Replies.

HAS EXECUTION BY HANGING BEEN SURVIVED?

(Vol. ix., pp. 174. 280.)

The copious Notes of your correspondents on this subject have only left the opportunity for a few stray gleanings in the field of their researches, which may, however, not prove uninteresting.

The compiler of a curious 12mo. (A Memorial for the Learned, by J. D., Gent., London, 1686) records, among "Notable Events in the Reign of Henry VI.," that,—

"Soon after the good Duke of Gloucester was secretly murthered, five of his menial servants, viz. Sir Roger Chamberlain, Knt., Middleton, Herber, Artzis, Esq., and John Needham, Gent., were condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered; and hanged they were at Tyburn, let down quick, stript naked, marked with a knife to be quartered; and then the Marquess of Suffolk brought their pardon, and delivered it at the place of execution, and so their lives were saved."—P. 77.

The following document from the Patent Rolls of the forty-eighth year of the reign of King Henry III. (skin 5.) affords conclusive evidence of the affirmative:

"Rex omnibus, etc. salutem. Quia Inetta de Balsham pro receptamento latronum et imposito nuper per considerationem curie nostre suspendio adjudicata, et ab horâ nonâ diei Iune usque post ortum solis diei martis sequen. suspensa, viva evasit, sicut ex testimonio fide dignorum accipimus. Nos, divinæ charitatis intuitu, pardonavimus eidem Inetta sectam pacis nostre que ad nos pertinet pro receptamento predicto, et firmam pacem nostrum ei inde concedimus. In cujus, etc. Teste Rege apud Cantuar. XVI^o. die Augusti.

"Convenit cum recordo Laur. Halsted, Deput. Algern. May. mil."

Plot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire, p. 292., quotes this pardon, and suggests that possibly

"She could not be hanged, upon account that the larynx, or upper part of her windpipe, was turned to bone, as Fallopius (Oper., tom. i., Obs. Anat., tract. 6.) tells us he has sometimes found it, which possibly might be so strong, that the weight of her body could not compress it, as it happened in the case of a Swiss, who, as I am told by the Rev. Mr. Obadiah Walker, Master of University College, was attempted to be hanged no less than thirteen times, yet lived notwithstanding, by the benefit of his windpipe, that after his death was found to have turned into a bone; which yet is still wonderful, since the circulation of the blood must be stopt, however, unless his veins and arteries were likewise turned to bone, or the rope not slipt close."

Besides the account of Anne Green, Denham, in the 4th book of his Physico-Theology, quotes the following instance from Rechelin (De Aere et Alim. defect., cap. vii.),—

"Of a certain woman hang'd, and in all appearance dead, who was nevertheless restored to life by a physician accidentally coming in, and ordering a plentiful administration of the spirit of sal ammoniac."

(See also The Uncertainty of the Signs of Death, and the Danger of precipitate Interments and Dissections demonstrated, 12mo., London, 1751.)

A paragraph, stating that Fauntleroy, the notorious forger, had survived his execution, and was living abroad, has more than once gone the round of the newspapers. It is sometimes added that his evidence was required in a Chancery suit,—absurdly enough, as, if not actually, he was at least legally dead.

The story of Brodie, executed October, 1788, for an excise robbery at Edinburgh, is probably familiar to most. The self-possession and firmness with which he met his fate was the result of a belief in the possibility of his resuscitation:

"It is a curious fact, that an attempt was made to resuscitate Brodie immediately after the execution. The operator was Degravers, whom Brodie himself had employed. His efforts, however, were utterly abortive. A person who witnessed the scene, accounted for the failure by saying that the hangman, having been bargained with for a short fall, his excess of caution made him shorten the rope too much at first, and when he afterwards lengthened it, he made it too long, which consequently proved fatal to the experiment."—Curiosities of Biography, 8vo., Glasgow, 1845.

There is a powerfully-written story in Blackwood's Magazine, April, 1827, entitled "Le Revenant," in which a resuscitated felon is supposed to describe his feelings and experience. The author, in his motto, makes a sweeping division of mankind:—"There are but two classes in the world—those who are hanged, and those who are not hanged; and it has been my lot to belong to the former." Many well-authenticated cases might still be adduced; but enough at least has now probably been said upon the subject, to show the possibility of surviving the tender mercies of Professor Calcraft and his fraternity.

