a lad about twenty years old descended a ladder, and, when he had got about half way down, was suffocated by the damp; a man, who who perceived him falling, inconsiderately followed him down, and fell likewise, when he got to the same depth; another man, who came up to the place as the second person fell, ran down the ladder as hastily as possible, and shared the same fate.
The best and safest way to know if there is any danger in going down into such places, is first to let down a lighted candle by a rope; for, if the candle goes out, it is a sign there is at bottom some vapour prejudicial to animal life.
The best and safest way to know if there is any danger in going down into such places, is first to let down a lighted candle by a rope; for, if the candle goes out, it is a sign there is at bottom some vapour prejudicial to animal life.
Friday 26 June 2015
A very equitable sentence
M. Roi de Valine, a young gentleman of Picardy, about the age of seventeen, was lately broke upon the wheel at Abbeville, and his body afterwards burnt, for attempting to poison, at an entertainment, his uncle and aunt, and several other persons, one of whom actually died in about five hours.
He confessed the fact, and other crimes not charged against him in the process. Ten thousand crowns, out of his estate, were adjudged to the family of the deceased person; a very equitable sentence.
He confessed the fact, and other crimes not charged against him in the process. Ten thousand crowns, out of his estate, were adjudged to the family of the deceased person; a very equitable sentence.
The entrails they gave to their dogs
At Northampton assizes, three were capitally convicted for the murder of Thomas Carey. The deceased, who was a travelling Scotchman that sold stockings,
calling some time ago at the house of one Seamark, near Gainsborough, in the way of his trade, was followed by the prisoners, then in the house, who forced him back, murdered him in the garden, and buried the body hard by; but being fearful of a discovery, in a few days they took up the body, cut it in pieces, and burnt it in an oven. The entrails they gave to their dogs. The discovery of this horrid fact was made by Seamark's wife, and corroborated by circumstances that amounted to a demonstration.
Whose whole face resembled a hare
About the beginning of this month, a girl was born near Toulon, in France, whose whole face resembled a hare, excepting her ears; she was otherwise fair and well shaped. Her mother declares, that at the beginning of her pregnancy she had a strong inclination to eat the raw heart of a hare, which her husband brought home one day, but could not prevail with herself to make known her desire.
Another very remarkable fact comes authenticated from the same quarter. The wife of a considerable merchant, who constantly attended mass, and used to give charity to a poor man who had lost his right arm, was soon after brought to bed of a son who wanted his right hand, which the mother attributed to the impression the maimed appearance of the man made upon her mind.
But what is still more remarkable; this son is grown to maturity, married, and has now a son, who, without any such impressions, was
born without a hand. How will the naturalists account for this
phenomenon?
Another very remarkable fact comes authenticated from the same quarter. The wife of a considerable merchant, who constantly attended mass, and used to give charity to a poor man who had lost his right arm, was soon after brought to bed of a son who wanted his right hand, which the mother attributed to the impression the maimed appearance of the man made upon her mind.
But what is still more remarkable; this son is grown to maturity, married, and has now a son, who, without any such impressions, was
born without a hand. How will the naturalists account for this
phenomenon?
Fell dead from his box
Last week the driver of a stage machine going to Newbury fell dead from his box within three miles of that place, but was not missed by the passengers till after their arrival, the horses having brought them to their inn without any stop or accident; a remarkable instance of the great sagacity and tractableness of that noble animal.
Mistaken for a deer
Some persons being lately employed to kill a deer in Sir Harry St. John's Park, at Crondal in Hampshire, one of them creeping round the thicket, was mistaken by his fellows for a deer, and shot dead upon the spot.
Respited death sentence
The sessions ended at the Old Bailey, when two for stealing malt from a lighter in the Thames; one for shooting at a person on the highway; one for stealing a silver tankard out of a public house; one for robbing a man of a quantity of isingglass at his own door; a woman for decoying another out of her lodgings, under pretence of providing for her, and then stripping them of all the furniture; and one for forgery; received sentence of death; which three of them soon after suffered: a fourth, whose death warrant had been signed, was afterwards respited on condition of permitting his leg to be cut off, and a new styptic* tried upon it; but he died before the trial could be made.
* (of a substance) capable of causing bleeding to stop when it is applied to a wound.
* (of a substance) capable of causing bleeding to stop when it is applied to a wound.
Incest
A labouring man at Ossington in Nottinghamshire, upwards of 80, was committed to goal for having a child by his own grand-
daughter of 17.
Thursday 25 June 2015
An impostor desiring circumcision
An impostor, under the character of grandson to the chevalier de St. George, having lately presented himself to the divan at Constantinople, ; the ministers of the Porte, suspecting his pretensions, put him under rest, and upon enquiry detected his deceit. But what his punishment will be is not yet declared.
Her mistress's best cloaths
On the examination of a servant maid, lately committed for robbing her mistress, it appeared, that she worked hard all day, and at night, when the family went to bed, walked the streets in her mistress's best cloaths as a common prostitute: and about four in the morning let herself in, went to bed, and rose at the usual time to her work.
An east end leopard
The inhabitants of Bow were lately greatly alarmed by the appearance of a leopard, which tore a man's leg in a terrible manner, and killed all the dogs that ventured near him; several persons were thrown down by this ferocious animal, and a general consternation ensued. At length some resolute fellows resolved to destroy him, and prevent any further mischief; for which purpose they provided a large quantity of fishing and other nets, which they found means to throw over him, and luckily entangled him in such a manner that all his efforts to escape were fruitless; when clubs, pitchforks, and other instruments soon put an end to his life.
Discovered her sex
Leeds, Oct. 20. A few days ago a young woman, about 20, dressed in man's cloaths, was impressed at Plymouth, and sent to capt. Toby in this town. On her arrival, she was committed to prison; but not liking confinement, she discovered her sex, and was discharged.
She gives the following account of herself; that her name is Hannah Whitney; that she was born in Ireland, had been a marine on board different ships for upwards of five years, and would not have discovered her sex, if she had been allowed her liberty.
She gives the following account of herself; that her name is Hannah Whitney; that she was born in Ireland, had been a marine on board different ships for upwards of five years, and would not have discovered her sex, if she had been allowed her liberty.
Intolerable scold
Ended the sessions at the Old Bailey, at which four received sentence of death, viz. Richard Parrot, for the wilful murder of his wife, by cutting out her tongue; Esther Bowden, for the murder of her bastard child; John Perrott, a bankrupt, for concealing his effects, and Samuel Lee, for publishing a forged bill of exchange, who were accordingly executed. Twenty received sentence of transportation for seven years, two to be whipped and one was branded.
Parrot on his first examination appeared to be deaf, tho' his plea, it is said, for cutting out his wife's tongue was, chat she was an intolerable scold.
Parrot on his first examination appeared to be deaf, tho' his plea, it is said, for cutting out his wife's tongue was, chat she was an intolerable scold.
Killed by a wig
From Kiel in Holstein, we learn, that M. Stambke, counsellor of state to the hereditary prince of Russia and duke of Holstein, died lately therein an advanced age. The late duke of Holstein owed his life to this gentleman; for being at Petersburg, and having ordered a new state wig to be made, when the peruke-maker brought it home he seemed to insist with more than ordinary earnestness that the duke should be shaved, that the wig might fit the better; Mr. Stambke being accidentally there, suspected from the solicitude of the peruke-maker that there was some foul play intended, and advised the duke to compel the peruke maker to have his own head shaved; which being done, and the wig put upon his head, he expired within twelve minutes.
Wednesday 24 June 2015
A more prominent chest
As a serjeant was lately exercising some of the soldiers on board one of the transports at Portsmouth, he observed one of them, who went by the name of Paul Daniel had a more prominent chest than ordinary. After the firings were over, he sent for the person to the cabin, when telling his suspicions, that he was a woman, and insisting upon searching him, after some evasions, the soldier confessed her sex.
The account she gave of herself was, that having a husband whom she dearly loved, and who after spending a plentiful fortune, by which means they were both reduced to beggary, inlisted in a marching regiment, and had been in Germany two years: having not heard from him in all that time, she was determined to range the world in search of him; and being informed that we were sending more troops over she came to a resolution of entering as a soldier, and was now inconsolable that the discovery of her sex should prevent her design.
The account she gave of herself was, that having a husband whom she dearly loved, and who after spending a plentiful fortune, by which means they were both reduced to beggary, inlisted in a marching regiment, and had been in Germany two years: having not heard from him in all that time, she was determined to range the world in search of him; and being informed that we were sending more troops over she came to a resolution of entering as a soldier, and was now inconsolable that the discovery of her sex should prevent her design.
The fairer sex at war
Berlin, July 14. A young woman, aged 23, of a brown complexion, and strong features, who hath served in our troops four years with honour, hath been discovered in prince Henry's camp.
Her name is Anne Sophia Detzleffin, born at Treptow on the Riga. In 1757 she left her father's house, and came to Colberg, where she enlisted in the militia, and served six months. She afterwards enlisted in prince Frederick's regiment of cuirassiers, in which she served two years. In a skirmish near Bamberg, she was wounded in her right arm with a sabre. She afterwards fought in the battle of Kunnersdorff. Since that time, the corps she belonged to returning to Saxony, she fell dangerously ill there, and was sent to the hospital at Meissen.
After her recovery, having no opportunity to rejoin her regiment, she enlisted in a battalion of grenadiers which suffered much in the actions at Strehlen and Torgau. In the last of those battles, she received two wounds in the head; was made prisoner, and sent to the hospital at Dresden.
When she recovered a little, she found means to escape out of the hospital, and passed, without being discovered, thro' the Austrian posts, but instead of going to join her corps, she enlisted with colonel Colignon, who sent her to the regiment of Le Noble's volunteers, in which she served two months.
One of her comrades accusing her (but without foundation) of stealing from him 14d. sterling, a subaltern put her under arrest this she could not digest, and sending for her lieutenant, acquainted him with her sex, and told him, that, during four years service, she had never been put under an arrest, nor received a blow for neglect of duty, that she could not put up with this last indignity and would serve no longer.
Her name is Anne Sophia Detzleffin, born at Treptow on the Riga. In 1757 she left her father's house, and came to Colberg, where she enlisted in the militia, and served six months. She afterwards enlisted in prince Frederick's regiment of cuirassiers, in which she served two years. In a skirmish near Bamberg, she was wounded in her right arm with a sabre. She afterwards fought in the battle of Kunnersdorff. Since that time, the corps she belonged to returning to Saxony, she fell dangerously ill there, and was sent to the hospital at Meissen.
After her recovery, having no opportunity to rejoin her regiment, she enlisted in a battalion of grenadiers which suffered much in the actions at Strehlen and Torgau. In the last of those battles, she received two wounds in the head; was made prisoner, and sent to the hospital at Dresden.
When she recovered a little, she found means to escape out of the hospital, and passed, without being discovered, thro' the Austrian posts, but instead of going to join her corps, she enlisted with colonel Colignon, who sent her to the regiment of Le Noble's volunteers, in which she served two months.
One of her comrades accusing her (but without foundation) of stealing from him 14d. sterling, a subaltern put her under arrest this she could not digest, and sending for her lieutenant, acquainted him with her sex, and told him, that, during four years service, she had never been put under an arrest, nor received a blow for neglect of duty, that she could not put up with this last indignity and would serve no longer.
The bird discharged a pint of oil
Extract of a letter from Mull, one of the Western islands in Scotland, dated June 29.
"On the 26th instant our neighbour Colin Muir Campbell, his son, myself, and a few other friends, making a party of pleasure, went in our boat to the island of Coll, in order to go a fowling among the rocks, when Mr. Campbell's son, who had mounted almost on the top of a rope-ladder, in order to examine some holes wherein several large fowls, as big as geese, had nestled, as he was reaching out his hand in order to lay hold of one, the bird discharged near a pint of oil in his face, which blinded him so, that losing his hold, he fell down, and was killed on the spot.
Another of our friends too, who was beginning to mount the ladder just before this melancholy accident happened, was thrown down, and broke his arm by the shoulder-bone, besides which he was otherwise much bruised.
