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hand had been thrust into it. He brought it down to Mrs. Vermilye, who instantly sent for Hope and another of the Shadwell Police Officers, to make farther search in the house. Every apartment then underwent the most rigid examination for about an hour and a half, when the Officers came at last to a small closet, where they discovered the object of their pursuit. In one corner of the closet there was a heap of dirty || stockings and other clothes, which being removed, they observed a bit of wood protruding from a mouse-hole in the wall, which they immediately drew out, and at the same instant they discovered the handle of a clasp-knife, apparently dyed with blood; which upon being brought forth, proved to be the identical French knife seen in Williams's possession before the murder: the handle and blade of which were smeared all over with blood.

DARING OUTRAGE.-On Thursday evening, Jan. 16, about half past seven o'clock, a stout man knocked at the door of Mr. Sydney's house, in Percy-street, Tottenham-court-road. The servant and Mr. Sydney being from home, the door was opened by a lady who resides there, and who was alone in the house; when a ruffian rushed in, and instantly shutting the door, dragged the lady into the back-parlour, and presented a pistol or a large knife at her head; but her terror was so great she could not tell which; and he, with imprecations and threats demanded to know where the money or valuable articles were. The Lady, in great agitation, intreated him to spare her life, and take what property he chose. On the assurance that he was not to be interrupted in carrying off the property, he proceeded to pack up the most valuable. On his going to the opposite side of the room to where the lady was, and stooping down to get at a trunk which was under a table, the lady took advantage of his position, ran to the street-door, threw it open, screamed, and gave an alarm of thieves, which brought several persons to her. The robber, of course, knew there was no chance of his escaping by the street, ran up stairs to the front garret, and forcing down an iron bar from the window, got out on the roof of the house. A person was sent to Marlborough-street Office, and Craig and Marsden, two of the Officers, immediately came to the spot, and with lighted flambeaus searched on the tops of several houses, from the top to the bottom of the street, making striet search, bnt could not find the man.

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DARING ATTEMPT AT MURDER. On Sunday evening, Jan. 12, the shop of Mr. Pryor, a respectable boot-maker, residing at No. 71, Highstreet, Borough, Southwark, was entered by twe desperate villains, though by what means is not yet discovered, but certainly with an intent to rob the premises. While employed in packing up several pair of boots in a large skin of leather which they found in the shop, the servant went down stairs to empty a vessel in the cellar; on her way thither, though she passed through the shop, she did not observe any person, but on her return she perceived two men, one of them packing up boots, and the other coming as from the back part of the premises, to whom she said, "What are you going to take boots away tonight? it is Sunday!" thinking they were some of her master's journeymen. At this instant one of the villains made up to her, and threatened her, that if she uttered a word he would instantly murder her. On looking round, she discovered the other to have a black crape over his face, which so alarmed her that she screamed out, "murder! murder!" several times, and ran towards the shop-door, which was then open, and which in her fright she shut, and thereby ens closed herself with these monsters. She continued to scream, though one of them had levelled a blow at her head which knocked her down. On her rising, and not ceasing to call out “murder! thieves!" &c. one of the wretches seized her by her hair, and with a sharp instrument, cut her throat right across the wind-pipe. She then fell to the ground, and remembered no farther of what passed. The screams of the girl had by this time alarmed the family up stairs, which consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Pryor, and three young men, lodgers. Mrs. Pryor then went down stairs, and on her reaching the bottom, actually fell over her wounded servant, as she lay senseless on the floor. The terror of Mrs. Pryor may be better conceived than described. Notwithstanding her fright, however, she got up stairs; but it was not a matter easy to determine in the minds of those above, who should venture down to attack, what they supposed a banditti of murderers. Mr. Pryor and his lodgers at last went down, and found the servant as we have before described, the shop-door being wide open; and, we are sorry to say, that the perpetrators of this horrid crime escaped, leaving behind them the skin of leather, tied up, full of new boots and shoes. Medical aid was instantly sent for, and the wound on the

neck was pronounced not mortal. What adds to the daring atrocity of this act is, that it was committed so early as between eight and nine o'clock; and the premises of Mr. Pryor are as public as any situation can be, being situate

in the High-street of Southwark, not many yards from the Town-hall, which is as great a thoroughfare as the Strand or Fleet-street. The Magistrates at Union-Hall are making every exertion to discover these desperadoes.

PROVINCIALS,

INCLUDING REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES, &c. IN THE SEVERAL COUNTIES OF GREAT BRITAIN.

CHESHIRE.

