201 



garell of $ittlet<rte. 



(No. 2.) 

 By C. E. Long, Esq. 

 N the previous communication 1 respecting the life and ad- 

 jjij ventures of the last of the Darells of Littlecote, William 

 Darell, but better known by the sobriquet conferred upon him by 

 popular tradition of " Wild Darell," a prospect was held out of the 

 possibility of some additions to the narrative in the way of supple- 

 ment. At that time little else than the correction of a few errors, 

 and the printing in full of one or two of the original papers then cur- 

 sorily noticed, seemed, in the least likely to be forthcoming. In the 

 mean while some most unlooked for discoveries, made at the Rolls' 

 Office by my friend, Mr. Duffus Hardy, although they do not conduct 

 us to the point originally aimed at, viz. the charge of the murder, 

 and the trial and acquittal of the prisoner, yet bring to light some 

 startling incidents in our hero's eccentric and not very creditable 

 career. 



The perusal of them will, doubtless, lead many who would incul- 

 pate even innocence itself, so that their faith in mystery and murder 

 should not be shaken, to argue that, with such antecedents and ac- 

 companiments, Darell was guilty, or at all events capable, of the 

 outrage and crime which popular parochial tradition has affixed to 

 his memory. 



In the first place it seems most fitting to correct, according to 

 the succession of the paging, those errors which have crept into 

 the previous communication. 



1. Vol. iv. p. 213 and notes p. 229. In allusion to Darell's 

 sister, she is ambiguously 6poken of as being, possibly, of the 

 half blood. It is clear that si o was not. What became of her, 

 whether she really married Egremont Ratcliffe, as was hinted, and 

 as Mr. Buyloy in his history of the Tower distinctly assorts 



1 Wilts Arolnrological Magazine, vol. iv. i>. '2<)'.». 



N 



