The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-07-26 00:00:00

Ti[} INQITEST.

On Mon iay. Mr. Hall, the coroner for West Surrey,
held an inquest upon the body. The inquiry WllB held
at Abinger- hall, Wotton, near Dorking, the residence
of Mr. Thomas H. Ferrer, the permanent Secretary of
the Board of Trade, which is clone to the spot where
the melancholy accident endured. 'Mere were pre
cent, among others, during the mournful proceedings—
Mr. Gladstone, Earl Granville, Mr. Ferrer, Air.
Leveson Gower, M.P., Mr. George Cubitt, M.P., and
two sons of the deceamed Bishop—Mr. Reginald Garton
Wilberforce and the Rev. A. Bead Wdberforce, rector
of Southampton. The other son, the Rev. Ernest
Wilberforce, is at present, it is understood, travelling
on the Continent.

The 'ury, after being sworn, were conducted to the
drawing-room of Abinger hall, where the body of the
B shop was lying, clad in hie Episcopal robes, over
whih, as in his lifetime, was placed the blue riband of
the Garter, of which Order he wee the Prelate. On
their return to the room in which the inquest weabeing
held—

E tel Granville was Invited by the Coroner to tell in his
own way what eccurred on the evening of the accident. Hie
Lordship, lett • We. much affected, stated that ow that even-
ing he CA; proceedit e on I,reenack with the Bishop from
Burford.hridge to Holmhury (ti e residence of hi. brother,
Mr. Levesou Gower, M ), and after rldli g rather quickly
across li.uniore.common they went down a Ewe,' 101 l and
along a chalk road until th. y reaohed a kind of broad but
shallow dip, which, he be liev.d, went by the name of '' Beer.
sheds it, ugh." rhe grass there was very smooth Ind level.
flew.. riding a little to the left of the Bishop, and was look.
tin towards the hill, when euddenly he heard • Messy thud
on the grime. Ha turned round, and saw that the noric
which the as-hop had been riding was on hie legs, while the
Bishop was lying moll mien on his hack, with his feet In the
direction In which they had been going. Heat once itopped
his one and the other horse and dismounted. The t lollop made
no eff .rt to rise r y movement whatever, and hie Loreletr p
then sent his groom to Mr. Ferrer's, Abineer.hall, for assist-
ance. While t' e acorn was away he put his hat and coat
under the kilthou's shoulders and loom-ned his cl, thee Ills
eyes wine shut, Ms countenance was qui e serene and Coin-
posed, and he had a look if satisfaction and heppliims about his
face. He felt his pulse anti his heart, but there was no throb.
hi, gor any other signor life. Afterwards, when Mr. Ferrer had
arrived and br.uight help, he again felt the pulse, and fancied
there was a slight beating, but It proved to be only hie own
pulse which had produced that movement, abd not that of
the Bishop. fie did not see the B shop fall, and he only
heard the thud on the grass. Being asked by the Coroner
if there was anything opm the ground that might hove
caused the Bishop's horse to stumble, he replied he
thought there must have been, Rs be could other wise
hardly understand how the accident happened. •Ibere
was no doch in the way, and they wee riding, as
he had explained. on a moo th piece of grass In a
kind if shallow dip. He Mosel( had ridden over the
same spot very often, and knew it well. Titers was
u.thinii that he could see • Inch would make the horse sy,
anti the horse, Ishico was his own, was not in the habit of
shying it.. Lordship, at the c mansion of the evidence, said
he should like to add th t he !lever saw the Bishop more
cheerful or apparently in better spirits thou he was upon
that occ lion. Just before the accident he was vrjoic ng In
t. e fine weather and the beauty of the sc-nt ry. wtikh he was
keenly no.iciost at every point of the way tie had also in
walked* few moments before is fail that he never could
get tired et rldlag such a home u that upon which he was
then mounted,

Henry 6eurse Shears, L,rti Orshvilles groom, deposed
that he was In attendance up -di his master and the Bishop
on the o .casiew and that the scene of the accident was
about had a mile, or less, from Abinger-hall, and close CO
some farm buildings, They were riding along • piece of
very level grass at the aide if the road There w,ki a sudden
dip, or hollow, in the turf and the bro.se, on reaching It,
stam•ded and tell on /.1s knees. the Bish,r, fell over the
horse's head on to the grek-s. The brie at once recovered
Been, and d d 114 t tall upon him. The Bishop was riding
at a slow, cantertne pace —about six or seven altos an
hue. The horse did not shy at anything, hut was going
very yule, ly. Mere was no hale or rut Into which the horse
could have put his tint, and it was only on reaching the
sudden nip that he mumbiel. The animal was v .ry quiet
and safe, mei he had never known him to stumble before.
The wh le addr was extremely sudden ft-plying to one of
the Itisle.p's sine the witness ra,:rrsied his belief that the
hornet head never tatched the ground at aIL

Granville said the horse h.tit hen ridden both hy
hinieell and L. y °rani/1114, and be had never seen him
stumble or heard of his doing is.

