THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY & NATURALIST. 



75 



narrated a strange incident which happened, it said, 

 in Hampshire 112 years ago. I know that sometimes 

 cases of this sort are over-coloured in even religious 

 magazines, and so on Monday, April 2ist, 1890, being 

 at Meon, I decided to ascertain if any such fact was 

 locally known. In the old churchyard I found on 

 grave stones the names of both Bignell and Earwaker, 

 and still the names exist near the locality. The clergy- 

 man here is over 90, and he occasionally does duty, 

 and most always manages to preach an extempore 

 sermon of 40 or 45 minutes. 



The parish register shows the fact of the death of 

 the person under the circumstances recorded, and if 

 any doubt they can see the register. 



The box is still in the village, and the farm-house is 

 known. I have not seen the box, but I am told where 

 I can see it, and the parish register I can see on my 

 next visit. GEO. PARKER. 



St. Mark's-road, Southampton. 



FROM THE EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE OF JANUARY, 1802. 



The following narrative was lately communicated by Mr. 

 John Bignell, jun. He resides at Mr. Robert Bowyer's, 

 Pallmall ; who also can testify the truth of it. 



" In the year 1778, there died at Meonstoke, in Hamp- 

 shire, a Mr. Thomas Wyatt, by trade a wheelwright. He 

 had, through his own industry, accumulated a sufficiency 

 to live the latter part of his days independent. Messrs. 

 John and Francis Bignell being his nearest relations, he 

 made them his executors, and left them the greater part of 

 his property. Having many distant relations, however, 

 and being of a generous disposition, he bequeathed to each 

 of them 2 trifling legacy. For this purpose he had con- 

 cealed a certain sum of money under the floor, at the 

 bottom of a closet, specifying particulars in a letter which 

 he had left written in Latin, directed to Mr. John Bignell. 

 After the funeral the above-mentioned money was searched 

 for, but could not be found. Mr. Wyatt having only a ser- 

 vant-maid in the house with him for some years before his 

 decease, the executors concluded that she must be the 

 person who had it, and accordingly accused her of having 

 done so. She denied it in the most solemn manner, wish- 

 ing that God might stiike her dead if she had ever seen it. 

 After being discharged she went to a lodging in the same 

 village. The executors still concluding that the money 

 must have been taken away by her, procured a warrant 

 and proper officers in order to search her lodging. 

 Upon their entering the house, she met them 

 with the greatest cheerfulness, still declaring 

 that she had never seen the money. They proceeded first 

 to search the upper part of the house. After having gone 

 through several rooms, she said ' Now we have been in 

 all the rooms upstairs we will go down,' but they perceived 

 another door, which they soon found led to her apart- 

 ment. As soon as they entered this room they observed 

 a box, which was locked. Upon demanding the key, she 

 said she had lost it. In consequence of their threatening 

 to break it open, however, she took the key out of her 

 pocket, and unlocked the box herself; but immediately on 

 its being opened she was observed to take out something, 

 and attempt to put it into her pocket. On stopping her 

 hand they found it to be a silver tooth-pick, which be- 

 longed to Mr. Wyatt ; and searching further into the box 

 they discovered sheets, table-cloths, spoons, a pair of 

 silver buckles, &c., all of which she had taken from him. 

 At the bottom of the box they found the money in a 



smaller box, which Mr. Wyatt had particularly described. 

 Finding herself thus detected she fell down on the bed, 

 and expired immediately. 



" N.B. Among other legacies which Mr. Wyatt left he 

 had bequeathed fifty pounds to his servant, and which 

 bequest was thus expressed: 'To my true and faithful 

 servant, Elizabeth Earwaker,' <S*c. After her death there 

 arose a dispute between two of her relations, concerning 

 whose right it was to receive her legacy, in consequence of 

 which one of them went and hanged himself. 



" J. BIGNELL, JUN." 



WEATHER REPORT FOR THE WEEK. 



From the meteorological register, made at the Ordnance 

 Survey Office, Southampton, under the direction of Col. Sir 

 Chas. Wilson, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., F.R.S., R.E. Lat. 50' 

 54' 50" N. ; long, i" 24' o" W. ; height above sea, 84 feet. 

 Observers Sergt. T. Chambers, R.E., and Mr. J. T. Cook. 



* Black bulb in vacuo. 



THE HAMPSHIRE INDEPENDENT, May 17, 16 



WEST MEON AND THE CIVIL WAR. 



" Peter Lombard " contributed the following 

 further notes on the Meon country to The Church 

 Times of April 3 last : 



In a former paper I gave Edward VI's inventories 

 ofEastmeon and two chapelries in the parish, viz. , 

 Westbury and " the chapel in the field," and I said 

 that I had not local knowledge enough to identify the 

 latter. An old friend and former pupil of mine, Mr. 

 T. W. Shore, of the Hartley Institution, Southamp- 

 ton, solves the difficulty, and tells me that it is Frox- 

 field, now a separate parish, but formerly a chapelry 

 of Eastmeon. I have no doubt that he is right. Next 

 to Mr. Baigent, he is the best living historiographer of 



