The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-04 00:00:00

THE LATE CALAMITOUS FIRE

IN GRAY'S INN-LANE.

Last evening a very numerous meeting of the inha-
bitants of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and other ladies and
gentlemen who had contributed to the fund raised Ibr
the relief of the sufferers at the above calamitous fire,
assembled at tko inquest-room in St. Andrew's, Hol-
born, for the purpose of receiving the report of the
committee and treasurer, relative to the fund, and to
arrange the final distribution thereof. Mr. J. R. Taylor,
the treasurer, presided.
Mr. W. ELLIOTT, the Honorary Secretary, then read
the report, which set forth that the sum of 1151. 1 ls. 10d.
had been contributed. From the above sum had been
awarded to Mr. and Mrs. Cullen, who lost all their fur-
niture, the sum of 25L; to Mr. J. J. Hogg, who lost all
his tools, the sum of 201.; to John Thackeray, the. fa-
ther of the poor man who lost his life, SL; smaller sums
to Policemen 90 V, and 91 E, and others, for their ex-
ertions in the preservation of life and property on that
occasion, which, after paying for printing and other
necessary expenses, left a balance of 321. 12s. 10d.,
which it was proposed to invest in a local savings' bank
for the benefit of Ann Cullen, who, at the risk of her
own life, so nobly succeeded in saving the lives of no
less than three children.

The report was then adopted.
The respective sums were then paid to the respective
parties. Ann Cullen was present, a pretty-looking girl,
but a short slight figure, and by no means indicating the
possession of that energy and courage she so eminently
displayed.
On the motion of T. Y. APCHRISTIE, Esq., (the bar-
rister), seconded by Mr. TARLTON, thanks were una-
nimously accorded to the chairman, which having been
briefly acknowledged, the proceedings closed.

HORRIBLE OCCURRENCE IN
MARYLEBONE.

Yesterday afternoon Mr. T. Wakley, M.P., Coroner,
and a jury of the inhabitants of Marylebone, assembled.
at the Royal Champion, Lisson-grove, for the purpose of
inquiring into the death of Mr. Archibald Nicholls Arm-
strong, aged 65, formerly surgeon of the sth Royal Ve-
teran Battalion of Guards, and lately carrying on busi-
ness as a surgeon and apothecary, at 18, Earl-street
East, Edgware-road.
Police-constable Charles Bennett, 18 D, said he dis-
covered the body of the deceased on Saturday evening
last, about half-past five o'clock, in the back parlour of
his house, 18, Earl-street. Was induced to go there
by Mr. Yates, a neighbour, who said that as the
shutters had been up for eight or ten days pas', be
feared the old doctor was dead. Obtained admission
by the parlour window, in company with another
constable, 135 D, after calling Mr. Armstrong twelve
or fourteen times. Ho took this precaution because
he was told that the old gentleman kept loaded fire-
arms. The body was lying wrapped in an old coat in
front of the fireplace, and the parlour door was open,
and there were two dogs came running in and out,
sniffing at the body, and then running away. All the
flesh had been eaten off his face, and the hands par-
tially. On searching the body there was found 16s. in
silver and copper, and in an old stocking in the corner
of the room was found 301. 16s. 6d. in gold and silver. In
the room were found eight pistols, six of which were
large horse pistols, all loaded, some of them with as
many as six bullets. Found two diplomas bearing his
name, one from the Royal College of Surgeons, and the
other from the Apothecaries' Company, bearing date re-
spectively March and April, 1816.
Mr. Henry Obie, surgeon, of Lisson-grove, said, when
he saw the body it was lying on the floor in a very
filthy condition, enveloped in an old coat. It was that
of a man about_ sixty years of age, and five feet ten in
height. The body was in such an emaciated condition,
that it presented all the appearance of having been
reduced to the last stage of exhaustion. The whole of
the integuments of the face were removed, and the en-
tire bones, from the top of the forehead to the bottom of
the lower jaw, were completely denuded of flesh, leaving
the bones completely bare. The cartilegee of the nose
were also gone, and the sockets of the eyes were so
completely cleaned out that they might have been :up-
posed to have been scraped with a knife.
By the CORONER—My opinion is, that the flesh had
been eaten away by some animal or other. I at first
supposed it might be by dogs which were found running
about, but I think it impossible that dogs would be
enabled to have cleared the orbits of the eye so com-
pletely out. The flesh was also eaten from both hands,
and since the body had been locked up and the dogs re-
moved, he had found they had been still more eaten. On
opening the body, he found in the apex of the right
lung a large abscess touching the clavicle. This abscess
had broken, and discharged itself into the air-passage of
the lung, no doubt causing death; there were also tu-
bercles, and other evidences of corruption, the breaking
of the abscess being the immediate cause of death. The
deceased bad evidently been dead for eight or ten days.
The jury returned a verdict of " Natural death."

