The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-08-22 00:00:00

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was a criminal in
Price, who was

lung came into the room
She looked th

went away

1. I azai

and it

igh the hole iu the doo:

After that I

Daring the time I was there, Mr. Robinson

came every day. - Generally Mr. Melins was there
until lunch, when he went away, and Mr. Robinson and
Mrs. Evans were left together. On the Wednesday I
saw Mr. Robinson and Mrs. Evans on the sofa. There
was a criminal intimacy between them.—To Mr. Watson : I
went there on the 29th, and left on the 7th of the
following month. Mr. Carrington and his family
came on the Wednesday, towards the evening. I
left on Saturday. " For a job of this kind" I got
I went home. I have known Mr. Field's family some
time. I have never done anything of this kind before.
I don't know that I were a " spy" exactly. I was aston-
ished at what I saw, and "I were" very much shocked.
I hesitated to go at first ; but Field persuaded me. I
agreed to go there for a month, at £8 a month, I had
nothing else. I am not aware that I shall get anything
more when this business is over ; but I hope to get my
expenses paid. I live in No. 3, High-street, St. John's
Wood. My husband is a butcher. We have been married
seven years. I have not been out before since I was
married. I was cook before I was married, with Mrs.
Barker, of 32, South Bank. I lived with him seven years.
Before then lived as housemaid with Mr. Bowers. Before
then I came up from Lincolnshire. Mr. Field supplied
me with the gimlet on the Sunday evening. I first used
it on the Monday afternoon. Mr. Robinson and Mr.
Evans were out. (Gimlet produced, was a very large one.)
Could not see through the first hole, but could through
the second. I could see into the room through the first,
but not the part where the sofa was placed. On the
Tuesday I looked through and saw Mr. Robinson and Mrs.
Evans. She was dressed in a muslin dress with deepflounces.
[Witness again described the position in which she found
Mr. Robinson and Mrs. Evans.] I didn't think a lady
would do it in that way at all : I had no idea

of seeing what I did see in a drawing-room. I
looked to see what they were doing. I have re-
covered from the shock to my nerves I received
then. I didn't wait till it was all over : I saw sufficient
to know what was going on. Mrs. Price looked through
"my gimlet-hole" for a moment. She was taking an in-
ventory, because Mrs. King was going to leave the house.
Mrs. King took a look through too. It were not al-
together more than three minutes. Both Mrs. Price and
Mrs. King appeared very shocked. The next day I saw
anything was Wednesday. I saw them in a similar po-
sition. He was sitting down, and she was extended
across his lap. Mr. Melins was her cousin ; and he
slept in the back drawing-room. He was not reading in
the house at the time I was looking through the gimlet
hole. Mrs. Evans' lady's-maid was in the house at the
time—she sat up-stairs somewhere. She was always
there to attend to her mistress morning, noon, and night.
There was a chest of drawers against
.the folding doors ;
but it did not interfere with the hole. To Serjeant Wil-
kins : On the first day that I saw what I have described
she was ironing down stairs; and on the second day she
was ou

I have two children. My husband had afish-
monger's shop before he tookto butchering. My father is
a farmer in Lincolnshire. I keep a confectioner's shop,
and during this time I had some one to attend to it for
me. I have known Field's sister some time.

Ann Price, of Little Rider-street and. Pall-mall, called by
Mr.Aspland, said she let lodgings. Knew Mrs. King. Went
to her house on the 4th July. Went to Mrs. King's to
take an inventory. It was on a Tuesday. Reelembers
Mrs. Grocott asking me to look through a hole in the
door in that room. Did so, and saw Mrs. Evans and
Robinson on the sofa. She was in conversation, on her
hands and knees, speaking with him. I came away then.
A noise was made, and Mrs. Evans came into the room,
and we went down stairs. Some time afterwards Mrs.
Grocott called me up stairs again, and I peeped through the
hole, and saw Mrs. Evans standing astride, with her legs
across Mr. Robinson's, he sitting on the sofa. They were
doing what, . I suppose, a wife might do with her hus-
band.—To Mr. Watson : Have been married seven or
eight years. My husband was a warehouser„---

the city, but he is at present abroad. I have
a house in Rider-street. I am not a broker.
Mrs. King asked me to take the inventory as
a favour. I did not finish the inventory ; I was so con-
fused that I could not go on. We all were. Mrs.
Grocott, that delicate young lady the cook, did appear
shocked. I had never any occasion to look through
gimlet-holes before. When I first saw them, Mrs. Evans
had her hand on Mr. Robinson's knee. That did not ap-
pear to me to be indelicate. I was not shocked at that.
The second time, Mrs. Evans was standing astride in
front of Mr. Robinson. I could not see whether her feet
touched the ground. What I saw take place there
I'm sure takes place between husband and
wife ; but not in that position perhaps. I liad seen Mr.
Field on the Monday. I went out to meet him with
Mrs. King; but I did not know it was he. Mr. Field
brought me here.—Re-examined : I have not litad any-
thing given to me by Mr. Field or any one else.

Maria King, of No. 2; Bryanstone-street, Portland-
square, said : I am in the habit of letting rooms to•
lodgers. In the month of June,. Mr. Robinson came to
take apartments for Mr. Lloyd Evans and a young gentle-
man readingYor holy orders. He was to pay me £3 12s. for
drawing-room floor, the bedroom above, and a bedroom for
the lady's maid. Mrs. Evans arrived on the Monday, I
think. Before she arrived, Mr. Robinson was at my house
three or four times : and he came in the evening after she
had arrived. He called twice a day generally, and often
took lunch and tea. Mr. Meting generally went out
after luncheon. About three weeks after their arrival,
there was a bill in my window for apartments to let, and
Mr. Field came to ask about them. He called again, and
said there was something wrong in my house, and
asked me if " I would help him to find it out." I
would not. Mrs. Evans received a letter from Mrs.
Carrington, stating that they would take the house
for a few months; but I had no cook. I happened
to mention it to Field, and he said he would find
me one, and he sent Mrs. Grocott. On the Tuesday Mrs.
Grocott asked me to come into the drawing-room, and I
looked through the gimlet-hole. Mr. Robinson and Mrs.
Evans were having an improper intimacy. I saw it
repeated on Wednesday.
To Mr. WATSON : I took the house as Mrs. King. I
am not married ; but I thought it better to be call. I Mrs.