Mr. runty&ll, • surgeon at Share, Surrey, stated that he
was called to Abinger•hall to see the iti,bop at right o'clock
on Saturday evening. Ile found him quite dead, there
ware no external marks of in), iry on any part of the body.
nth had resulted from a dislocation of the neck. and it
must have been Instantaneous. There was no ground for
belb-vlng that the Bloom, had been seised with a fit, lie
iroduceo the hat whit, ti his Lordship had been wearing, and
whtch was c motet-1y broken and crushed by the fall.

L INA Grew 'e a permtwi a to a•d teat a. they were
rifbaz, (to Id.hop was p aft:We ly Wee ream of everythaq
anuad Mtn a ,d male to qu n. r, ma hi upon the Tart u,
trees w,ich they paced and their wutabillty to the e ii In
which they had been ptantet

The jury returned a verdict of " Aocidental Death,"
and the proceedings ended.

At three o'clock the body, which wee Sill robed in
full camalicals, was placed in a wooden shell, with lead
covering, in an outside casing of oak with white mount •
bus. The plate bore the following inscription :
Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of 'Wincheeter, 23 years
hipliop of the Church of God ; died July 19, 1873. aged
67 yearn." Previous t 4 the cledrg of the oriin a
photogiaph was taken of the deceased prelate by a
photogrepher from Sheire. TIII4 cover being then
screwed down, the remains were placed in the hearse in
waiting, drawn by four horses, to be conveyed to the
family re.iid.rice of the deceased, West Lavington,
near Petworth, Stumm

It may be remembered that one of the last acts of
the Bishop of Winchester was to write to Sir Frederick
Perkins, whom he had previously known lig Mayor if
Southampton, in the following terms. the letter being
probably ihe last he wrote: " Winchester House, St.
Jatuen's-iquare, July 19. My dear Sir Frederik—
Allow one who watches with pleiseure evely success
which comes to you to connratulate you on well-
achieved lionours.—Y,urs most truly, S. WINTON."

At Westminster Abbey on Sunda', at the special
evening eersice, the Rev. H. R Havre* incumbent of
St. James's 111arylebone, who was the preacher,
alluded, in the course of hie sermon on the parable of
" the Prodigal Son," to tbe fatal actident to the Bishop
of Wmcheeter on the previous day. Probably most of
them knew by that time that an eminent prelate, be-
loved and revered far and wide, had been endienl)
taken from among them. He alluded to the sudden
death ~f the Bishdp of Winchester. That mornirg, the
news reached London that this eminent person had
been killed suddenly by a fall from bin bore. The death
must he ye beeu unusually prompt, probably unueuall)
painless; :arid yet perhaps there were those who
might think it very hard tnat he should have passed
away 60 vickly, without a note of warning for any who
love I him. But, when he thotuht of his a •tive and
useful life, wben he considered how well he earned out
at leant one of the characteriatic prec-pts of the Apostle
Sr. Paul in a very high and lofty spirit—the precept
which bade its " become all things to all men
when he remembered his noble eloquence in the cause
of justice, and eel>, vally in the cause of mercy,
for none ever aaked him to preach in vain
for any good or noble object and wan denied his
reqw.t wheuever it lay in the Bishop's power to grant
; when he thought of hie yearn, his generation
sod what he had accomplished, he dared not say that
God's time wee too soon. But it was especially fit
that in this great Abbey they should make meotitn of
hie name that night, for he len teded over that building
as Dean for about one ) esr, and all throuth the latter
part of his life at least he wait more or less intimately
aesociated with that great ,xdlegiate .'stab ishment, the
Weadminster Schriol, attached to the very fabric of
that noble Abbey. Nligot pe, ce be to hie ashes who
lived to well, and, let then Rey it aaio, with heads
bowed down in reverent realigns' ion, who died no vr,•ll.

The D. ad hlarch in Saul wan playe aa the core-
Ration left the Abbey, ami • great multitude of pereora
remained until it wAs concluded.