1875.]

Highwayman in the Regent's Park.

99

extensive pile of buildings, and was erected in 1841, from plans by Sir Gilbert Scott, at a cost of 50,000l. The buildings form a quadrangle. The fire was discovered by a nursery maid in the roof of the nursery above the warden's house. An alarm was at once raised, and all the occupants were got out. There being a brisk easterly wind, the flames spread with great rapidity, and soon had obtained a firm hold of the warden's house. The fire next reached the apartments occupied by the students. These promptly set to work to prevent, if possible, the flames from spreading further, and also to remove the books from the library, and such furniture as was in danger. The Perth fire-engine was sent for, but did not arrive till nine, by which time the southwestern wing was a hopeless ruin, the flames lighting the neighbourhood for miles. Some little delay occurred in getting the engine to work. But the fire had by this time seized upon the structure, and at midnight was raging with undiminished fury. The origin of the fire is said to have been the dropping of a hand brazier, which was being used by a plumber for the repair of the roof. The south of the west wing was completely destroyed, and the tower which formed part of the warden's house seriously damaged. The total damage was estimated at above 25,000l. Sufficient of the college remained intact to enable the classes to be conducted without interruption. One of the firemen was rather seriously hurt by a piece of tile falling on his head.

-FATAL RESULTS OF STONE-THROWING.-Mrs. Umfreville, wife of Mr. C. Umfreville, a magistrate for the county of Kent, who had been out driving with a friend, had just alighted from her carriage at her residence at Greenhithe, when she was struck on the head by a stone, supposed to have been discharged from a catapult, causing a severe wound. Mrs. Umfreville was assisted indoors, and subsequently complained of great pain in her head. Sir William Gull was summoned by telegraph, but she died in a few hours.

29. BIRTH OF A PRINCESS.-The Duchess of Edinburgh gave birth to a daughter to-day at Eastwell Park. Drs. Farre, Wilson Fox, and Wilks were in attendance, and the Duke of Edinburgh was present.

30. A HIGHWAYMAN IN THE REGENT'S PARK.-A gentleman resident in Harley Street gives the following account of an adventure which befell his wife and another lady in the Regent's Park-About three o'clock on the afternoon of October 30, while my wife and another lady were walking in the road which leads around the Botanical Gardens in Regent's Park, a man, who had passed them a yard or two, suddenly turned back, and facing them, demanded their purses or their watches. My wife said, "Go away," and passed on quickly; but, finding the other lady was not at her side, she turned suddenly to speak to her, and found, to her horror, that the man had grasped the lady's arm and was pointing a pistol close to her face. She struggled with him

courageously, thrust her muff in his face, and said, "Be off; there will be a policeman here directly." The man then walked off. At the time of the assault there was no one in sight but a few children. THE JOURNEY OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. — His Roval Highness spent but one day in Paris, and proceeded on the 13th to Italy, arriving at Brindisi, in the extreme south of the peninsula, on the morning of the 16th. He was attended by Sir Augustus Paget, the British Minister to Italy. The Duke of Sutherland, Lord Aylesford, Lord Suffield, Lord Charles Beresford, Colonel Ellis, and Mr. Knollys were in waiting to meet the Prince, whose suite was also joined by Sir Bartle Frere, Lord Carington, Lord Alfred Paget, General Probyn, Capt. Williams, Dr. Russell, and five other gentlemen. Admiral di San Bon, the Italian Minister of Marine, Count Maffei, and the provincial and military authorities received the Prince, amid cheers from the people assembled and salutes from the British and Italian ironclads in the harbour. The Royal launch was in readiness, and conveyed the Prince and his suite to the "Serapis," which was immediately put under way for Athens. At the port of the Piræus, which was reached on the 18th, the Prince was received by the King of Greece, with many of the public authorities, and a numerous guard of honour. King George and his guest and brother-in-law drove together into Athens, and before the travellers left on the 21st the members of the Prince's suite received decorations from their royal host. The grand cordon of the Order of the Saviour was conferred upon the Duke of Sutherland, Sir Bartle Frere, and Lord Suffield; the grade of Grand Commander upon Lord Alfred Paget and General Probyn; and that of Commander upon Mr. Knollys and Dr. Fayrer. Lord Aylesford, Lord Charles Beresford, Captain Williams, and Canon Duckworth were created officers, and Captain FitzGeorge, Mr. Gray, and Mr. Hall, knights of the Order.

