| Citation |
NHG-P.772.107
20 Nov 1772:12 (840)
Extract of a Letter from Portsmouth, Aug. 9. Last Thursday
Evening, 4 miles from this garrison, at a place called
Wimering, several gentlemen's servants of both sexes, had a
dance in a barn. After their dance they got several hand
bells, and other noisy instruments, and out of a little
sport went to a lone house in a field near them, where a
single man, a labourer, was a-bed, in order to fright him.
The man rose out of his bed, and having a gun in his room,
loaded it with large swan-shot, and swore he would shoot
them. A lady's servant near them, a maid and the coachman
(not concerned in the dance, or with the company) ran down
to the field to see what was the matter, and just as they
came on the spot the man fired, killed the innocent maid,
and dangerously wounded the man.--The maid's jaws were torn
all to pieces, and great part of her ear, so that she
immediately expired, and the coachman is so ill, that it is
not expected he will soon recover. The fellow was taken and
lodged in our goal, in order to be sent to Winchester to
take his trial at the next assizes.
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