310
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. xn. OCT. 17, im
actress as Penelope from Reynolds's brush
was exhibited some thirty years ago at South
Kensington, and a negative from the picture
is still preserved there. W. J. LAWRENCE.
28, Haddiugton Road, Dublin.
MANNINGS AND TAWELL.
(9 th S. xii. 148, 194, 229, 277.)
You can hardly expect your readers to take your "assertion and that of MR. PEA- COCK on trust," that the crime committed by Tawell " was worse than revolting unutterable." You could not, you say, convey what you "know" even in a dead language. After thus exciting the interest of your readers, you will, I doubt not, allow me to state how the case really stands at the present time. All the facts connected with the crime were duly proved in open court, and in the Times of 13, 14, and 15 March, 1845, there is a full report of the trial, and there is also a good summary of the evidence in the 'Annual Register' for that year, p. 365, and in Latham, Browne, and Stewart's ' Trials for Murder by Poison- ing.'
All the evidence was reported and nothing kept back, and as MR. WELFORD has pointed out it was clearly proved that Tawell poisoned Sarah Hart by putting prussic acid in stout, of which she was very fond. In the Times of 29 March there is a full account of the execution. See also the ' Annual Register,' p. 42. The newspaper reporters were, however, refused admission into the prison, but they were informed that Tawell had handed in a written confession to the chaplain that he had committed the murder and also that he had attempted to poison barah Hart in the previous September, not, however m the way supposed, but with mor- phia. The confession was said to be a short one. Ihe chaplain refused to give a copy of it to the reporters, and he would not even present a copy of it to the justices, as he stated that Tawell told him that he did not want his written confession to be published but he appears to have been quite willing that the chaplain should let it be known that he had confessed his guilt. A rumour then got about that Tawell had not killed Sarah Hart in the way proved at the trial, but
More th ClrC Tff anCe8 f revoltin * cruelty." than fifty years ago I heard this urnour. I do not think many
has been
I venture to say that not a single fact can
be produced to show that the cause of death
proved at the trial was not the true one.
MR. PEACOCK says that he " heard the details
from a most trustworthy source." Will he
inform your readers what this trustworthy
source is? Somebody not named who pro-
fessed to know the true facts must have told
him " the details," and that is all it comes to ;
but that somebody must have got his in-
formation from somebody else, and so we go
back to the rumour which got about shortly
after the execution. As all the facts known
to the Crown were proved at the trial, what
other source of information is there except
what Tawell stated or was supposed to have
stated either in his written confession or to
the prison authorities ? It is clear that not
a tittle of trustworthy evidence has been
produced to prove that Tawell ever wrote or
said anything to justify the positive asser-
tions of yourself and MR. PEACOCK. May I
ask whether your knowledge is derived from
the same "trustworthy source" as that of
MR. PEACOCK? Now suppose that Tawell
did make a statement that he had not
murdered the woman in the way proved at
the trial, criminals are such liars that I
should think that most of your readers
would prefer to rely on the evidence given
at the trial.
"The full particulars of Tawell's crime were never divulged in print no newspaper dare give them." The sworn evidence given in court was, as I have before stated, all "divulged in print," and the newspapers could not, of course, publish the rumour, which was no doubt too revolting for pub- lication.
The prosecution, I may add, was conducted by one of the most astute men that ever practised at the bar, Mr. Serjeant Byles, and Mr. Fitzroy Kelly did the best he could with a very bad case.
G. 0. W. says, "I knew intimately one of the medical men concerned, and from him I had all the facts." I shall feel much obliged to G. C. W. if he will state the name of this medical man, and also state in what way he was " concerned " in the case.
Inner Temple.
HARRY B. POLAND.
It does not appear to be generally known
that the career of the murderer Tawell sup-
plied the main incidents from which John
Cleveland Mr. John Hilton, of South Hack-
ney, himself a Quaker draws Ralph Arnot,
the hero of his remarkable novel 'The Chil-
dren of Silence ' (Isbister & Co., 1902). Indeed
writing in the British Weekly of 15 January