On the 23rd the Prince arrived at Port Saïd, where he was met by the Khedive's three sons, Tewfik Pasha, Hussein Pasha, and Hassan Pasha, and by General Stanton, Her Majesty's Agent and Consul-General in Egypt. Here His Royal Highness landed and procceded by railway to Cairo, where the Khedive was on the platform to receive him, attended by his ministers.

In virtue of the power conferred upon him by Her Majesty, His Royal Highness held an investiture of the Star of India on the 25th. There was a grand military display on the occasion, and various musical selections were performed by the bands of the artillery. The Khedive, attended by his three sons, by the Ministers of State, Ismail Pasha, Nubar Pasha, and Cherif Pasha, and by Ratib Pasha, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and other high officials, arrived at the Ghezireh Palace at 11 o'clock, and were met by the Prince and his staff at the entrance. Conducted by Sir Bartle Frere and General Stanton, the latter Consul-General for Egypt, Prince Tewfik was pre

sented to His Royal Highness, who in a short and effective speech thanked the Khedive in the name of the Queen for the successful efforts he had made for encouraging, promoting, and facilitating commerce and communication between England and our Eastern empire. He then invested Prince Tewfik Pasha with the grand order of the Star of India. The Khedive replied, thanking Her Majesty for the honour conferred upon himself and his son, and expressing sympathy with the progress of civilization, and satisfaction at the good relations between Egypt and the British empire, and between himself and the Royal Family of England. The Prince quitted Cairo the following day, and rejoined the "Serapis" at Suez, proceeding thence on his voyage down the Red Sea.

STORMS AND FLOODS have been as remarkable and as disastrous this month as they were in July. On the 9th, several of the midland counties were visited with a severe storm of wind and rain. Warwickshire suffered much, the Avon and the Leam having overflowed and flooded the country in many places. The neighbourhood of Warwick and Leamington, and portions of the Great Western Railway between Oxford and Birmingham, were submerged, and at Leicester parts of the town were under water, and the inhabitants had to take refuge in their upper storeys without being able to secure their goods. Several lives were lost. In the following week the storms returned with increased severity. Many vessels were lost, chiefly on the east coast, and it was not in all cases possible to save the crews. At Sunderland, while some hundreds of persons were standing behind the wall of the South Pier on the beach, which separates the sea from the basin of the Wave Battery, a tremendous sea broke on the beach, knocked down about a score of persons, and carried a number into the Wave Basin. Two were taken by the receding wave into the river, where they were rescued by pilots, one was got out by means of a life-line, and another was gallantly rescued by the onlookers joining hands, and the foremost wading into the basin. Parts of Devonshire were visited by a violent thunderstorm on the 19th, accompanied by a deluge of rain, which swelled the brooks in some places to such an extent as to produce inundations there greater than had been known for more than half a century. The pretty seaside places, Torquay, Teignmouth, and Dawlish were partially flooded, and serious damage was done by the water in Exeter and the neighbourhood. At Exeter no less than 3.26 inches of rain was recorded to have fallen in twenty-four hours-the greater part of it during the three hours when the storm was at its worst. Derby, Nottingham, and other midland towns were under water on the 22nd. former town boats were used for the purpose of getting to the houses, and bread was handed up to the bedroom windows at the end of a pitchfork. In the courts, which the boats could not enter, men volunteered to go through the water with provisions, although

In the

it reached up to the breast. On the Wilton Road near Nottingham a sad accident occurred. A cart which was conveying passengers along the flooded road started with a freight of about fourteen persons, including two women, one of whom had a child. Having traversed some distance, the driver missed the right path, and the vehicle, with all its occupants, was thrown over the embankment into about twelve feet of water. As soon as possible a boat was manned, and proceeded to the assistance of the persons struggling in the water. About seven of them were rescued, but the remainder, including the two women, were drowned. The flood caused, on the night of the 22nd, an alarming railway accident near Newark. The train leaving Nottingham at halfsix ran off the line about two miles from Rolleston Junction, and about a mile and a quarter from Newark. The rails on the bridge below the Averham weir were bent in through the floods, and the train, after passing in safety, pitched off the rails. The engine and tender toppled over into a field, and lay almost covered in water. The first carriage was smashed, the second stretched across both rails, and others, though still on the line, appeared likely to topple over through the giving way of the embankment. Nevertheless all the passengers escaped serious injury.

