Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

38

The Unfortunate Miflrefs.

that he was not altogether fo unconcerned as the appeared to be. But hitherto, the whole remains myfterious and unravelled.

About ten o'clock at night, they fent over the way to Richard Fowler, to defire he would come and ftay with them. He came and continued till one in the morning, and was fo terrified that he could remain no longer.

As Mrs. Golding could not be perfuaded to go to bed, Mrs. Pain at that time (one o'clock) made an excufe to go up stairs to her youngeft child, under pretence of getting it to fleep, but fhe really acknowledges it was through fear, as the declares fhe could not fit up to fee fuch flrange doings going on, as every thing, one after, was broke, till there was not above two or three cups and faucers remaining out of a confiderable quantity of china, &c. which was deftroyed to the amount of fome pounds. About five o'clock on Tuesday morning, Mrs. Golding went up to her niece, and defired her to get up, as the noifes and deftruction were fo great fhe could continue in the houfe no longer. At this time all the tables, chairs, drawers, &c. were tumbling about. When Mrs. Pain came down, it was amazing beyond all defeription! their only fecurity then was to quit the houfe for fear of the fame catastrophe, as had been expected the morning before, at Mrs. Golding's: in confequence of this refolution, Mrs. Golding and her maid went over the way to Richard Fowler's: when Mrs. Golding's maid had feen her fafe to Richard Fowler's, fhe came back to Mrs. Pain, to help her to dreis the children in the Larn, where he had carried them for fear of the houfe falling. At this ime all was quict; they then went to Fowler's, and then began the fame fcene as had happened at the other places. It muit be remarked, all was quiet here as well as elfewhere, till the maid returned.

When they got to Mr. Fowler's, he began to light a fire in his back room. When done, he put the candle and candeftick upon a table in the fore room.

This apartment Mrs. Golding and her, maid had paffed through. Another candleftick with a tin lamp in it that stood by it, were both daihed together, and fell to the ground. A lanthorn with which Mrs. Golding was lighted with cross the road, fprung from a hook to the ground, and a quantity of oil fpilled on the floor. The basket of coals laftly, tumbled over, and rolled about the room. The maid then defined Richard Fowler not to let her miftrefs remain there, as fhe fad, wherever he was, the fame things would follow. In confequence of this advice, and fearing greater loffes to himself, he defired fhe would quit his houfe; bur first begged her to confider within herself, for her own and the public's fake, whether or not fhe had not been guilty of fome atrocious crime, for which Providence was determined to purtite her on this fide of the grave, for he could not help thinking, fhe was the object that was to be made an example to pofterity, by the all feeing eye of Providence, for crimes which but too often none but that Providence can penetrate, and by fuch means as thefe bring to light.

Thus was this poor gentlewoman's meature of affliction complete, not only to have undergone all which has been related, but to have added to it the character of a bad and wicked woman,when till this time, fhe was elteemed as a moft deferving perfon. In candourto Fowler, he could not be blamed; what could he do? what would any man have done that was fo circumftanced? Mrs. Golding foon fatisfied him; fhe told him the would not flay in his houfe, or in any other perfon's, as her confcience was quite clear, and fhe could as well wait the will of Providence in her own house as in any other place whatever; upon which the and her maid went home, Mr. Pain went with them. After they had got to Mrs. Golding's the laft time, the fame tranfactions once more began upon the remains that were left.

A nine gallon cafk of beer, that was in the cellar, the door being open, and no perion near it, turned upfide down.

A pail

Natural Curiofity.

A pail of water that stood on the floor, boiled like a pot.

A box of candles fell from a fhelf in the kitchen to the floor, they rolled out, but none were broke.

A round mahogany table overfet in the parlour.

Mr. Pain then defired Mrs. Golding to fend her maid for his wife to come to them; when she was gone all was quiet; upon her return fhe was immediately difcharged, and no difturbances have happened fince; this was between fix and feven o'clock on Tuesday morning.

