NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 February 1929, Page 7

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS

IIETURXED-C.O.D. A Peiinrth angler lms had a remarknl)l<* experience. Ho was fishing from Llit* pier when liis gold watch foil into the water and was lost. Some days later lie caught a cod, and when the lisli was being cleiined for cooking his missin;.; timepiece, still licking, was found inside! WA i'C'H DOC! Ti l AT WATCH EI > A hid Airedale dog, which he had taken with him for protection, looked on unconcernedly while \lr McCloud, licensee eif a ptthlichousc in Neat street Camhcrwell, was attacked and rohh hy two men. Mr .McCloud was on his way to the hank, carrying an attache case containing about £2O. when one ol the men snatched the case and turned to run a,way. Mr McCloud sprang alter him, hut tripped over the dog and 'fell headlong. The two men ran to a waiting motor car, into which they jumped, and drove off with great speed. The dog watched without emotion. POACHING FROM A MOTOR CAR. “Poaching up-to-date,” was the term applied hy Mr Williams, prosecuting solicitor, in a charge at Northampton, of game trespass against Arthur Bernard Foster, of Northampton. It was alleged that Foster from his motor car fired and brought down a cock pheasant. Mr Williams said he could understand a poor man with a hungry family poaching, hut when a man poached in this manner ho deserved punishment. Foster asserted that ho was practisin' shooting, and first fired at a sparrow, and when that flew away he aimed at a lealf. The magistrate imposed a line of £2 and costs. LAST LONDON DUEL. The Adclphi Hotel, London, at the corner of Adam Street, Adclphi, opened in 1777, was the rendezvous for the last duel ever fought in London. The combatants were Mr Bates, the then editor of PTlie Morning Post,” and Captain Stony, who had taken umbrage at a paragraph published in that newspaper reflecting on a lady in whom lie was interested. It was at the Adclphi, then known as Osborne’s Hotel, that Mr Pickwick gave his famous dinner to the members of the Pickwick Club, at which, “after the decanters had been twice round,” he announces liis dissolution. The frontage of the building, which lias stood unaltered since the year of its erection hy the brothers Aram, is as fine as anything of its kind left in London to-day. NO BATH FOR 10 YEARS. That he has not had a• hath for ten years was the surprising statement of Mr A. Lyon, of Plea Lodge, at a meeting of the Kcelefeclian School Committee. Some members opposed a request hy the border village schoolmaster at Ilottsbridgc for if provision were made all round it would mean an addition of Gd on rates. Mr Lyon said he did not know that a hath was necessary, and, in addition to the statement mentioned above, said a friend of his who lived to the age of ninety had not had a hath since he was washed hy his mother. Permission for the schoolmaster’s hath was. however, granted. Ecelelechan is a village just over the Scottish border and is chiefly known as the birthplace of Thomas Carlyle. A PRINCELY DUCAT, PALACH. Among the most important pheasant shoots recently was that which the Duke of Westminister gave at Eaton Hull Eaton Hall is a. vast and magnificent palace, which was reconstructed about OH years age at a cost of nearly a million pounds. Thirteen years wont to the building of it. and more money, it is said, has hem spent on it than on any other private dwelling-place in England. One room alone cost £30,000. while there is a sumptuous library containing 10.000 hooks. Nearly every

crowned head in Europe during the the past 50 years has shot over the Eaton coverts. Instead of the usual luxurious limousines used at most lug shoots, there is a special private railway. complete with train and two engines—the only one of its kind in England—to convoy the guests from, covert, to covert. LIVES RISKED TO SEE THE BRIDE There wore many thrills outside St. Margaret’s ( Imrclil, West minister, at a recent society wedding. So determined were people not to miss seeing the bride. Lady Mary Ashley-Coopvr and her groom, Lord Alington, that as the couple left the church the crowd dashed forward to the waiting car, ignoring the one-way traffic. Some ol them only just escaped being knocked down. Mounted police soon regained control and forced them hade. 'I lawedding was one of while and silvei The In-ide, who is the daughter of Earl and Countess of Shailtcshury, wore a gown of white and silver, and silve lace and pearls formed her coronet Her eight bridesmaids also wore dresses of white and silver not. THE JEWEL ROOM. The Jewel Room in the Tower of London, notwithstanding its lavish display- of gem-encrusted crowns,- orbs and sceptres, contains only two object. l belonging to the ancient regalia of tie • English kings, nil the rest Inlying been destroyed during llio Common Wealth. Those are the anointing spoon, and the golden ampulla or eagle, ill which the oil for the anointment ceremony is contained. This latter dates from about the time of Henry IV., but was restated and a new pedestal added for the coronation of Charles 11. The spoon is much older, dating from the end of the twelfth century, and was probably used at the coronation ol King John. Iwo copies of this priceless historic lelic made for the coronation of George IV., are preserved at Windsor Castle. GIFT TO SA VE STONEHENGE. To save Stonehenge I rum encroachments £IO,OOO is required, and an anonymous lady has oflered £2500 on con dition that the National Trust foi Places of Historic -Interest or Natural Beauty raises the remainder. Mr Winston Churchill made this announcement at the Trust’s dinner at the Criterion Restaurant, Piccadilly. He was one of -100 guests, presided ovej hy Viscount Ullswater. I hose present were reminded in a novel way ol some of the beauty spots which is it hoped to preserve. Each item on the menu was named alter one of these places. It OMAN BOWL DISCOVERY. During excavations 50 years ago on the site of the Roman camp at Bmehostor, near Bishop Auckland, Durham, portions of a beautiful bowl ol Samian ware were discovered. These were put together and the missing pieces were rceonstrucod at the British Museum. Recently Air James McIntyre, a member of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries, was working at the camp when he unearthed fragments of pottery which have been found to be the missing portions ol the bowl, now in the possession ol Durham University. One lragmom bears the name of the potter, Patomas Lezoux, and an indication that iL was made in Gual early in the second century A.D. TWICE TRIED MAN ACQUITTED What Mr Justice Branson deseriijed as “one of the most extraordinary cases it had ever been my misfortune to try,” ended at Swansea Assizes with the acquittal of Edmund John. It was the second trial of John, a Swansea' colliery agent, on a charge of stealing tram rails and other material from the Neath Rural Council. Thu jury at the end of the original two day’s trial, failed to agree and a i fresh jury was cmpannelled. It wasalleged that John took from a dump more rails than were involved in a transaction between him and the council. The defence was that he had bought the material. On the direction of Mr Justice Branson, John wm found not guilty and was discharged.