29th September 1827

Windsor and Eton

We understand that at a general meeting of the shareholders of the Windsor Royal Gas Light Company, held at the Town Hall, on Thursday last, the report of the committee was presented and approved; and they were directed to proceed with all possible expedition. Doubts, however, having subsequently arisen, as to the eligibility of coal gas, compared with that produced from oil or resin, we believe the committee will suspend their works until a more minute investigation of the comparative merits of these gases has been made; when that which is most congenial to his Majesty will be adopted.

On Sunday morning, two horses were missed from the Lammas grounds, at Eton; and, though every effort has been made for their recovery, not a trace of them can be found. A handsome reward, it will be perceived , is offered for their restoration.

We perceive, by an advertisement, that the celebrated Madame Duval, with Mr and Mrs. Renaud, purpose giving an entertainment at our theatre, on Thursday evening next. Several provincial papers have met our eye, which make mention of them in the most favourable terms. We have no doubt the novelty of the amusements, and the high recommendations which Madame D is able to produce from several of the nobility, will ensure their success.

On Tuesday last a man named Thomas Bliss went into a meadow belonging to Mr.Smith, a respectable farmer at Shinfield, Berks, where a number of cattle were grazing; lifted the gate off its hinges, and modestly drove a bull and three cows from the pasture in Blacklake Lane, making the best of his way off with them, when Corderoy, servant to a Mr.Williams, followed him, telling him they were the property of Mr.Smith. This Bliss stoutly denied, insisting they were his own. He stated that he had purchased 44 cows at Bristol; that he obtained permission to put them into a field; and having missed some of them, he thought those in Mr.Smith's meadow were his property, and accordingly was driving them away. He is committed for trial.

On Wednesday night or Thursday morning, the silk mills at Twyford, belonging to Mr.Thomas Billinge, were broken open, and a quantity of raw silk conveyed from thence to a cart, close at hand. Thus far the thieves had succeeded; but unfortunately for them the horse backed into the river with the loaded cart, and being unable to extricate it, they decamped, it is supposed by the Newbury night coach. Should the horse and cart be borrowed, the claimant may probably give a clue to the detection of the men.

A plan is now under consideration for making a new road from the Uxbridge road, near Shepherd's Bush, to run north of Brentford and Hounslow. The great traffic on the road from Kensington to Hounslow will admit of the road projected, and it is said the coach masters will be ready to promote the undertaking, for the purpose of avoiding the great injury their property sustains in the passage through the narrow rough ways of Brentford. The intended road is to pass near the house of Sir.R.Birnie, at Acton Green.

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Aylesbury

It is with much pain that we record the decease of the Rev. Sir George Lee, Bart., of Hartwell-house; he expired after an illness of some weeks, at Beachampton, of which he was the rector, at six o'clock on Thursday evening. To say he died respected and regretted by all who knew him, is a truth which will be readily acknowledged; by his equals he was esteemed as a man of strict integrity, whose politics were in no case allowed to interfere with the courtesies of life; by his tenants as a generous and kind landlord; and by the poor for his numerous and excessive charities; in short, our experience does not furnish us with the history of any man who was more generally and deservedly esteemed by all classes of society. He was in his 62nd year. His estate, it is said, goes to Dr.Lee, L.L.D. The title , we believe, is extinct. A knell was tolled at Aylesbury last night, when the intelligence was first made known; and the same tribute of respect to his memory was paid at Hartwell.

The fair at High Wycombe, on Monday last, was thinly attended; but there was a full complement of those gentry who attend fairs for the purpose of plunder. Some of these fellows succeeded in robbing a person of the name of Mead, on his return home to West Wycombe late in the evening, of his watch and about thirty shillings in money, and not satisfied with this the villains took the poor man's hat and shoes. The same evening a box, belonging to a friendly society , held at the Black Boy, was discovered to have been broken open, and its contents £24, to have been stolen. It is considered extraordinary that this robbery should have been effected without the thief being discovered; the landlord's room in which the box was kept was locked but a short time before the cash was stolen, and waiters and others were incessantly passing by the door to other rooms. When the money was first missed it was observed that a short tobacco pipe which had been smoked was lying on the bed near the box, but the landlord's watch and several articles of plate in the room were left untouched. In the evening of the same day several attempts were made to rob shops; and three men were observed lurking about the shop of Mr.Edmunds, a baker and bacon seller, one of whom went in and took a hock of bacon off the counter; he was making off with it, but before he had advanced far he was secured, upon which he passed the bacon to one of his companions, both of whom escaped. The next morning he underwent an examination before the Rev. Isaac King, and gave his name Thos Smith, an itinerant tinman and brazier, and the result was , that he was committed as a rogue and vagabond to undergo the discipline of the tread wheel at Aylesbury for three months.

