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Considerable excitement prevails at Cheltenham in consequence of the discovery of the body of a female child, about three months old, on the premises of Mr. W. T. SMITH, at the rear of Brunswick House Promenade. It appears that some workmen were employed on the premises Friday last, when one of them, a man named JONES, had occasion to go into the scullery. While there he heard a bell ring, and not seeing the bell his curiosity became aroused, and he searched for its position. Observing a hole in the wall under the stairs, about seven feet from the ground, he clambered up to it, and there saw the bell which had awakened his curiosity. His eyes, however, fell upon what he took to be a bundle, placed upon some boards in the hole. On examination the bundle was found to be covered by a coloured pocket handkerchief, one corner of which fell off and exposed something white. Touching the bundle, JONES was impressed with the idea that it contained the body of a child. He mentioned the fact to a fellow workman, and on the following morning (Saturday) the police were sent for, the bundle was removed from its place, and found to contain the body of a female child, in a state of decomposition, the eyes being completely gone, and the orbits covered with a mouldy matter. The housemaid, ELIZABETH HALE, a fine-looking young woman, from the Forest of Dean, was known to have been confined in November of a female child, at the house of a Mrs. HEST, in Lower Park street, from whence she had removed the child a few weeks ago, without assigning any reason for such a step. Her mistress had questioned her as to the whereabouts and condition of the infant, and on one occasion HALE said the child had been dead about a fortnight from that time, that it died of inflammation of the chest, and that her mother had attended to the burying of it. She was taken into custody, and on Monday brought up before the Magistrates, and by them remanded to wait the result of the Coroner’s inquest, which was held on Monday night. After being several times cautioned by the Coroner respecting any statements she might make, the prisoner said she took the child from Mrs. HEST’s for the purpose of placing it with a Mrs. FERKINS, near the Burial Ground; that she walked about with the child in her arms for more than an hour; and that on looking at it she found it dead. She took it to her place of service, and had it in bed with her that night. In the morning she wrapped it up in a bundle and placed it where it was found, stating that it was a place “where no one need look, and she intended to take it down home with her in the summer and then bury it.” The jury returned a verdict of “Wilful murder” against her, and she was committed on the Coroner’s warrant. On Tuesday morning she was again taken before the Magistrates, when the same evidence having been gone through the prisoner was committed on the same charge.
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