The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-04-27 00:00:00

ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE

On the truth of the following narrative, or romance in real
life, our readers may rely :—Oa the evening of the 7th of
March last a young man, meanly attired, apparently about
twenty years of age, knocked at the door of Mr. Madden,
the relieving officer of the Kensington Union for the parish
of Kensington, residing in Charles-street, and entreated he
would afford him shelter for the night, as he was in a state of
utter destitution, " having not where to lay his head." Mr.
Madden, seeing that the unfortunate individual looked pale
and weakly, asked him if he was not also unwell in health ;
to which he replied, in a very mild voice, that he was suffer-
ing from a severe attack of influenza, and was very ill. Mr.
Madden accordingly gave him an order for admission into
the union workhouse for males, in Gloucester-road, Kensing-
ton, where he remained for eight days, and was attended
during that time by Mr. Wright, the district surgeon of the
union. On the 15th of March, having given the usual notice
to leave, he discharged himself from the workhouse saying
that he was going to Yepton, in Sussex, to which place he
stated he belonged, although it has since been ascertained
that on his entering the workhouse, and his name, &c.,
being, as is customary, entered in a book by the porter, he
gave them as follows :4-." George White, aged 16 years, came
from Chelmsford, and going to Southampton." From the
15th of March, nothing further was heard of the individual
in question by the workhouse authorities until Wednesdey
last, when one of the turnkeys belonging to the Westminster
New Bridewell, Tothill-fields, applied at the workhouse for
information as to whether such a person had been an inmate
there, and on being informed in the affirmative, he acquainted
Mr. Madden that the party, although dressed as a
man, and calling himself George White, was a female, and at
present an inmate of the bridewell. From the statement of the
turnkey it appeared that she had been committed last week
from one of the police courts of the metropolis to imprison-
ment for seven days for an act of vagrancy she had been
convicted of. On Tuesday last, on one of the -Officers of the
prison visiting her cell, he noticed a remarkable fulness of
her chest, and on desiring her to open her shirt, discovered,
to his great surprise, that the prisoner was a female, and
not a man. He immediately communicated this discovery
to Lieutenant Tracey, the governor, who instantly sent for
the supposed young man, and questioned her as to the cause
of her adopting the present disguise. For some time she re-
fused to answer his questions, and all attempts to ascertain
her real name or the address of her connexions were unavail-
ing ; but ultimately he elicited from her that she was not a
married woman, and that her father and mother were both
dead. Subsequently to their demise she had been residing
with her uncle, by whose footman she had been seduced,
which being discovered by her relation, she had left his resi-
dence about four months ago, since which time she had
adopted the disguise of a man, in the hope of aluding dis-
covery, and had ever since been wandering about the coun-
try, until taken into custody as a vagrant. She obstinately
refused to give any clue by means of which her name, or the
residence of her friends can be discovered, beyond stating
that she has a brother, who is a student in one of the col-
leges of Cambridge University. She is described as a re-
markably fine looking young woman, rather above the mid-
dle stature, and her conduct, while both in the workhouse
and in the prison, affords evidence of her having received a
superior education. Her extraordinary story is strengthened
by the fact of her being enciente, and since the discovery she
has been kindly placed by Lieutenant Tracey in the infirmary
of the prison, and the proper authorities are at present en-
gaged in writing to the places before named, in endeavouring
to obtain correct information respecting her, with a view to
her restoration to her Wends.