The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-09-05 00:00:00

SPEARE.

The sudden fall in the temperature of late
has had an alarming effect upon one branch of
coi 1111 l erce—the ice trade. Probably never has
such a larye quantity of ice been consumed in
any previous summer. From a luxury it has
become almost a necessary to a Londoner, and
the supply a few weeks ago could only with
difficulty keep pace with the demand. Mere
manufacturing only goes a very small way
towards doing so, though that can be done on a
large scale, ride Mr. Gaingee's ice-rink, which,
by the way, haa endured the great heat in
a very satisfactory manner. Large quantities
are shipped from Norway, where is is easily
preserved during the summer months. Then
haa lately been from 30 to 40 ships ice-laden ie
dock on the Thames at one time, but unable to
find purchasers even at the "ridiculously small
sum" - as Montague Tigg would have said—of
7s. 6d. per ton. Horrible doubts have been
suggested of late by medical authorities as to
the cleanliness of the water imported in the
shape of ice, and of that used in the home
manufacture of it. We may have been cooling
our wino with refrigerated suburban horsepond,
or congealing our cream with condensed Nor-
wegian sewage. Some say, however, that the
process of freezing removes all noxious proper-
ties, and the argument is comforting, though
we fear somewhat fallacious. The use of ice in
the summer is a comparatively modern institu-
tion. In 184.3 a historian remarked with
surprise "On April 11th of the present year, I
passed through 'Billingsgate, and observed on
the ground some large pieces of ice, in which I
was told the salmon from Berwick and other
Craof our Northern fishery was packed in
xtias. The ice is preserved in ice-houses
throughout the winter entirely for that purpose."
Speaking of Billingsgate—or Benin's gate,
from Belinus, companion of Brennus the Gaul,
and father of King Lud, whence Ludgate, as
says the absurd tradition—the old fish market
maintains the superiority which it has enjoyed
from the time of William the Third, when, by
Act of Parliament, it was made a free port for
fish. Many efforts have been made, and many
inure proposals—some of them quite recently—
to remove it, site; but all have proved abortive,
and costerin' ongering London will stick to the
site so lougldedicated to fish and profanity,
until it becomes covered with bricks and
mortar, as the Hungerford Market was some
fifteen or twenty years ago, by the present
Chariug-Cross itation and hotel. Columbia
Market, the greatest blow ever aimed at
Billingsgate, is a splendid but melancholy
failure. Its proximity to the terminus of the
Great Eastern Railway station, where such a
vast amount of fish conies in, its convenient
arrangement and imposing architecture, all
went for nothing compared with the prestige of
Billingsgate. For the year IBM Columbia
Market contributed £4, leas a few ponce, to the
revenues of the Corporation, as against some-
thing like £55,000 from Smithfield, which is
the best paying of all Metropolitan markets.
The spectacle of £200,000 worth so thrown
away, and so unappreciated, would have
deterred any less-devoted philanthropist than
the Baroness Burdett-Coutta from further
efforts to benefit the lower orders of London.
Signs of hard times : A large number of
cabbies have given up their vehicles, alleging
that Ifin. a day is more than they can afford
to pay the owners. The Amalgamated
Chimney-Sweeps' Association have sent round a
circular announcing that, in consequence of
increased prices of provisions, &c., they are
reluctantly compelled to raise their terms in
every department of the profession.
The Bravo murder with all its dirty surround-
ings, still affords plenty of talk for our contem-
poraries. The latest contribution to the literature
of the case is a pungent and forcible letter
written by a relative, bfr. Royes Bell, F.R.C.S.,
of which we insert the leading points:—
"We must remiuember." be says, 'that antiomy Ina
never been used for suicide, but has been used by medical
men for the purpose of murder, and especially be it
remembered, for murder by slow degrees : and that, with
his admitted knowledge of medical matters, Mr. Bravo
was the last of all mien likely to have selected a drug of
which the operation was so painful and uncertain. More-
over, not the slighest trace was found of it in
bottle, or box—a most unprecedented thing in suicide, hut
a very obvious precaution in murder. an offer of £5OO
has not elicited the shrillest evidence on the subject. Why
was every bottle as carefully removed What has
become of the Burgundy not drunk But, while we can-
not trace it to him, we know that antioniv was traced to
somebody else, and its disposal not wholly satidisctorily
accounted for. There was no motive for suicide: Mr.
Bravo was cheerful and active up to the very moment of
the poison being taken. He had, moreover, made an
appointment with • friend for the next day of a nature
utterly Incompatible with the state of mind antecedent to
suicide. He was in no pecuniary straits whatever;
his family and connections were wealthy ; he
was clever in his profession, and successful for his
age and standing at the Bar; he had married a
wife of whom he WAS doatingly food. The evidence of
his jealousy of Dr. Gully or of his quarrels with his wife
rests wholly, on the assertions of people—without one
single confirmatory fact in word, deed, or writing—who, if
they cannot brand his memory with suicide, stand them-
selves directly pointed at by the verdict of the jury. How
is it that none of his intimate friends ever heard any
expression of the kind, or had any Intimation of this con-
suming passion Your correspondent. Dr. Sheppard, says
that suicide is the result of sudden and violent impulse.
Is it not nearly always the cintrary ? Is not suicidal
mania indicated by a moody, desponding temperament
Does it not result either from feebleness, which induces a
man to think an ordinary difficulty cannot be overcome,
of which there is no proof in Mr. Bravo, or from the
existence of difliculties which cannot be overcome, in
which we know Mr. Bravo was not placsd. or from that
physically infirm condition and general moodiness and
geessanhydeannc,l,
votcicohutraLtelLa.ssocwitiiictrid renekranlolL.wth on-
the
evidence of all his friends and by his letters, were totally
foreign to him 1 Was there anything more likely to have
dispelled suicidal numia than the active exercise of riding
a restive horse for two hours r
"Dr. ilheppord says, Ls the credibility of this witness
(Mr. Bravo) though dying, to be put against that of a lady
who states that be used the expression, 'I have taken
poison for Dr. Gully: do not tell Iflorence I ' Now, in the
first place, this credible witness admitted the grossest
falsehoods in her previous statementa. In the second
place, it does not agree with her previous version of the
same sentenoe. Thirdly it is quite at variance with the
evidence of all the other far more credible witnesses.
Fourthly, the expression itself is that of a woman, not of
a men. Had Mr. Bravo felt the sentiment, he would have
expressed it in different language. Clearly the jury did
not believe it for a moment. They kept their eyes on the
laurel water and the treatments, and the suspicious going
backwards and forwards, and the crooked ways and more
crooked speech, awl the disgraceful antecedents. They
treated it all a* • lie and an invention. My object is
simply to defend She ineMory of A relative whom every-
Issly esteeined from the most unworthy charges, and I will
only allude to the antecedents and evidence of one the
pour fellow so dearly loved, and whom he would have been
the last to Asperse. The jury have, niost fortunately for
eociety, fixed a mark on the case that nothing can now
remove. I say fortunately for society, for, if this be pro-
nouncod suicide, and not murder, there is no mmian safe
even in tha locom of his family."