These birds are near as big as a swan; they are so rank that nobody eats them, but are sought after for their oil, according to their bigness, they containing from a pint to a quart of this liquor in them: and if the person that goes to take them happens not to seize them properly, they discharge it upon him out of their throat, and by that means often save themselves from being taken."
"On the 26th instant our neighbour Colin Muir Campbell, his son, myself, and a few other friends, making a party of pleasure, went in our boat to the island of Coll, in order to go a fowling among the rocks, when Mr. Campbell's son, who had mounted almost on the top of a rope-ladder, in order to examine some holes wherein several large fowls, as big as geese, had nestled, as he was reaching out his hand in order to lay hold of one, the bird discharged near a pint of oil in his face, which blinded him so, that losing his hold, he fell down, and was killed on the spot.
Another of our friends too, who was beginning to mount the ladder just before this melancholy accident happened, was thrown down, and broke his arm by the shoulder-bone, besides which he was otherwise much bruised.
These birds are near as big as a swan; they are so rank that nobody eats them, but are sought after for their oil, according to their bigness, they containing from a pint to a quart of this liquor in them: and if the person that goes to take them happens not to seize them properly, they discharge it upon him out of their throat, and by that means often save themselves from being taken."
A very odd affair
Rome, Jan. 7. There has happened a very odd affair in the great convent of capuchins at Ascoli, where the monks having punished their cook a little too severely, he mixed a quantity of opium in their sauce at supper, and when they were fast asleep, shaved their reverences beards, and made his escape before they were able to rise in the morning. The poor monks are confined to their convent, till their beards have acquired a decent size, to render it practicable for them to appear in public.
Credulous reporting
At Chateauroux, near Poitiers, there is a boy about 13 years of age, whose name is William Gay; and who, if we may believe a number of persons, has neither eat nor drank any thing since the 14th of April, 1760. His mouth has a little tincture of vermillion; a pale red overspreads his cheeks; and he has a smiling countenance. His belly is, as it were joined to his backbone, and he voids neither urine nor excrement; he sleeps regularly and soundly nine hours every day.
Since he has ceased eat and drinking, he has had the small-pox very violently, which hasn't in the least impaired his constitution. He used to be ailing during the time of his taking nourishment, and has often been thrown into a lethargy of three days continuance.
All the food which they endeavoured to give him afterwards, he voided thro' his nose and ears, M. Fournier, the curate of Chateauroux, took him home to his house for a whole month, and appears perfectly convinced of the reality of this extraordinary fact.
An account of so surprising a phenomenon has been communicated to the royal academy of sciences.
Since he has ceased eat and drinking, he has had the small-pox very violently, which hasn't in the least impaired his constitution. He used to be ailing during the time of his taking nourishment, and has often been thrown into a lethargy of three days continuance.
All the food which they endeavoured to give him afterwards, he voided thro' his nose and ears, M. Fournier, the curate of Chateauroux, took him home to his house for a whole month, and appears perfectly convinced of the reality of this extraordinary fact.
An account of so surprising a phenomenon has been communicated to the royal academy of sciences.
Trifling wager
A salt-officer at Droitwich and another man having lately laid a trifling wager which could drink most neat rum, the salt-officer, after he had drank a quart, dropped down dead.
Barbarous murder
Bath, June 18. On Sunday last the most barbarous murder that has been heard of for many years, was committed between Hilperton and Trowbridge, on the body of one Mary Allen, by several men, who are yet unknown. It is thought they wanted to be rude with her, and her refusing to consent provoked them to be guilty of this horrid crime.
A large quantity of blood was spilt on the place where she was found, and a stick of an amazing size was taken out of her body, on its being opened by order of the coroner. Humanity obliges us to omit many of the particulars we have received concerning this shocking affair, lest the mention of them should make too great an impression on the minds of people.
Several men have been taken up on suspicion, but the fact cannot yet be proved against any of them.
A large quantity of blood was spilt on the place where she was found, and a stick of an amazing size was taken out of her body, on its being opened by order of the coroner. Humanity obliges us to omit many of the particulars we have received concerning this shocking affair, lest the mention of them should make too great an impression on the minds of people.
Several men have been taken up on suspicion, but the fact cannot yet be proved against any of them.
Washing sheep
Gloucester, Jan. 6. Yesterday a man, who was washing sheep in a pool at Tibberton, in this county, let one of the sheep get from him, and, endeavouring to catch it, fell into a hole very deep in the mud and water, and was suffocated; one of his companions, who stood on the bank, immediately jumped in to assist him, and met with the same fate; and a third, who was with them, in endeavouring to help them, fell in also
and was drowned.
Keystone cops
While some young gentlemen were drinking lately at a tavern in Whitechapel, one of them who happened to be considerably in debt, was informed of two bailiffs loitering about the door on which they held a council, and came to a resolution to send for two men, who lived just by, who were ordered to nail the two bailiffs by their cloaths to the post which they leaned against. This being effected unperceived, they gave the men a crown for their trouble, and paying their reckoning went out; when the bailiffs going to do their duty, and attempting to move from their station in a hurry, each of them got a most violent fall on the stones, and before they could disengage themselves, the young gentlemen made off. The mob who were gathered about the bailiffs were highly diverted with the affair.
Expired stooping down
Thursday se'nnight the rev. Mr. William Cullis, at Bristol, stooping down, in order to pick up a paper he had drooped, instantly expired. What is somewhat remarkable, his brother died in the same manner some time since.
Prosecution of a corpse
Paris, April 27. The publick cannot guess what may be the crime of the counsellor who drew up the memorial for Ambrose Guy against the Jesuits: it is to be supposed that the judges of the Chatelet, by whom he has been tried, knew what they were about. His sentence imported, that he should be whipped, branded, and sent to the galleys for three years. After this sentence was read to him the 22d instant, he found means to cut his arteries, and the next day he was found expiring in his cell: upon which a prosecution was instantly commenced against the corpse, and in the afternoon of the same day it was hung up by the heels, and then dragged through the streets in a hurdle. [Probably it was not the drawing up a memorial, but forging an arret of the council of state in favour of Ambrose Guy's heirs, with which the Jesuits were regularly served, but which the the council soon after disclaimed.]
Putting out the eyes of children
The court at Hicks's-hall lately committed Anne Martin, alias Chapney, to Newgate, where she is to be imprisoned for two years, pursuant to her sentence; she is accused of putting out the eyes of children, with whom she went abegging about the country; she has been several times whipped at the cart's tail.
Toad tea
On Saturday last a remarkable accident happened at Mr. H. Stickland's, at Chalwell Farm near this town; as he and his family, consisting of a wife and five children, were drinking tea in the afternoon, he observed, after drinking two or three dishes, that the tea looked of a darker colour than usual, and had no flavour in it, upon which, after various surmises of what could be the reason, the kettle was examined wherein, to their great astonishment, they found a large toad, boiled to that degree, that the legs were separated from the body; upon this alarming circumstance, they all seemed greatly indisposed, concluding themselves poisoned, and sent directly for an apothecary, who very prudently gave each of them a large dose of salad oil, which both purged and vomited them plentifully, and thereby, 'tis presumed, happily recovered them, as they all seem out of danger.
Credulous inhabitants
A pretended ghost, which has lately appeared in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, St. John's church-yard, Milbank, Masham-street, &c. was seized on Wednesday evening, and found to be a servant to one of the gentlemen belonging to the abbey, wrapped up in a large white sheet, with the corners hanging over his head, inimitation of feathers. He had struck such a terror into the credulous inhabitants thereabouts, that those who could not be brought to believe it a ghost, entered into a subscription, to give five guineas to the person, who would seize him, in order to remove the superstitious error adopted by their weak minded neighbours.
Mistaken identity
A highwayman having committed several robberies on the Highgate road, the north stages, to protect their passengers, have employed a guard to attend them till day-light, when they generally think themselves safe; but this day two thief takers, in hopes of entrapping the highwayman, and apprehending him for the sake of the reward, set out early in the morning in a post-chaise, like travellers, upon the same road, with a view of being attacked by the highwayman at the usual place.
When they had got to the bottom of Highgate-hill, they pass'd one of the stages already mentioned, and observing the guard riding towards the coach with fire-arms, concluded him to be the highwayman of whom they were in pursuit, and firing a blunderbuss at him, shattered his arm in a terrible manner, and killed a servant who rode upon the top of the stage.
Information of this affair being given to a proper magistrate, warrants were issued out for apprehending the thief takers, one of whom is already committed to Newgate, and the other is said to have absconded.
When they had got to the bottom of Highgate-hill, they pass'd one of the stages already mentioned, and observing the guard riding towards the coach with fire-arms, concluded him to be the highwayman of whom they were in pursuit, and firing a blunderbuss at him, shattered his arm in a terrible manner, and killed a servant who rode upon the top of the stage.
Information of this affair being given to a proper magistrate, warrants were issued out for apprehending the thief takers, one of whom is already committed to Newgate, and the other is said to have absconded.
Charcoal fumes
The following uncommon accident is said to have happened at a place near Appledore, in Devonshire, to the surprize of the inhabitants: a shoemaker's wife being in labour, there were in the room with her a midwife, nurse, and two assistants; a little after the good woman was delivered, she fell down as in a fit. One of the assistants, who was supporting her, immediately followed; next the midwife fell, and then the nurse, after dropping the unclad infant on the floor. The only person remaining ran hastily down stairs to call a doctor, and she broke her thigh.
The mystery is explained thus: there being no chimney in the room, a pan with charcoal was introduced, and from the suffocating fumes of the charcoal, these disorders are supposed to have risen; but, however, the amazing fits soon wore off, and no hurt is like to accrue, unless to the poor woman whose thigh was broke.
The mystery is explained thus: there being no chimney in the room, a pan with charcoal was introduced, and from the suffocating fumes of the charcoal, these disorders are supposed to have risen; but, however, the amazing fits soon wore off, and no hurt is like to accrue, unless to the poor woman whose thigh was broke.
A cautionary tale
The following tragi-comical occurrence is said to have happened to a Spanish gentleman lately arrived in London. Being greatly enamoured with the London demoiselles, he visited a house in Hedge-lane, near the Haymarket, but had the caution before he retired with his lady, to consider the substance of his pocket, where was 31 thirty-six shilling pieces, which according to the custom in some foreign countries, where of two evils they chuse the least, and as it were, tolerate such houses under certain regulations, he very wisely gave to the old lady of the house to take care of; but before he returned, her ladyship was moved to another part of the town, and he not having a farthing left, was most severely treated by his lady, who tore his cloaths almost off his back; and what heightened the confusion of the whole was, he could not speak a word of English.
Criminal stupidity
The following very melancholy accident lately happened at Elgin in Scotland: One Harvie, a journey-man dyer, having bought of William Fraser, merchant, some gun powder, Harvie, to try the powder, loaded a pistol in the shop, with an intention to fire it. At the very instant he was about to fire, one James Finlay came into the shop, and called out to him. to stop, as he knew a barrel of gun powder was just by them; but his alarm unhappily came too late; the pistol flashed in the pan, and a spark flew into the cask, which contained about forty pounds weight, and which instantly blew up, and brought down the whole tenement.
Finlay and Harvie were miraculously preserved, but Fraser the owner of the shop, was killed by the explosion, which burst out at the door and windows, and carried the lintel stones of both to the opposite side of the street.
The most shocking part of this fatal affair was, that Laurence Calder, merchant, James Bowie, maltman, James Grant, taylor, John Adam, and James Ross, being in the shade at the door of the shop, were carried off with such impetuosity, that Bowie and Grant were dashed to pieces, and killed against the walls of the houses on the opposite side of the street. They were found quite dead, and almost naked, their cloaths being almost entirely burnt off them.
Calder was found alive, in the most dismal condition, his head terribly bruised, one of his legs cut quite open, and the foot hanging by a ligament only; he expired in a few hours. Ross is yet alive, but his recovery uncertain.
It can hardly be accounted for, how Finlay and Harvie were preserved within the shop; but certain it is, they too likewise must have perished, had not the town's people, at the hazard of their lives, from the broken and tottering walls, dug them from beneath the rubbish, and in that manner saved their lives.
