The Press.
London, England, 1858-12-25 00:00:00

T FIE PRESS, DECEMBER 25, 1858.

lttibtnts anV Offentes.

AN EXTRAORDINARY ACCIDENT occurred on the farm
of Mr. Henry Newby, of Pittington Hallgarth, the
other day. Benjamin Oyston, one of Mr. Newby's
men, was engaged, with a two.horse cart, carting
turnips from a field on the farm. While proceeding
across the field with the cart the earth opened, and
the first horse immediately disappeared in the chasm.
The man, who was riding on the cart, jumped off,
seized the remaining horse by the head, and by this
means prevented it following its companion. The
harness of the first horse held for some time, but
when it gave way the animal disappeared. Shortly
afterwards the ground, for some considerable distance
round, gave way, and was completely swallowed up.
Coal has been worked under the farm, and there
cannot be the slightest doubt that the sinking of the
earth is owing to the operations of the miners. A
light was let down into the chasm by a rope, but,
after being lowered for about ten fathoms, it was,
owing to the foul air, extinguished.

A MOST DREADFUL ACCIDENT happened at Torquay
on Tuesday morning. A wall some forty feet in
height, which supported a cliff, the summit of which
was being converted into a vegetable garden, fell in
upon the kitchen apartments of Nos. 2,3, and 4,
Beacon-terrace, reducing that part of the premises
to ruins, and burying beneath the debris those who
were sleeping in the bedrooms, namely, Mr. and
Mrs. Tanner, the occupants of No. 2; Mr. and Mrs.
Hellier, the tenants of No. 3 ; and Mr. and Mrs.
Hambling, who resided in No. 4 The accident oc.
curred shortly before one o'clock in the morning.
Several neighbours, awakened by the fearful crash,
bast med to the spot, and having procured assistance,
made an energetic endeavour to rescue those who
were placed in such imminent danger. This was no
easy task; but so zealously did they apply themselves
to it, that within an hour after the accident occurred
their labours had ended. Melancholy indeed was
the reward of those engaged in searching for Mr.
and Mrs. Rambling. Their mangled bodies too
plainly proved that the most diligent exertions could
not have saved their lives. They were so fearfully
crushed and mutilated, that death must have been
instantaneous. At the adjoining house, No. 3, Mr.

and Mrs. Hellier were discovered and rescued in
time to save life, although the injuries they re-
ceived are of such a dangerous character that
their condition is a very precarious one. Mr. Hellier
sustained a fractured thigh, a compound fracture of
the leg, and serious internal hurts ; Mrs. Hellier's
collar-bone was broken, and her body dreadfully
bruised. At No. 2, the results were not so serious;
for, although with considerable difficulty rescued,
Mr. and Mrs. Tanner were not so seriously injured
as to justify unfavourable apprehensions respecting
their recovery. Thera were other occupants of the
back bedrooms of No. 2—a governess, a little girl,
and two servants, but these fortunately escaped. The
bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Hambling await the coroner's

inquest.
THE WHOLESALE POISONINGS AT BRADFROD aris-
ing from the poisoned lozenges, have been judicially
decided at York to have been the result of accident.
Mr. Hodgson, the chemist, whose assistant sold the
arsenic to the lozenge-maker, in place of the plaster
of Paris, which he asked for, has been acquitted,
Mr. Baron Watson, who tried the case, being of
opinion that Hodgson had not been guilty either of
culpable or criminal negligence.
AN ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE was made in a prison van
on Tuesday by a man named George May, who had
been committed at the Southwark Police-court for a
month for neglecting to support his wife. It appears
there are separate boxes in the van, and about six
o'clock May was placed in one of them, and on leav-
ing the station-house seemed as collected as usual ;
but in passing Vauxhall Gardens, Sergeant Russell,
who was in charge of the van, heard a strange noise
in the prisoner's box, and on immediately opening
the door discovered him with his throat cut. He
immediately took him to a surgeon, had the wound
sewed up, and conveyed him with the other prisoners
to Wandsworth House of Correction, when he was
removed to the infirmary, where he remains in a pre-
carious state. _

A REVOLTING CASE of attempting to poison a family
took place on Monday night at Mr. John Blagg's,
Crifton Rouse, Epperstone, ten miles from Notting-
ham. It appears that a servant girl, named
Susannah Twells, was preparing some potatoes for
supper, when the nephew of Mr. Blagg went into the
kitchen, and there being a strong smell questioned
her as to the cause of it, and, from her confused
manner and silence, his suspicions were aroused that
all was not right. The smell was like that of sheep
wash, some of which had been recently used for
washing the feet of those animals. Upon examining
the potatoes he discovered that nicks bad been cut
in them with a knife, and the wash, which is a deadly
poison, inserted. A policeman was sent for, and the
girl apprehended. She has been frequently told that
the liquid was poison. On Wednesday morning she