Mr. J. Parker Norrts, a well known American
Hhakapearean, contributes the following article to the
Pkile4dpiin Pre.", of the fourth of August:
It ham been suggested that an examination of the
exmains of Shakapeare shoald be made by [opening
his grave at Stratford-on-Avon. :ihaloyeare died in
April, llilli, and he ham, therefore, been dead and
buried just NO years. Many will exclaim, "Of what
benefit will this be after such a lapne of time! Nothing
but .last would be found there." Are we sort of this?
Very often the features and clothing of the dead are
',reserved for hundreds of years after burial, and on
opening their graven wonderful nights have been seen.
In • few minutes all crumble away, and nothing but
dust remains, but for a short time the illusion is
wonderful A friend, residing near Stratton', writes
mm
:
Some graves of the Shakspeare date were opened at
Charch Lawton., a few years ago, and the fit'ires, faces,
and dresses were perfect, but, of course, in half an hour
were noire heaps of Past Sb. kspeare's grave is near the
Avon, bat doubtless be was buried well (in a leaden
coffin, probably), and there 61 scarcely room for a doubt
that, with proper precautions, photograph, of his fare
might be taken perfectly. Surely the end does justify the
means here it is not to satisfy mere idle curiosity. It in
not mere relicmongering it is simply to secure for
posterity what we could give,—an exact representation of
the great poet as he lived and died. Surely this is justifi-
able, at least it is allowable, in the abscocc of any
authentic portrait. Surely such a duty might be almost
eeverenUy done. I doubt, after all, if it will Is,: but I am
wery strongly in favour of the trial, and If no remains
were found no harm would be done. the 'curse' to the
contrary notwithstanding. People who have pet primate
&Pout portraits would nut, like to have all their neat and
logical arguments rudely knocked on the head, but where
sAeldd we eli be if no tihakspeare at all were found, but
only • lautdle of musty old 1188. in Lord Bacon's • fine
Roman head! After all, 1 ant rather nervous about the
result of nueh an exhumation, lint, seriously, I see no
reams' why it should not be made. A legal friend here
lens ago siontested (humorously, not professionally, of
coarse) that the ' cures' might be escaped by employing a
wpm. (• cursed be he'), and women would compete for
the hawser "
There have been many graven opeasoi, in eases where
their tenants have been buried far longer than Shah-
spout, and very often the features and clothing Isere
ree„gideable ; and gall more often were the skeletons
whet. It istrue that they resin crumbled to dust,
but they remained whole long enough for photograph.:
to be taken of them. History furnishes un with many
eases where the tombs of kings and queens have been
opened and their bodies wearer! quite perfect for a
abort time. William the Conqueror died in 1087, eel
In 1542 a poet- *orlon examination of his body WM
made by the 111..11.1. of Bayeux. Miss titrickland
(frees whoa, we take these references) says: -" Oti
removing the sion., over, the body which was
corpulent, and exisssling in stature the tallest Malt
then know: amwared as uutire as when it was first
buried 55 ithin the tomb IoV 3 plate of supper-gilt,
On whkh was engraved an inneription in Latin verse'
I
The Ith,hop, who was greatly nurprtned at finding the '
body in such tarfect priwervation, caused • painting
go be executed of the Royal remains, in the state :
which they then appiarcd, by the ls.st artist in i
Caen, and caused it to be Imug up on the abbey wall, I
opposite to the monument. . . . Open the grave
reverently, have the photographeni ready, and the
moment the coffin lid is removed, if there be any,
expose the plates and see what will be the result.
eosi close up the grave, and if nothing is socomplishe, I
n
and people would rest
no harm would be done,
gatiafied.