At Mrs. Golding's were broke the quantity of three pails full of glais, china, &c.

At Mrs. Pain's they filled two pails. Thus ends the narrative; a true, circumftantial, and faithful account of which I have laid before the public; for fo doing, I hope to efcape its cenfure; I have neither exaggerated or diminished one circumftance to my knowledge; and have endeavoured as much as poffible, throughout the whole, to ftate only the facts, without prefuming to obtrude my opinion on them. If I have in part hinted any thing that may appear unfavourable to the girl, it proceeded not from a determination to charge her with the caufe, right or wrong, but only from a ftrict adherence to truth, moit fincerely withing this extraordinary affair may be unravelled.

The above narrative, is abfolutely and ftri&ly true, in witnefs whereof we have fet our hands this eleventh day of January 1772.

MARY GOLDING.
MARY PAIN.
JOHN PAIN.
RICHARD FOWLER.
SARAH FOWLER.
MARY MARTIN.

39

[blocks in formation]

MR. Andrew Cnoffelius, one of the phyficians at the court of Poland, relates that, having been at Thorn, a famous lapidary there fhewed him, among other curiofities, a ftone called by fome the Mineral Polypeis, about the fize of a large pea, and of an afh-colour. What is wonderful in this ftone is, that though opaque, and having no tranfparent part, after being laid in water, it began in less than fix minutes to appear fhining at the edges, and to communicate to the water a fort of luminous fhadow, and of the colour of yellow amber. It afterwards paffed from yellow to the colour of an amethylt, and from thence fucceffively to black, white, and cloudy colours, and, as it were, furrounded with fmoke; and at laft appeared quite brilliant, entirely tranfparent, and of very beautiful yellow amber colour. Taken out of the water, it returned to its former opaque state, after being coloured fucceffively, and in a retrogade order, with the fame dyes it had before affumed in the water. Doctor adds, that this ftone is natural, and not a production of art; and that it alfo may be regarded as a proof of the existence of a formal light in nature.

The

DOMESTIC NEW S.

AUGUST 1.

THE following are the meafure and particulars of a large oak, fallen the laft month in the park of Sir John Roushout,

Bart. At Northwick, near Blockley, Worcestershire, judged to be about 300 years old, which is perfectly found, and is very fine tinber: girt at five feet from

the

[blocks in formation]

the ground 21 feet; fmalleft girt 18; length of the branches 30; folid contents of the body 634; eftimated timber in the arms 200; total 834 feet. Suppofed to be worth at least 2s. per foot, is 831. 8s. Fire-wood eftimated at 61. 6s. Bark fold for 51. 5s. Total value 941. 195.

There is now living at Carlisle, a Mr. Jofeph Strong, a diaper weaver, who, though stone blind, has not only worked at that bufinefs for feveral years, but made almost every article of his houfehold furniture. An ong feveral other pieces of machinery, he has the model of a loom with a man working in it, and two women "boxing for the webb."Mr. Strong having many years ago a paffion for mufic, found means to unlock the doors of the cathedral one night, and was trying the tone and ftops of the organ, when the noife it occafioned, fo much alarmed the people in the neighbourhood, and the circumftance of the organift's dying a fhort time before, had fuch a weight upon vulgar apprehenfions that it was fome time before any perfon could be found of refolution enough to enter the hallowed pile at the tremendous hour of midnight; but being effected, the event may be conjectured; Mr. Strong was the next day taken before the dean, who cenfured his ill-timed curiofity, but gave him leave to vifit the organ at pleasure: this he fo well improv. ed, that he fhortly after made an organ which was fold to a gentleman in the Ifle of Man. Mr. Strong is alfo confidered as one of the best guides in the country! He was in his youth overtaken upon a common by a perfon who had loft himfelf, and not knowing Mr. Strong, afked him the way to a village near at hand. Mr. Strong undertook to conduct him, when it appeared they were going to the fame house,and that the traveller was paying his addreffes to the fame lady, who was then the object of Mr. Strong's journey, and whom he afterwards mar

ried.

