The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-21 00:00:00

THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH AT

11 C'2'(J A'.

At the Hammersmith police-court, yesterday, this extraor-

iinary case, r. Lich has caused so much curiosity from the
peculiar nature of the circumstances and the termination of
the coroner's inquest, was again opened before Mr. Day-
man, the magistrate cf C.:is court. Lieut. Clavering was
Placed at the bar, having surrendered in discharge of his
bail, charged, on his own confession, with having caused the
death of John Gates, near Act,m.

Mr. Sergeant :Pallantine appeared for Lieut. Clavering;
Mr. Giifard attended to watch the case on the part of Capt.
Miller. Tke evidence taken on the former occasion having
been read over,
Mr. Tarl,too, superintendent of police, in answer to Mr.
Daytnan stated the result of the inquest.
Capt. was then called and examined, and reprtved
his statement at the coroner's inquest, stating that he was
walking out with Lieut. Claveriag on the bight in question,
when they met rear Priory-lane a man apparently drunk.
He, from his speech and manner, took the deceased to be a
foreigner. Ile made a rush at them., and said he would do
for them both. Clavering was the nearest to him, and a
violent attack was made upon him by the unfortunate de-
ceased. Witness seeing at the time something in the man's
hand which appeared like a knife, but might have
been a pistol, called out to Clavering, " The man's a
foreigner; take care, he has a knife in his hand." The
deceased struck Lieut. Clavering a violent blow on the
bead, and a struggle ensued with the swsrdstick, the sheath
of which was cone. After toey left the man, Lieut. Cla-
vering said, " I hope I have not pricked the
man." Witness
said, " You need be under no apprehension—you never
struck kitn ;" but added he 'night have touched him in the
arm. In a subsequent conversation, after passing the cart
and telling the driver a man was lying in the road, Lieut.
Clavering said, "I am afraid something is wrong." Wit-
ness said, " You have done nothing of the kind—you never
struck him."
By Mr. Sergeant Ballantine—l am positively certain the
prisoner never struck the deceased.
By Mr. Dayman—The night was pitch dark; there were
no lights.
• Mr. Superintendent Tarleton, in answer to the magis-
trate, said that part of the road was not lit with lamps f,r
nearly a mile.
Henry George, in the service of Mr. Scot', Ealing, re-
peated his evidence given before the coroner.

Police-constaable T t 236 deposed to finding the deceased
lying in the road bleeding, but quite dead.
Mr. Liogham, surgeon, also proved that the drat! of the
deceased was occasioned by a wound half an inch in
length, penetrating the lungs, and might htive been caused
by the swordstick produced.

By Mr. Sergeant BAlantire—Was present at the in-
quf st, and heard the sta'ement of Lieut. Cla‘erhag as to the
mode in which the wound was inflicted; that statement was
in witness's opinion perfectly consistent.
Capt. Miller, i❑ answer to Mr. Day man, said the alter-
cation did cot last half a minute.

In reply to the magistrate,
Mr. Superintendent Tarleton said he bad no further evi-
dence to offer.

Mr. Gates, the son of the deceased, was anxious that the
case should be adjourned.

Mr. Wyman said lie saw no reason for doing so. It
appeared to him to be a misadventure.
Mr. Sergeant Ballantine said Mr. Gates was present at
the inquest, and there was no suggestion that further evi-
dence was to be offered.
After some further conversation, .

Mr. Dayman said, looking at the whole of :the evidence,
he could come to no other conclusion than that the death
was occasioned by mischance.
Mr. Sergeant Ballantine said, if it had been necessary, he
could have called a ❑urmber of witnesses to show that Lieut.
Clavering was of the most mild and kindly dispneition, and
vroulal be the last man in the world to have wilfully com-
mitted the offence.

Mr. Gates, the son of the deceased, again strongly urged
the adjournment of the cass, and endeavoured to show that
the statements of Capt. Miller were inconsistent. The de-
'endants had assaulted a drunken man with a sword•stick
:n the dark.

Mr. Dayman—But the defendants might have been under
the apprehension they were about to he attacked, and Lieut.
Clavering had raised the stick in self-defence when the un-
fortunate ma:-: laid hold of it, and withdrew the sheath. He
could not come to any other conclusion than that it was a
mischance, and saw no reason for adjourning the case. If
the prosecutor should obtain any further evidence, it would
he competent for him to take further proceedings, but as the
evidence stood he felt bound to dismiss the ease.
Lieut. Claverintr was at once discharged, and lett the
court with his friends.

SHERBORNE ABBEY, DORSET.

