HUMAN FIGURE IN ICE. 301 



IX. 



Account of a remarkable Appearance in the Ice of a Pond in 

 which a man was drowned. (W. N.) 



ON the west side of the road leading from Petworth to Local situa- 

 Chicbester, at the distance of about four miles from that £™ J?,* 1°** 

 city, stands Halnaker House, formerly the seat of the Earl of man was 

 Derby, by right of his wife, heiress of Sir William Morley, and ^XaTei- 1 " 

 more anciently of West, Lord de la War. On the west side of p a rk, Sussex, 

 the park, are certain stables, and other buildings, inclosing a 

 farm yard j in which is a pond of about 18 or 20 feet across, 

 and 5 feet deep in the middle. A man was drowned in this 

 pond in the month of November last ; and the circumstances 

 attending the discovery of his body were so curious and uncom- 

 mon, that they occasioned much conversation at the time j but 

 it does not appear that any probable explanation of their cause 

 was pointed out. 



Very lately I was much gratified by a discussion of this Authentic 

 subject in a select company of men of talents and observation, statement of 

 where we had the advantage of the facts being stated by the 

 Rev. James Webber, Chaplain to the House of Commons, who 

 was an eye witness. The clearness and precision with which this 

 gentleman stated the events to us, gave a much more lively interest 

 to the whole : for the narrative in the public prints, which had 

 appeared most remarkable for its strangeness, and perhaps liable 

 to doubt, now assumed the form of an authentic and accurate 

 philosophical incident, capable of being examined and investi- 

 gated. I did not scruple to request Mr. Webber Jo favour me 

 with such written minutes as his own recollection, or enquiries 

 among his friends, might afford, in order that I might com- 

 municate the same to my readers, with those deductions and 

 remarks which, with the advantage of the conversation before by respectable 

 mentioned, I might be enabled to make : and it is to his ready eve * wltnesses - 

 attention to my request, that I am obliged for the following 

 statement, which I have made in my own words from his com- 

 munication, and those of his brother, Mr. Archdeacon Webber, 

 Vicar of Boxgrove, and the Rev. Mr. Valintine, Domestic 

 Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Chichester. 



About the 14th or 15th of December last, the pond in The figure of a 



Halnaker Park, having been frozen over by the hard weather Inai ) was s een 



on the ice ; 

 which 