A melancholy accident lately happened at Dunbar. As five men were

employed in digging the ftone quarry, a little eastward of Dunbar, a part of the earth gave way, and carried two of them backward into the quarry, a height of about 60 feet, and the earth and ftones falling above them, they were mangled in a fhocking manner. One of them, a young man twenty-f -fix years of age, who had his skull feverely fractured, died in an hour after; the other fill continues in a very bad way.

Upon the estate of W. Ewing Maclae, Efq. of Catkin, about five miles fouth of Glagow, in clearing away a heap of ftones, the workmen have difcovered about fifty urns, filled with human bones. This heap, containing many hundred carts of tones gathered from off the land, muft have been the work of a great army, and may be supposed to have lain there fince the Romans were in the country, whofe cuftom it was to burn their dead, and depofite their ashes in urns.

3. The wife of a labouring man, at Wendon, near Saffron Walden, in Effex, was brought to bed of three fine children, and all likely to live. The Hon. Piercy Windham has fent the family a guinea, and many are daily going to fee them, who all leave fomething. So let the weather come how it will, the poor man is likely to make a good harveft of it.

12. This day a moft horrid murder was committed by George Dingler, a porkman, who kept a fhop in StruttonGround, Weftminster, on the body of his wife, who had lived from him for fome time paft. On a promife of better treatment, he allured her back again; but, before she had been many minutes in the fhop, his countenance betrayed figns of rage; and with a knife he ftabbed, and otherwife ill-treated her, so that the furvived only a few days.

17. This day, in St. James's Park, James Sutherland Efq. Judge Advocate at Minorca during the laft war, fhot himfelf, as the King was paffing by in his carriage. Deranged circumftances occafioned the fatal deed.

[ocr errors]

CORRESPONDENTS, &c.

It is the earnest request of the Proprietors of this Magazine that all communications addreffed to the Editors be poft paid, otherwife they cannot be received; and fent before the twenty-firft of the month.

Arcturus, will find his objections removed in the prefent number: a Preface and Introduction will fill up the hiatus he mentions in the pageing, and will be given gratis in a Supplement at the end of the year.

Poetry not being originally included in the profpectus of our plan, we have not yet refolved upon the admiffion of verfes; however we thank M. O. for his propofed affiftance.

The Queries, figned MASTRAD, being purely historical, cannot be inferted, as every boy knows how to anfwer fuch questions.

W. S. must be very fhallow to imagine we can want his affistance to copy from fuch old books as he mentions, and at the moderate rate he requires. Our departments are full; and we truft a generous public will fupply fuch materials as are really curious, and worth inferting. We are forry I. H. B. is fo very angry with us, but he seems more willing to destroy the opinion he to feverely reprehends, than able to confute it.

T. W-n will find more than even his wifhes realized in the prefent number.

The Life of Sir George Ripley, Simon Forman the Aftrologer, and Thomas Vaughan the Myftic, will find place in our next.

S. C. miftakes our motives. He ought to confider, that the authenticity of circumftances may be queftioned without any impeachment of the relator's opinion thereupon, who is fuppofed to relate only what he has been informed.

We truft, with confidence, that this work will rife to a degree of eminence, not generally augured by thofe, who viewed its modeft -commencement. To bring MIND within the circle of Science-to refcue those, who have been excluded the fountain and refervoir of all fcience, from drinking of his own ftream, and who have expelled from even a feat among them, him, who ought to have filled their throne from the confequences of their own delirium of the mere phyfics -will be the object and shall be the attainment of the felect part of this Publication. For the reit-we fhall be happy to amufe-and in allto inflruct and animate.

In our next Number, we fhall prefent the Public with a gene ral effay on Magic; from the Correfpondent who uses the figna. ture of B.

The decifion of the refpective merits of the anfwers to the Queries, are poftponed to the next month, on account of the distance of fome of our Correfpondents from the capital.

« PredošláPokračovať »