from The Ladies’ Monthly Museum, Volume 21
Domestic News
The high winds, at the close of last month, were productive of the most disastrous consequences at home. At Deal, Brighton, Shoreham, Seaford, Southampton, Weymouth, Lyme, Plymouth, and other places on the southern coast, much damage has been done, both by sea and land. At Dorchester, houses were unroofed and chimneys blown down, by the fury of the gale. The Rev. H. J. Richman and his wife were killed, in bed, by the fall of a stack of chimneys. On the road between Salisbury and Weymouth, the Regulator Exeter coach was. twice overset, by the force of the wind. In various parts of the country, the effects of the storm have been, more or less, felt. It extended to Wales and Scotland. At Landrillo bay, a vessel was wrecked, and two of the crew drowned.
The execution of Mr. Fauntleroy took place on the day appointed, the 30th alt., when a vast concourse of people assembled in the street and houses of the Old Bailey, to view his exit. Measures had been adopted to obviate the danger, which the pressure of such a crowd might have occasioned; and, fortunately, no accident of consequence happened. The unhappy gentleman behaved with that decency and propriety which has characterized his conduct, ever since his apprehension for the offence for which he suffered. It is remarkable, that a person in a similar rank of life with Mr. Fauntleroy, has, since his execution, been taken into custody, on a charge of forgery. This person is a Mr. Savery, son of a banker at Bristol, and himself carrying on business in that city, as a sugar-baker, in partnership with another gentleman. The crime imputed to him is, forging bills with fictitious addresses; by means of which he had, for some time past, been raising money, to a large amount. Alarmed at the fate of Mr. Fauntleroy, he attempted to make his escape to America; but being followed by his partner, he was taken at Cowes, on board the vessel in which he had engaged a passage.
A man named Ledbitter, landlord of the Dolphin Tavern, Ludgate Hill, was tried on the 4th inst. at the Old Bailey, on the charge of taking a reward for the returning of stolen property. The culprit, on the present occasion, was found guilty; but recommended, by the jury, to mercy, on the score of his previous good character.
A girl of 18, living in service;, near Hungerford, jumped into a well, fifty yards deep, in a fit of temporary insanity, arising from the dread of punishment for some domestic offence.
A young lady was killed at Knightsbridge, by a fall from a one-horse chaise, owing to the horse taking fright.
Mrs. Fermon, a very aged lady, residing in Gravel-lane, being left alone reading by the fire-side, was soon after found enveloped in flames. She was taken to Guy’s Hospital, where she expired in a few hours.
An action has been brought by Miss Wharton, of Warborough, in Oxfordshire, against Mr. Lewis, a Lieutenant in the East India Company’s service, for a breach of promise of marriage. The plaintiff obtained a verdict, with damages.
On the 21st occurred the interesting trial between Miss Maria Foote and Joseph Hayne, esq. on a prosecution against the latter for a breach of a matrimonial engagement. The damages were laid at ,£10,000; but the Jury gave the lady, with their verdict in her favour, the sum of £3000, as a compensation for her disappointment.
Epitome of Public Affairs, for December 1824.
Few occurrences have been announced during the past month which are likely to have any important influence on the state of affairs, either at home or abroad
The city of Petersburg has been visited by a terrible calamity. On the 19th alt. in consequence of a westerly wind, the waves of the Baltic, forced back into the channel of the river Neva, on the banks of which the place is built, and laid it almost entirely under water, At two o’clock the current flowed to the height of six or seven feet above the pavements, in every part of the city, which stands almost on one level. A multitude of houses, sentry-boxes, &c. were swept away, and more than 8000 persons are said to have perished: more recent accounts state the number of lives lost to have been 3,000. The violence of the torrent washed the corpses out of the graves. At Cronstadt, the port of Petersburgh, a ship of 100 guns was floated into the great square, where it remained when the water subsided; and two steam-boats were lying in the middle of the town. The wind, changing after two o’clock, the water rapidly subsided, and by the evening the river had retreated within its banks. The loss of property which has occurred, is immense; and the destruction of provisions has been such as to cause apprehensions of famine. The Exchange has been fitted up to receive some of the houseless sufferers.
