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The Windsor and Eton Express.
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Some Selected Reports from The Windsor and Eton Express



1st December 1827



Charlotte Snowden returns her sincere thanks for the favours conferred by the friends of her late Husband, Mr.T.Snowden, Baker; and begs to solicit, for herself and family, a continuance of their support.
Peascod-street, Windsor, Dec.1.



Windsor and Eton.

Yesterday his Majesty's stag hounds met at Iver Heath, where a large field of sportsmen was assembled. A fine deer was turned out, which led off at a spanking pace towards Iver, through Drayton, and was finally taken about a mile to the left of Harrow, after one of the severest runs experienced this season. It lasted two hours and three quarters, and the distance is supposed to be thirty miles. About twenty had the honour of witnessing the capture - the rest were "far, far away."

On Thursday afternoon, a vestry was held at the vestry room, in the parish church, for the purpose of electing an assistant overseer, Mr.Batcheldor having resigned that office. Four candidates were named for the situation. Sir John Chapman having taken the chair, Mr.Sharman proposed Mr.Wm.Wright, and was seconded by W.J.Voules, Esq. A show of hands was then called for, when there being only one dissentient person, and no one appearing on behalf of the other candidates, Mr.Wright was declared duly elected. John Cobbett was appointed collector of the poor rates.

We understand that our worthy Recorder has been consulted on the practicability or re-establishing the Borough Court, for the more easy recovery of debts, and that he has employed an eminent counsel to draw up rules for the practice of it. We hope soon to congratulate our readers upon having it within their reach to recover their just demands without resorting to the courts above.




The inhabitants of Windsor have, during the whole of this week, been placed in a state of great alarm by the disorderly conduct of the soldiery stationed here, which has arisen out of a spirit of animosity, suspected to have existed for some time, between the two regiments. On Tuesday evening a few privates of both regiments were drinking at the George the Fourth public house, when the wife of a corporal of the Life Guards was insulted in the street by one of the 21st, who afterwards struck the corporal; a retaliation was the consequence, and both being joined by their comrades, a general scuffle ensued. The 21st drew their bayonets, but the Life Guards only made use of their canes, which being soon either broken or lost, they were obliged to retreat. Flushed with success, and heated by liquor, the privates of the 21st brandished their arms, and repeatedly struck at the assembled crowd, but fortunately, no fatal injury resulted, although one or two persons were slightly wounded. Some respectable inhabitants , upon the committal of this outrage, sent to the Barracks, and Colonel Leahy and several officers soon arrived with a piquet. Two bayonets were found, one of which, it is believed, had been thrown at the corporal of the Life Guards. The town was scoured to secure any soldiers still at liberty, and peace was at length restored. We understand that two of the men engaged were punished the following day. On Wednesday evening a number of Life Guards made their appearance after the 21st had gone to barracks, each provided with a bludgeon. The spirit of reprisal was very evident in these soldiers, and it was fortunate that the objects of their animosity were not present.

The Colonel of the 2d Life Guards was apprised of this proceeding, a piquet was sent into the town, and soldiers deprived of their weapons, and, we understand, were severely reprimanded the following morning. On Thursday evening a fresh disturbance broke out at the Three Tuns, the provocation being again afforded by one of the 21st, which was soon quelled, by Mr.Hodges, a constable, sending for a file of soldiers from the guard room at the Castle. In this broil, the 21st made use of sword sticks, the Colonel having judiciously ordered the discontinuance of wearing the bayonet. A piquet of Life Guards this evening paraded the streets from six o'clock to ten, in order to preserve the peace, which came up fortunately at the time. Yesterday evening the piquet continued to parade the town, which, we are happy to state, is now in a state of tranquillity. We trust, for the honour of the two corps, and for the peace and safety of his Majesty's subjects, that we shall not have to notice a recurrence of these disgraceful scenes. We must take the opportunity of reprobating the practice of allowing the common man to wear offensive weapons , excepting in cases of absolute necessity , a practice which, after the present fearful results, we hope to see abolished in the future.




This morning, James Weblyn, a labourer, employed at Windsor Castle, fell from a scaffold 12 feet high, by which he received a fracture of the right leg, and a dislocation of the ancle.

Yesterday afternoon one of those unfortunate accidents occurred of which the shooting season affords but too many examples. Mr.Wm.Nash, eldest son of W.Nash, Esq., Langley, was shooting with a friend, at a short distance from home, when, on coming to a hedge, Mr.Nash requested him to hold his gun, to enable him to clear the fence without danger. Afterwards, however, Mr.Nash received back his gun pointed against his own arm, and which, becoming entangled in the twigs, went off, and he received the contents in the upper part of the right arm. We are sorry to add, that notwithstanding the ablest surgical assistance was afforded, the limb was obliged to be amputated at the shoulder; but the patient is now considered in a fair way of recovery.




