The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-05
MISER'S MONEY
CURIOUS AND SUCCESsFUl
 SEARCH FOR IT.
Pauper Hermit's Wealth Was Stored in, a Hundred Different Hidden Recesses of His Ram
 shackle Home.

iIt was announced at a meeting of the Epson Guardians that letters of adminis.ratloh1 m the octogenarian miser of Eweli had been grahteo to Edwin Burgess of Gray's Inn Road, w. C.'
 No fewer than twenty seven claimants to the property have put in an appearance The board decided to retain ES6 to defray tne cost of the old mans maintenance ana Iu- neral and the expense of searching and guard. ing his house.. and to hand over the rest or his property to MT. Burgess today.
 An extraordinary story of the search for Batchelors hidden property is told by ar' Pearman assistant to the clerk 10 a,ssa sne suas dians, under whose direction the ih'esusa-
 The exterior of the old miser's house which stands at the foot of Beggars Mili, Ime,. Ise,, ing, with the sordd romance wnicn was sIi- actsd within. It is a diapidated wooaen structure. with all the windows boarded up. and a great pile of old timber rotting by it's side.
 bedrooms a kitchen. and a scullery. while al tached to it are some old sheds. It Is enter ed by a side door, reached by narrow path
 When the searchers entered the cottage on Dec. i3 they found the kitchen floor strewn with singular assortment of ola nails. pots kettles carpenters tools. and other articles. There was not a clear space of six inches to be anywhere.
 The sitting room doorway piled up to within a few inches of the ceiling with old laths taken from some houses belonging to MT Batchelor. which had been pulled down.
  a grandfather's clock. two tables. side board. and four cupboards. In recesses under the stairs several little s drawers ns had been Pearman. e about { 50 was found under tn. s's the drawers sOoa of the table and sideboard
 After we thought we had ransacked the kitchen of all cash we adjourned up stairs to found bag containing about ESQ in the top right-hand drawer of one of the two chests of drawers which that room eon.ained. we Me containing deeds, etc., and in another or the drawers i9 silver spoons and two pairs ot sugar tongs. Just before leaving for the night we found another tin box in the front bedroom containing deeds etc.
 ''The next day we made a start on the front bedroom. In an old hat box with no lid to it I came across Postoffce savings bank book. with fI2o es. Sd. to Batchelor's credit In an old wooden box there were three bags of gold, which we found to contain one s545 !os;, !en, another fsss los' and the third about
 Tn another box by the side of the bed we found compound Bank of England note a one-popnd Bank of Dorking note about nine ty years old. a bank token for 3s.. William gold quite bright, dated 1860 and 1870;
 We also found in several other old boxes dry articles of jewelry such as bangles bracelets, mum chains. etc a,t, l.. bronze, a burned halfcrown. half f-farthing. three silver spoons. a gold pin. and twenty sundry articles of jewelry, such as jet nrace-
 A search was made the next day through the deed boxes. which had been deposited With an Epsom bank No will was found, but the boxes contained 10 in gold. 6s: in silver. two Charles II. crown pieces one Charles IL six pence, a Queen Anne shilling, an Elizabeth shilling, George II. six-pence. William III six-pence. a William II. fourpenny bit. a. small Elizabeth coin tbent. half-farthing. and some other old coins.
 On Jan. 1 the guardians gave further in- structions for thorough search to be made of the whole of the premises and garden. We moved everything in the front bed room," Mir. Pearman states, tested the walls and took up floor boards and after about two small bag of gold containing f6 los. and a Georgian sovereign in small drawer at tached to what we thought before was only On moving the mattresses we found splen- did lady's gold watch gold chain with locket and spade guinea in splendid condition at- tached twenty-one silver spoons. and four
 After lunch we found a black box under the bed. which was locked. When 1t was opened we found inside a tin box like cocoa persuasion the lid came off. and out tumbied some silver and goid-fe5 in gold and 32 i3s in silver: and were not long in getting on the scent of more gold. In one drawer we found flour bag containing R2l os in gold. and in an- other 2s. Sd. and four penny piece, five or ceipts. We also found, as we thought. another big haul but after we had undone about Seven sealed up, we found Sd. in half-pence, and in another similar packet 6d. in bronze"
 For two more days the absorbing hunt went on. but nothing further of any value was found. The searchefs, however, came across a number of old recepted bills, one of which, dated nearly 50 years ago. was for 2lsd