\68 ANNUAL REGISTER, 18l6. 



woods near the Old Upper Blue 

 Bell, on the old road to Maid- 

 stone, they observed a female 

 lying' under a tree, apparently 

 asleep, and passed on without 

 disturbing- her. On the succeed- 

 ing Friday the young men again 

 went nutting to the same place, 

 when, to their extreme surprise, 

 they saw the female lying in the 

 precise place and attitude in w hich 

 they had seen her before : one of 

 them went to her, and took her 

 by the hand ; she was alive, but 

 in such a sitnation, as excited the 

 most sluuidering sensations of 

 horror and disgust, mixed witli 

 sui-]irise, that a human being 

 could retain any portion of ani- 

 mation under such complicated 

 sufTerings of want and wi'etched- 

 ness. She was almost in a state 

 of putrefaction, large maggots 

 were feeding on every part of her 

 frame exposed to the attack of 

 iiie5 ; her nostrils, and even her 

 mouth, weie infested by then! ; 

 behind her ears, between her fin- 

 gers, and between her toes, they 

 were crawling iri sickening" quan- 

 tities 5 and her clothes were lite- 

 rally rotten from long exposure 

 to tlie varying and humid a'lmos- 

 phere. With a laudable alacrity 

 they applied for assistance to the 

 Blue Bell, and with the assistance 

 of tvvo men the anfortuuate s\if- 

 ferer was placed upon a hurdle, 

 and conseyed to an outhouse, 

 where such necessaiics and com- 

 forts as could be procui'ed were 

 inirncdiately prepared for her. Mr. 

 Browne, surgeon of Rochester, 

 was sent for, and immediatelj' 

 came to visit her, and through his 

 humane, kind, and constant at- 

 tention, this unfortunate woman 

 has been rescued from the jaws of 



death, and is now in a fair way 

 of recovery. The account she 

 gives of herself is, that her name 

 is Ann IMartin ; she came from 

 Lewes some time back with an 

 artillery soldier to Chatham bar- 

 racks, but that she had left him, 

 and had determined on returning 

 home to Lewes ; that being des- 

 tit\ite of money, and oppressed 

 by fatigue, she, in a fit of despair, 

 laid heiself down to die ; that 

 she had lain where she was dis- 

 covered ever since the Sunday 

 preceding that on which she 

 was first seen, and consequently 

 had been eleven days and nights 

 without any kind of food. — Kent- 

 ish Gazette. 



'2'3. Conspiracy for Crimes. — A 

 Jew, named Solomons, who has, 

 on account of a deformity in one 

 of his feet, been nicknamed Biib- 

 blefoot, forms one of the leading 

 characters in this plot. This man 

 was emjiloyed by several officers 

 of the police to seaich for objects: 

 he did not fix upon characters 

 notoriously bad, because his own 

 personal exertions and apjiear- 

 ance were necessary, and as he 

 had been more than once tried at 

 the Old Bailey, those who hare 

 been under similar circamstances 

 might liave recognized an old ac- 

 quaintance in him, and shimned 

 or implicated him. He looked 

 amongst the most wretched, but 

 not the most abandoned, and se- 

 lected his victims from amongst 

 the Russians, the Maltese, the 

 Germans, the Irish, as well as 

 the English. His plan was to 

 station himself somewhere in the 

 neighbourhood of tiie Tower, and, 

 when he saw a sailor who had 

 spent all his money, or been lob- 

 bed of itj he would, with pre- 

 tended 



