The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-27 00:00:00

THAMES.

IMPUDENT ROBBERY.—LIICILY ESCAPE OP A. RATCLIPP-
HIGHWAY GlRL.—Eliza Lane, alias Dandy Lizzie, a girl
of the town, was brought before Mr. Wcolrych, on remand,
charged with stealing a gold watch and chain, valued at
20 guineas, from the person of Lewis Lawrence, in Ratcliff-
highway, on the night of Tuesday, the 19th inst.
owfasllpaasnsdingl2 o'clock on the
along Ratcliff-
higThhweapyr,ohseectwuteoern,
thea se ahours
,
night of the 19th, and the prisoner and two other women
commenced hustling and playing tricks with him. The
prisoner fastened her arm round his neck and very adroitly
managed to possess herself of his gold watch and chain.
He fortunately missed it directly, and seized hold of her,
and at the same time he called for the police. She got
away from him, and rushed to the other side of the street.
He pursued her, and cvertook her, and continued to call out
most lustily for the police. She then banded back the
watch and chain to the prosecutor, and begged of him not
to give her in charge. A police sergeant named Stimpsont
No. 21 K, apprehended and took the prisoner into custody.
The other woman ran away.

The prisoner said she took the watch and chain out of a
[ark, and had no intention to steal them.

Mr. Woolrych said he feared the sailor would not have
een his watch and chain any more if he had not clung to
the prisoner, and called for the police. The prisoner had
been in custody eight days, and Scimpson said he knew no-
thing against her honesty before, although she was very
disorderly. As the sailor had recovered his property and
did not appear against the prisoner, he would allow her to
be discharged .

AN ADVENTURE IN WAPPING CHURCH.—John Young,
alias Dyer, a tall, heavy, and remarkable-looking man,
apparently about 30 years, was brought up on remand,
before Mr. Woolrych, charged with being secreted in the
parish church of St. John, WappiEg, for an unlawful
purpose.

On Friday evening last there was Divine Service in
Wapping Church, and the congregation were not dia..
mimed by the officiating clergyman until 9 o'clock. Soon
afterwards, Mr. John Stock, the sexton, extinguished the
lights, and was preparing to leave the sacred edifice when
he heard a very peculiar and unearthly noise. He listened
and it ceased. He proceeded down the middle
aisle, and could see nothing unusual. He looked
over the pews, and was advancing towards the porch
when the noise was repeated, and he was somewhat
alarmed. Anther search and inspection of the church
proved fruitless, and he left, closed the doors, and locked
them. The noises he had heard continued to haunt the
sexton's imagination for an hour afterwards, and he then
returned to the church with a police constable named Gun-
field, 495 K, and made another search. On opening the
door of the churchwarden's pew the prisoner was found
concealed there. He was lying on the floor with a coir mat
over him. He had turned over the hassocks and cushions
of the pew, and displaced the books and Church Services
from the shelves, and made up a bed of the whole. The
pew is a very high one, and the sexton believing that no
one would dare to invade the sanctity of the churchwar-
den's pew, had not looked into it in the first instance. The
prisoner on being taken into custody said " Don't touch me, I
have got the smallpox." He was asked to give some account
of himself, and he first said his name was Young and after-
wards said it was John Dyer.
The police. constable Greenfield said he had made in-
quiries since the prisoner was last before the magistrate
and could find out nothing about him.
Mr. Stock believed the prisoner was insane, although
there was method in his madness on Friday night, for he
had selected the most comfortable pew in Wapping Church,
and made up a tolerably good bed of the mats, hassocks, and
cushions and a pillow of Bibles and Church services.
Roche, the gaoler of the court, said the prisoner had con.
ducted himself most strangely and in a violent manner, and
was not fit to be at large.
Mr. Woolryeh directed Greenfield to procure assistance
and convey the unfortunate man to the new workhouse of
the Stepney Union at Bromley, and call the attention of the
officers of then Union to the case. He had no doubt the
man was deranged, and wanted looking after.