King. My real-name is Walsh. I don't like to say whe-
ther there was a Mr. King. I never saw Mr. Evans to
my knowledge. I knew that Mrs. Grocott was sent to
spy upon their actions. Mr. Field told me that Mrs.
Grocott would assist him, as Mr. Evans was a very injured
man. Mr. Field had spoken to me before that. I never
told Mr. Robinson that such a person wasilin the house.
I hoped that Mrs. Grocott would find nothing out. Mr.
Melins generally dined there. A few days after Mrs. Evans
had been there, some ladies called. I believed they were
Mrs. Robinson, Mr. Robinson's mother, and Mrs. Thackeray.
I don t know that Mrs. Thackery is Mrs. Robinson's sis-
ter. Field came to my house on the Sunday. It was
between two and three o'clock on the Tuesday when this
occurred. When I looked through the hole, Mr. Robin-
son was sitting on the sofa, and Mrs. Evans was in his
lap. Their feet were on the floor, I should think. His
legs were stretched out. I told Dr. Jones that day. Dr.
Jones is a gentleman residing in Manchester-square. I
was very much agitated and very much astonished. I
should not have gone the second time, but I was brought.
It was the sweet solicitation of the fat cook that led me
there.

This closed the case for the plaintiff, and Mr. Watson
proceeded to address the jury for the defence. He trusted
to their experience, as men conversant with the affairs of
the world, and with the ordinary relations of individuals,
for a verdict for the defendant. He appeared before them
for the defendant, Mr. Robinson, a gentleman advanced
in years, being, as they had heard, above fifty years of
age, and who had for many years been the intimate friend
of the highly respectable gentleman (Mr. Carrington).
sitting before him. Mr. Carrington, after leading a life
of usefulness, according to the statement of his learned
friend, in our colonies, had returned to live at
Cheltenham, with his two sons and two daughters
living in a respectable position in that town. He ap-
peared, also, for the deeply injured woman, who was
charged with being a party in this offence, as well for her
respectable and aged father, whose grey hairs, in the event
of an adverse verdict, would "go down with sorrow to the
grave." In the case there were three persons prominently
before the court—that kept woman (Mrs. King), who was
lately in the box; that "spy"; and the other woman,
whose husband was "in foreign parts." And it was upon
the evidence of creatures, such as these, that they were
called upon to consign the defendant, to consign Mrs.
Evans, and all these parties to ignominy and disgrace. He
urged that, if there had been an improper intimacy between
the defendant and the plaintiff's wife, the ingenuity of a
detective so acute would have discovered more convincing
evidence of its existence during the period Mrs. Evans
was lodging in Edgevvare-road. What were the facts of
the case? On the 14th November, 1850, this unhappy
lady had the deep misfortune to herself and her family to
make an alliance with the plaintiff, who was come before
them to-day to seek for damages for an alleged offence,
which he had no hesitation in saying was built upon a
base system of conspiracy, and sustained by perjured
witnesses. There were cases in which persons cast
away the jewel of a wife's affections, leaving that
wife to go forth into the world without protection,
instead of cherishing and comforting her. And such
was the case here. After his marriage, the defendant did
not introduce his wife into congenial society; but, after !).
brief visit to France, he took her on his hunting expedi-
tion to Leicester, where she sees no company, and is in-
troduced into no society except that of fox-hunters. Did
he comfort his wife ? did he attend to her happiness in
such a manner as to be remembered with pleasure through
a long life ? did he show a single mark of affection for her?
On this point, one woman was all he could call,—the oc-
cupant of the house where they lodged ; and she said his
wife treated him very badly, because, when asked what she
would have for dinner, said, "I don't care;" because,at other
times she would not go out when the carriage was ordered;
and then, when the quarrel took place between the witness
and the injured wife's lady's-maid, she said that " Mrs.
Evans was no such lady as he was a gentleman !" Did
they ever hear anything so preposterous ? It was mon-
strously absurd. With respect to the subsequent evidence,
he maintained that the whole case had been trumped up
by the plaintiff in a vindictive spirit. Then as to the
defendant, Mr. Robinson, he showed that he had long
been an intimate friend of the family ; that he still
retained the friendship and confidence of the lady's father;
that he had taken a lively interest in the daughter from
a child ; that he had walked and driven out with her
before and after her marriage, accompanied at times
by her father and mother ; that he had taken
the apartments in London for Mrs. Evans, with the full
knowledge and consent of her friends ; and that he had
gone up to London in accordance with his usual custom,
his own mother, wife, and friends living in Great Cum-
berland-square, close to Bryanstone-street. If there had been
an improper intimacy between the defendant and Mrs.
Evans, he maintained that it could not have remained hid-
den from the lady'sfatheKbrother, and sisters ; or from the
observation of Mr. Lawrence, their next door neigh-
bour, who had given evidence in the case. But, continued
the learned gentleman, there were censorious and scandal-
loving people, who, in the guiltiness of their own beads,
Ccolll4 not 111140riftfUld the iuncaucy 2: yew did years of

TUESDAY,

&UGUST 22, 1854.

Mr. Knowles-: He would a
Mr. Watson : He would

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