The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-11 00:00:00

SOUTHWARK.

SINGULAR CRARGE OF FELoNY.—Alfred Gaze, a young
-man, by trade a paper-banger, was brought before Mr. Cot-
tingham, charged with stealing a curious snuff-box, manu-
factured from a deer's-hoof, the property of Mr. William
Stacy, landlord of the Ship and t ilot, Bermondsey-wall,
under the following rather singular circumstances :
From the statement of the complainant, it appeared that,
on Saturday last, the snuff- box was missed from a shelf on
which it was usually kept in the bar of his house. He
was afterwards informed that the snuff-box had been seen
by a friend of his in the shop-window of a silversmith. The
complainant immediately proceeded to the silversmith, and
the latter, without hesitation, said the box had been left with
him 'to repair, and to have the name of Alfred Gaze engraved
upon the lid. The complainant having ascertained the ad-
dress of that person. at once went to his lodgings in Ber-
mondsey-street, and he at once admitted that he left it there
for repair, and was accordingly given into custody. The
complainant added that at the station-house the prisoner
gave a very singular account of the manner in which he be-
came possessed of the article, the truth or falsehood of which
he (the complainant) had no means of ascertaining. He
was bound to say, however, that he had received an excel-
ent character of the accused.
Mr. Corns:Guam now called upon the accused to give his
explanation of the stolen box being traced to him.
The prisoner said he was the owner of a very sagacious
little dog, and that on the day in question he met it in the
street running towards him, pear his residence, with a cu-
riously made snuff-box in its mouth. When the dog came
up to him he took the box out of his mouth and deposited it
in his pocket. Being entirely ignorant of the owner, and
finding chat it wanted some repairs, he left it at the silver-
smith's shop to have the hinges repaired and his name en-
graved on the lid.
The MAGISTRATE said it was certainly a very singular way
of accounting for the possession of an article that was al-
leged to have been stolen, and inquired if the dog was known
to have thievish propensities.
The prisoner said that his dog was very much in the habit
of taking away small articles from houses, and that he was
known before now to carry off shoes and stockings, and va-
rious things.
' Mr. Col-mon-Am inquired if there was any person in
court who knew the prisoner, when his landlord stepped
forward, and in reply to the questions of the magistrate he
gave the accused an excellent character. He also corrobo-
rated the fact of the dog being frequently known to run
away with various articles before. That the prisoner in-
formed him of the circumstance of finding a curious snuff-
box in the animal's mouth, and of his leaving it to be
repaired at a silversmith's shop, and that he made no secret
of thenatter; but mentioned it in the presence of several
persons.
The prisoner said he was not in the bar of the com-
plainant's house at all, and that the dog must either have
found his way in there and taken the snuff-box, or ebe
have picked it up in the street.
Mr. CUITINGIIAM said, that it was the prisoner's duty to
have made every inquiry to find the owner of the box, after
taking it from his dog, before he converted it to his own
use. He was afraid the dog was encouraged in dishonest
tricks ; for he appeared, from all accounts, to be a very adept
thief, and he-might get his owner into a very serious scrape.
However, it appeared the accused was a man of character,
and that when lie g'ot the box.he did not attempt any con-
cealment of it. With the recommendation, therefore, that
the dog might be speedily broken of such tricks, he should
discharge the complaint.
The priSoner then left the court with his friends, the sil-
versmith having restored the snuff-box-to the real owner.
LAMB L'Eti.

_
EXTRAORDINARY. CASE.—Mrs. Rosetta Ann Robinson, who
described her Self as the wife of a barrister, and whose appear-
ance, from the very peculiar style of her dress, her tall and
commanding figure, attracted the gaze of the numerous spec-
tator, in Court, Jane Price Fish, and John 'Chee.seman Ross,
were placed before Mr. Henry, on the following singular
charge.
Mr. Games attended on behalf of Mrs. Robinson.
"lhe short facts of the case were these :—Between the hours
of one and two o'clock on Wednesday, the prisoners drove up
to the King's Head tavern, at Norwood, in a gig, and getting
out, they desired the ostler to take out the horse. They then
went into the house, and requested to be shown to a private
room, and they were taken to an apartment on the first floor.
The females went up stairs into a bedroom, but returned to
their male companion in a few moments, and called for half a
pint of gin, with which they were served. The prisoner Robin-
son made several inquiries about a fortune-teller in the neigh-
bourhood, and asked if 30s. would be a sufficient fee to hove
their fortunes told. They then left the house, and returned in
about an hour, when they were shown into a room on t 4
ground floor, where they had another half-pint of gin. The
landlady, Mrs. Mabley, saw the prisoner Robinson, who was
dressed in. a riding habit, with a hat and long veil, come
down stairs, and leave the house in a hurried manner. This
excited the landlady's suspicion, and caused her to go up to
her bed-room, when shemissed from her drawers a piece of
satin. She instantly hurried down stairs, and sent the pot-
man after the prisoner to request she would return, but in-
stead of doing so she was going on towards town, and was
ultimately taken into custody, and brought back to the
King's Head. On being accused of stealing the satin, she
replied, "If I have stolen it I must have been dreaming;"
but the daughter of Mrs. Mabley and another witness dis-
tinctly saw the prisoner throw the satin into a ditch, from
which it was taken. The male prisoner, upon the accusation
of felony being made against his companion, became most
violent, struck the landlady and her daughter, and also the
policeman. -
After the witnesses had been examined in support of the
accusation, a respectable-looking man entered the witness-
box and requested to be heard for a few minutes.
He said that three weeks ago Mrs. Robinson and her hits-
band took apartments at his house, No. 19, Gloucester-street,
Queen-square, Bloomsbury, and Mr. Robinson, he understood,
was a professional gentleman, and was at present out of
town. On the day before Mrs. Robinson invited his wife,
who was one of the prisoners, to join her in a pic-nic party,
and it appeared they left the house together, and he was
astonished on receiving information on that morning that
they were locked up in Brixton station-house.
In reply to the question of Mr. HENRY' Mr. Fish said he
had not seen Mr. Robinson himself, but he understood him
to be " in the law," and the female prisoner Robinson, whom
he had represented to be his wife, had always conducted her-
self, up to the present, as far as he could learn, with great
propriety.
Mr. Yeomans, a livery-stable keeper in Guildford-street,
Russell-square, said that Mr. Robinson, the husband of the
female prisoner of that name, had been in the habit of keep-
ing his horses at his stables for some years, and at present
had two horses and a pony there. Last week he received a
note from Mr. Robinson, stating that he was going to the
country, and requesting he would take great care of his
horses in his absence. On Sunday last he received directions
from Mrs. Robinson to have a horse and gig, and her pony,
with a side-saddle, at her door on WedneSuay morning She
then stated that herself and another lady and gentleman were
going to Epping Forest on a pie-nie party, and that as Mr.
Ross, the gentleman who was to accompany her, was rather
an indifferent whip, she requested a steady horse might be put
in the gig, and not one of her husband's, as they were too
fresh to be dmiven by her friend Ross. He (Mr. Yeomans)
accordingly sent a horse of his own in the gig, and the pony
with a ride-saddle, to 19, .Gloucester-street, Queen-square,
and he heard no more about them till that morning, when he
found the prisoners locked up, and his horse and gig detained
at the King's Head.
Mr. HENRY inquired what had become of the pony, and
one of the constables said, that from what he had learned, it
appeared that on riding al‘mg the Blackfriars-road the pony
fell under Mrs. Robinson, and so injured its knees that she left
is at Wilson's livery stables, and rode in the gig with her coin-
.. panions. . •
Mrs. Robinson, in reply to the charge, said she must have