The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-21 00:00:00

Fxtraordin..ry Affair.

A very extraordinary case came to light at Preston on
Saturday. For some time past there have been rumours
in the town to the effect that a young man, about 35 years
of age, named Thomas Wylie, who a few years ago occu-
pied a very good position in Preston, and was engaged in
the cotton trade, was fastened up in an old warehouse
behind the parish church, in St. John's-place ; that he had
never been out of the building for some years ; that he
was secretly fed through some mysterious hole or door ;
and that he was a most frightful spectacle in personal
appearance—filthy, ragged, haggard, and more like some
deserted, concealed savage than a human being. It was
also reported that he had lost his reason during his
long term of imprisonment, and that both bodily and
mentally he Was in a most deplorable condition. The
real facts of the case have just been made known, and it
appears that the reports which have been prevalent,
although considerably exaggerated, have had far more
foundation in truth than many persons supposed; that
although there has been a good deal of exaggeration in the
case, much of a very singular and mysterious character
surrounds it. A few years ago Wylie, after having beck
employed as a lawyer's clerk in Preston for some time,
commenced business as a reed maker and cotton manu-
facturer. He had four establishments—one at Preston,
two at Bolton, and one at Manchester. His usual place
of residence was at Preston, where his parents lived, and
where he " set up" his father in business. Wylie pros-
pered well in his trade for some time ; he employed
many operatives ; he regularly associated with gentle-
men connected with the cotton trade, and, like other
persons engaged in manufacturing pursuits, he went regu-
larly to the principal market of the county—Manchester,
Liverpool, and Blackburn. In 1857, however, when the
monetary panic set in, he lost a good deal of money, and
fortune ever afterwards seemed to recede from him. Three
years ago, while battling with misfortune, a Preston soli-
citor, who was the agent for the property he occupied in
St. John's-place, in that town, " distressed" him for a small
arrear of rent. Wylie wrote to the owner of the property
in London, but he simply referred him to the agent, who
was relentless as to the arrears, and eventually sold him
up. Wylie's goods, which had cost him a good deal of
money, and were still worth a considerable amount, were
sold for a sum which scarcely amounted to a twentieth part
of their value. The conduct of the agent so embittered Wylie's
mind that he determined to remain on the premises, which
ho had on a lease, until the full expiration or period of his
tenancy ; and he has so far kept the determination intact.
For three long years he has lived in the empty building, re-
solved to avenge what he considered to be the injustice in-
flicted upon him by the agent. The building is at present
most dilapidated ; inside there is nothing in the world
but an old loom and a dirty old bed ; the floors are dusty,
filthy, and worm-eaten. Outside the windows are smashed,
the walls cracked, and the signboards, which used to refer
to a prosperous man's business, are paintless and illegible.
The place looks like the very image of some of those
dismal old buildings which grim writers love to tenant with
spectres and hobgoblins. For three years Wylie has been the
only occupant of these lonely rooms which used to reverbe-
rate with the noise of busy machinery; for months together
he has never stirred an inch from the place ; for a year at
once ho has had no fire to cheer his isolation—day time has
been cold, night time has been entirely dark to him. The
people living in the neighbourhood knew that he was con-
cealed in this wretched old building; but this was all they
did know. They never saw him come into the street ; and
nobody except one of his old workmen, who now and then
visited him by stealth, seemed to have any idea as to
how ho existed. The neighbours, out of curiosity, occa-
sionally knocked at the door; but the only response was
a dull echo through the empty rooms. For the first year of
his voluntary imprisonment no person appears to have vi-
sited him, and a man residing next door who kept a regular
look-out for him, never once saw him during that period.
Since then Wylie has crept out at intervals after dark, and
gone to a house adjoining, where he has got morsels of food
and portions of fuel. When he first showed himself to the
inmates of the house in question they were perfectly houi-
fied at his condition. They had known him in his better
days, and to see him as they did, when he quitted his hid-
ing-place in the dark for a few minutes, shirtless, shoeless,
ragged, and with a pale haggard face, the very picture of
starvation, they were naturally much shocked. Within
the past few months Wylie has improved a good deal in
appearance ; but he is still a most wretched, pitiable ob-
ject, and any one acquainted with him when he was a
smart,well-dressed, energetic young man would not recog-
nise him now in his squalor and abject misery. A few
weeks ago his father died, and efforts were made to get
him to attend the funeral ; but neither the entreaties of his
mother nor the solicitations of hisfriends could induce him
to stir from his lair. He was ashamed, it was thought, of
his appearance ; at any rate, he had some strange objection
to leaving his dilapidated hiding-place. He watched from a
window the funeral cortege pass by the building to the
cemetery ; immediately afterwards he darted out of sight,
and was seen by no one for several days. Wylie is a man
of considerable mental ability, and his long period of con-
finement and separation from the world has neither dimmed
his intellect nor weakened his powers of con-rersation. It
is said that during the greater part of the time he has been
shut up in the old building referred to he has been engaged
in studying certain chemical subjects. He has friends in
Preston, Bolton, and Manchester. The lease of the pre-
mises which he holds will expire in May next, and he is
determined to remain " all alone in his misery" until that
time, and longer if possible.