On Thursday, in accordance with ancient custom and the direction of their charter, the corporation of High Wycombe assembled for the purpose of choosing a Mayor for the ensuing year. Having attended divine service and heard an excellent and appropriate sermon from the Rev. Isaac King, jun., (son of the late worthy Mayor.) they proceeded immediately to the Guildhall. Wm.Parker, Esq., was proposed as a gentleman in every way qualified to fill the vacant office, by the late Mayor, who in a neat speech repeated the avowal he made last year, that he would keep the courts of justice open to all. The nomination was seconded by Sir John Dashwood King; and Mr.Parker was unanimously chosen (for the third time) to that high and important office. The usual formalities of inauguration having been gone through, the Mayor elect came forward to return thanks for the honour that had been conferred upon him; after making some brief observations on the antiquity of the office, and the duty of its representative, he declared his intention to support its dignity by following the laudable example of his predecessors , particularly in an even-handed administration of the laws to the best of his humble endeavours, without any distinction of persons.

The inhabitants of that part of Buckingham which have been twice visited by that dreadful scourge , fire, were considerably alarmed on Friday, the 21st instant, in discovering that the stable of Mr.Matthews, of the Red Lion Inn, was filled with a dense smoke. On examining the cause, it appeared that an old beam laying across two flues, the one from a brewing copper, and the other from a copper used for dressing tripe, was reduced to a cinder. The discovery was providentially in time to prevent the fire from communicating with a loft above, which was full of straw, hay, and faggots; and as the stable, as well as many surrounding buildings were thatched, had the flames burst forth the mischief must have been extensive. Fortunately no damage was done, assistance being promptly afforded.

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To the Editor of the Bucks Gazette, &c.

Sir, - I beg leave, through the medium of your journal, thus publicly to return my sincere thanks to those gentlemen and friends who have so kindly assisted me in my three attempts to obtain a licence for my house, but unfortunately without success. It is not for me to attribute motives to any one, but with the following signatures to my certificate, accompanied by a recommendation from a most respectable quarter, I had some reasons to anticipate my petition would have been favourably received.

I am, Sir, Yours, &c. Isaac Clegg.

Queen Street, Sept 29.

	Isaac Gosset	Vicar
	William Legh	Churchwardens
	Richard Sharman
	Henry James Atkins	Overseers
	Thomas Wooldridge
	Thomas Nixon
	Richard Bradford
	John Voules	Mayor
	John Clode	Justice
	Thomas Jenner.	George Grantham.
	Robert Tebbott.	William Adams.
	Robert Blunt.	John Lester.
	Charles Layton, jun.	William Perryman.
	William Hanson	William Wright.
	Wm. James Voules	J.B.Brown.
	William Voules	Charles B.Foster
	Charles Snowden	Richard G.Barton
	James Bedborough	John Caley.
	G.W.Chapman	William Hill.
	William Berridge	Charles Phillips.
	James Church	William Wells.
	John Nash	Thomas Roberts.
	William Fergusson	Edward Chapman.
	Edward Bovingdon, jun.	Richard Lovegrove.
	Daniel Smith	Charles Hodges.
	Charles Hewitt	John Stroud
	Francis Burtt.	J.W.Davis
	Thomas Noke.
	W.Goertz.

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An inquest was held at Godalaming, before Mr.Woods coroner for Surrey, on Tuesday, the 25th inst, on a recruit of the name of Robert Harris, belonging to a Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners, who was found suspended by his handkerchief in one of the George stables the preceding evening. From the evidence of the corporal and some of the party, it appeared that the unfortunate man had very lately enlisted at Devonport, and that during the passage of the detachment in the packet round to Portsmouth, and their subsequent route to Godalaming, he had not only suffered from frequent attacks of illness, but showed evident symptoms of a disordered mind. Every care and attention, however, which humanity and good feeling could suggest was proved to have been administered to him by the corporal up to the time of his being billeted and provided for on the Monday evening, when, taking advantage of a temporary separation from one of his comrades who had been billeted with him, he retired and committed the fatal deed. It appeared from his attestation when enlisted, that he was a native of Honiton, and about 27 years old, but no trace of his family or connections came out in the course of the inquiry. - After a patient investigation by the jury, an unanimous verdict was returned, "That the deceased destroyed himself while suffering from mental despondency."

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