There is no other damage done to the adjoining or opposite houses, but some of the windows and casements broken.
Finlay and Harvie were miraculously preserved, but Fraser the owner of the shop, was killed by the explosion, which burst out at the door and windows, and carried the lintel stones of both to the opposite side of the street.
The most shocking part of this fatal affair was, that Laurence Calder, merchant, James Bowie, maltman, James Grant, taylor, John Adam, and James Ross, being in the shade at the door of the shop, were carried off with such impetuosity, that Bowie and Grant were dashed to pieces, and killed against the walls of the houses on the opposite side of the street. They were found quite dead, and almost naked, their cloaths being almost entirely burnt off them.
Calder was found alive, in the most dismal condition, his head terribly bruised, one of his legs cut quite open, and the foot hanging by a ligament only; he expired in a few hours. Ross is yet alive, but his recovery uncertain.
It can hardly be accounted for, how Finlay and Harvie were preserved within the shop; but certain it is, they too likewise must have perished, had not the town's people, at the hazard of their lives, from the broken and tottering walls, dug them from beneath the rubbish, and in that manner saved their lives.
There is no other damage done to the adjoining or opposite houses, but some of the windows and casements broken.
Fell into the fire
An elderly gentlewoman, at Newington Green, being left alone, fell into the fire, and was so terribly burnt that she soon expired.
Loaded with slugs
The following melancholy accident happened lately in Gracechurch-street: an officer who had come to the Cross Keys, in a stage coach, and had brought with him a gun loaded with slugs, for his security on the road, having ordered a coach to carry him from thence home, bid one of the porters of the inn put his gun into the hackney coach, in doing which the gun went off, and shattered the leg of a Camberwell stage coachman, who was on the opposite side of the street, waiting to turn into the inn. Another s1ug is lodged in the poor man's thigh, and two in the buttock of one of the horses. The man was carried to St. Thomas's hospital.
Threatening letter
Last Wednesday the following threatening letter was sent to the master of the Red Cow, in Cow-lane, West-Smithfield, viz.
Mr. Bray, London 16, 1761,
You are hereby desired to dispatch yourself; I have heard a very good character of you, and therefore leave it to yourself whether you will die by dagger, sword, or poison; if you outlive this order above one hour, I have given directions to put you to death by torture.
From your friend,
J. Langdon.
Mr. Bray, London 16, 1761,
You are hereby desired to dispatch yourself; I have heard a very good character of you, and therefore leave it to yourself whether you will die by dagger, sword, or poison; if you outlive this order above one hour, I have given directions to put you to death by torture.
From your friend,
J. Langdon.
Leapt his horse into the boat
On Tuesday sen'night Mr. Hall's servant of Buckingham, returning from market, and finding the boat at Gainsborough putting off from shore, full of people, was so rash and imprudent, (to say no worse of it) as to leap his horse into the boat, and with the violence of the fall, drove the poor people and their horses to the farther side, which instantly carried the boat into the middle of the stream and overset it.
Imagine you see the unfortunate sufferers all plunging in a deep and rapid river, calling out for help, and struggling for life. It was all horror and confusion; and during this situation the first account was dispatched, which assured us, that out of eighty souls, only five or six were saved. By a second account we are told, that there were only thirty on board, but that out of those above twenty had been drowned. This was for some time believed to be the truest account; but I have the pleasure to hear by a third account, that many of those who were supposed to be lost, have been taken up alive; some of them at a great distance from the ferry, and that no mo re than six are missing, though numbers were brought to life with difficulty.
It was happy for them that so many horses were on board, as all who had time to lay hold of a stirrup, or a horse's tail, were brought safe to shore.
A poor man, who had a large basket of fowls on his arm, was providentially buoyed up till assistance could be had, and he, after many fruitless attempts, was at last taken, up alive, though senseless, at the distance of four hundred yards from the ferry. A poor woman who had bought a pig, and had tied one end of a string round its foot, and the other round her wrist, was dragged to land in this providential manner.
Imagine you see the unfortunate sufferers all plunging in a deep and rapid river, calling out for help, and struggling for life. It was all horror and confusion; and during this situation the first account was dispatched, which assured us, that out of eighty souls, only five or six were saved. By a second account we are told, that there were only thirty on board, but that out of those above twenty had been drowned. This was for some time believed to be the truest account; but I have the pleasure to hear by a third account, that many of those who were supposed to be lost, have been taken up alive; some of them at a great distance from the ferry, and that no mo re than six are missing, though numbers were brought to life with difficulty.
It was happy for them that so many horses were on board, as all who had time to lay hold of a stirrup, or a horse's tail, were brought safe to shore.
A poor man, who had a large basket of fowls on his arm, was providentially buoyed up till assistance could be had, and he, after many fruitless attempts, was at last taken, up alive, though senseless, at the distance of four hundred yards from the ferry. A poor woman who had bought a pig, and had tied one end of a string round its foot, and the other round her wrist, was dragged to land in this providential manner.
More C18th witches
They write from Glen, in the county of Leicester, that on Wednesday sevennight last, a dispute arose between two old women of that town, one of whom called the other the witch, and she affirming, that she was no more a witch than herself, a challenge ensued, and they both agreed to be dipt by way of trial; they accordingly stript to their shifts, had their thumbs and great toes tied across, and with a cart rope about their middles, suffered themselves to be thrown into a pool of water; one of them is said to have sunk, whilst the other continued struggling upon the surface, which the mob called swimming, and deemed an infallible sign of her being a witch, insisting upon her impeaching her accomplices in the craft; she accordingly told them that in the neighbouring village of Burton, there were several other old women as much witches as she was.
These suspicions being confirmed by a student in astrology, or White witch, who was referred to on account of a young woman, said to be afflicted with an uncommon disorder, and pronounced to be bewitched; the mob, in consequence of this intelligence, next day repaired to Burton, and after a little consultation proceeded to the old woman's house on whom they had fixed the strongest suspicion; the poor old creature on their approach, locked the house door and went into a chamber, and from the window asked what they wanted? They informed her that she was charged with being guilty of witch-craft, which they were come to try her for, by ducking; remonstrating at the same time upon the necessity there was of her giving proof whether she was a witch or no; but upon her persisting in a positive refusal to come down, they broke open the house, went into the chamber, carried her down stairs, and by force took her to a deep gravel pit full of water, tied her thumbs and toes as above, then threw her in, where they kept her during pleasure.
The same day the mob tried the experiment upon another poor old woman, and on Thursday a third underwent a like discipline.
Several of the ringleaders in this riot, we hear, have been apprehended and carried before a justice; two of which have been bound over to the sessions, and others ordered to pay small fines.
No longer ago than the year 1751, at Tring in Hertfordshire, a mob of the same nature murdered, by ducking to try whether they were witches, two poor harmless people, aged above 70, for which one of the offenders was soon after tried and hanged.
These suspicions being confirmed by a student in astrology, or White witch, who was referred to on account of a young woman, said to be afflicted with an uncommon disorder, and pronounced to be bewitched; the mob, in consequence of this intelligence, next day repaired to Burton, and after a little consultation proceeded to the old woman's house on whom they had fixed the strongest suspicion; the poor old creature on their approach, locked the house door and went into a chamber, and from the window asked what they wanted? They informed her that she was charged with being guilty of witch-craft, which they were come to try her for, by ducking; remonstrating at the same time upon the necessity there was of her giving proof whether she was a witch or no; but upon her persisting in a positive refusal to come down, they broke open the house, went into the chamber, carried her down stairs, and by force took her to a deep gravel pit full of water, tied her thumbs and toes as above, then threw her in, where they kept her during pleasure.
The same day the mob tried the experiment upon another poor old woman, and on Thursday a third underwent a like discipline.
Several of the ringleaders in this riot, we hear, have been apprehended and carried before a justice; two of which have been bound over to the sessions, and others ordered to pay small fines.
No longer ago than the year 1751, at Tring in Hertfordshire, a mob of the same nature murdered, by ducking to try whether they were witches, two poor harmless people, aged above 70, for which one of the offenders was soon after tried and hanged.
Tuesday 23 June 2015
Preserved for the sight of her daughter
Account of the case of Susan Brooks, of Axe-yard, King's-street Westminster.
This woman's feet lately dropped off, at the articulation of the ankle, by a gangrene. This natural amputation was as compleat as if performed by the most skilful operator, and the remaining wounds of her stumps continued to digest properly, and put on the appearance of a compleat recovery.
For some weeks preceding this event (after which she was carried to the Westminster Infirmary) she had complained of pain and weakness in the parts affected, which had disqualified her from walking, and her feet broke out and became ulcerous; upon which she was recommended to an hospital, but discharged thence for refusing to part with them, as the surgeons had no prospect of their preservation.
Accidents of this kind, although uncommon, are not without example, especially in the feet, where mortifications are most apt to commence, as the blood circulates the slowest there, and the returning venal blood has more resistance of gravity to overcome, than in any other extremity. There are not wanting many instances where where the legs, without the aid of art, have separated in the middle of the bone. Such accidents principally happen in cold weather, to persons in poverty, and to languid old age; all which circumstances waited on this unhappy object.
She did not much regret the loss of her feet, which, though black and putrid, she would not suffer to be buried, and particularly desired, if she did not survive the cure, that they might be preserved for the sight of her daughter, who is in service at Eton, and was sent to for that purpose.
This woman's feet lately dropped off, at the articulation of the ankle, by a gangrene. This natural amputation was as compleat as if performed by the most skilful operator, and the remaining wounds of her stumps continued to digest properly, and put on the appearance of a compleat recovery.
For some weeks preceding this event (after which she was carried to the Westminster Infirmary) she had complained of pain and weakness in the parts affected, which had disqualified her from walking, and her feet broke out and became ulcerous; upon which she was recommended to an hospital, but discharged thence for refusing to part with them, as the surgeons had no prospect of their preservation.
Accidents of this kind, although uncommon, are not without example, especially in the feet, where mortifications are most apt to commence, as the blood circulates the slowest there, and the returning venal blood has more resistance of gravity to overcome, than in any other extremity. There are not wanting many instances where where the legs, without the aid of art, have separated in the middle of the bone. Such accidents principally happen in cold weather, to persons in poverty, and to languid old age; all which circumstances waited on this unhappy object.
She did not much regret the loss of her feet, which, though black and putrid, she would not suffer to be buried, and particularly desired, if she did not survive the cure, that they might be preserved for the sight of her daughter, who is in service at Eton, and was sent to for that purpose.
The bridegroom proved a female
In October last was married one Samuel Bundy, aged twenty years, an apprentice to Mr. Angel, near Christ-Church, Surrey, to one Mary Parlour. Upon a pretence of having a bad distemper, his bride, with uncommon patience, waited the cure till last week; but some of the neighbours, somehow hearing it, insisted upon searching him; when, to their great surprize, the bridegroom proved a female.
She gives the following account of herself: That she is 20 years old; that, seven years since, she was seduced from her mother (who then lived, and still lives, near Smithfield) by a limner, who debauched her; that the day after, to avoid the pursuit of her mother, or any discovery of her, should any advertisements appear, he dressed her in boy's apparel, and adopted her for his son, by the above name. With him she was a year: At length they separated; and she took one voyage to sea, which kept her employed more than 12 months; in which voyage she performed the several duties of a sailor. Some time after she came from sea, she bound herself to Mr. Angel, a painter, in the Green Walk near Paris Garden-Stairs, in the Parish of Christ-Church, Surrey: with him she continued a year, lying with her master when they were in the country at work, and that without the least discovery whatsoever. Whilst with Mr. Angel, she was taken notice of by a young woman who lived at the King's-Head in Gravel-lane, Southwark, to whom she was duly married, at a neighbouring church; near six months since.
Quitting her master, upon some dispute between them, she was obliged to depend upon her wife for support, who expended her money and pawned her cloaths for her mate's maintenance; which is the fraud she is charged with. The adopted husband says, the wife soon discovered the mistake she had made, but was determined for some time not to expose the matter.
