Infanticide

On Saturday evening an inquest was held at the Barleymow, Mount-street, Berkeley-square, before T. Higgs, Esq. coroner, on the body of a female infant about eight months old, of interesting appearance, who, on Thursday night last, was found in Lansdown-passage by lord Chetwynd's servant, who took it to the workhouse. A porter who sweeps the passage where the child was found, every night, on the Thursday evening saw a woman, very fashionably dressed, with a scarlet mantle trimmed with fur, and a large white French bonnet, enter the passage with a small basket, which at first appeared weighty; she shortly returned, and requested him, "for God's sake to go down, that a child was lying on the ground;" he followed, and she wrapped her shawl round the infant, telling the porter to mind it, and she left the place in haste.

The jury had an opinion that she was the mother. No opinion could be given as to the cause of death, and the jury returned a verdict - "That the deceased's death was occasioned by being wilfully exposed to the inclemency of a dark, cold night in Lansdown passage."