156 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. [Nor. 



near Alnwick, from their child- 

 hood. The eldest was verging 

 on 70 years of age, and the 

 youngest not less than 60. They 

 were always together, never 

 known to be at variance ; their 

 thoughts were similar, their feel- 

 ings and actions the same. Since 

 the catastrophe, the following 

 are the circumstances which have 

 transpired. On the morning of 

 Tuesday se'nnight, the tenth, 

 between nine and ten o'clock, 

 while one of them was givinff in- 

 structions to a boy ploughing in 

 one of their fields, the other bro- 

 ther approached, tnd asked, 

 " Are you ready?" Being 

 answered in the affirmative, they 

 left the field together. At dinner 

 they were missing ; but this 

 created little alarm, as accident 

 or some unexpected business 

 relative to the farm might have 

 occasioned their absence. Even- 

 ing arrived, and they did not ap- 

 pear. This naturallj^ excited 

 fearful apprehensions ; and a 

 servant was sent the way they 

 had been seen walking ; when the 

 dreadful discovery was made, 

 that they were no longer in exis- 

 tence. They were lying distant 

 from each other only a few yards, 

 near a ditch, each having his 

 throat cut, and a razor near his 

 body. A watch was also found 

 beside one of them, from which it 

 may be inferred that they had re- 

 solved to die at the same moment. 

 There was not the least appear- 

 ance of scuffle, nor any room for 

 suspicion that they had been 

 murdered by others. A Jury 

 was summoned that night, and 

 continued to hold inquest, ad- 

 journments intt rvening, till 

 Thursday .night, when a verdict 



of felo de se was returned. Tlie 

 farming stock and utensils were 

 then valued, and the bodies were 

 buried at midnight on Saturday 

 in the cross-roads, near th6 

 church. Unseasonable as the 

 hour was, the interment was 

 numerously attended. All seemed 

 to allow the justice of the verdict, 

 though all seemed to lament it. 

 The friends of the deceased 

 attempted to prove insanity, but 

 failed entirely ; their greatest 

 efforts being unable even to 

 establish previous melancholy. 

 Tlie act appears to have been 

 some time premeditated. A hair- 

 dresser who was called before 

 the Jury identified the razors 

 found near the bodies as having 

 been brought to him to sharpen 

 on the Saturday before. This 

 melancholy event, for which no 

 satisfactory cause has been as- 

 signed, will long remain in the 

 recollection of all. 



Yesterday morning the 10th, 

 advices were received in town of 

 the return of Capt. Ross, in the 

 Isabella, with his companion, tlie 

 Alexander sloop, Lieut. Parrj', 

 to Shetland, after a fruitless 

 attempt to penetrate through 

 Behring's Straits past the Ameri- 

 can continent. It is said that 

 Capt. Ross almost reached the 

 latitude of 78°, and traversed the 

 whole of Davis's Straits, and 

 found inhabitants, but could not 

 discover the smallest opening 

 sufficient to admit the entrance 

 of a ship. Science has, however, 

 derived some advantage, as he 

 has been enabled to trace the 

 line of coast with greater accu- 

 racy, and to alter the positions 

 wlych had been assigned to it in 

 all the charts. 



Extract 



