Hampden House, Reading.
There is a tree called by this name a few miles from Winchester, in the parish of Tichborne or Cheriton,—I think the latter, but have no means of ascertaining at the present moment. Mention of it is made in Duthy's Sketches of Hampshire.
L. G.
MITIGATION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TO A FORGER.
(Vol. iv., p. 434.)
The case related by MR. GATTY is interesting, but requires sifting. Perhaps he will be good enough to do it, or to put me on the trail. As the energetic sister may be a reader of "N. & Q.," I do not wish to annoy her by printing the forger's name, but I shall be glad to have the place and date of the conviction.
About twenty years ago, the rule of hanging for forgery was broken in the case of Fry, a school-master, who was sentenced to death without any hope of mercy, and not reprieved till he had heard the "condemned sermon"—I think, not till the day before that which was fixed for his execution. He showed great fear; rolled upon the chapel floor, and delivered to the sheriffs a well-written protest against the right to inflict capital punishment. His being spared caused much surprise; and between that event and the abolition of the punishment of death for forgery, few, if any, were executed for that crime.
The sister, falling, at the feet of Baron G——, who "was notorious for his unflinching obduracy," is a melo-dramatic event which, I think, would have found its way to the newspapers. But the most extraordinary thing is the conclusion:
"The forger was placed in the hulks prior to transportation; and before this took place he had forged a pass or order from the Home Secretary's office for his own liberation, which procured his release, and he was never afterwards heard of."
Letters to convicts in the hulks are opened by the officers before being delivered to the prisoners. It is not usual for the Home Secretary to write to a convict enclosing "a pass or order." On the contrary, a pardon is attended with a good number of formalities, and without one I do not think that any convict would have been allowed to quit the vessel. In that class of prisoners, leave of absence on parole, or a "day rule," would have been something peculiar enough to make the turnkey ask, "Where did you get this?" In short, a convict who made his escape as described must be as extraordinary a person as the strong American, who could sit in a basket and lift himself upon a table by the handles.
"She returned to the city at which the assizes had been held just as they were concluded. The two judges were in the act of descending the cathedral nave, after partaking of the Holy Sacrament, when," &c.