William Bates.

Birmingham.

In Atkinson's Medical Bibliography, A. and B., under the head "Bathurst Rodolphus," is the following:

"Nuremberg, 4to., 1655. On a maid who recovered after being hanged.

"This is the remarkable case of Elizabeth Gren, whom Bathurst and Dr. Willis restored after being executed, i. e. hanged, for infanticide. 'Vena incisa refocillata est.'

"These poor creatures are seldom considered as maids, after being hanged for infanticide. A similar recovery also happened to a man who had been executed for murder at York. My father had the body for public dissection. Whether the law then required the body to be hung for one hour or not, I cannot say; but I well remember my father's observation, that it was a pity the wretch had ever been restored, as his morals were by no means improved. Hanging is therefore by no means a cure for immorality, and it will be needless (in any of us) trying the experiment'—P. 255.

H. J.

Sheffield.

There is a record of a person being alive immediately after hanging, in the Local Historian's Table-book, vol. ii. pp. 43, 44., and under the date May 23, 1752. It is there stated, Ewan Macdonald, a recruit in General Guise's regiment of Highlanders, then quartered in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, murdered a cooper named Parker, and was executed on September 28, pursuant to his sentence. He was only nineteen years of age, and at the gallows endeavoured to throw the executioner off the ladder. The statement concludes with—"his body was taken to the surgeons' hall and there dissected;" and the following is appended as a foot-note:

"It was said that, after the body was taken to the surgeons' hall, and placed ready for dissection, the surgeons were called to attend a case at the infirmary, who, on their return, found Macdonald so far recovered as to be sitting up. He immediately begged for mercy; but a young surgeon, not wishing to be disappointed of the dissection, seized a wooden mall, with which he deprived him of life. It was farther reported, as the just vengeance of God, that this young man was soon after killed in the stable by his own horse. They used to show a mall at the surgeons' hall, as the identical one used by the surgeon."

Robert S. Salmon.

Newcastle-on-Tyne.

The case of Anne Green is attested by a third witness:

"In December, 1650, he was one of the persons concerned in recovering Anne Green to life, who was hanged at Oxford on the 14th, for the supposed murther of her bastard child."—"Memoir of Sir William Petty, Knt.," prefixed to Several Essays on Political Arithmetic, p. 3., 4th edit., London, 1755.

Cpl.

COLERIDGE'S CHRISTABEL.

(Vol. vii., pp. 206. 292; Vol. viii., pp. 11. 111.)

Mr. J. S. Warden might well express astonishment at the rash and groundless statement in "Blackwood" (Dec. 1839), that the third part of Christabel which Dr. Maginn sent to that magazine in 1820 "perplexed the public, and pleased even Coleridge." How far the "discerning public" were imposed upon I know not; the following extract will show how far the poet-philosopher was "pleased" with the parody.

"If I should finish 'Christabel,' I shall certainly extend it, and give new characters, and a greater number of incidents. This the 'reading public' require, and this is the reason that Sir Walter Scott's poems, though so loosely written, are pleasing, and interest us by their picturesqueness. If a genial recurrence of the ray divine should occur for a few weeks, I shall certainly attempt it. I had the whole of the two cantos in my mind before I began it; certainly the first canto is more perfect, has more of the true wild weird spirit than the last. I laughed heartily at the continuation in 'Blackwood,' which I have been told is by Maginn. It is in appearance, and in appearance only, a good imitation. I do not doubt but that it gave more pleasure, and to a greater number, than a continuation by myself in the spirit of the two first (sic) cantos (qu. would give)."—Letters, &c., Moxon, 1836, vol. i. pp. 94-5.

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

Birmingham.

GENERAL WHITELOCKE.

(Vol. ix., p. 201.)

