Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1871-02-08
Suicide of an English Peer.

There really does seem to be fatal
lty In some families. Just forty-tw,
years ago the residents in fashionable
London street were aroused after mid
night by cries of fire. They soon dis
covered that it was raging in the hous,
of Lord WalsiDgham, and that ther,
seemed-for in those days fire escapes
were not-no chance of rescuing The
unhappy inmates. Presently piercing
scream, which those now living can still
vividly recall, rang through the night
It came from Lady Walsingham, as she
/ flung herself from an upper chamber
and fell dead upon the pavement Hel
husband perished in the flames. His
nephew and successor has lately perish
ed under circumstances equally sad. A
ew weeks ago he entertained the
Prince of Wales at his fine old seat.
Merton Hall, in Norfolk, where his
ancestors (the De Gray's), had been
seated since the Conquest. During the
last week of the year his son, a young
man of eight and twenty, NJ P. for
Norfolk, had joined shooting party,
which included the Prince, at Gunton,
Lord Suffields, in the same county. On
the day of his return telegram was
placed in his hand when he reached
Norwich. 1t stated that his father was
dead Lord Walsingham had died by
his own hand. On the last day of the
old year he locked himself into his
room and cut his throat, and it was
only on the door being forced that the
horrld discovery was made
1t is most mysterious affair. There
was no madness in the family; he was
an excellent, amiable man, model
country gentleman, very wealthy and
apparently altogether in the happiest
circumstances. The coroner's verdict
is, of course, Temporary insanity"
but the world will continue to think
that there was some special cause for
the alteration which led man who
had six weeks previously been able to
receive with splendid hospitality The
heir to the throne, and who was so well
that his eldest son had, day or two
before, gone off on a shooting excur-
sion, to suddenly put an end to his ex-
istence. Lord Walsingham had been
twice married, and both times to mem
bers of celebrated families. His first
wife was daughter and heiress
of Sir Frankland Russell. By this
would have succeeded, on the
death of his mother-i -in~law Gt will now
pass to his sony, to one of the most in
teresting old places in England,
Chequers Court, grand picturesque
mansion, situated in a beautiful part of |
the Chiltern Hills, in Buckingham,
which, could it speak, could tell MANY /
curious tale. Its name is said to oe
derived from the Exchequer IL King
Johns time having been there. Here,
N 1867, Lady Jane Grey's sister was for
5wo years imprisoned, and no house in
England is SO rich in memorials of the
great Protector; for Chequers in 1864
became the home of his Youngest
laughter, who married Sir John Rus
'el1. Among the relics is the mask of
Jromwells face taken after his death,
lis sword, watch and clothes. Lord
married, secondly.
he Honorable Emily Thellusson, de-
cendant of Peter Thellusson, merchant
If London, who made the celebrated
viii. According to this disposition, his
was to accumulate, until it
would, had all gone ashe hoped and ex-
oected, have reached the neat little fig
Ire OF five hundred millions of dollars.
But litigation and mismanagement new
+ permitted a result anything like that
o be arrived at, and the legislature
leemlng such an accumulation i'm
'olitic and undesirable, passed an act,
nown as "The Thellusson act" by
which estates were restricted to the lives
# any number of living persons, and
wenty years after. The second Lady
Valslngham survives to lament her
9rd's melancholy and untimelY end. ]