Since marriage she entered on board the Prince Frederick man of war at Chatham, but ran away from it for fear the great number of hands on board should discover her sex. She afterwards entered on board a merchant ship with about 20 hands; which she says, she approved of much, but ran away from that to return to the wife, whom, she says, she dearly loves; and there seems a strong love and friendship on the other side, as she keeps the prisoner company in her confinement.
The prisoner makes a very good figure as a man, and in her proper dress cannot fail of being a very agreeable woman. She is a very good workwoman at shoe-making and painting; declares she never knew any other man than her seducer; has made herself known, sent for her mother, and appears to be a very sensible woman.
She gives the following account of herself: That she is 20 years old; that, seven years since, she was seduced from her mother (who then lived, and still lives, near Smithfield) by a limner, who debauched her; that the day after, to avoid the pursuit of her mother, or any discovery of her, should any advertisements appear, he dressed her in boy's apparel, and adopted her for his son, by the above name. With him she was a year: At length they separated; and she took one voyage to sea, which kept her employed more than 12 months; in which voyage she performed the several duties of a sailor. Some time after she came from sea, she bound herself to Mr. Angel, a painter, in the Green Walk near Paris Garden-Stairs, in the Parish of Christ-Church, Surrey: with him she continued a year, lying with her master when they were in the country at work, and that without the least discovery whatsoever. Whilst with Mr. Angel, she was taken notice of by a young woman who lived at the King's-Head in Gravel-lane, Southwark, to whom she was duly married, at a neighbouring church; near six months since.
Quitting her master, upon some dispute between them, she was obliged to depend upon her wife for support, who expended her money and pawned her cloaths for her mate's maintenance; which is the fraud she is charged with. The adopted husband says, the wife soon discovered the mistake she had made, but was determined for some time not to expose the matter.
Since marriage she entered on board the Prince Frederick man of war at Chatham, but ran away from it for fear the great number of hands on board should discover her sex. She afterwards entered on board a merchant ship with about 20 hands; which she says, she approved of much, but ran away from that to return to the wife, whom, she says, she dearly loves; and there seems a strong love and friendship on the other side, as she keeps the prisoner company in her confinement.
The prisoner makes a very good figure as a man, and in her proper dress cannot fail of being a very agreeable woman. She is a very good workwoman at shoe-making and painting; declares she never knew any other man than her seducer; has made herself known, sent for her mother, and appears to be a very sensible woman.
Devoured by his own hounds.
A huntsman, near Torrington in Devonshire, has been lately devoured by his own hounds.
Last meal
Galway, in Ireland, Feb. 24.
Michael M'Daniel of New Ross, in the county of Wexford, mariner, the only survivor of the unfortunate crew of the late ship Anne and Mary, of this port, wrecked on the coast of Kerry in December last, arrived here on Saturday last, and gives the following relation of the sufferings of that unhappy crew.
He saith, that he, with eight others, sailed from Drontheim in Norway the 1st of Sept. last, laden with deals for this town. That after a series of contrary winds and bad weather, they on October 10th, from an observation taken the day before, computed themselves to be within fifteen leagues of the islands of Aran, in the opening of this bay. As they were put to allowance some time before, it is easy to judge how pleasing it was to find themselves so near their desired port. But that very night, which proved squally, in wearing the ship in order to lie to, she overset; in which condition she remained, tossed about for the space of five hours, when by cutting away the rigging and part of the foremast (the only one they could then come at) she righted again: but during this disaster, her counter was stove in, and her entire cabin carried away, whereby they lost not only what little provisions they had left, but also their compass, and every other article that could be of use to them in navigating the vessel.
Ten days passed without their tasting a morsel, except two rats, which were equally shared among the starving crew. What followed next nothing but devouring famine could suggest. It was agreed, that one should die to support the rest and accordingly they cast lots.
The first fell upon Patrick Lidane, the only son of a poor widow in this town, who requested, that for their immediate subsistence, they would dispense with the calves of his legs; and that perhaps before they should be necessitated to have further recourse to him, Providence might do more for them than they expected. His request was granted and after cutting away the flesh of his legs, which they ate raw, and whereof he begged a morsel himself, but was refused, he was permitted to live thirty hours.
The second person who suffered the same fate was James Lee, who was delirious three days before he suffered; the third was his brother Patrick Lee; and the fourth was Bryan Flaherty. On these four bodies, which were eaten raw, and without any kind of drink, but what rain water they could catch in the skulls of the killed, did the rest subsist (while three of them who escaped the lot died in the forecastle) from the 20th or 21st of October to the 1st of December following, when the vessel was drove into the county of Kerry as aforesaid.
The captain and the present survivor were so worn out with famine and distress, that they were unable to stand, and scarcely shewed signs of life, and notwithstanding the greatest care was extended to them, the captain died in about thirty hours after he had been brought ashore. The same care was continued to this survivor, who, so soon as he was in a condition to travel, made the best of his way hither, to fulfill the dying injunctions of the crew who fell by lot as aforesaid, who severally made it their last and earnest request, that whosoever should survive, should as speedily as possibly they could, repair to this town, and there relate to their friends their miserable sufferings and sad catastrophe.
Michael M'Daniel of New Ross, in the county of Wexford, mariner, the only survivor of the unfortunate crew of the late ship Anne and Mary, of this port, wrecked on the coast of Kerry in December last, arrived here on Saturday last, and gives the following relation of the sufferings of that unhappy crew.
He saith, that he, with eight others, sailed from Drontheim in Norway the 1st of Sept. last, laden with deals for this town. That after a series of contrary winds and bad weather, they on October 10th, from an observation taken the day before, computed themselves to be within fifteen leagues of the islands of Aran, in the opening of this bay. As they were put to allowance some time before, it is easy to judge how pleasing it was to find themselves so near their desired port. But that very night, which proved squally, in wearing the ship in order to lie to, she overset; in which condition she remained, tossed about for the space of five hours, when by cutting away the rigging and part of the foremast (the only one they could then come at) she righted again: but during this disaster, her counter was stove in, and her entire cabin carried away, whereby they lost not only what little provisions they had left, but also their compass, and every other article that could be of use to them in navigating the vessel.
Ten days passed without their tasting a morsel, except two rats, which were equally shared among the starving crew. What followed next nothing but devouring famine could suggest. It was agreed, that one should die to support the rest and accordingly they cast lots.
The first fell upon Patrick Lidane, the only son of a poor widow in this town, who requested, that for their immediate subsistence, they would dispense with the calves of his legs; and that perhaps before they should be necessitated to have further recourse to him, Providence might do more for them than they expected. His request was granted and after cutting away the flesh of his legs, which they ate raw, and whereof he begged a morsel himself, but was refused, he was permitted to live thirty hours.
The second person who suffered the same fate was James Lee, who was delirious three days before he suffered; the third was his brother Patrick Lee; and the fourth was Bryan Flaherty. On these four bodies, which were eaten raw, and without any kind of drink, but what rain water they could catch in the skulls of the killed, did the rest subsist (while three of them who escaped the lot died in the forecastle) from the 20th or 21st of October to the 1st of December following, when the vessel was drove into the county of Kerry as aforesaid.
The captain and the present survivor were so worn out with famine and distress, that they were unable to stand, and scarcely shewed signs of life, and notwithstanding the greatest care was extended to them, the captain died in about thirty hours after he had been brought ashore. The same care was continued to this survivor, who, so soon as he was in a condition to travel, made the best of his way hither, to fulfill the dying injunctions of the crew who fell by lot as aforesaid, who severally made it their last and earnest request, that whosoever should survive, should as speedily as possibly they could, repair to this town, and there relate to their friends their miserable sufferings and sad catastrophe.
Honest prisoners
This morning a fire broke out at a gingerbread baker's adjoining to Whitechapel gaol, which consumed the baker's, and part of the gaol.
The consternation was so great, that lest the prisoners should be burned, the gaol doors were opened and all of them, to the number of 30, escaped, accept three, who returned in the evening.
The consternation was so great, that lest the prisoners should be burned, the gaol doors were opened and all of them, to the number of 30, escaped, accept three, who returned in the evening.
C18th lonely hearts column
From the Daily Advertiser, Apr. 13.
A middle-aged maiden lady, with an independent fortune, has been determined by the cruel treatment of those who from their connections ought to have been her friends, to think of entering into the honourable state of matrimony. She is indifferent as to fortune, so she meets with a gentleman of good morals and family; indeed she would rather wish to marry a person without any fortune, that the gentleman may have the higher obligations to her, and of consequence treat her with that tenderness and regard, reasonably to be expected from persons under such circumstances.
Her reason for taking this method, is, that it has been industriously given out, by people interested, (in order, she supposes, to prevent proposals) that she had determined never to marry.
Letters, with proposals, will be received at the bar of the Smyrna coffee-house, directed for Z. Z. A description of the gentleman's person, age and profession, is requested to be inserted; and how to direct, if the proposals are approved of.
The lady's conduct will bear the strictest scrutiny. No letters received, unless post paid, to prevent impertinence.
From the same, April 17.
Whereas I had long despaired of meeting with a temptation to enter into the holy state of matrimony, till taking up the paper of Friday last, I read the agreeable advertisement of a lady whose sentiments jump so entirely with mine, I am convinced we are cut out for each other, and therefore take this method of describing myself: I am a gentleman of unexceptionable good family; losses and crosses have reduced my fortune to my wardrobe, a diamond ring, a gold watch and an amber-headed cane; but as you have generously said, you don't even wish a fortune, I imagine this will be no hindrance: My person is far from disagreeable, my skin smooth and shining, my forehead high and polished, my eyes sharp tho' small, my nose long and aquiline, my my mouth wide, and what teeth I have perfectly sound: all this, with the addition of a flaxen full bottom, suitable to the age of between forty and fifty, with a good heart and sweet disposition, and not one unruly particle, compose the man who will be willing, upon the slightest intimation, to pay his devoirs to the lady. If she will direct her letter for S. U. to be left at St. James's coffee-house, the gentleman will wait on her wherever she pleases to appoint him.
A middle-aged maiden lady, with an independent fortune, has been determined by the cruel treatment of those who from their connections ought to have been her friends, to think of entering into the honourable state of matrimony. She is indifferent as to fortune, so she meets with a gentleman of good morals and family; indeed she would rather wish to marry a person without any fortune, that the gentleman may have the higher obligations to her, and of consequence treat her with that tenderness and regard, reasonably to be expected from persons under such circumstances.
Her reason for taking this method, is, that it has been industriously given out, by people interested, (in order, she supposes, to prevent proposals) that she had determined never to marry.
Letters, with proposals, will be received at the bar of the Smyrna coffee-house, directed for Z. Z. A description of the gentleman's person, age and profession, is requested to be inserted; and how to direct, if the proposals are approved of.
The lady's conduct will bear the strictest scrutiny. No letters received, unless post paid, to prevent impertinence.
From the same, April 17.
Whereas I had long despaired of meeting with a temptation to enter into the holy state of matrimony, till taking up the paper of Friday last, I read the agreeable advertisement of a lady whose sentiments jump so entirely with mine, I am convinced we are cut out for each other, and therefore take this method of describing myself: I am a gentleman of unexceptionable good family; losses and crosses have reduced my fortune to my wardrobe, a diamond ring, a gold watch and an amber-headed cane; but as you have generously said, you don't even wish a fortune, I imagine this will be no hindrance: My person is far from disagreeable, my skin smooth and shining, my forehead high and polished, my eyes sharp tho' small, my nose long and aquiline, my my mouth wide, and what teeth I have perfectly sound: all this, with the addition of a flaxen full bottom, suitable to the age of between forty and fifty, with a good heart and sweet disposition, and not one unruly particle, compose the man who will be willing, upon the slightest intimation, to pay his devoirs to the lady. If she will direct her letter for S. U. to be left at St. James's coffee-house, the gentleman will wait on her wherever she pleases to appoint him.