Trrn CWMCWDY MunDint.—lt is now reported
confidently, that Williams, alias Griffiths, the supposed
murderer of the unfortunate Thomas Edwards, at
Cwmgwdy, near Brecon, is hovering about the country
and within a few miles f Hereford. It has been stated
most positively by several elderly people, in the neigh-
bourhoods of Credeuhill and Tillington, that they have
more than once seen the fugitive (whom they say they
knew well) in the respective neighbourhoods; and it is
moreover said, that a few evenings ago an old woman,
having occasion to go to a shed after dark, in which she
kept her donkey, saw Williams make his exit from
the shed. Badnage-wood is supposed to be his
refuge by day, and it is thought that he
leaves his hiding-place by night, and receives sus-
tenance at the hands of some staunch friend, who is not
to be tempted by the large price set upon his head.
Persons residing near the wood assert that each morn-
ing they can discover traces of the fugitive through the
wood, and some of the old people in the neighbourhood
are much alarmed by seeing lights moving about the
wood at night—these most probably procesd from per-
sons in search. However this may be, we are informed,
upon the best authority, that there are good grounds
for believing that this locality is the " whereabouts"
of the wretched man. It may naturally be asked,
Why do not those who are so well assured that ho
is there apprehend him?" The task is much easier
contemplated than performed. Badnage-wood is a
most extensive one, and we have not heard of its
having been visited by more than two or three persons
at a time, whereas it would take twenty or thirty per-
sons to beat it properly. A wood, of all other places, is
the one where a person might be soonest apprised of
the approach of another, and where he might more
easily escape detection unless a number of parties could
surround him. Several unhappy Rights have been taken
up on suspicion, and, after examination, have been dis-
charged—in particular, one at Aberystwith, and
another at Stourbridge. One poor fellow, from his un-
lucky resemblance to the fugitive, has been apprehended
five times. On the last occasion ho begged that the ma-
gistrates would give him a certificate that he was not
the man—a petition that was granted. It is to be
regretted that the reward for the apprehension of Wil-
liams was not offered in the Hereford papers immedi-
ately on its first publication, as he is so well knoe.n
in
Here ford and neighbourhood.—liereford Times.
A Bo Y DROWNED ON CLAPHAM- commoN.—Yester-
day, at Clapham•common. the ice gave way on a large
pond, known as Twining's Pond, while a great number
whom
of persons were skating and sliding, several of
had a very narrow escape from drowning, and one fine
youth, fifteen years of age, sunk under the ice.t Every
u
assistance was rendered, but twenty in
before the drags could be procured, whmenthees elapsed
body was
found and taken to the private residence of Boger Lee,
Esq. That gentleman had a warm bath procured, and
rendered every assistance humanity could suggest. Dr.
in
Parrott, of Clapham, was attendance, and used every
means to restore animation, but without effect. The
deceased is the son of Mr. Taylor, a carpenter, at Clap.
haw.

THE NORTHERN COUNTIES ONE

HUNDRED AND SIXTY YEARS SINCE.

A large part of the country beyond Trent was,
down to the eighteenth century, in a state of barba-
rism. Physical and moral causes had concurred to
prevent civilization from spreading to that region.
The air was inclement; the soil was generally such
as required skilful and industrious cultivation ; and
there could be little skill or industry in a tract which
was often the theatre of war, and which, even when
there was nominal peace, was constantly desolated
by bands of Scottish marauders. Before the union
of the two British crowns, and long after that union,
there was as great a difference between Middlesex
and Northumberland, as there now is between Mas-
sachusetts and the settlements of those squatters
who, far to the west of the Mississippi, administer a
rude justice with the rifle and the dagger. In the
reign of Charles the Second, the traces left by
ages of slaughter and pillage were still distinctly
perceptible many miles south of the Tweed, in the
face of the country and in the lawlsss manners of the
people. There was still a large class of moss troopers
whose calling was to plunder dwellings and to drive
away w hole herds of cattle. It was found necessary
soon after the Restoration to enact laws of great
severity for the prevention of these outrages. The
magistrates of Northumberland and Cumberland
were authorised to raise bands of armed men for the
defence of property and order; and provision was
made for meeting the expense of these levies by local
taxation. The parishes were required to keep blood-
hounds for the purpose of hunting the freebooters.
Many old men who were living in the middle of the
18th century could well remember the time when
those ferocious dogs were common. Yet even with
such auxiliaries it was often found impossible to track
the robbers to their retreats among the hills and
morasses, for the geography of that wild country was
very imperfectly known. .Even after the accession of
George 111., the path over the fells from Borrowdale
to Ravenglass was still a secret carefully kept by the
dalesmen ; some of whom had probably in their youth
escaped from the pursuit of justice by that road. The
seats of the gentry and the larger farmhouses were
fortified. Oxen were penned at night beneath the
overhanging battlements of the residence, which was
known by the name of the peel. The inmates slept
with arms at their sides. Huge stones and boiling
water were in readiness to crush and scald the plun-
derer who might venture to assail the little garrison.
No traveller ventured into that country without mak-
ing his will. The judges on circuit, with the whole
body of barristers, attorneys, clerks, and serving men,
rode on horseback from Newcastle to Carlisle, armed,
and escorted by a strong guard under the command
of the sheriffs. It was necessary to carry provisions ;
for the country was a wilderness which afforded no
supplies. The spot where the cavalcade halted to
dine, under an immense oak, is not yet forgotten.
The irregular vigour with which criminal justice was
administered shocked observers whose life had been
passed in more tranquil districts. Juries, animated
by hatred and by a sense of common danger, con-
victed house breakers and cattle stealers with the
promptitude of a court• martial in a mutiny ; and the
convicts were hurried by scores to the gallows.
Within the memory of some who are still alive, the
sportsman who wandered in pursuit of game to the
sources of the Tyne found the heaths round Keeldar
Castle peopled by a race scarcely less savage than the
Indians of California, and heard with surprise the
half-naked women chanting a wild measure, while the
men with brandished dirks danced a war dance.—
Macaulay s History of England.