The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-08-23 00:00:00

Elebonsb ire.

EXCTICR AND SOUTH Dicvox VOLUNTENR flrrit
CORP& —This corps was reviewed on Monday night
at Exeter by the commanding officer, Sir If. S.
Prineaux. This was the first rdle corps formed in
the kingdom, and is now becoming an extremely
efficient body. They wear • very neat uniform, and
have a very soldierlike bearing. The rifles were
supplied a short time since, and the members are
now drilled with them. There are four drills each
week, two early in the morning and two in the
evening. The members muster with great regularity
and bestow much attention upon their practice. At
the inspection on Monday evening they were nearly
all present, and they went through the various
manoeuvres with considerable precision, eliciting the
commendation of the inspecting officer. The band
of the lit Devon Militia was present.
BRISTOL AND EXETER RAILWAY.—The report of
the directors states that of the total receipts on
capital account £3.5,777 remains unexpended. The
average rate of interest on the debenture debt is
4.30 per cent., while the average rate on the total
preferential charge on the undertaking has been
further reduced to 4.15 per cent. The sum of
£20,559 has been expended on capital account
during the last half-year, of which the principal
items are—purchase of land, £8,046; carriage stock,
£4,268; and electric telegraph, .£3,938. The direc-
tors have commuted and extinguished the annual
rent payable to the Electric Telegraph Company
by the purchase of the wires in respect of which such
rent was paid. The gross revenue derived from all
sources from the lit of January to the 30th of June
last was £163,794, and the working expenses,
£79,906, leaving a balance of £8.5,988. The in-
crease, as compared with the corresponding half of
1858, is, in revenue, £11,097; in working expenses,
£3,190; and in the balance £7,907. The working
expenses are equal to 48.13 per cent. of the gross
revenue, or .t6OO per mile on 133 miles of railway
worked, and show a decrease of 1.39 per cent., and ,
of .fl 2 17s. itxL per mile worked, as compared with
the corresponding ball-year of IN% The balance of
revenue account, including £16,113, brought forward ,
from the previous half-year, is £63,060, and the
directors recommend a dividend at the rate of 5i
per cent, per annum, carrying forward a balance of
£9,443 to the next account. The subject of fire
insurance has engaged the attention of the Board.
At present the sum of £3lO is charged in the ac-
counts as annual premium, but it is thought desirable
to take £5Oll from the disposable balance for that
purpose. A provisional arrangement has been made
with the Corporation of Bridgwater for access to
tidal water from the railway, and it is believed that
the arrangement will mutually benefit the under-
taking and the trade of Bridgwater. The neces-
sary accommodation for goods traffic on the Corn-
wall Railway will soon be completed, when the
revenue will be inert-lured by receipts from that
source. The assosiateil companies propose to assist
the Cornwall Company in obtaining a temporary
advance of £90,000 on the security of their 6 per
cent. preference shares, to enable them to discharge
their liabilities. A provisional agreement has also
been entered into with the London and South-
Western and the Salisbury and Yeovil Companies
for jointly snaking such station arrangements at
Yeovil as will admit of the ready interchange of
local tratlic. The extension of the Somerset Cen-
tral from Gladonbury to Wells was opened on the
16th of March, since which time it has beeu worked
by the Bristol and Exeter Company at a rent of
£2,570 per annum. The capital account showed that
£3,766,448 had been received, and £3,730,671 ex-

pended, including £4.50.966 invested ia otter rail-
way companies' undertakings, leaving a balance of
a:35,717.
Tile TRUe rig or A Cavutnnat.--The Che-
ter uf the Cathedral at Exeter have set example,
which way judiciously followed in all the catlic.lntls
throughout the tsruntry. The nave of tile "acne!
edilku bas 6,0" al,Pro,•riated for afternoon service
on :nintlaya. A vast area is thna obtaiiiiel for the
congregation, and it is is pleasing feet that 1111 every
occasion there has been all overwitelining attendance.
Chairs take the plaix of pews, and the site w Lich the
nave presents when the immense ismgregation are
seated is very striking. Lich and poor sit side by
side. No seats are reserve,' for any p.u-ocular class.
All alike are united within the walls of the venerable
cathedral, where all the scats are "free." lull
. . . .