Witchcraft in 1758
One Susanna Hannokes, an elderly woman of Wingrove near Aylesbury, was accused by a neighbour for bewitching her spinning wheel, so that she could not make it go round, and offered to make oath of it before a magistrate; on which the husband, in order to justify his wife, insisted upon her being tried by the church bible, and that the accuser should be present: accordingly she was conducted to the parish church, where she was stript of all her cloaths to her shift and under-coat, and weighed against the bible; when, to the no small mortification of her accuser, she out-weighed it, and was honourably acquited of the charge.
Vicious bull
Mr. Lee, a wealthy farmer, at Wroxeter in Northamptonshire, being complained to by his neighbours for keeping a vicious bull, insisted upon it that he was not vicious, and went to him himself to convince them of it, when the bull immediately ran at him, and killed him on the spot.
Poor ventilation
SINGULAR DEATHS ON THE GRAND JUNCTION CANAL - Formerly the boats on the Grand Junction and other canals were propelled through the tunnels (which were not much larger than sewers) by the process of "legging;" that is, by the power of men who lying on their backs push with their feet against the walls. Lately this primitive system has been superseded by steam-tugs, which, however, have disadvantages in the smoke and vapour they leave behind in the tunnels.
On the Grand Junction Canal near Blisworth is a tunnel, more than a mile in length, and with only one shaft for ventilation. On the 6th inst. two of these steam-tugs entered this tunnel, in which the air had probably been already vitiated. The funnels of these boats poured out into the narrow and low passage such volumes of steam, smoke, and decomposed air that the people navigating them became insensible, and before the boats emerged to pure air two men were quite dead. One of these was roasted, by his body having fallen on the engine.
On the Grand Junction Canal near Blisworth is a tunnel, more than a mile in length, and with only one shaft for ventilation. On the 6th inst. two of these steam-tugs entered this tunnel, in which the air had probably been already vitiated. The funnels of these boats poured out into the narrow and low passage such volumes of steam, smoke, and decomposed air that the people navigating them became insensible, and before the boats emerged to pure air two men were quite dead. One of these was roasted, by his body having fallen on the engine.
Monday 22 June 2015
Consequence of rumours
MYSTERIOUS TRAGEDY AT CLAPHAM. - A family tragedy, which remains shrouded in mystery, has occurred at Clapham.
Mr. and Mrs. Littleton, of middle age and independent fortune, dwelt in Forster Place, Clapham. According to the evidence of neighbours they lived on very affectionate terms; but the housekeeper stated that on Sunday, the 21st, when she went to church in the afternoon, she left her master and mistress in the drawing-room; and that on her return her mistress told her they had had a few words.
Her mistress went out twice in the course of the evening, and at 10 o’clock witness went to bed, leaving her master and mistress in the dining-room together. About ten minutes past 12 her master came to her, and asked if her mistress had come home. She told him that she did not know that she had been out. He told her that she had gone out in a great passion, and that he had followed her, but, stopping to close the door against the dog, that she had got ahead of him, and he could not tell which way she was gone. He went out again to look out for her, but could not find her, and returned at 2 o’clock.
Nothing was heard of her that night. On the following morning, a person who went to the Long Pond on Clapham Common for the purpose of fishing, found in the water the body of a respectable female. She was elegantly dressed, with several rings on her fingers. There were no marks of violence on the body, but the fingers were so much swollen that it was necessary to file the rings before they could be taken off. This was the corpse of Mrs. Littleton.
A person residing on the common opposite the Long Pond deposed to having heard a long, loud scream as of a woman in distress about 12.30 on that Sunday night; but such cries, it seems, are not uncommon about this open spot. Another stated that about 12 P. M. he had seen a man and a woman together under some trees, who were quarrelling violently.
The death of his wife, and the rumours that were circulated, necessarily produced a great effect upon Mr. Littleton. He attended the funeral of his wife, and, on his return to his house, he sent for a friend to come to him in the front parlour. He said, “You were on the inquest - what reports have you heard about it ?” I (Mr. Blewitt) said that I had heard many reports. He said, “They say that I pushed her into the pond; but I declare to God I never saw her from the time she left the house until I saw her dead, and I will tell you how it occurred.” I said, “ The worst is over now.” He said, “Oh no, Monday I dread.” I said, “You have nothing to do but to speak the truth.” He said, “ I will tell you how it occurred. It was a most simple thing. I went into the front room after dinner with the paper, and I found a tremor come over me. I felt fainting, and could hardly get to the settee. She (Mrs. Littleton) was in the room, and she took no notice of me for some time. After I had come-to a little, I said, ‘Amelia, how unkind you are.’ She looked at me sternly and said, ‘You are always telling me I am unkind.‘
She got me some water and left the room. She dressed herself and went out. She returned, took off her chains, and left a lock of hair behind her. He said again, “I declare to God I never saw her from that time until her body was found. I went out once and returned, thinking to find her at home. I went out again. I went on to the Common, and called her until I was hoarse.” I asked him if I should send for his friends, and he said, “No;” adding, “but Monday I dread.”
On the following day (Sunday) the unfortunate man committed suicide by cutting his throat. There seems no ground for doubting that Mr. Littleton’s account was correct; and that the poor lady threw herself into the water in a fit of temper.
Mr. and Mrs. Littleton, of middle age and independent fortune, dwelt in Forster Place, Clapham. According to the evidence of neighbours they lived on very affectionate terms; but the housekeeper stated that on Sunday, the 21st, when she went to church in the afternoon, she left her master and mistress in the drawing-room; and that on her return her mistress told her they had had a few words.
Her mistress went out twice in the course of the evening, and at 10 o’clock witness went to bed, leaving her master and mistress in the dining-room together. About ten minutes past 12 her master came to her, and asked if her mistress had come home. She told him that she did not know that she had been out. He told her that she had gone out in a great passion, and that he had followed her, but, stopping to close the door against the dog, that she had got ahead of him, and he could not tell which way she was gone. He went out again to look out for her, but could not find her, and returned at 2 o’clock.
Nothing was heard of her that night. On the following morning, a person who went to the Long Pond on Clapham Common for the purpose of fishing, found in the water the body of a respectable female. She was elegantly dressed, with several rings on her fingers. There were no marks of violence on the body, but the fingers were so much swollen that it was necessary to file the rings before they could be taken off. This was the corpse of Mrs. Littleton.
A person residing on the common opposite the Long Pond deposed to having heard a long, loud scream as of a woman in distress about 12.30 on that Sunday night; but such cries, it seems, are not uncommon about this open spot. Another stated that about 12 P. M. he had seen a man and a woman together under some trees, who were quarrelling violently.
The death of his wife, and the rumours that were circulated, necessarily produced a great effect upon Mr. Littleton. He attended the funeral of his wife, and, on his return to his house, he sent for a friend to come to him in the front parlour. He said, “You were on the inquest - what reports have you heard about it ?” I (Mr. Blewitt) said that I had heard many reports. He said, “They say that I pushed her into the pond; but I declare to God I never saw her from the time she left the house until I saw her dead, and I will tell you how it occurred.” I said, “ The worst is over now.” He said, “Oh no, Monday I dread.” I said, “You have nothing to do but to speak the truth.” He said, “ I will tell you how it occurred. It was a most simple thing. I went into the front room after dinner with the paper, and I found a tremor come over me. I felt fainting, and could hardly get to the settee. She (Mrs. Littleton) was in the room, and she took no notice of me for some time. After I had come-to a little, I said, ‘Amelia, how unkind you are.’ She looked at me sternly and said, ‘You are always telling me I am unkind.‘
She got me some water and left the room. She dressed herself and went out. She returned, took off her chains, and left a lock of hair behind her. He said again, “I declare to God I never saw her from that time until her body was found. I went out once and returned, thinking to find her at home. I went out again. I went on to the Common, and called her until I was hoarse.” I asked him if I should send for his friends, and he said, “No;” adding, “but Monday I dread.”
On the following day (Sunday) the unfortunate man committed suicide by cutting his throat. There seems no ground for doubting that Mr. Littleton’s account was correct; and that the poor lady threw herself into the water in a fit of temper.
Justifiable homicide
FRIGHTFUL ENCOUNTER IN NORTHUMBERLAND STREET. - A very extraordinary and mysterious deed of violence, designated by the newspapers by the terms “affray,” “encounter," or “attempted murder,” occurred in Northumberland Street,Strand. On the east side of this street, near the river, is an old-fashioned, dingy-looking house (No. 16), with narrow windows, which, being unsuited to the modern taste for dwelling-houses, has been converted into “chambers," which are let in various divisions as “offices,” and are entitled “Northumberland Chambers."
On Friday, the 12th inst, about 11.45 A.M., some workmen, at the back of this and the next house, heard two pistol-shots, apparently fired on the first-floor of No. 16. This excited no surprise, as the same sounds had been frequently heard before. But, about five minutes afterwards, one of the windows was thrown open, and a man, apparently in the greatest excitement, and whose face was covered with blood, appeared at the window, and put one leg out, as though about to jump down - he appeared to have some kind of weapon in his hand.
The witnesses called out, “For God's sake, what’s the matter?” The man answered to the effect “that murder had been done." The witnesses called to him to stop where he was, and they would come up to him; and they then entered the house by the back-door, and ran up stairs. They were unable to enter the rooms on the first floor, the doors being locked, and they, therefore, ran down into the street for assistance.
In the meanwhile, the wounded man had, by some means, succeeded in reaching the back-yard. To have thrown himself directly down would probably have resulted in fractured limbs, or, perhaps, death - for besides the depth of the ground-floor, there was also a back area - but it would appear that, animated by a frantic energy, he had passed sideways along a very slight ledge until he reached the wooden casing of a water-pipe, by the aid of which he had reached the ground without injury.
In his blind terror, the man now attempted to climb the wall dividing the back-yards of Nos. 15 and 16, but while so doing was pulled back, by the coat-tails, by one of the workmen. He instantly turned, and ran through the passage into the street, where he was stopped by some of the persons who had given the alarm.
It was found that he was desperately wounded in the back of the neck, and that his hair and whiskers were singed and burnt. He seemed almost unconscious of his injuries, and only to be desirous of getting away.
On being told that he was wounded, he said, “Am I?” and on being again told that he was fearfully wounded, he said, “It's that damned fellow up stairs, Grey." His informant said that there was no person in that house named Grey, and that if he meant the person with whom he had been seen to enter the house some time before, his name was not Grey, but Roberts. To which he answered “He told me his name was Grey."
As a head police station is near at hand, numerous constables were by this time on the spot; and the injured man was taken to the Charing Cross Hospital, where with much difficulty it was ascertained from him that he was “Major Murray;” and the officers then proceeded to investigate this strange occurrence, and made startling discoveries.
The first floor, from which Major Murray had escaped, was occupied by a Mr. Roberts, a solicitor by profession, in practice a bill-discounter. The door between the landing and the first room was found to be permanently fastened up; while that admitting to the back room was so securely locked and fastened that it could not be forced, and an entrance was finally made from the back-yard by the window.
The back room presented a hideous spectacle. A large pool of blood was under the mantel-piece, another large pool in the corner near the furthest window; in the centre of the room was a broken table; broken wine-bottles and pistols were on the floor; the carpet was much disordered, the drawers were pulled out from the furniture, and the papers scattered about; and every part of this disordered area was smeared and splashed with blood.
The folding-doors between the two rooms were closed, but when they were opened by the police the front room presented a disordered appearance: the carpet was disturbed, the drawers were pulled out, and the papers scattered, and there were smears of blood on various articles. The window-blinds were down, and the room bore the appearance of being seldom entered; but amid the obscurity and dirt the object that fixed the attention of the police was a man sitting or crouching on the floor near the door, with his hand on the handle. He was evidently frightfully injured. On the police sergeant asking him “How did this happen?" he answered distinctly, “It was done by that man who has just gone down stairs." This was Mr. Roberts. He, also, was conveyed to the Charing Cross Hospital.
His condition is best described by the popular phrase - he was “battered to pieces." His head showed 13 distinct wounds, one of which was 8 inches, others 5 and 6 inches in length: by these the skull was beaten to pieces, one cheek-bone crushed, the temporal artery divided, the eyes closed, the flesh ruptured, and the whole face, especially the left side, beaten to a jelly: the left shoulder was found to be frightfully bruised; the right hand was much beaten, the index finger broken, and a deep cleft made between the thumb and that finger; the left hand and arm greatly beaten.
