The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-13 00:00:00

CLERKEN WELL.

Yesterday, William TVyatt, aged 22, George Walton,
aged 14, Alexander Agar, aged 17, William Lincoln, aged
14, and IVilliam Carter, aged 13 years, were charged
with destroying their clothes in the Holborn Union
workhouse.

The prisoners looked more like savages than civilized
beings, and their hair hung in filthy matted locks over
their faces, which were begrimed with dirt, and they
were, with the exception of a threadbare party-coloured
rug that each of them wore, perfectly naked.
Barlow and Mundy, the porters at the Holborn Union
workhouse, proved that when the prisoners were admit-
ted into the destitute ward of the workhouse, on Satur-
day night, between nine and ten o'clock, they had some
sort of clothes on. In the morning, at nine o'clock,
"having heard a great.noise among the destitutes," as
Barlow swore, he went into the ward and saw the pri-
soners standing there perfectly naked, having torn their
clothes into small shreds, which lay strewn about the
ward.
Wyatt, in answer to the Magistrate, with tears in his
eyes, declared that his clothes were so ragged that a
policeman was going to take him into custody on Satur-
day for indecently exposing his person ; they were be-
sides covered with vermin. He was a native of Corn-
wall, and had been wandering about for the last six
weeks without being able to obtain employment.
Walton said, he did not know his parish ; had been at
sea; his clothes were ragged, and covered with vermin ;
had been going about the streets for the last month,
night and day.
Of the other three lads two were natives of Ireland,
and stated that they had subsisted upon mendicancy.
Carter declared his clothes were alive with vermin. Lin-
coln, a native of Liverpool, said he had been equally
filthy and equally destitute.
Mr. COMBE sent the prisoners to the House of Correc-
tion for fourteen days each, for which they thanked the
worthy magistrate.
UNION-HALL.
Yesterday Nicholas Giles, a poor emaciated-looking
man, was brought before Mr. Trail, charged with wil-
fully breaking a lamp belonging to the South Metropo-
litan Gas Company.
A policeman of the M division stated, that while on
duty the preceding night in High-street he observed the
defendant sitting crouched up at a door, which he left,
and, walking into the road, picked up a stone. He then
returned to the pavement, and while the policeman was
looking at him, threw the stone at a gas-lamp, which he
broke, and then said that he did it for the purpose of
obtaining the shelter afforded in a station-house, to
which place he was taken.
In reply to Mr. TRAILL, the unfortunate man said
that he was in a state of extreme destitution (which his
appearance fully testified), that the wards for the casual
paupers being full at the different workhouses where he
applied for admission, he had no alternative left than
that of seeking shelter in a station-house ; but finding
that could not be accomplished without ho committed
some offence, he thought it better to break a lamp,
rather than have recourse to plunder.
Mr. TRAILL said, that the unfortunate situation of
the poor man was to be deplored, but still he could not
be permitted to destroy property by wilful means. The
Magistrate then, in default of paying for the gas-lamp,
committed him to prison for twenty-one clays, a sentence
with which the poor fellow seemed delighted.

•
LARGE HEDGES.—We have much pleasure in di-
recting attention to a small pamphlet just published by
entitled, " A Few Remarks
on the
hletotbearrtgse,
of
fretdhgis city,
Small Enclosures of Devon-
shire and the adjoining Counties ; by John Grant, sur-
veyor and land-agent, Exeter." Mr. Grant appears to
have made a survey of ten parishes, all within a circuit
of fifteen miles of Exeter, and extending over a district
of twenty miles. He tells us that the result of his exa-
mination of these ton parishes, containing 36,976 acres,
being an average of about 3,700 acres, is, that there are
1,657 miles of hedge, about half as long again as thl
great wall of China, or sufficient to hedge round the
whole of England, with an immense bank of earth, and
occupying 2,642 acres.— Western Luminary.
CHEAP FRUIT.—On Saturday night cherries were
cried in the streets in Shoreditch at one farthing per
pound.