choral ser.vire ie performed, and the sermon by one
of the cathedral dignitaries. The rev. gentlemen
who have up to this tune emupied the pulpit have
delivered excellent addresses. The entire cost of
tilting up the nave Was leirne by one member of the
Chapter—the Her. Chancellor Harrington.
FATAL AceIDENT.---An inquest; was held on Mon-
day, at the Waiting Roma of the Bristol and Exeter
Itadevey, Exeter,before 11. W. Holier, leg., coroner,
on the body of Samuel Hannaford, ',god fA) years. The
deceased, who was a navvy, wig engaged at the
alterations now being made at the station, and in
creasing the line whilst the up Express engine &lid
empty carriages were coming towards him, was
knocked down, and the earflaps basted over Ins
body, crushing it in a frightful manner. The jury
returned a verdict of " Accidental Death."
ExTi:AoI:DINAY I.VSACY CAV..---A commission
d%litoudito imiNtrentlo, which Luted live days, was
concluded on Wednesday afterneou at the Castle of
Exeter. The C0111111i3411/11 wasqieued on Fri lay
week, before Mr. t ',minis, loner Warren autil.a. jury
composed of country gentlemee. The peutioner
was Dr. flreenup, of Warringtm, in Lancashire,
and the lunatic was Miss Phieki Ewings, an old
hely of SO years of age. Mr. K. Smi.li, Q.C., and
Alr. Kerslake were counsel for the petitioner; and
3lr. Collier, Q.C., Mr. Coleridge, and Mr. Kingdon
were counsel fir 31im Ewing". The facts, which
were of an extraordinary character, were briefly
thme :—ln the year Is:ill Miss Ewings's sister died,
and the bereavement much allicted her mind. She
was aferwards known to moan and to wander in a
disconsolate manner througt the streets. In
October, IS5i, she was attacked with paralysis, from
which she physically recovered; but it was alleged
that her mind was entirely broken down. Shortly
afterwards she had an attack of mania, and was eon.
fined in Haydock Lunatic Asykine Here she was
said to have delusions and moibid aversions; she
said that an attempt had been made to strangle her,
and that while in the asylum as attempt was made
to convert her to Roman Catholicism, &c.
Some of her friends, believing that she would be
better if removed to a private residence, took her
out of the asylum, and the Rev. H. T. Ellacumbe,
her third cousin, who believec himself the next of
kin, brought her to Exeter. and placed her in
lodgings with a Miss Columns, with whom she had
formerly lodged. Dr. Shaptei, a physician of con-
siderable eminence, having attended her before, was
called in, and he saw the old laly almost daily. He
appeared to have acquired great influence over her,
for a short time ago he, at her request, took instruc-
tions for • will, in which she gave several legacies, and
made the doctor the residuary legatee. The amount
of the legacies Was £l,OOO, and the remainder of her
property amounted to .03,00 t. A will was made
from these instructions, but was subsequently tom
up, and another will, prepered by Mr. Grey,
solicitor, of Exeter, was made, in which the bulk of
the property was left to Dr. Shapter, and, in the
event o his death, to his eldest eon and the rest of
his children. Dr. Shapter, bnivever, immediately
wrote to Mr. Beamont, Miss Ewinies's solicitor at
Warringport, stating what tte old lady had dune,
but declaring most emphatically that neither he nor
his children should ever take a single farthing under
the will, notwithstanding that he thoroughly beliefs'
her to be in a sound state of reiutl and quite capahle
of executing a will. This Dr. Shapter put in writing
and communicated to several gentlemen, but failed
to inform the Rev. T. H. Ellacombc of it, as he hail
promised to do. It was eonten ed by the counsel
for the petitioner that this decluation of Dr. Shapter
was a proof that he did not consider 3liss„Ewings to
be of sound mind. Several witnesses were called,
who stated that Miss Ewing, was of unsound mind.
In answer to the petition, it was contended, and
deposed to by several witnesses, that Miss Ewing,
had fully recovered from her attack of mania; that,
allowing' for the feebleness of old age, she was a lady
of average intelligence, of good memory and powers
of observation : and that with regard to her bequest
to Dr. Shapter, she persisted in making it, saying
that she had no relatives that she mixed anything
about, that none of them had ever taken any interest
in her, amid that with regard te the petitioner, who
had recently discovered -himself to be the next kin,
her family had had a lawsuit with his, and that
therefore she much disliked him. Dr. Shapter was
examined, and positively stated that he would never
take any benefit under the will. The Commissioner
and jury had an interview with Miss Ewtngs, and
the latter unanimously pronounced her of unsound
mind and incapable of managing herself and her
property. The case has created the utmost excite-
ment in Exeter and the neighbourhood.
TIVEKTON.—The Rev. NI. A. Gilbert, rector of
St. Peter's, Tiverton, has refused to allow the
Bishop of Oxford the use of his pulpit, to the great
annoyance of churchmen of that Right Rev. Pre-
late's school.
COLYTON.—DistreSsieg Arrident.--On Wednes-
day week an empty wagon, drawn by two hones,
belonging to Mr. G. W. Chilcott, of Cole's Mill,
Colyton, was returning from Seaton, and when nesr
Slowford Brook the front horse, being a colt, started
off at a furious pace, dragging the other after it, and
the muter was unable to stop them. Proceeding
onwards, they met three donkey carts full of holiday
folks going to Seaton, and most fortunately parsed
them without accident. However, on approaching
the corner descending the hill at Colyton, a lady,
named Mrs. Ward, of Taunton, and her little boy,
about five years of age, together with another lady,
were in the road. Mrs. Ward. seeing the danger
in which her little boy was placed, darted out into
the middle of the road with the view of saving him
from being run over. Whilst endeavouring to do
an the shaft of the wagon struck her on the head,
throwing her violently to the ground, and the wheels
passed over the back of the little boy. The horses
proceeded as far as Mr. Kibby's, where tho shaft
horse fell, and they were providentially stopped.
Mrs. Ward and the child wore conveyed to the Swan
Inn, and Mr. Evans, surgeon, of Seaton, was imme-
diately sent for, when he found that the lady and
child were seriously bruised. But faint hopes are
entertained of the ultimate recovery of the child.
Mr. Chiloott and his brother-in-law were in the
wagon at the time the horses started off, but luckily,
they managed to jump out behind and escaped with-
out injury.

LVIERTON.—On Thursday week the town of
Dulverton was enlivened by the merry peals of bells
which were sent forth in succession throughout the
day and night. to welcome home our worthy magis-
trate, J. A. Locke, Esq., and his newly-wedded
wife to their recently-built mansion, North Moor
House. Two arches of evergreens and flowers were
erected across the streets on the way to the abode
of the honoured couple, and the town was illumi-
nated. A carriage and pair arrived with them from
the Tiverton Junction Station into the town at 11
p.m., amid much cheering along Lady-street. There
was also a beautiful arch at the Lodge, at the
entrance-gate of the mansion, with evergreens,
flowers, and Hags, with" Welcome home."