The wounds of Major Murray were few, but one of them was so placed that it is a marvel how he escaped instant death. In front of the right ear was a long but superficial wound, and his legs were much contused; but on the back of his head between the right jaw and the cervical vertebrae was a circular mark, surrounded by burnt and scorched hair, in the centre of which was a jagged opening which would scarcely admit the top of the little finger. This jagged aperture was the commencement of a wound which led by a long track downwards to the spine. On sounding this the probe struck against a metallic substance - a pistol bullet rather large, which was extracted with difficulty, and which was found to have struck against the spine with such force, as to have been indented to the shape of the part against which it struck.
Major Murray was very communicative as to the events of the frightful affray in which he had been a party; but he professed utter ignorance of the person and motives of his assailant, and inferred that he had been led into a trap for some mysterious purpose of violence. Mr. Roberts was too fearfully injured to make any statement; and though, notwithstanding his dreadful condition, he rallied sufficiently to make known his wants, he never attempted the slightest reference to the affray.
An occurrence so terrible and so mysterious naturally excited the public interest. The police had possession of the house, and would permit no ingress; but the narrow street was crowded during daylight for many days, with numbers of people, whose eyes were intently fixed on the dingy house-front; even throughout the night, persons lingered on the pavement; and few of the numerous passengers but paused on their way from Westminster to the city - for the house stands about midway in the “short cut” at the back of the Strand - to take a look at the scene of so mysterious a tragedy.
When the agents of the press had been admitted to the ensanguined apartments, their accounts, perhaps somewhat painted for effect, added to the thrill of horror.“A description of these rooms," says The Times, “would read almost like a chapter from a French novel. The front room has originally been furnished in the most luxurious and costly style. On the walls are five water colour drawings, and between them handsome brackets, supporting statuettes and copies from the antique. Round the room are ranged costly book cabinets and inlaid tables, on which are all sorts of ornaments under large glass shades. It is not, however, until one has been in the room some time that the richness of the furniture attracts notice, for glasses, pictures, statuettes, and vases - even the very cabinets themselves - are almost concealed under the accumulated dust of years. The shades and ornaments are enveloped in this as if coated with a positive fur, and even the slightly relieved figures which are on a copy of the Portland vase that stands on a sideboard in a corner, are barely distinguishable under their fine black coating. In spite of the costliness of its furniture, and the taste that has been bestowed upon its arrangement in the room, it is evident that it has never been cleaned or dusted probably since the things were first placed there many years ago. In the centre of the room is the table at which Mr. Roberts used to work, with the fireplace on the right hand, having an exceedingly handsome white marble mantel-piece, which is marked with bullets. Yet, almost immediately under the mantel-piece, making a great mound that stretches out into the centre of the floor, are the waste papers which have been crumpled up and thrown aside, and allowed, like the dust, to accumulate undisturbed. The back drawing-room was as richly furnished and as dirty as the front. But the dust has here been beaten down and the gloomy richness of the room disturbed by the most desperate of all contests - a contest where strong and angry men struggle to tear and beat each other down with whatever weapon they can seize in their frenzy. If two wild beasts had been turned loose to kill each other in this apartment it could not have presented traces of a more prolonged or deadly contest than it does. The furniture is broken and overturned in hideous confusion; the walls, the gilded tables, backs of chairs, and sides of dirty inlaid cabinets are streaked and smeared about with bloody fingers. One may almost trace where blows were struck by the star-shaped splashes of blood along the walls, while over the glass shades of the ornaments and doors of the cabinets it has fallen like rain, as if a bloody mop had been trundled round and round there. There were no pools of blood, as they are called - for blood neither sinks into the carpet nor flows away - but there were in many places lumps of thick gore nearly half an inch high, and showing clearly that each had flowed from the wounds of some one lying immediately over the actual spot. The furniture was of course overturned, bloody, and knocked about in all directions, as if the struggle had been as long as it was desperate. The remains of the tongs which Major Murray had used upon his assailant or opponent were broken into many pieces, while the stumpy fragment which he continued to wield with such terrible effect was found actually coated with flesh and blood. Beneath the window from which Major Murray made his hazardous escape there are, on the inner side, several irregular pools of blood among a pile of scattered papers, which are smeared and saturated with blood and wine. In the corner, near, there are some bottles of wine, one or two of which have been broken among the papers, which, however, appear to have lain there some time. In this corner of the room, close to the window, the awful traces of the conflict are more visible than in any other part. There is an ornamental table and book cabinet sideboard, which only leave a passage wide enough to enable a person to approach the window. It is evident that Major Murray here made his final struggle to escape, for the blood is thrown in long drops, like heavy driving rain, over everything around, far and near. Such fearful violence has been used here that it almost seems as if Mr. Roberts had been trying to throw his antagonist out of window, or endeavouring madly to prevent his escape."
While the police were trying to trace out the cause and circumstances of this dreadful occurrence, the two actors were lying in separate wards of the same hospital, both in a precarious condition. Major Murray, however, after the bullet had been extracted, recovered rapidly; and made frequent and apparently frank communications concerning the struggle, but uniformly denied any knowledge of his antagonist. Mr. Roberts, on the other hand, sank under his injuries, and died on the evening of the 19th.
He preserved an absolute silence as to the affray, except when questioned by Inspector Mackenzie. The Inspector asked him if he knew him, and he said he did. Witness then asked him, “How did this affair occur?” and he replied, “Murray did it." He asked him to tell him how, but deceased replied, “My head is too bad. I cannot tell you now.” On the next night, at half-past 11 o’clock, he again saw deceased, and asked him once more if he could tell how it had all occurred, and how he had received such dreadful injuries about the head. Deceased replied, “Murray did it all.” But he said, “You must tell me how he did it, Mr. Roberts" and deceased answered, “Murray attacked me with the tongs, and also hit me over the head with a glass bottle.” Witness said to him, “ You must tell me more particularly than that. Did you know Murray before?” and deceased replied, “I have seen him before, but not spoken to him.” Witness asked, had they met by accident or appointment? to which Mr. Roberts answered, “By accident, in Hungerford Market, and he came to my office with me about a loan.” He then asked him what was the amount of the loan, and Roberts answered, “50,000l.” He then added, “Murray shot himself in the neck, and then attacked me with the tongs like a demon, and hit me with a glass bottle.” Witness asked him if he wished to make any depositions before a magistrate, and deceased replied, “No, I have nothing more to say.”
The rumour had been circulated that the struggle had originated in pecuniary transactions, and that the parties had stood in the relation to each other of usurer and dupe; but it was understood that the police had failed to find in the papers of the deceased any trace of any connection whatever between the parties.
Circumstances had also made it almost certain that Major Murray’s statement was true, and that he was utterly unacquainted with Mr. Roberts; but also certain that Mr. Roberts was well acquainted with Major Murray’s person, and, to some extent, with his affairs.
A coroner’s inquest was held on the body of the deceased, which, in the absence of any positive evidence, was necessarily protracted; and it would be superfluous to repeat the evidence from which the preceding narrative has been drawn. It was not at first thought advisable to produce Major Murray as a witness, since he would necessarily be advised to make no statement that should incriminate himself. When, however, a witness had been examined whose statement made it certain that Major Murray was a victim - and which will be referred to presently - it was judged advisable to take his statement of the affray. He said:-
“My name is William Murray, and I live at 82, Harley Street, and at Tottenham. I was a Major in the 10th Hussars, but I have sold out. I know a little of what has passed in the court below, but not much, for I have seen no papers. On Friday morning, the 12th, I left London Bridge by the penny boat for Hungerford. As I was going down the right side of the market, a man came up to me from behind, on my left, and said, ‘I believe I am speaking to Major Murray?’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s my name;’ and he then said, ‘I believe you are a director of the Grosvenor Hotel Company?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am; and pray who are you?’ He said, ‘My name is Grey.’ I had never seen him before in my life. I said, ‘How do you know me ?’ and Grey replied, ‘I have seen you at the meetings of the company.’ I said, ‘Are you a shareholder?’ He said, ‘No; but I attended the meetings.’ He then went on to say he had a client who had 60,000l., and he understood the Company wanted to borrow money, and his client was anxious to get the investment. I said I had no power in the matter, as I was only one of 10 directors, and could do nothing personally; but I added, ‘If you will give me your name and address, I am going to the Company, and will say what you wish.’ He said that would do, and that, if not in a hurry, he would like me to come to his office and answer a few questions. I asked where his office was, and he said close round the corner. By this time we were at the door of his office, and he asked me to step up stairs. He showed me into a back room on the first floor, and requested me to be seated.
I never was in the house before - most positively, never. I took a seat; and he then said, ‘You will excuse me for one instant,’ and left the room. I sat with my back to the folding doors in front of the table. On my left was the fireplace. The folding doors were shut. When he left the room I took a look round, and thought it was the most extraordinary place I had ever seen; torn papers, bottles, and pictures lying about: a most disreputable looking place.
In a minute or so he came back into the room and took a seat in front of me, with a pen in his hand, and asked what interest we proposed to give. I said I was not in a position to say, but would hear what his client proposed to ask. He said, ‘Oh, then, I understand the offer is to come from us.’ I said not, as under any circumstances we should not give more than five per cent. He replied, ‘That will do very well;’ and I asked him for his card of address. He said, ‘Immediately,’ and got up from the table and walked round behind me and began rummaging among the papers of a desk. I thought he was looking for his card, and took no particular notice. Presently, I felt a touch in the back of my neck. There was a report of a pistol, and I dropped off the chair on the ground. I was perfectly paralyzed. I could not move any part of my body. My head, however, was quite clear.
I was lying with my face to the fender, and when he fired I believe he left the room. After some little time I felt returning life in my leg and arm, and I was just raising myself on my elbow when I heard a door open, and he came in again. He immediately walked up behind me and fired a pistol into my right temple. I dropped back on the carpet, and the blood gushed all over my face, and eyes, and mouth, in a regular torrent. He either stooped or knelt down close behind me, for I could feel his breath, and he watched close to see if I was dead. I then made up my mind to pretend to be so. I felt that the bleeding was bringing life back to me fast all over my body, which was tingling to the fingers ends. I knew if I could get on to my feet I should be able to make a fight for it. After he had knelt behind me for some short time he got up and walked away, and I then opened my eyes and took a look round, and saw a pair of tongs within a few inches of my hand. Feeling that my strength was returning to me, and there was the whole length of the room between us, I seized the tongs, and sprang to my feet.
He was then at the window. Hearing me move, he turned and faced me. I at once rushed at him, and made a heavy blow at him with the tongs, which missed. I then seized them short by the middle, and made a dash into his chest and face, which knocked him over on his back. I got my knees on his chest, and tried to smash his head with the tongs. They were too long, and he got them in both his hands firmly. I struggled hard for some time to get them away, but he was as strong as I, and I could not do it. I looked round for something else to hit him with, and close to my right hand I saw a large black bottle, which I caught in my right hand, and shaking the tongs with my left, to keep him occupied, I hit him full, with all my force, on the the middle of the forehead, and smashed it to pieces. That made him like quiver all over, but still he did not let go the tongs, so I caught hold of a metal vase and dashed it at his head with all my might, but I missed him. Then, as I saw there was nothing else at hand, I set to work desperately to get the mastery of the tongs, which he was holding all the time.
During all this he was on his back, close under the window nearest the door. After a long struggle I got the tongs. As they came into my hands I lost my balance, and fell back, but was up again in an instant, and by that time he was rising into a sitting position, which gave me a fair, full blow at his head with the tongs, and I gave it him with all my might and main {these tongs, broken, bent, and covered with blood and hair, Major Murray had in his hand when first seen escaping from the window]. I repeated it three or four times. He hid his head under the table to escape my blows, and I then hit him over the back of the neck; and in order to disable his hands, I hit him hard over the wrists.