On Wednesday, the 18th inst., the zhoir of this fine old
Abbey Church vim reopened for Divine service after hay-
ing been closed for nearly two years, for the purposes of

repair and renovation. From the grandeur of the Abbey
itself, and the motives which have led to its restoration, and

the unusually complete and splendid character which that

restoration hay assumed, a more than ordinary interest at-
taches to it; we shall therefore give a brief description of
the edifice as it was, and it is, and of the ceremonials

attendant upon its reopening. We may first, however,
state that Sberbcrne was anciently the seat of a bishepric,
the first cathedral having been erected by Bishop Aldhelm,
A.D. 705. It is almost unnecessary to remark that of the

edifice so founded not a vestige now remains. For 184
yens the Bishops of Sherburne reigned in peace, but in 889

the diocese was divided into two—Wilton and ..71lier-
borne. The two sees c,:ntinucd thus separated until
the year 1014, when they were reunited in the
person of Bishop llemeau, after whose death in 1045
the see was removed to Salisbury, and Sherburne finally
ce2sed to be a bishopric. Th,s, present fabric consists of a
nave, aisleo, and south porch, a central tower, north and
south transepts, chapels attached, and a choir with aisles.
There arc also remains of the lady chapel and cicieters. The
general style of the church is perpendicular, but much of its
individuality may undoubtedly- be traced to the ori-
ginal Norman plan and structure; the actual remains
of Norman date are contine'i to the tower arches, some por-
tions of the transepts, and the south porch. In the year
1849 the nave and transepts were restored at the expense of
the parishioners, as•isted by a gift from Earl Dfgby. The
architect selected was the late Mr. Carpenter, under whose
direction the restoration was carried out, and the present
seating, organ, pulpit, &c., were erected.

These works were brought to a conclusion in 1831. The
choir was then left untouched, but its condition, which hat
or some time given rise to much uneasiness, soon became
so decidedly dangerous that it was no longer used for Divine
service. No steps were, however, taken for its preservation
until the year 1856, when the death of Earl Digby occurred.
His nephew and heir, Mr.G.D.W. Di gby, of Sherborne Castle,
then conceived the idea of making its restoration a means
of preserving the memory of his uncle. It is therefore to
Mr. Digby's sole munificence that these splendid and ex-
tensive works are due. With the view of carrying out his
intentions Mr. Digby in the same year requcs'ed Mr.
Sla•e*, cf C 2 rl tt n Chambers, the successor of Mr. Carpenter,
to make a survey of, and report upon, the then condition of
the choir, and to state the measures he should recommend
to be taken to secure its safety, and give back to it its original

beauty. This being done, and his report adopted by Mr
Digby, the works which he recommended were forthwith
commenced, and owing to the great vigour with which they
have been pressed forward, were brought to a conclusion
on the 18th instant. The beautifill st .ne face vaulting of the
choir, which was in a very dangerous state, has been
taken down, stone by stone, and entirely rebuilt,
and over this has been erected a cove outer roof of
oak, covered with lead. The flying buttresses, which
were rapidly perishing, were then rebuilt, and the win-
dows and parapets restored, or rather renewed. It wilt
thus be seen that the restoration has almost amounted
to an entire reconstruction of the fabric. We should
mention, however, that while so much new masonry was ne-
cessarily employed, it was an cbject of especial care with the
architect to retain as many of the old stones as was practicable.
Thus far of the restoration of the existing features of the
ancient structure. We must now proceed to describe those
which, until recently, bad no place within its wails; and
first of the pavement : this is composed, as far east as the
altar rail, of encaustic tiling, made by Messrs. Minton
and Co. The majority of the patterns employed are
reproduced from the old tiles found in the Abbey
Into some cf the new ones the arms of the Queen,
the Bishop, and of the Digbys have been introduced.
Within the rails the floor is inlaid with marble mosaic, dis-
posed in various patterns. This is a description of pavement
which, from its very costly nature, is but seldom employed
in England ; a beautiful specimen of it (executed, how-
ever, by foreign artists) may be seen at Westminster Abbey.
Next to be noticed are the stalls of oak which occupy the
western bay of the choir on esch side; the hindmost rank
being the old stalls of the monks, and the two front rows
being new. The design for these is of the richest and most
elaborate character.
The old altarpiece, in the Corinthian style, has been re-
moved, and its place is occupied by a hew reredos of Caen
stone enriched with sculpture. The centre bas-relief repre-
sents the Ascension of Our Lord ; the height of the figure
is about four feet. Underneath this are three canopied re-
cesses; the bas-reliefs which occupy them represent the
Last Supper. The reredos was carved by Mr. Forsyth.
The choir is shut off from its aisles by stone screens
and ornamental iron gates, which last, together with
the rich brass gas standards which light the choir at night,
were executed from the architect's designs by Mr. Skidmore,
of Coventry. The altar cloth of crimson velvet, embroidered
gold, was worked by Mrs. Beard, of Regent-street, who
also executed the rest of the Embroidery, with the exception
of the kneeling cushion at the altar rail, which was
undertaken by the Sherbcrr.e ladies.
Colour
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The whole of these winnows designed and executed
yretorenrelidkoe:.
The general effect of the choir, now that it is restored, is
grand in the ex•reme, the stalls, reredos, pavement, stained
IwlseMfeusrsnrsis.hCeldaytitioencaarntdoonesnie°r
glass and colouring, producing an impression which can be
realised in but few other English churches.
At the reopening services, at 11 o'clock, a procession was
formed from the Town-hall to the Abbey, including the
Bishop of Salisbury, wish his chaplains, the
vicar, the Rev.
E. Harston, and 150 of the clergy in their canonicals.
'Morning prayer then commenced, the service being in-
toned by Preoendaries Heatheotc and Helmore. The
service was Tallis; the anthem, "0 pray for the peace of
Jerusalem." The musical services were directed by Mr.
Piakeriog, the organist.