Morning journal and courier., 1881-12-17
The Stolen Earl.

Further Details About the Grave RoI-
 bery Perpetratea m the North of scnt-
 1and-aOyy the Crime Was Diseovele.l
 The Library Which Lord Cra1vford
 Collected.
 The London Standard of December gives the following additional particulars about the robbery of the body of the Earl of Crawford:
 ''There can be no doubt that sometime be. tween Wednesday night and Thursday morn- ing the plan adopted for furnishing conpinc- ing evidence of the theft had been executed. So many people pass the vault daily that any interference with it would be almost irainedi-e ateiy observed. The chapel is practically q part of Dun Echt House, there being an en. trance to it from the library. The apparatus necessary for raising the slab and removing the railing would be conveniently handy,
 building operations being at present in prog ress at Dun Echt. The cofins were opened sklllfully and without the least violence. Neither the outer one of oak nor the inner wooden one has been broken, the lids having been simply unscrewed As the lead shell had
 been soldered it had to be cut open ; but this also had been neatly performed, and so the ap- Pearance of the vault yesterday did not awaken in the spectator any such feelings as would naturally be associated with the application of force and violence. The object of the thieves seems pretty clear, and the opinion is that they must have been well acquainted with the district. That several persons were engaged in the robbery is pretty certain The slabs were of Caithness stone very heavy be- ing six feet square and several inches thick. Dun Echt House is about mile from the road and so the thieves might carry on their operations unmolested by the public; but the fact of the chapel being connected with the house makes it matter of certainty that the theft must have been perpetrated during the night. The deceased Earl being spare man the thieves would be able to carry off the body all the more easily. On Thursday morning laborer passing the spot on his way to his work observed that the ground on the top of the entrance to the mausoleum had been disturbed and that the slab opposite tha first step of the stairs was on it's side, sup ported by a stick. The man communi cated with the servants at the house, but it was decided not to enter the vault until the arrival of the commissioner and police off, cers from Aberdeen. Those officials were at once summoned, and when they arrived in the forenoon they decided to enter and exam inc the mausoleum. For this purpose an other slab had to be lifted, and two persons entered. They were mortified by the sight that met their. view. Strewed upon the ground were pieces of wood and sawdust, and the cofins in which the remains of the late Earl had lain were lying on the shelf in 8 state of wreck. The wooden erection placed in front to protect the coffin had been torn away. The authors of the outrage had then unscrewed the lid of the outer coffin The others were not treated so respectfully; these they cut with chisels or some sharp tools, and after making an opening in the end large enough to admit of their doing so, they pulled the remains of the noble Earl out by the feet and carried them away. The silver mountings of the coffin were un- touched, circumstance which leads to, the belief that the main object the robbers had in view was the ransom which they hoped to obtain for the body.
 THE LIBRARY.
 The occupation of Lord Crawford's later years was the collection of library which is considered to be quite unrivalled among pri- vate collections for comprehensiveness among all the literatures of the world, and for many rare and unique editions it contains To mention only few in this magnificent libra ry of more than fifty thousand volumes and MSS, which is Haigh Hall, near Wigan, there are the 'Catholicon, the only known book from Guttenbergs second press, which is printed on vellum and dated 14G0 the Mazarin Bible, the first book printed by ty- pography, by Gutenberg, undated, but printed probably about 145O-54; the" Cicero de Of1cis, D 1465, the first printed classic; the famous block book sSpecuIum, Ion which are founded the Dutch claims to priority in the invention of printing, his collection of Bi- bles, mostly first editions land in various Ian guages, and many containing the parent texts," a singularly large collection of the TO- mances of chivalry, including the Arthurian and Carlovingian cycles, nearly all of which are first editions and in various languages; and an extraordinary number of ancient man uscripts in Coptic, Arabic Cuic-Arabic, Syriac, Persian, Japanese and Chinese among the latter the great cyclopedia-and all the standard works of 8 first-class Japan csc library. For this splendid collection he had built a spacious new library at Dun Echt, which, unhappily, he never enjoyed the happiness of seeing filled with the treas ures of his lifelong studies. Dun Echt House, one of the most princely mansions in Aberdeenshire, is picturesquely situated in a romantic spot. The building has within the past ten years undergone complete restora- tion, and only very small portion of the old residence remains. Attached to the mansion is private chapel of chaste design, the beauties of which have attracted the atten- tion of many tourists who have come to see the splendid observatory erected in an ad- joining park by the present Earl during the lifetime of his father. The mortuary chapel is of white marble, and underneath it is the mausoleum which has been desecrated. The mausoleum had not been consecrated when the late Earl died but when the news of his death was received the Bishop of Aberdeen proceeded to Dun Echt and consecrated the tomb, to which three days afterward the re- mains of the lamented nobleman were con- signed by his relatives and his tenantry, by whom he was greatly revered.