I then thought he was sufficiently disabled, and tried to get out, but the door of the room was locked. I then went through the folding doors of the front room and tried that way, but that door was locked too. In coming back through the folding doors, I met him again face to face, walking towards me. I took a step back in order to get a full swing, and hit him on the head again with the tongs. He fell forward on his face through the folding doors as if he was dead. I pushed his feet through the doors and, shut them, and then threw up the window. The
Major having then narrated his escape from the window, added: “That is all I have to say. There was no word passed between us but what I have mentioned. I have not the slightest notion in the world why he should attack me. I never had any communication with. the man, good, bad, or indifferent. I did not know even that such a man was in existence.”
The key to the mystery was, discovered in a singular manner.
On one of the tables in Mr. Roberts’ room was a sheet of blotting paper, on. which was written, in deceased’s handwriting, the address of a “Mrs. Murray,” and among his papers, several letters in a female hand, some of which were signed “Annie,” others “A. M. Murray.” The address was followed up, and it was found that Mrs. Murray was a young woman who had been for some time Major Murray’s mistress, though not living with him. The unfortunate young woman was able to make a statement which gave an object and motive to 'the murderous proceedings of Mr. Roberts.
She had, it appeared, been living for several years under Major Murray’s protection, and had had one child, a daughter, by him. He had behaved to her with uniform kindness, and had been sufficiently liberal; but the expenses attending her confinement had brought her into debt, and unwilling to apply to the Major for money, she unhappily applied to Mr. Roberts, the usurer, who gave her 15l for her bill at three months. This seems to have been renewed several times, for the poor young woman was seldom able to save from her allowance more than the quarter's interest.
She was naturally terrified lest Major Murray should know of these transactions, and the usurer was well aware of her anxiety for secrecy. The low, coarse-minded brute - who was a married man with a family, and keeping every outward appearance of staid respectability - began to lust after his unhappy client, and sought to turn her necessities to his advantage. Nor did he use any delicacy about the gratification of his passions; for on one occasion when she went to deprecate his forbearance and offer the quarter’s interest for renewal, he plainly told her not to make herself uneasy about it, for that if she would be his he would forgive her the whole of it. The poor creature (whose appearance and conduct while under examination were most becoming) indignantly repudiated his disgusting proposals.
But the idea seemed to have got complete possession of the man, and ruled him as with an absolute passion; he pursued her in every direction, watched her in her out-goings with Major Murray, knew where she had been, could tell where she had sat, and with whom; he passed her in cabs in her walks, and even sought to introduce her to his wife and family, for which she again had moral sense to rebuke him. His one overruling idea was to get her to leave Major Murray and become his mistress.
Although inaccessible to his offers, the young woman was so far cowed by the necessities of her position, that she did not acquaint Major Murray with these proceedings, and submitted to receive from him presents and ardent letters, which she answered in a too corresponding style, fearing he would betray her if she did not.
Either with an eye to business or urged by a morbid curiosity, Mr. Roberts also kept a close watch upon Major Murray, and by his continued knowledge of his proceedings, kept the young woman in continual alarm; and from her forced a knowledge of the position and wants of the Grosvenor Hotel Company, and of Major Murray’s circumstances.
About a month before the fatal affray he ascertained from Mrs. Murray that the Company were desirous of borrowing a large sum - 40,000l. or 50,000l. He professed to have a client who was willing to lend it; and on this pretext caused Mrs. Murray to come frequently to his ofiices, until two days before the assault.
Under what circumstances the idea of destroying the Major in order to get possession of his mistress first entered the wretched man’s mind cannot be known - whether the one overpowering frenzy so blinded him to the futility of the scheme that he had dwelt upon it until it took shape and consistency, or whether it was a momentary impulse, so sudden and so thrilling as to allow no time for pause or reflection. From the brute’s pursuit it seems rather more probable that he desired to entangle the Major in an usurer’s toils, and then to force or purchase from his necessities the object of his desires.
Nothing was stated which would suggest that the long-continued pistol practice had any other purpose than amusement; yet it is very possible that the presence of these weapons and habit of using them may have suggested the frenzied idea. Shakespeare truly says :—
“Oft-times, the sight of means to do ill-deeds makes ill-deeds done.”
After a very protracted inquiry the general concurrence of circumstances corroborated the main points of Major Murray’s statement, and the jury returned a verdict of “justifiable homicide, and that Major Murray slew the deceased to save his own life.”
On Friday, the 12th inst, about 11.45 A.M., some workmen, at the back of this and the next house, heard two pistol-shots, apparently fired on the first-floor of No. 16. This excited no surprise, as the same sounds had been frequently heard before. But, about five minutes afterwards, one of the windows was thrown open, and a man, apparently in the greatest excitement, and whose face was covered with blood, appeared at the window, and put one leg out, as though about to jump down - he appeared to have some kind of weapon in his hand.
The witnesses called out, “For God's sake, what’s the matter?” The man answered to the effect “that murder had been done." The witnesses called to him to stop where he was, and they would come up to him; and they then entered the house by the back-door, and ran up stairs. They were unable to enter the rooms on the first floor, the doors being locked, and they, therefore, ran down into the street for assistance.
In the meanwhile, the wounded man had, by some means, succeeded in reaching the back-yard. To have thrown himself directly down would probably have resulted in fractured limbs, or, perhaps, death - for besides the depth of the ground-floor, there was also a back area - but it would appear that, animated by a frantic energy, he had passed sideways along a very slight ledge until he reached the wooden casing of a water-pipe, by the aid of which he had reached the ground without injury.
In his blind terror, the man now attempted to climb the wall dividing the back-yards of Nos. 15 and 16, but while so doing was pulled back, by the coat-tails, by one of the workmen. He instantly turned, and ran through the passage into the street, where he was stopped by some of the persons who had given the alarm.
It was found that he was desperately wounded in the back of the neck, and that his hair and whiskers were singed and burnt. He seemed almost unconscious of his injuries, and only to be desirous of getting away.
On being told that he was wounded, he said, “Am I?” and on being again told that he was fearfully wounded, he said, “It's that damned fellow up stairs, Grey." His informant said that there was no person in that house named Grey, and that if he meant the person with whom he had been seen to enter the house some time before, his name was not Grey, but Roberts. To which he answered “He told me his name was Grey."
As a head police station is near at hand, numerous constables were by this time on the spot; and the injured man was taken to the Charing Cross Hospital, where with much difficulty it was ascertained from him that he was “Major Murray;” and the officers then proceeded to investigate this strange occurrence, and made startling discoveries.
The first floor, from which Major Murray had escaped, was occupied by a Mr. Roberts, a solicitor by profession, in practice a bill-discounter. The door between the landing and the first room was found to be permanently fastened up; while that admitting to the back room was so securely locked and fastened that it could not be forced, and an entrance was finally made from the back-yard by the window.
The back room presented a hideous spectacle. A large pool of blood was under the mantel-piece, another large pool in the corner near the furthest window; in the centre of the room was a broken table; broken wine-bottles and pistols were on the floor; the carpet was much disordered, the drawers were pulled out from the furniture, and the papers scattered about; and every part of this disordered area was smeared and splashed with blood.
The folding-doors between the two rooms were closed, but when they were opened by the police the front room presented a disordered appearance: the carpet was disturbed, the drawers were pulled out, and the papers scattered, and there were smears of blood on various articles. The window-blinds were down, and the room bore the appearance of being seldom entered; but amid the obscurity and dirt the object that fixed the attention of the police was a man sitting or crouching on the floor near the door, with his hand on the handle. He was evidently frightfully injured. On the police sergeant asking him “How did this happen?" he answered distinctly, “It was done by that man who has just gone down stairs." This was Mr. Roberts. He, also, was conveyed to the Charing Cross Hospital.
His condition is best described by the popular phrase - he was “battered to pieces." His head showed 13 distinct wounds, one of which was 8 inches, others 5 and 6 inches in length: by these the skull was beaten to pieces, one cheek-bone crushed, the temporal artery divided, the eyes closed, the flesh ruptured, and the whole face, especially the left side, beaten to a jelly: the left shoulder was found to be frightfully bruised; the right hand was much beaten, the index finger broken, and a deep cleft made between the thumb and that finger; the left hand and arm greatly beaten.
The wounds of Major Murray were few, but one of them was so placed that it is a marvel how he escaped instant death. In front of the right ear was a long but superficial wound, and his legs were much contused; but on the back of his head between the right jaw and the cervical vertebrae was a circular mark, surrounded by burnt and scorched hair, in the centre of which was a jagged opening which would scarcely admit the top of the little finger. This jagged aperture was the commencement of a wound which led by a long track downwards to the spine. On sounding this the probe struck against a metallic substance - a pistol bullet rather large, which was extracted with difficulty, and which was found to have struck against the spine with such force, as to have been indented to the shape of the part against which it struck.
Major Murray was very communicative as to the events of the frightful affray in which he had been a party; but he professed utter ignorance of the person and motives of his assailant, and inferred that he had been led into a trap for some mysterious purpose of violence. Mr. Roberts was too fearfully injured to make any statement; and though, notwithstanding his dreadful condition, he rallied sufficiently to make known his wants, he never attempted the slightest reference to the affray.
An occurrence so terrible and so mysterious naturally excited the public interest. The police had possession of the house, and would permit no ingress; but the narrow street was crowded during daylight for many days, with numbers of people, whose eyes were intently fixed on the dingy house-front; even throughout the night, persons lingered on the pavement; and few of the numerous passengers but paused on their way from Westminster to the city - for the house stands about midway in the “short cut” at the back of the Strand - to take a look at the scene of so mysterious a tragedy.
When the agents of the press had been admitted to the ensanguined apartments, their accounts, perhaps somewhat painted for effect, added to the thrill of horror.“A description of these rooms," says The Times, “would read almost like a chapter from a French novel. The front room has originally been furnished in the most luxurious and costly style. On the walls are five water colour drawings, and between them handsome brackets, supporting statuettes and copies from the antique. Round the room are ranged costly book cabinets and inlaid tables, on which are all sorts of ornaments under large glass shades. It is not, however, until one has been in the room some time that the richness of the furniture attracts notice, for glasses, pictures, statuettes, and vases - even the very cabinets themselves - are almost concealed under the accumulated dust of years. The shades and ornaments are enveloped in this as if coated with a positive fur, and even the slightly relieved figures which are on a copy of the Portland vase that stands on a sideboard in a corner, are barely distinguishable under their fine black coating. In spite of the costliness of its furniture, and the taste that has been bestowed upon its arrangement in the room, it is evident that it has never been cleaned or dusted probably since the things were first placed there many years ago. In the centre of the room is the table at which Mr. Roberts used to work, with the fireplace on the right hand, having an exceedingly handsome white marble mantel-piece, which is marked with bullets. Yet, almost immediately under the mantel-piece, making a great mound that stretches out into the centre of the floor, are the waste papers which have been crumpled up and thrown aside, and allowed, like the dust, to accumulate undisturbed. The back drawing-room was as richly furnished and as dirty as the front. But the dust has here been beaten down and the gloomy richness of the room disturbed by the most desperate of all contests - a contest where strong and angry men struggle to tear and beat each other down with whatever weapon they can seize in their frenzy. If two wild beasts had been turned loose to kill each other in this apartment it could not have presented traces of a more prolonged or deadly contest than it does. The furniture is broken and overturned in hideous confusion; the walls, the gilded tables, backs of chairs, and sides of dirty inlaid cabinets are streaked and smeared about with bloody fingers. One may almost trace where blows were struck by the star-shaped splashes of blood along the walls, while over the glass shades of the ornaments and doors of the cabinets it has fallen like rain, as if a bloody mop had been trundled round and round there. There were no pools of blood, as they are called - for blood neither sinks into the carpet nor flows away - but there were in many places lumps of thick gore nearly half an inch high, and showing clearly that each had flowed from the wounds of some one lying immediately over the actual spot. The furniture was of course overturned, bloody, and knocked about in all directions, as if the struggle had been as long as it was desperate. The remains of the tongs which Major Murray had used upon his assailant or opponent were broken into many pieces, while the stumpy fragment which he continued to wield with such terrible effect was found actually coated with flesh and blood. Beneath the window from which Major Murray made his hazardous escape there are, on the inner side, several irregular pools of blood among a pile of scattered papers, which are smeared and saturated with blood and wine. In the corner, near, there are some bottles of wine, one or two of which have been broken among the papers, which, however, appear to have lain there some time. In this corner of the room, close to the window, the awful traces of the conflict are more visible than in any other part. There is an ornamental table and book cabinet sideboard, which only leave a passage wide enough to enable a person to approach the window. It is evident that Major Murray here made his final struggle to escape, for the blood is thrown in long drops, like heavy driving rain, over everything around, far and near. Such fearful violence has been used here that it almost seems as if Mr. Roberts had been trying to throw his antagonist out of window, or endeavouring madly to prevent his escape."
