The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-16 00:00:00

THE CASE OF MR. TY. F. WINDHA3I.

The adjourned inquiry, into the state of mind of
Mr. W. F. Windham, of Fellbrigg-hall, Norfolk,
was resumed yesterday, in the Westminster Ses-
sions-house, before Mr. Warren, Q.C., one of the
Masters in Lunacy, and a special jury.
Mr. M. Chambers, Q.C., Mr. Field, and Mr.
Hume Williams appeared for the petitioners ; Mr.
Charles Russell for Lady Sophia Elisabeth
Giubilei, the mother of the alleged lunatic; Sir
Hugh Cairns, Q.C., Mr. Kerslake, Q.C., and Mr.
Milward for Mr. William Frederick Windham;
and Mr. Coleridge, Q.C., for Mrs. Windham.
It was definitely arranged that the examination
of Mr. Windham should take place in private, but
in the presence of counsel, with the understanding
that the Master and the jury, if they thought it
desirable, might have a second interview with the
alleged lunatic alone.
The examination of Mr. Freebridge continued by
Mr. Milward—Much of the timber marked for fell-
ing at Felbrigg was defective and inferior in quality.
The value of the best oak at Felbrigg, when de-
livered in London, would be about 3s. per cubic
foot. The inferior sorts would hardly be worth the
carriage, and were valuable only for their bark. He
saw at Felbrigg a considerable number of beeches,
chestnuts and firs. With the exception of the chest-
nuts, they were all of very good quality, and the
average price all round might be about 6d. per foot.
Perhaps the chestnuts would bring 9d. per foot.
There was no local market for timber near Felbrigg;
none, at least that would consume any quantity.
The timber other than oak would not bear the ex-
pense of carriage to London, There were a few
sycamores at Felbrigg. Of the best oak he esti-
mated the quantity at £7,000 worth. There was a
good quantity of beech, but it was fit for nothing
except firewood. There was also a good deal of
Spanish chestnut, which might fetch 9d. per foot.
Fir was the prevailing timber, and 3d. per foot was
as much as it was worth. He believed that the best
and cheapest mode of conveyance would be to send
the timber from Felbrigg to Norwich by road, and
then to Blackwell by rail. The carriage to Nor-
wich would be about ls. per foot. He had seen
the contract with Lawrence and Fry, and, taking
into account the expense of the carriage to market,
and also the inferior quality of part of the timber,
and seeing there was no stipulation as to the pro-
portion between oak and other kinds of timber, he
thought it was a rather disadvantageous bargain to
the buyer. The agreement made no allowance for
defective timber, and that fact, together with the
stipulation as to the payment of advances to Mr.
Windham, was also an ingredient in the case.
Cross-examined by Mr. Chambers—Witness was
introduced to Lawrence and Fry by Mr. Roberts ;
he had not seen that person before, nor was he
aware that he had been a Government contractor
for timber. Lawrence and Fry wrote a note to
him enclosing a check for £2O, and requesting him
to call upon them. Roberts had mentioned that wit-
ness would be required to go down to the country
to look at timber, and witness understood that the
check for £2O was to pay his expenses. IV hen he
called on Lawrence and Fry ho had a conversation
with them, and they gave him verbal, not written,
directions as to what he was to do when he went
to Felbrigg. They asked him to look over the tim-
ber and give them his opinion of it. What they said
was, " We are to have £5,000 worth ; give us your
opinion as to what there is on the estate." These
were all the verbal directions they gave to witness
before he went to Felbrigg. They did not tell him
to mark any of the timber. Nobody met him at
Norwich. At Felbrigg he was met by the woodman
and the bailiff. He was about a week looking over
the timber. It required all that time to go over the
estate, and he could not form a judgment until he
had seen the whole. He did not make out a list of
the timber, but he made notes in a book with re-
spect to the qualities of the trees in different loca-
lities. He stayed at Cromer, and was not at Fel-
brigg-hall at all. He did not see Roberts. It was
the woodman who told him that the carriage from
Felbrigg to Norwich would cost Is. per foot. As a
Government purveyor his experience had been
principally in oak. Beech was used in the con-
struction of breakwaters, wharves, and canals,
and also in carpentry work, but he had little
knowledge of that kind of timber. He regarded
the contract as anything but satisfactory to
the buyers. He was not consulted about it. It was
such a bargain in regard to the wording of it as a
timber merchant would not have made. He should
always like, for his own part, to see what he was
going to buy. He never bought £5,000 worth of
timber from a young gentleman, just come of age,
without the seller taking advice. On his return
from Felbrigg he saw Mr. Lawrence. That gentle-
man never told him that the agreement was an im-
perfect one, and that he proposed to introduce an-
other clause; nor did he ever tell him that the object
of his sending witness down to Felbrigg was that
he might frame an additional clause. Witness had
received nothing except the £2O which he had al-
ready mentioned. He did not expect any more. He
had neither seen nor heard from Mr. Roberts since
his return from Felbrigg.
Re-examined—Witness had never bought £5,000
worth of timber from anybody. His business was
not to purchase, but to inspect timber. A man skilled
in timber could form a pretty accurate judgment by
going through the woods. There were no docks,
breakwaters, or canals in the neighbourhood of Fel-
brigg, which wanted a supply of beech. He had
inspected all kinds of timber for the Government.
By the Jury—ln many counties, before the tim-
ber was sold, it was usual to have it examined and
valued; but in others it was simply marked off in
allotments and sold by auction. The more defec-
tive trees there were at Felbrigg the greater
number would have to be cut, and the more the
estate would have to be denuded of its timber, to
make up £5,000 worth. Firs and beeches were
more valuable to the owner of the estate than to
anybody else. A four-horse team would draw
between three and four loads of timber horn Fel-
brigg to Norwich. Each load consisted of 40 feet
of timber, so that the carriage of one waggon-lull
would cost I:6 or £7. When he went down to
Felbrigg at the request of Lawrence and Fry those
gentlemen had already entered into an arrange-
ment for the purchase of the timber.
Mr. Robinson, examined by Mr. Milward, said
he was a member of the firm of Robinson and Co.,
timber merchants, 14, Mark-lane. About the month
of October Mr. Lawrence spoke to him about the
timber at Felbrigg, and showed him the rough
draught of an agreement. He told witness that he
thought it Would be worth his while to go into it.