MISCELLANEOUS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 539, 16 August 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The following extraordinary verdict was returned by a Norfolk jury at an inquest on the body of a lad, who hanged himself through jealousy the deceased hanged hiniseit by wjjy of experiment to frighten the girl, aud'iiot with any intention of making off with himself.” It may interest ‘readers of the late Ticlijiome trial to know that' the longest ‘ lawsuit on record in Engird is one which existed between the heirs of .‘ir Thomas Talbot, Viscount Lisle, on the one part, and the heirs of Lord Berkley on'the other, respecting certain possessions not far from Wotton-uuder-Edge, in the county o' Gloucester. ’lt commenced at the eud of the reign of Edward TV., and .was depending till the reign of Henry 1., when a compromise took place, it having lasted above 120 years. Two persons travelling in a waggonette were smoking cigars, from the fire of which some straw at the bottom ignited. The flames soon drove them from their seats ; and, while they were busy in extinguishing the fire, a countryman, who had been for some time following sthem of horseback, alighted to assist them.—“l have been watching the smoke for some time,” said I • - ’Why, then, did you not give us notice? ’ asked the travellers? “Well,” responded the peasant, “there , are so many newfangled notions nowadays I thought you were going by steam.” A tricky horse jockey owned a notoriously vicious horse that was one day levied upon by the sheriff and advertised ’o be sold for debt. “Very well,” said the jockey, “if the sheriff can sell that hors to anybody in this county, he is welcome to do so. I’ve tried hard to sell him, and gave it up long ago. ” A man who had suffered much at the hands of umbrella thieves, has outwitted them by purchasing an old-fashioned blue cotton umbrella and breaking off six inches of i s handle. He leaves it anywhere with impunity. He is sure to get it again. Catgut. —The latest instance of a rose being made to smell as sweet by any other name comes to us from Sydney, where a young lady askc'-' at a music shop for feline intestines for lyrical purposes. The Pall Afell Gazette, in a late “Occasional Notes,” threw out the suggestion that Marguerite Dixblane might possibly ' be a man in female at'ire. In reference to this idea, a curious circumstance is said to have occurred several years ago in an English country house. For a period extending over some months various small articles of value, in the shape of jewellery, &c,, had l r mi time tatime unaccountably disappeared. • Suspicion attached to iio one, and in spite of every precaution these mysterious depredations were continued. Things at length became so serious that it was resolved to scud for a London detective, who, after inspecting the premises and putting some questions, requested that the servants of the house might be assembled in the dining room This having been done, he inquired if all were present ; and was told that every one was in the room except the lady’s maid, who was in attendance on one of the young ladies, an invah.d “Weil,” he said, “1 should like to sec the lady’s maid”...who was accordingly summoned. No soooner, however, had she entered the room than the detective, with a droll twinkle of his eye, exclaimed, “Ah ! Jim, is that you? I’ve been looking for you this long while." Then pulling out a pair of hancuffs, ho snapped them on the supposed damsel’s wrists, she being a male returned convict,' who in the capacity of Abigail, had lived for a year with the astonished and luckless family.— H.A. Kennedy in “Notes and Queries." It was the observation of a foreign and puzzled spectator, that a Cricket Match has only just commenced when it is all “ over.” — Punch. The handwriting of Horace Greoly is so extremly bad that the compositors employed upon the JSeio York Tribune require an “education” of some months before they can decipher it. Having occasion to discharge one of his employes, Horace wrote him a letter of dismissal, and some years afte. wards, accidcntally'meeting his former assistant, who in the meantime had become the editor of a flourishing newspaper out West, the great man inquired how he was getting on. “Very well, indeed—thanks to your letter of recommendation,l Mr. Greeley, was the reply. “Butl never gave you a letter of rccomniendation,” exclaimed the a.toiiished editor of the Tribune True replied theothir, “but you wrote me a letter of dismissal, which I showed as a letter of recommendation, and as it was utterly impossible to uecipher. anything but the signature, it answered the purpose just as well," The King of Dahomey is reported to have changed the fashion of his wearing apparel. Seated on his throne, he received a scientific coramision, not long ago his body profusely decorated with the blue, gold, and green labels which had been carefully peeled from the medecine bottles brought by Europeans into his dominions.