The Sun. — 1808-08-12 (London, England)

CIVIL SIDE.  THE KING V. WATSON.  Mr. Serjeant ONSLOW stated, that this was a pro-. secution against the Defendant for sending a challenge to Alexander Stuart, Esq. a Gentlenian of high rank, who had served in the army, was a relative of Lord Bute, and nearly allied to the gallant General of that,narite, who had gathered so much honour on the plains of Maida. After' the Learned Serjeant. had dwelt with great force on the destruCtive consequences and.the miseries introduced in families by the praCtice_of duelling, and represented the present .as a most aggravated case, he called his w.itnesses, when it turned out to be a parish squabble. Mr. Watson and his party of friends, at a Vestry Meet= ing for the garish of Greenwich, proposed, a.poor's rate of 6s. Bd. in the pound. Mr. Stuart and his friends proposed one of ss. 4d. Mr. Watson was a carpenter and builder, and accused Mr. Stuart of preventing the tradesmen from having their bills paid. Mr. Stuart replied- that they were &veil paid, and added, that some of them could build new houes at the parish expence. Mr. W. considered this as a reflthion upon him, as he had just built a new house; upon which he called Mr. S, a Frenchifee/ sou of a •-, shook his fist in his face, and said he would not strike hitn in the church, but be would waitfor-him at the door, and then ic he would cut leis head off."  Mr. GURNEY; for the Defendant, treated the whole with ridicule, arid thought it too coutemptible to be brought into a Court of Justice.  The Jury found the Defendant guilty of an assaul, and the Court fined him  On ruesdav the ,annual -Boat-race of Deptford took place ; when six young watermen of that town exerted themselves With great skill and dexterity, for aquatic pre-eminence; and after three well-contested heats, which lasted till a late hour in the evening, the prize, a very handsome wherry, was adjudged to a young man of the name of Brown, amid the noisy acclarnationS of the surrounding multitude. The vialor was then towed backward and for Ward, in the front of the town, and was .escorted froni . „ thence to a tavern-, where the remainder of the evening was spent in mirth and jollity. There are now growing within 300 yards of the old Gothic ruins.Of •Fountains' Abbey, three miles from Rippon,, in:Yterskshire, seven very large yew trees, generally called the Seven Sisters, whose ex,a6t- ages cannot be accurately learnt, though it has been handed • down' from father to son t hat •these seven yews were standing in the year 1088. And it is said, that when the Great Fountains' Abbey was building, the masons used ,to • work their stones, during the hot summers, under the shade of these trees. This stupendous ancient building is 790 feet long, and was finished in 1283. The circumference of the Seven Sisters, when measured by a curious traveller, were of the following sizes:---"Tie smallest tree, • round its body, five yards twelve inches; four others are from five yards and a half-to seven yards and a half ; the sixth is nine yards and a half ; and, the seventh is eleven yards and ninettn inches in circumference, being two yards and tt.n inches larger than the great yew-tree now growing in the Church-yard at Grashird, in North Wales, which is nine yards nine inches. These trees are the largest and oldest growing in the British dominions.  A Morning Paper states, that Sir J. PIERS, who has been so long an exile from Ireland, in consequence of the verdid against him for seducing Lady CLONCURRY, has committed suicide in the I,le of Man, which has been some time the place of his retreat. The cause of this unfortunate man's catastrophe is of a most melancholy nature. He had debauched, the daughter of a respetlable clergyman, who, on discovering his disgrace, instantly shot himself; and it.Wa;"upon hearing of this that Sir J. PIERS put an eridlo big existence by shooting himself throagh the head. The Unhappy female is in a state ofdistradion that threatens her life.