The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-17 00:00:00

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.

LUTTERWORTH, DEC. 11.—We have frequently heard
of two parties meeting each other, and forming a mutual
attachment at the first introduction ; but never having
known an instance of the kind, we were somewhat scep-
tical upon the point till yesterday, when our doubts were
removed by the following narrative :—A short time
since, a gallant captain, holding a commission in the
army, and also distinguished for his exploits on the turf,
took up his quarters at the principal inn in the market
town of N m, Warwickshire. Shortly after his
arrival, the daughter of the landlady, a remarkably fine,
handsome young woman, did the gentleman the honour
of attending upun him. Struck with the appearance of
the pretty maiden, the Captain paid her such atten-
tions as seldom fail to have 'the effect intended, espe-
cially when backed by a scarlet coat and handsome
countenance, as was the case in the present instance ;
and so enamoured did the young lady become of her
military adorer, that, upon coming out of the room, she
made a confidant of one of the servants, telling her, that
" she felt convinced that the gentleman in the other room
would be her husband ; and that she should see him
again before long." Nor was she mistaken in the latter
part of her opinion ; for so smitten was the gallant cap-
tain with the charms possessed by his fair inamorata,
that he who had never feared the dart of the enemy, was
obliged to submit to that of Cupid, and the result was
thdt he suddenly found the town in which he was located
afliarded many advantages for carrying on the hunting
campaign, and he, therefore, decided upon taking stables
fbr his stud ; after which, as a matter of course, he found
it necessary to pay frequent visits to the hotel, when his
inamorata made it an invariable rule to attend upon him;
the consequence of this frequent intercourse was, that a
more familiar footing was established, and a correspond-
ence was carried on between the parties during those in-
tervals that the gallant captain remained at home; but
letters intended for the latter, instead of being addressed
to him and sent in the family bag, were directed to " the
post-mistress,
to be left till called for ;" the captain pay-
ing a daily visit to the office for the purpose of ascertain-
ing whether there were any communications so addressed
for him. Affairs went on in this way till the gal-
lant captain's " leave" had expired, and he was obliged
to join his regiment at Dublin ; but, previous to this, such
srrangements had been made between the parties that
the whole of the young lady's wardrobe, &c., was re-
moved without the slightest suspicion being excited in
the minds of the members of her family; and, even-
tually, the young lady herself took her departure. Upon
being missed, the feelings of her mother and brother
were distressing in the extreme; the following morning,
however, a letter was brought, addressed to the " miss-
ing fair;" and her mother, thinking it might afford some
clue to the fugitive, opened it, when it proved to be from
the gallant captain, directing the young lady to proceed
by the route they had previously fixed upon to Dublin,
and there inquire for him at the barracks. This intel-
ligence being communicated to one or two friends of the
family, it was determined that the brother, accompanied
by an uncle, should immediately post to the nearest
railway station, and proceed thence to Liverpool, on
their way to Dublin ; and such expedition did they
use, that they actually arrived in Dublin before the
packet in which the young lady had taken her 'as-
sage; and, upon landing on the quay, her astonish-
ment may readily be guessed, at finding that the two
first persons to salute her were her brother and uncle,
both of whom, she fondly hoped, were some hundreds
of miles distant. The uncle, fearing that the hasty tem-
per of the young lady's brother might hurry him
into some rash act, should he happen to meet the gallant
son of Mars, resolved upon having an interview with the
latter himself, and ascertain what his intentions were.
lie accordingly went to the barracks and inquired for
" Captain —," to whose presence he was very speedily
introduced. As might be expected, the Captain was as
much confounded as the young lady, upon learning who
his visitor was, while the latter, finding that the military
devotee " humni'd and haw'd" rather too much before he
would give an answer to the very plain and direct ques-
tion, as to " whether he meant to marry the young
lady?" took an abrupt leave, and returned to the inn
where he had left the brother and sister. The young
lady finding, from the relation of her worthy uncle, that
" nothing but loss of character and utter ruin awaited her
should she remain behind," she had the good sense to
accompany her friends back to the home she had de-
serted, whence she removed to the house of a near rela-
tive, who resides at a small village in the neighbourhood
of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, where we understand
she will remain till the excitement attending the affair
has blown over. The young lady in question is one of
four sisters, three of whom are married, and each pos-
sesses 1,500/. in her own right, upon the former " coming
of age." She is now about nineteen, and is possessed of
considerable personal attractions.

