The Missing Heiress.

Hastings Standard, Issue 174, 18 November 1896, Page 4

The Missing Heiress.

No haw been obtained ol the missing heiress, Miss Fr-nila Cockhurn l>ickin-'».i. a nitre of Lord Londesborough, ami daught r of the Kev. j George Cockburn Dickinson, of Lunilesbo rough Lodge, \\ orchester Park, Surrey. Sue is supposed to have eloped with a married man named Schofield, a Horsham cat and dog fancier. The young lady's griefstricken father told a reporter that he had one son and two daughters, of whom I'rsuia was the eldest. Iler mother died when she was only six years of age. Continuing, he .said : '• After her death L clung to my children, and this om has always, as the oldest, been a help to ine in my house. She was my constant companion, my secretary, and my chief assistant in everything. She grew up under my special case, and was of a most amiable and kind disposition, and till recently her character was without a j blemish. She has a large fortune in- : heriti d by will in her own right, | and other very large expectations, over which I had not the slightest control. Anything to amuse her she had, and as she was very fond of pet cats, she set up a " catiary " in the garden, in which she had some verv handsome specimens of Persian eats, and other kinds of the feline race, it was owing to some of tlvse being ailing, probably as far back as lsii"), that she bet-am-.• acquaintd with Schofield. ihiring the two or three visits he made here he seems to have gained a strange ascendency over her. W hen she spoke of going into partnership with this man 1 did all J could to dissuade her. but it was all of 110 avail, for she was of full age. with her own inoiU'V, and could do as she liked. In May last I was away from home for a few days when I received a letter from one of "the servants informing me that 1 had better return as soon as possible, as Mis Dickinson was removing all her pets and things from home. 1 went home, but she It ft 011 the 2:>rd of May, not stating where she was going, though she sent me a kind letter and several presents. 1 wrote to llorlcv thinking she had g-Hie there to this man's house, but 1 afterwards ascertained that she was not there, but u- living in apartments in Yorkstreet, I'l l:ui Square. 1 had written several letters f> her entreating her to return, but i had 110 reply, and I am afraid itiy letters were intercepted. I afterwanh traced her to apartments at Tooting and next t> a house at Tooting, where' she was lodging with Mr and Mrs Seie-ii Id. On July l:> she left there, presumably to go to Brighton, stating that perhaps she would ne et me there." Tile father produced various documents showing that 011 July 1 Ith Scholield left hi< home in the morning apparently to go on his visiting rounds and did not return. On -Inly 17 Mrs Scbofield received the following letter in her husband's handwriting:--Paddington, Thursday. Dear Kate. —As von have probably imagined before this i have gone oil with " Ursula." I know you will think it very hard, and that it is very wrong, but her influence over me was so great that 1 could not stay against it. I enclose a blank cheque form for you to fill in for you with amount due from bank, and will send you some money in bank notes in a few days. You and Carrie can manage to carry on the cat business until I find son e way of providing for you and the children. We have taken a small hotel in the south of Wales. Lll case you want evidence for divorce; proceedings, I will send yon the particulars which will be sufficient. (iood-bye, and the dear children.— Dkn. Tie.- cheque was only worth €3, and she had nc< ived no bank" notes. As an illustration of the manner in which his daughter had been imposed upon, Ml- Dickinson produced a letter dated September 11, from a firm of solicitors asking him whether he would take up an accommodation bill drawn by a man and backed by his daughter* The bill wa.. for £3oo, but the amount of the advance received was only A'l2l. He had discovert!:! another " letter from some financial agents, asking her if she felt disposed to sell her reversionary interests in the property to which she was entitled. He would like to know who had set them on. She had drawn out of her banks about £II,OOO, and gone away with it principally in notes and gokl. The father added that to him it was inexplicable how a young lady of her attainments, with such a home as she had, and with such a large property to which she was entitled, could leave all to follow the fortune of an adventurer. This he could not .understand, lie could only account for it by thinking that she had been hypnotised, or that by some other means a terrible influence had been gained over her. He had every reason to believe that she had a revolver, which she carries, and he produced a large number of cartridges and bullets which she had obtained.