day at Sheet, near
Peterhead, and were found in possession of the clothing of the
deceased. In due course of time they were tried at Kingston, and
on the 7th of April, 1787, were hung and gibbeted in chains on
Hind Head Hill, beside the old road and close to the scene of
their crime.

A cross now marks the summit, and indicates the spot where stood
the gallows, and a stone for some time pointed out the locality
where the murder was committed. When, however, the new Portsmouth
Road was cut further down the hill, skirting the Punch-Bowl at a
lower level, then the stone was removed to the side of the new
road. At present it is an object visited by vast numbers of
holiday-makers, who seem to take almost as lively an interest
in the crime that was committed over a century ago as if it were
an event of the present day. At the time the murder aroused the
greatest possible excitement in the neighborhood, and pre-eminently
in the parish of Thursley.

As may be gathered from the wording of the inscription on the
tombstone that covers the victim, his name never transpired. No
relations claimed the right to bury him. None appeared to take
charge of his orphan child.

The parish fretted, it fumed, it protested. But fret, fume, and
protest availed nothing, it had to defray the cost of the funeral,
and receive and lap the child in its parochial mercies.

A deceased wife's sister undoubtedly existed somewhere. Such was
the conviction of every parishioner. The poor man was on his way
to Portsmouth to deposit his child with her when the tragic event
took place. Why did she not come forward? Why did she hold her
tongue?

Had there existed in her bosom one particle of natural feeling
she would not have remained mute and motionless, and allowed the
parish to bury her brother-in-law and encumber itself with her
niece.

So the parish talked, appealingly, argumentatively, blusteringly,
objurgatively, but all to no purpose. The deceased wife's sister
kept mum, and invisible. Reluctantly, resentfully, the parish was
finally obliged to face the facts, pay the expenses of the
interment, and settle that a weekly dole should be afforded for
the maintenance of the child, and as that deceased wife's sister
did not appear, the parochial bile overflowed upon the hapless
babe, who came to be regarded as an incubus on the ratepayers and
a general nuisance.

The one difficulty that solved itself--ambulando, was that as to
who would take charg