Such is Life.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 179, 15 April 1873, Page 7

Such is Life.

The other week we reprinted, from an exchange, the story of .Jacques Fenori, a member of the Old Guard at Waterloo, now a woodcutter at Tuapeka. And latr-r we chronicled the death of Humphries at Balclutha, who, son of a Lord Mayor of London, was earning his living as cook in a hotel. Here is a third story, saddest of all : Dr Youl held an inquest lately, in the Melbourne Hospital, on the body of James Leech, aged thirty one, a groom, and unmarried. The deceased was employed at a livery-stable in Collins-street, and slept |in the hay-loft. He was in the habit of drinking, and sometimes went to bed in the loft drunk. On the previous night, another groom, who also slept in the loft, went up to bed about half-past twelve o'clock, passed the deceased, who was sober,'and made some remark. About six in the morning, the deceased was found, insensible, lying on the ground, as if he had fallen through the opening in the loft for putting in hay. " Angles," in the Australasian, says, with regard to the above : —" A common-place story enough ! Yet that man had been the gay companion of the Duke of Beaufort and the Marquis of Hastings, and could trace his descent back to the time of William the Conqueror. Thus gossiped of him an old friend, as we walked together to the railway station:—'Yes, sir, I knew the family well. Came from the same part of I Cheshire as myself. His right name was Leche. The Leches are lords of the manor, covering five parishes, near Tation ParkSir Philip Kgerton's place. His father had in old time two packs of hounds, fifty hunters in his stables, and mounted fifteen grooms in livery, end kept open house. A very old family, sir. There have been sixteen John Hurlstone Leches in direct succession (a few Williams, perhaps). They bear three crowns on their coat-of-arms, having entertained a of France, a king of England, and a king of Scotland. This was not the eldest, but lie had a good fortune when he came of age, and ran I through it quick. The late Marquis of Westminster was his guardian. I had a letter from his mother inquiring about him a mail or two ago.'—But his blue blood couldn't save him from dying a dog's death in a Melbourne stable-yard. A sad story!"