While the police were trying to trace out the cause and circumstances of this dreadful occurrence, the two actors were lying in separate wards of the same hospital, both in a precarious condition. Major Murray, however, after the bullet had been extracted, recovered rapidly; and made frequent and apparently frank communications concerning the struggle, but uniformly denied any knowledge of his antagonist. Mr. Roberts, on the other hand, sank under his injuries, and died on the evening of the 19th.
He preserved an absolute silence as to the affray, except when questioned by Inspector Mackenzie. The Inspector asked him if he knew him, and he said he did. Witness then asked him, “How did this affair occur?” and he replied, “Murray did it." He asked him to tell him how, but deceased replied, “My head is too bad. I cannot tell you now.” On the next night, at half-past 11 o’clock, he again saw deceased, and asked him once more if he could tell how it had all occurred, and how he had received such dreadful injuries about the head. Deceased replied, “Murray did it all.” But he said, “You must tell me how he did it, Mr. Roberts" and deceased answered, “Murray attacked me with the tongs, and also hit me over the head with a glass bottle.” Witness said to him, “ You must tell me more particularly than that. Did you know Murray before?” and deceased replied, “I have seen him before, but not spoken to him.” Witness asked, had they met by accident or appointment? to which Mr. Roberts answered, “By accident, in Hungerford Market, and he came to my office with me about a loan.” He then asked him what was the amount of the loan, and Roberts answered, “50,000l.” He then added, “Murray shot himself in the neck, and then attacked me with the tongs like a demon, and hit me with a glass bottle.” Witness asked him if he wished to make any depositions before a magistrate, and deceased replied, “No, I have nothing more to say.”
The rumour had been circulated that the struggle had originated in pecuniary transactions, and that the parties had stood in the relation to each other of usurer and dupe; but it was understood that the police had failed to find in the papers of the deceased any trace of any connection whatever between the parties.
Circumstances had also made it almost certain that Major Murray’s statement was true, and that he was utterly unacquainted with Mr. Roberts; but also certain that Mr. Roberts was well acquainted with Major Murray’s person, and, to some extent, with his affairs.
A coroner’s inquest was held on the body of the deceased, which, in the absence of any positive evidence, was necessarily protracted; and it would be superfluous to repeat the evidence from which the preceding narrative has been drawn. It was not at first thought advisable to produce Major Murray as a witness, since he would necessarily be advised to make no statement that should incriminate himself. When, however, a witness had been examined whose statement made it certain that Major Murray was a victim - and which will be referred to presently - it was judged advisable to take his statement of the affray. He said:-
“My name is William Murray, and I live at 82, Harley Street, and at Tottenham. I was a Major in the 10th Hussars, but I have sold out. I know a little of what has passed in the court below, but not much, for I have seen no papers. On Friday morning, the 12th, I left London Bridge by the penny boat for Hungerford. As I was going down the right side of the market, a man came up to me from behind, on my left, and said, ‘I believe I am speaking to Major Murray?’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s my name;’ and he then said, ‘I believe you are a director of the Grosvenor Hotel Company?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am; and pray who are you?’ He said, ‘My name is Grey.’ I had never seen him before in my life. I said, ‘How do you know me ?’ and Grey replied, ‘I have seen you at the meetings of the company.’ I said, ‘Are you a shareholder?’ He said, ‘No; but I attended the meetings.’ He then went on to say he had a client who had 60,000l., and he understood the Company wanted to borrow money, and his client was anxious to get the investment. I said I had no power in the matter, as I was only one of 10 directors, and could do nothing personally; but I added, ‘If you will give me your name and address, I am going to the Company, and will say what you wish.’ He said that would do, and that, if not in a hurry, he would like me to come to his office and answer a few questions. I asked where his office was, and he said close round the corner. By this time we were at the door of his office, and he asked me to step up stairs. He showed me into a back room on the first floor, and requested me to be seated.
I never was in the house before - most positively, never. I took a seat; and he then said, ‘You will excuse me for one instant,’ and left the room. I sat with my back to the folding doors in front of the table. On my left was the fireplace. The folding doors were shut. When he left the room I took a look round, and thought it was the most extraordinary place I had ever seen; torn papers, bottles, and pictures lying about: a most disreputable looking place.
In a minute or so he came back into the room and took a seat in front of me, with a pen in his hand, and asked what interest we proposed to give. I said I was not in a position to say, but would hear what his client proposed to ask. He said, ‘Oh, then, I understand the offer is to come from us.’ I said not, as under any circumstances we should not give more than five per cent. He replied, ‘That will do very well;’ and I asked him for his card of address. He said, ‘Immediately,’ and got up from the table and walked round behind me and began rummaging among the papers of a desk. I thought he was looking for his card, and took no particular notice. Presently, I felt a touch in the back of my neck. There was a report of a pistol, and I dropped off the chair on the ground. I was perfectly paralyzed. I could not move any part of my body. My head, however, was quite clear.
I was lying with my face to the fender, and when he fired I believe he left the room. After some little time I felt returning life in my leg and arm, and I was just raising myself on my elbow when I heard a door open, and he came in again. He immediately walked up behind me and fired a pistol into my right temple. I dropped back on the carpet, and the blood gushed all over my face, and eyes, and mouth, in a regular torrent. He either stooped or knelt down close behind me, for I could feel his breath, and he watched close to see if I was dead. I then made up my mind to pretend to be so. I felt that the bleeding was bringing life back to me fast all over my body, which was tingling to the fingers ends. I knew if I could get on to my feet I should be able to make a fight for it. After he had knelt behind me for some short time he got up and walked away, and I then opened my eyes and took a look round, and saw a pair of tongs within a few inches of my hand. Feeling that my strength was returning to me, and there was the whole length of the room between us, I seized the tongs, and sprang to my feet.
He was then at the window. Hearing me move, he turned and faced me. I at once rushed at him, and made a heavy blow at him with the tongs, which missed. I then seized them short by the middle, and made a dash into his chest and face, which knocked him over on his back. I got my knees on his chest, and tried to smash his head with the tongs. They were too long, and he got them in both his hands firmly. I struggled hard for some time to get them away, but he was as strong as I, and I could not do it. I looked round for something else to hit him with, and close to my right hand I saw a large black bottle, which I caught in my right hand, and shaking the tongs with my left, to keep him occupied, I hit him full, with all my force, on the the middle of the forehead, and smashed it to pieces. That made him like quiver all over, but still he did not let go the tongs, so I caught hold of a metal vase and dashed it at his head with all my might, but I missed him. Then, as I saw there was nothing else at hand, I set to work desperately to get the mastery of the tongs, which he was holding all the time.
During all this he was on his back, close under the window nearest the door. After a long struggle I got the tongs. As they came into my hands I lost my balance, and fell back, but was up again in an instant, and by that time he was rising into a sitting position, which gave me a fair, full blow at his head with the tongs, and I gave it him with all my might and main {these tongs, broken, bent, and covered with blood and hair, Major Murray had in his hand when first seen escaping from the window]. I repeated it three or four times. He hid his head under the table to escape my blows, and I then hit him over the back of the neck; and in order to disable his hands, I hit him hard over the wrists.
I then thought he was sufficiently disabled, and tried to get out, but the door of the room was locked. I then went through the folding doors of the front room and tried that way, but that door was locked too. In coming back through the folding doors, I met him again face to face, walking towards me. I took a step back in order to get a full swing, and hit him on the head again with the tongs. He fell forward on his face through the folding doors as if he was dead. I pushed his feet through the doors and, shut them, and then threw up the window. The
Major having then narrated his escape from the window, added: “That is all I have to say. There was no word passed between us but what I have mentioned. I have not the slightest notion in the world why he should attack me. I never had any communication with. the man, good, bad, or indifferent. I did not know even that such a man was in existence.”
The key to the mystery was, discovered in a singular manner.
On one of the tables in Mr. Roberts’ room was a sheet of blotting paper, on. which was written, in deceased’s handwriting, the address of a “Mrs. Murray,” and among his papers, several letters in a female hand, some of which were signed “Annie,” others “A. M. Murray.” The address was followed up, and it was found that Mrs. Murray was a young woman who had been for some time Major Murray’s mistress, though not living with him. The unfortunate young woman was able to make a statement which gave an object and motive to 'the murderous proceedings of Mr. Roberts.
She had, it appeared, been living for several years under Major Murray’s protection, and had had one child, a daughter, by him. He had behaved to her with uniform kindness, and had been sufficiently liberal; but the expenses attending her confinement had brought her into debt, and unwilling to apply to the Major for money, she unhappily applied to Mr. Roberts, the usurer, who gave her 15l for her bill at three months. This seems to have been renewed several times, for the poor young woman was seldom able to save from her allowance more than the quarter's interest.
She was naturally terrified lest Major Murray should know of these transactions, and the usurer was well aware of her anxiety for secrecy. The low, coarse-minded brute - who was a married man with a family, and keeping every outward appearance of staid respectability - began to lust after his unhappy client, and sought to turn her necessities to his advantage. Nor did he use any delicacy about the gratification of his passions; for on one occasion when she went to deprecate his forbearance and offer the quarter’s interest for renewal, he plainly told her not to make herself uneasy about it, for that if she would be his he would forgive her the whole of it. The poor creature (whose appearance and conduct while under examination were most becoming) indignantly repudiated his disgusting proposals.
But the idea seemed to have got complete possession of the man, and ruled him as with an absolute passion; he pursued her in every direction, watched her in her out-goings with Major Murray, knew where she had been, could tell where she had sat, and with whom; he passed her in cabs in her walks, and even sought to introduce her to his wife and family, for which she again had moral sense to rebuke him. His one overruling idea was to get her to leave Major Murray and become his mistress.
Although inaccessible to his offers, the young woman was so far cowed by the necessities of her position, that she did not acquaint Major Murray with these proceedings, and submitted to receive from him presents and ardent letters, which she answered in a too corresponding style, fearing he would betray her if she did not.
Either with an eye to business or urged by a morbid curiosity, Mr. Roberts also kept a close watch upon Major Murray, and by his continued knowledge of his proceedings, kept the young woman in continual alarm; and from her forced a knowledge of the position and wants of the Grosvenor Hotel Company, and of Major Murray’s circumstances.
About a month before the fatal affray he ascertained from Mrs. Murray that the Company were desirous of borrowing a large sum - 40,000l. or 50,000l. He professed to have a client who was willing to lend it; and on this pretext caused Mrs. Murray to come frequently to his ofiices, until two days before the assault.
Under what circumstances the idea of destroying the Major in order to get possession of his mistress first entered the wretched man’s mind cannot be known - whether the one overpowering frenzy so blinded him to the futility of the scheme that he had dwelt upon it until it took shape and consistency, or whether it was a momentary impulse, so sudden and so thrilling as to allow no time for pause or reflection. From the brute’s pursuit it seems rather more probable that he desired to entangle the Major in an usurer’s toils, and then to force or purchase from his necessities the object of his desires.
Nothing was stated which would suggest that the long-continued pistol practice had any other purpose than amusement; yet it is very possible that the presence of these weapons and habit of using them may have suggested the frenzied idea. Shakespeare truly says :—
“Oft-times, the sight of means to do ill-deeds makes ill-deeds done.”
After a very protracted inquiry the general concurrence of circumstances corroborated the main points of Major Murray’s statement, and the jury returned a verdict of “justifiable homicide, and that Major Murray slew the deceased to save his own life.”
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