Woodburn Grange: A story of English country life; vol. 3 of 3Howitt, William
General
Woodburn Grange: A story of English country life; vol. 3 of 3
Howitt, William
Religious fiction
On the return to the Grey Goose, the evidence of Mr. Woodburn, of
George Woodburn, and a number of the hay-makers, both from the
hill-field and from beyond the river, was taken, all of which went
only to show that nothing more was known than that Mr. Drury was seen
alive and quite well in the hay-fields till about half an hour after
Mr. Woodburn left the same meadow and passed over the same ferry. No
one had witnessed the crossing, at least no one who could be found
or heard of, and there were no evidences of any robbery having been
perpetrated. The occurrence had taken place on a fine, bright, calm
evening of July. The coroner asked whether any one was known to
have any feud or had evinced any spirit of resentment towards Mr.
Drury. Perhaps not a man there who was of the neighbourhood into
whose mind did not flash at that question the fact that Mr. Woodburn
was known to have a great dislike to Mr. Drury, and the labourers
in the hill-field thought of the words of Mr. Woodburn but four
days previously, namely, querying why some good fortune did not
remove that troublesome man from the neighbourhood, attended with
expressions of great vexation; but that Mr. Woodburn, that man of
ancient honour and quiet virtues, should have had any hand in such
an atrocity was an idea too wild to be dwelt upon. All were silent
on that head. The jury continued in discussion on the cause of Mr.
Drury’s death, and yet, at length, swayed by the words used by the
surgeon, came to a verdict of “Wilful murder against some person or
persons unknown.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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