VILLAGE OF TRAGEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 7 April 1932, Page 8

VILLAGE OF TRAGEDY

FOUR DIE IN FOUR DAYS. MAN IN LONE MANSION. An air of tragedy recently depressed the little Cardinganshire village of Llariwenog. Oil four consecutive days the vicar, his churchwarden, a deacon, and a local farmer died and were buried in the village churchyard. All four were doing business rn Llangbyther, an adjoining village, on one day. The next day the first of them died: ’ While .'the vicar was actually making the funeral arrangements he himself fell ill and died. The day .following saw the third man added ,tp the death-roll. News of the culminating tragedy was received during the vicar’s funeral. One of the bearers failed to appear. While the coffin was being lowered into the grave it was made known that his body had been found hanging from a staircase in Bwlch Bychan, a. .lonely mansion wherei he was the caretakei. For thirty years the man had woiked alone in the' eerie atmosphere of ' this deserted mansion. The. house is surrounded by fir trees, and inside everything is as it was left when the last tenant died three decades ago. Carpets, pictures, and crockery arc. still in place—though decaying with the p'.-S-age of time —-and the beds remain as they were made up in 1902. In the •hall cobwebs cluster on the heads of foxes, hares, and other trophies of the cluise.