The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-26 00:00:00

CORONERS' INQUEST.

On Saturday an inquest was held at the sign of the Red
Lion, in Chambers-street, Goodman's-fields, before Mr.
BAKER, the Coroner, and a respectable jury, on view of the
body of Mrs. Ann Long, the widow of an officer in the
Royal Navy, aged fifty-four, who was found dead on Friday
morning. _ _ _

After the jury were sworn, they proceeded to view the body
of the deceased, when a scene presented itself that it would
be almost impossible to deseribe. The body of the wretched
woman, who, it appears, was in the receipt of a pension of
50/. per annum as an officer's widow, was stretched on a litter
of dirty straw, placed on the floor of a miserable back-room in
the house 45, Rosemary-lane, as naked as when she had been
born, with the exception of the filthy remnant of a sheet,
which was thrown over it, and partially covered her person from
the breast downwards, and the only articles which the wretched
apartment contained was a bottomless chair and a small dirty
table. After taking a hasty view of the body, the jury re-
turned to the inquest room, when the following evidence was
laid before them, accounting for the death of the deceased.
Mrs. Hannah Hepson, the landlady of the house, 45, Rose-
mary-lane, had known the deceased upwards of twenty years.
She was a widow of William Long, who was a First Lieute-
nant in the navy, and had a pension of 50/. per annum. The
deceased and her sister, who was in a state of imbecility, had
for some years lodged in her (witness's) house, and she merely
kept them there in consequence of a solemn promise she had
made to their mother on her dying bed, that she would never
turn them out. They were both most dreadfully addicted to
drink, and used to part with everything they possessed to ob.
taia it.

Juror—What has become of the deceased's clothes ?—Wit-
ness—She had none, nor anything but what you saw.
Juror—Why she is perfectly naked, with the exception of
the filthy cloth thrown over her?—Witness—Yes, Sir, that
used to be her only article of clothing. The witness then
proceeded to say that on Tuesday last the deceased drew a
moiety of her pension, and as soon as she did the pints and the
half pints of gin, pints and half-pints of rum, pots of porter,
and quantities of pickle, of which, it appeared they devoured
abundance, began to flow in, and continual intoxication was
the consequence.
Cormer—When did you next see the deceased ?—Witness
—Not till she was dead, but about one o'clock on the Friday
morning one of the lodgers in the next room heard her say to
her sister, " For God's sake bring me some water, 1 am going
to hell." The sister, however, refused to get up, but desired
her to go to sleep, upon which the lodger brought some water,
supposing that the deceased wanted it, to the door, but neither
of them would open the door. At about half-past five
o'clock on Friday morning the sister of the deceased came to
witness's room and knocked violently at it, saying, " Misses,
missee, Nancy is dead." A policeman was sent for, and on
going to the room the deceased was found dead as before de-
scribed.

The Jury returned a verdict, that the deceased died from
natural causes, accelerated by her dreadful propensity to drink
and the wretched manner in which she lived.

The Duke of Wellington gave a sumptuous banquet
on Thursday evening, at Apsley House, to the officers of the
second battalion of the Grenadier Guards, of which his Grace
is Colonel-in-Chief, on their departure for service in Canada.
The magnificent service of gold plate presented to the Duke
by George IV. was used at the banquet. There were present
the General, Lord Hill, Lord Fitzroy Somerset, Sir W. Gor-
don, and Sir J. Macdonald, who received special invitations;
Colonel Doyley, commanding the battalion, Colonels Grant,
Vernon, Harcourt, Stanhope, Barnard, Greenwood, Craw-
fu Captains Hon. J. Lindsay, Hon. W. Leices-
terr,d'Pe
Torrens,rcel Joddrell,; Nicholson, Hon. G. Cadogan, A. C.
Lewis ; Lieutenants Hon. Gordon, Hon. Hugh Manvers.
Percy Home Purves, son of the Viscountess Canterbury,
Spencer, Clifford, Mitchell, Wynyard, R. Peel, Dawson,
and Ridley.
THAMES TUNNEL.--A notice has been issued,
accompanied by a small map of the river in the neighbour-
hood of the tunnel, requiring all vessels passing up and down
the river to keep to the southwrad of the hoy or large mud
barge moored over the end of the works, the enormous quan-
tities of clay thrown down to form an artificial bed on the
northern side of the stream rendering it somewhat dangerous
for vessels with a large draught of water to pass to the north
of the hoy, or within many yards of it. This obstruction to
the navigation, partial as it is, is very inconvenient to the
shipping when the Pool is in a crowded state. The extent of
the aperture through which
the water burst into the tunnel
on Tuesday morning has been ascertained, by means of the
diving bell, to be of small dimensions, and has been closed
up by means of several barge loads of hard clay thrown
down over the spot, which will be allowed to settle firmly on
the fracture of the works two or three days longer before the
water is pumped out of the tunnel, after which the excavation
will be continued as heretofore.
THE COAL TRADE MONOPOLY.---The Dur-
ham Chronicle says on this subject—" We will just repeat
what we have before pointed out—that the cost of carrying
coals from the ships in the Thames to the cellnrs of the con-
sumers exceeds in amount the northern " monopolists"'t barge
for procuring the commodity and leading it from the i its to
the water side for shipment—a distance varying from five to
ten miles ; or the freight paid to the shipowner for taking it
from the shipping port to London—neither of which charges
will average 10s. per ton.