MURDERS.-A letter from Congleton, gives the following account of two horrid murders near that place :-Six miscreants called at a farmhouse one evening lately, and requested refreshment, as they were benighted, and also to be furnished with beds, &c. which they would pay for. Their appearance was respectable, and the farmer's wife, in the absence of her husband, offered them accommodation in a warm barn, which was accepted. The mistress sent the servant maid with blankets into the baru; soon after which she heard her groans, and alarmed for her own safety, she concealed herself under a large tub in the house, leaving an infant sleeping in a cradle. The assassins returned to the house, and lamented that the woman had escaped, when they immediately cut the throat of the child. The mistress of the house heard the assassins say, that they would meet at a certain public-house at a certain hour, and there the husband, on his return home, departed for, and secured them. The servant was found murdered in the barn.

HAMPSHIRE.

LIEUT. HAMILTON CROFTON.-At the Ports

mouth Sessions, a true bill was found against Mr. Hamilton Crofton, for purloining sundry articles of value from Mr. Bradbury, and some gentlemen at the Inns in Portsmouth. Mr. C. was accordingly put upon his trial; but, on the prosecutor being called, nobody appeared in sup port of the indictment, and he was consequently acquitted.

CRUELTY. A shocking outrage has been lately committed at Alton.-A young woman, who had been with two children to school, was returning with some liquor for the family with which she lived servant, when a gang of gipsies, known in that country by the name of the Stanleys, stopped her. A female belonging to the gang first stripped all the clothes off her back, and left her exposed to the inclemency of the weather. The poor girl in that situation begged hard for some part of her dress to cover her nakedness, but instead of com

pliance with her request, she received from the brutal miscreants several severe wounds in different parts of the body. One of the wretches threatened to cut off her breast, and actually inflicted a deep wound for that purpose. After remaining there in a most shocking state a considerable time, she was discovered by several servants belonging to a farmer, and by them conveyed to her abode in the vicinity of Alton.

KENT.

ATTEMPT TO ROB.-An attempt to rob, accompanied with circumstances of ferocity, lately occurred on the Sturry-road, near CanterburySoon after seven o'clock in the evening, as Mr. Smithett Spain, an elderly and respectable yeoman of Hearne, was on his return towards his home on horseback, he came up with two men habited as soldiers, near the end of Meadowpasture-lane, about forty roods from Vauxhallturnpike; they were divided on each side the road; and the one on his right, without any pre vious demand to stop, or if such was made it was unheard by Mr. Spain, who is somewhat deaf, immediately on his passing fired at right side. The flash and report startled the him with a pistol, which wounded him on the horse, and it sprang forward and threw Mr. Spain on its neck, who in the impulse dropped his hat and wig, but the horse continued his speed till it reached Sturry, where Mr. Spain having borrowed a hat, he proceeded to his home, and surgical assistance being obtained, on examining his wound, it appeared that a ball had entered between the right side and the back, just under the shoulder-bone, and traversed the ribs obliquely under the arm, and lodged in the right breast, where it was perceptible, and from whence it was soon after extracted; and although he had since suffered much from the operation of prob ing the wound, in order to discover the parts of the wadding and clothes that had been driven into it, he was not in any immmediate danger. Information was communicated to the different

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knew no further. Upon this, strict search was made after Head, in consequence of the information given by the female above-mentioned, reș specting the affair, and he was found there by the constables. When in custody, he was told that Thrower had made a confession-Head immediately said, "what, have you been to Swaffham to fetch him?"-Upon their answering in the affirmative, he added-" then I will confess the whole." Thrower was soon after apprehended. Soon afterwards William Smith, who has travelled the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk for more than twenty years as a tinker, with his wife, who tells fortunes, was apprehended at Bacton, by Mr. Everett and his two sons, of Caister, near Yarmouth. Edmund Thrower and John Head, are committed to Ipswich jail by J. Kerrich, Esq. Carter, who employed the murderers, has been dead some years. We understand that it was Carter's widow, who is now dangerously ill, that first imparted the circumstances of this horrid deed, which was committed in 1793.

MURDERS DISCOVERED About eighteen years ago, a Mr. Carter, shopkeeper, of Cratfield, and his daughter, were murdered there, by some persons then unknown. A discovery has lately been made by a female (who laid at the point of death), to the Rev. Archdeacon Oldershaw. It appears that the son of Mr. Carter employed three men to committ the bloody decd, at the price of ten pounds each. They met on Shotover heath, near Harleston, to concert the diabolical plan. The son met them the night after, and paid twenty pounds to the two persons who perpetrated the act; the other, (a man of the name of Head), an accessary, has also confessed and made a complete disclosure. One Thrower, who resided at Wortwell, near Harleston, has been apprehended. It appears, by the confession of Head, that about the time of the murder he returned from transportation, and met Thrower, and a person called Black William, alias Smith, a travelling tinker or gipsy, who requested his (Head's) company to join them to commit the murder. Head went with these, and saw Gipsy Will kill Mr. Carter with an axe, and Thrower murder the girl with a hammer, which was afterwards thrown into the river at Bournebridge. Head has lived at Carbrooke, near Wilton, ever since, and some money being left to him, his wife, who lives near Harleston, applied to receive it, and was told she could not, unless she could prove her husband's death. She said, she had heard he had lived at Carbrooke, but "several children.

