.

* * * * *

+Queries+

PUNISHMENT OF DEATH BY BURNING.

Judging from the astonishment with which I learned from an eye-witness the
circumstance, I think that some of your readers will be surprised to learn
that, within the memory of witnesses still alive, a woman was burnt to
death under sentence of the judge of assize, for the murder of her husband.

This crime--petty treason--was formerly punished with fire and faggot; and
the repeal of the law is mentioned by Lord Campbell in a note to his life
of one of our recent chancellors, but I have not his work to refer to.

The post to which this woman was bound stood, till recently, in a field
adjoining Winchester.

She was condemned to be burnt at the stake; and a marine, her paramour and
an accomplice in the murder, was condemned to be hanged.

A gentleman lately deceased told me the circumstances minutely. I think
that he had been at the trial, but I know that he was at the execution, and
saw the wretched woman fixed to the stake, fire put to the faggots, and her
body burnt. But I know two persons still alive who were present at her
execution, and I endeavoured, in 1848, to ascertain from one of them the
date of this event, and "_made a note_" of his answer, which was to this
effect:--

"I can't recollect the year; but I remember the circumstance well.
It was about sixty-five years ago. I was there alone with the
crowd. I sat on my father's shoulder, and saw them bring her and
the marine to the field. They fixed her neck by a rope to the
stake, and then set fire to the faggots, and burnt her."

She was probably strangled by this rope.

One Query which I would ask is, Was this execution at Winchester, in 1783
(or thereabouts), the last instance in England? and another is, Are you
aware of any other instance in the latter part of the last century?

E.S.S.W.

* * * * *

CORNELIS DREBBEL.

In a very curious little book, entitled _Kronycke van Alemaer_, and
published in that town anno 1645, I read the following particulars about
Cornelis Drebbel, a native of the same city.

Being justly renowned as a natural philosopher, and having made great
progress in mechanics,{7} our Drebbel was named tutor of the young Prince
of Austria, by the emperor Ferdinandus II.; an office which he fulfilled so
well, that he was afterwards chosen councillor to his Majesty, and honoured
with a r