Aylesbury

We pointed out, some time ago, the evil consequence of "farming the poor" of parishes, instead of providing them work or subsistence in the regular way, under their own parochial guardians or overseers. We stated, at the time, that as a contact to "farm the poor" must allow a profit to the contractor upon all that they consumed, or else he would not undertake it, such a contract would either be a job by which the parish was to suffer in its funds, if the contractor was well paid, or a job by which the poor were to suffer in their pay, or their food, if the contractor was ill paid. A case which illustrates our argument on the subject came the other day under the consideration of the Magistrates Chamber, at Aylesbury. It appears, from the report of that case, that three paupers of Princes Risborough complained against a Mr.Polly, who farms the poor in that parish, for "sconsing" them, as they called it, of a whole day's work, because they came a little too late to labour in the morning. It seems the paupers had come to work a quarter of an hour later than their time in the morning of the day in question, and Mr.Polly had thought it fit to deduct for that quarter of an hour a whole days pay ! The Magistrates were of opinion that Polly had acted wrong, and that he had no right to stop a whole days pay from the paupers because they had been a quarter of an hour beyond time. How did the "Farmer of the poor", attempt to justify himself ? Was it by disputing the facts ? No, for the facts were admitted.

But he adopted the following very extraordinary mode of defending the propriety of committing this act of injustice. He said he had undertaken to keep all the poor, and pay all the labourers of the parish, according to a certain fixed scale, for the sum of �1600 per year, when the parish before had paid �2000, and urged the inconvenience of his being obliged to stay at home all day to note the time when each pauper came to work, and that he should be a considerable loser if he conducted his business in that way. In answer to this, the magistrates very properly said that if the contractor had made an improvident bargain with the parish officers it was his own fault - or if the overseers had undertaken to invest him with authority, or to give him advantages over the paupers which they themselves did not possess, he must look to them for recompense.

While we claim the right of impartially canvassing the conduct of magistrates, for the benefit of the public, we are always better pleased, to have reason to speak of their conduct in terms of approbation rather than censure. In the present instance nothing could be more sound or judicious than the decision of the magistrates. We give it all the publicity we can, in order that, as far as it is known, it may have the effect of correcting the unjust sort of proceeding which was the subject of the complaint, and which we have no doubt is not confined to the parish of Prince's Risborough, or to the county of Buckingham. The defence set up by the contractor in this case, being grounded on a real or supposed improvidence of contract on his part, with the overseers, exemplifies, as we have said, our former argument on the subject of "farming the poor." It shows that where the contractor is ill paid, or supposing himself ill paid for his bargain, he will attempt to remunerate himself by depriving the poor of a part of that little to which they are entitled; and we have no doubt that some contractors make bargains at low terms, on the calculation of reimbursing themselves, by taking advantages which the law does not allow of the paupers intrusted to their charge. In every view of it, this "farming of the poor" is an impolitic and mischievous practice, and ought not to be tolerated in a Christian country. - Morning Herald.

The number of persons committed to Aylesbury gaol for poaching , from the 1st of January, 1826, to 30th November, in the same year, was 68; and from 1st January, in the present year, to 30th November, 41. The commitments are consequently seventeen less than they were in the corresponding period of 1826.

An accident, which from the almost miraculous escape of two men from instant death deserves to be mentioned, occurred at Ellesborough, on Thursday se'nnight. Two plasterers in the employment of Mr.Collins, bricklayer of Aylesbury, were engaged in the repairs of Ellesborough church, working on a scaffold 23 feet high, when owing to one of the putlocks becoming loose, the planks gave way and fell to the ground. One of the men thus employed, called Andrews, saved himself from falling by catching hold of a rope fastened to a pole of the scaffold, by which he hung until a ladder was brought to him; the other, William Foster, was less fortunate; he was standing at the moment on a short ladder placed on the scaffold, and was precipitated at once to the ground, where he laid in a state of insensibility, with the wreck of the scaffold around him. He was taken up and carried into the church, where he soon recovered his recollection, and it was ascertained that although he was very seriously bruised none of his limbs were broken. He has since been taken to his home at Bierton, and there is little doubt of his recovery. - Ellesborough church stands nearly on the summit of a hill, and it much exposed to the wind, which probably, by its action, had loosened the putlock in question.

The lovers of good cheer will find ample amusement at Buckingham, on Saturday, the 15th instant. An ox, fed by R.Gray, Esq., is already purchased, and is to be roasted whole, in addition to which it is proposed to make a plum-pudding in a five bushel bag. - A subscription for the purpose is making amongst the middling class to the inhabitants who consider the tickets to the collation above their means.




On Wednesday, the 14th ult., an inquisition was taken before Mr.Times, coroner for the county of Bedford, at Wrestlingworth, on view of the body of James Michael Saunderson, and infant about eight weeks old, who was discovered dead in bed by the side of its mother; the child had gone to bed the evening before apparently in good health. The Jury returned a verdict . Died by the visitation of God.

On Wednesday, the 21st ult., the same coroner took an inquest on the body of Joseph Causton, at Tottenhoe. It was stated in evidence that the deceased was a maker of whiting, and on the Monday previous went with a horse and cart for some chalk to a pit on Dunstable Downs, where he was found buried between two and three feet under a large quantity of chalk that had fallen on him. It did not appear that any person had been with him, but James Smith, who follows the same occupation as the deceased, went to the same pit, and seeing the deceased's horse and cart there, and his jacket lying on the ground, suspected what had happened, and went for assistance to remove the chalk, under which the deceased was found as above stated. It is thought he must have been under the chalk four or five hours. Verdict accordingly.

On Tuesday, the 27th ult., another inquest was taken before the same coroner, at Langford, on the body of Samuel King, an infirm old man, who was found dead on the floor of his bedroom about five o'clock in the morning of the 24th ult. The deceased had been ailing with a cold, which, however, was not thought to be the occasion of his death, as the Jury returned a verdict of Apoplexy.