The Sun. — 1862-11-14 (London, England)

THE MURDER AT RIBCHESTER.  The shocking murder of Ann Walne, beerseller and small farmer, of Ribchester, briefly reported in our journal yesterday, was one of the most brutal tragedies that could be possibly imagined. The neighbourhood in which it occurred has lately been overrun with daring offenders, burglary and poaching being their principal crimes. Mrs. Walne—or Old Nanny," as she was generally called—lived at the Joiners' Arms, and kept four head of cattle. She had lived here 33 years, and had frees a widow for the last 18 years. She had two children, both of whom are married and live elsewhere. For some time the deceased had lived alone ; and though 80 years old, was quite active and industrious. She riot only attended to her domestic, but her business duties, with much celerity. She was a woman of saving habits, and was supposed to have accumulated a round sum of money, which it was believed she bad secreted in her house. To resume our narrative of how she was found, so imperfectly stated yesterday, we may remark that after Pye and Ward (the latter being labour master at Ribchester workhouse, and engaged by the deceased to attend her cattle night and morning) got into the house by the back window, the iron bars of which had been wrenched off, they called out, expecting' that the deceased would have answered, but eliciting no reply, they proceeded upstairs, and in her own bed found her lifeless corpse, the bedclothes thrown over her head in a heap, her head much bruised, blood oozing:from a fearful wound above the right ear, and another near the right temple, the bridge of her nose broken, her face discoloured, and her eyes much swollen and blackened, her mouth gagged with a woollen handkerchief, and her hands tied to the bed-stocks with a handkerchief. Her skull had also been fractured by a heavy instrument. Across the foot of the bed was a churn-shaft or handle, about five feet long, evidently one of the weapons used to commit the foul deed. It had a few spots of blood upon it. On a chair by the bed-side was is. so. in copper, and a purse containing three sixpences. The house had been fully ransacked, and all the valuables carried thence, even clothing. Soon after the arrival of the police authorities upon the spot, footmarks were detected near the the back window, and suspicion fell upon a farm labourer, named Thomas Davies, employed at Mr. Baurn's, a neighbouring farmer. He was arrested and placed in safe keeping, and his clogs partly corresponded with the footprints. He is a native of the Fylde, and on Monday went to the house of the deceased to ask her if she wanted a farm servant. She gave a negative answer, and it is thought he did this to ascertain whether she was living alone. He strongly denies all knowledge of  the crime. Medical gentlemen who have examined the deceased say that death has resulted from the wounds inflicted and suffocation, but that the blow on the head was sufficient to cause death. It is fully believed that the object in the first instance was robbery, but that the deceased recognising her assailant, called him by name, which made him desperate and prompted the horrible murder. Th© scene of the tragedy has been visited by a large number of persons, and the strongest feelings of commiseration have been raised in the district. The coroner's inquest will be opened on Friday before Mr. H. J. Hargreaves, coroner for the hut: , dred of Blackburn. —.Manchester Examiner.  r°Tea without colour on the leaf preporting vents the Chinese passing off inferior leaves as in the upusi kinds. iiorniman's Tea is uncoloured, therefore, dways good alike. Sold in packets by 2,280 Agents.