otoet elitinttl expreso DOBOHNOTBZ.
A nosstion of £5 has been generously given to the
• funds of the Working Men's Institute by Mr. H. N.
Middleton.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1876. Tut depth of rain which fell in August was 4.06
inches ; and in the same mouth last year it was 3.16
inches.
NOTES OF THE WEEK. COMMITTED TO THE Pollan. Covary Paws. The net amount realised by the Dog Tax in Session.: Henry Taylor, stealing gold rings, at
the but financial year, the accounts for which Bridport ; George Peaty, in orri;,ible rogue, at Come
have just been printed, was £343,259. Abbas; William Foot, stealing one hen's egg at
Gillingham. —Nord Labour: Edward Nforgan,vagrancy
at Winiborne and Walter Brett assault at Corte
Another piece of patronage has fallen to Castle, 1 calendar month each • William Cooper,
the Bishop of London by the death of the Rev. vagrancy at Wimborne, Sarah 'Stone, damaging a
Henry Howarth, rector of St. George's, Hanover- window at Wyke Regis, and Samuel Taylor, dninken•
square, who was buried on Friday last. The nes,' at Wyke Regis, 14 days each; David Powell,
income of this parish has considerably fallen oft drunkenness at Wyke Begin, 7 days. —/osprisonnust :
I,
since the church has ceased to be the fashionable Charles Crabb, breach of the peace at Bridport
3 calendar months; Mary Emily Bryer, stealing bouts
temple of Hymen, which it used to be in former and a shirt at Weymouth, 14 days.
years. In these days of choral weddings, THE WEATHE/L—The following is our meteorological
followed by high celebrations, St. George's "'Port:—
has been voted low and slow by Ritualistic I
young ladies. Still it is a very pretty piece of
preferment; and, as the Bishop of London has
already provided for three sons-in-law by bene-
fices in his Diocese, it is not improbable that St.
George's may be the temple of Hymen to one
of the Miss Jackson'. The Bishop's eleven
daughters have been irreverently described as a
Curates Aid Society, and as Paddington has
just been given to one of these sons-in-law, St.
George's may not improbably be given to
another.

Dile. I Noon. 1