SCOTLAND.

DIED. On the 11th instant, at Dalkeith Palace, his Grace, Henry Scott, Duke of Bucleugh and Queensberry, Marquis of Dumfries, Earl of Dalkeith, Sanquhar and Drumlaurig, Viscount Nith, Torthowald and Ross, Lord Scott of Eshdale, Dourcas of Kinmount, Middlebie, and Dornock. Also Earl of Doncaster and Lord Tyndale in England; Knight of the Garter, Lord Lieutenant of the counties of Edinburgh and Roxburghshire, Governor of the Royal Bank of Scotland, &c.—His Grace was born in 1746, and succeeded his grandfather in 1752. He was the only son of Francis Earl of Dalkeith, by Lady Caroline Campbell eldest daughter of John, the Great Duke of Argyle. In 1767, his Grace married Elizabeth Montagu, by whom he has issue Charles William, now Duke of Buccleugh and Queensberry, and Henry James, Lord Montagu, and four daughters, viz. the Countess of Cour town, Countess of Home, Marchioness of Queensberry, and Countess of Ancram; all of whom have families. His Grace is succeeded in his titles and estates by his eldest son Charles William, Earl of Dalkeith, who married Harriet, daughter of the late Viscount Sidney, who has

London: Printed by and for J. BELL, sole Proprietor of this MAGAZINE, and Proprietor of the WEEKLY MESSENGER, Southampton-street, Strand. February 1, 1812.

BEING

Bell's

COURT AND FASHIONABLE

MAGAZINE,

FOR FEBRUARY, 1812.

A New and Improved Series,

EMBELLISHMENTS...

1. Au ORIGINAL PORTRAIT of MRS. SIDDONS, in the Character of the TRAGIC MUSE, from the celebrated Picture by Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS, now in the possession of WILLIAM SMITH, Esq, M. P. engraven, with his permission, by Mr. CARDON.

2 A WHOLE LENGTH PORTRAIT FIGURE, in a MORNING COSTUME.

3. A very beautiful WHOLE-LENGTH PORTRAIT FIGURE, in the Fashionable EVENING PROMENADE DRESS of the month, drawn from an Original Dress made within the month.

4. A SKETCH of the NEW THEATRE DRURY-LANE, as now erecting, compared with the large Theatre at Parma, in Italy, and with the present Theatre at Covent Garden, from the Designs of Mr. WYATT, the Architect of the New Drury-Lane Theatre.

5. An OUTLINE SKETCH of CHRIST IN THE ARMS OF THE VIRGIN MARY; by VAN DYK.

6. An OUTLINE SKETCH of CARDINAL BENTIVOGLIO; by VAN DYK.

7. “WITH ALL MY HEART I LOVE THEE," an Original SONG, written and set to Music for the Harp and Piane-forte, expressly for this Work, by Dr. KITCHENER."

8. An Original PATTERN for NEEDLE or TAMBOUR-WORK.

LITERARY CONTENTS.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ILLUS. Voyages and Travels in Sardinia, Sicily, and RIOUS AND DISTINGUISHED CHA

RACTERS.

Mrs. Siddons

Malta. By J. Galt.

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ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.
Hymenæa in search of a Husband...... 64
Letters on Mythology; translated from the
French of Demoustier ...

Zara; or the Adventures of an English Wife 69
Oakwood House; including a description
of the Lakes and adjacent country in
Westmoreland......

......

Stories of Seven Days.-Tale VII. The
Disbanded Soldier

Anecdotes of Bonaparte and the Empress
Maria Louisa; by General Sarraziu...

The Chateau of Roussillon ...............

Anecdotes collected fram the private life of

Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia. Death of Peter

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Luxuries

Population

Gaming

Time and Bells

Original Letters on the Manners, Customs, &c. of different Countries.

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OUR SUBSCRIBERS and the Public, are referred to the EMBELLISHMENTS in the preceding and present Numbers, as Specimens of the taste and finish in which they may expect the ornamental part of this Work to be executed in future. The PORTRAITS will form a new and interesting Series of Cabinet Prints, which are properly adapted for being framed and glazed, or for preservation in Portfolios, as they may be always admired as a Biographical and Portrait representation of distinguished Female characters of the present times. The COSTUMES of every Month will form a practical and highly interesting Collection of the FASHIONS of these days; the continued variations as they arise will ascertain the fluctuating state of the Fushionable World.

An Accurate Description of the NEW THEATRE DRURY-LANE, written by Mr. WYATT, the Architect, was given in No. 25, of this Magazin, to which the present Engraven Plan refers.

London:

PRINTED BY AND FOR JOHN BELL, SOLE PROPRIETOR OF THIS MAGAZINE, AND PROPRIETOR OF THE WEEKLY MESSENGER, SOUTHAMPTON-STREET, STRAND.

MARCH 1, 1812.

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