The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-24 00:00:00

THE FATAL COLLISION AT HARROW.

rain,

A passenger by the train has furnished the following
statement, which corroborating the foregoing, adds some
details of interest. He says :—As the train had arrived
nearly opposite Harrow, a sudden and violent concus-
sion was experienced amongst the passengers, when the
train came to a stop. On getting out, the engine was
perceived to be off the line, and in a ditch at the left
side a heap of ruins, as if a large wooden house had
fallen, was in the front of the train, and in the way, at
the right hand side, was a smashed and overturned pas-
senger carriage. Just at the moment when this scene
presented itself, the whistle of another train was heard,
and it was seen approaching. Shouts were raised, the
night was dark, the lights of the fallen engine had been
buried in the earth ; the other train came forward, and
ran into the fallen carriage across the road. Some pas-
sengers foreseeing this collision, ran down the bank,
jumped over a rail, and here, it being dark, got them-
selves into a pond, fortunately not a deep one. After a
little time, every inquiry was made as to who had been
hurt. Except bruises, it became a matter of congratu-
lation that no serious injury had occurred ; how-
ever, in about an hour, and searching amongst the
ruins of the front carriage, the legs of a man were per-
ceived. They proved to be those of the unfortunate
guard. Some wheels and heavy iron were upon him,
and it was evident that life must have
_been instantly
extinguished. The chief efforts were made to remove
the mass above him. He was found ie have been
" smashed to pieces." The remains were put into a
tarpaulin, and removed to the side. There was a single
passenger in one of the smashed carriage•- • he, finding
it giving way, had thrown himself instan v flat on the
floor, and had thus escaped.
On the way a jerking, jumping motion of the carriages
was noticed, as if they were loosely held together, and
the roads were rough. On a search the large tyre of
one of the driving wheels was found. It appeared to
have been fractured, and flung off, and to have been the
immediate cause of the engine runring off the line. On
examining the fracture it clearly appeared that the joint
was a bad one, only a small part of the iron being
bright as by a fracture, the rest being black.

THE DUBE OF MONMOUTH.--Referring to the decapi-
tated body recently discovered at King's Nuneham, a
correspondent of the Notes and Queries writes as follows :
—"I have strong suspicion that the decapitated body
will turn out to belong to no less a personage than
the Duke of Monmouth, who was beheaded on Tower-
hill in 1685; and although, according to Burnet, he was,
soon after his execution, buried in the chapel of the
Tower, his body may have been afterwards removed, and
privately deposited in the quiet chapel of Nuneham Re-
gis, at that time, as now, the property of the Buccleuch
family. Monmouth married Ann, the daughter and heir
of Francis Scott, Earl of Buccleuch ; and though in
some measure estranged from him by his improper con-
nection with Lady Ann Wentworth, yet the tender in-
terview that is recorded between Monmouth and his
wife previous to his execution, gives countenance to the
idea that she may have procured his remains for deposit
privately within her own family receptacle ; and, under
such circumstances, it may readily be conceived that
such secrecy would be used as not to leave any memento
with the corpse as to whom it might belong, the very
circumstance of decapitation being thought, probably,
quite sufficient then, as now, for designation.
THE DUKE'S BENEVOLENCE.—A young man, well-
known to us, the son of a minister of the Church of
Scotland, about 21 years ago was very anxious to obtain
a commission in the army. He left his mother's house,
in the south side of Edinburgh, and walked to London,
resolved, if possible, to see the duke, and obtain the ob-
ject of his ambition. He was admitted to an audience,
and told his simple story—that his father had been a
minister, that his mother was a widow. The Duke said
very little, but asked the young man's address.
The youth walked back to Edinburgh, uncertain
if he had made any impression on his grace. On reach-
ing his home, what did he find ?-11is commission signed
and sealed on his mother's table.—Glasgow Condi_
ttutional.

Yesterday we published an account of this lamentable
occurrence. The following is a fuller statement of the
facts, which have been carefully collected from various
sources :

The Liverpool express, which was due in London at
half-past 10, was late when it arrived at Rugby, and
had there attached to it the Midland train, which ought
to have come on to London by the Birmingham express,
but was too late. The train, which was drawn by en-
gine 289, an entirely new express train engine, and which
has only been at work upon the line for a month, manu-
factured by Messrs. Sharp, Stuart, and Co., of Man-
chester, 'consisted, on leaving Rugby, of 15 carriages
and the three guards vans, the first being that of the
Midland express attached to the engine tender, and
those of the Manchester and Liverpool guards, Long-
staff and Hattersley, stationed at the tail and other parts
of the train. This train passed the Harrow station at
its usual speed, upwards of 40 miles an hour, and on
arriving within about three-quarters of a mile from
that station, the tyre of the right-hand leading wheel
of the engine flew off. The engine, after the tyre of
the leading wheel was off, kept on the line for nearly
400 yards, until it came to a slight cu,-ve, which it
would not go round, in consequence of the flange of the
wheel being off. It here left the line, ploughing up the
road for some distance, and then ran across the line and
turned over on its side, but not before the engine had
embedded itself completely up to the smoke-box in the
left bank. In consequence of the jerks of the engine
and tender when it got off the line the coupling irons
between the tender and the guard's van were broken,
and as the engine and tender was crossing the line, the
guard's van, urged on with terrific volocity, in conse-
quence of the impetus of the heavy train of carriages
behind it, dashed into the tender, and immediately
turned over on to the right embankment, smashed to
atoms. At this moment, unfortunately, the 11 o'clock
down goods train, with 40 or 50 goods vans, was close on
the express train, and before the driver could receive any
signal, dashed into a first-class carriage, which had been
by the previous shock thrown across the line the down
line. Another collision thus took place, and although
the carriage in question—a " composite" carriage, the
centre being a first-class compartment—was frightfully
smashed, singular to relate two passengers who were in
it escaped from the window without any injury. Three
carriages were thrown off the line, and the second colli-
sion caused both lines to be blocked completely. The
body of the poor guard Bartholomew was found amongst
the fragments of the break van crushed into an almost
indistinguishable mass. George Grace, the driver of the
express engine, was found on his back in the field on the
left hand side of the line, but owing to the softness of the
soil from the heavy rains, he was uninjured. His stoker
jumped on to the line, and also fell on his back, and had
a narrow escape, as he states that the whole train of car-
riages passed over him. The driver of the goods train
it is believed jumped off, and it is stated that the only
signal he had of the express being near was one of
the passengers whistling to him with his fingers.
He shut off his steam and reversed his lever, but
'le was to close to stop the impetus on so heavy a goods