352 KINGSCLERE 



bricks from the partition wall, separating it from a back 

 parlour and leaving a light picture over the hole. We 

 then went into the back parlour, where we could hear dis- 

 tinctly what passed in the front parlour.' What they 

 heard was incriminatory enough. A number of witnesses, 

 including the Rev. W. M. Dudley, vicar of Whitchurch 

 and rector of Laverstoke, were called and bore testimony 

 to the irreproachable character of the prisoner Brewer, all 

 of them having known him intimately for years. The 

 verdict was guilty in the case of the prisoners Buncher 

 and Griffiths (who had printed the notes), Burnett having 

 pleaded guilty. Brewer was acquitted. Robert Cummings 

 was then charged, on a distinct indictment, with having 

 feloniously, and without lawful authority or excuse, ioo 

 sheets of paper, with the words ' Bank of England ' 

 visible upon them in his possession. Griffiths, against 

 whom it was in evidence that for a considerable number 

 of years he had been engaged at a regular trade in forging 

 bank-notes, was sentenced to be kept in penal servitude 

 for the remainder of his natural life. Buncher, who had 

 received the stolen paper, was sentenced to twenty-five 

 years' penal servitude, and Burnett to be kept in penal 

 servitude for twenty years. Williams, convicted on his own 

 confession of preparing and engraving some of the plates, 

 got off with four years' penal servitude, while Collings was 

 acquitted on a technical ground. 



THE NATURAL FOALING PERIOD 



A correspondent of the ' Sportsman ' (* Holderness '), 

 who had read a published letter of Mr. John Porter's, in 

 which he had stated his belief that ' early foaling will not 

 be found amongst horses running wild and in their 

 natural state,' wrote as follows : — ' During an experience 

 of thirty-five years on the Indian frontier of Chile and the 

 Pampas of the River Plate, I have observed that, as a 

 matter of fact, the wild mares of South America, running 

 in " troperos," do rarely drop their foals before October, at 

 which time the spring grass is coming nicely on. For 

 those foals dropped early [earlier ?] on the conditions 

 of survival are extremely severe. During August and 

 September sharp frosts, alternating with heavy rains and 

 cold " Pampero " winds, are prevalent. Hence the un- 



