Curious Finds.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 284, 25 July 1888, Page 5

Curious Finds.

On the death of the Duke of Cumberland in 1765 a portion of his clothing was handed over to one of the hussars, and, notwithstanding the fact that it had been carefully saarched before changing hands, the now owner found a private pocket containing a pair of gloves and a pocket-book, in which were 20 bank notes of the total value of .C 1,751. This money was returned to cho representatives of the deceased nobleman. A convict under sentence of transportation died on the passage out, and tho captain of the vessel, in overhauling his effects, found 2, 100 guineas sewed up in a coat mid pair of trousers. A gentleman out shooting in 1765 brought down a woodcock, and upon examination, a very valuable diamond was discovered in the bird's stomach. Two years later a prince was out hawking in Prussia when his dog caught a heron with a piece of brass fastened round its leg on which was au inscription to the effect that the bird had been captured and released by the Elector to Cologne in 1787. A singular discovery was made in 1704. A servant girl was arrested on suspicion of I having stolen some spoons fron a publict hou.-e, but on the third day ot her imprisonment a raven was seen to carry away a teaspoon f and bury it in tho ground. Upon searching the place the missing property was found together uich amoral coins, and, of course, tho girl was immediately discharged. The purchasers of second-hand furniture frequently had the good fortune to find their goods rendered of far greater value than the price paid, owing to the addition of secret drawers. On the death of a ! wealthy lady, in 1792, a search of the house ! only brought to light a few hundred pounds, which was considerably less than the relatives expected to find. Subse quently, however, after the sale of her furniture, a gentleman who had paid £1 for a chest discoveied nearly C6OO concealed behind a secret drawer. A woman who paid Is 6d for a chair at a broker's in 1767, found a canvas bag containing 21 guineas and bank notes for £200 concealed in a corner of the coveting. A broker found a lottery ticket, which had won a prize of £500, in the private drawer of the bureau purchased by him fiom a poor woman. Another woman sold an old desk to a neighbour, and the latter, examining it very minutely, was gratified to find a private drawer containing 200 guineas. They were very old coins, and had probably lain thero for many years. A bed, too, was made the receptacle of 42 guineas, which were found concealed therein after it had been disposed of at tho broker's. In 1771 a large gold ring was taken out of the Thames, which the antiquarians of the day pronounced to bo 800 years old. On examining a shark caught in the Thames in 1787, a silver watch, a meta! chain, and a cornelian seal were found in its stomach. These had belonged to a young gentleman drowned from a vessel two years previously. A bow and quiver found in New Forest, Hampshire, in 1772 were supposed to have been there since the leign of William Rufus. The cleaning of a gentleman's fish pond in Sussex in the year 1771 disclosed a bottle bearing the words, " New Canary, put in to see how long it will keep good ; April, 1666 ; R. Wilson." The wine in the bottle was in excellent condition, but the cork was very much decayed. In 1775 a collier found in the mins of * water mill, the skeleton ot a man and the remains of some animals 75 yards from the surface. They were supposed to hare been engulfed during an earthquake 200 yeat before. A few years before this, some workmen, engaged in digging up the foundation of an old wall in Dublin, discovered an iron chest, containing 3,000 half - crowns issued in the reign of James 11. A large quantity ot the finest tallow melted in a mass was found under similar circumstances in London in 1773. This was probably melted down in the great lire of 1666. In making a dock at Blackwall, in 1790, the laboui-ers dug up a number of hazel trees with the nuts upon them at a depth of 12ft from the surface. Some workmen engaged in levelling a piece of ground at Dunbar, in Scotland, bi ought to light 290 silver coins supposed to have been buried there by Ciomwell's men immediately before the battle of Dunbar in 1650. The disco veiy was made in 1773. A shipbrcaker, in pulling Lo pieces an old Spanish ship which he had purchased, in 1791, had tho good fortune to discover several ingots of gold stored between her timbers. The value of these was estimated at from £25,000 to £30,000. A very strange discovery was made by the ci'ew of a vessel whilst on passage from Newcastle to London in 1771. When about five miles from Shields, they fell in with a wooden cradle containing a living child, which they rescued and landed at thendestination. The country in the vicinity of Shields had been inundated owing to the heavy rains shortly before, and the cradle had probablj. been washed out of a house and carried down one of the streams lo sea. Misers are proverbial for the careful manner in which they Ptore away their wealth. On searching the house, after death, of an old maid, who had lived for many years in a most penurious fashion, a very large sum of money was disclosed, together with a great quantity of household linen, which she had been too niggardly to use. A pickle pofc, stored in a clock case, contained £80 in gold and £5 in silver ; a tea canister, full of gold, was con cealed in a hole under the stairs, and an old rat trap was utilised for the storage of gold and silver. In another case, on the death of a man who had lived miserably in a garret, two bags were found stored under his arms containing £136. This amount was composed in a great measure of half-crown pieces. Another treasure took tho shape of an iron chest containing £120 in bank notes and two large diamond rings, found concealed in a wall by some workmen engaged in pulling down a house. Ad the last occupier was a Jew, people naturally concluded that he had secreted the chest. A singular thing happened in 1778. A woman found a pocket-book containing bank notes to the value of £1,000, which she carried to the owner, a banker, and received £50 reward. Next morning, the same woman found a gold watch, which proved to be the property of the banker's brother, and for this she received £20 reward. A remarkable occurrence is credited to the year 1767. A woman presumably died, and everything necessary was ordered for the funeral. The husband, having suspicion that bis wife had concealed a sum of money during her lifetime, commeiioed searching the house, and succeeded in findj ing a few pounds in an old box. Just as he was about to remove it, however, he was surprised and terribly frightened by the appearance of his wife, who came to him as if nothing had happened. Strange to say, she continued in seemingly good health for two days, and then died.

The Earl of Carnarvon, writing to the "Times" on the defences of Australasia, states that they have put England to hame.