The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-27 00:00:00

Keep, the dentist, has returned to the city, and on
examining the artificial teeth and portion of the jaw,
at once pronounced them to be the same he made for
the unfortunate gentleman.
The recognition of these remains by the family is
most important in its bearing upon the fate of the
accused. If he is innocent of the crime of murder,
the conspiracy of which he is made the victim is one
of the most helliAi on record.
(From the Boston Railway Times, Dec. 7.)
We have refrained from expressing any opinion as
to the guilt or innocence of Dr. Webster, but while
all avenues of actual intelligence of facts by the
7 coroner's decision that the inquest should be private
" 1 is closed, and a thousand rumours are flying
23 about that are prejudicial to the pris,mer, we
do not think it out of the way to allude to one or two
4 facts that have some bearing upon the matter. On
11 the day of the alleged murder Dr. Webster lectured to
18 the class, and members of it say there was no per-
ceptible change in his manner, neither was there any
8 observable change during subsequent lectures, On
15 the evening of the murder he was in company with his
22 friends from seven to ten, playing whist, and evi-
-29 dently enjoying himself, and with every appearance
6 of serenity and quiet. His friends are confident that,
13 with his characteristic nervousness and excitability
20 of temperament, it would have been an impossibility
27 for him to have done so if he were guilty of the
3 great crime laid to his charge.
910

17 DISCOVERY of HUMAN REMAINS.
24
1 The excavation of the site of the water company's
new reservoir, on the Castlebill, has from time to time
15 brought to light a variety of interesting relics. The
22 most extraordinary discovery which has yet been
129 made known is that of an ancient burying place. At
the north-eastern point of the reservoir the excava-
tions for the reservoir were commenced. Proceeding
in a southerly direction from this point, the ground
deepened as the work advanced, and about 30 feet
onwards the outer edge of a bed of moss was reached,
the soil exhibiting as the work proceeded gradually
increasing traces of human remains, consisting at first
of mere shreds and fragments, but by and by becom-
ing more entire in the portions, and more accumulated
in quantity. On the north face of the excavation a
wall about 10 feet in height, and understood to have
been the foundation of a church, has been exposed,
the lower part consisting of strongly grated, and the
upper of substantial rubble masonry. The church,
which was called or to be called Christ's Church,
was commenced about the middle of the 17th cen-
tury ; but our civic rulers then, as since and now,
were frequently short of cash, and, therefore, although
the foundation was laid and some progress made with
the superstructure, the latter part of the fabric in the
course of time came to be pulled down, to furnish
materials for the existing Tron Church. The exca-
vation having been carried forward at a depth of five
or six feet under the level of the foundation of the
church, its north wall has been laid bare, and is now
completely exposed. The section it presents is very
remarkable. In digging for a foundation for the
church the excavators had struck upon a bed of
strong retentive clay, which affording to all appear-
ance an excellent bottom on which to lay the intended
building, they penetrated no deeper. Under this
stratum of clay, however, is a bed of natural moss,
several feet in thickness, and from 15 to 20 feet
square or upwards. In this bed of moss have been
found a number of coffins, composed of strong black
oak, from three to five inches in thickness, most of
them containing a portion of human bones, consisting
of skulls, fragments of bones of the spine and of the
limbs, and a lower jaw bone, with the teeth still in
the sockets, mostly in a state of good preservation.
In one coffin, which was carefully opened, there was
not even a fragment of human remains, and the only
substance that indicated the use to which
it had been applied was a portion of glutinous
matter adhering to the inner surface of the
oak. Nearly the whole of the coffins seemed strongly
saturated with a substance having some resemblance
to phosphorus, most probably the residuum of animal
fat. The bottom plank of the most perfect one was
hollowed out in the centre, with a deeper recess for
the reception of the head, which, in every case,
seemed to have been laid towards the east. Every-
thing around or connected with this strange sepul-
chre speaks its vast antiquity. The strong Scotch
oak, despite the high antiseptic quality of its sur-
rounding matrix of moss, reduced almost to pulp—
the form and thickness of the coffin—and even po-
sition of the head towards the east, and the strong
presumption that when the foundation of the church
was laid, about 200 years ago, its existence was
unknown or forgotten in the lapse of years—seem
almost to assign its use as a burial-place to a period
antecedent to the history of our city.—Caledonian
Mercury.