DESPERATE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE BY A RECRUIT.
—John Smith, a recruit in the Royal Artillery corps, was
taken before Mr. Thomas Jackson, the Mayor of Kingston,
on Monday, charged with the offence of misdemeanour in
having unlawfully attempted to destroy himself. Wm. Smith,
another recruit in the same regiment, deposed that he was in
company with the accused and some other recruits at a beer-
shop in Heathen-street, Kingston, and Smith, the defendant,
was very drunk. In a short time he left the room, and very
soon afterwards the servant came in and told him to go and
look after John ; for when he went out she heard him
mutter something about " and he would go and do it," and
as he had been talking in the course of the day about de-
stroying himself, she feared he make would an attempt to
do so. Witness accordingly made a search, and on going to
the water-closet he found the door fastened. He burst it
open, and found the defendant banging from the ceiling,
black in the face, and nearly dead. He cut him down ini-
mediately, and sent for a surgeon, but it was some time
before the accused could be restored to consciousness, when
a policeman was called in and he was sent to the station-
house for security. The defendant said he was very sorry
for what he had done, but it was through drink; he had
been drunk for three or four days, and bad quite lost his
senses, or he should not have done such a thing. Sergeant
Wilson, of the Royal Artillery, who is at present recruiting
in the town, in answer to a question from the magistrate,
said that the accnsed had been recruited about a month, and
latterly had given way to drunken and slovenly habits. He
added that when he had been recruited six weeks he would
be sent to head-quarters at Woolwich. The Mayor said
that he considered the practice of keeping recruits so long
before they were sent to head-quarters a very improper one,
as the men had nothing else to do but to idle about and get
drinking; and he wished to know why it was adopted? The
sergeant said he did not know; but it was the ordinary rule
to send in drafts of recruits every six weeks. The Mayor
then ordered that the defendant should stand committed to
Kingston Gaol in order to give an opportunity to communi-
cate with the commanding officer of the regiment; and the
sergeant was directed to report the opinion of the Bench
upon the subject of detaining the recruits for so long a period
before they were sent to head-quarters, to the proper quarter,
with a view to the alteration of the system.
MILITARY FLOGGING AT CHATHAM.—This morn-
ing (Monday, the 15th), the whole of the troops, comprising
the provisional battalion at this garrison, assembled on the
general parade-ground, to hear the sentence promulgated of
a Court-martial, held the beginning of this month, on
Thomas Short, a bandsman of the 31st Regiment, for general
insubordination, absenting himself from barracks, and
when found in the town of Chatham by a military escort,
having struck some of the soldiers with his bayonet, and
threatened to kill the corporal in charge of the escort for
taking him prisoner. The charges and sentence having been
read by the Adjutant, the troops were marched ay to the
Spar Battery, to witness the sentence carried into effect, that
of his receiving 150 lashes. The troops, being under com-
mand of Colonel Thomas Weare, K.H., on their arrival were
immediately
placed into a square, and the prisoner was
placed at the halberts, and received the whole of his sen-
tence with much fortitude, now and then only uttering a
piercing shriek. On the close of the proceedings the pri-
soner was removed,and the troops returned to their barracks,
and the prisoner to the hospital. He bears a bad character,
and flogging at this garrison is not resorted to but in cases
of strict necessity.

T •
BATHS AND WASHHOUSES role THE LABOURING
CeAssEs.—A public dinner was given yesterday evening, at
the London Tavern, in celebration of the laying of the first
stone of the first of the institutions for providing cheap baths
and washhouses for the labouring poor. There were present,
Peter Borthwick, Esq., M P., Archdeacon Hale, C. Banbury,
Esq., C.Turner, Esq., G. F. Young, Esq., Joseph Somes, Esq.,
R. Hankey, Esq., J. D. Powlies, Esq., E. Brewster, Esq., B.
Hawes, sen., Esq., N. Gould, Esq., Charles Cochrane, E.
G. Stonehouse Griffith, Esq., and upwards of two hundred: ,
other gentlemen of importance in the commercial w
The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor occupied the chair.
After the dinner, which, with excellent viands. provided by
Messrs. Bathe and Breach, had been duly discussed " Non
nobis" was sung by the vocalists present, Messrs. G ~Genge,
C. Kenny, Farquharson Smith, and J. King (comic), under.
l? The usual loyal and
the direction of Mr. G. GpoiVed. n'yYtnre. chairman, and most en-
thusiasticallypatriotic toasts were n
The Lord Mayor then proposed
responded to.
Prosperity to the Baths. and Wit.shltouses for the Labour..
Ire said that he hoped to be present at the
in, Classes. '
layini; of the foundation stones of many more in-'titutions of
the kind, and that lie should also be present at many future
anniversaries of the institution of which he had that day laid
the foundation stone.—(Cheers.) He then proceeded to ad-
vert in very favourable terms to the merits and advantages
of all institutions of the kind, and concluded by expressing a
wish that they would not be allowed to fall to the ground
from want of funds. The toast was then drank in a most
enthusiastic manner with three time three. Several
other toasts followed in succession, including " The
City of London," " The Lord Mayor," " The English and
Foreign Press," &e. &c. A large collection was made during
the evening. The total of it amounted to more than 1,0001.,
•the several subscriptions being very large and very numerous.
The festive meeting was not broken up till a very late hour.
Mr. Toole efficiated, as usual, as toastmaster.