General Whitelocke being on a visit to Aboyne Castle, in this county, the seat of the late Marquis of Huntley, then Earl of Aboyne, and a public market being held in the neighbourhood, the Earl, the General, and some other visitors, were seen sauntering amongst the cattle and the tents of the fair. Amongst the attenders of the country markets at that period was a woman of the name of Tibby Masson, well known in this city for her masculine character and deeds of fearlessness. Tibby had accompanied her husband, who was a soldier, to South America; and, along with him, had been present at the unfortunate siege of Buenos Ayres; and, as a trophy of her valour, she brought with her an enormous-sized silver watch, which she declared she had taken from the person of a Spanish officer who lay wounded in the neighbourhood of the city after the engagement. Tibby was standing by her "sweetie" (confectionary) stall in the Aboyne Market when the Earl and Whitelocke, and the other gentlemen, were passing, and she at once recognised her old commander. They stopped, and the General tasted some of her "sweeties," and saucily declared that they were abominably bad. Upon which Tibby immediately retorted: "They are a great deal better than the timmer (wooden) flints that you gave our soldiers at Bonny's Airs." On hearing this, the consternation of Whitelocke and his friends can more easily be imagined than described. They all fled from the field with the utmost rapidity, leaving Tibby completely victorious; and the General, so far as is known, never again visited Aberdeenshire.

B. B.

Aberdeen.

I have not access to a file of newspapers, but have been frequently told by an old pensioner, who served under General Whitelocke: "We marched into Bowsan Arrys (as he pronounced Buenos Ayres) without ere a flint in our muskets."

L. G.

The subjoined charade, which I have seen years ago, is perhaps preferable:

I have also seen a sort of parody upon the above applied to Waterloo:

M. J. C.

If the jeu d'esprit on the above name be worthy of preservation, the more correct version of it is as follows:

The authorship was ascribed (I believe with truth) to a lady of the name of Belson.

M. (2)

The following is the correct version:

N. L. J.

General Whitelocke died at Clifton, in his house in Princes Buildings.

Anon.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

Gravelly Wax Negatives.—The only remedy I am acquainted with is to use the paper within twenty-four hours after excitement. I have tried the methods of Messrs. Crookes, Fenton, and How; in every case I was equally annoyed with gravel, if excited beyond that time; in fact, I believe all the good wax negatives have been taken within twelve hours. The Rev. Wm. Collings, who has produced such excellent wax negatives, 24 in. × 18 (several were sent to the late Exhibition of the Photographic Society), informs me the above is quite his experience, and that he excites his papers for the day early in the morning. The cause lies, I believe, in the fault of homogeneity of the waxed paper, arising from unevenness in the structure of the paper exaggerated by the transparency of the wax, partly, perhaps, from a semi-crystallizing of the wax in cooling, and also from its being adulterated with tallow, resin, &c. As a consequence of this, the paper is filled with innumerable hard points; the iodizing and exciting solutions are unequally absorbed, and the actinic influence acting more on the weak points, produces under gallic acid a speckled appearance, if decomposition has gone to any length in the exciting nitrate by keeping. The céroléine process, by its power of penetrating, will, I hope, produce an homogeneous paper, and go far to remove this annoyance.

In answer to a former Query by Mr. Hele, Whatman's paper of 1849 is lightly sized, and not hard rolled, so that twenty minutes' washing in repeated water sufficed to remove the iodide of potassium, and if long soaked the paper became porous, often letting the gallic acid through in the development. I have lately been trying Turner's and Sandford's papers; they require three or four hours' repeated washing to get rid of the salts, being very hard rolled. Many negatives on Turner's paper, especially if weak, exhibit a structural appearance like linen, the unequal density gives almost exactly the same gravelly character as wax, as the positive I inclose, taken from such a negative, shows. Not only ought collodion to be "structureless," as Mr. Shadbolt well expresses it, but likewise all the other substrata of iodide of silver.

T. L. Mansell.

Guernsey.

Photographic Experience.—The plan proposed by Dr. Mansell, in the last Number of "N. & Q.," for comparison of photographic experiences, will, I am sure, prove of much practical advantage and I therefore lose no time in filling up the table published in your paper:

I would also suggest that the character of the object copied should be included in the above table. My answer supposes a light-coloured building, of an ordinary sandstone colour. A view comprising foliage would require a much longer time for its full development. In working on the sea-coast, I find that the dark slate rocks of north Cornwall require an exposure in the camera half as long again as the blue mountain limestone cliffs of South Wales, which abound in actinic power.

J. D. Llewelyn.

Pen-ller-gaer.