The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-04 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIR.

A REMARKABLE COOK.

At the Aehford petty eesicons on Tuesday
(before Mr. W. P. Burro) the following Peculiar teas wee
heard : . .

Sarah Herring, 23, cook, in the service of Mr. Clark
Hills, Singleton, Great Chart, was charged with stealing
six forks, the propel.), of her master.
It appeared that on the previous Thursday evening,
about half-past eight o'clock, the prisoner came to
the parlour door, where the family were sitting, and
said the housemaid heard some one walking upstairs.
A search was made, and smithy articles of female
wearing apparel were found done up, and dropped
in different rooms, as if by some one who had made
a hasty flight from the house. In one of the bundles
was rolled up six silver forks. A search was made
over all the premises, but no one was found. The
next night, about 9 o'clock, the housemaid came
running to the parlour, saying that Sarah (the
prisoner) was screaming in the - garden. A general
rush was made there, and the prisoner was found
sitting against the wall of the house outside, bleed-
ing from several cute on the back of one of her
hands. She complained of being in great pain, and
a doctor was sent for from Ashford. She said that a short
man, dressed in dark clothing, with a loam cloak, • belt
round his waist with two pistols stuck in it, a "Muller"
hat, and a veil over his face, had caught hold of her, and
declared "he would murder her for last night's work,"
and said, further, that if it had not been for her the house
would not have been as it was then. She said that the
man attempted to drag her along, and she clung with
one hand to a poet, and that he was going to cut her
throat with • knife, but that she put her other hand
round it, and that was how the cute were caused. A
policeman had been stationed on the premises from the
preceding night, and this official engrained to Mr. Hills
that • stronger force should be sent for from Ashford, and a
messenger was sent 'there accordingly. About forty men
were also hired in Great Chart to assist in searching the
shrubberies and premises, and a minute search was ales
made of every room in the home, but the terrible burglar
could not be found. The search was continued in
the grounds all night, although the rain was pouring
in torrents, and the whole place was kept until the
next day in a state of turmoil and excitement.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sheppard, surgeon, had arrived, and
he expressed very strong disbelief of the girl's stori, and on
visiting the house again the next day for the purpose of
minutely examining her band, he was quite convinced that
the wounds hail been inflicted by some small sharp instru-
ment. He told the prisoner he knew she bad had some-
thing to do with the matter, that he was Pertain her story
was false, and that she had better tell the truth, as she
would be certainly found out. After • great deal of per-
suasion, the prisoner admitted that the whole affair had
been got up for a "spree" by herself and the housemaid,
and that the wounds on her bends were in-
flicted with Mr. Hill's razor, which the housemaid procured
from his bedroom for the purpose.
The prisoner made a long defence, in which she detailed
the proceedings of herself and the housemaid in a very
humorous manner, and asserted that the housemaid was
quite as bad as she was.
The latter, however, it appears, was only 16 years old,
while the prisoner was 23.
Mr. Burrs committed the prisoner for a month, for mis-
behaviour in service, dismissing the charge of stealing the
forks.—KentisA Obserrer.

The banquet to Sir Hugh Cairns, at Belfast, will
take place during the present month.
Mr. Goschen, M.P., writes to a contemporary :
" I sin decidedly in favour of teaching Latin and Greek in
all cases where sufficient time can be given for boys to learn
them properly, and I dissent entirely from the view that
the time spent on classical training is thrown away because
the knowledge gained cannot be turned to immediate
practical account in after life. But the educational advan-
tages of the study of the dead languages as mental training
seem to me to belong entirely to the later years spent at
achooL They do not come into play till the wind of the
boy is thoroughly awake ; and thus I hold that, where the
boy mast be removed from school at 15, the time previously
spent in the first rudiments of Latin and Greek is likely
to have been wasted to a very considerable degree, while
the chances of anything else having been thoroughly learnt
will have been proportionately diminished."
_ _

_ . .
Mr. Doulton, M.P., writes to the Telegraph:—
" Sir,—Permit me to assure your somewhat impatient cor-
respondent that, being quite prepared to defend my vote
on the reform question, I shall not shrink from meeting
my constituents when, in accordance with my custom, the
time arrives for me to do so ; and, moreover, that it is my
full intention to present myself again for election as a libe-
ral member for Lambeth.—Respeetfolly yours, Faso.
Doouroir. Brighton, Oct. 3."
_ _ _

It has been decided (says the Eastern Counties
Herald) that the Hull Reform demonstration shall take place
on Monday, the 29th inst. ; and in addition to the two
borough members several other eminent reformers see ex-
pected to be present on the occasion.
We (Bath Chronicle) are informed that the Rev.
W. T. E. Bennett, the sicar of Frame, has commenced
the nee of incense at the Eucharistic services in his
church. _ _ _

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Economy is the order of the day on the South
Western Railway. The staff is to be reduced, and if this
does not effect an important saving of expenditure, the
salaries of all the officials will be lowered. The number of
trains on the various lines of the company have been
reduced.

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The Southampton Dock Company are enclosing
their extensive premises by a high brick wall. Hitherto
they have only been enclosed by wooden palings.
The potato disease in Hampshire is chiefly con-
fined to the largest sized potatoes, and experienced potato
growers state that the natural sized potato is rarely
affected with disease. It is amongst crops where the size
is unnaturally increased by excess of inantu:ng that the
disease makes most havoc. It is a carious fast that birds
are fonder of diseased potatoes than they are of sound
ones.

At the Dungannon petty sessions, on Tuesday,
six Fete/tants and nine Roman catholic* way brought before
the magistrates, charged with having riotously assembled
at Donoughmore. On the 17th tilt. the Orangemen of the
town were returning from one of their " demonstrations,"
when the Boman inhabitants rang the chapel bell, sad
turned out to give them a warm reception. Through the
energy of the police, however, the two factions were kept
asunder, and a discharge or two of stones was all that took
plasm in the shape of a combat. Ten of the accused—all
Roman catholics, with one exception—were sent for trial
to the assizes, and the remaining five were discharged.