NOVEMBER.

1. DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT A PRESTON COTTON MILL.-A fire broke out this afternoon in Messrs. Paul Catterall, Son, and Co.'s cotton mills, Newhall Lane, Rigby Street, Preston. The hands had just returned to work from dinner, when, in the top storey, flames were discovered among the shafting, and spread with alarming rapidity. All the workpeople, numbering about 300, succeded in making their escape uninjured, with the exception of one man, who being unable to force his way through the flames, broke through a skylight and got out upon the roof, and was let down by means of ladders. In a very short time the fire descended to the third storey, and then with a loud crash the roof fell in. The steam fire-engine and the hand-engine of the Preston Fire Brigade, besides engines belonging to other mills in the town, played with great force, but to little purpose, on the mass of flames. A portion of the gable end gave way, as well as the western side of the building, and fell outwards. A cab filled with municipal electors had an exceedingly narrow escape, as it had only just passed when a part of the wall fell. With equal rapidity the flames spread to the second, and thence to the bottom storey, and the attention of the firemen was solely directed to the boiler and weaving sheds which adjoined the mill, and in this they were successful. The mill was built in 1856, employed about 300 hands,

and contained 13,000 throstle spindles and 26,000 mule spindles. The damage was estimated at 30,0007.

2. THE NEW HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE was opened this day at Westminster Hall. The scene gave but little indication to an external observer of the important changes in our system of judicature which from this day come into operation. Crowded as was the old hall, it was not so to any much greater extent than on former anniversaries of Cras Animarum, the legal New Year's day; while the show, which drew together so large a concourse of lawyers, and others interested in the law, differed in no respect from that which has been displayed for many years past at the reopening of the courts after the summer and spring circuits. Shortly after half-past one the Lord Chancellor, in his state robes. of black and gold, and preceded by the insignia of his office, the mace and seals, proceeded up Westminster Hall at the head of the judges of Her Majesty's High Court of Justice. Although the distinctions between law and equity have been abolished the customs have not been made uniform; the chief justices and judges of what were formerly known as the Courts of Common Law retaining their time-honoured furred robes and collars of state, while the judges of the Chancery Division were still resplendent in black and gold lace embroidery. It was noted in the Chancery Courts that the word "action" had taken the place of the old equity term "suit," and that the vice-chancellors were no longer addressed by counsel as "your honour," but with the courtesy title of "your lordship," which has so long been used towards the Common Law judges whilst upon the bench.

3. FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT.-A shocking boating accident occurred near Cliveden this morning. A lady and gentleman from London, well known on the river at Maidenhead, engaged a boat at Rose's boathouse, and notwithstanding the swollen and dangerous state of the river, proceeded as far as Cliveden. In returning they took the back stream running behind Boulter's Lock, supposing they could re-enter the river below. Here they met the cross stream, and the boat was upset. For nearly an hour the gentleman struggled to save the lady, but she was carried away at what is known as the Blowhole, and the gentleman himself was with great difficulty rescued by Richard Andrews and Joseph Gill, fishermen, who crossed the river at the imminent peril of their lives.

EXPLOSION IN HIGH HOLBORN.--A terrible explosion took place the same day in High Holborn. Mr. George Gardener, an optician, residing at 244, High Holborn, and another gentleman, were engaged in chemical experiments. Mr. Gardener informed his friend that he had made a mistake, and on pouring some fluid into a large bottle a frightful explosion took place, blowing out the windows and destroying every article of furniture in the room. Assistance was immediately at hand, and Mr. Gardener was discovered lying in one corner of the room insensible.