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Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1540, 9 January 1874, Page 75

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Sudden Death of a Ticliborne Witness. John Clayton, formerly a sergeant of Carabineers, who was examined recently as a witness for the defence in the trial of the Ticliborne Claimant, was taken suddenly ill immediately after leaving the box. He was admitted an in-patent at Westminster Hospital, where he died on the night of the 3rd October. The Claimant's Trial. When the Ticliborne trial was resumed on Monday, Sept 22, Mr Cochrane, proprietor of the Cheltenham Chronicle, was fined £l5O for contempt of court in publishing an article commenting on the value of the evidence given in the case. The Lord Chief Justice remarked that in all. future cases of the kind imprisonment would be added. Death ot Mrs Gatty. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph announces the death of Mrs Alfred Catty, wife of the Rev. Dr. Gatty, Vicar of Ecclesfield, a lady known in the literary world as the editor of Aunt J udy's Magazine and author of several very popular books of juvenile fiction. Mrs Catty, who was in her 64th year, was the younger daughter of the Rev. Dr. Scott, who was chaplain to [the Victory at Trafalgar, and in whose arms Lord Nelson breathed his last. A Horse in Durance. On the 21st of September, a lire broke out in Miltou-Lockhart pit, Carluke, and it was deemed necessary to close the shaft in order to extinguish it. When the pit was reopened on Saturday last, a horse was found alive in the stable. The poor animal had nibbled every straw, and had gnawed the bark off all the props in the stable, where the water was standing several inches deep. It seems to have lost little in flesh by its fast of six nights and five days. Extraordinary Gas Explosion.

On the evening of the 4th October a singular occurence took place at Wakefield. Some few weeks previously it had been discovered that Mr John Barron, cheese, butter, and bacon factor, in Cross-square, was taking gas direct from the mains instead of allowing it to pass through a meter, both at his place of business and at a villa residence just outside the brough. The Gas Company prosecuted him, and he had a large sum to pay in fines, penalties, and expenses. As is usual iu such cases, the Gas Company declined to allow Mr Barron to use gas after he had defrauded them, and up to Saturday evening he lighted his establishment with paraffin lamps. Recently Mr Barron purchased an apparatus patented by a company in London known as the Air Gas Light Company, Limited, and he received it on Saturday. Shortly after half-past six o'clock in the evening, Mr Barron was, it is said, fixing the apparatus in the cellar under his shop* when a paraffin lamp fell upon the floor and ignited some gasogen, a gallon and a quarter of which yields nearly one thousand cubic feet of gas. The floor of the shop and a quantity of straw, paper, empty boxes, &c, were set on fire, and it was feared that the whole of the premises, with the large stock of goods, would be destroyed. The borough fire brigade were quickly on the spot, the flames were speedily extinguished, and the damage was not very considerable. The shop, which was surrounded by a large crowd of persons, was closed between seven and eight o'clock, and it was thought that all danger had passed. Mr Barron, however) appears to have renewed operations in the Cellar, and it is said that Mrs Barron was looking on whilst he endeavoured to fix the apparatus. About a quarter past eight o'clock a second and far more terrible explosion took place, and the whole neighborhood was shaken and alarmed. Mr Barron was most frightfully injured. The skin was almost blown off his arms and hande, and his neck was much burnt. After his injuries had beon washed with oil at the shop of Mr Cardwell, druggist, he was taken home in a cab. Next day, his face became much swollen, he was deprived of the use of his eyes, and his throat was in a shocking state. Mrs Barron, who, as well as her husband, rushed through the volume of fire, escaped with very slight injuirea beyond the singeing of her hair. The shop and goods were much damaged, the window and shutters were blown out, and the adjoining property has also suffered. In the house occupied by Mr E. Hall, fruiter, the staircase has been thrown out of position, and the family were unable to go up to bed that night. A. charwoman who was coming out of Mr Hall's cellar with a candle in her hand was injured in the head, aud one of Mr Hall's sons, who was with her, received a severe shock. Mr Marshall, hatter, whose shop is on the other side of Mr Barron's, occupies the room over Mr Barron's shop, and three or four of his children who were sleeping in the room were rendered almost frantic They had to be rolled up in blankets and carried to the Mitre Inn and the,'Cross Keys, two public-houses close by, where they remained through the night. An immense number of persons gathered in Cross-square, and great excitement prevailed until the police removed the apparato the Police Station. Very old Love-letters.

It is not generally known that, under the provisions of its ancient charter, the Governor and Corporation of the Bank of England are obliged not only to purchase at their fair value any precious metals tendered to them, but also to take charge of any gold or silver, in ingots or plate, that may be brought to them for safe keeping. From time to tim* plate chests have been deposited with this view in ,h& vaults of the Bank, and many of them have been there so long that they are actually rotting away. On a recent occasion the servants of the Bank discovered a chest, which on being removed literally fell to pieces. On examining the contents a quantity of massive plate was discovered of the period of Charles II The circumstance might not -> itself be very interesting but that thore was found with the plate a parcel, which proved to he a bundle

of old love-letters, carefully arranged according to their dates. An inspection • of them idveakd a correspondence of a tender and romantic description carried on during the period of the Restoration. The name of the writer was found to be Berbers, and after considerable search among the archives of the institution it was found that a family of that name had been connected with the Bank about the time in question. Acting upon this clue, the directors prosecuted their inquiry, and being satisfied that a gentleman of the same name, now living, is the lineal representative of the owner of the plate and the love-letters, both have been handed to him.