Blandford, Wimborne and Poole Telegram. — 1877-10-05 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

SCENE OUTSIDE THE COURT. Throughout the whole day several hundreds of people thronged the narrow thoroughfare of the Old Bailey, and clustered thickly around the principal entrance to the Court House. About nine o'clock, when the uproar wits at the height, two or three of the superior officers of the Sheriff's staff made their appearance in the crowd and presumably gave directions to the police to keep down the turmoil as far as possible. Before this time it had become necessary to shut the great doors ordinarily open during the sessions, and to post two or more of the most massive of the is dice to resist all attempts to gain admission. A aide door leading into Nervgate yard was at the service of privileged people, amongst whom, even up to 11 o'clock at night, ladies were seen struggling through the throng to make their way into the court. Although the great majority of those assembled were regular street loungers, or runners engaged it might be to carry the intelligence of the verdict to various parts of London, there was not wanting a considerable admixture of more respectable people, anxious to learn at once the result of this all-engrossing case. Soon after ten it was known that the jury had retired to consider their verdict, and it was rather surprising that in the interval of more than an hour before their return no erroneous rumours were started to mislead the crowd. People returning in cabs from places of amusement to their homes in the east found their vehicles jammed in the crowd. Omnibus drivers, despairing of keeping their time, did not scruple to declare that there would he another range murder, meaning, it is ti be presumed, the crushing as by the car of Juggernaut of bystanders who blocked their passage. Pressure on the big and side doors of entrance and exit to  Mid from the interior now amounted to something very serious, and threatened to lead to a collision between the truncheons of the police and the heads most prominently and temptingly available for operations. Good temper on both sides averted actual hostilities. Messengers emerging from the Courthouse were surrounded and mobbed, and could scarce make their way through the crush, though as yet they had nought to tell. When at length the doors were thrown open, and the persons who had been in court could be seen through the windows pouring down the staircase and emerging into the street, the crowd round the doorway grew denser and the excitement became augmented to an extraordinary extent. As soon as the first person appeared from the court he was besieged by dozens of eager inquirers as to the nature of the verdict and sentence, and the brief narratives delivered by the actual spectators of the scene in the court were speedily retailed from mouth to mouth by those outside. Universal satisfaction was expressed at the sentence, and it manifested itself in clapping of hands and cheering as soon as it was made known. It was a matter of a few minutes, however, to diminish the numbers of the crowd who had been blocking up the street during the time the verdict was awaited; and by dint of the txertions of the large body of police who were on the ground the street was cleared in about half-an-hour after the Court closed. A London correspondent says am not expressing my own opinion, but the opinion of those in court, when I say that the verdict created great surprise. Up till the last moment the prevailing impression was that manslaughter and not murder would have been the verdict, especially in the case of the women. The announcement of the verdict created great excitement in the city. At midnight the evening papers brought out an edition giving the result, a proceeding quite unprecedented. The papers had an enormous sale, and there was great cotutnotion in Fleet-street and the Strand. Long after midnight crowds assembled in the thoroughfares discussing the verdict, and seldom has such a stir been seen in the metropolis at so late an hour.