LOCAL SUMMARY.
This day we enter ‟the leafy month of June” with fair prospects. Haymaking has already commenced in some districts, and the crops are heavy. All the produce of the earth is coming along rapidly and abundantly. Green peas will be gathered next week, and we shall be looking forward to the exhibitions of garden produce with some interest in a few weeks. While Nature is doing her good work in furnishing us with the necessaries of life, the ups and downs in everyday life pass along dat after day and week after week. Births, deaths, and marriages occur in our little sphere with the same certainty of about a column each week. One of the most distressing deaths we have to record this week took place at Petersfield on Sunday last. Miss Waller, a lady residing in that town, fell down dead in the church while the rite of baptism was being administered. There was apparently nothing whatever the matter with the lady, indeed it is reported that she looked unusually cheerful in the morning. (See also 1-Jun-1865) This is a sad illustration of the uncertainty of life. One of the most remarkable reports in our paper this week is that of Stares v. Bowler. This is a trial now proceeding in the Probate Court to try the validity of a codicil to a will made fifteen years ago, and which has recently been brought to light. It seems that an eccentric old gentleman named Ring sometime ago died leaving property to the amount of about £100,000. He bequeathed it in a remarkable manner, directing that the bulk should accumulate for 21 years and then go to the heir male. In 1862 Miss Bowler, on of the executors, received an anonymous communication, purporting to be the copy of a codicil of the late Mr. Ring, which was made in 1850, and which was not to be made known until 12 years afterwards. This codicil revokes much of the previous will, which has been acted upon, in disposing of the property in other ways. The codicil appears to be properly drawn up and executed, but, singular to say, the solicitor who is alleged to have drawn it up, and the attending witnesses are all dead. Nor is there any entry in the solicitor’s books to show that such a codicil was charged for. The inference, therefore, is that it is a forgery. It will be seen that several witnesses have given evidence to that effect. The case is very romantic: and, as will be seen, the judge has treated the codicil as a forgery, and a very clumsy one! It is certainly one of the most remarkable forgeries on record. We notice that Portsmouth contemplates adopting the Public House Act, and we get some curious revelations of the existence of public houses in the borough. In the town of Portsmouth there is one public-house or beer-house to every six houses! Hear that, ye temperance orators! The average number of beer-houses and public-houses throughout the whole borough is one to every nineteen houses. Altogether there are 822 public and beer houses in the borough. No wonder we receive so much bench intelligence and so many drunken cases from this great arsenal town. Brighton is busy with its confessional uproar. We have spoken elsewhere of the disgraceful meeting of the Protestant Association, and the wretched assault upon the Rev. A. Wagner. We see further that Miss Katherine Ann Gream, Lady Superior of the St. Mary’s Hospital, has obtained summonses against three women for annoying the inmates of that institution, throwing stones at the windows, &c. Mr. Wagner has also written to the daily papers, emphatically denying the statements of Mr. Whalley in reference to Miss Scobell’s connection with his institution. The public are getting heartily sick of the Whalley-Wagner correspondence. The Roman Catholic Oath Bill passed into Committee on Tuesday night. Lord Edward Howard, member for Arundel, spoke in favor of the bill.Our advertising columns tell us that Professor Fawcett will solicit the suffrages of the electors of Brighton. This was naturally expected. If no other liberal is brought forward—and we should really think that Brighton would not make itself ridiculous again in this matter—then we may depend on it that Mr. White and Professor Fawcett will sit in the House for Brighton. There are two liberals and two conservatives for Lewes; but Lewes has always been liberal, and will not retrograde. It is fully expected that East Sussex will return two liberals at the next election. It will be seen that every preparation is made for the Whitsuntide holidays by the London and Brighton Railway Company. We give our usual time table for June in this week’s paper.
Ancestry shows the Burial Register at Steep for Mary Ann Waller age 21yrs
